Title: Alignment Strategies for Fullerenes and their Dimers Using Soft Matter

Summary:
Since their discovery in 1985, fullerenes have been widely studied due to the unique chemical, electronic, and photophysical properties offered by the fullerene cage; research has led to fullerene application in numerous technological areas, including well publicized use in organic photovoltaic devices (OPVs), artificial photosynthesis, supramolecular assemblies, and potential use in quantum computing. This thesis research was largely motivated by the potential quantum computing applications for fullerenes encapsulating spin-active atoms. The overall goal of this research was to achieve alignment of endohedral fullerene dimers defined as covalently linked pairs of fullerene cages where each fullerene cage encapsulates a spin-active atom; however, the research discussed herein encompasses both monomer and dimer C60 behavior.
Devices where quantum effects dominate have a variety of potential uses in both classical and quantum computation, addressing issues with both decreasing size and increasing complexity. Buckminster fullerenes are ideal cages for spin-active atoms used for quantum computing such as atomic nitrogen (14N@C60, 15N@C60) as the carbon cage provides almost total isolation of atomic properties as well as the ability for arrangement of spins with respect to one another.  However, large aligned arrays of endohedral fullerenes are required to successfully achieve quantum computation. Self-assembled molecular networks are ideal for developing large because the spacing and geometry are typically well-defined by non-covalent interactions. Three self-assembly approaches will be discussed in depth here including (1) block copolymer templates as guides for fullerene alignment; (2) Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) deposition of monolayers and multilayers; and (3) surface-directed assembly of fullerene monolayers.