Paul F. Barbara

Selection of peptides with semiconductor binding specificity for directed nanocrystal assembly.

In biological systems, organic molecules exert a remarkable level of control over the nucleation and mineral phase of inorganic materials such as calcium carbonate and silica, and over the assembly of crystallites and other nanoscale building blocks into complex structures required for biological function. This ability to direct the assembly of nanoscale components into controlled and sophisticated structures has motivated intense efforts to develop assembly methods that mimic or exploit the recognition capabilities and interactions found in biological systems. Of particular value would be methods that could be applied to materials with interesting electronic or optical properties, but natural evolution has not selected for interactions between biomolecules and such materials. However, peptides with limited selectivity for binding to metal surfaces and metal oxide surfaces have been successfully selected. Here we extend this approach and show that combinatorial phage-display libraries can be used to evolve peptides that bind to a range of semiconductor surfaces with high specificity, depending on the crystallographic orientation and composition of the structurally similar materials we have used. As electronic devices contain structurally related materials in close proximity, such peptides may find use for the controlled placement and assembly of a variety of practically important materials, thus broadening the scope for ‘bottom-up’ fabrication approaches.

Synthesis of CuInS2, CuInSe2, and Cu(InxGa1-x)Se2 (CIGS) Nanocrystal “Inks” for Printable Photovoltaics

Chalcopyrite copper indium sulfide (CuInS2) and copper indium gallium selenide (Cu(InxGa(1-x))-Se2; CIGS) nanocrystals ranging from approximately 5 to approximately 25 nm in diameter were synthesized by arrested precipitation in solution. The In/Ga ratio in the CIGS nanocrystals could be controlled by varying the In/Ga reactant ratio in the reaction, and the optical properties of the CulnS2 and CIGS nanocrystals correspond to those of the respective bulk materials. Using methods developed to produce uniform, crack-free micrometer-thick films, CulnSe2 nanocrystals were tested in prototype photovoltaic devices. As a proof-of-concept, the nanocrystal-based devices exhibited a reproducible photovoltaic response.

From Molecules to Materials: Current Trends and Future Directions

The development, characterization, and exploitation of novel materials based on the assembly of molecular components is an exceptionally active and rapidly expanding field. For this reason, the topic of molecule-based materials (MBMs) was chosen as the subject of a workshop sponsored by the Chemical Sciences Division of the United States Department of Energy. The purpose of the workshop was to review and discuss the diverse research trajectories in the field from a chemical perspective, and to focus on the critical elements that are likely to be essential for rapid progress. The MBMs discussed encompass a diverse set of compositions and structures, including clusters, supramolecular assemblies, and assemblies incorporating biomolecule-based components. A full range of potentially interesting materials properties, including electronic, magnetic, optical, structural, mechanical, and chemical characteristics were considered. Key themes of the workshop included synthesis of novel components, structural control, characterization of structure and properties, and the development of underlying principles and models. MBMs, defined as auseful substances prepared from molecules or molecular ions that maintain aspects of the parent molecular frameworko are of special significance because of the capacity for diversity in composition, structure, and properties, both chemical and physical. Key attributes are the ability in MBMs to access the additional dimension of multiple length scales and available structural complexity via organic chemistry synthetic methodologies and the innovative assembly of such diverse components. The interaction among the assembled components can thus lead to unique behavior. A consequence of the complexity is the need for a multiplicity of both existing and new tools for materials synthesis, assembly, characterization, and

Collapse of stiff conjugated polymers with chemical defects into ordered, cylindrical conformations

The optical, electronic and mechanical properties of synthetic and biological materials consisting of polymer chains depend sensitively on the conformation adopted by these chains. The range of conformations available to such systems has accordingly been of intense fundamental as well as practical interest, and distinct conformational classes have been predicted, depending on the stiffness of the polymer chains and the strength of attractive interactions between segments within a chain. For example, flexible polymers should adopt highly disordered conformations resembling either a random coil or, in the presence of strong intrachain attractions, a so-called ‘molten globule’. Stiff polymers with strong intrachain interactions, in contrast, are expected to collapse into conformations with long-range order, in the shape of toroids or rod-like structures. Here we use computer simulations to show that the anisotropy distribution obtained from polarization spectroscopy measurements on individual poly[2-methoxy-5-(2′-ethylhexyl)oxy-1,4-phenylenevinylene] polymer molecules is consistent with this prototypical stiff conjugated polymer adopting a highly ordered, collapsed conformation that cannot be correlated with ideal toroid or rod structures. We find that the presence of so-called ‘tetrahedral chemical defects’, where conjugated carbon–carbon links are replaced by tetrahedral links, divides the polymer chain into structurally identifiable quasi-straight segments that allow the molecule to adopt cylindrical conformations. Indeed, highly ordered, cylindrical conformations may be a critical factor in dictating the extraordinary photophysical properties of conjugated polymers, including highly efficient intramolecular energy transfer and significant local optical anisotropy in thin films.

