α-Hydroxy alkanones were synthesised with high enantiomeric purity by stereoselective enzyme-catalysed diketone reduction. Both diketone reduction and cofactor regeneration were accomplished with purified carbonyl reductase from Candida parapsilosis (CPCR2). The reaction products were isolated by column chromatography and analysed by chiral GC measurements, 1H-NMR spectroscopy and determination of optical rotations. Preparative-scale biotransformations yielded 350–600 mg of pure aliphatic α-hydroxy ketones including the difficult to obtain (S)-2-hydroxypentane-3-one. For all the products good enantiomeric excesses in the range of 89–93% were achieved.

This work was dedicated to quantify and distinguish the radio- and chemitoxic effects of environmentally relevant low doses of uranium on the metabolism of microorganisms and multicellular organisms by a modern and highly sensitive microcalorimetry. In such low-dose regime, lethality is low or absent. Therefore, quantitative assays based on survival curves cannot be employed, particularly for multicellular organisms. Even in the case of microbial growth, where individual cells may be killed by particle radiation, classical toxicity assessments based on colony counting are not only extremely time-consuming but also highly error-prone. Therefore, measuring the metabolic activity of the organism under such kinds of conditions would give an extremely valuable quantitative measure of viability that is based on life cell monitoring, rather than determining lethality at higher doses and extrapolating it to the low dose regime. The basic concept is simple as it relies on the metabolic heat produced by an organism during development, growth or replication as an inevitable byproduct of all biochemical processes. A metabolic effect in this concept is defined as a change in heat production over time in the presence of a stressor, such as a heavy metal. This approach appeared to be particular versatile for the low dose regime. Thus, the thesis attempted in this case to measure the enthalpy production of a bacterial population as a whole to derive novel toxicity concepts. In the following chapters, an introduction about the properties of ionizing radiation will be briefly presented, in addition to a review about the isothermal calorimetry and its application in studying the bacterial growth. Later in chapter 2, the effect of uranium on the metabolic activity of three different bacterial strains isolated form a uranium mining waste pile together with a reference strain that is genetically related to them will be investigated. Due to the lack of published dedicated calibration techniques for the interpretation of heat production of bacterial cells under the conditions of calorimetric recordings, additional experiments, thorough investigations of the effects of experimental conditions, have been carried out in order to guide the interpretation of calorimetric results. In chapter 3, the differentiation between chemi- and radiotoxicity of uranium has been addressed by isotope exchange, which was a key effort in this thesis as it opens new experimental approaches in radioecology. In chapter 4, through investigating the role of the tripeptide glutathione (GSH) in detoxifying uranium, it will be shown to which degree the intrinsically unspecific signal provided by metabolic heat can be related to highly specific metabolic pathways of an organism, when combined with genetic engineering. The demonstration of gaining molecule-specific information by life metabolic monitoring was another experimental challenge of this thesis and provides proof of principle that can be extended to many organisms. Finally in chapter 5, an attempt has been undertaken to establish a minimal food chain, in order to study the effects of the exposure of a multicellular organism to uranium through its diet.

