Placement and characterization of pairs of luminescent molecules in spatially separated regions of nanostructured thin films.

Methods of making mesostructured sol-gel silicate thin films containing two different molecules deliberately placed in two different spatially separated regions in a one-step, one-pot preparation are developed and demonstrated. When the structure-directing agent is the surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, the structure is 2-D hexagonal with lattice spacings between 31.6 and 42.

Working Supramolecular Machines Trapped in Glass and Mounted on a Film Surface.

Two surface-tethered nanomachines have been constructed at a supramolecular level by employing cylinders of the π-electron deficient tetracationic cyclophane, cyclobis(paraquat-p-phenylene) (blue), inside which polyether pistons incorporating π-electron rich dioxynaphthalene units (red and pink) can be induced to move when reductants are supplied either by chemicals or from a light source with 9-anthracenecarboxylic acid (yellow) as the photosensitizer and ethylenediaminetetraacetate (green) as a sacrificial reagent.