Seminar by Prof. Vaidhyanathan Ramamurthy, Chair, Department of Chemistry, University of Miami, Florida, USA on "Medium Matters: Dynamics of Molecules in a Confined Space"
09 Jan 2019
Seminar Room #350
Talk Title : "Medium Matters: Dynamics of Molecules in a Confined Space"
Abstract
From time immemorial i
t is well known that
curtailment of
freedom
ofte
n
leads to
changes
in
the
behaviour of living beings.
Similar restriction of freedom leads to selectivity in
the chemical
behavior
molecules embedded i
n biological systems. Extending these
well
-
known concepts
supramolecular chemists
have established
that
even small
molecules upon confinement
in
synthetic hosts
exhibit behaviour distinctly different from the ones in an isotropic solution.
In this lecture t
he role a “Medium” in bri
nging about changes in the well
-
established
behaviour of excited molecules
w
ould be illustrated with select examples.
Results of steady state
and ultrafast experiments will be presented
that
highlight
how the
confinement
alters the excited
state dynamics of
stilbenes
and azobenzenes
, the molecules that act as triggers in various
biological systems and man
-
made devices
.
Another reaction
to be discussed
concerns with
electron transfer (eT) that plays a fundamental role in a number of biological events including
photosynthesis.
Examples
and ultrafast dynamics
of
donor
s, imprisoned
within an organic capsule,
transfe
r
r
ing
an electron to an acceptor
across a molecular wall
would be presented
.
The main message of the talk is that
molecules like humans behave differently when confined
within synthetic cages
.