With the development of modern industrial engineering technology, increasing demands of multifunctional materials drive the exploration of new applications of electrical conductive polymer nanocomposites (CPNCs). Toward applications of smart materials, sensing performance of CPNCs has gained immense attention in the last decade. Among them, strain sensors, based on piezoresistive behavior of CPNCs, are of high potential to carry out structural health monitoring (SHM) tasks. Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) is highly thought to be potential for SHM applications in civil infrastructures like bridges and railway systems, mechanical systems, automobiles, windgenetors and airplanes, etc. because of its combination of flexibility, low weight, low thermal conductivity, high chemical corrosion resistance, and heat resistance, etc. This work aimed to achieve high piezoresistive sensitivity and wide measurable strain ranges in carbon nanotube based poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) nanocomposites. Four strategies were introduced to tune the sensitivity of the relative electrical resistance change (ΔR/R0) versus the applied tensile strain for such nanocomposites. Issues like the influence of dispersion of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on initial resistivity of PVDF nanocomposites and conductive network structure of MWCNTs, as well as piezoresistive properties of the nanocomposites, were addressed when using differently functionalized MWCNTs (strategy 1). In addition, the effects of crystalline phases of PVDF, mechanical ductility of its nanocomposites and interfacial interactions between PVDF and fillers on piezoresistive properties of PVDF nanocomposites were studied. Using hybrid fillers, to combine MWCNTs with conductive carbon black (strategy 2) or isolating organoclay (strategy 3), piezoresistive sensitivity and sensing strain ranges of PVDF nanocomposites could be tuned. Besides, both higher sensitivity and larger measurable strain ranges are achieved simultaneously in PVDF/MWCNT nanocomposites when using the ionic liquid (IL) BMIM+PF6- as interface linker/modifier (strategy 4). The detailed results and highlights are summarized as following: 1. The surface functionalization of MWCNTs influences their dispersion in the PVDF matrix, the PVDF-nanotube interactions and crystalline phases of PVDF, which finally results in different ΔR/R0 and the strain at the yield point (possibly the upper limit of sensing strain ranges). As a whole, regarding to the fabrication of strain sensors based on PVDF/MWCNT nanocomposite, in contrast to pristine CNTs, CNTs-COOH and CNTs-OH, CNT-NH2 filled PVDF nanocomposites possess not only high piezoresistive sensitivity but also wide measurable strain ranges. Gauge factor, i.e. GF, is ca.14 at 10% strain (strain at the yield point) for the nanocomposites containing 0.75% CNTs-NH2. 2. Using hybrid fillers of CNTs and CB to construct strain-susceptible network structure (conductive pathway consisting of string-like array of CNTs and CB particles) enhances the piezoresistive sensitivity of PVDF nanocomposites, which is tightly associated with the CNT content in hybrid fillers and mCNTs/mCB. The best piezoresistive effect is achieved in PVDF nanocomposites with fixed CNT content lower than the ΦC (0.53 wt. %) of PVDF/CNT nanocomposites. 3. ΔR/R0 and possible sensing strain ranges of PVDF nanocomposites were tailored by changing crystalline phases of PVDF and PVDF-MWCNT interactions. Besides, the increase of the strain at yield point in PVDF nanocomposites filled by CNTs-OH is more obvious than that in the nanocomposites containing the same amount of clay and CNTs. The nanocomposite consisting of 0.25% clay and 0.75% CNTs-OH have ca. 70% increase of the strain at the yield point (17%) and the GF at this strain is ca. 14, while GF for the nanocomposite filled by only 0.75% CNTs-OH is ca. 5 at 10% strain. 4. IL BMIM+PF6- served as interface linker for PVDF and MWCNTs, which significantly increased the values of ΔR/R0 and strain at the yield point of PVDF nanocomposites simultaneously. Besides, this increases with increasing IL content. With the aid of IL, the dispersion of nanotube and toughness of the nanocomposites are greatly improved, but the electrical conductivity of the nanocomposites is decreased with the incorporation of IL, which is related to the IL modified PVDF-MWCNT interface connection or bonding. GF reaches ca. 60 at 21% strain (the strain at the yield point) for PVDF nanocomposites filled by 10% IL premixed 2%CNTs-COOH.

