On the distinct reactivity of two isomers of [IrC4H2]+ toward methane and water

The gas-phase reactions of [IrC₄H₂]⁺ with methane and water have been explored by using mass spectrometry combined with quantum chemical calculations. Interestingly, under the employed conditions, two isomers of [IrC₄H₂]⁺ co-exist with different reactivity. One of them only activates methane while the other is solely reactive with water to produce CO. Apparently, upon varying the coordination patterns, the Ir center gains rather distinct capabilities of mediating the bond breaking and making processes. The reactivity toward methane mainly depends on the orbital orientation, while the π-aromaticity of the reaction complex matters for the conversion of water. The experimental and theoretical findings in this work do not only imply the promising role the Ir atom can play in the bulk-system methane conversion, but may also be instructive on how to construct a high-performance center for steam reforming of methane.

     

Catalyst-free multicomponent polymerization of sulfonyl azide,aldehyde and cyclic amino acids toward zwitterionic and amphiphilic poly(N-sulfonyl amidine) as nanocatalyst precursor

Polymers with metal coordination ability are outstanding precursors of nanocatalysts, attracting numerous attention in nanocatalysis area. It has been rarely reported for the poly(N-sulfonyl amidines) as macromolecular ligands for nanocatalysis. Herein, a catalyst-free multicomponent polymerization (MCP) strategy is developed to facilely prepare a library of amphiphilic poly(N-sulfonyl amidines) with zwitterionic properties starting from disulfonyl azide, hydrophilic dialdehyde and cyclic amino acids including proline and pipecolinic acid. Metals or additives can be thorougly avoided through this method. All the obtained polymers have well-defined structures, high yields and weight-average molecular weights (M_ws, up to 99,300 g/mol). The unique zwitterionic property, amphiphilicity and Cu(I) coordination ability of the obtained poly(N-sulfonyl amidines) endow them to form the polymer-Cu(I) complexes as nanocatalysts. Such nanocatalysts exhibite high catalytic efficiency in aqueous Cu-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) reaction at a low Cu(I) loading of 50 ppm. Nanocatalysts with high ratio of polymers to Cu(I) have also been demonstrated with Cu(I) stabilization ability. This work provides a “green” MCP method toward zwitterionic and amphiphilic poly(N-sulfonyl amidines), and highlights their unique potentials for nanocatalysis.

     

Altering elastic-plastic mechanical response of a series of isostructural metal-organic complex crystals

The mechanically compliant single crystals have attracted massive attention. However, the related reports on the single crystals composed of metal-organic complexes remain scarce. In this study, we synthesized a series of isostructural single crystals of Zn^II complexes that manifest mechanical bending in response to external stress. In these crystals, the mechanical responses can be shifted between elastic bending and plastic bending by the control of the intermolecular interactions through a rational structural modification in the substituent group of pyridine ligands. As the molecular reorientation corresponding to ligand variation elongates the interfacial distance between molecular slip planes, and the structural disorder of ligands disperses the interplanar intermolecular interactions, the shift from elastic bending to plastic bending of the metal-organic complex-based single crystal was realized. The different mechanical responses of single crystals were comprehensively investigated both experimentally and theoretically.

     

Advancing from unimechanism polymerization to multimechanism polymerization: binary polymerization

Polymerizations with multiple mechanisms performed simultaneously are promising but very challenging. As the key limitation,the complicated mutual influence between different mechanisms can be hardly defined and measured. Herein we establish a universal framework for the assessment of mutual influence between different mechanisms using binary polymerization for demonstration. The kinetics and thermodynamics of polymerization with two mechanisms are compared with the corresponding homopolymerization and the difference is expressed by a hybrid function. The hybrid function is composed of a hybrid parameter that describes the extent of mutual influence and a function that describes necessary conditions for mutual influence to occur. The extent of mutual influence can be calculated using kinetic and thermodynamic data without details of reaction mechanisms, for the first time providing a straightforward method to assess the mutual influence between different polymerization mechanisms.We envision that the method has potential in more complex systems with multiple mechanisms/monomers with mutual influence.     

