10 Years Ago And Now: Qichun Zhang

Chemistry – An Asian Journal speaks with authors about 10 years ago and now.

The journal celebrates its 10th volume in 2015. The year’s first issue features papers from the journal’s most frequent authors.
The journal Editors have asked these featured authors to provide a glimpse of themselves and how their world has changed over the past decade.

Interview with Qichun Zhang

The biggest challenge facing scientists 10 years ago was … how to fabricate devices on the nanoscale.
And today … how to integrate nanoscale devices into circuits to perform multiple functions with reasonable stability.

The best thing about my job 10 years ago was … having exciting results to share with my boss.
And today … my students having exciting results to share with me.

My greatest motivation 10 years ago was … to complete my PhD degree and find an academic position to continue my research.
And today … to be one of the pioneers in my research field.

My favorite piece of research from the past 10 years is … the synthesis of challenging larger oligoacenes with and without heteroatom “doping”.

If I had won the lottery 10 years ago … I would now have more money to do my favorite research.

Qichun Zhang
Date of birth	January 30, 1970
Position	Associate Professor, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Homepage	http://www.ntu.edu.sg/home/qczhang/
Education	B.S. in Analytical Chemistry 1992, Nanjing University, China M.S. in Physical Organic Chemistry 1998, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Professor Peiji Wu and Professor Daoben Zhu) M.S. in Organic Chemistry 2003, University of California, Los Angeles, USA (Professor Fred Wudl) Ph.D in Inorganic Chemistry 2007, University of California, Riverside, USA (Professor Pingyun Feng) Postdoc 2009, Northwestern University, Evanston, USA (Professor Mercouri G. Kanatzidis)

Featured Article

Rewritable Multilevel Memory Performance of a Tetraazatetracene Donor–Acceptor Derivative with Good Endurance,
Chengyuan Wang, Benlin Hu, Jiangxin Wang, Junkuo Gao, Gang Li, Wei-Wei Xiong, Binghua Zou, Mitsuharu Suzuki, Naoki Aratani, Hiroko Yamada, Fengwei Huo, Pooi See Lee, Qichun Zhang,
Chem. Asian J. 2014.
DOI: 10.1002/asia.201402899
Although large oligoacenes have been widely used as active materials in organic semiconductor devices, using N-heteroacenes as single active layers in memory devices is rare. In this report, a novel N-heteroacene derivative 2,3-(4,4′-bis(N,N-diphenylamino)benzyl)-5,12-bis((triisopropylsilyl)ethynyl)-1,4,6,11-tetraazatetracene (TPAs-BTTT) have been prepared by attaching two donor units to the backbone of tetraazatetracene (acceptor species). Sandwich-structure memory devices based on TPAs-BTTT have been fabricated, and the devices show rewritable multilevel nonvolatile memory characteristics with good endurance.