abstract: Fluorescence spectroscopy is a popular technique that has been particularly useful in probing biological systems, especially with the invention of single molecule fluorescence. For example, Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) is one tool that has been helpful in probing distances and conformational changes in biomolecules. In this work, important properties necessary in the quantification of FRET were investigated while FRET was also applied to gain insight into the dynamics of biological molecules. In particular, dynamics of damaged DNA was investigated. While damages in DNA are known to affect DNA structure, what remains unclear is how the presence of a lesion, or multiple lesions, affects the flexibility of DNA, especially in relation to damage recognition by repair enzymes. DNA conformational dynamics was probed by combining FRET and fluorescence anisotropy along with biochemical assays. The focus of this work was to investigate the relationship between dynamics and enzymatic repair. In addition, to properly quantify fluorescence and FRET data, photophysical phenomena of fluorophores, such as blinking, needs to be understood. The triplet formation of the single molecule dye TAMRA and the photoisomerization yield of two different modifications of the single molecule cyanine dye Cy3 were examined spectroscopically to aid in accurate data interpretation. The combination of the biophysical and physiochemical studies illustrates how fluorescence spectroscopy can be used to answer biological questions. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Chemistry 2015

O trabalho apresenta a síntese e a caracterização de novos compostos heterocíclicos benzazólicos dos tipos 2-(4’-aminofenil)-6-nitrobenzazóis fluorescentes por apresentar provável transferência de carga intramolecular no estado excitado (ICT) e iminas aromáticas basedas nos compostos 2-(4’-amino-2’- hidroxifenil)-6-nitrobenzazóis fluorescentes devido a mecanismo de transferência protônica intramolecular no estado excitado (ESIPT). Estes compostos foram caracterizados por espectroscopia de absorção na região do Infravermelho, ressonância magnética nuclear de hidrogênio (1H-RMN). Foram realizados estudos fotofísicos através das espectroscopia de absorção na região do ultravioleta-visível e de emissão de fluorescência, determinando assim, os prováveis estados eletrônicos excitados em solventes polares e apolares. / This work presents the synthesis and characterization of new fluorescent heterocyclic derivatives based on 2-(4'-aminophenyl)-6-nitrobenzazoles, as well as aromatic imines based on 2-(4'-amino-2'-hydroxyphenyl)-6-nitrobenzazoles. These molecules are photoactive due to an intramolecular proton transfer in the excited state (ESIPT) or a intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) mechanism. These compounds were characterized by infrared spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance 1H-NMR. Photophysical studies were performed using the absorption spectroscopy in the ultraviolet-visible and fluorescence emission, thereby determining the excited electronic states in polar and nonpolar solvents.

Devido à sua intensa absorção de luz na região visível do espectro, as porfirinas e seus derivados (clorinas e bacterioclorinas) são de grande importância na terapia fotodinâmica (TFD) para o tratamento de doenças neoplásicas. Neste trabalho foram sintetizadas as novas vinil-porfirinas estrategicamente funcionalizadas (47 e 48), seguida de uma sistemática de reações de Diels-Alder com dieófilos ativados, com o propósito de obter clorinas e/ou bacterioclorinas para potenciais aplicações em TFD. / Due to their strong absorption in the visible region, porphyrins and related derivatives (chlorins and bacteriochlorins) are very important in photodynamic therapy (PDT) for the treatment of neoplasic diseases. In this work were synthesized the novel and strategically functionalizated vinyl-porphyrins 47 and 48, followed by systematic Diels-Alder reactions with activated dienophiles to obtain chlorins and/or bacteriochlorins, potentially useful on PDT.

