Kent State University Liquid Crystal Institute--Quan Li

Li got his B.S. (1986) from Second Military Medical University, China. He received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Shanghai, China. In February of 1998, he was promoted to a full professor of Organic Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry in CAS. He held visiting appointments in Department of Chemistry, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Hong Kong (1996-1997); Department of Protein Engineering, Life Sciences Division, Atomic Energy Commission of France, Saclay/CEA, Paris, France (1998-1999); Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Göttingen, Germany (1999-2000); and Department of Chemistry, University of Oregon, USA (2001-2004). Also, he was Alexander von Humboldt Fellow in Germany (1999-2000). In 2004, Li joined LCI as a senior research fellow and the director of Organic Synthesis Laboratory, and he is an adjunct professor in the Chemical Physics Interdisciplinary Program at LCI.

Research in Li’s lab is currently supported by Ohio Board of Regents Research Challenge, Air Force Research Laboratory, National Science Foundation, Department of Defense Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI, AFOSR), and Samsung Electronics.

Research Interests
Synthetic chemistry plays a key role in the advancement of material sciences and life sciences. Research in these fields is often limited by the current scope of available synthetic methods and the availability of materials. With that in mind, Li’s research focuses on molecular design and synthesis of novel advanced materials, and synthesis and self-assembly of well-defined molecular structures on a nanometer length scale. Such materials include nature inspired light-harvesting liquid crystals, reversible photoswitchable chiral materials, hybrid gold nanorods, shape-persistent macrocyclic molecules, tetrahedrally shaped molecules, bent-core liquid crystals, deuterated liquid crystals, liquid crystalline monomers and their networks, all of which offer tremendous new possibility in applications such as organic nanostructured photovoltaics, smart energy saving devices, novel photodisplay, photonics, AFM molecular tips, and drug delivery as well as fundamental science. Presently, graduate and undergraduate students and postdoctoral fellows are actively involved in Li’s research.

Recent Publications
X. Zhou, S. Kang, S. Kumar, R. Kulkar, S. Z. D. Cheng, and Q. Li, Self-assembly of Porphyrin and Fullerene Supramolecular Complex into Highly Ordered Nanostructure by Thermal Annealing, Chemistry of Materials 2008, 20, 3551-3553.

Q. Li, J. M. El Khoury, X. Zhou, A. Urbas, L. Qu, L. Dai. “Synthesis of the Thiol Surfactant with Tunable Length as a Stabilizer of Gold Nanoparticles”, Chapter 4 in Nanoparticles: Synthesis, Passivation, Stabilization, and Functionalization, R. Nagarajan and T. A. Hatton, Ed., Oxford University Press, (2008).

L. Li, S. Kang, J. Harden, Q. Sun, X. Zhou, L. Dai, A. Jakli, S. Kumar, and Q. Li, Natured Inspired Light-harvesting Liquid Crystalline Porphyrins for Organic Photovoltaics, Liquid Crystals, 2008, 35 (3), 233-239.

Q. Sun, L. Dai, X. Zhou, L. Li, and Q. Li, Bilayer- and Bulk-heeterojunction Solar Cells Using Liquid Crystalline Porphyrins as Donors by Solution Processing, Applied Physics Letters 2007, 91, 253505/1-253505/3.

C. V. Yelamaggad, I. Shashikala, and Q. Li, Liquid Crystal Trimers Composed of Banana-Shaped and Rod-Like Anisometric Segments: Synthesis and Characterization, Chemistry of Materials, 2007, 19, 6561-6568.

Q. Li, L. Li, “Photoconducting Discotic Liquid Crystals”, Chapter 11 in Thermotropic Liquid Crystals, A. Ramamoorthy, Ed., Springer (2007).

S. Kang, Q. Li, B. D. Chapman, R. Pindak, J. O. Cross, L. Li, M. Nakata, S. Kumar, Micro-focus X-ray Diffraction Study of the Columnar Phase of Porphyrin-based Mesogens, Chemistry of Materials 2007, 19, 5657-5663.

