Theory of the J-band: From the Frenkel exciton to charge transfer

Bright and Fast Emission from Robust Supramolecular J-Aggregate Nanostructures through Silica-Encapsulation

We introduce a two-step silica-encapsulation procedure to optimize both the optical efficiency and structural robustness of 5,5',6,6'-tetrachloro-1,1'-diethyl-3,3'-di(4-sulfobutyl)-benzimidazolocarbocyanine (TDBC), a two-dimensional sheet-like J-aggregate. We report a fluorescence quantum yield of ∼98%, the highest quantum yield recorded for any J-aggregate structure at room temperature, and a fast, emissive lifetime of 234 ps. Silica, as an encapsulating matrix, provides optical transparency, chemical inertness, and robustness to dilution, while rigidifying the J-aggregate structure. Our in situ encapsulation process preserves the excitonic structure in TDBC J-aggregates, maintaining their light absorption and emission properties. The homogeneous silica coating has an average thickness of 0.5-1 nm around J-aggregate sheets. Silica encapsulation permits extensive dilutions of J-aggregates without significant disintegration into monomers. The narrow absorbance and emission line widths exhibit further narrowing upon cooling to 79 K, which is consistent with J-type coupling in the encapsulated aggregates. This silica TDBC J-aggregate construct signifies (1) a bright, fast, and robust fluorophore system, (2) a platform for further manipulation of J-aggregates as building blocks for integration with other optical materials and structures, and (3) a system for fundamental studies of exciton delocalization, transport, and emission dynamics within a rigid matrix.

Theoretical Models, Preparation, Characterization and Applications of Cyanine J-Aggregates: A Minireview

Cyanines are one of the few kinds of molecules whose absorbance and emission can be shifted in a broad spectral range from the ultraviolet to the near infrared. They can easily transform into J-aggregates with narrow absorption and emission peaks, along with a redshift in their spectra. This mini-review presents cyanine dyes and their J-aggregates and discusses their structure and spectral properties that illustrate their specificities. We summarize the theoretical and experimental state of the art on cyanine J-aggregates and their applications, also laying the groundwork for cyanine J-aggregates synthesis and characterization methods.

Efficient blue TADF-type organic afterglow material via boric acid-assisted confinement

A heat treatment method is developed to produce blue afterglow materials, achieving a photoluminescence quantum yield of 65% and an emission lifetime of 0.18 s (afterglow: >2 s). The afterglow is attributed to TADF of norfloxacin, activated by the confinement effect of boric acid.

Uncovering the Use of Fucoxanthin and Phycobiliproteins into Solid Matrices to Increase Their Emission Quantum Yield and Photostability

In the search for a better and brighter future, the use of natural luminescent renewable materials as substitutes for synthetic ones in the energy field is of prime importance. The incorporation of natural pigments (e.g., xanthophylls and phycobiliproteins) is a fundamental step in a broad spectrum of applications that are presently marred by their limited stability. The incorporation of bio-based luminescent molecules into solid matrices allows the fabrication of thin films, which may dramatically increase the range of applications, including sustainable photovoltaic systems, such as luminescent solar concentrators or downshifting layers. In this work, we incorporated R-phycoerythrin (R-PE), C-phycocyanin (C-PC), and fucoxanthin (FX) into poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and studied their optical properties. It was found that the emission and excitation spectra of the phycobiliproteins and FX were not modified by incorporation into the PVA matrix. Moreover, in the case of FX, the emission quantum yield (η) values also remained unaltered after incorporation, showing the suitability of the PVA as a host matrix. A preliminary photostability study was performed by exposing the solid samples to continuous AM1.5G solar radiation, which evidenced the potential of these materials for future photovoltaics.

Quantum–Classical Mechanics: Nano-Resonance in Polymethine Dyes

It is well known in quantum mechanics that the theory of quantum transitions is based on the convergence of the series of time-dependent perturbation theory. This series converges in atomic and nuclear physics. However, in molecular and chemical physics, this series converges only in the Born–Oppenheimer adiabatic approximation and due to the application of the Franck–Condon principle, and it diverges as a result of going beyond the adiabatic approximation and the Franck–Condon principle. This divergence (singularity) is associated with the incommensurability of the masses of light electrons and heavy nuclei which jointly participate in the full-fledged movement in the transient state of molecular “quantum” transitions. In a new physical theory—quantum–classical mechanics (Egorov, V.V. Heliyon Physics 2019, 5, e02579)—this singularity is damped by introducing chaos into the transient state. This transient chaos is introduced by replacing the infinitely small imaginary additive in the energy denominator of the spectral representation of the total Green’s function of the system with a finite value and is called dozy chaos. In this article, resonance at the nanoscale (nano-resonance) between electron and nuclear reorganization motions in the quantum–classical (dozy-chaos) mechanics of elementary electron transfers in condensed media and their applications to polymethine dyes and J-aggregates in solutions are reviewed. Nano-resonance explains the resonant character of the transformation of the shape of the optical absorption band in a series of polymethine dyes in which the length of the polymethine chain changes, as well as the nature of the red-shifted absorption band of the J-aggregates of polymethine dyes (J-band), which is narrow and intense. The process of dye aggregation in an aqueous solution with an increase in its concentration by the formation of J-aggregates is considered a structural tuning of the “polymethine dye + environment” system into resonance with light absorption. For J-aggregates in Langmuir films, the asymmetry of the luminescence and absorption bands, as well as the small value of their Stokes shifts, are explained. The parasitic transformation of the resonant shape of the optical absorption band of a polymethine dye in solution during the transition from one-photon to two-photon absorption is also explained, and the conditions for the restoration of this nano-resonance shape are predicted.

