Marcia M. Payne

From Christiansburg, VA
Nano 1031, 847-467-4944
marcia-payne@northwestern.edu

After completing my Bachelors of Science degree at Davidson University in North Carolina in 1996, I spent several years traveling around the western U.S. hiking, rock-climbing, and sightseeing with my significant other and my dog (Steven and Clarence, respectively) and only my truck for housing. I then settled in Lexington, KY, where I completed my doctoral research in 2005 under the tutelage of John Anthony, synthesizing organic acene-based semiconductors for use in thin-film transistors. In addition to the outdoor activities mentioned above, I enjoy gardening, cooking, and playing the guitar.

Current research:

I have two synthetic projects that I am concurrently tackling as a new postdoctoral fellow in the Wasielewski group. Both systems are chromophore-linked donor-acceptor systems that aim for long-lived charge-separated states in an attempt to mimic and thus provide further understanding of the processes of photosynthetic electron transfer. The first system (figure 1) consists of tetrathiafulvalene derivative as donor, perylene monoimide as chromophore, and a fullerene as acceptor. Fullerenes are characterized by their ease of single-electron reduction and associated low reorganization energies, resulting in fast electron transfer and slow recombination. Tetrathiafulvalene is also a highly-studied and easily-oxidized moiety that has already been paired with fullerenes in various dyads and triads. In addition, the protons of these two systems possess nearly maximally spaced gyromagnetic ratios, which will be reflected in their response to an electromagnetic field and may allow them to be independently addressed by application of such a field while in the charge separated state.

The second system will apply variations to a system first synthesized in 1996 (shown in figure 2) in an attempt to induce self-assembly properties and possibly achieve liquid crystalline behavior in such a system, by the attachment of long chain alkyl substituents.