Orientadores: Ana Flávia Nogueira, Teresa Dib Zambon Atvars / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Química / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-19T07:00:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Alves_JoaoPaulodeCarvalho_M.pdf: 2190959 bytes, checksum: a321ebe05ad04c15ea1e77782b12c743 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Resumo: Células solares orgânicas apresentam-se como uma alternativa promissora para conversão de energia solar. Muitos desses dispositivos são produzidos pela mistura de um polímero condutor e um derivado fulereno. O polímero condutor atua como absorvedor de luz, doador de elétrons e transportador de buracos, enquanto o fulereno atua como transportador e aceitador de elétrons. Esses dispositivos destacam-se pela possibilidade de deposição em substratos flexíveis, transparência, diversidade em cores e uso de materiais recicláveis, além do baixo custo. No entanto, células solares orgânicas apresentam baixa mobilidade de carga e absorção em pequena faixa espectral da energia solar quando comparadas aos dispositivos fotovoltaicos baseados em semicondutores inorgânicos. A adição de CdSe ao sistema P3HT/PCBM promoveu o decréscimo na eficiência e fotocorrente dos dispositivos. Esses resultados são diferentes dos observados para o sistema PFT/PCBM, previamente reportado. A diferença observada para os dispositivos com os polímeros P3HT e PFT foram associados com as diferentes interações polímero-nanopartícula, como evidenciado pelas medidas de absorção e emissão e pelos espectros de RMN. A elevada concentração de tiofeno no P3HT pode contribuir fortemente na formação de um complexo entre polímero e CdSe e na desativação do processo de transferência de elétrons entre polímero e PCBM. Para investigar um possível efeito de morfologia pela introdução de CdSe ao sistema P3HT/PCBM, foram obtidas imagens de microscopia de força atômica e microscopia óptica. Há um aumento da rugosidade e tamanho de grãos do sistema com o acréscimo de nanopartículas de CdSe, que pode inibir o processo de separação de cargas e de formação de redes de percolação / Abstract: Organic solar cells are presented as a promising alternative for solar energy conversion. Many of these devices are produced by mixing a conductive polymer and a fullerene derivative. The conducting polymer acts as a light absorber, electron donor and hole transporter, while the fullerene acts as acceptor and electron shuttle. These devices call attention due to the possibility to produce flexible solar cells with high transparency and different colors, allied to the use of recyclable materials and low cost. However, organic solar cells have lower charge mobility and narrower spectral range absorption of solar energy compared to inorganic-based photovoltaic devices. The addition of CdSe to the P3HT/PCBM system promoted the decrease in efficiency and photocurrent of the devices. These results are different from those observed for the PFT/PCBM system, previously reported. The difference observed for the devices with P3HT and PFT was associated with different polymer-nanoparticle interactions, as evidenced by absorption and emission measurements. The high concentration of thiophene in P3HT contributes in the formation of a complex between polymer-CdSe and the deactivation of the electron transfer process between the polymer and PCBM. To investigate the possible contribution of a morphological effect induced by CdSe in P3HT/PCBM system, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) images were obtained. There is an increase of roughness and grain size of the system with the addition of CdSe nanoparticles, which can inhibit the charge separation process and formation of percolation networks / Mestrado / Quimica Inorganica / Mestre em Química

Au cours de ce travail de doctorat, nous avons d'abord étudié un aspect fondamental de la chiralité au niveau moléculaire visant à observer des différences d'énergie entre deux énantiomères provenant d'effets de violation de la parité (PV). Nous avons en particulier examiné les complexes oxorhénium chiraux dont les deux énantiomères présentent théoriquement des énergies d'absorption infrarouge différentes. Leur propriétés chiroptiques, en particulier leur dichroïsme circulaire vibrationnel (VCD), ont été examinées. D'autres complexes métalliques chiraux comme des complexes de platine portant un carbone asymétrique fluoré ont été préparés. Par ailleurs, nous avons étudié la chiralité hélicoïdale provenant de la fusion en ortho de plusieurs cycles aromatiques. Ainsi, des hélicènes portant des fonctionnalités bi-pyridines ont été synthétisés et ont montré des propriétés photophysiques et chiroptiques intéressantes. La présence d'unité chélatantes de type N^N’ ou N-C nous a permis d'étudier l'influence de la coordination de divers métaux de transition (Re(I) et Pt(II)) sur les propriétés et de concevoir de nouveaux commutateurs chiroptiques acido-basiques. / In this PhD work, we first investigated a fundamental aspect of chirality at the molecular level aiming to determine the parity violation (PV) energy difference between two enantiomers. We focused on chiral oxorhenium complexes for which the two corresponding enantiomers show theoretically different infrared absorption energies. Their chiroptical properties and especially their vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) were examined. Other chiral metal complexes such as platinum complexes bearing an asymmetric fluorinated carbon have also been prepared. Furthermore, we have investigated the helical chirality derived from the skew shape of ortho-fused aromatic ring. Indeed, helicenes bearing 2,2’-bipyridine functionalities were synthesized and they showed interesting photophysical and chiroptical properties. The presence of N^N’ or N-C chelating moieties enabled us to study the coordination effect of different transition metals (Re(I) and Pt(II)) on their properties and to conceive new acid-base triggered chiroptical switches.

