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Alginate-based hydrogels can be obtained by the simple addition of bivalent ions to aqueous polysaccharide solutions without the use of toxic chemicals; however, the hydrogels prepared by this way result inhomogeneous and irreproducible due to the extremely fast crosslinking reaction. To overcome such limitations, in the present work a novel preparation approach is proposed and optimized; the method is based on the use of agar moulds rich of bivalent ions as diffusing system to modulate the release of Ca 2+ , Sr 2+ , and Ba 2+ cations in order to guarantee a better control of the crosslinking process. A full factorial experimental design was applied to assess the effects and the mutual interactions of three selected parameters (sodium alginate concentration, crosslinking agent concentration within the agar moulds, crosslinking time) on the gelation process. The swelling and mechanical properties of the prepared hydrogels were investigated both in deionized water and in a saline environment; furthermore, the hydrogels were characterized by means of thermogravimetric analysis and field-emission scanning electron microscopy. The obtained results demonstrated that both the experimental variables and the environmental conditions have a significant influence on the structure and the performances of the resulting hydrogels. In particular, the use of high polymer concentration and crosslinking agent amount leads to strong hydrogels corresponding to a superior crosslinking degree; more in detail, Ba 2+ ions show a great affinity for alginate leading to the hydrogels with the highest mechanical properties. Moreover, the ion-exchange occurring in saline environment seems to strongly reduce the effective crosslinking degree of alginate hydrogels with a consequential loss of mechanical properties and stability. The collected data were finally elaborated through statistical analysis combined with response surface methodology to develop theoretical models successfully able to correlate the crosslinking degree to the experimental conditions, thus opening the way of designing and fabricating alginate-based hydrogels with tailored morphology and mechanical properties.

A series of fulleropyrrolidines-conjugated bridge-ferrocene or triazene oligomers were selectively synthesized by the Sonogashira reaction by applying the step-by-step approach. The bridge is constituted by 1, 2 and 3 benzoateethynylene units (BzE) and bears triazene (Et2N3) or ferrocene as terminal groups affording the C60-2PEN3 and C60-3PEN3 dyads and C60-1PEFe, C60-2PEFe and C60-3PEFe triads. DQF-COSY, HETCOR, 1H and 13C NMR and the MALDI-TOF characterization clearly confirmed the expected molecular structure. The absorption spectra of the fulleropyrrolidine oligomers do not match the sum of the individual spectra: N-methylfulleropyrrolidine (NMF) and BzEs, suggesting electronic interaction between the two moieties in the ground state. The fluorescence of the BzE is strongly quenched after functionalization with NMF, which could be indicative of energy or electron transfer from the triazene or ferrocene as electron donor to the fulleropyrrolidine electron acceptor through the π-bridge. The latter process was confirmed by cyclic voltammetry. The strength of the electron-accepting group gets to increase anodically the oxidation potential, or decrease cathodically the reduction potential in the order C60-pyrrolidine > benzoate. The character of the HOMO in the series is defined by the electron-donating ferrocene or triazene moiety, whereas the character of the LUMO is mainly determined by the electron-accepting group and is further supported by theoretical calculations. Photovoltaic devices presented low efficiencies, due to the absorption range of the oligomers being out of the maximum solar irradiance and the inhomogeneous organization in the films.

The collective electronic oscillator (CEO) method allows to analyze the electronic excitations in molecular systems. Using this technique the excitations are directly connected to the corresponding one-electron transition density matrices, obtained as eigenmodes of the time dependent Hartree–Fock (TDHF) Liouville operator, which represent motions of electron–hole (e–h) pairs. Two-dimensional plots of the density matrices establish the connection between the electronic spectra and the electronic rearrangement due to the photon absorption. In this paper, we use the CEO procedure to study the nature of the electronic excitations on three series of one-dimensional porphyrin systems, showing through the analysis of the CEO eigenmodes how they can be described in terms of Frenkel or Wannier–Mott excitons.

A simple method is reported allowing the fast evaluation of the athermal limit that is implicitly present within the set of equations recently proposed by Jonah, Brostow and Hess, dealing with the anisotropic-isotropic equilibria of single monodisperse or nearly monodisperse semirigid liquid polymers, including polymer liquid crystals. We have found an athermal limit dependent on the degree of rigidity 0 of the given semirigid liquid polymer (θ being the fraction of its monomeric units belonging to rigid rodlike sequences within each semiflexible polymeric chain) and marked off by critical lengths η al of the rigid sequences, giving rise to non-finite asymptotic values of the anisotropic-isotropic temperatures.

