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Squaraine dyes have attracted more attention in the past decade due to their strong and narrow absorption and fluorescence along with the easily functionalized molecular structure. One successful approach of core functionalization is to replace one oxygen of the squaric carbonyl group with a dicyanomethylene group, which shifts the absorption and emission into the near infrared (NIR) region and at the same time leads to a rigid, planar structure with C2v symmetry. However, such squaraines tend to aggregate cofacially in solution due to dispersion forces and dipole-dipole interactions, usually leading to H-type exciton coupling with undesired blue-shifted spectrum and quenched fluorescence. Therefore, the goal of my research was the design of dicyanomethylene-substituted squaraine dyes that self-assemble into extended aggregates in solution with J-type coupling, in order to retain or even enhance their outstanding optical properties. Toward this goal, bis(squaraine) dyes were envisioned with two squaraine units covalently linked to trigger a slip-stacked packing motif within the aggregates to enable J-type coupling.
In my first project, bis(squaraine) dye BisSQ1 was synthesized, in which two dicyanomethylene squaraine chromophores are covalently linked. Concentration and temperature-dependent UV/Vis/NIR spectroscopy experiments reveal that BisSQ1 undergoes cooperative self-assembly resulting in J-type aggregates in a solvent mixture of toluene/1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane (TCE) (98:2, v/v). The J type exciton coupling is evident from the significantly red shifted absorption maximum at 886 nm and the fluorescence peak at 904 nm. In conclusion, this was a first example to direct squaraine dye aggregation in solution to the more desired slip-stacked packing leading to J-type exciton coupling by simply connecting two dyes in a head-to-tail bis chromophore structure.
Connecting two squaraine dyes with an additional phenylene spacer (BisSQ2) leads to two different polymorphs with very distinct absorption spectra upon cooling down a solution of BisSQ2 in a solvent mixture of toluene/TCE (98:2, v/v) with different rates. Accordingly, rapid cooling resulted in rigid helical nanorods with an absorption spectrum showing a panchromatic feature, while slow cooling led to a sheet-like structure with a significant bathochromic shift in the absorption spectrum.
It was discovered that the conventional molecular exciton model failed to explain the panchromatic absorption features of the nanorods for the given packing arrangement, therefore more profound theoretical investigations based on the Essential States Model (ESM) were applied to unveil the importance of intermolecular charge transfer (ICT) to adequately describe the panchromatic absorption spectrum. Moreover, the red-shift observed in the spectrum for the sheet-like structure can be assigned to the interplay of Coulomb coupling and ICT-mediated coupling.
Furthermore, the same bis-chromophore strategy was adopted for constructing an NIR-II emitter with a bathochromically-shifted spectrum. In chloroform, BisSQ3 exhibits an absorption maximum at 961 nm with a significant bathochromic shift (1020 cm−1) compared to the reference mono-squaraine SQ, indicating intramolecular J-type coupling via head-to-tail arrangement of two squaraine dyes. Moreover, BisSQ3 shows a fluorescence peak at 971 nm with a decent quantum yield of 0.33%. In less polar toluene, BisSQ3 self-assembles into nanofibers with additional intermolecular J-type coupling, causing a pronounced bathochromic shift with absorption maximum at 1095 nm and a fluorescence peak at 1116 nm. Thus, connecting two quinoline-based squaraines in a head-to-tail fashion leads to not only intra-, but also intermolecular J-type exciton coupling, which serves as a promising strategy to shift the absorption and emission of organic fluorophores into the NIR-II window while retaining decent quantum yields.
In conclusion, my research illustrates based on squaraine dyes how a simple modification of the molecular structure can significantly affect the aggregation behavior and further alter the optical properties of dye aggregates. Elongated supramolecular structures based on dicyanomethylene substituted squaraine dyes were successfully established by covalently linking two squaraine units to form a bis-chromophore structure. Then, a simple but efficient general approach was established to direct squaraine dye aggregation in solution to the more desired slip-stacked packing leading to J-type exciton coupling by directly connecting two squaraine dyes in a head-to-tail fashion without spacer units. Moreover, the additional spacer between the squaraine dyes in BisSQ2 allowed different molecular conformations, which leads to two different morphologies depending on the cooling rates for a hot solution. Hence, this is a promising strategy to realize supramolecular polymorphism.
