This thesis investigates singlet exciton fission, a physical process that converts one singlet exciton to a pair of triplet excitons. Singlet fission was discovered nearly forty years ago, but the mechanism for this process is still not well understood. Recent work has suggested that singlet fission may be capable of...
This thesis attempts a combined theoretical/experimental investigation of two fundamental scaling laws in charge transfer reactions: how the rate of those reactions varies as a function of distance between an electron donor and an electron acceptor and how the rate varies as a function of the number of distinct pathways...
The work described in this dissertation focuses on the optical characterization of micron-sized structures with mesoscale (100-1000 nm) features to investigate of the optical analog to the quantum corral. Lithographically patterned arrays of metallic rings and ellipses were used to study how light can be manipulated and confined within these...
The contents of this dissertation are divided into two sections: (1) the preparation and characterization of quaternary rare-earth chalcogenides and oxychalcogenides and (2) the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) spectroscopy of metallic nanoparticles fabricated by nanosphere lithography (NSL).
Single crystals of CsTmCoS3, CsYbCoS3, CsHoCoSe3, CsYbCoSe3, and CsYbZnSe3 have been prepared...
Theoretical analysis of DNA bridge-mediated electron transfer (ET) led to the proposal that photoinduced ET might occur via either superexchange or hopping mechanisms. Electron transfer has been proposed to occur via a superexchange mechanism at short distances and via a hopping mechanism at longer distances. However, a crossover in mechanism...
This dissertation describes the use of alkanethiols and polymers for the development of lithographic affinity and resist array templates that can be utilized for directing the assembly of biological molecules, for building up multilayered polyelectrolyte thin films, and for fabricating metal solid-state nanostructures. The first two chapters of the work...
The work presented in this thesis describes investigations into linear and nonlinear optical properties of two-dimensional silver nanoparticle arrays. The linear optical measurements - extinction measurements were performed on two-dimensional square arrays of L-shaped silver nanoparticles fabricated by electron beam lithography in order to study the effect of dipole coupling...
Two new methods have been developed employing silicon-containing molecules in novel organic transformations. The first strategy utilizes Lewis base-activation of triethoxysilylalkynes to deliver mild acetylide nucleophile equivalents. The second approach involves the use of enolate additions to acylsilanes to generate β-silyloxy homoenolate intermediates.
Lewis base-catalyzed activation of triethoxysilylalkynes promotes the...
This dissertation focuses on the utilization of two coordination chemistry-based synthetic approaches, which provide the ability to rapidly and quantitatively assemble sophisticated supramolecular cofacial porphyrin complexes. Significantly, by adopting a coordination chemistry-based approach, the porphyrin-porphyrin interactions can be regulated in situ via the addition or removal of chemical effector molecules....
The first section of this thesis focuses on applications of DNA-modified gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) while the second part addresses the fundamental properties that arise from conjugating DNA to inorganic AuNPs. Two types of applications are discussed. The first application utilizes the colorimetric properties of AuNPs to screen duplex and triplex...