Quantum chemical studies of spectroscopy and electrochemistry of large conjugated molecular systems

dc.contributor.advisorRossky, Peter J.en
dc.creatorCho, Sangiken
dc.date.accessioned2009-09-03T21:02:44Zen
dc.date.accessioned2017-05-11T22:19:37Z
dc.date.available2009-09-03T21:02:44Zen
dc.date.available2017-05-11T22:19:37Z
dc.date.issued2009-05en
dc.descriptiontexten
dc.description.abstractThe molecular identity of the green emission of polyfluorene is investigated in the view point of the molecular interactions between modeled segments. The semi-empirical quantum methods, ZINDO/S and AM1 (AM1-CIS), are used in combination to provide reasonable explanations for experimental spectroscopic properties of monodisperse fluorene oligomers and fluorene oligomers with a central keto defect in dilute solutions. Applying the same method, the molecular interactions between model segments are found to exist and are significant. However, the spectroscopic property change from the molecular interactions is negligible. In addition, the effects of mechanical stress and multi-defects on fluorene oligomers are investigated. On the other hand, the redox mechanisms proposed for the oxidation of an amphiphilic cyanine (C8S3) J-aggregates immobilized at ITO electrode and the subsequent dehydrogenated dimmer formation during cyclic voltammetry based on analysis of absorption spectra during the process are verified with the combined semi-empirical quantum methods similar to the previous methods. The absorption spectra assigned by experiment for electrochemical species involved in the proposed mechanism show reasonable match to the theoretically estimated absorption energies of the corresponding simplified model systems. In addition, the standard reduction potentials of the fairly large molecules, C8S3 monomer and its dehydrogenated dimer, are pursued with quantum mechanical calculations. The free energy difference between the oxidized and reduced states of the target systems is decomposed to electronic energy, solvation energy and temperature-dependent free energies terms. Based on AM1 ground state geometries and with the corresponding temperature dependent free energies, the electronic energies and the solvation energies are each evaluated by two different methods. The electronic energies are calculated with AM1 method and DFT calculation and, also, the solvation energies are obtained based on the atomic partial charges from AM1 and DFT wavefunctions with continuum dielectric solvent approximation. The four calculation schemes from the combinations of the electronic and solvation energy estimation methods are tested with the redox compounds with various molecular weights and the estimations are compared with the corresponding experimental redox potentials. The relative redox potentials between two different redox systems are found to be reasonably estimated with the four calculation schemes.en
dc.description.departmentChemistry and Biochemistryen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2152/ETD-UT-2009-05-12en
dc.language.isoengen
dc.subjectpolyfluoreneen
dc.subjectgreen emissionen
dc.subjectketone defecten
dc.subjectC8S3en
dc.subjectamphiphilic cyanine dyeen
dc.subjectCyclic voltammetryen
dc.subjectstandard reduction potentialen
dc.titleQuantum chemical studies of spectroscopy and electrochemistry of large conjugated molecular systemsen
dc.type.genreThesisen

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