Submitted by Fabio Sobreira Campos da Costa (fabio.sobreira@ufpe.br) on 2017-04-27T13:00:02Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Tese_Euclides_Almeida_Fisica.pdf: 5907240 bytes, checksum: 503a5b57e757a03f24206d4d3d26032c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-27T13:00:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Tese_Euclides_Almeida_Fisica.pdf: 5907240 bytes, checksum: 503a5b57e757a03f24206d4d3d26032c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-07-30 / CNPQ / O principal objetivo deste trabalho foi investigar fenômenos ópticos ultrarrápidos em sistemas nanoestruturados empregando diferentes técnicas espectroscópicas não lineares, tanto no domínio do tempo quanto no domínio da frequência. Para fornecer uma base adequada que permita entender os experimentos feitos nessa tese, os princípios físicos das espectroscopias ópticas não lineares são apresentados. Inicialmente é apresentada uma descrição da função resposta não linear no domínio do tempo. A evolução temporal da polarização óptica, que gera o sinal espectroscópico, é descrita em detalhes usando uma teoria de perturbação diagramática. Técnicas ópticas não lineares são apresentadas, tais como eco de fótons, bombeamento-e-sonda e hole burning, assim como o comportamento dinâmico de um material pode ser interpretado a partir do sinal gerado. A técnica de mistura degenerada de quatro ondas com luz incoerente foi usada para investigar, pela primeira vez, o defasamento ultrarrápido de éxcitons em uma vitrocerâmica contendo nanocristais de niobato de sódio. O tempo de defasamento medido (T2 = 20 fs) indica qu empregada para investigar processos de transferência de carga em colóides com nanopartículas de TiO2 e rodamina 6G. O comportamento do sinal de depleção transiente é comparado com o observado para a rodamina livre suspensa em etanol. A análise dos resultados permitiu atribuir o comportamento de depleção à transferência de carga de estados excitados termalizados das moléculas de corante para a banda de condução do semicondutor e a transferência no sentido inverso do semicondutor para as moléculas. / The main objective of this work was the investigation of ultrafast optical phenomena in selected nanostructured systems employing different nonlinear spectroscopic techniques, either in the time or the frequency domain. To provide an appropriate background to understand the performed experiments the principles of nonlinear optical spectroscopies are presented. Initially a description of the nonlinear optical response function in the time domain is given. The time evolution of the optical polarization, that gives rise to the spectroscopic signal, is described in detail using a diagrammatic perturbation theory. Nonlinear optical techniques are discussed such as photon echoes, pump-and-probe and hole-burning, as well as how the dynamical behavior of a material can be interpreted from the generated signals. The degenerate four-wave mixing technique with incoherent light was used to investigate for the first time the ultrafast dephasing of excitons in a glass-ceramic containing sodium niobate nanocrystals. The short dephasing time measured (T2 = 20 fs) indicates that different dephasing channels contribute for the excitonic dephasing, namely: electron-electron scattering, electron-phonon coupling and fast trapping of electrons in defects on the nanocrystals interface. Low-temperature luminescence experiments were also performed to measure excitonic and trap states lifetimes. The persistent spectral holeburning technique was applied to measure localized surface plasmons dephasing times in colloidal silver nanoparticles capped with different stabilizing molecules. The dependence of T2 with three different stabilizers was demonstrated and theoretically analyzed. The results show that the dephasing times are shorter than the theoretically calculated T2 using the bulk dielectric functions of the metal. This discrepancy is attributed to changes in the electronic density of states at the nanoparticles interface caused by the presence of the stabilizers. Ab-initio calculations based on the Density Functional Theory were performed to further understand the interaction between the nanoparticles and stabilizing agents. The femtosecond transient absorption technique was employed to study the ultrafast dynamics of in-gap states in a glassceramics containing sodium niobate nanocrystals. Two main temporal components were found for the excited state absorption signal: a fast component, with decay time of ≈ 1 ps, and a slower component which is attributed to deep trap states. This slower component is responsible for the excited state absorption contribution in optical limiting experiments previously reported in the literature. The dynamics of the optical limiting in this sample was also studied, in the millisecond range, exciting the sample with a train of femtosecond pulses. The optical limiting behavior reflects the dynamics of population in the excited and trap states and this dynamics was modeled using rate equations for the electronic states’ populations. Finally, the pump-andprobe transient absorption technique was employed to investigate charge-transfer processes in colloids with rhodamine 6G and TiO2 nanoparticles. The transient bleaching signal behavior is compared with the one observed for unlinked rhodamine 6G dissolved in ethanol. The analysis of the results allowed the attribution of the bleaching behavior to charge-transfer from thermalized excited states of the dye molecules to the semiconductor conduction band and to the back charge-transfer from the semiconductor to the molecules.

