ISBN 9783843904735

978-3-8439-0473-5, Reihe Organische Chemie

Jens Tüxen
Highly Fluorinated Model Compounds for Matter-Wave Interferometry

239 Seiten, Dissertation Universität Basel (2012), Softcover, A5

Zusammenfassung / Abstract

In order to explore the quantum-classical borderline, the ambition of this thesis was the design and synthesis of tailor-made molecules for matter-wave interference experiments.

In the introduction an overview of the field of matter-wave interferometry with a focus on interferometry with organic molecules is presented. Different concepts, including far-field and near-field interferometry, interferometer setups, and quantum experiments were discussed. Furthermore, the main synthesis concept of this work, i.e. the assembly of highly fluorinated compounds, was introduced. The historical background, smart synthesis concepts, including fluorous biphasic catalysis (FBC) and fluorous mixture synthesis (FMS), and the properties of fluorous compounds were described.

The synthetic work described in this thesis is part of an interdisciplinary research collaboration between chemists from the group of Prof. Mayor and the group of physicists of Prof. Arndt. Two main goals were pursued within this research project. Firstly, the focus was set on a deeper understanding of the influence of a molecule’s internal structure, especially its polarizability, on quantum interference. Furthermore, the limits of quantum mechanics, the quantum-to-classical transition, were addressed by increasing the size of the interfering objects.