Rates of DNA-Mediated Electron Transfer Between Metallointercalators

Ultrafast emission and absorption spectroscopies were used to measure the kinetics of DNA-mediated electron transfer reactions between metal complexes intercalated into DNA. In the presence of rhodium(III) acceptor, a substantial fraction of photoexcited donor exhibits fast oxidative quenching (>3 × 1010 per second). Transient-absorption experiments indicate that, for a series of donors, the majority of back electron transfer is also very fast (∼1010 per second). This rate is independent of the loading of acceptors on the helix, but is sensitive to sequence and π stacking. The cooperative binding of donor and acceptor is considered unlikely on the basis of structural models and DNA photocleavage studies of binding. These data show that the DNA double helix differs significantly from proteins as a bridge for electron transfer. On-Line References and Notes

A theoretical study of multidimensional nuclear tunneling in malonaldehyde

Various aspects of the intramolecular proton transfer in malonaldehyde have been investigated theoretically within the reaction surface Hamiltonian framework, which was recently applied with a two‐dimensional surface to this molecule by Carrington and Miller. The present calculation, which involves a three‐dimensional reaction surface and a high level of ab initio accuracy, gives a tunneling splitting which is ∼50% smaller than experiment and a hydrogen/deuterium isotope effect that is within 40% of experiment with no adjustable parameter. The vibrational wave function has been analyzed to extract an effective curvilinear tunneling path on the hypersurface. The path calculations, and other analysis, clearly demonstrate the limitations of one‐dimensional models for polyatomic tunneling systems like malonaldehyde. In addition, tunneling splittings have been calculated for excited vibrational states of malonaldehyde, leading to new insight into the multidimensional character of proton transfer.

Vibrational Modes and the Dynamic Solvent Effect in Electron and Proton Transfer

This article primarily reviews recent work on ultrafast experiments on excited state intramolecular electron and proton transfer, with an emphasis on experiments on chemical systems that have been analyzed theoretically. In particular, those systems that have been quantitatively characterized by static spectroscopy, which provides detailed information about the reaction potential energy surface and about other parameters that are necessary to make a direct comparison to theoretical predictions, are described.

Time-resolved spectroscopic measurements on microscopic solvation dynamics

This paper reinvestigates the use of transient fluorescence spectroscopy of polar aromatics in solution as a method to determine microscopic solvation dynamics. It is shown that the compounds previously employed as polar fluorescent probes tend to fall into three photophysical classes depending upon: (i) whether the photon induced change in μ occurs simultaneously with photon absorption (ii) whether solvent motion subsequent to photon absorption is required to induce the change in μ; or (iii) whether two excited‐state isomers with different μ’s are present simultaneously. The consequence of the different classes on microscopic solvation dynamic measurements is discussed with a molecular example for each class: (i) 4‐aminophthalimide, (ii) 4‐(9‐anthryl)‐N, N‐dimethylaniline, and (iii) bianthryl, respectively. In addition, we introduce a new transient fluorescence procedure for the determination of solvation dynamics that has advantages over the traditional transient Stokes‐shift method. Finally, for the fi...

Femtosecond resolved solvation dynamics in polar solvents

The transient solvation of a polar fluorescent probe has been studied by the time resolved Stokes shift technique with roughly five times shorter time resolution than previously reported. New shorter time components in the solvation relaxation function C(t) have been discovered for methanol, propionitrile, and propylene carbonate; the C(t) function for acetonitrile is singly exponential within the limitations of the instrument. The observed C(t) has been compared to theoretical calculations using the dielectric continuum (DC) model for each solvent, with non‐Debye expressions for the solvent dielectric response. For methanol the DC model predictions agree closely with experiment. For the polar aprotic solvents propylene carbonate and propionitrile, the shape of the experimental decay is different from the DC predictions, but the average decay times 〈τs〉 are closer to the DC predictions than previously reported. The comparison of theory and experiment is clearly limited by the inconsistencies and limited f...

Nonexponential Solvation Dynamics of Simple Liquids and Mixtures

Abstract Novel measurements on the microscopic solvation dynamics of coumarin probes in several simple polar solvents and solvent mixtures have been made using the time dependent fluorescence Stokes shift technique. The microscopic solvent relaxation function, C(t), is observed to be poorly modeled by a single exponential decay in many cases. The average experimental solvation times, , for pure solvents and binary solvent mixtures are close to values predicted by dielectric continuum theory, but in many cases, the observed C(t) shape does not agree with that predicted by dielectric continuum theory. The results suggest that molecular motion of solvent molecules near the solute can be responsible for microscopic solvation components of C(t) that are not predicted using bulk dielectric data of the neat solvent and the dielectric continuum theory. In addition to the solvation dynamics results, some potential sources of probe molecule non-ideality are examined, and it is shown that these effects are not significant contributors to experimental error for these C(t) measurements.