Impact of Surface-Active Guanidinium-, Tetramethylguanidinium-, and Cholinium-Based Ionic Liquids on Vibrio Fischeri Cells and Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine Liposomes.

We investigated the toxicological effect of seven novel cholinium, guanidinium, and tetramethylguanidinium carboxylate ionic liquids (ILs) from an ecotoxicological point of view. The emphasis was on the potential structure-toxicity dependency of these surface-active ILs in aqueous environment. The median effective concentrations (EC50) were defined for each IL using Vibrio (Aliivibrio) fischeri marine bacteria. Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) liposomes were used as biomimetic lipid membranes to study the interactions between the surface-active ILs and the liposomes. The interactions were investigated by following the change in the DPPC phase transition behaviour using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Critical micelle concentrations for the ILs were determined to clarify the analysis of the toxicity and the interaction results. Increasing anion alkyl chain length increased the toxicity, whereas branching of the chain decreased the toxicity of the ILs. The toxicity of the ILs in this study was mainly determined by the surface-active anions, while cations induced a minor impact on the toxicity. In the DSC experiments the same trend was observed for all the studied anions, whereas the cations seemed to induce more variable impact on the phase transition behaviour. Toxicity measurements combined with liposome interaction studies can provide a valuable tool for assessing the mechanism of toxicity.

Photoinduced energy transfer across non-covalent bonds in the nanoscale: cyclodextrin hosts with enhanced luminescent properties for guest communication.

Two photoactive cyclodextrin hosts have been prepared and studied in participation on photophysical processes, one with a ruthenium tris(bipyridyl) core which forms a trimeric host and the other with an appended anthracene unit. An acetylide functionalized bipyridyl cyclodextrin, , was prepared by palladium coupling of mono-6-propargyl permethylated beta-CD and 4-bromo-2,2'-bipyridine. The ruthenium complex, [Ru(3)]Cl(2), shows luminescence from the (3)MLCT centered at 650 nm with a quantum yield of 0.044 and a lifetime at room temperature of 1.1 micros in aerated aqueous solution. The enhanced luminescence properties have been attributed to extra delocalisation afforded by the three propargyl units appended to the complex and the stabilization of the MLCT state. An anthracene functionalised cyclodextrin was prepared from mono-6-O-p-toluenesulfonyl permethylated beta-cyclodextrin and 9-anthracene methanol. It shows fluorescence at room temperature with a maximum at 400 nm with a lifetime of 7 ns. Transient absorption spectroscopy has been used to elucidate the excited state properties of [Ru(3)]Cl(2) and hosts. A broad band centered around 600 nm in the [Ru(3)]Cl(2) transient spectrum corresponds to the absorption of the pi-radical anion of the ethynyl fragment of ligand and in a signal at 595 nm was observed, corresponding to the absorption of the anthracene excited singlet state. We used a bisadamantyl guest to assemble the two hosts and studied the energy transfer from the ruthenium core to the anthracene unit by steady state emission spectroscopy. The photoinduced energy transfer process in assemblies of host with ruthenium or osmium metalloguests, [Ru(biptpy)(tpy)](NO(3))(2) and [Os(biptpy)(tpy)](NO(3))(2), was studied by femtosecond transient spectroscopy and steady state emission spectroscopy. The singlet state of the anthracene pendant unit acted as a donor to the MLCT of the Ru(II) or Os(II) metalloguests. An energy transfer rate from the singlet anthracene excited state to the (1)MLCT of the ruthenium centre of 4.8 x 10(8) s(-1) was estimated in the case of the ruthenium guest. The photoinduced triplet energy transfer ( approximately 6 x 10(6) s(-1)) from a longer lived luminescent guest Rubph to the anthracene unit was studied by transient absorption spectroscopy.