Photophysical and Electrochemical Studies of 4-Dicyanomethylene 2,6-Dimethyl-4H-Pyran (DDP) Dye with Amides in Water

Photophysical and electrochemical studies of DDP dye with Formamide and alkyl substituted amides were carried out in water. Addition of Formamide (F), Acetamide (ACM), N,N-Dimethylformamide (DMF), Dimethylacetamide (DMAC) to DDP dye result in an isosbestic point. A fluorescence enhancement of DDP dye is observed on the addition of amides. Apart from the fluorescence enhancement, the addition of formamide result in no significant shift in the position of emission maxima of DDP dye whereas addition of ACM and DMF result in a shift towards the blue and red region respectively. DDP dye exhibits three lifetime components which are unique in lifetime and amplitude. The fluorescence lifetime and relative amplitude of DDP dye varies significantly by addition of amides in aqueous solution which are influenced by amidewater hydrogen-bonding network and hydrophobic influences of the alkyl substituted amides. The nature of interaction between dye and amide be predominantly through hydrogen-bonding wherein the carbonyl oxygen (C=O) of amides are bonded to N-H hydrogen of DDP dye through water molecule. The existence of more than one microenvironment of DDP dye in aqueous phase is elucidated by Electrochemical Impedence Spectroscopy (EIS) through Nyquist plots wherein it signifies that there exist at least three different micro environments which support the existence of different fluorescence lifetimes. Fluorescence spectral technique is used as an efficient tool to elucidate the nature of interaction of water soluble probe with hydrogen-bonding solutes is established in our studies.     

Synthesis,thermal decomposition and dielectric behavior of bis(thiourea)silver(I)nitrate

New semi-organic bis(thiourea)silver(I)nitrate (TuAgN) single crystals have been grown from slow evaporation solution growth technique. Single crystal X-ray diffraction study reveals that the crystal belongs to orthorhombic system with the non-centrosymmetric space group C2221 and the calculated cell parameters are a = 33.3455 (6) Å, b = 45.2957 (7) Å, c = 20.3209 (5) Å, α = β = γ = 90°, and V = 30692.8 (10) Å ³. The thermal stability and decomposition behavior of TuAgN compound have been studied by thermogravimetric analysis at three different heating rates 5, 10, and 15 °C min^?1. The effective activation energy (E _a) and pre-exponential factor (ln A) of thermal decomposition of thiourea from TuAgN compound at three different heating rates are estimated by model free methods: Arrhenius, Flynn–Wall, Kissinger, and Kim–Park. The calculated effective activation energies were found to vary with the fraction (α) reacted. The compensation effect between the (ln A) and (E _a) has also been studied. Dielectric properties of TuAgN crystal have been studied in a wide range of frequencies and temperatures. AC conductivity has also been carried out.     

Bilayer vesicles as precursors for spherical fractal aggregates from the self-assembly of a C60-fullerene-dyad in polar solvent

Spherical fractal aggregates of approximately 10 microm were formed from a pi-electronic amphiphile, C(60)-didodecyloxybenzene dyad when extracted from THF into water, necessitating a critical dielectric constant epsilon > or =30 in binary THF-water mixtures. Molecular dynamics simulations revealed the unit cluster to such a form involves an aggregation number approximately 90 with predominant soft associative molecular interactions which corroborated the octadecahedral model proposed for the cluster growth.     

Electrical rectification from a fullerene[60]-dyad based metal-organic-metal junction

Langmuir-Blodgett monolayer films of C60-didodecyloxybenzene dyad, with a C60 acceptor and didodecyloxybenzene donor, exhibit rectification with high rectification ratios of 87-158 at 3 V.     

