Graduate Student Women's Perceptions of Faculty Careers: The Critical Role of Departmental Values and Support in Career Choice.

While the number of women in undergraduate and graduate chemistry programs has increased in recent years, women remain under-represented and excluded in the ranks of faculty in chemistry higher education. This marginalization results from not only fewer women being offered faculty positions but also fewer women applying for these positions. To investigate the reasons why faculty positions are causing so many women to turn elsewhere for employment, a survey was designed based on the literature themes surrounding women's career choices, interviews with the current graduate student women in chemistry programs, and our previous work.

Fluorescence Anisotropy Decay of Molecular Rotors with Acene Rotators in Viscous Solution.

Herein, we report the use of fluorescence anisotropy decay for measuring the rotation of six shape-persistent molecular rotors with central naphthalene (), anthracene (, , and ), tetracene (), and pentacene () rotators axially linked by triple bonds to bulky trialkylsilyl groups of different sizes. Steady-state and time-resolved polarization measurements carried out in mineral oil confirmed that the vibrationally resolved lowest-energy absorption bands are characterized by a transition dipole moment oriented along the short acene axes, in the direction of the alkyne linkers. Fluorescence lifetimes increased significantly with increasing acene size and moderately with a decrease in the size of the trialkylsilyl group.

Fluorescence and Rotational Dynamics of a Crystalline Molecular Rotor Featuring an Aggregation-Induced Emission Fluorophore.

Recent studies have shown that "crystal fluidity" in the form of fast conformational motions is critical for large-amplitude rotational motion in crystals. To explore this concept, we designed a crystalline assembly featuring two diethynylbenzene (DEB) molecular rotators linked to tetraphenylethylene (TPE), a fluorophore known to emit with intensities that depend on the rigidity of the medium. We envisioned that an increase in crystal fluidity as a function of increasing temperature would facilitate rotational motion of the DEB while diminishing the fluorescence intensity of the TPE.

The Roles of Intrinsic Barriers and Crystal Fluidity in Determining the Dynamics of Crystalline Molecular Rotors and Molecular Machines.

Crystalline solids are a promising platform for the development of molecular machines. They have the potential of combining the molecular-level control of physical properties caused by isomerizations, conformational motions, or chemical reactions with the emergent properties that arise from long-range order and multiscale phenomena. However, the construction of crystalline molecular machinery has been challenging due to the difficulties associated with the design of structures capable of supporting high order and controlled molecular motion in the solid state, a platform that we term amphidynamic crystals.