In general, it is expected that the concept of constructing J-aggregates by the bis-chromophore approach can be extended to entirely different classes of dyes since J-aggregates possess a variety of features such as spectral shifts into the NIR window, fluorescence enhancement, and light harvesting, which are commonly observed and utilized for numerous fundamental studies and applications. Moreover, the insights on short-range charge transfer coupling for squaraine dyes is considered of relevance for all materials based on alternating donor-acceptor π-systems. The panchromatic spectral feature is in particular crucial for acceptor-donor-acceptor (ADA) dyes, which are currently considered as very promising materials for the development of bulk heterojunction solar cells.
The objective of this thesis focuses on the development of strategies for precise control of perylene bisimide (PBI) self-assembly and the in-depth elucidation of structural and optical features of discrete PBI aggregates by means of NMR and UV/Vis spectroscopy. The strategy for discrete dimer formation of PBIs is based on delicate steric control that distinguishes the two facets of the central perylene surface. The strategy applied in this thesis for accessing discrete PBI quadruple and further oligomeric stacks relies on backbone-directed PBI self-assembly. For this purpose, two tweezer-like PBI dyads bearing the respective rigid backbones, diphenylacetylene (DPA) and diphenylbutydiyne (DPB), were synthesized. The distinct aggregation behavior of these structurally similar PBI dyads can be ascribed to the intramolecular distance between the two PBI chromophores imparted by the DPA and DPB spacers.
Die Chlorophylle stellen in der Natur die wichtigsten Pigmente dar, weil sie verantwortlich für die Photosynthese sind und hierbei vielfältige Funktionen wahrnehmen, die sich aus ihrer Selbstassemblierung sowie den vorteilhaften optischen und Redox-Eigenschaften ergeben. Die in dieser Arbeit untersuchten semisynthetischen Zinkchlorine stellen Modellverbindungen des natürlichen Bacteriochlorophylls c (BChl c) der Lichtsammelsysteme (light-harvesting: LH) in Chlorosomen von Bakterien, jedoch ohne Proteingerüst, dar. Die entscheidenden Vorteile dieser Zinkchlorine (ZnChl) gegenüber den natürlichen BChls bestehen im einfachen semisynthetischen Zugang ausgehend von Chlorophyll a (Chl a), ihrer gesteigerten chemischen Stabilität sowie der Möglichkeit ihre Selbstassemblierung durch gezielte chemische Modifizierung der Seitenketten in der Peripherie zu steuern. Während bereits mehrfach über die vielversprechenden Redox- und excitonischen Eigenschaften von Aggregaten von ZnChl und natürlichem BChl c und den damit verbundene Voraussetzungen für Excitontransport über große Distanzen berichtet wurde, sind die Ladungstransporteigenschaften von Aggregaten der biomimetischen ZnChl bis heute unerforscht. Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Aufklärung der Struktur von Aggregaten einer Vielzahl von semisynthetischen Zinkchlorophyllderivaten im Feststoff, in Lösung und auf Oberflächen durch die Kombination verschiedenster spektroskopischer, kristallographischer und mikroskopischer Techniken an die sich Untersuchungen zum Ladungstransport in den Aggregaten anschließen. Schema 1 zeigt die verschiedenen, in dieser Arbeit synthetisierten ZnChls, die entweder mit einer Hydroxy- oder Methoxygruppe in der 31-Position funktionalisiert sind sowie Substituenten unterschiedlicher Art, Länge und Verzweigung an der Benzylestergruppe in 172-Position tragen.Die Packung dieser Farbstoffe hängt entscheidend von ihrer chemischen Struktur ab. Während die ZnChls 1a, 2a, 3 mit 31-Hydroxygruppe und Alkylseitenketten (Dodecyl bzw. Oligoethylenglykol) gut lösliche stabförmige Aggregate bilden, lagern sich die analogen Verbindungen mit 31-Methoxygruppe (1b, 2b) zu Stapeln in Lösung und auf Oberflächen zusammen. Diese supramolekularen Polymere wurden im Detail in Kapitel 3 mit Hilfe von UV/Vis- und CD-Spektroskopie (circular dichroism: CD) sowie dynamische Lichtstreuung (dynamic light