Photorefractivity in liquid crystalline composite materials

We report recent improvements in the photorefractive of liquid crystalline thin film composites containing electron donor and acceptor molecules. The improvements primarily result from optimization of the exothermicity of the intermolecular charge transfer reaction and improvement of the diffusion characteristics of the photogenerated ions. Intramolecular charge transfer dopants produce greater photorefractivity and a 10-fold decrease in the concentration of absorbing chromophores. The mechanism for the generation of mobile ions is discussed

Molecular structure determination for photogenerated intermediates in photoinduced electron transfer reactions using steady-state and transient XAFS

Many photoinduced electron transfer reactions are accompanied by nuclear rearrangements of the molecules involved. In order to understand the reactivities of the molecules and the reaction mechanisms, precise information on the molecular structural changes accompanying the electron transfer is often required. We present here conventional XAFS and transient energy dispersive XAFS studies on structures of excited and photoinduced charge separated state of porphyrin and porphyrin based supermolecules, and structures of TiO{sub 2} colloid and the heavymetal ions that bind to the colloid surfaces during photocatalytic reductions

Electron transfer of carbonylmetalate radical pairs: femtosecond visible spectroscopy of optically excited ion pairs

Charge transfer excitation at 640 nm of the cobaltocenium tetracarbonylcobaltate ion pair, [Cp{sub 2}Co{sup +}{vert_bar}Co(CO){sub 4}{sup -}], was monitored in 1,2- dichloroethane solution by femtosecond transient visible absorption spectroscopy. The absorption prepares a neutral radical pair that can undergo spontaneous back electron transfer, and which shows a double peaked spectrum with features at 760 and 815 nm at 3 ps delay time. Transient decay times of 5.8{+-}0.5 ps were measured by monitoring the decay of Co(CO){sub 4} at 757 nm and 780 nm, and these are assigned to the back electron transfer step. The ET kinetics are consistent with the previously reported rates of electron transfer that were measured for specific vibrational states by picosecond transient IR

Influence of constitution and charge on radical pairing interactions in tris-radical tricationic complexes

The results of a systematic investigation of trisradical tricationic complexes formed between cyclobis(paraquat-p-phenylene) bisradical dicationic (CBPQT2(•+)) rings and a series of 18 dumbbells, containing centrally located 4,4′-bipyridinium radical cationic (BIPY•+) units within oligomethylene chains terminated for the most part by charged 3,5-dimethylpyridinium (PY+) and/or neutral 3,5-dimethylphenyl (PH) groups, are reported. The complexes were obtained by treating equimolar amounts of the CBPQT4+ ring and the dumbbells containing BIPY2+ units with zinc dust in acetonitrile solutions. Whereas UV–Vis–NIR spectra revealed absorption bands centered on ca. 1100 nm with quite different intensities for the 1:1 complexes depending on the constitutions and charges on the dumbbells, titration experiments showed that the association constants (Ka) for complex formation vary over a wide range, from 800 M–1 for the weakest to 180 000 M–1 for the strongest. While Coulombic repulsions emanating from PY+ groups located at the ends of some of the dumbbells undoubtedly contribute to the destabilization of the trisradical tricationic complexes, solid-state superstructures support the contention that those dumbbells with neutral PH groups at the ends of flexible and appropriately constituted links to the BIPY•+ units stand to gain some additional stabilization from C–H···π interactions between the CBPQT2(•+) rings and the PH termini on the dumbbells. The findings reported in this Article demonstrate how structural changes implemented remotely from the BIPY•+ units influence their non-covalent bonding interactions with CBPQT2(•+) rings. Different secondary effects (Coulombic repulsions versus C–H···π interactions) are uncovered, and their contributions to both binding strengths associated with trisradical interactions and the kinetics of associations and dissociations are discussed at some length, supported by extensive DFT calculations at the M06-D3 level. A fundamental understanding of molecular recognition in radical complexes has relevance when it comes to the design and synthesis of non-equilibrium systems

Variants in CHEK2 other than 1100delC do not make a major contribution to breast cancer susceptibility

