Welcome to the Switchable π Lab at IoC, Academia Sinica! 

We are hoping for a more sustainable, equal, and peaceful world by the year 2030. In the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” launched by Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations, four out of the 17 goals are “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”, “Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all”, “Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns”, and “Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts”. We the chemists and material scientists are swiftly responding to such call. 

Our research currently assembles under “switchable molecular systems at multiscale”, with a special focus on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), of which rich structure–property relationship is the playground. We study special PAH structures with abnormal π-basicity and excited state dynamicity, and use such information to extrapolate the influence of defect nanostructures in graphene. The structural dynamicity is employed for the development of novel molecular switches. PAHs are excellent component for designing supramolecular assembly in (supramolecular) polymer, liquid crystals, and molecular crystals. Structural switching PAHs can impact these supramolecular behavior. Inversely, the supramolecular interaction can alter/create/improve the switchability at molecular level. This mutual intercorrelation is at the heart of our research interest. With all these efforts in novel material development, we aim at creating the next generation molecular informatics that integrate switchable functions for a more sustainable and adaptive (molecular) device application.