Polymer co-crystalline films for photonics

Robust syndiotactic polystyrene (sPS) films exhibiting highly stable co-crystalline phases can be obtained with a large variety of low-molecular-mass chromophore guest molecules. In this report different aspects relative to the structure and the optical properties of these films are described. In particular, possible applications of these films as fluorescent materials, as optical memories (based on the co-crystallization of photoreactive guest molecules), as non-linear optical materials (with polar guests) and as chiro-optical memories (based on temporary co-crystals with chiral guest molecules) are presented

The occurrence of electron transfer in aromatic nitration: dynamical aspects

Electron transfer (ET) from toluene to the nitronium ion in the region of van der Waals intermolecular distances has been investigated by a quantum dynamical analysis performed on potential-energy surfaces computed at the ab initio multireference configuration interaction level. The results show that ET is very fast, occurring on a timescale of a few picoseconds. This has important implications for the mechanism of aromatic nitration: the ET path can compete efficiently with the direct attack of the nitronium ion to the aromatic substrate to yield the Wheland intermediate and that could explain some unsettled points in the mechanism of aromatic nitration