Spectroscopy of Retinoic Acid at the Air-Water Interface

The spectroscopy of all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA), an important molecule of biological origin that can be found in nature, is investigated at the air-water interface using UV-Vis and IR reflection spectroscopy. We employ a UV-Vis reflection absorption spectroscopy (RAS) experiment along with infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (IR-RAS) to probe ATRA at the air-water interface. We elucidate the factors influencing the spectroscopy of ATRA at the air-water interface and compare its spectra at the water surface with results of bulk samples obtained with conventional spectroscopic methods and computational chemistry. Monolayers of pure ATRA as well as mixed ATRA with stearic-d₃₅ acid were prepared, and the spectroscopy reveals that ATRA forms J-aggregates with itself, causing a significant redshift of its S₀ to S₁ electronic transition. Pure ATRA monolayers are found to be unstable at the air-water interface and are lost from the surface over time due to the formation of aggregates. The mixture of ATRA and stearic-d₃₅ acid has been shown to stabilize the monolayers and inhibit the loss of surface ATRA. On the basis of our observations, we propose that ATRA could be a significant photosensitizer in natural aqueous environments.

Langmuir-Blodgett Films of Diketopyrrolopyrroles with Tunable Amphiphilicity

In this work, we present the formation of H- and J-aggregates of amphiphilic centrosymmetric diketopyrrolopyrroles containing aliphatic or aromatic amino groups. The inherent amphiphilicity of these dyes predestines their assembly at interfaces to form ordered supramolecular structures. In this work, we employed the Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique to generate, manipulate, and deposit such supramolecular structures. The aforementioned amines provide an additional means to control the formation of the supramolecular assemblies. In the resulting LB films, both H- and J-aggregates of the dyes can be realized, leading to very broad absorption spectra. In contrast to many reports on H- and J-aggregates, the interactions between the symmetric diketopyrrolopyrroles are controlled via interface assembly and π-stacking and not by dipolar interactions. We show that in the case of the aliphatic, but not for the aromatic amine functionalization, the usage of an acidic subphase enables the transition from H- to J-aggregate-dominated LB films via an increase in the surface pressure during deposition.

Angular invariance of the contribution of an anisotropic thin surface layer to reflectance and reflectance-absorbance

The absorbance studies of the optical radiation reflection from the boundary of two soft-matter media with a thin monolayer between are performed for a number of angles of incidence. The reflectance and absorbance spectra are described in terms of a unique spectrum invariant with respect to the incidence angles. The angular dependence of the absorbance for s-polarized radiation is shown to not provide any extra information as compared with a single-angle study in line with the previously developed theoretical considerations. We verify it experimentally performing the multi-angle infrared reflection-absorption spectroscopy measurements at the air-water interface with a thin lipid film.

UV-Vis Reflection-Absorption Spectroscopy at air-liquid interfaces

UV-Visible Reflection-Absorption Spectroscopy (UVRAS) technique is reviewed with a general perspective on fundamental and applications. UVRAS is formally identical to IR Reflection-Absorption Spectroscopy (IRRAS), and therefore, the methodology developed for this IR technique can be applied in the UV-visible region. UVRAS can be applied to air-solid, air-liquid or liquid-liquid interfaces. This review focuses on the use of UVRAS for studying Langmuir monolayers. We introduce the theoretical framework for a successful understanding of the UVRAS data, and we illustrate the usage of this data treatment to a previous study from our group comprising an amphiphilic porphyrin. For ultrathin films with a thickness of few nm, UVRAS produces positive or negative bands when p-polarized radiation is used, depending on the incidence angle and the orientation of dipole absorption. UVRAS technique provides highly valuable information on tilt of chromophores at the air-liquid interface, and moreover allows the determination of optical parameters. We propose UVRAS as a powerful technique to investigate the in situ optical properties of Langmuir monolayers.

Aggregation and structural study of the monolayers formed by an amphiphilic thiapentacarbocyanine

Exotic assemblies with unique photophysical features can be built based on organic dyes at the air–liquid interface.