Photoinduced anchoring transitions in a nematic doped with azo dyes

Recently, we reported on a light-induced anchoring transition of an azobenzene nematic from planar to homeotropic alignment. In the proposed model of the transition, the changes in shape of the liquid crystal molecules and of their net dipole moment, due to the photoisomerization, were considered to play a vital role in the occurrence of the transition. In order to assess the validity of this model, a study of the anchoring behaviour of nematic guest-host liquid crystal mixtures containing two photochromic dyes, 3,3'- and 4,4'-substituted azobenzenes, was carried out. The dyes have very similar molecular structures to that of the azobenzene nematic previously studied, and their molecules, having a linear shape in the trans-form, maintained this shape after photoisomerization in the case of the 3,3'-azo dye, and changed it to bent in the case of the 4,4'-azo dye. The dyes possessed similar net dipole moments that increased substantially after photoisomerization, resulting in a preferential adsorption of their cis-isomers on the solid substrate. However, only the mixture containing the 4,4'-azo dye exhibited an anchoring transition from planar to homeotropic alignment upon illumination with unpolarized UV light, a behaviour in excellent agreement with the prediction of the model for the light-induced anchoring transition. An anchoring transition from random planar to uniform planar alignment was found to take place in the mixtures when linearly polarized UV light was used, requiring, however, a different exposure time for the two dyes.     

阻光染料对氯化银乳剂光谱增感的影响

增感染料在卤化银微晶上吸附并形成J-聚集体是染料光谱增感和超增感的关键步骤.本文利用紫外-可见吸收光谱研究了增感染料和阻光染料在氯化银微晶上的吸附,并考察了阻光染料对增感染料J-聚集体的形成及乳剂感光性能的影响.结果表明:不同阻光染料在氯化银微晶表面的吸附程度不同,对增感染料J-聚集体形成的影响也有差异.其中,吸附较小的不影响增感染料J-聚集体的形成,而吸附较大的阻碍增感染料J-聚集形成,特别是阻光染料在增感染料之前加入乳剂中时.在氯化银微晶上吸附很小的阻光染料基本不影响增感染料对乳剂的光谱增感,而吸附较强的阻光染料不仅吸收入射光,还抑制或破坏增感染料的光谱增感.因此,在氯化银微晶表面没有吸附的阻光染料才是优良的阻光染料.     

Photoinduced anchoring transitions in a nematic doped with azo dyes

Recently, we reported on a light-induced anchoring transition of an azobenzene nematic from planar to homeotropic alignment. In the proposed model of the transition, the changes in shape of the liquid crystal molecules and of their net dipole moment, due to the photoisomerization, were considered to play a vital role in the occurrence of the transition. In order to assess the validity of this model, a study of the anchoring behaviour of nematic guest-host liquid crystal mixtures containing two photochromic dyes, 3,3'- and 4,4'-substituted azobenzenes, was carried out. The dyes have very similar molecular structures to that of the azobenzene nematic previously studied, and their molecules, having a linear shape in the trans-form, maintained this shape after photoisomerization in the case of the 3,3'-azo dye, and changed it to bent in the case of the 4,4'-azo dye. The dyes possessed similar net dipole moments that increased substantially after photoisomerization, resulting in a preferential adsorption of their cis-isomers on the solid substrate. However, only the mixture containing the 4,4'-azo dye exhibited an anchoring transition from planar to homeotropic alignment upon illumination with unpolarized UV light, a behaviour in excellent agreement with the prediction of the model for the light-induced anchoring transition. An anchoring transition from random planar to uniform planar alignment was found to take place in the mixtures when linearly polarized UV light was used, requiring, however, a different exposure time for the two dyes.     