Q. Li, L. Green, N. Venkataraman, I. Shiyanovskaya, A. Khan, A. Urbas, J. W. Doane, Reversible Photoswithable Axially Chiral Dopants with High Helical Twisting Power, Journal of the American Chemical Society 2007, 129, 12908-12909.

X. Zhou, T. Narayanan, Q. Li, New Mesogen with Thermotropic Cubic Phase: 3,4,5-Tris-(11,11,12,12,13,13,14,14,15,15,16,16-tridecafluoro-hexadecyloxy)-benzoic Acid. Liquid Crystals 2007, 34, 1243-1248.

X. Zhou, J. M. El Khoury, L. Qu., L. Dai, Q. Li, A Facile Synthesis of Aliphatic Thiol Surfactant with Tunable Length as a Stabilizer of Gold Nanoparticles in Organic Solvents. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 2007, 308, 381-384.

C. V. Yelamaggad, I. S. Shashikala, U. S. Hiremath, G. Liao, A. Jakli, D. S. S. Rao, S. Krishna, Q. Li. Fluorine Containing Nonsymmetrical Five-ring Achiral Banana-shaped Compounds with Columnar and Synclinic Antiferroelectric Layered Phases. Soft Matter 2006, 2, 785-792.

C. V. Yelamaggad, I. S. Shashikala, G. Liao, D. S. S. Rao, S. Krishna, Q. Li, A. Jakli. Blue Phase, Smectic Fluids, and Unprecedented Sequences in Liquid Crystal Dimers. Chemistry of Materials 2006, 18, 6100-6102.

C. Chen, P. J. Bos, J. Kim, Q. Li, J. E. Anderson, Improved Liquid Crystals for Vertical Alignment Applications, Journal of Applied Physics 2006, 99, 123523/1-123523/6.

Q. Li, L. Li, J. Kim, H.-K. Park, J. Williams. Reversible Photoresponsive Chiral Liquid Crystals Containing Cholesteryl Moiety and Azobenzene Linker. Chemistry of Materials 2005, 17, 6018-6021.

Q. Li, C. Jin, P. A. Petukhov, A. V. Rukavishnikov, T. Zaikova, A. Phadke, D. H. LaMunyon, M. D. Lee, J. F. W. Keana. Synthesis of Novel Well-defined Tower-shaped 1,3,5-Trisubstituted Adamantanes Incorporating a Macrocyclic Lactam Ring System. Journal of Organic Chemistry 2004, 69(4), 1010-1019.

Q. Li, A. V. Rukavishnikov, P. A. Petukhov, T. Zaikova, C. Jin, J. F. W. Keana. Nanoscale Tripodal 1,3,5,7-Tetrasubstituted Adamantanes for AFM applications. Journal of Organic Chemistry 2003, 68(12), 4862-4869.

Q. Li, A. V. Rukavishnikov, P. A. Petukhov, T. Zaikova, J. F. W. Keana. Nanoscale 1,3,5,7-Tetrasubstituted Adamantanes and p-Substituted Tetraphenylmethanes for AFM applications. Organic Letters 2002, 4(21), 3631-3634.

Recent Patents
Q. Li, L. Li, A. Jakli, J. Harden, “Nanoscale Discotic Liquid Crystalline Porphyrins”, US Patent 7,279,570, 2007.

Q. Li, X. Zhou, “Light-harvesting Discotic Liquid Crystalline Porphyrins and Metal complexes”, US Patent 7291,727, 2007.

Q. Li, X. Zhou, “Long-chain Fluoroalkylated and Alkylated Tetraphenylporphyrin Derivatives as Light-harvesting Discotic Liquid Crystalline Materials for Photovoltaic Cells, PCT Patent Application 07/081580 (2007).

Q. Li., L. M. Green, J. W. Doane, A. Asad, N. Venkataraman, I. Shiyanovskaya. Chiral Nematic Photo Displays, US Patent Application Publication 237906 (2007).

Background image: Stripe Pattern in Submicron Nematic Film
Copyright photo courtesy of Professor Oleg D. Lavrentovich