No presente trabalho foram investigados vários sistemas moleculares contendo o dióxido de enxofre (SO2) como espécie elétron aceptora e diversas espécies elétron doadoras como aminas (alifáticas e aromáticas), complexos inorgânicos e líquidos iônicos. Estes compostos são chamados de complexos do tipo doador-aceptor, que no caso do SO2 são caracterizados por apresentarem baixas energias de ligação entre as espécies se comparada à maioria dos complexos desta categoria. A caracterização vibracional dos complexos e adutos de SO2, assim como do processo de transferência de carga (CT) intermolecular e da estabilidade destes sistemas consistem nos principais objetivos deste trabalho, tendo sido para tanto utilizadas as técnicas de espectroscopia eletrônica (UV-Vis), espectroscopia vibracional (Raman e infravermelho), cálculos de química quântica (DFT) e cálculos de dinâmica molecular clássica (MD). No caso de complexos entre aminas e SO2 foi observado que além da basicidade das aminas, o efeito estérico consiste em um fator crucial para a estabilidade. No caso de aminas aromáticas, complexos coloridos foram formados permitindo a obtenção de espectros Raman ressonante. No caso de um complexo inorgânico, com utilidade potencial como sensor de SO2foi observada a aplicação da espectroscopia Raman ressonante na caracterização do complexo de estequiometria 2:1. Já no caso da interação de SO2 e líquidos iônicos (LI) foi observada a capacidade de absorção de SO2 por LI e a conseqüente mudança das propriedades físico-químicas destes líquidos, o que abre a possibilidade, além de sua potencial utilização no contexto ambiental, de sintonizar propriedades de líquidos iônicos através da adição controlada de SO2. / In the present work molecular systems bearing the sulfur dioxide (SO2) as an electron acceptor species and several electron donor species as amines (aliphatic and aromatic), inorganic complexes and ionic liquids were investigated. Such complexes are commonly known as donor-acceptor complexes, and in particular, in the case of SO2 complexes are characterized by low binding energies when compared with the majority of charge transfer (CT) complexes. The vibrational characterization of the SO2 complexes, as well as of the intermolecular charge transfer (CT) process and of their stabilities are the main subjects of this work, and for such, electronic spectroscopy (UV-Vis), vibrational spectroscopy (Raman and infrared), quantum chemical (DFT) calculations and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were used. In the case of complexes formed by amines and SO2 it was observed that besides the amine basicities, the steric effect plays a crucial role in their stabilities. In the case of aromatic amines, colored complexes were formed allowing the resonance Raman study. The use of Raman spectroscopy in the characterization of an inorganic complex (SO2 sensor) indicates the potential use of the resonance Raman effect for SO2 monitoring. In the case of the interaction between SO2 and ionic liquids it was observed the great capability of ionic liquids as SO2 absorbers, and the consequent change in the physical-chemical properties of these liquids, what opens the possibility, in addition to its potential use in the environmental context, for tuning the ionic liquids properties via the controlled addition of SO2.

Photosynthesis involves the absorption of photons by light-harvesting pigments and the subsequent transfer of excitation from the absorption centre to the reaction centre. This highly efficient phenomenon of excitation transfer has traditionally been explained by the Forster mechanism of incoherent hopping of excitation from one chromophore to another. Recently 2D electronic spectroscopic evidences were gathered by Fleming and coworkers on the photosynthetic Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) complex in green sulfur bacteria [1]. Subsequent simulation studies by the same group [2] led to the proposition of a quantum-mechanical, coherent, wave-like transfer of excitation among the chromophores. However, Fleming's conclusions regarding retention of coherence appeared surprising because, the complex would interact with the numerous degrees of freedom of the protein scaffold surrounding it, leading to decoherence, which is expected to be rapid. Thus, we were interested in proposing an analytical treatment to rationalize the excitation transfer. Traditional approaches employed for studying excitation energy transfer involve the master equation techniques where the system-bath coupling is perturbative and is truncated after a few orders. It is important to note that the system-bath coupling causes both decoherence and population relaxation. Such a perturbative approximation is difficult to justify for the photosystem, as the system-bath coupling and the interchromophoric electronic coupling have comparable values. Also, these treatments are largely numerical studies and demand involved calculations. Thus, exact calculations for such a system (7-level) are very difficult. Consequently, we were interested in developing an analytical approach where the coupling is treated as non-perturbative. We devised a novel analytical treatment which employs a unitary transformation analogous to the one used for the theory of nonadiabatic effects in chemical reactions [3]. Our treatment rests on an adiabatic basis which are eigenstates calculated at each nuclear position (i.e. at each configuration of the bath) bearing a parametric dependence in Qi, where Qi denotes the shift of the exciton at site `i' due to the environment. The treatment is justified because in the case of coherent transfer, the excitation would travel mostly amongst the adiabatic states and the effects of non-adiabaticity are small. We observed that the system-bath coupling, after the unitary transformation, could be decoupled at the lowest order into two parts: a) an adiabatic contribution, which accounts solely for decoherence (this is evaluated almost exactly in our approach) and b) a non-adiabatic contribution which accounts for population relaxation from one adiabatic state to another (treated by a Markovian master equation). When we applied our technique to the FMO complex, our prediction for population evolution at the chromophores showed excellent correspondence with those obtained by Nalbach and coworkers using path-integral calculations [4], which are exact. These were calculations where the environment was modelled using a Drude spectral density. Our method allowed the calculations to be readily performed for different temperatures as well. It should be specifically emphasized that, unlike the involved and cumbersome path-integral calculations by Nalbach and coworkers [4] or the hierarchical equation calculations by Ishizaki et al. [2], our method is simple, easy to apply and computationally expedient. Further it became evident that the ultra-efficiency of energy transfer in photosynthetic complexes is not completely captured by coherence alone but is the result of an interplay of coherence and the dissipative influence of the environment (also known as ENAQT or Environment Assisted Quantum Transport [5]). An added advantage of our analytical treatment was the flexibility it offered. Thus, we could use our formalism to perform expedient analyses on the behavior of the system under various