No abstract

Oleate-capped CdS nanocrystals (NCs) dispersed in dichloromethane were found to quench the excited-state fluorescence of the terthiophene derivative 3′,4′-dibutyl-5″-phenyl-[2,2′:5′,2″-terthiophene]-5-carboxylic acid (1-CO 2 H). Infrared and 1H NMR spectroscopies provided evidence that 1-CO 2 H substitutes for oleate on the surface of the CdS NCs. Upon binding, the fluorescence of 1-CO 2 H is quenched, and the 1H NMR lines from 1-CO 2 H are broadened. The importance of the carboxylate group in binding to the CdS NC was further established by examining the behavior of a similar fluorophore where the carboxylic acid group was replaced with a bromo substituent (1-Br). The CdS NCs had no influence on the fluorescence intensity or NMR line shapes of 1-Br. For 1-CO 2 H, Stern–Volmer plots indicated a nearly linear increase in I 0/I as the CdS NCs’ concentration was increased, but as the dye/NC ratio reached ∼20/1, I 0/I reached a maximum of ∼8 and began to decrease. By a dye/NC ratio of 2/1, the I 0/I reached a steady value of ∼2.5. The peak in the Stern–Volmer plot at a 20/1 ratio was consistent with a maximum in the contribution from concentration quenching at this coverage. On the basis of the appearance of the dye’s radical cation spectrum at low dye/NC ratios, ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy confirmed electron transfer from the singlet excited state of the dye to the CdS NC with a lifetime of 16 ps. At higher dye/NC ratios, the signal from the radical cation was much less dominant, and the decay of the singlet excited state was dominated by the concentration quenching process having a 1 ps lifetime.

A series of heteroleptic bipyridine ruthenium complexes were prepared using known synthetic methods. Each compound incorporated one electron withdrawing 4,4'-dicarboxylic acid-2,2'-bipyridine and two bipyridines each of which had electron donating dialkylamine substituents in the 4 and 4' positions. The electronic absorption spectra exhibited absorptions that moved to lower energy as the donor ability of the amine substituent increased. Density functional calculations established that the HOMO was delocalized over the metal and two pyridine groups located trans to the pyridines of the dicarboxylic acid bipyridine. The LUMO was delocalized over the dicarboxylic acid bipyridine. Cyclic voltammetry of the deprotonated compounds exhibit one quasi-reversible oxidation and three reductions. Coupled with the emission data, the excited state reduction potentials were estimated to range from -0.93 to -1.03 V vs. NHE. Monodispersed 3.2 nm diameter nanocrystals (NCs) of zinc oxide were found to quench partially the excited state of the dyes via a static quenching electron transfer process involving the formation of a dyad of the complex and the NC. The magnitude of the partial quenching of complexed dyes was correlated to the distribution of band gaps for the NCs, which is an inverse function of diameter. Dyes attached to the NCs on the small end of the particle size distribution had electron transfer rates that were uncompetitive with radiative and nonradiative decay mechanisms.