Over 18% binary organic solar cells enabled by isomerization of non-fullerene acceptors with alkylthiophene side chains

Side-chain engineering has been demonstrated as an effective method for fine-tuning the optical, electrical, and morphological properties of organic semiconductors toward efficient organic solar cells (OSCs). In this work, three isomeric non-fullerene small molecule acceptors (SMAs), named BTP-4F-T2C8, BTP-4F-T2EH and BTP-4F-T3EH, with linear and branched alkyl chains substituted on the α or β positions of thiophene as the side chains, were synthesized and systematically investigated. The results demonstrate that the size and substitution position of alkyl side chains can greatly affect the electronic properties, molecular packing as well as crystallinity of the SMAs. After blending with donor polymer D18-Cl, the prominent device performance of 18.25% was achieved by the BTP-4F-T3EH-based solar cells, which is higher than those of the BTP-4F-T2EH-based (17.41%) and BTP-4F-T2C8-based (15.92%) ones. The enhanced performance of the BTP-4F-T3EH-based devices is attributed to its stronger crystallinity, higher electron mobility, suppressed biomolecular recombination, and the appropriate intermolecular interaction with the donor polymer. This work reveals that the side chain isomerization strategy can be a practical way in tuning the molecular packing and blend morphology for improving the performance of organic solar cells.

     

Palladium-catalyzed enantioselective carbonylation reactions

Carbonylation, one of the most powerful approaches to the preparation of carbonylated compounds, has received significant attention from researchers active in various fields. Indeed, impressive progress has been made on this subject over the past few decades. Among the various types of carbonylation reactions, asymmetric carbonylation is a straightforward methodology for constructing chiral compounds. Although rhodium-catalyzed enantioselective hydroformylations have been discussed in several el...     

Fluoro-substituted DPP-bisthiophene conjugated polymer with azides in the side chains as ambipolar semiconductor and photoresist

Photoresists are essential for the fabrication of flexible electronics through all-photolithographic processes. Single component semiconducting photoresist exhibits both semiconducting and photo-patterning properties, and as a result, the device fabrication process can be simplified. However, the design of semiconducting polymeric photoresist with ambipolar semiconducting property remains challenging. In this paper, we report a single component semiconducting photoresist (PFDPPF4T-N₃) by incorporating azide groups and noncovalent conformation locks into the side alkyl chains and conjugated backbones of a diketopyrrolopyrrole-based conjugated polymer, respectively. The results reveal that PFDPP4FT-N₃ exhibits ambipolar semiconducting property with hole and electron mobilities up to 1.12 and 1.17 cm² V^?1 s^?1, respectively. Moreover, field effect transistors with the individual photo-patterned thin films of PFDPPF4T-N₃ also show ambipolar semiconducting behavior with hole and electron mobilities up to 0.66 and 0.80 cm² V^?1 s^?1, respectively. These results offer a simple yet effective design strategy for high-performance single component semiconducting photoresists, which hold great potential for flexible electronics processed by all photolithography.

     

Regulating the dimensionality of diphosphaperylenediimide-based polymers by coordinating the out-of-plane anisotropic π-framework toward Ag+

The development of hetero-π-conjugated molecules is of significance for constructing diverse assembling superstructures based on heteroatom-related bonded or nonbonded interactions. Herein, we developed one-pot P-heteroannulation via palladium-catalyzed dual P—C bonds formation and subsequent sulfidation to construct two isomeric diphosphaperylenediimides (cis-5 and trans-5). The unique out-of-plane anisotropic π-framework induced a cumulative anisotropy with a dipole moment of up to 8.82 D for cis-5, leading to distinct supramolecular packing arrangements. Optical and electrochemical characterizations demonstrated that they showed the largest redshifts extending to 574 nm and rather low-lying LUMO levels of ?4.41 eV. Furthermore, the introduced P=S moieties endowed these diphosphaperylenediimides with prominent coordination ability towards Ag⁺, thus the first example of perylene diimide (PDI) core-involved metal-organic coordination polymers (MOCPs) with tunable dimensionality varied from 1D, 2D, to 3D were tactfully achieved. In view of easy accessibility and 2D layered porous structure, thus 2D (trans-5)·(AgOTf) based MOCP showed high crystallinity and good CO₂ adsorption capacity with surface area of 112 m²/g. The result opens a span-new avenue for exploring rylene imide-based MOCPs and related properties by integrating P functionality.