scattering: DLS) untersucht. Darüber hinaus lieferten temperaturabhängige UV/Vis- in Kombination mit DLS-Messungen wertvolle Informationen über die Aggregationsprozess dieser beiden Sorten von Aggregaten. Während sich die ZnChl 1a mit 31 Hydroxygruppe entsprechend dem isodesmischen Modell zu röhrenförmigen Aggregaten zusammenlagern, bilden sich die stapelförmigen Aggregate von 1b nach einem kooperativen Keimbildungs-Wachstums-Mechanismus (nucleation-elongation mechanism). Detaillierte elektronenmikroskopische Studien lieferten erstmals überzeugende Beweise für röhrenförmige Nanostrukturen der Aggregate des wasserlöslichen 31-Hydroxy Zinkchlorin 3. Die gemessenen Durchmesser der Röhren von ~ 5-6 nm dieser Aggregate liegen in hervorragender Übereinstimmung mit den Elektronenmikroskopie-Daten von BChl c Stabaggregaten in Chlorosomen (Chloroflexus aurantiacus, Durchmesser ~ 5-6 nm) und entsprechen damit dem von Holzwarth und Schaffner postulierten röhrenförmigen Modell... Im Einklang mit ihren hoch geordneten, robusten Strukturen, die sich eindimensional in einer Größenordnung von Mikrometeren erstrecken, sowie ihrer Fähigkeit zum effizienten Ladungs-trägertransport stellen diese selbstassemblierten Nanoröhren von ZnChls vielversprechende Ausgangsmaterialien für die Fertigung supramolekularer elektronischer Bauteile dar. Wissenschaftliche Bemühungen einige dieser Moleküle und ihre entsprechenden supramolekularen Polymere für die Fertigung von (opto-)elektronischen Bauteilen wie organischen Feldeffekttransistoren zu benutzten, stellen lohnende Aufgaben für die Zukunft dar...
Inspired by the fact that sufficient solubility in aqueous media can be achieved by functional substitution of perylene bisimides (PBIs) with polar groups, one of the essential aims of this thesis was the design and successful synthesis of the new water-soluble PBI cyclophanes [2PBI]-1m and [2PBI]-1p, which are appended with branched, hydrophilic oligoethylene glycol (OEG) chains. Subsequently, the focus was set on the elucidation of properties of PBI cyclophane hosts which are also of relevance for recognition processes in biological systems. The performance of the new amphiphilic PBI cyclophane [2PBI]-1p as synthetic receptors for various natural aromatic alkaloids in aqueous media was thoroughly investigated. Alkaloids represent a prominent class of ubiquitous nitrogen containing natural compounds with a great structural variety and diverse biological activity. As of yet, no chromophore host acting as a molecular probe for a range of alkaloids such as harmine or harmaline is known. In addition, the self-association behavior of cyclophane host [2PBI]-1m and its reference monomer in water was studied in order to gain insights into the thermodynamic driving forces affecting the self-assembly process of these two PBI systems in aqueous environment. Moreover, the chirality transfer upon guest binding previously observed for a PBI cyclophane was investigated further. The assignment of the underlying mechanism of guest recognition to either the induced fit or conformational selection model was of particular interest.
This thesis included the synthesis of conformationally stable chiral perylene bisimide (PBI) dyes, the study of their optical properties in solution and their chiral self-sorting behaviour in nonpolar solvents in which dimerization via pi-pi-stacking takes place. Furthermore, the influence of PBI core chirality on the properties of these dyes in the condensed state has been also studied. We have demonstrated and quantified the prevalence of chiral self-recognition over self-discrimination in pi-stacking dimerization of PBIs. It has been shown that this self-recognition event is compromised by the increasing flexibility of the structures related to the size of the OEG bridging units. Moreover, the inherent chirality of these PBIs has been proven to strongly influence their condensed state properties, for which large differences between the pure enantiomers and the racemates were revealed, as well as between the different bridged macrocyclic PBIs.
