The Advanced Materials Research Group (AMRG) would like to welcome you to attend the following seminar: 

Hydrothermal synthesis of organic molecules

Guest speaker: Miriam M. Unterlass, Assistant Professor at Technische Universität Wien

Abstract:

Organic compounds are built up of abundant elements. They are interesting for use as materials, as they provide low specific weight. Beyond commodity applications, organic compounds can be designed to be useful as high-performance materials, i.e.as materials that provide e.g. high thermal stability, high chemical resistance, and optoelectronic properties. To generate e.g. high thermal stability the organic compounds need to be rich in strong bonds (as the necessary energy to degrade a material is mainly dictated by the sum of bond energies), which areideally provided by aromatic, heteroaromatic, and heterocyclic moieties. These moieties additionally impart other materials features such as different optoelectronic properties. The synthesis of molecules rich in aromatics, heteroaromatics, and heterocyclics conventionally requires harsh conditions, toxic and environmentally harmful solvents, expensive catalysts, and tedious purification.

We have recently discovered that a wide range of aromatic heterocycle-based organic materials can be generated in solely high-temperature water viahydrothermal synthesis (HTS)–at relatively moderate temperatures. For organic synthesis, aside being much less harmful than conventional procedures, HTS bears the advantages of (i) quantitative yields, (ii) high product purity, and (iii) high product crystallinity.[1]

With my talk, I discuss examples of materials that can be generatedvia HTS, as well as the underpinnings of why high-temperature water is exceptionally well suited for generating heterocycle-based materials. The materials I will cover range from low-molecular weight dyes,[2,3]to high-performance polymers,[4,5]and hybrid materials.[6]

References:

[1] M. M. Unterlass*: “Hot Water Generates Crystalline Organic Materials”, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2018, 57, 2292-2294.

[2]M. J. Taublaender, F. Glöcklhofer, M. Marchetti-Deschmann,&M. M. Unterlass*: “Green and Rapid Hydrothermal Crystallization and Synthesis of Fully Conjugated Aromatic Compounds“, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.2018, 57, 12270-12274.

[3]B. Baumgartner, A. Svirkova, J. Bintinger, C. Hametner, M. Marchetti-Deschmann,&M. M. Unterlass*: “Green and highly efficient synthesis of perylene and naphthalene bisimides is nothing but water”,Chem. Commun.2017, 53, 1229-1232.

[4]B. Baumgartner, M. J. Bojdys,& M. M. Unterlass*:“Geomimetics for Green Polymer Synthesis: Highly Ordered Polyimides via Hydrothermal Techniques”, Polym. Chem.2014, 5, 3771-3776.

[5]M. J. Taublaender, M. Reiter,&M. M. Unterlass*: ”Highly Crystalline, Nanostructured Polyimide Microparticles via Green and Tunable Solvothermal Polymerization”,Macromolecules 2019, doi: 10.1021/acs.macromol.9b00985

[6]L. Leimhofer, B. Baumgartner, M. Puchberger, T. Prochaska, T. Konegger,&M. M. Unterlass*: “Green one-pot synthesis and processing of polyimide-silica hybrid materials”,J. Mater. Chem. A2017, 5, 16326-16335.

Bio:

Assistant Professor at Technische Universität Wien, AustriaInstitute of Materials Chemistry & Institute of Applied Synthetic Chemistry

Adjunct Principal Investigator at CeMMResearch Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences

Chief Scientific Officer of UGP Materials

Miriam studied chemistry, materials science and process engineering in Germany(Univ. of Würzburg), France(Univ. Lyon I, and ESPCE Lyon), and the UK (Univ.of Southampton).She thendidher PhD (2009-2011) at the MaxPlanck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam, Germany, with Prof. Markus Antonietti, followed by a postdoc in polymer physics with Prof. Ludwik Leibler (2011-2012) at the ESPCI in Paris, France. In December 2012, Miriam moved to the Technical University of Vienna (TU Wien), Austria,as research group leader. Miriam’sgroup “Advanced Organic Materials” is jointly affiliated to both the Institute ofApplied Synthetic Chemistry, and the Institute of Materials Chemistry at TU Wien. Her group develops environmentally friendly and non-toxic synthesis of high-performance materials.The Unterlass Lab covers a broad range of high-performance materials that however allhave one common chemical feature: they contain a high amount of aromatic and heterocyclic functions. Typicalfields of applicationof the materials the team works on are in e.g. aeronautics and microelectronics.In 2018 Miriam became Adjunct PI at CeMM–the Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Moreover, Miriam is CSO and co-founder of the spin-off UGP Materials, which produces high-performance polymers by hydrothermal synthesis.

Email: miriam.unterlass@tuwien.ac.at
Web: www.unterlasslab.com
Twitter: @UnterlassLab