Abordagem contextual nos capítulos de estequiometria e de soluções dos livros didáticos de Química aprovados pelo PNLD (Programa Nacional do Livro Didático - Brasil) /2012

A contextualização tem sido proposta no currículo escolar com o propósito de promover mudanças de comportamentos, atitudes e valores. Nessa abordagem, entende-se que o ensino de química deve se desenvolver de forma ampla, envolvendo também aspectos sociais, políticos, econômicos,ambientais e culturais, e não somente aspectos científicos. Tendo em vista a grande importância dada ao livro didático (LD) na prática docente, buscamos analisar a abordagem contextual nos capítulos de estequiometria e soluções nos LD de química aprovados pelo PNLD/2012. Os resultados mostraram que os autores dos LD analisados reconhecem a contextualização como elemento central para a formação da cidadania, porém a abordagem é diferente em cada obra. As leituras dos LD possibilitaram a identificação de alguns "níveis" de contextualização que percorreram quatro categorias de análise

Exciton Superposition States in CdSe Nanocrystals Measured Using Broadband Two-Dimensional Electronic Spectroscopy

Coherent superpositions among eigenstates are of interest in fields as diverse as photosynthesis and quantum computation. In this report, we used two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy (2D ES) to measure the decoherence time of a superposition of the two lowest-energy excitons in colloidal CdSe nanocrystals (cubic phase) in solution at room temperature. In the electron–hole representation, the quantum coherence is, remarkably, a twelve-particle correlation. By comparing the measured 2D ES to simulations, we also explored the effects of inhomogeneous broadening and examined the spectroscopic signatures of biexcitons

Coherent Energy Transfer under Incoherent Light Conditions

Recent two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy (2DES) experiments have reported evidence of coherent dynamics of electronic excitations in several light-harvesting antennae. However, 2DES uses ultrafast coherent laser pulses as an excitation source; therefore, there is a current debate on whether coherent excitation dynamics is present under natural sunlight – incoherent – illumination conditions. In this letter, we show that even if incoherent light excites an electronic state with no initial quantum superpositions among excitonic states, energy transfer can proceed quantum coherently if nonequilibrium dynamics of the phonon environment takes place. Such nonequilibrium behavior manifests itself in non-Markovian evolution of electronic excitations and is typical of many photosynthetic systems. We therefore argue that light-harvesting antennae have mechanisms that could support coherent evolution under incoherent illumination

Observing Vibrational Wavepackets during an Ultrafast Electron Transfer Reaction

Recent work has proposed that coherent effects impact ultrafast electron transfer reactions. Here we report studies using broadband pump–probe and two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy of intramolecular nuclear motion on the time scale of the electron transfer between oxazine 1 (Ox1) and dimethylaniline (DMA). We performed time–frequency analysis on the time domain data to assign signal amplitude modulations to ground or excited electronic states in the reactive system (Ox1 in DMA) relative to the control system (Ox1 in chloronaphthalene). It was found that our ability to detect vibrational coherence via the excited electronic state of Ox1 diminishes on the time scale that population is lost by electron transfer. However, the vibrational wavepacket is not damped by the electron transfer process and has been observed previously by detecting the Ox1 radical transient absorption. The analysis presented here indicates that the “addition” of an electron to the photoexcited electron acceptor does not significantly perturb the vibrational coherence, suggesting its presence as a spectator, consistent with the Born–Oppenheimer separation of electronic and nuclear degrees of freedom

Exploring Ultrafast Electronic Processes of Quasi-Type II Nanocrystals by Two-Dimensional Electronic Spectroscopy

Colloidal CdTe/CdSe heteronanostructures are model systems for quasi-type II nanocrystals (NCs) and have been examined extensively. However, the complex spectra in these heteronanostructures often make it difficult to reveal details of their optical properties by conventional techniques such as transient absorption spectroscopy. In the present study, two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy (2DES) is used to study colloidal CdTe, CdTe/CdSe, and CdTe/ZnS NCs revealing the nature of absorption bands and ultrafast dynamics in a quasi-type II system. We observe the electronic coupling between the lowest two transitions, oscillations in the population time due to the longitudinal optical (LO) phonon mode, and the high-frequency impulsive Raman modes of the solvent. We observed an excited state absorption near at the band edge only in CdTe/CdSe NCs and established that it is related to the quasi-type II features: the redistribution of excitons among the fine-structured states or the biexciton level shift at the ultrafast time scale

Charge Separation and Recombination in CdTe/CdSe Core/Shell Nanocrystals as a Function of Shell Coverage: Probing the Onset of the Quasi Type-II Regime

Femtosecond transient absorption (TA) is used to investigate population dynamics of electronic states in CdTe/CdSe core/shell nanocrystals (NCs) with varying CdSe shell coverage. Upon CdSe shell growth, the CdTe/CdSe NCs show a gradual evolution of surface passivation toward a quasi-type-II charge separation regime. Our results indicate that ultrafast electron transfer (ET) through the interface of CdTe/CdSe NCs becomes measurable as the CdSe shell approaches the quasi-type-II regime which we experimentally determined to be at 0.4 nm (shell) for a 3.4 nm CdTe core. This work reports the first measurement using femtosecond TA to study the electronic states in CdTe/CdSe NCs and spectroscopically observe the evolution of an ultrafast charge transfer (CT) in such a core/shell system. Time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy is used to study the radiative lifetimes of the CdTe/CdSe NCs. One monolayer CdSe coverage leads to longer-lived PL, which is red-shifted by 140 nm compared to the CdTe core PL. It is concluded that this is due to greater electron−hole separation providing a longer-lived CT state

