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New Physical Chemistry Insight for Solid-State Materials art C3 of the Journal of Physical Chemistry is devoted to Plasmonics, Optical Materials, and Hard Matter. Each of these three topics attracts experimental and theory papers. They are also topics that are of considerable current interest to the physical chemistry community, even though they have a long history in physical chemistry. In the area of Plasmonics, some recent topics that have been explored in the Journal of Physical Chemistry are control of the morphology of metal nanostructures to create plasmon resonances in unusual spectral regions,1 hot electron effects,2 and coupling between plasmons and molecular systems.3 On the other hand, papers that report new ways of making standard particles (such as spherical silver and gold particles) or calculations of the properties of the particles using commercial numerical packages are of less interest. There are plenty of good synthesis methods for making particles with simple shapes, and the basic features of the spectra of these particles are well-known. Of course, sometimes these calculations are extremely valuable, for example, when they are coupled to experimental studies of new plasmonic materials.4 In the area of Optical Materials and Hard Matter there are also some topics that have been extensively explored and, thus, are not appropriate for the Journal of Physical Chemistry. For example, a lot is known about the emission properties of rareearth-doped glasses (the YAG laser was first developed in the 1960s!), and studies of the absorption or emission properties of doped glasses are probably best left for more specialized optics journals. Likewise, measurements of the magnetic properties of solid-state materials or band structure calculations using standard electronic structure packages are not appropriate for the journal, unless they reveal some new fundamental physical phenomena. By this I mean new mechanistic insight into the process being studied, not simply improvement in the figures of merit. Papers that study the properties of new classes of solid-state materials are of interest to the Journal of Physical Chemistry, and recent examples are organic−inorganic perovskite materials5−7 and two-dimensional materials like MoS2 or black phosphorus8 that show long charge carrier diffusion lengths. In particular, perovskites have shown promise as the active materials in solar cells, and papers that explore the physical chemistry properties of these materials can attract considerable interest in both the physical chemistry and energy research communities.9,10 Another area in solid-state materials that is of current interest is singlet fission. This process was first observed in the 1960s but has recently undergone a renaissance. This is, in part, due to the application of new experimental techniques and new theory methods to this problem.11−16 The development of new tools to attack hard problems is definitely within the scope of the Journal of Physical Chemistry. Note that this discussion does not mean to imply that all papers submitted to the Journal of Physical Chemistry on perovskites, two-dimensional materials, or singlet fission will be accepted: the papers still have to say something new about the materials!
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© 2017 American Chemical Society
Because a lot of work in the Optical Materials and Hard Matter areas falls in between the traditional boundaries of physical chemistry and physics, it can sometimes be hard for authors to decide whether to send a paper to the Journal of Physical Chemistry or to a more physics- or optics-orientated journal. One useful yardstick I have used in making decisions about where to send my own papers is to critically look at the bibliography for the paper. If all the references are to physics or applied physics journals, for example, then the paper is clearly better suited to a physics journal. Placing the paper in the right journal is very important both for finding an appreciative audience and also for getting useful reviews. After all, the scientists who read the Journal of Physical Chemistry, and who write reviews for the journal, are physical chemists not physicists.
Gregory V. Hartland,* Senior Editor
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Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, United States
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*E-mail:
[email protected]. ORCID
Gregory V. Hartland: 0000-0002-8650-6891 Notes
The author declares no competing financial interest.
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REFERENCES
(1) Wallace, G. Q.; Foy, H. C.; Rosendahl, S. M.; Lagugne-Labarthet, F. Dendritic Plasmonics for Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy. J. Phys. Chem. C 2017, 121, 9497−9507. (2) Schlather, A. E.; Manjavacas, A.; Lauchner, A.; Marangoni, V. S.; DeSantis, C. J.; Nordlander, P.; Halas, N. J. Hot Hole Photoelectrochemistry on Au@SiO2@Au Nanoparticles. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2017, 8, 2060−2067. (3) Rodarte, A. L.; Tao, A. R. Plasmon-Exciton Coupling between Metallic Nanoparticles and Dye Monomers. J. Phys. Chem. C 2017, 121, 3496−3502. (4) Schimpf, A. M.; Thakkar, N.; Gunthardt, C. E.; Masiello, D. J.; Gamelin, D. R. Charge-Tunable Quantum Plasmons in Colloidal Semiconductor Nanocrystals. ACS Nano 2014, 8, 1065−1072. (5) Kedem, N.; Brenner, T. M.; Kulbak, M.; Schaefer, N.; Levcenko, S.; Levine, I.; Abou-Ras, D.; Hodes, G.; Cahen, D. Light-Induced Increase of Electron Diffusion Length in a p-n Junction Type CH3NH3PbBr3 Perovskite Solar Cell. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2015, 6, 2469−2476. (6) Bi, Y.; Hutter, E. M.; Fang, Y. J.; Dong, Q. F.; Huang, J. S.; Savenije, T. J. Charge Carrier Lifetimes Exceeding 15 μs in Methylammonium Lead Iodide Single Crystals. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2016, 7, 923−928. (7) Draguta, S.; Thakur, S.; Morozov, Y. V.; Wang, Y. X.; Manser, J. S.; Kamat, P. V.; Kuno, M. Spatially Non-uniform Trap State Densities in Solution-Processed Hybrid Perovskite Thin Films. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2016, 7, 715−721. Published: July 6, 2017 13984
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.7b05878 J. Phys. Chem. C 2017, 121, 13984−13985
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The Journal of Physical Chemistry C (8) Castellanos-Gomez, A. Black Phosphorus: Narrow Gap, Wide Applications. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2015, 6, 4280−4291. (9) Snaith, H. J.; Abate, A.; Ball, J. M.; Eperon, G. E.; Leijtens, T.; Noel, N. K.; Stranks, S. D.; Wang, J. T. W.; Wojciechowski, K.; Zhang, W. Anomalous Hysteresis in Perovskite Solar Cells. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2014, 5, 1511−1515. (10) Sanchez, R. S.; Gonzalez-Pedro, V.; Lee, J. W.; Park, N. G.; Kang, Y. S.; Mora-Sero, I.; Bisquert, J. Slow Dynamic Processes in Lead Halide Perovskite Solar Cells. Characteristic Times and Hysteresis. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2014, 5, 2357−2363. (11) Kolomeisky, A. B.; Feng, X. T.; Krylov, A. I. A Simple Kinetic Model for Singlet Fission: A Role of Electronic and Entropic Contributions to Macroscopic Rates. J. Phys. Chem. C 2014, 118, 5188−5195. (12) Parker, S. M.; Seideman, T.; Ratner, M. A.; Shiozaki, T. Model Hamiltonian Analysis of Singlet Fission from First Principles. J. Phys. Chem. C 2014, 118, 12700−12705. (13) Piland, G. B.; Burdett, J. J.; Dillon, R. J.; Bardeen, C. J. Singlet Fission: From Coherences to Kinetics. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2014, 5, 2312−2319. (14) Wang, L. J.; Olivier, Y.; Prezhdo, O. V.; Beljonne, D. Maximizing Singlet Fission by Intermolecular Packing. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2014, 5, 3345−3353. (15) Piland, G. B.; Bardeen, C. J. How Morphology Affects Singlet Fission in Crystalline Tetracene. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2015, 6, 1841− 1846. (16) Tamai, Y.; Ohkita, H.; Benten, H.; Ito, S. Exciton Diffusion in Conjugated Polymers: From Fundamental Understanding to Improvement in Photovoltaic Conversion Efficiency. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2015, 6, 3417−3428.
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.7b05878 J. Phys. Chem. C 2017, 121, 13984−13985
