Organizing Partners
Nano/Photochem & Solarchem Lab.
Sponsors
Summaries
Solar ’06
The Solar ’06 meeting was attended by ca. 200 scientists from 40 countries, who presented 12 plenary and 15 keynote lectures, 20 oral contributions and 71 posters.
Out of many important contributions, we may stress development of new active forms of TiO2, such as organized mesoporous films (L. Kavan, Prague) or inverse opal anatase (M. Zukalová, Prague), and new sensitizers (T. Bessho, Tokyo, Lausanne), whose design can be aided with quantum-chemical DFT calculations (S. Fantacci, Perugia). Further energy-related contributions focussed on the design and optimization of solar cells. Some newly proposed materials include ZnO (L. Znaidi, Villetaneuse) and nanostructured Si with low light reflectivity (K.-H. Chen, Taipei). Various novel concepts were used, such as liquid-crystalline organic semiconductors (T. Tani, Kanagawa-ken), light-harvesting amphipipe aggregates (S. D:ähne, Berlin), water-soluble polythiophenes on semiconductor substrates (J.T. McLeskey, Richmond), or photorechargeable capacitors (K. Teshima, Yokohama).
Environmental photochemistry was another important topic: economically and technologically viable systems for air purification employing photocatalytic membranes (I.R. Bellobono, Milano), photoelectrochemical reduction of pollutants (e.g. metal ions) and destruction of bacteria or H2 generation (K. Rajeshwar, Arlington), combination of photochemical and biological processes to purify wastewater (M. Mehrvar, Toronto), or various ways to enhance efficiency of TiO2 in wastewater purification, including doping with lanthanides (M.S.A Abdel-Mottaleb, Cairo). In the field of atmospheric photochemistry, it was shown (V. Vaida, Boulder) that sunlight can induce reactions of alcohols and acids by exciting vibrational overtones of OH bonds.
Synthesis of special chemicals is another area of photochemical applications, as was demonstrated for diazepine drugs (C. Wentrup, Brisbane), while new types of (semi)conducting polymers were propose for light-emitting diodes (V. Cimrová, Prague).
The emerging field of nanochemistry has many photochemical and photophysical aspects. This was demonstrated by photovoltaic applications of semiconductor nanoparticles with synthetically controlled shape (M. Mohamed, Cairo) and by rich photobehavior exhibited by ~16 nm - sized tubular aggregates of carbocyanines (J. Knoester, Groningen; C. Spitz, Berlin). It was also shown that DFT can deal with computationally very demanding tasks of describing molecule-nanoparticle interactions (F. De Angelis, Perugia). New aspects of photophysical behavior can be revealed by using non-traditional media such as ionic liquids (A. Samanta, Hyderabad).
Several talks focussed on optically induced processes in molecular systems and supramolecules with possible relevance to molecular devices and sensors. Thus, interactions in rotaxanes were studied by a host of spectroscopic methods, including 2-dimensional IR spectroscopy, giving insight into the functioning of possible molecular machines (W.J. Buma, Amsterdam) or photodriven molecular shuttles (H. Tian, Shanghai). Photochemical bond opening or isomerisation was found to control (switch) molecular conductivity (M.A. Rampi, Ferrara) or photophysics of ligand-bridged Ru and Os complexes (F. Hartl, Amsterdam). New aspects of the excited state characters, relaxation and reactivity were revealed for transition-metal carbonyl-diimine complexes (A. Vl?ek, London) and organic compounds (U. Mazzucato, Perugia), where it was shown that photochemical quantum yield can depend on the particular vibronic level excited (G. Favaro,Perugia).
Solar ’05 and ENPHO’05
Solar ’05 had an attendance of 203 participants (69 from Egypt) from 32 countries. The program contained 63 lectures and 90 posters.
The opening session was in combination with the International Conference on NanoTechnology: Science and Application (NanoTech Insight’05)
The lectures and their titles were: K. Müllen (Mainz, Germany): Putting the Molecules into Molecular Electronics. G.Q. Max Lu (Brisbane, Australia): Novel Method of Synåthesis of Mesoporous and Nanocrystalline TiO2 for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells. P.K. Hansma (Santa Barbara, USA): Lessons for New Nanotechnolgy from Nature’s Nanotechnology. C. Levy-Clément (Paris-Thiais, France): A New Eta-Solar Cell Based on Free-Standing ZnO/CdSe Nanowires.
