TY - JOUR A1 - Meza-Chincha, Ana-Lucia A1 - Lindner, Joachim O. A1 - Schindler, Dorothee A1 - Schmidt, David A1 - Krause, Ana-Maria A1 - Röhr, Merle I. S. A1 - Mitrić, Roland A1 - Würthner, Frank T1 - Impact of substituents on molecular properties and catalytic activities of trinuclear Ru macrocycles in water oxidation N2 - Herein we report a broad series of new trinuclear supramolecular Ru(bda) macrocycles bearing different substituents at the axial or equatorial ligands which enabled investigation of substituent effects on the catalytic activities in chemical and photocatalytic water oxidation. Our detailed investigations revealed that the activities of these functionalized macrocycles in water oxidation are significantly affected by the position at which the substituents were introduced. Interestingly, this effect could not be explained based on the redox properties of the catalysts since these are not markedly influenced by the functionalization of the ligands. Instead, detailed investigations by X-ray crystal structure analysis and theoretical simulations showed that conformational changes imparted by the substituents are responsible for the variation of catalytic activities of the Ru macrocycles. For the first time, macrocyclic structure of this class of water oxidation catalysts is unequivocally confirmed and experimental indication for a hydrogen-bonded water network present in the cavity of the macrocycles is provided by crystal structure analysis. We ascribe the high catalytic efficiency of our Ru(bda) macrocycles to cooperative proton abstractions facilitated by such a network of preorganized water molecules in their cavity, which is reminiscent of catalytic activities of enzymes at active sites. KW - water oxidation KW - self-assembly KW - solar fuels KW - supramolecular materials KW - catalysis Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-204653 UR - https://doi.org/10.1039/D0SC01097A SN - 2041-6539 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mahl, Magnus A1 - Shoyama, Kazutaka A1 - Krause, Ana‐Maria A1 - Schmidt, David A1 - Würthner, Frank T1 - Base‐Assisted Imidization: A Synthetic Method for the Introduction of Bulky Imide Substituents to Control Packing and Optical Properties of Naphthalene and Perylene Imides JF - Angewandte Chemie International Edition N2 - We report the direct imidization of naphthalene and perylene dicarboxylic anhydrides/esters with bulky ortho,ortho‐diaryl‐ and ortho,ortho‐dialkynylaniline derivatives. This imidization method uses n‐butyllithium as a strong base to increase the reactivity of bulky amine derivatives, proceeds under mild reaction conditions, requires only stoichiometric amounts of reactants and gives straightforward access to new sterically crowded rylene dicarboximides. Mechanistic investigations suggest an isoimide as intermediary product, which was converted to the corresponding imide upon addition of an aqueous base. Single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction analyses reveal dimeric packing motifs for monoimides, while two‐side shielded bisimides crystallize in isolated molecules without close π–π‐interactions. Spectroscopic investigations disclose the influence of the bulky substituents on the optical properties in the solid state. KW - dyes KW - fluorescence KW - imidization KW - perylene imide KW - solid-state emitters Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-218246 VL - 59 IS - 32 SP - 13401 EP - 13405 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - van Loock, Peter A1 - Alt, Wolfgang A1 - Becher, Christoph A1 - Benson, Oliver A1 - Boche, Holger A1 - Deppe, Christian A1 - Eschner, Jürgen A1 - Höfling, Sven A1 - Meschede, Dieter A1 - Michler, Peter A1 - Schmidt, Frank A1 - Weinfurter, Harald T1 - Extending Quantum Links: Modules for Fiber‐ and Memory‐Based Quantum Repeaters JF - Advanced Quantum Technologies N2 - Elementary building blocks for quantum repeaters based on fiber channels and memory stations are analyzed. Implementations are considered for three different physical platforms, for which suitable components are available: quantum dots, trapped atoms and ions, and color centers in diamond. The performances of basic quantum repeater links for these platforms are evaluated and compared, both for present‐day, state‐of‐the‐art experimental parameters as well as for parameters that can in principle be reached in the future. The ultimate goal is to experimentally explore regimes at intermediate distances—up to a few 100 km—in which the repeater‐assisted secret key transmission rates exceed the maximal rate achievable via direct transmission. Two different protocols are considered, one of which is better adapted to the higher source clock rate and lower memory coherence time of the quantum dot platform, while the other circumvents the need of writing photonic quantum states into the memories in a heralded, nondestructive fashion. The elementary building blocks and protocols can be connected in a modular form to construct a quantum repeater system that is potentially scalable to large distances. KW - color centers KW - quantum communication KW - quantum dots KW - quantum repeaters KW - trapped atoms/ions Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-228322 VL - 3 IS - 11 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Stolte, Matthias A1 - Hecht, Reinhard A1 - Xie, Zengqi A1 - Liu, Linlin A1 - Kaufmann, Christina A1 - Kudzus, Astrid A1 - Schmidt, David A1 - Würthner, Frank T1 - Crystal Engineering of 1D Exciton Systems Composed of Single‐ and Double‐Stranded Perylene Bisimide J‐Aggregates JF - Advanced Optical Materials N2 - Single crystals of three at bay area tetraphenoxy‐substituted perylene bisimide dyes are grown by vacuum sublimation. X‐ray analysis reveals the self‐assembly of these highly twisted perylene bisimides (PBIs) in the solid state via imide–imide hydrogen bonding into hydrogen‐bonded PBI chains. The crystallographic insights disclose that the conformation and sterical congestion imparted by the phenoxy substituents can be controlled by ortho‐substituents. Accordingly, whilst sterically less demanding methyl and isopropyl substituents afford double‐stranded PBI chains of complementary P and M atropo‐enantiomers, single hydrogen‐bonded chains of homochiral PBIs are observed for the sterically more demanding ortho‐phenyl substituents. Investigation of the absorption and fluorescence properties of microcrystals and thin films of these PBIs allow for an unambiguous interpretation of these exciton systems. Thus, the J‐aggregates of the double‐stranded crystals exhibit a much larger (negative) exciton coupling than the single‐stranded one, which in contrast has the higher solid‐state fluorescence quantum yield. KW - fluorescence KW - J‐aggregates KW - perylene bisimides KW - reabsorption KW - single crystal structure Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-218221 VL - 8 IS - 18 ER -