     

Non-contact biomimetic mechanism for selective hydrogenation of nitroaromatics on heterogeneous metal nanocatalysts

While the enzymatic reduction of unsaturated compounds usually has high specificity, highly selective reduction processes are hardly realized by heterogeneous industrial catalysts, which is critical for the green production of many fine chemicals. Here, we report an unexpected discovery of a biomimetic behavior of dicyandiamide(DICY)-modified Pt nanocatalysts for the green hydrogenation of a wide range of nitroaromatics. We demonstrate that the surface modification by DICY not only prevents the ...     

A trinuclear {Fe2~ⅢFe~Ⅱ} complex involving both spin and non-spin transitions exhibits three-step and wide thermal hysteresis

The engineering of switchable molecules with magnetic multistability is lying on the cutting-edge research topics for integrating multi-switches and ternary memory devices.Here we presented a cyanide-bridged{Fe₂~ⅢFe~Ⅱ}desolvated complex{[(pzTp)Fe~Ⅲ-(CN)₃]₂[Fe~Ⅱ(L)]}(1),obtained through single-crystal-to-single-crystal (SCSC) transformation from its solvated phase{[(pzTp)-Fe~Ⅲ(CN)₃]₂[Fe~Ⅱ(L)]}·2CH₃OH·5H₂O (1·sol).Remarka...     

Apoptosis-enhanced ferroptosis therapy of pancreatic carcinoma through PAMAM dendrimer-iron(Ⅲ) complex-based plasmid delivery

The development of promising strategies to improve the treatment efficacy of pancreatic carcinoma still remains to be a challenging task. We report here the development of a new dendrimer-based nanomedicine formulation to tackle pancreatic carcinoma through apoptosis-enhanced ferroptosis therapy. In this article, G5 dendrimers were partially modified with a Fe(Ⅲ)chelator hydroxyquinoline-2-carboxylic acid(8-HQC) on their periphery, entrapped with gold nanoparticles(Au NPs) within their internal ...     

Steric-switched defluorofunctionalization selectivity: controlled synthesis of monofluoroalkene-masked medium-sized heterocyclic lactams and lactones

The steric-switched ipso-defluoroamination-triggered and ipso-defluorooxylation-triggered cyclization of(trifluoromethyl)alkenes with amino alcohols and diamines are achieved under mild conditions. This regioselective strategy distinguishes the different nucleophilic heteroatom sites in amino alcohols and unsymmetric diamines by the sequential defluorinative functionalization of two C(sp³)–F bonds in a CF₃ group. Various attractive monofluoroalkene-masked medium-sized heter...     

Catalytic asymmetric synthesis of chiral azo compounds via interrupted Japp-Klingemann reaction with aryldiazonium salts

Asymmetric synthesis of enantioenriched azo compounds bearing tetrasubstituted stereocenter was achieved through chiral N,N′-dioxide/metal Lewis acid promoted interrupted Japp-Klingemann reaction of aryldiazonium tetrafluoroborate salts with nucleophiles under mild conditions. This protocol features wide substrate scope and good functional group compatibility.Azaarene-containing chiral azo compounds were stable enough in Japp-Klingemann reaction condition. The key to success of the reaction was ...     