Energy alignment and surface dipoles of rylene dyes adsorbed to TiO2 nanoparticles

The energy loss in dye-sensitized solar cells calculated from the energy difference between the lowest electronic transition of the dye and the obtained open-circuit voltage is often 1 eV or even more. To minimize this loss, it is important to accurately determine the energy alignment at the TiO(2)/dye/redox-mediator interface. In this study, we compared the results from electrochemistry and photoelectron spectroscopy for determining the energy alignment of three rylene dyes, two of which absorb relatively far in the red. The trends observed with the methods were different, as in the former, the energy alignment is measured relative to an external reference and includes contributions from solvent reorganization energies, while in the latter, it is measured relative to the energetics of the TiO(2) and is lacking such contributions. The influence of the dyes' dipole moments on the energetics of the TiO(2) was also measured and explained some of the differences in trends. Finally, we compared the injection efficiencies of the two red-absorbing dyes and found that the differences in injection efficiencies can be better explained using the energy alignment determined from photoelectron spectroscopy. This shows that the method for measuring the energetics of a DSC should be chosen according to what process one intends to study.     

Solubilization of two organic dyes by cationic ester-containing gemini surfactants

Solubilization of two different types of organic dyes, Quinizarin with an anthraquinone structure and Sudan I with an azo structure, has been studied in aqueous solutions of a series of cationic gemini surfactants and of a conventional monomeric cationic surfactant, dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide (DTAB). Surfactant concentrations both above and below the critical micelle concentration were used. The concentration of solubilized dye at equilibrium was determined from the absorbance of the solution at λ(max) with the aid of a calibration curve. The solubilization power of the gemini surfactants was higher than that of DTAB and increased with increasing alkyl chain length. An increase in length of the spacer unit resulted in increased solubilization power while a hydroxyl group in the spacer did not have much effect. Ester bonds in the alkyl chains reduced the solubilization power with respect to both dyes. A comparison between the absorbance spectra of the dyes in micellar solution with spectra in a range of solvents of different polarity indicated that the dye is situated in a relatively polar environment. One may therefore assume that the dye is located just below the head group region of the micelle. Attractive π-cation interactions may play a role for orienting the dye to the outer region of the micelle.     

Guest–host systems containing anthraquinone dyes with multiple visible transitions giving positive and negative dichroic order parameters: an assessment of principal molecular axes and computational methods

ABSTRACT

Three 1,4-disubstituted anthraquinone dyes with bis(4-n-butylphenyl) substituents connected via amine or amide linking groups have been studied as guest molecules dissolved in the nematic host E7. UV-visible absorption spectroscopy has shown each of the dyes to exhibit multiple absorption bands in the visible region, and dichroic order parameters obtained from polarised spectra of aligned guest–host samples were shown to differ significantly between the bands for each dye, and between the dyes. Time-dependent density functional theory calculations indicated that each dye exhibits several transitions, giving transition dipole moment vectors with a range of orientations, and fully atomistic molecular dynamics simulations of the guest–host mixtures showed differences in the calculated molecular alignments of the dyes. Combining the results from these two sets of calculations enabled a comparison of molecular alignment models based on the moments of inertia and the surface tensors of the dyes. The match between calculated and experimental values was improved significantly when using the surface tensor rather than the moment of inertia model, indicating that the shapes of the molecular surfaces of these dyes are crucial to their alignment. A novel method of calculating polarised UV-visible absorption spectra of dyes in liquid crystal hosts is also presented.     

The alignment of dichroic dyes in a nematic liquid crystal: a molecular dynamics investigation

The absorption properties of a dye molecule depend on its orientation relative to the light source. Thus the ability to predict how well a particular dye aligns with a liquid crystal host will improve the design of smart materials. One measurement of this alignment is the order parameter, which can be calculated from molecular dynamics simulations. The results for three dyes are presented here. The orientation of the long molecular axis of the dye relative to the liquid crystal director can range from perpendicular to parallel, with the dyes studied having an average order parameter of the dye similar to the average order parameter of the host.     

