Last week, members of the Institute of Advanced Materials and friends of the Professor and the Institute celebrated the long and successful scientific career of Professor Andrzej Miniewicz, who has decided to retire after more than forty years of research. Professor Miniewicz was a pioneer in nonlinear optical studies of molecular crystals at the Chemistry […]
The activation of rhodopsin, the light-sensitive G-protein-coupled receptor responsible for dim-light vision in vertebrates, is driven by an ultrafast excited-state double-bond isomerization with a quantum efficiency of almost 70%. The origin of such light sensitivity is not understood and a key question is whether in-phase nuclear motion controls the quantum efficiency value. In this study […]
The influence of pressure on the course of [4+4] photodimerization in crystals of 9-methylanthracene is presented. The studies were performed at 0.1 and 0.4 GPa. As a result of the reaction at high pressure, crystals of the pure product were obtained, which allowed for monitoring of the reaction until its completion. The initial increase in the […]
The 2,4,6-OMe-TCF dye, exhibiting the aggregation-induced emission (AIE) phenomenon, is investigated according to the generation of laser light. Light amplification is possible only for concentrated solutions with dye amounts close to the saturation level, indicating that the aggregation process plays an essential role in establishing light enhancement. Moreover, lasing is also achievable for the powdered […]
Chiral plasmonic gold nanoparticles assemblies are known for their strong circular dichroism. However, little is known about the creation of helical assemblies from atomically precise nanoparticles like gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) and the optical properties of the final structures. Herein, a new approach is proposed to helically assemble atomically precise gold nanoclusters and enable circularly polarized […]
Research is underway to find organic dyes with high photoluminescence quantum yield (QY) and having compatibility with liquid crystals (LCs) that would be suitable for application in LC systems such as light sources, light converters and sensors. An attempt was made to obtain a highly efficient photoluminescent compound in a class of diketofurofuran (DFF) dyes. […]