conditions. For example, we may wish to evaluate the consequences of introducing correlations among the bath degrees of freedom on the efficiency of transfer to the reaction centre. To this end, we applied our formalism by introducing correlations among the bath degrees of freedom and then by introducing anticorrelations among the bath degrees of freedom. The conclusions were interesting, for they suggested that the efficiency of transfer to the reaction centre was enhanced by the presence of anti-correlations, when compared with an uncorrelated bath. Uncorrelated baths, in turn, had a higher efficiency of energy transfer than correlated baths [6]. Thus, the population evolution is fastest for the anti-correlated bath, followed by the uncorrelated bath and is slowest for the correlated bath. Similar conclusions have been reached at by Tiwari et al. [7]. We could also extend the formalism for studying the system under different spectral densities for the environment, apart from just the Drude spectral density which is popularly used in literature associated with FMO calculations. For instance, the FMO system could be analyzed for the Adolphs-Renger spectral density [3, 8]. Once again our results showed excellent agreement with those reported by Nalbach. We also analyzed the FMO system under the spectral density proposed by Kleinekathofer and coworkers [9]. It was found that these latter spectral densities had more profound participation from the environment, therefore coherences were destroyed more effectively and population relaxation was faster. The excitation transfer to the final site (site closest to the reaction centre in the FMO complex) was found to be faster for the Adolphs and Renger spectral density and the spectral density proposed by Kleinekathofer and coworkers, when compared to the Drude spectral density. Also, the excitation transfer was fastest when we modelled the environment using the Kleinekathofer spectral density. This reinforced the previous conclusions that the dissipative effects of the environment promote a faster energy transport. Being an almost analytical approach, our technique could be applied to systems with larger number of levels as well. A good example of such a case is the MEH-PPV polymer. 2D electronic-spectroscopic experiments performed on this polymer in solution speculate that the excitation energy transfer might be coherent even at physiological temperatures [10]. A prototype for studying this system might be a conjugated polymer with around 80-100 chromophores. Linewidths and Lineshapes in the vicinity of Graphene It has been reported that a vibrating dipole may de-excite by transferring energy non-radiatively to a neighboring metal surface [11]. It is also understood that due to its delocalized pi-cloud, graphene has a continuum of energy states and can behave like a metal sheet and accept energies. Thus, we proposed that if a vibrationally excited dipole de-excites in the vicinity of a graphene sheet, graphene may get electronically excited and thus serve as an effective quencher for such vibrational excitations. Depending on the distance of the dipole from the graphene sheet, the transfer might be intense enough to be spectroscopically probed. We have investigated the rate of such an energy transfer. We use the Dirac cone approximation for graphene, as this enables us to obtain analyt-ical results. The Fermi Golden rule was used to evaluate the rate of energy transfer from the excited dipole to the graphene sheet [12]. The calculations were performed for both the instances: a) energy transfer from a dipole to undoped graphene and, b) energy trans-fer from a dipole to doped graphene. For undoped graphene, the carrier (electron) charge density in the conduction band is zero and we would only have transitions from the valence band to the conduction band. As a consequence of absence of carrier charge density in CB (conduction band), the screening of Coulombic interactions in the graphene plane is ineffective. Thus, one could use the non-interacting polarizability for undoped graphene in the rate expression [13]. However, when we consider the case of doped graphene where EF is shifted upwards into CB, the conduction band electrons will contribute to screening. In this case, we have two sets of transitions: a) from ki in VB (valence band) to kf in CB and b) ki in CB to kf in CB, where ki and kf are the wavevectors which correspond to the initial and final electronic states in graphene. So we have used the polarizability propagator in the random phase approximation [14] to calculate the rate following the approach of [13]. It is also known that the imaginary part of the frequency domain dipole-dipole corre-lation function is a measure of the lineshape [15]. We were, thus, interested in evaluating the lineshape for these transitions. For evaluating the correlation function, we used the partitioning technique developed by L•owdin [16] and subsequently extracted the lineshape from its imaginary part. Using this method, we calculated lineshape for the vibrational excitation of CO molecule in the vicinity of an undoped graphene lattice. The linewidth for this system also was obtained. It could be seen that the vibrational linewidth for 1 CO in the vicinity (5 A) of undoped graphene (EF = 0:00eV ) is small (0:012 cm ) but could be observed experimentally. The lineshape calculations were also extended to cases where it is possible to have atomic transitions by placing an electronically excited atom in the vicinity of the graphene sheet. We considered the following two cases: a) 3p ! 2s transition in hydrogen atom, at a distance of 12 A from the graphene sheet and, b) 4p ! 3s transition in hydrogen atom, at a distance of 20 A from the graphene sheet. The linewidths for atomic transitions could be easily probed in these cases ( 55 cm 1 for 3p ! 2s and 56 cm 1 for 4p ! 3s). In the preceding calculations, the transi-tion dipoles were considered perpendicular to the graphene surface. It is worthwhile to note that if the transition dipoles are considered parallel to the graphene surface, the respective linewidths would be half of those obtained for the case where the transition dipoles are perpendicular. Another interesting possibility would be to consider a lanthanide metal complex placed within a few nanometers from graphene. Lanthanides are known to have sharp f-f transitions [17] and consequently, one could easily observe the effects of broadening due to energy transfer to the electronic system of graphene. Energy Eigenmodes for arrays of Metal Nanoparticles In the final part of the thesis we consider organized assemblies of metal nanoparti-cles, specifically helical and cylindrical assemblies and investigate the plasmonic excitation transfer across these assemblies. These were motivated by recent studies which reported growth of chiral asymmetric assemblies of nanoparticles on D and L- isomers of dipheny-lalanine peptide nanotubes [18]. The plasmons in the helical/cylindrical assemblies are expected to couple with each other via electromagnetic interactions. We construct the Hamiltonian for such systems and evaluate the eigenmodes and energies pertaining to these modes in the wave vector space. We also perform calculations for the group velocity for each eigenmode as this gives us an idea of which eigenmode transports excitation the fastest.