Ce mémoire décrit la synthèse de quinze photosensibilisateurs à base de cuivre pourvus de ligands organiques de type diimines et/ou diphosphines en vue de leur application en synthèse organique. Ces complexes ont été caractérisés par spectroscopie (RMN 1H, 13C et UV-Vis), spectrométrie de masse à haute résolution, fluorimétrie (d’absorption, d’émission et de déclin de phosphorescence) ainsi que par voltampérométrie cyclique. Leurs performances en synthèse organique en tant que photosensibilisateur ont finalement été testées à travers deux processus photocatalytiques différents : un transfert couplé d’électron et de proton ainsi qu’un transfert d’énergie. Les rendements et les propriétés photophysiques des composés ainsi obtenus, ont été rationalisés et comparés à une banque de données collectées pour des molécules similaires. / The present thesis describes the synthesis of fifteen organocopper-based photosensitizers bearing organic diimine and/or diphosphine type ligands. The complexes have been characterized by spectroscopy (1H, 13C NMR and UV-Vis), high resolution mass spectrometry, fluorescence lifetime spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry. They also have been evaluated in two different photocatalytic processes including: a proton-coupled electron transfer and an energy transfer. Trends in yields and photophysical data have been examined and compared with other photosensitizers.

Chromophore is a molecule or a part of a molecule which is responsible for its appearance color. This definition has been evolving over time with the progress of science. Contemporary scientific advances have expanded its meaning: to an inclusive level, chromophore is an irreducible collective of fundamental particles, which can represent the photophysical (optical physical) properties of the macroscopic matter. Previous studies have already found that the same molecule can have different photophysical properties under different condensed states. Therefore, it is straight forward to conclude that the definition of chromophore should take such extrinsic influencing interactions of this given molecule into consideration, thus simply taking the smallest unit such as a molecule is not accurate. A good example is quantum dots. Same species of quantum dots possess the identical smallest chemical unit but can emit very differently due to quantum confinement effect, thus defining the smallest unit as the chromophore is apparently fallacious. In solid polymeric compositions, the chemical unit or building blocks may differ from the spectroscopic unit depending on how these chemical units interacts within their ensemble to evolve new properties such as a new transition dipole. As thus, understanding the evolution of photophysical behaviors between the targeted unit and neighbors is of much importance to determine whether they should be considered as one chromophore or many. This requires a thorough understanding towards the evolution of photophysical properties of a collective, and the construction of such collective will need to pay extra attention to, as any structural factor could have changed some photophysical interactions of the collective. The introductory chapter discusses the material platform and fundamental photophysics investigated in this dissertation. Chromophore assembly (CA) as a sylloge of several classes of self-assembled materials, including metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), covalent-organic frameworks (COFs), porous organic polymers (POPs). Among them, MOF-based CAs (MOF-CAs) featuring with the ease of synthesis, demonstrate incomparable promises to construct such collective with several appealing characteristics, including component diversity, chemical stability, structural porosity, and post-synthetic versatility (Chapter 1.1). As for here, the main target to achieve using these assemblies is to understand the interaction between adjacent chemical monomeric units, therefore their spatial arrangements are of the paramount importance. As modern theory discovered, both ordered and random systems can be very important for novel quantum material developments. Both crystalline and amorphous arrangements of monomeric units can be achieved by adopting different classes of materials. MOF-CAs could achieve the precise control of spatial arrangement including distance, direction, and dihedral angle by its crystalline structures, whereas porous organic polymer-based CAs (POP-CAs) could feature a total randomness. Photophysics, as