Biomass is an important feedstock for the renewable production of fuels, chemicals, and energy. As of 2005, over 3% of the total energy consumption in the United States was supplied by biomass, and it recently surpassed hydroelectric energy as the largest domestic source of renewable energy. Similarly, the European Union received 66.1% of its renewable energy from biomass, which thus surpassed the total combined contribution from hydropower, wind power, geothermal energy, and solar power. In addition to energy, the production of chemicals from biomass is also essential; indeed, the only renewable source of liquid transportation fuels is currently obtained from biomass.

The Catalytic Valorization of Lignin for the Production of Renewable Chemicals

J-aggregates are of significant interest for organic materials conceived by supramolecular approaches. Their discovery in the 1930s represents one of the most important milestones in dye chemistry as well as the germination of supramolecular chemistry. The intriguing optical properties of J-aggregates (in particular, very narrow red-shifted absorption bands with respect to those of the monomer and their ability to delocalize and migrate excitons) as well as their prospect for applications have motivated scientists to become involved in this field, and numerous contributions have been published. This Review provides an overview on the J-aggregates of a broad variety of dyes (including cyanines, porphyrins, phthalocyanines, and perylene bisimides) created by using supramolecular construction principles, and discusses their optical and photophysical properties as well as their potential applications. Thus, this Review is intended to be of interest to the supramolecular, photochemistry, and materials science communities.

J-aggregates: from serendipitous discovery to supramolecular engineering of functional dye materials.

Porphyrin-based photosensitizers for use in photodynamic therapy

The interactions of several water-soluble ionic porphyrins with different ionic or neutral surfactants in aqueous solutions were studied as a function of surfactant concentration. The interaction leads to the formation of porphyrin aggregates and/or micelle-encapsulated monomers with the exception of those porphyrin−surfactant pairs for which the interaction is Coulombically repulsive. The premicellar surfactant−porphyrin aggregate is identified by absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy, fluorescence lifetime and anisotropy, and resonance light scattering. The spectroscopic results are used to characterize the premicellar aggregates as J-type, H-type, or nonspecific aggregates. All premicellar surfactant−porphyrin aggregates dissociate to form micelle-encapsulated monomers when the surfactant concentration approaches cmc (critical micellar concentration). The interaction of tetrakis-(4-sulfanatophenyl)porphine dianion (H4TPPS2-) at pH <3.5 with cetyltrimethylammonium cation (CTAB) is described by the fo...

J- and H-aggregates of porphyrin-surfactant complexes: time-resolved fluorescence and other spectroscopic studies

J aggregate of a water‐soluble porphyrin, 5,10,15,20‐tetra(4‐sulfophenyl)porphyrin (H2TPPS44−), formed in acidified aqueous solutions, exhibits sharp and intense absorption bands at 491 and 707 nm. These characteristic transitions, J bands, are of linear oscillators polarized in the long axis of rodlike aggregate. The molecules in the aggregate stack so as to lift the degeneracy of the porphyrin planar oscillator excited states. Measurements of flow‐induced linear dichroism, circular dichroism, magnetic circular dichroism, as well as polarized fluorescence excitation spectra provide evidence not only of linear oscillator character of the intense J band at 491 nm, but also of presence of another diffuse absorption band around at 420 nm polarized in the short axis of the aggregate, which is the counterpart of the 491 nm band of porphyrin Soret origin. Extrinsic circular dichroism is induced upon addition of L‐tartaric acid or by mechanical swirling flow in the period of aggregate growth. Resonance Raman spe...

A. Chatterjee

Papers

Thermodynamic and kinetic properties of an iron-porphyrin system.

Thermodynamische und kinetische eigenschaften eines eisen-porphin-syst.