Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology C: Photochemistry Reviews最新文献

Chiral light-matter interaction occurs when the system consists of the matter and the light has a chiral structure, which is generically called the chiro-optical effect. Circular dichroism and optical rotation are representative spectroscopic methods based on chiro-optical effects. Chiro-optical effects have been widely utilized to detect chiral materials in the system. The chiro-optical effect also has the potential to create chiral materials from achiral materials and chiral optical fields, and to generate chiral optical fields from chiral matter systems. To achieve that, the design and observation of chiral optical field structures are essential. In this article, we describe local chiral optical fields generated in the peripheries of nanomaterials (typically metal nanostructures) irradiated with light. We summarize basic characteristics of nanoscale local chiral optical fields, methods to observe/control the chiral optical field structures at nanomaterials. Then some chemical, optical, and mechanical effects of designed chiral optical fields are described. Chiral nanostructures were created from achiral nanomaterials combined with circularly polarized light. Nucleation of chiral crystals of achiral molecules was achieved by circularly polarized light with the aid of plasmonic materials. Circularly polarized luminescence was observed from achiral fluorescent molecules conjugated with chiral plasmonic nanostructures. On mechanical characteristics, optical forces exerted on chiral materials were found to be dependent on the handedness of incident circularly polarized light, which can be utilized to discriminate the chirality of the material. The concept can be further generalized to the spin-dependent asymmetric light-matter interactions, which will create not only the molecular- and nano-scale chiral structures but also various novel functions of materials that are correlated with the handedness degree of freedom.

Recently, laser-induced nucleation (LIN) has been attracting significant attention because of its many advantages, including non-mechanical contact, spatiotemporal controllability, and high nucleation probability. Consequently, there is a high demand for precise control methods for polymorphism, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry. The precise control of nucleation and polymorphism, as well as the expansion of their versatility, is indispensable in elucidating the mechanism of nucleation and polymorphism. If LIN can be exploited to precisely control polymorphism, it will be possible to appropriately control the solubility, bioavailability, and stability of targets. Currently, numerous mechanisms for LIN involving targets, solvents, laser light sources, and additives have been proposed. In this review, the authors summarize the history and current state of the research on nucleation and LIN-controlled polymorphism reported over the past two decades while focusing on the different light sources (pulsed laser vs. continuous-wave laser). Furthermore, the authors introduce the classical nucleation and two-step nucleation models and discuss the similarities and differences in the mechanisms of nucleation and polymorphism control based on these two models.

This account discusses first two computational methods which can be applied to electronic structure calculations of soft-crystals; one is a method composed of the periodic-density functional theory (DFT) for an infinite crystal and the post-Hartree-Fock method for a cluster model, named here cluster-model/periodic-model combined method (abbreviated as CM/PM-Combined method). The other is a quantum mechanics/periodic-molecular mechanics (named QM/Periodic-MM) method, in which a target molecule is calculated by the DFT or the post-Hartree-Fock method and the other moiety is calculated by the MM method under the periodic boundary condition. Then, the performance of these two methods is discussed. The CM/PM-Combined method exhibited good performance for investigating the gas adsorption into MOF and the QM/Periodic-MM succeeded in reproducing geometry of single crystal of platinum(II) complexes. The QM/periodic-MM method has been applied to theoretical studies of the excited state and the emission spectrum in soft-crystals: In a theoretical study of a gold(I) phenyl phenylisocyanide complex, the geometries of a triplet ligand-to-ligand charger transfer (³LLCT) and a triplet metal-metal to ligand charge-transfer (³MMLCT) excited states were optimized in the crystal and the dependences of absorption and emission energies on crystal phase were discussed. In a theoretical study of a platinum(II) dicyano bipyridine complex, the geometries of several delocalized ³MMLCT excited states, emission spectra, and their temperature dependences were investigated in the crystal. In both gold(I) and platinum(II) complexes, the characteristic features of the excited state and the emission spectra were elucidated by the theoretical calculations. Although the CM/PM-Combined method has not been applied to photochemistry issue, brief discussion is presented for its possibility for the application.

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have become a worldwide hot topic due to their fascinating properties, including high carrier mobility, tunable bandgap, ultra-broadband optical absorption and response. The versatility of 2D materials enable it hold great potential to achieve high performance Terahertz (THz) optoelectronic devices. However, the THz radiation, range from infrared to microwave, known as the THz gap, much less investigated than that of other electromagnetic wave. Motivated by this lack of knowledge, we reviewed the recent advances of research into 2D materials based THz optoelectronic devices. Firstly, we introduced the background and motivation of this review. Then, the suitable 2D material candidates are exhibited, followed by a comprehensive review of their applications in THz generation devices, modulator, THz shielding, and photodetectors. Finally, the challenges and further development directions are concluded. We believe that some milestone investigations of 2D materials based THz optoelectronic devices will emerge soon, which will bring about great industrial revelations in 2D materials-based nanodevice commercialization.