Induced Circular Dichroism of Chiral Nematic Cellulose Films

Colloidal chiral nematic suspensions of cellulose were prepared from dissolving grade wood pulp. On evaporation of the water, the suspension dries down to give iridescent cellulose films. The optical properties of the films may be characterized by incorporating dyes in the films, and following the ordering of the dye molecules by measurement of induced circular dichroism (ICD). Structural changes to the films, such as decreasing the chiral nematic pitch by increasing the salt content and increasing the chiral nematic order through magnetic alignment, can be monitored by measuring the changes in ICD.     

Synthesis and characterization of covalently colored polymer latex based on new polymerizable anthraquinone dyes

Novel polymerizable red and yellow dyes, consisting of anthraquinone chromophore, alkyl spacer, and acryloyl group, were first synthesized and then used as comonomers in the semicontinuous emulsion copolymerization of styrene, butyl acrylate, and methacrylic acid to fabricate polymer latexes. The influences of the dye monomers on the emulsion polymerization process, the latex particle size and its distribution, the molecular weight of the latex polymer, as well as the light fastness of the polymer latex films, were investigated. Results indicated that, despite of the inhibition effect of the polymerizable dyes on polymerization, stable colored polymer latexes could be prepared with high conversion of total monomers, whereas the conversion of the polymerizable dye decreased as increasing the amount of dye. The light fastness of the covalently colored polymer latex films was proved to be much better than that of the noncovalently colored polymer latex films due to the covalent bond of dye and polymer chains.     

Photophysical and photochemical effects of dye binding

Abstract— A discussion is given of the photophysical and photochemical consequences of the binding of dyes and of pigments of biological importance to polymeric substrates. The modification of the photochemical properties induced by dye binding can in large part be ascribed to the known changes in photophysical properties of dyes engendered by such interactions. Principally, these involve enhanced formation of metastable species of dye molecules and decreased opportunity for self-quenching. In photochemical terms, dye binding thus enhances susceptibility to photoreduction, causes an increase in the quantum yield of photoreduction with increasing concentration of bound dye, and induces enhanced ability to act as a sensi-tizer in photoreduction. Paradoxically, dye binding decreases the ability of the bound dye to act as a sensitizer in photoxidation.     

增感染料与卤化银微晶之间的作用及其聚集态的研究

本文研究了光谱增感染料的结构对立方体卤化银乳剂的感光性能的影响,并利用反射光谱和彩色分析荧光电镜研究了染料在卤化银微晶上的聚集态和Ｊ 聚集体的相对尺寸,通过测定乳剂离子电导率研究了染料的结构对乳剂离子电导率的影响．实验结果表明：本文中所用的九个染料不管是增感还是减感染料都能在立方体卤化银乳剂上形成Ｊ 聚集态;对噻碳菁染料而言,其５位上无论是吸电子基团还是推电子基团的染料形成的Ｊ 聚集体的平均尺寸皆较未取代染料的大,其增感效果也较好;苯环５位上吸电子基取代或平面性好的噻碳菁染料可提高立方体ＡｇＢｒＩ乳剂的离子电导率,证明它们的增感效果也好;６位硝基取代的吲哚碳菁染料是典型的减感染料,其在立方体乳剂上所形成的Ｊ 聚集体较小,但是对乳剂的离子电导无影响．此外,本文还试图对不对称插烯菁染料Ｄｙｅ９使立方体ＡｇＢｒＩ乳剂减感的作用进行了解释     

Polarizing-alignment layers for twisted nematic cells

We describe polarizing films formed from the lyotropic liquid crystalline phases of dyes dissolved in water. The dye polarizers possess a high dichroic ratio close to that of conventional polarizers. In addition, the dried dye films provide a uniform homogeneous orientation for thermotropic nematic materials. Therefore, thin dye films can simultaneously serve as internal polarizers and as alignment agents. These properties make them especially suitable for twisted nematic devices based on low cost birefringent plastic substrates.     

Polarizing-alignment layers for twisted nematic cells

We describe polarizing films formed from the lyotropic liquid crystalline phases of dyes dissolved in water. The dye polarizers possess a high dichroic ratio close to that of conventional polarizers. In addition, the dried dye films provide a uniform homogeneous orientation for thermotropic nematic materials. Therefore, thin dye films can simultaneously serve as internal polarizers and as alignment agents. These properties make them especially suitable for twisted nematic devices based on low cost birefringent plastic substrates.     

