Spectral and photochemical properties of hybrid organic—inorganic nanosystems based on CdS quantum dots and a styrylquinoline ligand

Abstract

The kinetics of photolysis of a styrylquinoline (SQ) derivative as the photochromic ligand in organic—inorganic hybrid nanosystems (HNSs) with the core composed of CdS quantum dots (QDs) has been studied for the first time as a function of the number of ligand molecules in the HNS shell, which varied from 1 to 10. The hybrid nanosystems have been synthesized in the microwave-assisted mode according to the single-step injection-free procedure. It has been shown that high quantum yields of photoisomerization of the SQ ligand are conserved in the HNS. In the early stages of the photolysis, regardless of the number of SQ ligand molecules in the HNS shell, the kinetics obeys the equation for the photolysis of the monomolecular system (model SQ photochrome) with allowance for the absorption due to QDs as an inert shutter. During the course of long-term photolysis, the quantum dots undergo photodegradation to be completely decomposed. According to the principal component analysis data, several photoproducts with different absorption spectra are formed at the intermediate times of the HNS photolysis.