Methylene Blue Exciton States Steer Nonradiative Relaxation: Ultrafast Spectroscopy of Methylene Blue Dimer

The photochemistry and aggregation properties of methylene blue (MB) lead to its popular use in photodynamic therapy. The facile formation of strongly coupled “face-to-face” H-aggregates in concentrated aqueous solution, however, significantly changes its spectroscopic properties and photophysics. The photoinitiated dynamics of the simplest MB aggregate, MB₂, was investigated over femtosecond to nanosecond time scales revealing sequential internal conversion events that fully relax the excited population. MB monomer dynamics were analyzed in tandem for a direct comparison. First, ultrafast internal conversion from the electric-dipole allowed upper exciton state to the lower forbidden exciton state was evaluated by use of broadband transient absorption (BBTA) and two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy (2DES) with a time resolution of ∼10 fs. Lineshape analysis of MB and MB₂ 2DES bands at 298 and 77 K show effectively no difference in the diagonal/antidiagonal line width ratio for the dimer, in marked contrast to the distinct reduction of the homogeneous line width for MB. This result is interpreted as ultrafast population relaxation imposing a limitation to the homogeneous line width, instead of pure dephasing as in the case of the monomer. Narrowband transient absorption was performed with the aid of target analysis, to model the dynamics at longer times. The MB dynamics were described by a sequential model featuring vibrational relaxation (1–10 ps) followed by intersystem crossing and internal conversion (τ ∼ 370 ps) leaving behind MB triplet species. Alternatively, the dimer dynamics were entirely quenched within ∼10 ps, yielding a ground state recovery time of 3–4 ps. Such fast and complete relaxation to the ground state demonstrates the effect of concentration quenching when monomers are brought into close proximity. The formation of exciton states introduces an initial energy funnel that eventually leads to population relaxation to the ground state, preventing even the dissociation of dimers despite having internal energies well above its binding energy

Long-Lived Charge-Transfer States of Nickel(II) Aryl Halide Complexes Facilitate Bimolecular Photoinduced Electron Transfer

Here we investigate the photophysics and photochemistry of Ni­(II) aryl halide complexes common to cross-coupling and Ni/photoredox reactions. Computational and ultrafast spectroscopic studies reveal that these complexes feature long-lived ³MLCT excited states, implicating Ni as an underexplored alternative to precious metal photocatalysts. Moreover, we show that ³MLCT Ni­(II) engages in bimolecular electron transfer with ground-state Ni­(II), which enables access to Ni­(III) in the absence of external oxidants or photoredox catalysts. As such, it is possible to facilitate Ni-catalyzed C–O bond formation solely by visible light irradiation, thus representing an alternative strategy for catalyst activation in Ni cross-coupling reactions

Carbene–Metal–Amide Bond Deformation, Rather Than Ligand Rotation, Drives Delayed Fluorescence

We report three characteristics of ideal thermally activated delayed fluorescence molecular systems apparent in carbene–metal–amides: (a) an exceptionally small singlet–triplet gap that effectively eliminates the thermal activation barrier to reverse intersystem crossing; (b) significant singlet oscillator strength promoting fluorescence in the region of this small barrier; and (c) enlarged spin–orbit coupling driving reverse intersystem crossing in this region. We carry out highly correlated quantum-chemical calculations to detail the relative energies of and spin–orbit couplings between the singlet and triplet states, finding that they fall closer together in energy and couple more strongly in going from the singlet ground-state to the triplet optimized geometry. This structural reorganization is defined not by rotation of the ligands but by a nontrivial bending of the carbene–metal–amide bond angle. This bending reduces carbene–metal–amide symmetry and enhances singlet–triplet interaction strength. We clarify that the reverse intersystem crossing triggering delayed fluorescence occurs around the coplanar triplet geometric optimum

Vibronic Wavepackets and Energy Transfer in Cryptophyte Light-Harvesting Complexes

Determining the key features of high-efficiency photosynthetic energy transfer remains an ongoing task. Recently, there has been evidence for the role of vibronic coherence in linking donor and acceptor states to redistribute oscillator strength for enhanced energy transfer. To gain further insights into the interplay between vibronic wavepackets and energy-transfer dynamics, we systematically compare four structurally related phycobiliproteins from cryptophyte algae by broad-band pump–probe spectroscopy and extend a parametric model based on global analysis to include vibrational wavepacket characterization. The four phycobiliproteins isolated from cryptophyte algae are two “open” structures and two “closed” structures. The closed structures exhibit strong exciton coupling in the central dimer. The dominant energy-transfer pathway occurs on the subpicosecond timescale across the largest energy gap in each of the proteins, from central to peripheral chromophores. All proteins exhibit a strong 1585 cm^–1 coherent oscillation whose relative amplitude, a measure of vibronic intensity borrowing from resonance between donor and acceptor states, scales with both energy-transfer rates and damping rates. Central exciton splitting may aid in bringing the vibronically linked donor and acceptor states into better resonance resulting in the observed doubled rate in the closed structures. Several excited-state vibrational wavepackets persist on timescales relevant to energy transfer, highlighting the importance of further investigation of the interplay between electronic coupling and nuclear degrees of freedom in studies on high-efficiency photosynthesis