Ce travail nous a permis de réaliser une étude de capteurs de gaz et d’humidité à base de graphène. Cette étude pourrait être utile non seulement pour améliorer les performances des capteurs à base de graphène mais aussi pour mieux comprendre l’interaction entre le graphène et les molécules de gaz. Ceci semble indispensable pour faire avancer les applications du graphène comme un matériau prometteur pour la détection des gaz. Des avancées significatives ont été présentées au niveau de la fabrication de ces capteurs, leurs différentes caractérisations électriques ainsi que d’autres techniques employées pour analyser le mécanisme contrôlant la détection des molécules de gaz/vapeur. Ces outils ont été mis en place pour concevoir et fabriquer plusieurs structures de capteur en utilisant différents substrats support du graphène d’une part et en modifiant les propriétés du graphène par utilisation des produits chimiques d’autres part. La caractérisation de ces capteurs sous différents environnements a permis de comparer les différentes réponses des capteurs et d’en tirer plusieurs conclusions sur le fonctionnement de ces dispositifs. En effet, le Mica, un substrat lisse et transparent, a été utilisé comme substrat pour le graphène. Le dopage induit par le mica a été étudié ainsi que son impact sur la sensibilité du graphène au gaz d’ammoniac. Ceci a permis de mettre en évidence le fait que le substrat joue un rôle important pour la détection de l’ammoniac. De plus, ces capteurs fabriques sur mica et SiO2 ont été testés sous différentes conditions de températures et d’oxygène. Dans une autre approche, un polymère a été utilisé pour doper le graphène. Une étude détaillée a été menée pour analyser le comportement de ce graphène fonctionnalisé par rapport aux molécules d’eau. Ces nouveaux résultats expérimentaux obtenus pendant cette thèse constituent un bon support à plusieurs résultats théoriques établis et permettent d’optimiser la conception des capteurs de gaz à base de graphène pour des meilleures performances. / In this research, we report on a study of graphene based gas and humidity sensors. This study could be useful not only to improve the performance of graphene based sensors but also to better understand the interaction between graphene and gas molecules. This seems necessary to promote the applications of graphene as a promising material for gas sensing. Significant advances have been made to design and fabricate these sensors: the different electrical characterizations as well as other techniques used to analyze the mechanism controlling the detection of gas/vapor molecules. These tools have been set up to design and manufacture various sensor structures using different underlying substrates for graphene on one hand and chemical modification of graphene properties on the other hand. The characterization of these sensors under different environments was used to compare the different responses of the sensors and draw several conclusions about gas sensing mechanism. Indeed, Mica, a smooth and transparent substrate, was used as a supporting substrate for graphene. Doping induced to graphene by mica and its impact on graphene sensitivity to ammonia gas were studied. This has made it possible to highlight the fact that the substrate plays an important role for the detection of ammonia. In addition, these sensors made on mica and SiO2 were tested under a variety of temperatures and oxygen. In another approach, a polymer was used to dope graphene. A detailed study was realized about the behavior of water molecules on functionalized graphene. The obtained experimental results, reported for the first time, represent a good support for several theoretical studies already made and could be used to optimize the design of graphene based gas sensors.

Une compréhension sans cesse plus pointue des processus élémentaires de transferts de charges et d’énergie, qui sont à la base même de nombreux processus biologiques, permet non seulement l’élaboration mais aussi l’amélioration de la mise au point de molécules photoactives utiles dans différentes applications. C'est le cas (i) de systèmes moléculaires et supramoléculaires destinés à mimer efficacement la photosynthèse, ou encore (ii) de molécules photoactives capables d’interagir avec des macromolécules biologiques et d’induire une transformation de ces biomolécules. C’est dans ce cadre général que s’inscrit l’élaboration de nouveaux complexes polyazaaromatiques de Ru(II) capables d’interagir avec la double hélice d’ADN et de photoréagir avec sa base la plus réductrice, la guanine, par transfert d’électron photoinduit. C’est sur la base de ces processus que des nouveaux agents antitumoraux photoactivables ont pu être développés. L’utilisation de complexes de Ru(II) dans le design d’entités supramoléculaires polymétalliques destinées à jouer le rôle de collecteurs de lumière et permettant ainsi de mimer les systèmes d’antennes naturels s’intègre également dans cette démarche. <p><p>L’ensemble de notre travail s’est concentré sur ces deux domaines d’applications. Par l’étude de différents processus de transfert de charges/d’énergie au sein des complexes seuls (processus intramoléculaires) ou en interaction avec un environnement spécifique (processus intermoléculaires), nous avons souhaité mettre en évidence l’intérêt de l’utilisation d’un nouveau ligand plan étendu, le tpac, au sein de complexes du Ru(II). Un tel ligand permet en effet de conférer d’une part une affinité élevée des complexes résultants pour l’ADN, et d’autre part, de par sa nature pontante, de connecter des unités métalliques entre elles au sein d’entités supramoléculaires de taille importante. <p><p>Les propriétés photophysiques de quatre complexes basés sur le ligand plan étendu tpac, le [Ru(phen)2tpac]2+ (P) et son homologue dinucléaire le [(phen)2Ru tpac Ru(phen)2]4+ (PP) (à base de ligands ancillaires phen), ainsi que le [Ru(tap)2tpac]2+ (T) et son homologue dinucléaire le [(tap)2Ru tpac Ru(tap)2]4+ (TT) (à base de ligands ancillaires tap), ont été étudiées et comparées entre elles.