Substituent engineering in g-C3N4/COF heterojunctions for rapid charge separation and high photo-redox activity

Science China Chemistry - The heterojunction constructed of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) with adjustable structure and other photocatalysts has great potential in the field of photocatalysis....     

Sulfono‐γ‐AApeptides as a New Class of Nonnatural Helical Foldamer

Foldamers offer an attractive opportunity for the design of novel molecules that mimic the structures and functions of proteins and enzymes including biocatalysis and biomolecular recognition. Herein we report a new class of nonnatural helical sulfono‐γ‐AApeptide foldamers of varying lengths. The crystal structure of the sulfono‐γ‐AApeptide monomer S6 illustrates the intrinsic folding propensity of sulfono‐γ‐AApeptides, which likely originates from the bulkiness of tertiary sulfonamide moiety. The two‐dimensional solution NMR spectroscopy data for the longest sequence S1 demonstrates a 10/16 right‐handed helical structure. Optical analysis using circular dichroism further supports well‐ defined helical conformation of sulfono‐γ‐AApeptides in solution containing as few as five building blocks. Future development of sulfono‐γ‐AApeptides may lead to new foldamers with discrete functions, enabling expanded application in chemical biology and biomedical sciences.     

Tuning Local Charge Distribution in Multicomponent Covalent Organic Frameworks for Dramatically Enhanced Photocatalytic Uranium Extraction

Optimizing the electronic structure of covalent organic framework (COF) photocatalysts is essential for maximizing photocatalytic activity. Herein, we report an isoreticular family of multivariate COFs containing chromenoquinoline rings in the COF structure and electron-donating or withdrawing groups in the pores. Intramolecular donor-acceptor (D-A) interactions in the COFs allowed tuning of local charge distributions and charge carrier separation under visible light irradiation, resulting in enhanced photocatalytic performance. By optimizing the optoelectronic properties of the COFs, a photocatalytic uranium extraction efficiency of 8.02 mg/g/day was achieved using a nitro-functionalized multicomponent COF in natural seawater, exceeding the performance of all COFs reported to date. Results demonstrate an effective design strategy towards high-activity COF photocatalysts with intramolecular D-A structures not easily accessible using traditional synthetic approaches.     

Combined Intrinsic and Extrinsic Proton Conduction in Robust Covalent Organic Frameworks for Hydrogen Fuel Cell Applications

Developing new materials for the fabrication of proton exchange membranes (PEMs) for fuel cells is of great significance. Herein, a series of highly crystalline, porous, and stable new covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have been developed by a stepwise synthesis strategy. The synthesized COFs exhibit high hydrophilicity and excellent stability in strong acid or base (e.g., 12 m NaOH or HCl) and boiling water. These features make them ideal platforms for proton conduction applications. Upon loading with H₃PO₄, the COFs (H₃PO₄@COFs) realize an ultrahigh proton conductivity of 1.13×10^?1 S cm^?1, the highest among all COF materials, and maintain high proton conductivity across a wide relative humidity (40–100 %) and temperature range (20–80 °C). Furthermore, membrane electrode assemblies were fabricated using H₃PO₄@COFs as the solid electrolyte membrane for proton exchange resulting in a maximum power density of 81 mW cm^?2 and a maximum current density of 456 mA cm^?2, which exceeds all previously reported COF materials.     

Quantitative study of interactions between oxygen lone pair and aromatic rings: substituent effect and the importance of closeness of contact

Current models describe aromatic rings as polar groups based on the fact that benzene and hexafluorobenzene are known to have large and permanent quadrupole moments. This report describes a quantitative study of the interactions between oxygen lone pair and aromatic rings. We found that even electron-rich aromatic rings and oxygen lone pairs exhibit attractive interactions. Free energies of interactions are determined using the triptycene scaffold and the equilibrium constants were determined by low-temperature 1H NMR spectroscopy. An X-ray structure analysis for one of the model compounds confirms the close proximity between the oxygen and the center of the aromatic ring. Theoretical calculations at the MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ level corroborate the experimental results. The origin of attractive interactions was explored by using aromatic rings with a wide range of substituents. The interactions between an oxygen lone pair and an aromatic ring are attractive at van der Waals' distance even with electron-donating substituents. Electron-withdrawing groups increase the strength of the attractive interactions. The results from this study can be only partly rationalized by using the current models of aromatic system. Electrostatic-based models are consistent with the fact that stronger electron-withdrawing groups lead to stronger attractions, but fail to predict or rationalize the fact that weak attractions even exist between electron-rich arenes and oxygen lone pairs. The conclusion from this study is that aromatic rings cannot be treated as a simple quadrupolar functional group at van der Waals' distance. Dispersion forces and local dipole should also be considered.     

Hydrogen adsorption in a highly stable porous rare-earth metal-organic framework: sorption properties and neutron diffraction studies

A highly stable porous lanthanide metal-organic framework, Y(BTC)(H2O).4.3H2O (BTC = 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylate), with pore size of 5.8 A has been constructed and investigated for hydrogen storage. Gas sorption measurements show that this porous MOF exhibits highly selective sorption behaviors of hydrogen over nitrogen gas molecules and can take up hydrogen of about 2.1 wt % at 77 K and 10 bar. Difference Fourier analysis of neutron powder diffraction data revealed four distinct D2 sites that are progressively filled within the nanoporous framework. Interestingly, the strongest adsorption sites identified are associated with the aromatic organic linkers rather than the open metal sites, as occurred in previously reported MOFs. Our results provide for the first time direct structural evidence demonstrating that optimal pore size (around 6 A, twice the kinetic diameter of hydrogen) strengthens the interactions between H2 molecules and pore walls and increases the heat of adsorption, which thus allows for enhancing hydrogen adsorption from the interaction between hydrogen molecules with the pore walls rather than with the normally stronger adsorption sites (the open metal sites) within the framework. At high concentration H2 loadings (5.5 H2 molecules (3.7 wt %) per Y(BTC) formula), H2 molecules form highly symmetric novel nanoclusters with relatively short H2-H2 distances compared to solid H2. These observations are important and hold the key to optimizing this new class of rare metal-organic framework (RMOF) materials for practical hydrogen storage applications.     

Immobilization of MP-11 into a mesoporous metal-organic framework, MP-11@mesoMOF: a new platform for enzymatic catalysis

Microperoxidase-11 has for the first time been successfully immobilized into a mesoporous metal-organic framework (MOF) consisting of nanoscopic cages and it demonstrates superior enzymatic catalysis performances compared to its mesoporous silica counterpart.