In recent years, considerable efforts have been made to design and discover photoactive nanostructured materials that can be used as anodes in water photoelectrolysis cells. Herein, we report on the growth of a novel photoanode material composed of self-ordered, vertically oriented nanotube arrays of titanium-palladium mixed oxynitride films via anodization of Ti-Pd alloy in an electrolyte solution of formamide containing NH(4)F at room temperature, followed by annealing in an ammonia atmosphere. The nanostructure topology was found to depend on both the anodization time and the applied voltage. Our results demonstrate the ability to grow mixed oxynitride nanotube array films that are several micrometers thick. The Ti-Pd oxynitride nanotube array films were utilized in solar-spectrum water photoelectrolysis, demonstrating a photocurrent density of 1.9 mA/cm(2) and a ∼5-fold increase in the photoconversion efficiency under AM 1.5 illumination (100 mW/cm(2), 1.0 M KOH) compared to pure TiO(2) nanotubes fabricated and tested under the same conditions. The obtained efficiency is among the highest reported values for a TiO(2) nanotube-based photoelectrochemical cell. This enhancement in the photoconversion efficiency is related to the synergistic effects of Pd alloying, nitrogen doping, and the unique structural properties of the fabricated nanotube arrays.

Using the Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique, a poly(paraphenyleneethynylene) (PPE) fluorescent conjugated polymer was assembled on either a quartz substrate (system I) or on the surface of silver nanocube (AgNC) monolayers (system II). The fluorescence intensity of the polymer was studied in system I as a function of the surface density of the polymer sample when deposited on quartz substrates and in system II on the surface coverage of the underlying AgNC monolayers. In system I, a continual increase in the fluorescence intensity is observed as the surface density of excited polymer is increased. In system II, the fluorescence intensity of the polymer first increased until a threshold surface coverage of AgNC was reached, after which it decreased rapidly with increasing surface coverage in the AgNC monolayer. The exciting light intensity dependence is studied before and after this threshold in system II. The results suggest that one-photon processes were responsible for the increased intensity before the threshold, and two-photon processes were responsible for the rapid decrease in the polymer fluorescence intensity after the threshold. These observations are explained by the increase of the surface plasmon enhancement of the exciting light intensity as the nanoparticle surface coverage is increased. In turn, this increases the polymer absorption rate, which results in a continuous increase in the exciton density and is evident by an increase in the fluorescence intensity. At the threshold, the increased exciton density leads to an increase in the rate of exciton-exciton collisions, which leads to exciton-exciton annihilations. When this phenomenon becomes faster than the rate of fluorescence emission, an intensity decrease is observed. By exploiting the surface plasmon enhancement of absorption processes, we have observed the first exciton-exciton annihilation using a low-intensity Hg-lamp continuous wave source.

The interaction between 9-fluorenone, various indoles and solvents has been studied using steady-state fluorescence spectroscopy and quantum chemical calculations. It was determined that polar protic solvents such as methanol and ethanol significantly quenched the fluorescence of 9-fluorenone but various indoles reversed the solvent quenching. The effect of various solvents on the 9-fluorenone carbonyl vibration was investigated using infrared spectroscopy. Ab initio calculations using Gaussian03 were also carried out in order to determine the minimum energy conformations of these systems along with binding energies.