<p><p>L’examen de ces propriétés, d’abord pour les complexes seuls en solution, en parallèle avec celles de complexes dinucléaires contenant un ligand pontant PHEHAT, a permis de mettre en évidence l’importance de la nature du ligand pontant utilisé. Ces résultats ont ainsi révélé qu’un choix judicieux du ligand pontant permet de construire des entités de grande taille capables de transférer l’énergie lumineuse vers un centre (cas du ligand PHEHAT), ou, au contraire, de relier entre elles des entités ne s’influençant pas l’une l’autre d’un point de vue photophysique (cas du ligand tpac). <p><p>Les propriétés des complexes du tpac, étudiés cette fois en présence de matériel génétique (mononucléotide GMP, ADN ou polynucléotides synthétiques), se sont révélées très différentes selon que le complexe portait des ligands ancillaires phen (P, PP) ou tap (T, TT). Seuls les complexes à base de tap sont en effet photoréactifs envers les résidus guanine. Nous avons dès lors focalisé cette partie de notre travail sur les deux complexes T et TT. Cette photoréaction, ainsi que le transfert d’électron photoinduit entre ces complexes excités et la guanine, ont pu être mis en évidence par différentes techniques de spectroscopie d’émission tant stationnaire que résolue dans le temps, ainsi que par des mesures d’absorption transitoire dans des échelles de temps de la nano à la femto/picoseconde. L’étude du comportement photophysique des complexes en fonction du pH a en outre révélé de manière très intéressante que, pour des études en présence d’ADN, la protonation des états excités des complexes devait être considérée. Les résultats de cette étude nous ont fourni des pistes quant à l’attribution des processus observés en absorption transitoire.<p><p>Le transfert d’électron a également fait l’objet d’une étude par des méthodes théoriques. Ces calculs ab initio ont permis de mettre en évidence une faible influence de l’énergie de réorganisation sur la vitesse de transfert d’électron, qui semble dépendre plus sensiblement de la non-adiabaticité du processus, mais surtout de l’énergie libre de la réaction et d’un éventuel couplage à un transfert de proton. <p><p>L’ensemble des résultats obtenus avec les complexes T et TT en présence de matériel génétique, qui, de manière assez inattendue, sont très semblables, indiquent que ces complexes présentent tous deux un grand intérêt pour le développement de nouvelles drogues antitumorales photoactivables.<p> / Doctorat en Sciences / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

A material to function as a molecular electronic device should have a strong coupling with electrodes through appropriate and well-defined anchoring groups and have to support an effective traveling of charges via a conjugated molecular backbone. Oligo(3-hexylthiophene)s are π-conjugated molecules having large applicability in several areas of organic electronics owing interesting semiconducting properties and they also hold great promises in the field of single-molecule electronics. Polymerization methods, in principle, allow construction of long conjugated systems in a single synthetic step, however, most of them lack precision. This work uses externally initiated chain-growth Kumada Catalyst - Transfer Polycondensation (KCTP) for the synthesis of semiconductive oligo(3-hexylthiophene) wires with controllable molecular weights, low polydispersities, high regioregularities as well as with well-defined starting and end groups. In such a way, the synthetic efforts were compromised to obtain relatively easy a series of very complex molecular wires with a reasonable structural precision. To modulate the electronic function of oligomer backbones, specific charge-transfer moieties (DMA-TCBD and Fc-TCBD) were inserted as side chains or end groups. In-situ termination of KCTP with ZnCl-functionalized electron rich alkynes followed by Diederich-type click reaction resulted in the synthesis of asymmetrical oligo(3-hexylthiophene)s having thiolate-functionalized starting groups and donor-functionalized end-groups with a high degree of end-group functionalizations. Side chains of double-thiolate functionalized oligo(3-hexylthiophene)s, on the other hand, were further modified with the insertion of charge-transfer groups by post-polymerization functionalization. While the facile synthesis and modification of oligo(3-hexylthiophene)s enable the control over the molecular backbone, the specific starting and end anchoring groups allow the control over the electrode oligomer interface. To assure the formation of alligator clips between oligomer backbone and Au electrode, the optimizations including proper end-group conversion into mild counterparts followed by in-situ deprotection into thiolates and the binding abilities on gold were investigated. Finally, the conductance of bis-end functionalized oligo(3-hexylthiophene)s was preliminarily studied through oligomer backbone by Mechanically Controllable Break Junctions (MCBJs) setup and through oligomer-attached DNA origami-templated gold nanowires by individual electrical contacts. The developed KCTP-based synthetic route, at the end, presents new opportunities for the facile synthesis, the ease of modification and the feasibility of asymmetrical and side chain functionalized oligo(3-hexylthiophene) wires for needs of molecular electronics.