We recently reported that a sequence variant in the cell-cycle-checkpoint kinase CHEK2 (CHEK2 1100delC) is a low-penetrance breast cancer-susceptibility allele in noncarriers of BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations. To investigate whether other CHEK2 variants confer susceptibility to breast cancer, we screened the full CHEK2 coding sequence in BRCA1/2-negative breast cancer cases from 89 pedigrees with three or more cases of breast cancer. We identified one novel germline variant, R117G, in two separate families. To evaluate the possible association of R117G and two germline variants repo

Photorefractivity in liquid crystalline composite materials

We report recent improvements in the photorefractive of liquid crystalline thin film composites containing electron donor and acceptor molecules. The improvements primarily result from optimization of the exothermicity of the intermolecular charge transfer reaction and improvement of the diffusion characteristics of the photogenerated ions. Intramolecular charge transfer dopants produce greater photorefractivity and a 10-fold decrease in the concentration of absorbing chromophores. The mechanism for the generation of mobile ions is discussed

Photorefractivity in polymer-stabilized nematic liquid crystals

Polymer-stabilized liquid crystals, consisting of low concentrations of a polymeric electron acceptor, are shown to exhibit significantly enhanced photorefractive properties. The charge generation and transport properties of these composite systems are strongly modified from nematic liquid crystals doped with electron donors and acceptors. The new composites are produced by polymerizing a small quantity of a 1,4:5,8-naphthalenediimide electron acceptor functionalized with an acrylate group in an aligned nematic liquid crystal. Photopolymerization creates an anisotropic gel-like medium in which the liquid crystal is free to reorient in the presence of a space charge field, while maintaining charge trapping sites in the polymerized regions of the material. The presence of these trapping sites results in the observation of longer lived, higher resolution holographic gratings in the polymer-stabilized liquid crystals than observed in nematic liquid crystals alone. These gratings display Bragg regime diffraction. Asymmetric beam coupling, photo-conductivity, and four-wave mixing experiments are performed to characterize the photophysics of these novel materials

Wavelength and intensity dependent studies of isolated Photosystem II reaction centers using an optical parametric amplifier

Isolated Photosystem II reaction centers were excited at five wavelengths to study the effects of excitation wavelength and intensity on energy transfer and charge separation

Femtosecond spectroscopy on PSII reaction centers: New results

Time evolution of transient absorption changes excited by pumping Photosystem II (PSII) RCs at 683 nm (where P680 absorbs) or 665 nm (where RC antenna pigments absorb) and probing at 544 nm elicited a rapid increase in absorption within the time of the pump pulse, and, subsequently, three distinct kinetic components representing decreases in absorption: A fast component with {tau}s on the order of 1--3 ps, an intermediate one with {tau}s of 10--25 ps, and a slow one with {tau}s ranging from 50--100 ps. The amplitudes of the three bleach components versus pump energy are linear up to 250 nJ at both pump wavelengths. Between 250 nJ and 1 {mu}J the amplitudes continue to increase but at a lesser slope. Zero-crossing times increase with increasing pump energy from a minimum of about 10 ps at 683 nm excitation and 20 ps at 665 nm excitation. ZCTs provide a convenient way of comparing from laboratory to laboratory the actual pump intensity seen by a sample. Whereas the amplitudes of the three kinetic components increase with pump energy, there does not seem to be a consistent change in the relative percentage of the three components over the pump energy range investigated. However, the percentage of intermediate time component appears greater, and the lifetimes of all three components increase somewhat when pumping at 665 nm vs. 683 nm. To examine this point, we obtained transient absorption spectra of PSII RCs at 500 ps and 1 ps after low energy pump pulses at 665 nm and 683 nm. At 500 ps, transient absorption spectra in the 500-nm to 600-nm range are independent of pump wavelength. This indicates that energy transfer from antenna pigments, absorbing at 665 nm, to P680 is close to 100% efficient. On the other hand, at short time there is a substantial difference in the spectra generated by the two pump wavelengths