Over the last three decades, the performance of OLEDs has been improved rapidly, however, as an important assessment for OLED, the EQE data are still quite low. As outlined in the theoretical background, the EQE is the product of out-coupling efficiency and internal quantum efficiency (IQE). Therefore, this thesis focuses on designing two types of polymers with different optical functionalities, to increase the EQE addressing the two aforementioned determining factors. Thus, the first part of the thesis addresses the light out-coupling efficiency in OLED devices. Here high refractive index (HRI) polymers are aimed for as potential material for the out-coupling layer, which are so far scarily reported for application in OLED devices, due to existing limitations, such as limited transparency, extra fluorescence, tedious synthesis, poor thermal stability and low solubility. However, if suitable polymers are becoming easily available, they will offer the unique advantage, compared to low molar mass HRI compounds, of being able to using cost-effective solution based technology for large area film preparation. In addition, polymeric materials will allow to introducing fully new concepts for increasing the light-out-coupling efficiency, like patterning allowing micro-lens preparation, or the incorporation of light scattering particles into the out-coupling layer. The approach described in this thesis is based on a previous work where HRI polymers were prepared via metal-free thiol-yne “A2+B3” polyaddition reaction, which led in an easy one-pot synthesis to hyperbranched polyvinylsulfides of high solubility and already reasonable high RI. For further increasing RI, in this work B3 as well as finally A2 monomers with high naphthalene content were chosen which should, in addition to the positive effect of the sulfur-containing units, render polymers with even higher RI, and hopefully also of high solubility due to the branching. A challenging aspect of this work was to find reaction conditions which allow the preparation of high molar mass as well as highly soluble, highly aromatic polymers by that A2+B3 approach, even so very sterically demanding monomers are used. In addition, the material properties should be fine-tuned by careful selection of the monomer ratio. It was expected that these new, easily available HRI polymers will be of high potential in OLED application. Thus, the work in this part of the thesis comprises on the one hand monomer and polymer synthesis as well as detailed characterization of the structure and the solution and thermal properties of the new materials. But on the other hand, the elucidation of the thin film preparation and the quality and optical properties of the resulting polymer films are major objectives. Finally, evaluation of the performance of the polymer films in an OLED device compared to conventionally low molar mass our-coupling layers was aimed for, which could be realized with the help of partners from the Institute of Applied Photophysics at TU Dresden. For increasing the IQE in OLEDs, this thesis focuses on the development of a new type of polymeric thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) material. TADF materials have the potential of theoretical 100% IQE and are considered as key materials for the next generation of OLEDs. So far, a significant amount of low molar mass TADF molecules has been developed, however, only a limited number of design rules are reported so far for polymers, even though polymers would offer, as already outlined above, significant advantages with regard to processing cost-effectively more efficient OLEDs for large area application. The new concept described in this thesis for TADF polymers is based on a new monomer which exhibits individual promising structural units for achieving TAFD properties but does not emit TADF itself due to its large ΔEST (the energy gap between singlet S1 and triple T1 state). However, it has to be expected that once the monomer is polymerized, the resulting polymeric product will have reduced ΔEST due to the increased conjugation length and thus can be expected to emit TADF. This new concept has the potential to significantly increase the scope of polymeric materials with TADF properties. Thus the second part on the thesis focuses on the design of a new monomer based on carbazole units with a pendant benzophenone moiety and its polymerization and full structural elucidation with the help of model compounds involving intensive NMR and MALDI-TOF analysis. In addition to the expect TADF properties, the benzophenone unit will also provide the possibility for film stabilization and even photopatterning due to photo-crosslinking. Thus the study of film formation and photo-crosslinking of the new TADF polymers was a further objective of this thesis. Finally, first theoretical as well as experimental studies of the photo physical properties of the monomer, a low molar mass model compound and the polymer, again together with the partners from the Institute of Applied Photophysics, should provide evidence on the suitability of the new polymer design principle.

The main goal of the present work was the synthesis of alkaline-earth nitridomanganates (AExMnyNz) with extended anionic structures and the characterization of their electronic and magnetic properties. Up to now, only compounds with isolated nitridomanganate anions have been reported in the discussed ternary systems. A systematic exploratory synthesis, employing high-temperature treatment of AE nitrides and Mn under controlled N2 pressure, yielded more than ten new nitridomanganates. Their crystal structures contain anionic building blocks of different dimensionalities, ranging from isolated species to three-dimensional frameworks. In general, the formation of Mn-rich compositions was found to be driven by the emergence of Mn-Mn interactions, which creates a link between nitridometalates and transition-metal-rich binary nitrides. The obtained nitridomanganates display a plethora of interesting phenomena, such as large spin-orbit coupling, magnetic frustration, quenching of magnetism due to Mn-Mn interactions, and metal-insulator transition.