Organic solar cells have great potential for cost-effective and large area electricity production, but their applicability is limited by the relatively low efficiency. In this dissertation I report investigations of novel materials and the underlying principles of organic solar cells, carried out at the University of St Andrews between 2011 and 2015. Key results of this investigation: • The charge carrier mobility of organic semiconductors in the active layer of polymer solar cells has a rather small influence on the power conversion efficiency. Cooling solar cells of the polymer:fullerene blend PTB7:PC₇₁BM from room temperature to 77 K decreased the hole mobility by a factor of thousand but the device efficiency only halved. • Subphthalocyanine molecules, which are commonly used as electron donor materials in vacuum-deposited active layers of organic solar cells, can, by a slight structural modification, also be used as efficient electron acceptor materials in solution-deposited active layers. Additionally these acceptors offer, compared to standard fullerene acceptors,advantages of a stronger light absorption at the peak of the solar spectrum. • A low band-gap polymer donor material requires a careful selection of the acceptor material in order to achieve efficient charge separation and a maximum open circuit voltage. • Metal structures in nanometer-size can efficiently enhance the electric field and light absorption in organic semiconductors by plasmonic resonance. The fluorescence of a P3HT polymer film above silver nanowires, separated by PEDOT:PSS, increased by factor of two. This could be clearly assigned to an enhanced absorption as the radiative transition of P3HT was identical beside the nanowires. • The use of a processing additive in the casting solution for the active layer of organic solar cells of PTB7:PC₇₁BM strongly influences the morphology, which leads not only to an optimum of charge separation but also to optimal charge collection.

Phases organiques luminescentes qui sont incorporés dans une matrice inorganique conductrice est proposé dans cette étude pour la couche active d'une diode émettant de la lumière hybride. Dans ce composite, le colorant organique joue le rôle de site de recombinaison radiative de porteurs de charge qui sont injectées dans la matrice de transport ambipolaire inorganique. Comme l'un des combinaisons de matériaux de candidat, bicouche et des films minces composites de ZnSe et un complexe d'iridium rouge (Ir(BPA)) émetteur de lumière organique ont été préparé in situ par UHV technique d'évaporation thermique. Les alignements de bande d'énergie mesurée par spectroscopie de photoélectrons (PES) pour le ZnSe/Ir(BPA)et deux couches de ZnSe+Ir(BPA) révèlent que le composite HOMO et LUMO du colorant organique sont positionnées dans la largeur de bande interdite de ZnSe. Cette gamme offre les forces motrices énergiques nécessaires pour les transferts d'électrons et de trous de ZnSe à Ir(BPA). Par l'interprétation des données du PES,la composition chimique des interfaces ont également été déterminés. Le ZnSe/Ir(BPA) interface est réactive, même si elle est d'une pureté de matériaux de haute.Pendant ce temps, l'Ir (BPA)/ZnSe interface ne présente pas la pureté matériel. Ceci est représenté à la nature de ZnSe évaporation comme Zn particuliers et des fluxSE2, associée à des interactions chimiques avec le Ir(BPA) substrat. L'interface est,de ce fait, composé d'une multitude de phases, les phases de Se0, ZnSe rares, réduit Se et oxydé molécules de colorant, et de Zn qui sont intercalées atomes dans leIr(BPA) substrat. PES des composites ZnSe+Ir(BPA) révèle des tendances similaires à l'Ir(BPA)/ZnSe interface. A des émissions de lumière rouge surfaciques et intermittents fanées ont été observés à partir de dispositifs qui incorporent couches alternées séquences de ZnSe et Ir(BPA) pour la couche active. / Luminescent organic phases that are embedded in a conductive inorganicmatrix is proposed in this study for the active layer of a hybrid light-emitting diode. Inthis composite, the organic dye acts as the radiative recombination site for chargecarriers that are injected into the inorganic ambipolar transporting matrix. As one ofthe candidate material combinations, bilayer and composite thin films of ZnSe and ared iridium complex (Ir(BPA)) organic light emitter were prepared in situ via UHVthermal evaporation technique. The energy band alignments measured byphotoelectron spectroscopy (PES) for the ZnSe/Ir(BPA) bilayer and ZnSe+Ir(BPA)composite reveal that the HOMO and LUMO of the organic dye are positioned in theZnSe bandgap. This lineup provides the required energetic driving forces for electronand hole transfers from ZnSe to Ir(BPA). By interpreting PES data, the chemicalcomposition of the interfaces were also determined. The ZnSe/Ir(BPA) interface isreactive even though it is of high material purity. Meanwhile, the Ir(BPA)/ZnSeinterface does not exhibit material purity. This is accounted to the nature of ZnSeevaporation as individual Zn and Se2 fluxes, coupled with chemical interactions withthe Ir(BPA) substrate. The interface is, thereby, composed of an abundance of Se0phases, sparse ZnSe phases, reduced Se and oxidized dye molecules, and Znatoms that are intercalated into the Ir(BPA) substrate. PES of the ZnSe+Ir(BPA)composites reveals similar trends to the Ir(BPA)/ZnSe interface. A faded areal andintermittent red light emissions were observed from devices that incorporatedalternating layer sequences of ZnSe and Ir(BPA) for the active layer.

Siliziumnanodrähte (SiNWs) bieten eine aussichtsreiche Grundlage zur Entwicklung neuartiger nanoelektronischer Bauelemente, wie Feldeffekttransistoren oder Sensoren. Dabei ist insbesondere die Oxidation der Drähte interessant, weil diese weitreichenden Einfluss auf die elektronischen Eigenschaften der Bauelemente hat, die aus den SiNWs gefertigt werden. Die Größe der untersuchten Strukturen erfordert eine atomistische Analyse des Oxidationsprozesses. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird der bisher wenig verstandene Beginn der Oxidation dünner Drähte molekulardynamisch simuliert, wobei als Potential ein reaktives Kraftfeld dient. Dabei wird sich intensiv mit dem Transfer elektrischer Ladungen zwischen Atomen unterschiedlicher Elektronegativitäten während der Simulationen auseinandergesetzt. Desweiteren werden Strukturen, die während der Oxidation von SiNWs der Orientierungen <100> und <110> bei Temperaturen von 300 K und 1200 K entstehen, untersucht. Ein Fokuspunkt dieser Untersuchungen ist die Analyse der Anzahl am Draht adsorbierter Sauerstoffatome während der frühen Oxidationsphase. Darüber hinaus wird die Dichte der entstehenden Strukturen beleuchtet. Dies geschieht mit einer hohen radialen Auflösung und erstmalig während der gesamten Simulation. Hierbei zeigt sich, dass während des Übergangs von kristallinem Silizium zu amorphem Siliziumdioxid zwischen den Siliziumatomen Sauerstoff eingelagert wird, die Kristallstruktur des Siliziums sich zunächst jedoch noch nicht auflöst. Dadurch entsteht ein charakteristisches Muster hoher und niedriger Dichten, das von der ursprünglichen Kristallstruktur des SiNW abhängt.