Au10(TBBT)10: the Begining and the End of Aun(TBBT)m Nanoclusters

Gold(I) thiolate compounds (i.e. Au^I-SR) are important precursors for the synthesis of atomically precise Au_n(SR)_m nanoclusters. However, the nature of the Au^I-SR precursor remains elusive. Here, we report that the Au₁₀(TBBT)₁₀ complex is a universal precursor for the synthesis of Au_n(TBBT)_m nanoclusters (where TBBT=4-tertbutylbenzenethiol/thiolate). Interestingly, the Au₁₀(TBBT)₁₀ complex is also found to be re-generated through extended etching of the Au_n(SR)_m nanoclusters with excess of TBBT thiol and O₂. The formation of well-defined Au₁₀(TBBT)₁₀ complex, instead of polymeric Au^I-SR, is attributed to the bulkiness of the TBBT thiol. Through 1D and 2D NMR characterization, the structure of Au₁₀(TBBT)₁₀ is correlated with the previously reported X-ray structure, which contains two inter-penetrated Au₅(TBBT)₅ rings. The photophysical property of Au₁₀(TBBT)₁₀ complex is further probed by femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy. The accessibility of the precise Au₁₀(TBBT)₁₀ precursor improves the efficiency of the synthesis of the Au_n(TBBT)_m nanoclusters and is expected to further facilitate excellent control and understanding of the reaction mechanisms of nanocluster synthesis.     

Phytochemical constituents from dietary plant Citrus hystrix

Chemical investigation of the fruit peel of dietary plant Citrus hystrix offered two new flavones 5,6,4′-trihydroxypyranoflavone I and 5,4′-dimethyl-6-prenylpyranoflavone XIII besides 11 known compounds. The structures of all compounds were elucidated with the aid of suitable analytical methods like 1D, 2D-NMR, mass and single crystal X-ray analysis. An X-ray crystal study of compound II was done for the first time and the compounds I–VI, XI and XII are hitherto not reported from this plant. Biological studies revealed that compound I found to have a good antidiabetic and antiacetylcholinesterase activities meanwhile compounds II, III and V showed a significant free radical scavenging ability as well as antioxidant capacity. In addition, compounds I, IV, V and VI showed cytotoxicity against U87, A549 and MCF-7 cells. Overall, the new compound I showed valuable bioactive properties. Due to insufficient quantity of compound XIII, biological studies were not done.     

Spectrophotometric determination of sulfur dioxide in air, using thymol blue

A simple and sensitive spectrophotometric method was developed for the determination of trace amounts of sulfur dioxide. The method is based on the reaction of SO2 with a known excess of ICI as the oxidant. The unreacted ICI iodinates thymol blue under acidic conditions. The lambdamax of thymol blue is at 545 nm under acidic conditions, and on lodination lambdamax shifts to 430 nm. This shift results in a decrease in the absorbance at 545 nm. The amount of uniodinated thymol blue present depends on the concentration of unreacted ICI, which in turn depends on the SO2 concentration. The system obeys Beer's law in the range 0-30 microg SO2 in a final volume of 25 mL, having a molar absorptivity of 3.2 x 10(4) L/mol cm with a relative standard deviation (RSD) of 2% at 24 microg SO2 (n = 10). The uniodinated dye can be extracted into 5 mL isoamyl alcohol under acidic conditions for measurement of absorbance. The extraction method obeys Beer's law in the range 0-5 microg SO2, having a molar absorpitivity of 4.16 x 10(4) L/mol x cm with an RSD of 1.9% at 4 microg SO2 (n = 10). The method has been successfully applied to the determination of atmospheric SO2.     

Size effect on doped single walled carbon nanotubes

Considering impurity doping in small sized carbon nanotubes of diameter around 0.4 nm, we have calculated the donor binding energy by increasing the dopant concentration through a screening function that includes the curvature effect. We could observe the sudden fall in donor binding energy and metallic behaviour of the smaller single walled carbon nanotubes around 10¹¹/cm² (0.0026%) of impurity concentration. This result is useful for nano electronic device application such as nano diodes and switches.     

Impact of FRET between Molecular Aggregates and Quantum Dots

Energy transfer has been employed in third‐generation solar cells for the conversion of light into electrical energy. Long‐range nonradiative energy transfer from semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) to fluorophores has been demonstrated by using CdS QDs and thiophene?BODIPY (boron dipyrromethene, abbreviated as TG2). TG2 shows a broad photoluminescence (PL) spectrum, which varies with concentration. At very low concentrations, monomeric units are present; then, upon increasing the concentration, these monomers form a mixed (J‐/H‐)aggregated state. Energy transfer between the CdS QDs and TG2 was confirmed by separately investigating the interactions between CdS and the monomer of TG2 and between CdS and the aggregated states of TG2. Size‐dependent PL quenching confirmed that nonradiative Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) from photoexcited CdS QDs to the J‐aggregate state of TG2 was the major energy‐relaxation channel, which occurred on the timescale of hundreds of fs. These results have broad applications in the field of light harvesting based on the assembly of molecular aggregates.