Opto-electronic properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes can be significantly modified by chromophore confinement into their hollow core. This presentation deals with quaterthiophene derivatives encapsulated into nanotubes displaying different diameter distributions. We show that the supramolecular organizations of the confined chromophores depend on the nanocontainer size. The Raman radial breathing mode frequency is monitored by both the number of confined molecules into a nanotube section and the competition between dye/dye and dye/tube wall interactions. The confinement properties lead also to an exaltation of the infrared absorption response1 in single-walled carbon nanotubes from dye molecule interactions due to a symmetry breaking, allowing us, thanks to the complementarity of DFT calculations and experimental IR investigations to study interactions between both subsystems. Significant electron transfer from the confined molecules to the nanotubes is also reported from Raman investigations. This charge transfer leads to an important enhancement of the photoluminescence intensity by a factor of nearly five depending on the tube diameter. In addition, close to the molecule resonance, the magnitude of the Raman G-band shifts is modified and the intensity loss is amplified, indicating a photo-induced electron transfer. Results are discussed in the frame of electron-phonon coupling. Thus, confinement species into nanotubes allow moving the Fermi level and consequently to monitor their opto-electronic properties.

Opto-electronic properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes can be significantly modified by chromophore confinement into their hollow core. This presentation deals with quaterthiophene derivatives encapsulated into nanotubes displaying different diameter distributions. We show that the supramolecular organizations of the confined chromophores depend on the nanocontainer size. The Raman radial breathing mode frequency is monitored by both the number of confined molecules into a nanotube section and the competition between dye/dye and dye/tube wall interactions. The confinement properties lead also to an exaltation of the infrared absorption response1 in single-walled carbon nanotubes from dye molecule interactions due to a symmetry breaking, allowing us, thanks to the complementarity of DFT calculations and experimental IR investigations to study interactions between both subsystems. Significant electron transfer from the confined molecules to the nanotubes is also reported from Raman investigations. This charge transfer leads to an important enhancement of the photoluminescence intensity by a factor of nearly five depending on the tube diameter. In addition, close to the molecule resonance, the magnitude of the Raman G-band shifts is modified and the intensity loss is amplified, indicating a photo-induced electron transfer. Results are discussed in the frame of electron-phonon coupling. Thus, confinement species into nanotubes allow moving the Fermi level and consequently to monitor their opto-electronic properties.

Opto-electronic properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes can be significantly modified by chromophore confinement into their hollow core. This presentation deals with quaterthiophene derivatives encapsulated into nanotubes displaying different diameter distributions. We show that the supramolecular organizations of the confined chromophores depend on the nanocontainer size. The Raman radial breathing mode frequency is monitored by both the number of confined molecules into a nanotube section and the competition between dye/dye and dye/tube wall interactions. The confinement properties lead also to an exaltation of the infrared absorption response in single-walled carbon nanotubes from dye molecule interactions due to a symmetry breaking, allowing us, thanks to the complementarity of DFT calculations and experimental IR spectra to study interactions between both subsystems. Significant electron transfer from the confined molecules to the nanotubes is also reported from Raman investigations. This charge transfer leads to an important enhancement of the photoluminescence intensity by a factor of nearly five depending on the tube diameter. In addition, close to the molecule resonance, the magnitude of the Raman G-band shifts is modified and the intensity loss is amplified, indicating a photo-induced electron transfer. Results are discussed in the frame of electron-phonon coupling. Thus, confinement species into nanotubes allow moving the Fermi level and consequently to monitor their opto-electronic properties.

Different intracellular delivery systems of bioactive compounds have been developed, including cell-penetrating peptides. Although usually nontoxic and biocompatible, these vectors share some of the general drawbacks of peptides, notably low bioavailability and susceptibility to protease degradation, that limit their use. Herein, the conversion of short peptide sequences into poly-a-amino-g-lactam foldamers that adopt a ribbon-like structure is investigated. This template is used to distribute critical cationic and/or hydrophobic groups on both sides of the backbone, leading to potent short, cell-permeable foldamers with a low positive-charge content. The lead compound showed dramatically improved protease resistance and was able to efficiently deliver a biologically relevant cargo inside cells. This study provided a simple strategy to convert short peptide sequences into efficient protease-resistant cell-penetrating foldamers.

Hydrogen is considered to be the preferred successor to gasoline due to its clean combustion, but its efficient and save storage remains the bottle-neck and one of the main challenges in hydrogen based technologies, especially those addressing mobile applications. Among different storage methods, reversible physical adsorption of molecular hydrogen in nanoporous materials is considered as the one of most attractive options. However, despite of more than 20 years of intensive experimental research no existing porous structures – from traditional activated carbons to porous polymer networks or metal organic frameworks - possess the required adsorbing properties.Therefore, we used computer simulations to explore the experimental options toward the most promising solutions. We showed that boron substituted graphene-based nanoporous structures may reach necessary storage performance if both key parameters defining the storage capacity of a sorbent (its specific surface and the energy of hydrogen adsorption) will be optimized. A potentially effective way to synthetize such optimized structures is arc-discharge procedure, successfully used in the past to synthetize fullerenes and nanotubes. We have assumed that the synthesis parameters can be modified to prepare graphene-based structures with a variety of substitution sites, shapes, sizes, and interconnections between graphene fragments.The first boron-substituted carbons prepared in this way show promising properties: they contain a variety of organized, graphene based structures decorated with boron nanoclusters, partially incorporated into graphene layers. The strongest adsorption occurs with the binding energy higher than 10 kJ/mol, and at least 10 % of adsorption sites adsorb hydrogen with the energy higher than 6.5 kJ/mol, significantly larger than in activated carbons (~4.5 kJ/mol). The specific surface of as-prepared samples is low (~ 200 m2/g). To increase it, both physical (heating in O2 reach atmosphere) and chemical (with KOH) activation are currently in progress.

Hydrogen storage is a key technology for the fuel applications. Hydrogen has the highest energy density of any fuel; however, its low ambient temperature density results in a low energy per unit volume. High density hydrogen storage is a challenge for stationary and portable applications and remains a significant challenge for transportation applications. Presently available storage options typically require large-volume systems that store hydrogen in gaseous form. On a mass basis, hydrogen has nearly three times the energy content of gasoline—120 MJ/kg for hydrogen versus 44 MJ/kg for gasoline. On a volume basis, however, the situation is reversed; liquid hydrogen has a density of 8 MJ/L whereas gasoline has a density of 32 MJ/L, as shown in the figure https://energy.gov/eere/fuelcells/hydrogen-storage) comparing energy densities of fuels based on lower heating values. Onboard hydrogen storage capacities of 5–13 kg hydrogen will be required to meet the driving range for the full range of light-duty vehicle platforms. One of alternative methods is storage by adsorption in porous materials.The numerical modeling of hydrogen adsorption has been a part of research with the goal to provide adequate hydrogen storage for onboard light-duty vehicle, material-handling equipment, and portable power. Here we discuss how this methodology has been used for the last 20 years and what is it contribution towards final solution. The discussion will be focused on three aspects. First, we will discuss why the existing high-surface porous materials are not promising hydrogen sorbents. Then, we will show how chemical modifications of the adsorbing surface may increase the binding energy between the hydrogen molecule and the surface. Finally, we will present the “universal” limits of hydrogen adsorption in porous structures and discuss the resulting problems and future research perspectives.