This thesis contains investigations in two different areas, described under six chapters. Chapter 1 contains a broad introduction to the area of foldamers, while Chapters 2, 3, 4, and 5 deal with various novel classes of synthetic polymers which can form folded structures in solution utilizing different non-covalent interactions. Chapter 6 deals with a distinctly different topic, where the objective was to study the effect of phenyl ring location on the micellization properties of a series of isomeric cationic surfactants. Synthetic polymers typically adopt a random coil conformation in solution, which is primarily an entropy driven process. So the generation of well-defined secondary structures in synthetic polymers requires specific intra-chain inter-segment interactions that will give adequate enthalpic contribution to overcome the entropic penalty associated with the formation of well-ordered conformations. During the past decade, various research groups have made significant effort to understand the essential design elements that could enable secondary structure formation in synthetic macromolecules through intra-chain inter-segment interactions, such as hydrogen bonding, solvophobic and solvophilic interaction, acid-base interaction, bond angle constraint, steric interaction, charge-transfer interaction, metal-ion complexation etc.1 Gellman2 first used the term “foldamer” to describe “any polymer with a strong tendency to adopt a specific compact conformation” which was more precisely defined by Moore and coworkers3 as “any oligomer that folds into a conformationally ordered state in solution, the structures of which are stabilized by a collection of non-covalent interactions between nonadjacent monomer units” and where the folded conformation is one of the various possible conformations. Several classes of foldamers have been studied during the past decade; a majority of them are well-defined oligomers that possess relatively restricted conformational degrees of freedom. Relatively fewer studies have explored conformational control in flexible high molecular weight polymers that possess greater conformational freedom.4 A few years ago, Ghosh et al. designed a polymeric system wherein charge-transfer interactions between alternatively placed electron-rich and electron-deficient aromatic units, aided by metal-ion complexation and solvophobic interactions, causes the polymer chain to adopt a specific folded conformation.5 Such charge-transfer induced folding was first studied by Iverson and co-workers6 in well-defined oligomers and was later elaborated by Zhao et al.7 to generate alternate designs to fold oligomeric systems. In all these studies, the C-T interactions served not only to assist the folding process but it also served as a valuable spectroscopic signature to study the folding process. The objectives of the present study are to develop simple synthetic strategies to generate different types of polymers that could be fold in solution using various noncovalent interactions. We have developed a simple synthetic strategy to design a new type of donor (1,5-dialkoxynaphthalene-DAN) containing polymer that carries a tertiary amine unit in the spacer segment, which could interact strongly with a suitably designed acceptor (pyromellitic diimide-PDI) bearing folding agent that carries a carboxylic acid group, as shown in Scheme 1.8 This acid-base interaction, brings the acceptor unit in a suitable position so as to form a C-T complex with the adjacent donors, resulting in the folding of the polymer chain. The folded conformation was studied using UV-vis and NMR spectroscopy and the folding propensities were rationalized using DFT studies. The highest association constant between the folding agent and the polymer was estimated to be around 1200 M-1. Scheme 1. Schematic representation of folding aided by two-point interactions with a folding agent. This value of association constant was not adequate to realize some potentially interesting properties in solid state. In an attempt to develop alternate systems, that could exhibit stronger propensity to fold, we designed a new type of cationic ionene,9 wherein electron-rich (DAN) and electron-deficient (PDI) aromatic units were included within the alkylene segments in an alternating fashion, as shown in Scheme 2.10 The charge-transfer (C-T) interaction between the donor and acceptor units in neighbouring segments of the ionene not only reinforced the transition to the collapsed nano-bundle form but also provides a useful spectroscopic handle to monitor the conformational change. The UV-visible spectra of these novel D-A ionene solutions at a fixed concentration in four different solvents, namely water, methanol, acetonitrile and DMSO, show different extents of charge-transfer interaction. The colour of the solution in water was deep-red, whereas in acetonitrile, it was light-yellow. The conformational transition could also be induced by titrating an acetonitrile solution of the ionene with increasing amounts of water causing a dramatic increase in the intensity of the charge-transfer band, which reflects the extent of collapse to the zig-zag state that brings the donor and acceptor units together. AFM studies confirmed the presence of flat pancake-like aggregates having nearly constant height of about 3-5 nm, which was in accordance with the estimated thickness of the postulated zig-zag structure. Scheme 2. Schematic depiction of folding of D-A ionene (left), AFM micrograph showing pancake-like aggregates of D-A ionenes (right-top), a line scan depicting the heights and diameters of the aggregates along with a schematic depiction of the aggregate (right-bottom). Scheme 3. Schematic representation of folding aided by