The topics discussed at the SOLAR’05 and Enpho ’05 were largely grouped into two main categories: (a) (solar) photocatalysis and atmospheric photochemistry and (b) photochemistry, photophysics and photobiology, including electron and energy transfer.
The titles of the following 12 Plenary Lectures (40 minutes) show the wide scope of the topics treated at the Conference: R. E. Baier (Buffalo, USA), Solar-Activated Photocatalytic Purification of the Clinical Air Circulating in a Dental Hospital. I.R. Bellabono (Milan, Italy), Photocatalytic Membrane Processes and Plants for Purification of Water and Air; State of the Art and Industrial Issues. G. Kaup (Oldenburg, Germany), SNOM: a New Photophysical Tool for Chemistry and Life Sciences. S. Lis (Poznan, Poland), Photophysical Characterization of Chosen Ln(III) Macromolecular Complexes with Inorganic and Organic Ligands in Solution and Solid. K.A. Zachariasse (G:öttingen, Germany), Intramolecular Charge Transfer in the Excited State. V. Vaida (Boulder, USA), Sunlight Initiated Reactions in Atmospheric Chemistry. K. Hashimoto (Tokyo, Japan), Environmental Preservation Technologies with TiO2 Using Solar Light. D. Bahnemann (Hannover, Germany), Solar Photocatalysis: Cleaning Polluted Water, Air and Surfaces with Sunlight. M.A. Aegerter (Saarbrücken, Germany), Electrochromic Devices Made by the Sol-Gel Process: State of the Art and Issues. A. Vl?ek (London, UK/Prague, Czech Republic), Ultrafast Photochemical Electron and Energy Transfer in Complexes fac-[Re1(L)(CO)3(2,2’-bipyridine)]n+. R. Loutfy (Tucson, USA), Fullerene Nanoparticles and Applications. N. Russo (Calabria, Italy), Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory and Photodynamic Therapy.
Besides the plenary lectures, 15 Keynote Contributions (30 minutes) were presented, about evenly divided over the two main Conference topics: (a) water treatment (J.-M. Herrmann (France), M. Mehrvar (Canada), V. Loddo (Italy), O. Zahraa, (France)), photodegradation (A. Zarkadis (Greece), P. Mazellier (France), M. Sarakha (France)) and photocatalysis (J. Blanco (Spain), C. Guillard (France)) and (b) intramolecular charge transfer (W. Rettig, Germany), long-lived charge transfer states (J.W. Verhoeven, Netherlands), chemical sensors (G. Orellana, Spain), artificial light-harvesting (S. Balaban, Germany), luminescent materials (A.M. Klonkowski, Poland) and a photorechargeable cell (T. Miyasaka, Japan).
An important part of the oral contributions consisted of 32 short lectures (20 minutes) on water treatment, photodegradation, ultrastable fluorescent dyes, photocatalysis, photochemistry, photobiology, nanoparticles, solar energy conversion, longe range electron transfer, excited state relaxation and luminescent microcrystals. These lectures were delivered by B. Legube (France), J. Correia de Oliveira (Portugal), C. Pulgarin (Switzerland), L. Österlund (Sweden), S.Y. AlQaradawi (Qatar), W.M. Nau (Germany), B. Sánchez (Spain), P. Kurz (Switzerland), K. Akutari (Switzerland), J.P. Da Silva (Portugal), B.S. Lukyanov (Russia), S. Szarska (Poland), D. Bahnemann (Germany), J. Dussaud (France), J. Yu (HongKong), J.S. Lee (Korea), I. Pastoriza (Spain), E. Selli (Italy), J.C.S. Wu (Taiwan), S. Záliš (Czech Republic), S. Ali (USA), N. Sakai (Japan), C.-S. Kim (Korea), K.-J. Kim (Korea), V. Jovanovski (Slovenia), L. Brohan (France), M.A. Rampi (Italy), B.M. Uzhinov (Russia), S. Fery-Forgues (France) and T. D. Karapantsios (Greece).
Besides the lectures, 90 Posters were presented in two evening sessions. The lively discussions that often arose in front of the posters underline the important contribution made by the poster authors to the scientific success of the Conference.