Inorganic-Organic Hybrid Polymers from Metal Oxide Clusters

The basic idea behind the development of inorganic-organic hybrid materials is the combination of inorganic and organic moieties on a molecular scale to achieve a synergetic combination of the properties typical of each of the constituents. Modification of the kind, structure and proportions of the organic and inorganic constituents allows, in principle, a deliberate tailoring of properties between purely inorganic and purely organic materials. A special challenge of increasing importance is to tailor not only the composition of hybrid materials, but also their structural features, especially in the lower nanometer range. This goal is more easily reached by the use of structurally well- defined inorganic or organic building blocks and their deliberate mutual arrangement ("Nano-Lego"). The goal of the project is to prepare a new type of hybrid polymers, with novel materials properties, with molecular metal oxide clusters as nano-sized inorganic building blocks. Modification of their surface by functional organic groups allows to incorporate such clusters in organic polymers by polymerization or crosslinking reactions. The resulting hybrid polymers are highly crosslinked by the clusters and can be considered nanocomposites. It is expected that the polymer properties can be deliberately modified by varying the chemical composition and size of the clusters as well as the number of reactive groups covering their surface. A key to understanding and optimizing the properties of the hybrid materials are their structural characteristicsn, especially the identification and spatial distribution of the clusters and the length of the organic segments connecting the clusters.

The basic idea behind the development of inorganic-organic hybrid materials is the combination of inorganic and organic moieties on a molecular scale to achieve a synergetic combination of the properties typical of each of the constituents. Modification of the kind, structure and proportions of the organic and inorganic constituents allows, in principle, a deliberate tailoring of properties between purely inorganic and purely organic materials. A special challenge of increasing importance is to tailor not only the composition of hybrid materials, but also their structural features, especially in the lower nanometer range. This goal is more easily reached by the use of structurally well- defined inorganic or organic building blocks and their deliberate mutual arrangement ("Nano-Lego"). The goal of the project is to prepare a new type of hybrid polymers, with novel materials properties, with molecular metal oxide clusters as nano-sized inorganic building blocks. Modification of their surface by functional organic groups allows to incorporate such clusters in organic polymers by polymerization or crosslinking reactions. The resulting hybrid polymers are highly crosslinked by the clusters and can be considered nanocomposites. It is expected that the polymer properties can be deliberately modified by varying the chemical composition and size of the clusters as well as the number of reactive groups covering their surface. A key to understanding and optimizing the properties of the hybrid materials are their structural characteristicsn, especially the identification and spatial distribution of the clusters and the length of the organic segments connecting the clusters.