The photochemistry group @UC research interests covers a wide range of topics, involving the study of excited states.
The group labs are equipped with state of the art equipment for fast kinetic research studies:
(i) fs-ns transient absorption (fs-TA and ns-TA), ps- and ns-TCSPC (time resolved fluorescence) and fs-fluorescence Up Conversion (fs-UC).
(ii) Spectrofluorometers, spectrophotometers, etc.
(iii) Autolab, Glove box.
(iv) Incident Photon to Charge Carrier Efficiency (IPCE), Integrating Sphere (Quantaurus) for absolute luminescence Quantum Yield determination, Hamamatsu IR detector (for singlet oxygen yield determinations), Cryostats, etc.
(v) general equipment for organic synthesis
(you can have a glance of all these in this webpage)
The group includes 2 professors, 2 junior research scientists, 6 PhD students, 3 MsC and 1 Emeritus professor.
Some of the on-going research topics:
( i ) Photophysical processess in various systems such as AIE-luminogens, BAI, trypthanthrin, thioindigo and indigo derivatives
( ii ) Practical applications of these dyes: DSSC and RFB (Hyligth FCT project 2018-2022)
( iii ) Host-Guest interaction of curcubiturils (CB7 and CB8) with fluorescente probes
( iv ) photoCORMS (controlled photo released organic molecules (FCT-SASCOT project 2018-2022 with CICECO-UA).
( v ) TTA-UC molecular systems
( vi ) Aurophillic complexes: Au(I) – coumarin
( vii ) Supramolecular chemosensors
( viii ) Synthesis of ligands aiming to stabilise G-quadruplexes in order to inhibit DNA telomerase in cancer cells.
(ix) conjugated organic polymers (polyfluorene, ladder type polymers, etc).
(x) the chemistry of the molecules of colour, now in postage stamps (XIX century).
A strong collaborations exists with other groups in Portugal and abroad. Currently active:
1) Marta Pineiro, Alberto Pais (UC)
2) Martyn Pillinger, Isabel S. Gonçalves and Ana Luisa Costa (UA-CICECO)
3) Adelino Galvão and António Maçanita (IST-UL)
4) Manuela Raposo (U. Minho)
5) Laura Rodriguez (U. Barcelona)
6) Ulli Scherf (U. Wuppertal, Germany)