N‐Annulated Perylene‐Substituted and Fused Porphyrin Dimers with Intense Near‐Infrared One‐Photon and Two‐Photon Absorption

Fusion of two N‐annulated perylene (NP) units with a fused porphyrin dimer along the S₀–S₁ electronic transition moment axis has resulted in new near‐infrared (NIR) dyes 1 a / 1 b with very intense absorption (ε>1.3×10⁵ M ^?1 cm^?1) beyond 1250 nm. Both compounds displayed moderate NIR fluorescence with fluorescence quantum yields of 4.4×10^?6 and 6.0×10^?6 for 1 a and 1 b , respectively. The NP‐substituted porphyrin dimers 2 a / 2 b have also been obtained by controlled oxidative coupling and cyclodehydrogenation, and they showed superimposed absorptions of the fused porphyrin dimer and the NP chromophore. The excited‐state dynamics of all of these compounds have been studied by femtosecond transient absorption measurements, which revealed porphyrin dimer‐like behaviour. These new chromophores also exhibited good nonlinear optical susceptibility with large two‐photon absorption cross‐sections in the NIR region due to extended π‐conjugation. Time‐dependent density functional theory calculations have been performed to aid our understanding of their electronic structures and absorption spectra.     

Fused Triangulene Dimers: Facile Synthesis by Intramolecular Radical-Radical Coupling and Application for Near-Infrared Lasers

Large graphene-like molecules with four zigzag edges are ideal gain medium materials for organic near-infrared (NIR) lasers. However, synthesizing them becomes increasingly challenging as the molecular size increases. In this study, we introduce a new intramolecular radical-radical coupling approach and successfully synthesize two fused triangulene dimers ( 1 a / 1 b ) efficiently. X-ray crystallographic analysis of 1 a indicates that there is no intermolecular π-π stacking in the solid state. When the more soluble derivative 1 b is dispersed in polystyrene thin films, amplified spontaneous emission in the NIR region is observed. Using 1 b as the active gain material, we fabricate solution-processed distributed feedback lasers that exhibit a narrow emission linewidth at around 790 nm. The laser devices also exhibit low thresholds with high photostability. Our study provides a new synthetic strategy for extended nanographenes, which have diverse applications in electronics and photonics.     

Electrical detection of deoxyribonucleic acid hybridization based on carbon-nanotubes/nano zirconium dioxide/chitosan-modified electrodes

A novel and sensitive electrochemical DNA biosensor based on nanoparticles ZrO₂ and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) for DNA immobilization and enhanced hybridization detection is described. The MWNTs/nano ZrO₂/chitosan-modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) was fabricated and oligonucleotides were immobilized to the GCE. The hybridization reaction on the electrode was monitored by differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) analysis using electroactive daunomycin as an indicator. Compared with previous DNA sensors with oligonucleotides directly incorporated on carbon electrodes, this carbon nanotube-based assay with its large surface area and good charge-transport characteristics increased DNA attachment quantity and complementary DNA detection sensitivity. The response signal increases linearly with the increase of the logarithm of the target DNA concentration in the range of 1.49 × 10⁻¹⁰ to 9.32 × 10⁻⁸ mol L⁻¹ with the detection limit of 7.5 × 10⁻¹¹ mol L⁻¹ (S/N = 3). The linear regression equation is I = 32.62 + 3.037 log C_DNA (mol L⁻¹) with a correlation coefficient value of 0.9842. This is the first application of carbon nanotubes combined with nano ZrO₂ to the fabrication of an electrochemical DNA biosensor with a favorable performance for the rapid detection of specific hybridization.     

Perylene anhydride fused porphyrins as near-infrared sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells

Two perylene anhydride fused porphyrins 1 and 2 have been synthesized and employed successfully in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). Both compounds showed broad incident monochromatic photon-to-current conversion efficiency spectra covering the entire visible spectral region and even extending into the near-infrared (NIR) region up to 1000 nm, which is impressive for ruthenium-free dyes in DSCs.     

