Experimental and computational CPL Studies of Molecules employed in Material and Biophysical Science

In the last 10 years we were able to investigate several compounds in solution and as solid films, with a home-made apparatus for measuring Circularly Polarized Luminescence (CPL), and employing several excitation sources and scattering geometries. Such studies have been conducted on most diverse systems. First we concentrated on simple molecules, as a tool to refine computational techniques: on camphor-type molecules we could define the geometry/geometries of the first excited state.1,2 Then we considered helicenes and thiophene-based conjugated molecules, which have an important role in the photonics and electronics of organic conducting systems. For them we could establish not only the excited state geometry, but also its electronic properties and we investigated the possible role of vibronic coupling.3-5 Finally the supramolecular assembling of two types of systems was analysed by CPL: first, special conjugated molecules in presence and absence of metal ions was investigated. Finally suprarmolecular assembling in insulin, as revealed by twisting of thioflavin was monitored via CPL in tandem with CD spectroscopy and in collaboration with Magdalena Pecul and Wojcheck Dzwolack.