Yi Liao

Assistant Professor Phone: 407-823-2171 Office: PS 205 E-mail: yi.liao@ucf.edu

Research:

Our research interests are in the area of polymer chemistry, photochemistry, electronic, optic and magnetic materials.

We design and synthesize organic polymers and molecules that can change electronic, optical and mechanic properties upon photo-irradiation. These properties are induced by the photochemical reactions that change the structures of the materials. Therefore, we are very interested in the fundamental research of photochemical reactions. Three photochemical processes are of special interests to us:

One is photo-acid/base generation, which can be used to control numerous chemical, biological and materials processes that involve proton transfer.

Another one is photo-retro-Diels-Alder reaction, which can be used to convert non-conjugated structures to conjugated structures, or release biologically or chemically active species.

The third one is negative photochromism which allows control of molecular properties with long-wavelength light (visible or NIR light).

We are also interested in the development of highly absorbing near-Infrared dyes and study their potentials as fluorescent, nonlinear optical and organic solar cell materials.

Graduate Students and Postdoctors:

Graduate students in Liao's Lab will be trained in a highly interdisciplinary area of organic synthesis, polymer chemistry, photochemistry, material science, and device engineering. They will do research in exciting and frontier areas in materials chemistry. Students who are willing to face significant while challenging scientific problems are welcome to our lab.

Selected Publications:

Shi, Zheng; Peng, Ping; Strohecker, Daniel; Liao, Yi*. A long-lived photoacid based upon a photochromic reaction. J Am. Chem. Soc. (2011) Accepted DOI:. 10.1021/ja203851c.

Peng, Ping; Strohecker, Daniel; Liao, Yi*. Negative photochromism of a TCF chromophore. Chem. Commun., (2011) 47, 8575–8577.

Johns, Valentine K.; Shi, Zheng; Dang, Wei; McInnis, Matthew D.; Weng, Yuxiang;  Liao, Yi*. Photo retro-Diels-Alder reactions. J Phys. Chem. A. (2011), 115(28), 8093–8099.

Shi, Zheng; Johns, Valentine K.; Alber, Candace; Liao, Yi*. Photoinduced protonation of polyaniline assisted by hydrogen-bonding materials. Synth. Met. (2011), 161, 1420.

Suponitsky, Kyrill Yu.; Liao, Yi*; Masunov, Artem E.* Electronic Hyperpolarizabilities for Donor-Acceptor Molecules with Long Conjugated Bridges: Calculations versus Experiment. J. Phys. Chem. A (2009), 113, 10994–11001.

Shah, Saral; Tian, Ruhai; Shi, Zheng; Liao, Yi.* Side-Chain Free Aromatic Polyimides Containing Anthracene Units via Diels-Alder Precursors.  Journal of Applied Polymer Science. (2009), 112(5), 2953-2958

Tian, Ruhai; Shi, Zheng, Liao, Yi.* Novel Organic Materials That Permanently Increase Conductivity upon Thermal or Photo Treatment.  Organic Electronics  (2009),  10(2),  368-371

Tian, Ruhai; Bhatambrekar, Nishant; Liao, Yi*; Su, Ming. Photoresponsive polyacrylamide based on grafted azodianiline.  Journal of Applied Polymer Science  (2008),  109(5),  3244-3248.

Sun, Haishan; Chen, Antao*; Olbricht, Benjamin C.; Davies, Joshua A.; Sullivan, Philip A.; Liao, Yi; Dalton, Larry R.   Direct electron beam writing of electro-optic polymer microring resonators.    Optics Express  (2008),  16(9),  6592-6599. 

Liao, Yi; Bhattacharjee, Sanchali; Firestone, Kimberly A.; Eichinger, Bruce E.; Paranji, Rajan; Robinson, Bruce H.*; Reid, Philip J.; Dalton Larry, R*. Antiparallel-Aligned Neutral-Ground-State and Zwitterionic Chromophores as a Novel Nonlinear Optical Material. Journal of the American Chemical Society (2006), 128, 6847.

Liao, Yi^*; Anderson, Cyrus; Sullivan, Philip; Akelaitis, A. J. P.; Robinson, Bruce H.; Dalton, Larry R. Electro-optical properties of polymers containing alternating NLO chromophores and bulky spacers. Chemistry of Materials (2006), 18(4), 1062.

Liao, Yi*; Eichinger, Bruce E.; Firestone, Kimberley A.; Haller, Marnie; Luo, Jingdong; Kaminsky, Werner; Benedict, Jason B.; Jen, Alex K-Y.; Dalton, Larry R.; Robinson, Bruce H.* Systematic study of the structure-property relationship of a series of ferrocenyl nonlinear optical chromophores. Journal of the American Chemical Society, (2005), 127, 2758.