Elsa Quartapelle Procopio

Inherently Chiral Macrocyclic Oligothiophenes: Easily Accessible Electrosensitive Cavities with Outstanding Enantioselection Performances

Linear conjugated oligothiophenes of variable length and different substitution pattern are ubiquitous in technologically advanced optoelectronic devices, though limitations in application derive from insolubility, scarce processability and chain-end effects. This study describes an easy access to chiral cyclic oligothiophenes constituted by 12 and 18 fully conjugated thiophene units. Chemical oxidation of an “inherently chiral” sexithiophene monomer, synthesized in two steps from commercially available materials, induces the formation of an elliptical dimer and a triangular trimer endowed with electrosensitive cavities of different tunable sizes. Combination of chirality with electroactivity makes these molecules unique in the current oligothiophenes literature. These macrocycles, which are stable and soluble in most organic solvents, show outstanding chiroptical properties, high circularly polarized luminescence effects and an exceptional enantiorecognition ability.

Inherently Chiral Spider-Like Oligothiophenes.

The racemate of an inherently chiral spider-like octathiophene monomer T83 , in which chirality is generated by torsion in its backbone, was synthesized. The racemate was resolved into configurationally stable antipodes by HPLC on a chiral stationary phase. Electrooxidation of the enantiomers resulted in materials displaying high enantiorecognition ability towards the antipodes of some chiral probes. Moreover, the T83 racemate demonstrated great aptitude to stimulate formation of 3D rigid architectures if used as a cross-linking monomer for molecular imprinting. This feature was exploited to devise a molecularly imprinted polymer-based chemosensor selective for a thymine-adenine oligonucleotide.

New dinuclear hydrido-carbonyl rhenium complexes designed as photosensitizers in dye-sensitized solar cells

The possible use of some dinuclear rhenium complexes as sensitizers for dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) has been investigated. They have general formula [Re2(μ-X)(μ-Y)(CO)6(μ-pyridazine-4-COOH)], with X = Y = Cl (1), X = H, Y = benzoato (2), and X = H, Y = 4-diphenylaminobenzoato (3). An original synthetic strategy has been set for preparing the hydrido-carboxylato derivatives 2 and 3. They have been indicated by DFT and TD-DFT computations as the most promising dyes, endowed with good light harvesting capability. The complexes have absorption maxima in the range of 405–443 nm, on TiO2 films, arising from metal-to-ligand-charge transfer transitions. Cyclic voltammetry experiments have been performed on the derivatives containing the methyl ester of the pyridazine-4-COOH acid, showing electrochemical band gaps in the range of 2.25–1.63 eV. The best DSSC results have been obtained using complex 3, with an overall solar-to-electric conversion efficiency of 1.0%. Noteworthy the presence of a hydrido ligand did not show any detrimental effect on the stability of the sensitizers under the operating conditions.

Sol-gel TiO2 colloidal suspensions and nanostructured thin films: structural and biological assessments

The role of substrate topography in phenotype expression of in vitro cultured cells has been widely assessed. However, the production of the nanostructured interface via the deposition of sol-gel synthesized nanoparticles (NPs) has not yet been fully exploited. This is also evidenced by the limited number of studies correlating the morphological, structural and chemical properties of the grown thin films with those of the sol-gel brick within the framework of the bottom-up approach. Our work intends to go beyond this drawback presenting an accurate investigation of sol-gel TiO2 NPs shaped as spheres and rods. They have been fully characterized by complementary analytical techniques both suspended in apolar solvents, by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and after deposition on substrates (solid state configuration) by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and powder x-ray diffraction (PXRD). In the case of suspended anisotropic rods, the experimental DLS data, analyzed by the Tirado-Garcia de la Torre model, present the following ranges of dimensions: 4-5 nm diameter (∅) and 11-15 nm length (L). These results are in good agreement with that obtained by the two solid state techniques, namely 3.8(9) nm ∅ and 13.8(2.5) nm L from TEM and 5.6(1) ∅ and 13.3(1) nm L from PXRD data. To prove the suitability of the supported sol-gel NPs for biological issues, spheres and rods have been separately deposited on coverslips. The cell response has been ascertained by evaluating the adhesion of the epithelial cell line Madin-Darby canine kidney. The cellular analysis showed that titania films promote cell adhesion as well clustering organization, which is a distinguishing feature of this type of cell line. Thus, the use of nanostructured substrates via sol-gel could be considered a good candidate for cell culture with the further advantages of likely scalability and interfaceability with many different materials usable as supports.

