Department of Chemistry                                             Telephone:       951-827-2723

University of California                                               FAX:               951-827-4713

Riverside, CA 92521                                                    E-mail:             christopher.bardeen@ucr.edu

Education                    Yale University

                                   B.S., summa cum laude, Chemistry, 1989

                       Undergraduate Research Advisor:  Prof. Kurt Zilm

 

                                    University of California, Berkeley

                                   Ph.D., Chemistry, 1995

                       Thesis Advisor:  Prof. Charles V. Shank

 

                                    University of California, San Diego                  

                       Postdoctoral Fellow, 1995-1998

                                    Postdoctoral Advisor:  Prof. Kent R. Wilson

 

Employment                Full Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of California, Riverside, March 2012 – present

Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of California, Riverside, March 2008 – March 2012

Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of California, Riverside, January 2005 – March 2008

Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, August 1998 – December 2004

Awards                       UCR Innovative Teaching Award                                 2021

UCR Regents Faculty Fellowship                                 2006

Sloan Research Fellowship                                          2003

School of Chemical Sciences Teaching Award              2000

3M Non-tenured Faculty Award                                               2000

NSF CAREER Award                                                 1999

Research Corporation Research Innovation Award        1999

Camille and Henry Dreyfus New Faculty Award                       1998

Abramson Graduate Fellowship                                               1990

Department of Education Graduate Fellowship             1989

Phi Beta Kappa                                                                       1987

Member          American Chemical Society, American Physical Society, Materials Research Society

Prof. Bardeen is a physical chemist who uses laser spectroscopy and microscopy to study light-induced dynamics in solid-state organic materials.  His previous research centered on excited state dynamics in organic photovoltaic materials, including exciton fission and fusion.  More recently, he has focused on understanding how photochemical reactions in molecular crystals can generate larger scale mechanical deformations and motions.  The goal of this work is to develop new photomechanical materials that can directly transform light into mechanical work across a wide range of lengthscales.  He has co-authored more than 200 papers in these subjects and organized multiple workshops and symposia.

 

Lecture 50: Christopher J. Bardeen

Photomechanical molecular crystals as actuators and motors

Christopher J. Bardeen

Department of Chemistry, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.   

E-mail: christopher.bardeen@ucr.edu

Crystals composed of photoreactive molecules can undergo deformations like expansion and bending.  In this talk, we describe two crystal systems that exhibit dynamic behavior that can be rapidly cycled.  4-fluoro-anthracene carboxylic acid undergoes a thermally reversible [4+4] photocycloaddition reaction in the crystal, proceeding via a propagating reaction front that provides a sharp boundary between reactant and product.  This coexistence of both forms within the same crystal provides an opportunity to transiently write discrete structures within a single crystal, for example reconfigurable optical elements like diffraction gratings.  A photoreversible cis-trans isomerization provides a different mechanism to control dynamics.  We describe the preparation and characterization of crystal microwires composed of anthracene-thiazolidinedione photochromes that undergo continuous oscillatory motions when supplied with a continuous energy input, for example a lamp or sunlight.  These results show that molecular crystals provide an approach to making responsive soft matter systems that exhibit novel behaviors.