Photoinduced Electron Transfer as a Probe for the Folding Behavior of Dimethylsilylene-Spaced Alternating Donor–Acceptor Oligomers and Polymers

C-N Bond Rotation Controls Photoinduced Electron Transfer in an Aminostyrene-Stilbene Donor-Acceptor System

We investigate energy transfer and electron transfer in a dimethylsilylene-spaced aminostyrene-stilbene donor-acceptor dimer using time-dependent density functional theory calculations. Our results confirm that the vertical S₃, S₂, and S₁ excited states are, respectively, a local excitation on the aminostyrene, local excitation on the stilbene, and the charge-transferred (CT) excited state with electron transfer from aminostyrene to stilbene. In addition, an energy minimum with the C-N bond of the amino group twisted at about 90° is also identified on the S₁ potential energy surface. This S₁ state exhibits a twisted intramolecular charge transfer (TICT) character. A potential energy scan along the C-N bond torsional angle reveals a conical intersection between the S₂ stilbene local excitation and the S₁ CT/TICT state at a torsional angle of ∼60°. We thus propose that the conical intersection dominates the electron transfer dynamics in the donor-acceptor dimer and copolymers alike, and the energy barrier along the C-N bond rotation controls the efficiency of such a process. Moreover, we show that despite the zero oscillator strength of the S₁ excited states in the CT and TICT minima, an emissive S₁ state with a V-shaped conformational structure can be located. The energy of this V-shape CT structure is thermally accessible; therefore, it is expected to be responsible for the CT emission band of the dimer observed in polar solvents. Our data provide a clear explanation of the complex solvent-dependent dual emission and photoinduced electron transfer properties observed experimentally in the dimer and copolymer systems. More importantly, the identifications of the conical intersection and energy barrier along the C-N bond rotation provide a novel synthetic route for controlling emissive properties and electron transfer dynamics in similar systems, which might be useful in the design of novel organic optoelectronic materials.

Visible-Light-Excited Ultralong Organic Phosphorescence by Manipulating Intermolecular Interactions

Visible light is much more available and less harmful than ultraviolet light, but ultralong organic phosphorescence (UOP) with visible-light excitation remains a formidable challenge. Here, a concise chemical approach is provided to obtain bright UOP by tuning the molecular packing in the solid state under irradiation of available visible light, e.g., a cell phone flashlight under ambient conditions (room temperature and in air). The excitation spectra exhibit an obvious redshift via the incorporation of halogen atoms to tune intermolecular interactions. UOP is achieved through H-aggregation to stabilize the excited triplet state, with a high phosphorescence efficiency of 8.3% and a considerably long lifetime of 0.84 s. Within a brightness of 0.32 mcd m^-2 that can be recognized by the naked eye, UOP can last for 104 s in total. Given these features, ultralong organic phosphorescent materials are used to successfully realize dual data encryption and decryption. Moreover, well-dispersed UOP nanoparticles are prepared by polymer-matrix encapsulation in an aqueous solution, and their applications in bioimaging are tentatively being studied. This result will pave the way toward expanding metal-free organic phosphorescent materials and their applications.

Directed evolution of cytochrome c for carbon-silicon bond formation: Bringing silicon to life

Enzymes that catalyze carbon-silicon bond formation are unknown in nature, despite the natural abundance of both elements. Such enzymes would expand the catalytic repertoire of biology, enabling living systems to access chemical space previously only open to synthetic chemistry. We have discovered that heme proteins catalyze the formation of organosilicon compounds under physiological conditions via carbene insertion into silicon-hydrogen bonds. The reaction proceeds both in vitro and in vivo, accommodating a broad range of substrates with high chemo- and enantioselectivity. Using directed evolution, we enhanced the catalytic function of cytochrome c from Rhodothermus marinus to achieve more than 15-fold higher turnover than state-of-the-art synthetic catalysts. This carbon-silicon bond-forming biocatalyst offers an environmentally friendly and highly efficient route to producing enantiopure organosilicon molecules.

Studies on homologous random and alternating segmented conjugated polymers with and without silicon synthesized by ADMET

Using acyclic diene metathesis (ADMET), we synthesized homologous luminescent conjugated polymers with two aromatic segments based on thiophene and substituted phenylene, either alternating or randomly distributed, and either directly connected or separated by Si-linkers.

Monomer sequence determination in the living anionic copolymerization of styrene and asymmetric bi-functionalized 1,1-diphenylethylene derivatives

In-chain functionalized polystyrenes with different sequential arrangements of functional groups are preparedvialiving anionic copolymerization. The sequence structures are determined by time sampling to establish the sequence-determination method.