interactions with a folding agent. In order to explore this concept further, we designed a two component system wherein the solvophobically-driven collapse of a DAN-containing ionene chain in a polar solvent is reinforced by intercalation with a suitably designed electron-deficient acceptor-containing external folding agent. DAN containing ionene polymer chains in polar solvent form an accordion-type zig-zag structure that brings adjacent donor units in close proximity; this provided an ideal hydrophobic pocket for intercalation of suitably designed electron-deficient acceptor molecules, the additional driving motivation for the intercalation being the formation of a C-T complex as shown in Scheme 3.11 Several acceptor-bearing molecules were prepared by the derivatization of pyromellitic dianhydride and naphthalene tetracarboxylic dianhydride with two different oligoethylene glycol monomethyl ether monoamines. UV-vis spectroscopic studies were carried out by using a 1:1 mixture of the DAN-ionenes and different acceptor molecules in water/DMSO solvent mixtures. The intensity of the charge-transfer (C-T) band was seen to increase with the water content in the solvent mixture, thereby suggesting that the intercalation is indeed aided by solvophobic effects. The naphthalene diimide (NDI) bearing acceptor molecules consistently formed significantly stronger C-T complexes when compared to the pyromellitic diimide (PDI) bearing acceptor molecules, which is a reflection of the stronger π-stacking tendency of the former. The highest association constant between the folding agent and the polymer was estimated to be around 4519 M-1, which was a substantial improvement over the earlier reported values.9 With a slight modification in the pendant group, we designed a water-soluble DAN-containing ionene, which can intercalate hydrophobic electron-deficient molecules, like TNT (2,4,6-trinitrotoluene), within the hydrophobic interstices between DAN units (as shown in Scheme 4), causing a depletion in fluorescence from the DAN units; TNT at concentration as low as 30 nM could be detected in this manner. Scheme 4. Schematic representation of folding of water soluble ionene and interactions with an electron-deficient hydrophobic moiety TNT. Scheme 5. Schematic representation of folded D-A allyl ionene. In light of the growing interest in single-chain polymeric nanoparticles, the fully collapsed D-A ionenes in water could be viewed as polymeric nanoparticles that are stitched together by reversible weak noncovalent interactions. In an attempt to transform the folded structure into a polymeric nanoparticle using covalent bonding, we designed D-A ionene that carries potentially polymerizable allyl units on the cationic head group instead of the dimethyl amine head group that was used in previous examples (as shown in Scheme 5). Preliminary studies showed that polymerization does not proceed readily; however, thiol-ene based clicking strategy enabled partial stitching of the folded segments, by the use of a suitably designed dithiol. In the last section of this thesis, we examined the effect of phenyl ring location on the micellization properties of a series of isomeric cationic surfactants, wherein the phenyl ring location was varied from head to tail region (as shown in Scheme 6).12 Thus, cationic surfactants (S1-S5) bearing a long alkyl chain that carries a 1,4phenylene unit and a trimethyl ammonium headgroup was synthesized and their solution properties were examined. Micellization behavior was studied using conductivity, ITC (Isothermal Titration Calorimetry), SANS (Small-Angle Neutron Scattering) and NMR. These present studies demonstrated that the presence of a large rigid ring near the hydrocarbon tail-end of the surfactant leads to a dramatic change in the micelle structure; the driving motivation to form micelles in such systems is greatly reduced and the micelles that are formed are relatively smaller and contain significantly fewer surfactants. NMR studies of micellar solutions of these surfactants indicate that the variation in the phenyl ring location may also help to probe the microenvironment at various depths within the micellar aggregates. Scheme 6. Structures of the various surfactant molecules carrying the 1,4-dioxyphenylene unit at different locations within hydrophobic segment (left), variation of CMC values (right). References (1) Foldamers - structure, properties, and applications, edited by Stefan Hecht and Ivan Huc, Wiley-VCH, 2007. (2) Gellman, S. H. Acc. Chem. Res. 1998, 31, 173. (3) Hill, D. J.; Mio, M. J.; Prince, R. B.; Huges, T. S.; Moore, J. S. Chem. Rev. 2001, 101, 3893. (4) (a) Wang, W.; Li, L. S.; Helms, G.; Zhou, H. H.; Li, A. D. Q. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2003, 125, 1120. (b) Li, A. D. Q.; Wang, W.; Wang, L. Q. Chem. Eur. J. 2003, 9, 4594. (c) Neuteboom, E. E.; Meskers, S. C. J.; Meijer, E. W.; Janssen, R. A. J. Macromol. Chem. Phys. 2004, 205, 217. (d) Balbo Block, M. A.; Hecht, S. Macromolecules 2004, 37, 4761. (5) (a) Ghosh, S.; Ramakrishnan, S. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2004, 43, 3264. (b) Ghosh, S.; Ramakrishnan, S. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2005, 44, 5441. (6) Lokey, R. S.; Iverson, B. L. Nature 1995, 375, 303. (7) Zhao, X.; Jia, M. X. Jiang, X. K.; Wu, L. Z.; Li, Z. T.; Chen. G. J. J. Org. Chem. 2004, 69, 270. (8) De, S.; Koley, D.; Ramakrishnan, S. Macromolecules 2010, 43, 3183. (9) Williams, S. R.; Long, T. E. Prog. Polym. Sci. 2009, 34, 762. (10) De, S.; Ramakrishnan, S. Macromolecules 2009, 42, 8599. (11) De, S.; Ramakrishnan, S. Chem. Asian J. 2011, 6, 149. (12) De, S.; Aswal, V. K.; Ramakrishnan, S. Langmuir 2010, 26, 17882. (For structural formula pl see the abstract file.