Supramolecular systems, laboratory experiments

One of the points made in Schwenz and Moore was that the physical chemistry laboratory should better reflect the range of activities found in current physical chemistry research. This is reflected in part by the inclusion of modem instrumentation and computational methods, as noted extensively above, but also by the choice of topics. A number of experiments developed since Schwenz and Moore reflect these current topics. Some are devoted to modem materials, an extremely active research area, that I have broadly construed to include semiconductors, nanoparticles, self-assembled monolayers and other supramolecular systems, liquid crystals, and polymers. Others are devoted to physical chemistry of biological systems. I should point out here, that with rare exceptions, I have not included experiments for the biophysical chemistry laboratory in this latter category, primarily because the topics of many of these experiments fall out of the range of a typical physical chemistry laboratory or lecture syllabus. Systems of environmental interest were well represented as well. 

This book is aimed at providing the newcomers of the field with an overview of the potential offered by the photophysical and photochemical techniques applied to supramolecular systems and nanoobjects. Indeed, it provides the basic concepts, without introducing too many technical and mathematical details, with the aid of self-explicative figures and sehemes, and discusses the methodology to correctly perform a photochemical experiment, as well as the most critical aspects of the laboratory application. It is of interest also to scientists already involved in the field because it offers technical and operative details useful in the laboratory, as well as references to current research, pioneering contributions, and review articles on specific aspects. 

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