Optical and liquid crystalline properties of dicholesteryl derivatives having different configurations of the hydrocarbon linkages

The liquid crystalline and optical properties of four dicholesteryl derivatives having various linkage configurations, but with the same number of connecting carbons (18), have been investigated, using differential scanning calorimetry, polarizing optical microscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and UV-Vis spectroscopy. Quite different phase behaviours and optical properties have been found for these compounds, while all of them exhibited the behaviour specific for a cholesteric phase. By rapid cooling from the cholesteric phase to 0°C, the iridescent colours of some of the dicholesteryl esters were fixed in the cholesteric glassy state. It was difficult but possible to fix various stable colours in the cholesteric glassy state of one compound with a polymethylene (CH₂)₁₈ linking chain. It was much easier to fix less stable colours for samples with the linking groups (CH₂)₆ and C=C double bonds between them. Very unstable colours could also be fixed for the compound with the (CH₂)₇ chains and a diyne group. The fourth compound with a branched linking chain gave a cholesteric phase which showed colours at room temperature. FTIR spectroscopy measurements provided interesting results concerning the average change in molecular configuration between the blue cholesteric glass and the crystal for the compound with the (CH₂)₇ polymethylene chains which crystallized within a few hours; also frequency changes associated with some bands were found and reported.     

Optical properties of LiNbO3:Mg(5.21 mol %) and LiNbO3:Fe(0.009 mol %):Mg(5.04 mol %) crystals

Using methods of electronic spectroscopy, laser conoscopy, photoinduced (photoreactive) light scattering, and Raman light-scattering spectroscopy, we have studied the optical homogeneity, optical transmission, and photorefractive properties of single crystals LiNbO₃:Mg(5.21 mol %) and LiNbO₃:Fe(0.009 mol %):Mg(5.04 mol %) that were grown from congruent melts. We have ascertained that doping with “nonphotorefractive” Mg²⁺ cations causes suppression of the photorefractive effect in a lithium-niobate crystal. Upon double doping (Fe:Mg), if the concentration of Mg²⁺ cations exceeds the threshold concentration, the photorefractive effect is almost not observed and the presence of “photorefractive” Fe cations does not affect the photorefractive effect as strongly as in congruent crystals doped with Fe.     

Temperature investigations of Raman spectra of stoichiometric and congruent lithium niobate crystals

In the temperature range 100–450 K, we have investigated Raman spectra of congruent and stoichiometric LiNbO₃ crystals. We have found that, in this temperature range, frequencies and widths of all the spectral lines depend linearly on temperature. However, the width of the line that corresponds to vibrations of the A₁(TO) symmetry of Li⁺ ions depends on temperature much more weakly than the width of the line that corresponds to vibrations of the A₁(TO) symmetry of Nb⁵⁺ ions. This fact indicates that the anharmonicity of vibrations of Nb⁵⁺ ions along the polar axis is much stronger compared to vibrations of Li⁺ ions. It is likely that this anharmonicity is noticeably contributed by O^2? ions, which are characterized by an anharmonic potential, vibrations of which, according to calculations from first principles, are mixed with vibrations of Nb⁵⁺ ions. The anharmonicity of vibrations of O^2? ions is evidenced by a strong temperature dependence of the width of the line that corresponds to vibrations of the A₁(TO) symmetry of O^2? ions perpendicularly to the polar axis. We have found that the temperature dependence of the intensity of lines that correspond to fundamental vibrations is nonmonotonic. At the same time, the temperature dependence of the intensity of “superfluous lines” is strictly linear. It is likely that this behavior of the intensities of lines of fundamental vibrations is related to the occurrence of clusters and microstructures in the crystal structure.     

Intermolecular relaxation in glycerol as revealed by field cycling 1H NMR relaxometry dilution experiments

(1)H spin-lattice relaxation rates R(1) = 1/T(1) have been measured for partly deuterated glycerol-h(5) diluted in fully deuterated glycerol-h(0) for progressively lower concentrations of glycerol-h(5). By means of the field cycling (FC) technique relaxation dispersion data, R(1)(ω), have been collected for several temperatures in the frequency range of 10 kHz-20 MHz. In order to disclose the spectral shape of the intra- and intermolecular relaxation, extrapolation of the relaxation data to the zero concentration limit has been performed. The paper confirms that the low frequency excess contribution to the total relaxation rate R(1)(ω) previously reported for several liquids is of intermolecular origin and reflects translational motion, whereas the high-frequency part is attributed to molecular rotation. Thus, intra- and intermolecular relaxation contributions are spectrally separated. The intermolecular relaxation itself contains also a contribution from rotational motion, which is due to non-central positions of the interacting nuclei in the molecule. This eccentricity effect is quantitatively reproduced by treating the intermolecular spectral density as a sum of translational-like (described by the free diffusion model) and rotational-like contributions (described by a Cole-Davidson function). Applying frequency-temperature superposition master curves as well as individual relaxation dispersion data, R(1)(ω), are analyzed. It is demonstrated that, in spite of the rotational influence, the translational diffusion coefficients, D(T), can be extracted from the (1)H relaxation dispersion which gives (1)H NMR relaxometry the potential to become a routine technique determining the diffusion coefficient in liquids.     

Determination of the rate constant of oxygen quenching of the excited states of molecules from the singlet oxygen luminescence

We have pioneered a method of determining the rate constant of quenching of the excited electronic states of molecules by molecular oxygen from measurements of the kinetics of photosensitized luminescence of singlet molecular oxygen (^lδ_g). The method can be used in the case where the lifetime of the excited electronic state in an air-saturated solution is comparable with or larger than the luminescence time of the singlet molecular oxygen in the given solvent. It is shown that this situation is implemented on quenching, by molecular oxygen, of the excited triplet states associated with the biopolymers of tetrapyrrole molecules in aqueous (H₂O and D₂O) solutions. Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 67, No. 3, pp. 401–404, May–June, 2000.