Novel Targeted Photosensitizer as an Immunomodulator for Highly Efficient Therapy of T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Dasatinib is a kinase-targeted drug used in the treatment of leukemia. Regrettably, it remains far from optimal medicine due to insurmountable drug resistance and side effects. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has proven that it can induce systemic immune responses. However, conventional photosensitizers as immunomodulators produce anticancer immunities, which are inadequate to eliminate residual cancer cells. Herein, a novel compound 4 was synthesized and investigated, which introduces dasatinib and zinc(II) phthalocyanine as the targeting and photodynamic moiety, respectively. Compound 4 exhibits a high affinity to CCRF-CEM cells/tumor tissues, which overexpress lymphocyte-specific protein tyrosine kinase (LCK), and preferential elimination from the body. Meanwhile, compound 4 shows excellent photocytotoxicity and tumor regression. Significantly, compound 4-induced PDT can obviously enhance immune responses, resulting in the production of more immune cells. We believe that the proposed manner is a potential strategy for the treatment of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Dynamic Symmetry in Dozy-Chaos Mechanics

All kinds of dynamic symmetries in dozy-chaos (quantum-classical) mechanics (Egorov, V.V. Challenges 2020, 11, 16; Egorov, V.V. Heliyon Physics 2019, 5, e02579), which takes into account the chaotic dynamics of the joint electron-nuclear motion in the transient state of molecular “quantum” transitions, are discussed. The reason for the emergence of chaotic dynamics is associated with a certain new property of electrons, consisting in the provocation of chaos (dozy chaos) in a transient state, which appears in them as a result of the binding of atoms by electrons into molecules and condensed matter and which provides the possibility of reorganizing a very heavy nuclear subsystem as a result of transitions of light electrons. Formally, dozy chaos is introduced into the theory of molecular “quantum” transitions to eliminate the significant singularity in the transition rates, which is present in the theory when it goes beyond the Born–Oppenheimer adiabatic approximation and the Franck–Condon principle. Dozy chaos is introduced by replacing the infinitesimal imaginary addition in the energy denominator of the full Green’s function of the electron-nuclear system with a finite value, which is called the dozy-chaos energy γ. The result for the transition-rate constant does not change when the sign of γ is changed. Other dynamic symmetries appearing in theory are associated with the emergence of dynamic organization in electronic-vibrational transitions, in particular with the emergence of an electron-nuclear-reorganization resonance (the so-called Egorov resonance) and its antisymmetric (chaotic) “twin”, with direct and reverse transitions, as well as with different values of the electron–phonon interaction in the initial and final states of the system. All these dynamic symmetries are investigated using the simplest example of quantum-classical mechanics, namely, the example of quantum-classical mechanics of elementary electron-charge transfers in condensed media.

Quantum-classical mechanics as an alternative to quantum mechanics in molecular and chemical physics

In quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum transitions is grounded on the convergence of a series of time-dependent perturbation theory. In nuclear and atomic physics, this series converges because the dynamics of quantum transitions (quantum jumps) are absent by definition. In molecular and chemical physics, on the contrary, the dynamics of "quantum" transitions, being determined by the joint motion of a light electron (or electrons) and very heavy nuclei, are present by definition, and the series of time-dependent perturbation theory becomes singular. An exception is the dynamic problem for stationary states in the Born-Oppenheimer adiabatic approximation, when the electronic subsystem turns out to be "off" from the general dynamic process and therefore is not dynamically full-fledged: it only forms an electric potential in which the nuclei oscillate. Removing the aforementioned singularity can be accomplished in two ways. The first method was consisted of introducing an additional postulate in the form of the Franck-Condon principle into molecular quantum mechanics, in which the adiabatic approximation is used. The second method was proposed by the author and consisted of damping the singular dynamics of the joint motion of an electron and nuclei in the intermediate (transient) state of molecular "quantum" transitions by introducing chaos. This chaos arises only during molecular quantum transitions and is called dozy chaos. Formally, the damping is carried out by replacing an infinitely small imaginary addition in the spectral representation of the complete Green's function of the system with its finite quantity. The damping chaos (dozy chaos) leads to the continuity of the energy spectrum in the molecular transient state, which is a sign of classical mechanics. Meanwhile, the initial and final states of the molecule obey quantum mechanics in the adiabatic approximation. Molecular quantum mechanics, which takes into account the chaotic dynamics of the transient state of molecular "quantum" transitions, can be called quantum-classical (dozy-chaos) mechanics. The efficacy of the damping for the aforementioned singularity was previously shown by dozy-chaos mechanics of elementary electron transfers in condensed matter, which is the simplest case of dozy-chaos mechanics, and its applications to a whole number of problems, especially to the optical spectra in polymethine dyes and their aggregates. This paper provides a regular exposition of this dozy-chaos (quantum-classical) mechanics of the elementary electron transfers. The main results of its applications presented in the introduction are also described.

