Molecular Materials and Functional Polymers

The articles in this book summarize the work presented at the final workshop of the COST (European Cooperation in the Field of Scientific and Technical Research) Action on Molecular Materials and Functional Polymers for Advanced Devices, which was held in June 2000 in Patras, Greece. The collection gives an excellent overview of the state-of-the-art in this field and the progress made by the coordinated research projects. The results range over the synthesis, physical properties, and applications of molecular materials (nanotubes, fullerenes, phthalocyanines), inorganic and inorganic-organic hybrid materials, and functional polymers (electronic conduction, photoluminiscence, optical storage, photovoltaic devices).

Editorial.- Invited Reviews.- Phthalocyanines and Phthalocyanine Analogues: The Quest for Applicable Optical Properties.- Inorganic Clusters in Organic Polymers and the Use of Polyfunctional Inorganic Compounds as Polymerization Initiators.- Recent Studies on Super-Hydrophobic Films.- The Azobenzene Optical Storage Puzzle — Demands on the Polymer Scaffold?.- Molecular Materials.- Nanotube Content in Arc Generated Carbon Powder.- Novel Functional Fullerene Materials: Fullerenes as Energy Acceptors.- A Phenyl ?-Nitronyl Nitroxide with a Forced Chiral Conformation.- Inorganic and Hybrid Inorganic-Organic Materials.- Thin Film Counterelectrodes with High Li Charge Capacity for Electrochromic Windows.- Studies on Hybrid Organic/Inorganic Nanocomposite Gels Using Photoluminescence Techniques.- Organic-Inorganic Sol-Gel Hybrids with Ionic Properties.- Excitonic Bands in the Spectra of Some Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Compounds Based on Metal Halide Units.- Functional Polymers.- Highly Regioregular Poly-3-alkylthiophenes: Influence of the Structure on Photoluminescence.- The Role of Interfaces in Photovoltaic Devices.- Peculiarities of the Interaction of Short Oligonucleotides with Supported Lipid Films and Langmuir Monolayers.- The Photophysics of Thin Polymer Films of Poly-(meta-phenylene-co-2,5dioctoxy-para-phenylenevinylene).- Visible Photoluminescence in Polysilanes.- Examination of the Spatial Distribution of Dyes and Polymers in Thin Films by Two-Photon Microscopy.- Lumine scence in Organic Silicons Prepared from Organic Precursors in Plasma Discharges.- UV-Induced Electrical and Optical Changes in PVC Blends.