Controlling the Synthesis and Placement of Organic Color-Centers with Light

About This Grant

With the support of the Macromolecular, Supramolecular and Nanochemistry program in the Division of Chemistry, Professor YuHuang Wang of the University of Maryland, College Park, is developing innovative chemical strategies of using programmable DNA templates and laser-based refinement to guide the precise placement and structural control of organic color-centers. Organic color centers are atomic-scale defects that can be engineered onto the surfaces of single-walled carbon nanotubes, which are tiny cylinders made entirely of carbon atoms. Each color center can emit photons—the elementary particles of light—one at a time, even at room temperature. These sources of “quantum light” are essential building blocks for future technologies in secure communication, bioimaging, and molecular sensing. The project will provide students with hands-on experience in quantum nanochemistry and incorporate nanoscience principles into teaching and educational initiatives with broader public. The interdisciplinary nature of the project, which combines chemistry, photophysics, and nanoscience, will provide unique training opportunities to cultivate the next generation of scientists and engineers. In this project, a DNA-programmed photochemical platform for the deterministic synthesis of organic color centers (OCCs) on single-walled carbon nanotubes will be developed. Spatially encoded DNA scaffolds will define reactive sites along the nanotube surface with nanometer precision, enabling the formation of isolated OCCs and OCC pairs with controlled spacing and orientation. This strategy could provide a level of control that is unattainable with currently existing methods. The prepared OCC pairs will then be refined through localized photothermal annealing to tune their atomic structure and coupling strength, guided by in situ hyperspectral imaging capable of resolving OCCs at the single defect limit. This approach will allow for fundamental studies of OCCs with controlled defect-defect interactions, offering a scalable synthetic pathway toward quantum materials with programmable optical properties. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.