Giordano’s study of an biomimetic excited state proton transfer (ESPT) reaction “Following Bimolecular Excited State Proton Transfer between Hydroxycoumarin and Imidazole Derivatives” has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Physical Chemistry B. The paper details the immediate ESPT dynamics across a hydrogen bonded bridge between coumarin photoacid and imidazole base molecules in chloroform solution. Due to the short excited state lifetime of the photoacid, the immediate ‘contact’ ESPT reaction can be studied in isolation of diffusive driven ESPT dynamics. The paper is available online here and forms Tom’s contribution to the Journal of Physical Chemistry’s Young Scientists Virtual Special Issue.

Marta’s paper entitled, Exploring ultraviolet photoinduced charge-transfer dynamics in a model dinucleotide of guanine and thymine, has been accepted for publication in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. The paper, unequivocally demonstrates that the Franck-Condon excited states of the dinculeotide, d(GpT), are significantly delocalised across both nucleobases, and mediate d(G⁺pT^–) exciplex product formation on an ultrafast (< 350 fs) timescale. Theoretical studies show that the nature of the vertical excited states are very dependent on the specific geometry of the dinucleotide, and dictate the degree of delocalised, charge-transfer or localised character. The paper is available to read here.

Applications are invited for an EU FET-OPEN funded postdoctoral research fellow with Dr. Tom Oliver in the Laser Chemistry, Spectroscopy and Dynamics Group at Bristol. The project will involve collaboration with a variety of scientists from different disciplines in 7 other institutions across Europe. The appointee will use state-of-the-art multidimensional optical spectroscopies such as two-dimensional electronic and two-dimensional electronic-vibrational spectroscopy to study the condensed phase non-radiative relaxation dynamics of a variety of molecular systems, including molecules that display good ‘photon to heat’ conversion properties, such as specially synthesised diketopyrrolopyrroles or sinapoyl malate derivatives.

Applicants should have, or be about to graduate with, a Ph.D. in Chemistry, Chemical Physics, or a related discipline. Candidates should have proven experience with at least some of the following: femtosecond lasers, non-linear optics, optical parametric amplifiers, condensed phase dynamics.

This 2.5 year position is available from 1^st April 2019.

The application deadline is 4th March 2019.

Informal enquiries should be address to tom.oliver@bristol.ac.uk

Further details about the position and application procedure are available here.

Collaborative work with Carmen Galan’s group has just been published in Angewandte Chemie. The paper details the synthesis of a stiff-stillbene ligand which induces conformational unfolding of G-quadruplex. Upon 400 nm irradiation this effect can be reversed via photooxidation of the ligand. Remarkably, the conformation of G4 DNA was switched 5 times.

Tom Swift has been awarded one of the University of Bristol’s prestigious EPSRC doctoral prize fellowships to work in the Oliver group. The prize provides 2 years of post-doctoral research funding for Tom to pursue “Understanding the Achilles’ heel of photosynthesis to improve global crop yields”.

BCFN students Fabiola Cardoso Delgado and Teo Garcia Millan are continuing for their PhD studies in the Oliver group after 6 month extended projects. Fabiola and Teo are jointly supervised by Dr. Heather Whitney and Prof. Carmen Galan, respectively.

EPSRC have funded an early career equipment grant application that will benefit many ECRs at the University of Bristol, including the Oliver group.

The funding will be used for the purchase of an ultrafast mid-infrared detector system for use in multidimensional optical spectroscopic measurements.

Professor Stephen Bradforth (University of Southern California, USA) will be visiting Bristol as a Benjamin Meaker Visiting Professor to collaborate with the Oliver group during September. Steve is an expert in DNA photodamage/protection and solar energy conversion, studying these phenomena with  ultrafast spectroscopic techniques.

Our research on multidimensional optical spectroscopies was detailed in a recent review paper published in Royal Society Open Science and forms “part of the ‘New talent’ special collection of invited articles to showcase some of the exciting work being funded by the Royal Society.”

Our paper entitled “Surface functionalisation significantly changes the physical and electronic properties of carbon nano-dots” has been accepted in the journal Nanoscale. Working jointly with the Galan group and researchers in Chemistry and Physics at the University of Bristol, we used an arsenal of analytical and spectroscopic techniques to explore the physical and electronic structure of a variety of glycan functionalised carbon nano-dots.  Carbon nano-dots are emerging as non-toxic fluorescent nanoparticles useful for biological applications such as targeting cancer cells or fluorescent labelling. Our studies reveal, counter to prior hypotheses, that the surface functionalisation does not always result in a homogenous corona surrounding the carbon dot core, and the choice of carbohydrate significantly affects the electronic structure of the surface CD states. The article can be found here.