Simple sulfone-bridged heterohelicene structure realizes ultraviolet narrowband thermally activated delayed fluorescence,circularly polarized luminescence,and room temperature phosphorescence

Due to narrowband emission and high quantum efficiencies, polycyclic aromatic heterocycles with multi-resonance thermally activated delayed fluorescence(MR-TADF) properties have recently gained considerable attention in the organic optoelectronic field. Albeit their great promise in the full visible region covering from blue to red, MR-TADF emitters with ultraviolet emission have been rarely reported. Through locking the two ortho-positions of a triphenylamine core by sulfone groups, a simple po...     

Metformin booster adipocyte-targeted gene therapy for the treatment of obesity and related metabolic syndromes

Obesity has become an important public problem that endangers human conditions and urgently needs to be solved. However,most weight-loss drugs on the market have little effect and are accompanied by adverse effects such as strokes and heart attacks.Here, we construct an adipocyte-targeting polypeptide-based gene carrier consisting of an adipocyte-targeting peptide and ptoluylsulfonyl arginine-modified polylysine(ATS-PLL-RT), which can specifically bind to the prohibitin of mature adipocytes.We f...     

Organic white-light sources: multiscale construction of organic luminescent materials from molecular to macroscopic level

Organic luminescent materials play an integral role in the optoelectronic applications of displays and solid-state lighting.Nevertheless, high-performance organic luminescent materials require the efficient combination of two or more kinds of materials, which is extremely difficult owing to the completely different self-assembly behaviors of multicomponent molecules.Herein, based on a broad scale from the molecular, micro-/nano-scale, and macroscopic levels, we successfully demonstrate the multi...     

Spatially-separated and photo-enhanced semiconductor corrosion processes for high-efficient and contamination-free electrochemical nanoimprint lithography

Free of any thermoplastic or photocuring resists, electrochemical nanoimprint lithography(ECNL) has emerged as an alternative nanoimprint way to fabricate three-dimensional micro/nano-structures(3D-MNSs) directly on a semiconductor wafer by a spatially-confined corrosion reaction induced by the metal/semiconductor contact potential. However, the consumption of electron acceptors in the ultrathin electrolyte between imprint mold and semiconductor wafer will slow down or even cease the corrosion r...     

Se-sensitized NIR hot band absorption photosensitizer for anti-Stokes excitation deep photodynamic therapy

Conventional anti-Stokes materials-involved deep photodynamic therapy (dPDT) requires much high-intensity irradiance due to low photosensitization efficiency.Herein,we proposed a"booster effector"approach to construct highly efficient hot band absorption phototherapeutics for low/biosafety power anti-Stokes light-triggered d PDT.Se,as"booster effector",was introduced into hot band absorption luminophores (HBAs),which not only significantly facilitated intersystem crossing,but also simultaneously...     

Discerning the oscillatory electrochemical response during electrodeposition of cobalt in the presence of but-2-yne-1,4-diol

We present a new observation of electrochemical oscillation during the reduction of Co²⁺ from sulfate solution in the presence of but-2-yne-1,4-diol (butynediol) as an additive. Cyclic voltammetry, hydrodynamic voltammetry at galvanostatic condition, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopic studies suggest that the electrochemical oscillation observed was a relaxation type and was the manifestation of adsorbed hydrogen formation by electrochemical reduction of protons on cobalt and their chemical removal by semi-hydrogenation of butynediol to butenediol during the initial stages of electrodeposition.

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Advances in exosome isolation methods and their applications in proteomic analysis of biological samples

Exosomes are membrane-bound vesicles secreted by cells, and contain various important biological molecules, such as lipids, proteins, messenger RNAs, microRNAs, and noncoding RNAs. Emerging evidence demonstrates that proteomic analysis of exosomes is of great significance in studying metabolic diseases, tumor metastasis, immune regulation, and so forth. However, exosome proteomic analysis has high requirements with regard to the purity of collected exosomes. Here recent advances in the methods for isolating exosomes and their applications in proteomic analysis are summarized.

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