Kohlenstoffnanoröhren als eigenständige Modifikation des Kohlenstoffs sind zylindrische, aus mehreren Lagen Kohlenstoff aufgebaute Röhren, die über einen Hohlraum im Inneren verfügen. Bereits kurze Zeit nach ihrer Entdeckung, kam die Idee auf, Substanzen in diesen Hohlraum zu füllen. Durch den Einbau von Katalysatormaterial während der Synthese, ist bereits eine Vielzahl von Elementen als Füllmaterial zugänglich. Um jedoch nicht auf Elemente limitiert zu sein, die als Katalysator für die CNT-Synthese dienen, ist es möglich eine postsynthetische Füllung durchzuführen. Hier werden ungefüllte CNT geöffnet und anschließend, unter Ausnutzung der Kapillarkräfte, gefüllt. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurden zunächst verschiedene Methoden zur Füllung untersucht. Neben lösemittelbasierten Methoden wurde mit Salzschmelzen, durch Gasphasentransport und durch Füllung mit einer kovalenten Präkursorverbindung gefüllt. Da metallische Partikel das Ziel waren, folgte im Anschluss an die Füllung mit Salzen, Salzlösungen, oder anderen Präkursoren jeweils eine Reduktion mit Wasserstoffgas bei erhöhten Temperaturen. Die Ergebnisse der Füllung wurden umfassend mittels Elektronenmikroskopie untersucht. Füllungsgrade wurden mittels Thermogravimetrie bestimmt. So konnten für zahlreiche Elemente eine geeignete Methode zur Füllung mit metallischen Partikeln entwickelt werden. Im Falle der Füllung mit Zinn konnte zudem gezeigt werden, dass ein Zusammenhang zwischen der Dauer der Füllreaktion und dem Anteil an drahtartigen Nanostrukturen in den CNT, sowie ein Zusammenhang zwischen der eingesetzten Lösungskonzentration und dem Füllungsgrad besteht. Im weiteren Verlauf der Arbeit wurde die Synthese von intermetallischen Partikeln in CNT untersucht. Hierbei dienten die Systeme Nickel-Zinn und Cobalt-Zinn, die als vielversprechende Materialien im Einsatz als Anodenmaterial in Lithium-Ionen-Akkumulatoren diskutiert werden, als Modellsysteme. Zunächst wurde gezeigt, dass es nicht möglich ist, aus einem Gemisch des Zinnsalzes und des jeweiligen anderen Salzes erfolgreich intermetallische Partikel herzustellen. Mittels Pulverröntgendiffraktometrie (XRD) und energiedispersiver Röntgenspektroskopie (EDX) konnte gezeigt werden, dass lediglich Zinnpartikel in den CNT vorhanden waren. Schließlich konnte mit dem Verfahren der sequentiellen Füllung eine erfolgreiche Synthese intermetallischer Nanostrukturen bewerkstelligt werden. Hierbei wird die CNT zuerst mit einer Lösung von Zinnchlorid gefüllt und schließlich reduziert. Anschließend erfolgt eine weitere Füllung mit einem Nickel- bzw. Cobaltsalz und einer nachfolgenden Reduktion. Während dieser zweiten Reduktion erfolgt die Bildung der intermetallischen Nanostrukturen in den CNT. Mittels XRD konnte gezeigt werden, dass tatsächlich intermetallische Strukturen in der Probe enthalten sind und dass man zudem durch das Verhältnis der beiden eingesetzten Elemente (Zinn zu Nickel bzw. Cobalt) Einfluss auf die vorherrschende intermetallische Verbindung nehmen kann. Durch EDX-Linienscans und Elementkarten, die am Transmissionselektronenmikroskop angefertigt wurden, konnte nachgewiesen werden, dass einzelne, in den CNT befindliche Partikel, tatsächlich aus den beiden Elementen Zinn und Nickel bzw. Cobalt bestehen und somit intermetallisch sind. Ein erster Test des erhaltenen Materials aus CNT und intermetallischen Nickel-ZinnVerbindungen als Anodenmaterial konnte bereits durchgeführt werden. Die gemessene Kapazität lag bereits im Bereich von Graphit, welches üblicherweise als Anodenmaterial verwendet wird, könnte jedoch durch Erhöhung des Anteils der intermetallischen Verbindung noch weiter gesteigert werden.

Endohedral fullerenes are closed carbon shells encapsulating molecular or ionic species in their inner space. Obtained for the first time in 1985, endohedral metallofullerenes (EMFs) remain in focus of research for many years with a broad variety of metal atoms, endohedral cluster and cage sizes being reported. Electrochemical studies of endohedral metallofullerenes are of particular interest because of the more complex redox behavior in comparison to empty fullerenes. The EMF molecules can be considered as a combinations of positively charged cluster and negatively charged carbon shell “ligand”, and both constituents can be redox active. A cage-based electrochemical activity is more common, in particular, the most abundant nitride clusterfullerenes generally have redox-active cages. Cluster-based electrochemical activity is less common and can be revealed via unexpected redox behavior (e.g., shifted potential when compared to analogous molecules, potential metal dependence) and with the use of spectroscopic methods. Here we report electrochemical and EPR studies of three EMF families: (i) M2@C82-C3v and M2@C82-Cs dimetallofullerenes with a covalent bonding between two metal atoms, (ii) M2@C80(CH2Ph) dimetallofullerene derivatives with single-occupied metal-bonding orbital, and (iii) M2TiC@C80 EMFs with endohedral Ti(IV) (M is either Sc or Y or a lanthanide). For the first two families, the metal-metal bonding orbital has been found to be redox active: in M2@C82, the double-occupied M-M bonding orbital is involved in the first oxidation process, while in M2@C80(CH2Ph) the unoccupied component of single-occupied metal-bonding orbital acts as the LUMO, accepting one electron during the first reduction step. Thus, single electron transfer reactions in both cases lead to the changes in the magnetic properties of EMFs, which is especially well revealed by EPR spectroscopy. For the series of M2TiC@C80 EMFs, the first reduction predominantly occurs on internal Ti atom and can be described as TiIV/TiIII redox process. Due to the variation of the size of the Ti ion in different oxidation states, reduction changes the inner strain of the cluster, leading to a large variability of the TiIV/TiIII reduction potential in dependence on the size of the formally inert lanthanide metal in M2TiC@C80.