the research topic targeting the firsthand knowledge gained by interrogating the information provided by the propagating light after its interaction with matters, could provide crucial knowledge of the targeted matter. Hence, photophysical properties could provide fundamental understanding of the targeted matter (Chapter 1.2). State-of-the-art spectroscopic methods and instrumentation have made it possible to critically examine new structures to correlate photophysics with the chemical structure of their assemblies. By combining multiple spectroscopic techniques along with theoretical study, several correlations between the electronic properties of the matter, such as structural features, have been investigated. To illustrate, some unique topology-dependent photophysical behaviors found in chromophore assemblies are introduced (Chapter 1.3). In this dissertation, the feasibility of using specific types of MOF-CAs to conduct unique photophysical studies has been carefully chosen and verified (Chapter 2). Next, with the help of first principles computations, the nature of several electronic excited states as a function of different extent of Van der Waals or electronic interaction in MOF-CAs is unveiled, and experimentally studied with several environmental variates (Chapter 3). The knowledge was then articulated to devise a strategy to improve resonance energy transfer process in MOF-CAs. Here, low electronic symmetry of linker and directionally aligned transition dipoles of their collective ensembled are found beneficial to improve such photophysical process in a bottom-up manner (Chapter 4). Then, a series of MOFs were rationally designed to examine the feasibility and extent of a nonlinear excitonic process, singlet fission, to promote the generation of carriers usable for many applications including light-harvesting applications. The outcome demonstrated MOF-CA is a powerful tool to design such materials and is more capable in terms of its tunability (Chapter 5). At last, a set of randomly oriented CAs in POP were examined for underlying excited state dynamic process that highlights a thermal activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) involving S1 and low-lying T2 excited states (Chapter 6). This dissertation has highlighted unique yet tunable excited-state features and photophysical processes within the well-defined molecular ensemble realized via porous frameworks. These photophysical properties differ from those of their respective molecular system in their solubilized forms. Studies in this dissertation demonstrates a reliable platform to investigate multibody chromophore systems and suggested several valuable discoveries and lights the way for the study of novel chromophore assembly systems.

Le contexte de ce doctorat s’inscrit dans la lutte contre les risques de terrorisme nucléaire et radiologique (acronyme NRBC-E). La détection de ces matières dangereuses, car émettrices de neutrons, s’effectue traditionnellement à l’aide de compteurs proportionnels à Hélium-3. Or, l’annonce de la pénurie de ce gaz depuis plus d’une dizaine d’années pousse à concevoir des détecteurs aussi performants. L’émission neutronique étant toujours accompagnée d’un flux gamma, les détecteurs doivent discriminer ces deux contributions. Les scintillateurs plastiques, polymères radioluminescents, peuvent opérer cette séparation. Celle-ci s’effectue alors sur le déclin de l’impulsion lumineuse. Née en 1968, la théorie de Voltz et Laustriat fournit une explication de la discrimination neutron/gamma dans les scintillateurs organiques (« Pulse Shape Discrimination », PSD). Ainsi, le sujet du doctorat est d’appréhender les phénomènes photophysiques ayant lieu dans ces matériaux, plus particulièrement sous forme plastique, après l’interaction neutron/matière ou gamma/matière mais avant l’émission de photons de scintillation. Nous avons d’abord dressé un état de l’art des scintillateurs plastiques discriminants de 1959, année du premier matériau préparé, jusqu’à aujourd’hui. Nombre de compositions chimiques ont été décrites dans la littérature ; ces travaux mettent en évidence les compositions chimiques permettant la discrimination neutron/gamma. Compte-tenu de l’extrême complexité de modéliser l’interaction rayonnement/matière (énergies de l’ordre du MeV) suivie des transferts photophysiques (de l’ordre de l’eV), nous avons caractérisé des scintillateurs plastiques préparés au laboratoire. Ainsi, nous avons mis en place une chaîne