We discuss the effect of the interchain interactions on the electronic properties of a "dimer", named (CHD(4))(2), built from two molecules of a fully carbazolyl-substituted oligodiacetylene containing four repeating units. Each carbazolyl moiety is connected to its respective backbone through a methylene spacer, and the excitations of the neutral and doubly positively charged dimer are obtained using the CIS (configuration interaction including singles) and CEO (collective electronic oscillator) models. The separation distance between the backbones is fixed to a value that could possibly imply a very weak, if any, interchain interaction between the oligomers. In the charged dimer, where we have not been able to perform CEO calculations, it can be expected from previous results that the CIS method will behave satisfactorily. Contrary to the neutral case and surprisingly enough, the simulated photoinduced absorption (PA) spectra indicate a substituent-induced strong interaction between the oligomers, due to the very large amount of excess charge on the distorted oligomer which is spread over its carbazolyl moieties. Broadening of the lowest energy band due to the latter interaction improves the agreement between the theoretical and the experimental PA spectrum for the corresponding polymer. The through-space charge transfer directly connecting the charged with the neutral molecule could supply an efficient channel for charge transport in substituted polydiacetylenes.

We use a simple quantum chemical semiempirical procedure to study the electronic properties of organic-lanthanide complexes, taking as a model system Er(8-hydroxyquinolinate)3. Among the problems inherent to such a study is the fact that the lanthanide ion has never been parametrized in any of the standard semiempirical Hamiltonians. To overcome this difficulty, the lanthanide ion is replaced by a different but somewhat similar parametrized ion, or merely by a point charge. Good agreement with experiment, where available, is obtained, particularly in the former case. In fact, the electronic properties of the complex (apart from the emission properties) are seen to be scarcely affected by the nature of the lanthanide ion itself, but the core interactions between the metal ion and the ligand units play a relevant role, also in the calculation of the excitation energies. In particular, the ordering and separation of both singlet and triplet excited states are affected. The main conclusion is that to describe in detail the mechanism of the energy-transfer process occurring in the complex it is essential to take into account the geometry relaxation effects in the excited states.

In this work we report the synthesis and photophysical properties of a novel ligand and its lanthanide complexes based on macrocycle 1,4.7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7-triacetic acid bearing 8-hydroxyquinoline as antenna. Visible and IR sensitized emission is obtained because of the efficient energy transfer from the antenna to the emitting ion. The interaction between ions and antenna is accounted for by suitable quantum chemical calculations. The good stability of the complexes and their solubility in organic solvents make them good candidates for the fabrication of plastic waveguides and optical amplifiers. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.

We report on the absorption, photoluminescence and photoinduced absorption of polydiacetylenes (PDAs) having in the side groups the photoconductive carbazolyl rings substituted by acyl CO(CH 2 ) n CH 3 chains ( n =10, polyDLCHD; n =14, polyDPCHD). A novel feature in the absorption spectra is detected and assigned on the basis of theoretical calculation including the electron correlation. Different features are observed in the photoexcitations spectra of thin and thick samples and a preliminary interpretation is proposed.

Absorption and photoinduced absorption (PIA) spectra of thin films of polycarbazolyldiacetylenes carrying alkyl (polyDCHD-HS) or acyl (polyDPCHD) substitutions are reported. The absorption spectra are dominated by an excitonic absorption followed by a vibronic progression, and are quite insensitive to the temperature. The PIA spectra show the typical spectral feature of a triplet excitation whose rise and decay times are different. The PIA signal shows a strong sublinear pumping intensity dependence, which also affects the rise time.

We have performed a quantum chemical study on neutral and doubly charged oligodiacetylene clusters, using a recent time-dependent Hartree-Fock (TDHF) approach based on an INDO/S Hamiltonian. Our goal is to achieve information on the effect of the supramolecular architecture on the nature of the photoexcitations and on the non-linear optical properties of these systems, which are of relevant interest for their potential applications in photonics. Considering aggregates of three oligodiacetylene molecules with 15 repeat units, results for two geometrical configurations as models for maximal and minimal interchain interactions are reported.

We have performed theoretical calculations on the singly and doubly charged species of the lowest unsubstituted oligodiacetylenes, with the scope of achieving information on the charged photoexcitations of polydiacetylenes. On the basis of the AM1-optimized geometries of the radical ions and of the dications we have computed their low-energy vertical transitions, using the INDO-SCI method in order to take into account the electron correlation. Extrapolated polymer results are compared with the photoinduced absorption spectra.

We perform quantum chemical calculations on the singly and doubly charged species of the lowest unsubstituted oligodiacetylenes, in order to achieve information on the charged states originated in the photoexcitation of polydiacetylenes. On the basis of the optimized AM1 geometries of the radical ions and dications we obtain their low-energy vertical transitions in an INDO-SCI framework to ensure a proper treatment of electron correlation effects. We get the simulated absorption spectra of the charged oligomers by a convolution of the transition energies, and compare the linearly extrapolated polymer values with the photoinduced absorption results.