Oxygen-catalysed sequential singlet fission

Singlet fission is the photoinduced conversion of a singlet exciton into two triplet states of half-energy. This multiplication mechanism has been successfully applied to improve the efficiency of single-junction solar cells in the visible spectral range. Here we show that singlet fission may also occur via a sequential mechanism, where the two triplet states are generated consecutively by exploiting oxygen as a catalyst. This sequential formation of carriers is demonstrated for two acene-like molecules in solution. First, energy transfer from the excited acene to triplet oxygen yields one triplet acene and singlet oxygen. In the second stage, singlet oxygen combines with a ground-state acene to complete singlet fission. This yields a second triplet molecule. The sequential mechanism accounts for approximately 40% of the triplet quantum yield in the studied molecules; this process occurs in dilute solutions and under atmospheric conditions, where the single-step SF mechanism is inactive.

Intermediate-paramagnetic phases with a half and a quarter spin entities in fluorinated biphenyl-3,5-diyl bis(tert-butyl nitroxides)

A ground-triplet molecule 25FBPBN showed spin-transition-like behaviour with a small hysteresis, while 3FBPBN maintained a single phase.

The Elusive Ethenediselone, Se=C=C=Se

The neutral ethenediselone, Se=C=C=Se, has been characterised by neutralisation–reionisation mass spectrometry, which implies a minimum lifetime of the order of microseconds. Tetraselenafulvalene 1 and tetramethyltetraselenafulvalene 2 were used as precursor molecules. Flash vacuum thermolysis (FVT) of these compounds with isolation of the products in Ar matrices permitted the identification of ethyne, 2-butyne, CSe2, and selenoketene, H2C=C=Se, but at best traces of Se=C=C=Se survived the FVT/matrix isolation experiment. Multiconfigurational calculations indicate that Se=C=C=Se is a ground state triplet molecule with a very small singlet-triplet gap.

ENDOR Spectra of Pyrene Excited Triplet State in Naphthalene-TCNB Crystals

Triplet state traps, observed on optically excited single crystals of Naphthalene-TCNB doped with Pyrene, have been studied by EPR and ENDOR spectroscopy. The magnetic resonance lines recorded at low temperature (20 K) are shown to be due to triplet excitations localized almost completely on a Pyrene molecule. The complete hyperfine tensors of all the protons have been determined. The spin distribution is shown to be distorted in such a way that the triplet Pyrene molecule lacks the in-plane symmetry axes of the ground state molecule. The orientation of the triplet molecule in the crystal lattice and the relative orientation of Pyrene and TCNB are also discussed.