<p>The goal of this research project is to synthesize, characterize, and examine the properties of a material that undergoes a decrease in refractive index upon exposure to light. It is anticipated that such photoresponses could elicit previously unknown nonlinear phenomena including self-trapped black beams. An appropriate material for these investigations would be a polymer cross-linked by photocleavable groups causing a Δ<em>n</em> < 0. Organo-ditellurides, molecules that contain a Te-Te bond, would be appropriate for the crosslinks as their σ*<sub>Te-Te</sub> ← n<sub>Te</sub> transition usually absorbs light between 400 and 500 nm, and can lead to photodissociation of the chalcogen-chalcogen bond.</p> <p>Initial attempts to directly functionalize a polymer (polystyrene) resulted in intractable solids. A more promising approach relies on the preparation of cross-linking agents followed by co-polymerization. Despite literature claims, to date, there is no structurally authenticated photoresponsive molecule that simultaneously contains vinyl (CH=CH) and telluride (-Te-) functional groups. The work in this thesis has yielded what would be the first example, in addition to a crystal structure obtained by X-ray diffraction, the compound has been characterized by multinuclear NMR (<sup>1</sup>H, <sup>13</sup>C, <sup>125</sup>Te) and vibrational spectroscopy with the support of DFT calculations.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/13598 |
| Date | 10 1900 |
| Creators | Gendy, Chris |
| Contributors | Vargas-Baca, Ignacio, Saravanamuttu, Kalaichelvi, Adronov, Alex, Chemistry |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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