Artificial light-harvesting (LH) systems have been obtained by self-assembly of naphthalene diimide-functionalized zinc chlorin dyads and triad in nonpolar, aprotic solvents. UV-vis, CD, and steady-state emission spectroscopy as well as atomic force microscopy showed that rod-like structures are formed by excitonic interactions of zinc chlorin units, while the appended naphthalene diimide dyes do not aggregate at the periphery of the cylinders. In all cases, photoexcitation of the enveloping naphthalene diimides at 540 and 620 nm, respectively, was followed by highly efficient energy-transfer processes to the inner zinc chlorin backbone, as revealed by time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy on the picosecond time-scale. As a consequence, the LH efficiencies of zinc chlorin rod aggregates were increased by up to 63%. The effective utilization of solar energy recommends these biomimetic systems for an application in electronic materials on the nanoscale.
The presented work in the field of supramolecular chemistry describes the synthesis and detailed investigation of (bi)pyridine-based oligo(phenylene ethynylene) (OPE) amphiphiles, decorated with terminal glycol chains. The metal-ligating property of these molecules could be exploited to coordinate to Pd(II) and Pt(II) metal ions, respectively, resulting in the creation of novel metallosupramolecular π-amphiphiles of square-planar geometry.
The focus of the presented studies is on the self-assembly behaviour of the OPE ligands and their corresponding metal complexes in polar and aqueous environment. In this way, the underlying aggregation mechanism (isodesmic or cooperative) is revealed and the influence of various factors on the self-assembly process in supramolecular systems is elucidated. In this regard, the effect of the molecular design of the ligand, the coordination to a metal centre as well as the surrounding medium, the pH value and temperature is investigated.
The main objective of this thesis was the design and synthesis of perylene bisimide dyes with sufficient water-solubility for the construction of self-assembled architectures in aqueous solutions. Beside these tasks another goal of this project was the control over the self-assembly process in terms of aggregate size and helicity, respectively. Within this thesis an appropriate synthesis for spermine-functionalized perylene bisimide dyes was developed and conducted successfully. The characterization of these building blocks and their course of self-assembly were investigated by NMR, UV/Vis and fluorescence spectroscopy as well as by atomic force and transmission electron microscopy. For the better understanding of the experimental results theoretical calculations were performed.
The role of elastic interactions, particularly for the self-organized formation of periodically faceted interfaces, was investigated in this thesis for archetype organic-metal interfaces. The cantilever bending technique was applied to study the change of surface stress upon formation of the interface between 3,4,9,10-perylene-tetracarboxylic-dianhydride (PTCDA) and Ag(111). This system is known to form a chemisorptive bonding. Indeed, the sign and the coverage-dependence of the surface stress change are in agreement to models and previous measurements of chemisorptive systems in literature. While the adsorption of molecules into the large domains is associated with a negative, i.e. compressive stress change, the formation of domain boundaries in the molecular layer induces a stress change of opposite sign, increasing the surface stress. The magnitude of the surface stress change of (-0.30 +- 0.10} N/m reflects a relatively weak binding of a PTCDA molecule to each individual single silver atom. It is emphasized, however, that if normalized to the surface stress change per molecule, this value corresponds to a stress change of (-2.2 +- 0.2) eV per molecule which is in the order of the suspected binding energy of this system. Therefore, these experiments reveal elastic interactions to be of significant order of magnitude for this system class. Thereby, they add a new point of view to the understanding of these interfaces. Besides, since the results are in agreement with the well-known properties of this interface, they establish the cantilever bending technique in the field of organic-metal interfaces. The mere existence of a bending of the sample implies an interesting detail for the PTCDA/Ag(111) interface in particular. It is the first experimental evidence for a structural change in the topmost substrate layers upon adsorption of PTCDA on Ag(111). Since such a modification has significant implications for the interpretation of other experimental results, a further investigation with more quantitative structural methods appears necessary. The main focus of this work, however, was on the investigation of the formation of the long-range ordered, self-organized