Disilane-bridged architectures with high optical transparency for optical limiting
- Authors: Feng, Hongjie , Zhou, Zhikuan , May, Aviwe K , Chen, Jiaying , Mack, John , Nyokong, Tebello , Gai, Lizhi , Lu, Hua
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/190623 , vital:45011 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1039/D1TC01488A"
- Description: A novel tetraphenylethylene (TPE) architecture that makes use of a disilane bridge was developed to successfully prepare organic optical power limiting (OPL) materials with high transparency. The σ-bridged TPE derivatives exhibit enhanced solid-state emission efficacies up to 4 times that of TPE. Due to the unique σ-electron delocalization, the incorporated Si–Si bridge gives rise to intense nonlinear optics (NLO) properties. These compounds show favorable optical transparency in the visible region, since the σ–π interaction has a relatively minor effect on the absorption properties of TPE. The poly(bisphenol A carbonate) (PBC) thin films of disilane-bridged compounds exhibit significant reverse saturable absorbance (RSA) responses during Z-scan measurements at 532 nm. In contrast, negligible OPL properties were observed in tetrahydrofuran (THF) solution and when a PBC thin film was prepared with TPE. The disilane-bridged molecular system represents a novel and easily prepared architecture for the construction of solid-state optical limiting materials.
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- Date Issued: 2021
Optical limiting properties of D-π-A BODIPY dyes in the presence and absence of methyl groups at the 1, 7-positions
- Authors: May, Aviwe K , Mack, John , Nyokong, Tebello
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/186146 , vital:44468 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1142/S1088424620500315"
- Description: The optical limiting properties of three meso-pentafluorophenylstyrylBODIPY dyes are investigated in the presence and absence of methyl groups at the 1,7-positions that hinder free rotation of the meso-aryl group. Pentafluorophenyl groups are introduced at the meso-position, while 4-diethylaminostyryl groups are introduced at the 3- and/or 5-positions to form dyes with strong donor-ππ-acceptor (D-ππ-A) properties to enhance the dipole moment of the molecule. Favorable optical limiting properties are obtained for all three dyes, with the highest second-order hyperpolarizability value obtained for a monostyryl dye with no methyl groups at the 1,7-position. Bromination at the 2,6-positions of a 1,7-methyl substituted dye is found to result in second-order hyperpolarizability that is an order of magnitude lower than that calculated for the analogous non-halogenated dye.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Optical limiting properties, structure and simplified TD-DFT calculations of scandium tetra-15-crown-5 phthalocyaninates:
- Authors: May, Aviwe K , Majumdar, Poulomi , Martynov, Alexander G , Lapkina, Lyudmila A , Troyanov, Sergey I , Gorbunova, Yulia G , Tsivadze, Aslan Yu , Mack, John , Nyokong, Tebello
- Date: 2020
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/163553 , vital:41048 , https://0-doi.org.wam.seals.ac.za/10.1142/S108842462050011X
- Description: The optical limiting properties of crown-ether-substituted scandium(III) phthalocyaninate complexes, bis-tetra-15-crown-5-phthalocyaninates Sc[(15C5)4Pc]∙022•0 (I) and Sc[(15C5)4Pc]−22− (Ia), together with monophthalocyaninate [(15C5)4Pc]Sc(OAc) (II) were measured by using the Z-scan technique (532 nm laser and pulse rate of 10 ns).
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- Date Issued: 2020
Effect of bromination on the optical limiting properties at 532 nm of BODIPY dyes with p-benzyloxystyryl groups at the 3, 5-positions
- Authors: Ngoy, Bokolombe P , May, Aviwe K , Mack, John , Nyokong, Tebello
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/187507 , vital:44665 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molstruc.2018.08.012"
- Description: The optical limiting (OL) properties of 3,5-di-p-benzyloxystyrylBODIPY dyes that contain both protons and bromine atoms at the 2,6-positions have been investigated by using the Z-scan technique at 532 nm on the nanosecond timescale. There is relatively weak absorbance at 532 nm under ambient light conditions, because the incorporation of p-benzyloxystyryl groups at the 3,5-positions results in a ca. 140 nm red shift of the main BODIPY spectral band to the 640–670 nm range. Reverse saturable absorbance (RSA) profiles that are consistent with an excited state absorption (ESA) mechanism involving the T1 and/or S1 states are observed in CH2Cl2 solution. Second order hyperpolarizability values of ca. 8 × 10−30 esu are obtained and this demonstrates that the dyes are potentially suitable for use in OL applications at 532 nm. There is a slight enhancement of the OL properties upon bromination, due to increased intersystem crossing to the triplet manifold, but the enhancement of the OL properties is less significant than has been observed with metal phthalocyanine complexes.
