This thesis document is comprised of three research projects. The first investigates the active vibrational modes involved in twisted intramolecular charge transfer in a Julolidine-BODIPY dyad using two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy along with DFT calculations. We identified two types of vibrations, compression and torsional motion, as playing an important role in...
Creating sustainable and clean sources of energy is an outstanding problem of importance for the current generation of scientists to solve. Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) are a promising renewable energy source but require improvements to their architectures and better fundamental understanding of the effects of organic chromophore morphology on the resulting...
Recent developments in research concerning organic photovoltaics (OPVs) have overseen massive increases in device performance and the ascension of electron acceptor materials that outclass the preeminent acceptor compounds, buckminsterfullerene (C60) derivatives. New design strategies in the molecular structure of perylenediimides (PDIs) and fused-ring electron acceptors (FREAs) have increased single-junction photovoltaic...
In this Thesis, I describe some recent developments in the field of artificial molecular machines to which I have made contributions. In Chapter 1, I survey the rise and promise of molecular nanotopology, a relatively new discipline focusing on molecular knots and links that offers unprecedented opportunities to access high-energy...
Biogenic secondary organic aerosol (SOA) particles, produced by forest ecosystems across the globe, are principal, yet poorly understood constituents in the climate system. These atmospheric particles form when biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) react with atmospheric oxidants, leading to increasingly lower volatility oxidation products that partition into the condensed phase...
The development and use of organic anionic chromophores that absorb the entire visible spectrum & into the near-infrared region while providing highly reducing equivalents is pinnacle for artificial photosynthesis. This dissertation investigates the rational design of new donor-acceptor systems for artificial photosynthesis that couple naphthalene diimide (NDI)/perylene diimide (PDI) radical...