Soft crystals are a class of smart materials that can switch their photophysical or mechanical properties in response to gentle external stimuli. A representative stimuli-responsive behavior of soft crystals is mechanochromic luminescence (MCL), i.e., a reversible color change of solid-state photoluminescence induced by external mechanical stimuli. Together with the rapid growth in the area of solid-state photoluminescence including fluorescence, room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP), thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF), white-light emission (WLE), and circularly polarized luminescence (CPL), a number of soft crystals that exhibit MCL behaviors have been reported during the past decade. In the typical MCL of soft crystals, the emission color switches in the bathochromic direction upon amorphization by grinding and recovers to the original color upon recrystallization by heating or exposure to organic solvents. Relatively few are known to exhibit hypsochromically shifted MCL, two-step MCL, self-recovering MCL, or mechanical-stimuli-induced single-crystal-to-single-crystal (SCSC) transitions. Rational design guidelines to control the mechanoresponsive properties of soft crystals have not yet been established. This review summarizes the systematic studies on the substituent effect to control the MCL properties of soft crystals. Recent studies provide useful insights into the effects of electronic and steric differences of substituents on crystal structure, luminescence properties, and mechanoresponsive behaviors.

Chemiluminescence (CL) is a luminescence phenomenon originated by a “chemical reaction.” CL provides a basis for real-time imaging technology in materials science. In fact, a CL reaction is easily triggered in general and makes it possible to track its progress in a target material by highly sensitive photon detection. Recently, real-time CL imagings became breakthrough techniques for analyzing the molecular mechanisms of failures of polymeric materials and of reactions and phase transitions in soft crystals. In the CL imaging techniques, adamantylideneadamantane 1,2-dioxetane (Adox) has been adopted as a stable core structure of chemiluminophores. That is, Adox is an essential seed compound to design a chemiluminophore with a desired molecular function. To support developments of real-time CL imaging techniques, we review the chemistry of Adox as a representative stable chemiluminophore including scientific history and utilities of Adox and its derivatives.

The photophysical process of lanthanide(III) ion is based on the 4f-4f transition, which is the Laporte forbidden with narrow emission band and long emission lifetime. The 4f-4f emission process is affected by introducing aromatic organic ligands. In this review, recent progress of one-, two-, and three-dimensional polymer-typed lanthanide complexes, luminescent lanthanide coordination polymers, are focused for physical and chemical sensing applications. Their changeable luminescence depended on the physical and chemical environments come from the energy transfer between lanthanide(III) ions and aromatic organic ligands. The characteristic physical (temperature, pressure, pH and mechanical force) and chemical (adsorption of metal ions and molecules) sensitive luminescence of lanthanide coordination polymers are useful for future sensing applications.

The latest trends in vapochromic materials that exhibit reversible color changes in response to gas or vapor are reviewed. Since the end of the 20th century, studies on vapochromic materials have significantly increased for environmental sensing, particularly those accompanied by the luminescence. In addition to the diversity of materials, vapochromic multifunctional systems that exhibit additional functions, such as conductivity and magnetic properties along with color and/or luminescence change by vapor, would be more attractive. In this context, recent developments in multifunctional vapochromic systems are discussed. Systems exhibiting single-crystal to single-crystal transformations are reviewed because these provide useful information on the structural dynamics, which is essential for understanding vapochromic phenomena.

Recent years have witnessed tremendous progress and developments of the photoswitchable spiropyran-based polymers, owing to distinctive and particular physicochemical properties of their isomers upon a variety of triggers, and especially light illumination. Light is a fascinating and green stimulus because of its remote control, micron- or submicron-sized focusing area with controllable wavelength and energy, non-invasiveness and non-destructive nature, precisely controlled direction, and availability. In this review, we have emphasized on and summarized the most recent observations and efforts in the progress of photoswitchable spiropyran-based materials and their applications as sensors for heavy metal cations, anions, pH, acid and base vapors, wettability and humidity. Other items include data recording and anticounterfeiting devices, photorheological fluids, optically reversible switching membranes, photoregulating surface plasmon resonance, photomodulation of ion conductivity and mechanoresponsive polymers. The bio-based field is another interesting subject that is discussed here and consists of reversible cell sheet engineering, photodynamic therapy, switchable fluorescence labeling, controlled drug delivery and biological ion channels. On the other hand, limited light penetration inside the living tissues and hazards of high-energy ultraviolet irradiation for initiating photochemical transformations have limited the use of such light-controlled systems in medicinal and therapeutic means. Those spiropyran-based materials which are susceptible to being triggered by low energy near IR (NIR) two-photon light irradiation and upconversion nanoparticles are recently under serious explorations and have been reviewed as a new perspective for their advanced applications.