title: Design of pi-conjugated organic materials for one-dimensional energy transport in nanochannels.
abstract: Various end-substituted distyrylbenzenes have been synthesized to serve as guest molecules in inclusion compounds to promote efficient energy transport along one-dimensional channels. Their optical and photophysical properties have been characterized at both experimental and theoretical levels. All molecules display a large transition dipole moment between the ground state and lowest excited state and hence a short radiative lifetime (on the order of 1-2 ns). They also exhibit a large spectral overlap between the emission and absorption spectra, which enables efficient energy transport between molecules arranged in a head-to-tail configuration in nanochannels. Hopping rates on the order of 10(12) s(-1) are calculated at a full quantum-chemical level; this is much larger than the radiative lifetimes and opens the way for energy migration over large distances. Changes in the nature of the terminal substituents are found to modulate the optical properties weakly but to impact significantly the energy transfer rates.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Chemistry of Novel Materials, Center for Research in Molecular Electronics and Photonics, University of Mons-Hainaut, Place du Parc 20, B-7000 Mons, Belgium.
authors.forename: Juan Carlos
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Sancho-García
authors.forename: Jean-Luc
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Brédas
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Beljonne
authors.forename: Jérôme
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cornil
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Martínez-Alvarez
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hanack
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Poulsen
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gierschner
authors.forename: Hans-Georg
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Mack
authors.forename: Hans-Joachim
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Egelhaaf
authors.forename: Dieter
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Oelkrug