d’acquisition numérique permettant la discrimination neutron/gamma. Nous avons ensuite testé l’influence de paramètres intrinsèquement liés à la nature du matériau : la préparation chimique, le volume et le fluorophore secondaire. Nous avons constaté que la reproductibilité des matériaux plastiques est complexe à obtenir. Du reste, le fluorophore secondaire et sa concentration doivent être soigneusement sélectionnés selon le volume du scintillateur afin d’éviter l’auto-absorption. Grâce à des mesures d’absorption transitoire, nous avons identifié le transfert photophysique conférant un rôle important au fluorophore secondaire. Par ailleurs, nous avons évalué l’influence de critères extrinsèques aux scintillateurs plastiques, plus spécifiquement l’influence d’une forte irradiation (10 kGy), sur les propriétés de discrimination neutron/gamma des matériaux. Enfin, grâce à la plateforme ELYSE (CNRS & Université Paris-Sud), nous avons optiquement simulé une trace neutron dans des scintillateurs liquides et plastiques. Grâce au système de détection offrant une spectrométrie 3D en absorption transitoire et en fluorescence, nous avons élaboré une nouvelle théorie photophysique permettant d’expliquer la formation d’états excités triplets significatifs pour la discrimination neutron/gamma. Les travaux présentés ici contribuent à l’appréhension des phénomènes photophysiques responsables de la discrimination neutron/gamma dans les scintillateurs plastiques. / The context of this PhD lies within the framework of fighting against nuclear and radiological threats (CBRN-E acronym). These hazardous materials can emit neutrons. Neutrons can traditionally be detected thanks to a proportional counter based on Helium-3 gas. However, the last decade announced the shortage of this gas, leading therefore scientists to design new detectors, which are as effective as proportional counters. Neutrons are always emitted with a gamma rays flux. So detectors have to discriminate between these two contributions. Plastic scintillators, which are radioluminescent polymers, can effectively operate this separation. This discrimination between neutrons and gamma rays is made thanks the decay of the light pulse. Born in 1968, Voltz and Laustriat’s theory explains neutron/gamma discrimination in plastic scintillators (also named Pulse Shape Discrimination, PSD). Thus, the subject of this PhD is to understand photophysical phenomena in plastic scintillators, which take place after neutron/matter or gamma/matter interaction but before the emission of scintillation photons. We first provided a state of the art of discriminating plastic scintillators as early as 1959 (first prepared material) until nowadays. Many chemical compositions have been described in the literature. All these works highlight the need to finely select the chemical composition allowing neutron/gamma discrimination. It is extremely hard to model the interaction of radiation with matter (energies up to the MeV range) followed by photophysical transfers (up to the eV range). This way, we characterized lab made plastic scintillators. To do this, we set up a digital detection chain for neutron/gamma discrimination measurements. We then tested the influence of intrinsic parameters to the nature of scintillators: chemical preparation, volume and secondary fluorophore have been particularly studied. We noted that scintillators reproducibility is complex to obtain. Furthermore, the secondary fluorophore and its concentration have to be selected according to the volume of the material in order to avoid self-absorption. Thanks to transient absorption measurements, we identified the photophysical transfer which allocates a significant role to the secondary fluorophore. We then evaluated the influence of extrinsic criteria on neutron/gamma properties of plastic scintillators, and specifically high irradiation doses (10 kGy). Finally, thanks to the ELYSE platform (CNRS & Paris-Sud University), we optically simulated a neutron track in liquid and plastic scintillators. Thanks to the detection system offering a 3D spectrometry in transient absorption and fluorescence, we elaborated a new photophysical theory, which can explain the formation of triplet states in plastic scintillators for neutron/gamma discrimination. All these works presented herein contribute to understand the photophysical phenomena, which are responsible of neutron/gamma discrimination in plastic scintillators.

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