Searching for Models Exhibiting High Circularly Polarized Luminescence: Electroactive Inherently Chiral Oligothiophenes

Two new inherently chiral oligothiophenes characterized by the atropisomeric 3,3-bithianaphtene scaffold functionalized with fused ring bithiophene derivatives, namely 4H-cyclopenta[2,1-b3:4b]dithiophene (CPDT) and dithieno[3,3-b:2,3-d]pyrrole (DTP), were synthesized. The racemates were fully characterized and resolved into antipodes by enantioselective HPLC. The enantiomers were analyzed through different chiroptical techniques: electronic circular dichroism (ECD) and vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) were employed to attribute the absolute configuration (AC). Comparison of experimental and calculated VCD spectra confirmed the DFT calculated conformational characteristics. The compound functionalized with two CPDT units was oxidized with FeCl3 , and ECD and CPL of the resulting material were measured. Circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) was measured to verify if inherently chiral oligothiophenes could be promising systems for chiral photonics applications.

Dirhenium Coordination Complex Endowed with an Intrinsically Chiral Helical-Shaped Diphosphine Oxide

A one-pot, multicomponent strategy was used to synthesize the first example of the dirhenium carbonyl coordination complex 2, in which the two metal atoms are connected through a chiral helical-shaped diphosphine oxide. Thanks to the flexibility of the helix of helicene 1, complex 2 was isolated in quite a good yield as a stable compound. It was characterized by analytical and spectroscopic techniques as well as by single-crystal X-ray analysis, which confirmed the chemical structure and the peculiar architecture of 2. In addition, computational studies were in agreement with the transitions observed in the experimental UV–vis spectrum, revealing the presence of two bands with maxima at about 520 (metal-to-ligand charge transfer) and 400 nm (IL).

Dinuclear rhenium pyridazine complexes containing bridging chalcogenide anions: synthesis, characterization and computational study

The synthesis of a series of neutral dinuclear rhenium complexes of the general formula [Re2(μ-ER)2(CO)6(μ-pydz)] (pydz = pyridazine; E = S, Se or Te; R = methyl or phenyl; the TeMe is not included) has been carried out via new, either one-pot or two-step, procedures. The one-pot synthesis consists of the oxidative addition of RE–ER across the Re–Re bond of [Re2(CO)10], in the presence of 1 equivalent of pyridazine, and affords the corresponding dinuclear complexes in high yields (ca. 85%). Furthermore, a general two-step procedure has been carried out, which involves the synthesis of heterocubane-like [Re4(μ3-ER)4(CO)12] molecules and their reaction with pyridazine, quantitatively affording the corresponding dinuclear species through a symmetric [2+2] fragmentation pathway. The molecular structure of the complexes has been elucidated by single crystal XRD analysis, and TD-DFT calculations predicted the existence of conformers differing in the orientation of the chalcogen substituents with respect to the pyridazine ligand. The relative stabilities and the activation barriers for the interconversion have been calculated, observing a regular trend that has been rationalized depending on the hybridization of the chalcogen atom. Variable temperature NMR studies experimentally confirmed the theoretical prediction, showing, in solution, two conformers with different relative amounts and different interconversion rates between them, depending on the chalcogen nature. From the electrochemical point of view the S, Se and Te complexes display a bi-electronic reversible oxidation peak, differently from the two mono-electronic irreversible oxidation peaks previously observed for the O derivatives. Moreover, a progressive narrowing of the HOMO–LUMO gap on going from O to Te, arising from the increase of the HOMO level, has been observed. This is in line with the decreasing electron-withdrawing strength of the chalcogenide bridging ligand, so that the energy gap for the telluride derivative is 1.64 eV, the smallest value in the whole family of the di-rhenium pyridazine complexes. The spectroscopic HOMO–LUMO gap parallels this trend, with a significant red-shift of the metal-to-ligand charge transfer absorption, making the telluride complex highly promising as a photosensitizer in the field of solar energy conversion. In agreement with the narrow HOMO–LUMO gap, no photoluminescence has been observed upon optical excitation.