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- Date Issued: 2019
Methodological Survey of Simplified TD-DFT Methods for Fast and Accurate Interpretation of UV−Vis−NIR Spectra of Phthalocyanines
- Authors: Martynov, Alexander G , Mack, John , May, Aviwe K , Nyokong, Tebello , Gorbunova, Yulia G , Tsivadze, Aslan Yu
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/186915 , vital:44547 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.8b03500"
- Description: A methodological survey of density functional theory (DFT) methods for the prediction of UV−visible (vis)−near-infrared (NIR) spectra of phthalocyanines is reported. Four methods, namely, full time-dependent (TD)-DFT and its Tamm−Dancoff approximation (TDA), together with their simplified modifications (sTD-DFT and sTDA, respectively), were tested by using the examples of unsubstituted and alkoxy-substituted metal-free ligands and zinc complexes. The theoretical results were compared with experimental data derived from UV−visible absorption and magnetic circular dichroism spectroscopy. Seven popular exchange-correlation functionals (BP86, B3LYP, TPSSh, M06, CAM-B3LYP, LC-BLYP, and ωB97X) were tested within these four approaches starting at a relatively modest level using 6-31G(d) basis sets and gas-phase BP86/def2-SVP optimized geometries. A gradual augmentation of the computational levels was used to identify the influence of starting geometry, solvation effects, and basis sets on the results of TD-DFT and sTD-DFT calculations. It was found that although these factors do influence the predicted energies of the vertical excitations, they do not affect the trends predicted in the spectral properties across series of structurally related substituted free bases and metallophthalocyanines. The best accuracy for the gas-phase vertical excitations was observed in the lower-energy Q-band region for calculations that made use of range-separated hybrids for both full and simplified TD-DFT approaches. The CAMB3LYP functional provided particularly accurate results in the context of the sTD-DFT approach. The description of the higherenergy B-band region is considerably less accurate, and this demonstrates the need for further advances in the accuracy of theoretical calculations. Together with a general increase in accuracy, the application of simplified TD-DFT methods affords a 2−3 orders of magnitude speedup of the calculations in comparison to the full TD-DFT approach. It is anticipated that this approach will be widely used on desktop computers during the interpretation of UV−vis−NIR spectra of phthalocyanines and related macrocycles in the years ahead.
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- Date Issued: 2019
Optical limiting and femtosecond pump-probe transient absorbance properties of a 3, 5-distyrylBODIPY dye
- Authors: Ngoy, Bokolombe P , May, Aviwe K , Mack, John , Nyokong, Tebello
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/186835 , vital:44538 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fchem.2019.00740"
- Description: The optical limiting (OL) properties of a 3,5-di-p-benzyloxystyrylBODIPY dye with an p-acetamidophenyl moiety at the meso-position have been investigated by using the open-aperture Z-scan technique at 532 nm with 10 ns laser pulses. There is a ca. 140 nm red shift of the main spectral band to 644 nm relative to the corresponding BODIPY core dye, due to the incorporation of p-benzyloxystyryl groups at the 3,5-positions. As a result, there is relatively weak absorbance across most of the visible region under ambient light conditions. Analysis of the observed reverse saturable absorbance (RSA) profiles demonstrates that the dye is potentially suitable for use in optical limiting applications as has been reported previously for other 3,5-distyrylBODIPY dyes. Time-resolved transient absorption spectroscopy and kinetic studies with femtosecond and nanosecond scale laser pulses provide the first direct spectral evidence that excited state absorption (ESA) from the S1 state is responsible for the observed OL properties.
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- Date Issued: 2019
Flexible Metal–Porphyrin Dimers (M= MnIIICl, CoII, NiII, CuII)
- Authors: Li, Minzhi , Zhang, Qian , Xu, Li , Zhu, Weihua , Mack, John , May, Aviwe K , Nyokong, Tebello , Kobayashi, Nagao , Liang, Xu
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/239676 , vital:50754 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cplu.201600475"
- Description: Four metalloporphyrin dimers linked by bridging amide-bonded xanthene moieties and that contain either MnIII, CoII, NiII, or CuII metal centers were synthesized. Various spectroscopic, electrochemical, and spectroelectrochemical methods were used to study trends in their properties. Their electronic structure and optical properties were analyzed through a comparison of the electronic absorption and magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) spectral data with the results of time-dependent (TD)-DFT calculations.
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- Date Issued: 2017
Photophysical and optical limiting properties of a novel distyryl-BODIPY with fused crown ether moieties
- Authors: May, Aviwe K , Stone, Justin , Ngoy, Bokolombe P , Mack, John , Nyokong, Tebello , Kimura, Mutsumi , Kobayashi, Nagao
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/239621 , vital:50749 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1142/S1088424617500869"
- Description: The synthesis and characterization of a crown-ether-substituted 3,5-distyrylBODIPY dye with a 4-dimethylaminophenyl group at the meso-position is reported. The optical limiting properties were investigated at 532 nm, and the dye was found to have enhanced reverse saturable absorption responses during z-scan measurements. Theoretical calculations suggest that this may be due to the large dipole moment that is introduced by the benzo-fused crown ether and 4-dimethylaminophenyl substituents.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017