Essentially, the term aerogel describes a special geometric structure of matter. It is neither limited to any material nor to any synthesis procedure. Hence, the possible variety of materials and therefore the multitude of their applications are almost unbounded. Here we present a comprehensive picture of the most promising developments in the field during the last decades.

Organic solar cell (OSC) has been an active research field over the past decades, due to their intrinsic advantages, such as low consumption of materials and energy, the applicability on flexible substrates and the degradability of the organic components. Compared with the solution processing technology using polymers as electron donor materials, small molecule vacuum deposition is regarded as a promising fabrication method, avoiding the use of toxic aromatic solvents and guaranteeing constant batch-to-batch performance. Moreover, it is much easier to realize multi-junction tandem solar cells (TSCs) by thermal deposition, and the leading power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 13.2% was achieved using three different absorbers by vacuum deposition (“Heliatek sets new organic photovoltaic world record efficiency of 13.2%” 2016). In this dissertation, novel electron donor materials are synthesized based on the molecular skeleton of a famous chromophore, boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY), and chemical modifications are carried out to tune the intense absorption bands of these dyes to near infrared (NIR, λ>750,nm) region. Efficient small molecule NIR absorbers are highly required for TSCs, because they can construct a complementary absorption over the visible and NIR spectral region in cooperation with a wide bandgap material. Three β-fused aza-BODIPY molecules with heterocyclic substituents on α-positions are prepared using organolithium reagents and phthalonitrile as the starting materials. The organolithium reagents, namely N-methylpyrrole, N-methylindole and 2-trimethylsilylthiophene, are used instead of commonly used Grignard reagents. Moreover, three corresponding aza-BODIPY derivatives are obtained by replacing one fluorine atom in the BF_{2} moiety by a cyano group. UV-vis absorption spectra reveal that all these materials are strong NIR absorbers, and their abortion in solid state cover a wide range from 600 to 1000,nm. OSCs with these aza-BODIPY donors give a best PCE of 3.0%, which is a reasonable value for the NIR devices with the maximum and the onset of the EQE spectrum around 850 and 950,nm respectively. A series of furan-fused BODIPYs with a electron withdrawing CF_{3} group on the meso-C are synthesized, and the photophysical/electrochemical properties can be tuned easily by the electronic properties of the substituents on the peripheral aromatic rings. The most promising candidate gives a high PCE of 6.1% in a single junction OSC with a J_{sc} of 13.3,mA/cm^{2}, a V_{oc} of 0.73,V, and a FF of 62.7%. A serial connected TSC is fabricated using this BODIPY as the low bandgap donor and a “green” donor, and its EQE spectrum covers a wide range from 400 to 900,nm. The PCE reaches 9.9% with a J_{sc} of 9.9,mA/cm^{2}, a V_{oc} of 1.70,V, and a FF of 59.0%. Based on the general structure of furan-fused BODIPY, alkyl or fluorinated alkyl substituents with larger volume is introduced on either peripheral aromatic rings or the meso-C. The variations that caused by these substituents on the photophysical and electrochemical properties are negligible. The investigations on the OSCs demonstrate that the introduction of these alkyl chain substituents have positive influence on the PCE values, which benefit mainly from the increased photocurrent. However, there is no positive relationship between the device performance and the volume of the alkyl chain substituents. BODIPY molecules have been demonstrated as efficient and promising NIR electron donor materials for vacuum-deposited OSCs. Taking advantages of facile molecular modification, oustanding photophysical behaviors and tunable electrochemical properties, this series of dyes are also intereting for other semiconductor devices.

Developing electrocatalysts with low cost, high activity, and good durability is urgently demanded for the wide commercialization of fuel cells. By taking advantage of nanostructure engineering, we fabricated PtAg nanotubular aerogels (NTAGs) with high electrocatalytic activity and good durability via a simple galvanic replacement reaction between the in situ spontaneous gelated Ag hydrogel and the Pt precursor. The PtAg NTAGs have hierarchical porous network features with primary networks and pores from the interconnected nanotubes of the aerogel and secondary networks and pores from the inter-connected thin nanowires on the nanotube surface, and show very high porosities and large specific surface areas. Due to the unique structure, the PtAg NTAGs exhibit greatly enhanced electrocatalytic activity towards formic acid oxidation, reaching 19 times higher metal based mass current density as compared to the commercial Pt black. Furthermore, the PtAg NTAGs show outstanding structural stability and electrochemical durability during the electrocatalysis. Noble metal based NTAGs are promising candidates for applications in electrocatalysis not only for fuel cells, but also for other energy related systems.