Li 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). He was Alexander von
Humboldt Fellow in Germany. In 2004, Li joined the Liquid Crystal Institute
as Senior Research Fellow and Director of the Organic Synthesis and Advanced
Materials Laboratory, and he is Adjunct Professor in the Chemical Physics
Interdisciplinary Program of Kent State University.
Li’s Research is supported
by Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), Air Force Research
Laboratory (AFRL), Department of Energy (DOE),
National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Defense Multidisciplinary
University Research Initiative (MURI), Ohio Board of Regents 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
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 materials, fast
switching optoelectronic materials, light-driven chiral molecular switches
or motors, water-soluble and organo-soluble functionalized hybrid gold
nanorods, shape-persistent molecules, liquid crystal monomers and their
networks, and biologically active synthetic and natural compounds,
all of which offer tremendous new possibility in applications such
as renewable solar energy, photodisplay, tunable photonics, intelligent
energy saving devices, AFM molecular tips, biosensors, and drug delivery
as well as fundamental science. Presently, graduate students and postdoctoral
fellows are actively involved in Li’s research.
Recent Book and Book Chapters
•
Q. Li, Editor, Self-organized Organic Semiconductors: From Materials
to Device Applications, John Wiley & Sons (2011, ISBN 978-0-470-55973-4).
•
M. Mathews and Q. Li, “Self-organizing Discotic Liquid Crystals
as Novel Organic Semiconductors”, Chapter 4 in Self-organized Organic
Semiconductors: From Materials to Device Applications, Q. Li, Ed., John
Wiley & Son (2011, ISBN 978-0-470-55973-4).
•
J. Ma and Q. Li, “Sematic Liquid Crystal Semiconductors”,
Chapter 5 in Self-organized Organic Semiconductors: From Materials to
Applications, Q. Li, Ed., John Wiley & Son (2011, ISBN 978-0-470-55973-4).
•
L. Jin and Q. Li, “Self-organized Fullerene Based Organic Semiconductors”,
Chapter 7 in Self-organized Organic Semiconductors: From Materials to
Device Application, Q. Li, Ed., John Wiley & Son (2011, ISBN 978-0-470-55973-4).
•
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, ISBN: 978-0-841-26969-9).
•
Q. Li, L. Li, “Photoconducting Discotic Liquid Crystals”,
Chapter 11 in Thermotropic Liquid Crystals, A. Ramamoorthy, Ed., Springer
(2007, ISBN 978-1-4020-5327-6).
Selected Publications
• K. Rameshbabu,
A. Urbas and Q. Li, Synthesis and Characterization of Thermally Irreversible
Photochromic Cholesteric Liquid Crystals, Journal of Physical Chemistry
B 2011, 115, 3409-3415.
•
M. Mathews, R. Zola, D. Yang and Q. Li, Thermally, Photochemically and
Electrically Switchable Reflection Colors from Self-organized Chiral
Bent-core Liquid Crystals, Journal of Materials Chemistry 2011, 21, 2098-2103.
•
L. Li, D. Yu, L. Dai, A. Urbas and Q. Li, Hydrophobic Chiral Hybrid Gold
Nanorods, Langmuir 2011, 27, 98-103.
•
M. Mathews, S. Kang, S. Kumar and Q. Li, Designing Bent-core Nematogens
Towards Biaxial Nematic Liquid Crystals, Liquid Crystals 2011, 38, 31-40.
•
M. Mathews, R. Zola, Hurley, S., D. Yang, T. J. White, T. J. Bunning
and Q. Li, Light-driven Reversible Handedness Inversion in Self-organized
Helical Superstructures, Journal of the American Chemical Society 2010,
132, 18361-18366.
•
L. Jin, Y. Li, J. Ma and Q. Li, Synthesis of Novel Thermally Reversible
Photochromic Axially Chiral Spirooxazines, Organic Letters 2010, 12,
3552-3555.
•
M. Ji, Y. Li, T. White, A. Urbas and Q. Li, Light-driven Nanoscale Chiral
Molecular Switch: Reversible Dynamic Full Range Color Phototuning, Chemical
Communications 2010, 46, 3463-3465.
•
B. Senyuk, H. Wonderly, M. Mathews, Q. Li, S. V. Shiyanovskii and O.
D. Lavrentovich, Surface Alignment, Anchoring Transitions, Optical Properties
and Topological defects in the Nematic Phase of Thermotropic Bent-core
Liquid Crystal A131, Physical Review E 2010, 82, 041711-1-13.
•
P. Sathyanarayana, T. A. Kumar, V. S. S. Sastry, M. Mathews, Q. Li, H.
Takezoe and S. Dhara, Rotational Viscosity of a Bent-Core Nematic Liquid
Crystal, Applied Physics Express 2010, 3, 091702.