Toward a Molecular Reorganization Energy-Based Analysis of Third-Order Nonlinear Optical Properties of Polymethine Dyes and J-Aggregates

This work demonstrates the feasibility and applicability of the theory of extended multiphonon electron transitions for the description of nonlinear optical properties of polymethine dyes using quantum chemistry and model calculations. The transformation of a strong one-photon absorption band in dye monomers to a weak two-photon absorption band is rationalized from the electron-nuclear resonance condition. The power law fitting of the results of quantum chemical computations of nonlinear optical properties allows the predicting of the shift of the corresponding Egorov-like resonance curve to the shortest dye in the vinylogous series of dye monomers. The results presented provide an insight and guide for the rational molecular design and application of polymethine dyes.

Quantifying the Plasmonic Character of Optical Excitations in a Molecular J-Aggregate

The definition of plasmon at the microscopic scale is far from being understood. Yet, it is very important to recognize plasmonic features in optical excitations, as they can inspire new applications and trigger new discoveries by analogy with the rich phenomenology of metal nanoparticle plasmons. Recently, the concepts of plasmonicity index and the generalized plasmonicity index (GPI) have been devised as computational tools to quantify the plasmonic nature of optical excitations. The question may arise whether any strong absorption band, possibly with some sort of collective character in its microscopic origin, shares the status of plasmon. Here we demonstrate that this is not always the case, by considering a well-known class of systems represented by J-aggregates molecular crystals, characterized by the intense J band of absorption. By means of first-principles simulations, based on a many-body perturbation theory formalism, we investigate the optical properties of a J-aggregate made of push–pull organic dyes. We show that the effect of aggregation is to lower the GPI associated with the J-band with respect to the isolated dye one, which corresponds to a nonplasmonic character of the electronic excitations. In order to rationalize our finding, we then propose a simplified one-dimensional theoretical model of the J-aggregate. A useful microscopic picture of what discriminates a collective molecular crystal excitation from a plasmon is eventually obtained.

Interplay between Intra- and Intermolecular Charge Transfer in the Optical Excitations of J-Aggregates

In a first-principles study based on density functional theory and many-body perturbation theory, we address the interplay between intra- and intermolecular interactions in a J-aggregate formed by push-pull organic dyes by investigating its electronic and optical properties. We find that the most intense excitation dominating the spectral onset of the aggregate, i.e., the J-band, exhibits a combination of intramolecular charge transfer, coming from the push-pull character of the constituting dyes, and intermolecular charge transfer, due to the dense molecular packing. We also show the presence of a pure intermolecular charge-transfer excitation within the J-band, which is expected to play a relevant role in the emission properties of the J-aggregate. Our results shed light on the microscopic character of optical excitations of J-aggregates and offer new perspectives to further understand the nature of collective excitations in organic semiconductors.

Nature of the optical band shapes in polymethine dyes and H-aggregates: dozy chaos and excitons. Comparison with dimers, H*- and J-aggregates

Results on the theoretical explanation of the shape of optical bands in polymethine dyes, their dimers and aggregates are summarized. The theoretical dependence of the shape of optical bands for the dye monomers in the vinylogous series in line with a change in the solvent polarity is considered. A simple physical (analytical) model of the shape of optical absorption bands in H-aggregates of polymethine dyes is developed based on taking the dozy-chaos dynamics of the transient state and the Frenkel exciton effect in the theory of molecular quantum transitions into account. As an example, the details of the experimental shape of one of the known H-bands are well reproduced by this analytical model under the assumption that the main optical chromophore of H-aggregates is a tetramer resulting from the two most probable processes of inelastic binary collisions in sequence: first, monomers between themselves, and then, between the resulting dimers. The obtained results indicate that in contrast with the compact structure of J-aggregates (brickwork structure), the structure of H-aggregates is not the compact pack-of-cards structure, as stated in the literature, but a loose alternate structure. Based on this theoretical model, a simple general (analytical) method for treating the more complex shapes of optical bands in polymethine dyes in comparison with the H-band under consideration is proposed. This method mirrors the physical process of molecular aggregates forming in liquid solutions: aggregates are generated in the most probable processes of inelastic multiple binary collisions between polymethine species generally differing in complexity. The results obtained are given against a background of the theoretical results on the shape of optical bands in polymethine dyes and their aggregates (dimers, H*- and J-aggregates) previously obtained by V.V.E.