Fluorescence-based Methods for Monitoring Dynamics in Polymerization Catalysis, Chemical Computation, and Battery Materials Research
Author: Andrew Cavell
Publisher:
Published: 2023
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKFluorescence microscopy has proven itself to be a powerful yet flexible platform for making measurements on many kinds of chemical systems. The application of fluorescence microscopy to biological systems has enabled decades of new discoveries and diagnostic protocols, while applications in the field of chemistry have ramped up more slowly but yielded discoveries unreachable by other means. The ability to make observations at low background and high sensitivity in real time enables the monitoring of molecular-scale processes occurring in quite complicated and noisy environments, without the disruption to reaction dynamics that other techniques might introduce. The inherent simplicity and scalability of many of these technologies makes them poised for use in a variety of fields for new in situ measurements and high-throughput screening. Still, the idiosyncrasies of each system require some work to fit the instrument to the desired measurement. In this thesis, I demonstrate the application of fluorescence microscopy to monitor three different chemical systems using three different optical setups, each tuned to the specific needs of the work at hand. While the principles of operation remain the same, the information produced is quite different, relying on various photophysical mechanisms and varied resulting design considerations. These are reviewed in the introductory chapter along with an overview of fluorescence itself, and then each is described in detail in a chapter corresponding to each project: First, two parallel measurements are shown to act as complementary readouts for monitoring polymerization catalysis confined in droplets of and the combination of two methods yields an enhanced temporal dynamic range. Second, the output of an array of electrochemical reactions is monitored with a pH sensitive fluorescent dye in order to realize an implementation of a hybrid classical-molecular computing platform. Finally, the release of lithium ions is tracked using fluorescence during the charging of a lithium-ion battery cathode material, with relationships between fluorescence signal, lithium ion release, and particle morphology explored.