吲哚方酸菁染料在表面活性剂水溶液中的光降解

考察了4种含有不同N位取代基的对称吲哚方酸菁染料在阳离子表面活性剂十六烷基三甲基溴化铵(CTAB)、阴离子表面活性剂十二烷基硫酸钠(SDS)和非离子表面活性剂曲拉通(TX-100)水溶液中的光降解行为,结果表明,表面活性剂对染料分子具有保护作用,其影响大小为CTAB>TX-100>SDS,分子中有羧基的染料受影响程度最大。在表面活性剂浓度较低时,染料光降解程度随着表面活性剂浓度的增加而增加,但形成胶束后,染料的光降解程度则随着表面活性剂浓度的升高而降低。     

Thin-layer chromatography of laser dyes and dye analogs with cyclodextrins in the mobile phase

The addition of beta-cyclodextrin and substituted hydroxyethyl and hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrins to aqueous urea-containing mobile phases, can be used to enhance the migration of various laser dyes on thin layer chromatography. Selected laser dyes from the coumarin, rhodamine and bimane families were examined, as well as a number of dye analogs. Silica gel, polyamide and C18 reverse phase plates were utilized. Overall, the substituted hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrins appeared to be the most effective for increasing dye migration.     

Effect of electron-donating ability of terminal groups of cationic polymethine dyes on thermal polymerization of methyl methacrylate in solution

Thermal polymerizability of methyl methacrylate solution was examined in dimethylformamide in the presence of cationic symmetric and asymmetric polymethine dyes with different terminal electron-donating groups by dilatometric method. It was found that the polymethine dyes according to the electronic structure can initiate or inhibit the polymerization of methyl methacrylate both in the presence of standard initiator, azoisobutyronitrile, and in its absence by a radical mechanism. It was shown that the initiating ability was weakened with altering an electron-donating activating ability of terminal groups of dyes from the average level in both directions of its increasing or decreasing. The transition from symmetric to asymmetric dyes in the same structural type is accompanied by a loss of initiating ability. Based on the comparison of experimental kinetic data of polymerization of methyl methacrylate in the presence of dyes and quantum chemical calculations of electronic structure for dyes it was demonstrated that a HOMO energy value of an initiating dye must be higher and that of an inhibiting dye, lower than the methyl methacrylate value.     

Bis(merocyanine) Homo-Folda-Dimers: Evaluation of Electronic and Spectral Changes in Well-Defined Dye Aggregate Geometries

A series of three bis(merocyanine) dyes comprising chromophores of different conjugation lengths has been synthesized and the intramolecular aggregation process was investigated by UV/Vis absorption spectroscopy. The spectral changes observed upon variation of the solvent polarity reveal a folding process resulting in a cofacial π-stack of two chromophores with a decrease of the aggregation tendency with increasing chromophore length and solvent polarity. Solvent-dependent UV/Vis studies of the monomeric reference dyes show a significant increase of the polyene-like character for dyes with longer polymethine chains in nonpolar solvents, which is reversed upon aggregation due to the polarizability effect of the adjacent chromophore within the dye stack. The pronounced hypsochromic shift of the absorption band observed upon aggregation indicates strong coupling of the dyes’ transition dipole moments, which was confirmed by quantum-chemical analysis.     

