Organic Materials Science
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Organic Materials Science
George M. Whitesides Abstract The following article is based on the presentation given by George M. Whitesides, recipient of the 2000 MRS Von Hippel Award, the Materials Research Society’s highest honor, at the 2000 MRS Fall Meeting in Boston on November 29, 2000. Whitesides was cited for “bringing fundamental concepts of organic chemistry and biology into materials science and engineering, through his pioneering research on surface modification, self-assembly, and soft lithography.” The article focuses on the growing role of organic chemistry in materials science. Historically, that role has been to provide organic polymers for use in structures, films, fibers, coatings, and so on. Organic chemistry is now emerging as a crucial part of three new areas in materials science. First, it provides materials with complex functionality. Second, it is the bridge between materials science and biology/medicine. Building an interface between biological systems and electronic or optical systems requires close attention to the molecular level of that interface. Third, organic chemistry provides a sophisticated synthetic entry into nanomaterials. Organic molecules are, in fact, exquisitely fabricated nanostructures, assembled with precision on the level of individual atoms. Colloids are a related set of nanostructures, and organic chemistry contributes importantly to their preparation as well. Keywords: nanotechnology, PDMS [poly(dimethylsiloxane)], self-assembled monolayers, self-assembly, soft lithography.
Introduction It is an enormous compliment to start one’s career in one field—in my case, physical-organic chemistry—and to have an entirely different field recognize research resulting from that career. It is a particular compliment to me (and to my colleagues who have actually done the research being recognized by the Von Hippel Award) because, when I started my career, materials science was just forming as a discipline; as a graduate student in chemistry in the early 1960s, I had never heard of it. It has since grown to become one of the most interesting fields in science and engineering: its place at the interface between engineering and physical science has allowed it to play an important role in some of the most exciting technology of the last century. Materials science, together with biology, has become a major focus for exploration in chemistry and for applications of physics. It has been enormously interesting and rewarding to be a part of these two fields— materials science and chemistry—as they have advanced together. It is a great honor for me and for the members of my group to receive this award in recognition of the
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growing part that organic chemistry, biological chemistry, and biology are now playing in materials science—both in the present and for the future. Much of the work carried out in the early days of materials science concerned the traditional classes of materials—metals, ceramics, and to a smaller extent, organic polymers. The world of materials is, of course, now chan
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