J-aggregation of cyanine dyes by self-assembly.

The importance of highly ordered surfaces, containing adsorptive surface states, is discussed for J-aggregation by self-assembly. Such nucleating surfaces are nanometer-sized edges and corners of cubic AgBr microcrystals, or surface iodide-clusters located along edges and corners of AgBr:I microcrystals. Of particular interest are dendrimers, monoatomic steps on terraced silver halide microcrystals and fullerene derivatives as nucleating surfaces. Molecular organisation into J-aggregates by self-assembly was realized using aprotic, apolar solvents for fullerenes, and polar solvents for dendrimers and monoatomic surface steps. By using dendrimers as nucleating agents in mesopores of metal oxide nanoparticle coatings, size-controlled and stable J-aggregates with high optical densities and strong fluorescence were obtained reproducibly. Such films may be useful for sensors, opto-electronics, lighting and photovoltaics.