faceted PTCDA/Ag(10 8 7) interface. Reciprocal space maps of this interface were recorded both by spot profile analysis low energy electron diffraction (SPA-LEED) and low energy electron microscopy (LEEM) in selected area LEED mode. Complementary to the reciprocal data, also microscopic real-space LEEM data were used to characterize the morphology of this interface. Six different facet faces ((111), (532), (743), (954), (13 9 5), and (542)) were observed for the preparation path of molecular adsorption on the substrate kept at 550 K. Facet-sensitive dark-field LEEM localized these facets to grow in homogeneous areas of microscopic extensions. If the pristine mesoscopic orientation locally deviates from the average orientation, e.g. in pristine step density, locally different facet types are formed, distorting the otherwise regular mesoscopic pattern. Hence, the original mesoscopic orientation of the substrate strongly determines the degree of order of the faceted surface and the facet species formed. The temperature-dependence of the interface formation was studied in a range between 418 K and 612 K in order to learn more about the kinetics of the process. Additional steeper facets of 27° inclination with respect to the (111) surface were observed in the low temperature regime. Furthermore, using facet-sensitive dark-field LEEM, spatial and size distributions of specific facets were studied for the different temperatures. The nucleation density of the facets did not depend on temperature and can therefore be concluded not to be limited by diffusion. Moreover, the facet dimensions were statistically analyzed. The total island size of the facets follows an exponential distribution, indicating a random growth mode in absence of any mutual facet interactions. While the length distribution of the facets also follows an exponential distribution, the width distribution is peaked, reflecting the high degree of lateral order. This anisotropy is temperature-dependent and occurs starting above 478 K substrate temperature during growth. The peaked distribution indicates the presence of a long-range interaction which leads to the structural order of the self-organized grating. The origin of this long-range interaction was investigated combining three complementary in-situ methods, all providing new insights into the formation of faceted organic-metal interfaces: the cantilever bending technique, high-resolution low energy electron diffraction (SPA-LEED), and microscopy (LEEM). The cantilever bending technique was applied for the first time to a faceting system at all. Below the faceting transition temperature the surface stress change associated with the formation of the PTCDA/Ag(10 8 7) interface resembles in shape and magnitude the one observed for the reference interface PTCDA/Ag(111). But above the transition temperature the absolute surface stress change of (-0.67 +- 0.10) N/m observed for the faceted PTCDA/Ag(10 8 7) interface is considerably larger than for the previous cases. Moreover, the stress change happens in distinguishable stages with a clearly resolvable fine structure of regimes of positive and negative stress changes. These different regimes of surface stress change can be correlated to different stages of the structural phase transition observed by the structural in-situ methods. Thereby, morphological objects (i.e. the facets) are assigned to a specific stress character. Thus, domains of different stress character can be identified on the surface. These stress domains are the prerequisite to apply continuum descriptions of the self-ordering process based on elastic interactions. Hence, the results are the first experimental verification that these continuum descriptions are indeed also applicable to the whole system class of faceting organic-metal interfaces. In conclusion, the results provide strong evidence for elastic interactions being the physical origin of long-range order for this system. In addition, the clear correlation of structural phase transition and surface stress change regimes suggests surface stress to play also an important role for the kinetics of the system. Indeed, the system seems to try to limit the overall stress change during the interface formation by forming facets of positive and negative stress character. Hence, the selection of specific facets could depend on the corresponding stress character. Furthermore, the system seems willing to re-facet at high coverages in order to prevent imperfect domain boundaries which are associated with an increase of surface stress. Finally, template-assisted growth of lateral, heterorganic nanostructures has been explored. Therefore, self-assembled monolayers as a second archetype class of molecules were grown on partially covered PTCDA/Ag(10 8 7) interfaces. Indeed, using standard surface science techniques, the basic principle of this growth scheme was confirmed to be successful.