Aligned inclusion of hemicyanine dyes into silica zeolite films for second harmonic generation

Silicalite-1 films (thickness = 400 nm) supported on both sides of glass plates (SL/G) were prepared, and hemicyanine dyes (HC-n) with different alkyl chain lengths (n, n = 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 22, and 24) were included into the silicalite-1 films by dipping SL/Gs into each methanol solution of HC-n (1 mM) for 1 d. The included numbers of HC-n per channel (N(C)) generally decreased with increasing n; that is, they were 6.4, 23.1, 15.4, 8.2, 5.7, 3.5, 0.9, and 1.2 molecules per channel, respectively. The d(33) value gradually increased with increasing n but decreased when n > 18; that is, they were 1.12, 0.50, 2.25, 3.59, 4.99, 5.30, 1.71, and 2.57 pm V(-1), respectively. However, d(33)/N(C) progressively increased with increasing n. The d(31) values were approximately 100 times smaller than the corresponding d(33) values, and the average d(33)/d(31) ratio was 109, which is higher than those of Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films and poled polymers of nonlinear optical (NLO) dyes, by approximately 2-5 and approximately 30-50 times, respectively. The estimated average tilted angle of the dyes with respect to the channel direction was 7.7 degrees, and the calculated average order parameter was 0.97, which is approximately 480 times higher than the values observed from poled polymers. The degree of uniform alignment (DUA) generally increased with increasing n. The progressive increase of both DUA and d(33)/N(C) with n is attributed to the increase in the tendency of HC-n to enter hydrophobic silicalite-1 channels with the hydrophobic alkyl chain first. A more than 134-fold increase in DUA was observed upon increasing n from 6 to 24. The DUA of HC-24 in the silicalite-1 film reached close to 1. Although the observed d(33) values were lower than those of the LB films of NLO dyes due to very small dye densities of the silicalite films, this methodology bears a great potential to be developed into the methods for preparing practically viable NLO films.     

Adsorption study of cationic dyes having a trimethylammonium anchor group on hectorite using electrooptic and spectroscopic methods

Clay minerals are natural or synthetic material of colloidal dimensions. Due to the sheetlike structure clay minerals offer a huge specific surface area and hence optimal properties for modification through adsorption. The current work studies the adsorption of five cationic dyes on the synthetic clay mineral hectorite. All dyes have a trimethylammonium anchoring group in common. The adsorbed dye molecules are characterized by means of pulsed electric linear dichroism and UV-VIS spectroscopy. With increasing dye loading a continuous shift in the absorption spectra is observed. But there is no occurrence of a new absorption band. Therefore we conclude that the dyes preferentially adsorb as amorphous aggregates on the clay surface. At low dye loadings the dye molecules lie flat on the clay mineral surface. Increasing dye concentration leads to a continuous increase in average tilt angle. However the orientation of the dye molecules is very sensitive to functional groups. The introduction of a nitro group to a particular dye increases significantly the tendency to lie flat on the surface whereas the introduction of a methoxy group at the same position has the opposite effect.     

Key Factors Regarding Decolorization of Synthetic Anthraquinone and Azo Dyes

The factors affecting decolorization of anthraquinone dye represented by Reactive Blue 4 (RB4) and azo dye represented by Methyl Orange (MO) were studied in batch experiments under mesophilic (35 °C) and thermophilic (55 °C) anaerobic conditions. The results indicated differences in decolorization properties of the dyes with different chromophore structures. In abiotic conditions, MO could be decolorized by a physicochemical reaction when it was sterilized at 121 °C together with sludge cells or glucose. RB4 only showed absorption onto the cell mass. The presence of a redox mediator accelerated the decolorizing reaction when supplied together with glucose in the presence of sterilized sludge cells. In biotic conditions, the results indicated that the biological activity of microorganisms was an important factor in decolorization. The main factor involved in decolorization was the conversion of cosubstrate as electron donor, which reacted with dye as an electron acceptor in electron transfer. Redox mediators, anthraquinone-2-sulfonic acid, and anthraquinone could accelerate decolorization even if a small amount (0.2 mM) was applied. On the other hand, a high concentration of redox mediator (1.0 mM) had an inhibitory effect on decolorization especially under thermophilic conditions. In addition, the decolorization of dye was accelerated by increasing treatment temperature, as shown in biotic treatments. Based on these results, increasing the treatment temperature could be used to improve the decolorizing process of textile dye wastewater treatment, especially for recalcitrant dyes such as anthraquinone.