•
T. White, R. L. Bricker, L. V. Natarajan, V. P. Tondiglia, C. Bailey,
L. Green, Q. Li and T. J. Bunning, Electromechanical and Light Tunable
Cholesteric Liquid Crystals, Optics Communications 2010, 283, 3434-3436.
•
T. White, R. L. Bricker, L. V. Natarajan, V. P. Tondiglia, L. Green,
Q. Li and T. J. Bunning, Electrically Switchable, Photoaddressable Cholesteric
Liquid Crystal Reflectors, Optics Express 2010, 18, 173-178.
•
P. Sathyanarayana, M. Mathews, Q. Li, K. V. Le, H. Takezoe and S. Dhara,
Splay Bend Elasticity of A Bent-core Nematic Liquid Crystal, Physical
Review E (Rapid Communications) 2010, 81, 010702/1-4.
•
N. Venkataraman, G. Magyar, E. Montbach, A. Khan, T. Schneider, J. W.
Doane, L. Green and Q. Li, Thin Flexible Photosensitive Cholesteric Displays,
Journal of the Society for Information Display 2009, 17, 869-873.
•
T. White, L. V. Natarajan, Q. Li and T. J. Bunning, Phototunable Azobenzene
Cholesteric Liquid Crystals with 2000 nm Range, Advanced Functional Materials
2009, 19, 3484-3488.
•
L. Green, Y. Li, T. White, A. Urbas, T. Bunning and Q. Li, Light-driven
Chiral Molecular Switches with Tetrahedral and Axial Chirality, Organic & Biomolecular
Chemistry (Communications) 2009, 7, 3930-3933.
•
J. M El Khoury, X. Zhou, L. Qu, L. Dai, A. Urbas and Q. Li, Organo-soluble
Photoresponsive Azo Hybrid Gold Nanorods, Chemical Communications 2009,
2109-2111.
•
X. Zhou, S. Kang, S. Kumar and Q. Li, Self-assembly of Discotic Liquid
Crystal Porphyrin into More Controllable Ordered Nanostructure Mediated
by Fluorophobic Effect, Liquid Crystals 2009, 3, 269-274.
•
K. V. Le, M. Mathews, M. Chambers, J. Harden, Q. Li, H. Takezoe and A.
Jakli, Electro-optic Technique to Study Biaxiality of Liquid Crystals
with Positive Dielectric Anisotropy: The Case of a Bent-Core Material,
Physical Review E (Rapid Communications) 2009, 79, 030701/1-030701/4.
•
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 (Communications)
2008, 20, 3551-3553.
•
E. Montbach, N. Venkataraman, J. W. Doane, A. Khan, G. Magyar, I. Shiyanovskaya,
T. Schneider, L. Green and Q. Li, Novel Optically Addressable Photochiral
Displays, SID Digest Tech. Papers, 2008, 39, 919-922.
•
L. Li, S. Kang, J. Harden, Q. Sun, X. Zhou, L. Dai, A. Jakli, S. Kumar
and Q. Li, Nature Inspired Light-harvesting Liquid Crystalline Porphyrins
for Organic Photovoltaics, Liquid Crystals 2008, 35, 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.
•
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(43), 12908-12909.
•
X. Zhou, T. Narayanan and 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 and 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 and 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 (Communications) 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 and 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, 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, 3631-3634.
•
Q. Li, M. Moutiez, J.-B. Charbonnier, K. Vaudry, A. Menez, E. Quemeneur,
C. Dugave. Design of Gag-pentapeptide Analog Which Binds the Human Cyclophilin
A More Efficiently Than the Entire Capsid Protein: New Insights for the
Development of Novel Anti HIV-1 Drugs. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry
2000, 43, 1770-1779.
Recent Patent and Patent Applications
•
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”, WO 07/081590.
•
Q. Li, L. Li, J. Harden, A. Jakli, “Nanoscale Discotic Liquid Crystalline
Porphyrins”, German Patent Application (2008).
•
Q. Li., L. M. Green, J. W. Doane, A. Asad, N. Venkataraman, I. Shiyanovskaya, “Chiral
Nematic Photo Displays”, US Patent Application Publication 237906
(2007).
•
Q. Li, “A Liquid Crystalline Blend, Device Thereof and Method Thereof”,
PCT Patent Application 61/107,386 (2008). WO 2010047864
• Q. Li, J. Ma, Y. Li, Smart Energy-saving Window, US Patent Application
61/343,734 (2010).
•
Q. Li, Y. Li, J. Ma, “A Liquid Crystal Composition Containing Chiral
Dopant, Device Thereof, and Methods Thereof, US Patent Application” (2010).