A Blow-up Criterion of Strong Solutions to the Compressible Viscous Heat-Conductive Flows with Zero Heat Conductivity

We study the compressible Navier-Stokes equations of viscous heat-conductive fluids in a periodic domain \mathbbT³\mathbb{T}^{3} with zero heat conductivity k=0. We prove a blow-up criterion for the local strong solutions in terms of the temperature and positive density, similar to the Beale-Kato-Majda criterion for ideal incompressible flows.     

Template-directed synthesis of kinetically and thermodynamically stable molecular necklace using ring closing metathesis

We report the template-directed synthesis of a well-defined, kinetically stable [5]molecular necklace with dialkylammonium ion (R(2)NH(2)(+)) as recognition site and DB24C8 as macrocycle. A thread containing four dialkylammonium ions with olefin at both ends was first synthesized and then subjected to threading with an excess amount of DB24C8 to form pseudo[5]rotaxane, which in situ undergoes ring closing metathesis at the termini with second generation Grubbs catalyst to yield the desired [5]molecular necklace. The successful synthesis of [5]molecular necklace is mainly attributed to the self-assembly and dynamic covalent chemistry which allows the formation of thermodynamically most stable product. The self-assembly of the DB24C8 ring onto the recognition site known as templating effect was driven by noncovalent stabilizing interactions like [N(+)-H···O], [C-H···O] hydrogen bonds as well as [π···π] interactions which is facilitated in non-polar solvents. The reversible nature of olefin metathesis reaction makes it suitable for dynamic covalent chemistry since proof-reading and error-checking operates until it generates thermodynamically the most stable interlocked molecule. Riding on the success of [5]molecular necklace, we went a step further and attempted to synthesize [7]molecular necklace using the same protocol. This led to the synthesis of another thread with olefin at both ends but having six dibenzylammonium ions along the thread. However, the extremely poor solubility of this thread containing six secondary ammonium ions limits the self-assembly process even after we replaced the typical PF(6)(-) counter anion with a more lipophilic BPh(4)(-) anion. Although the poor solubility of the thread remains the bottleneck for making higher order molecular necklaces yet this approach of "threading-followed-by-ring-closing-metathesis" for the first time produces kinetically and thermodynamically stable, well-defined, homogeneous molecular necklace which was well characterized by one-dimensional, two-dimensional, variable temperature proton NMR spectroscopy and ESI mass spectroscopy.     

Lateral extension of π conjugation along the bay regions of bisanthene through a Diels-Alder cycloaddition reaction

Diels-Alder cycloaddition reactions at the bay regions of bisanthene (1) with dienophiles such as 1,4-naphthoquinone have been investigated. The products were submitted to nucleophilic addition followed by reductive aromatization reactions to afford the laterally extended bisanthene derivatives 2 and 3. Attempted synthesis of a larger expanded bisanthene 4 revealed an unexpected hydrogenation reaction at the last reductive aromatization step. Unusual Michael addition was observed on quinone 14, which was obtained by Diels-Alder reaction between 1 and 1,4-anthraquinone. Compounds 1-3 exhibited near-infrared (NIR) absorption and emission with high-to-moderate fluorescent quantum yields. Their structures and absorption spectra were studied by density function theory and non-planar twisted structures were calculated for 2 and 3. All compounds showed amphoteric redox behavior with multiple oxidation/reduction waves. Oxidative titration with SbCl(5) gave stable radical cations, and the process was followed by UV/Vis/NIR spectroscopic measurements. Their photostability was measured and correlated to their different geometries and electronic structures.     

The vanishing viscosity limit for a 2D Cahn–Hilliard–Navier–Stokes system with a slip boundary condition

This paper studies the vanishing viscosity limit for the 2D Cahn–Hilliard–Navier–Stokes system in a bounded domain with a slip boundary condition. The result is proved globally in time.     

Uniqueness of weak solutions to the Ginzburg-Landau model for superconductivity

We prove the uniqueness for weak solutions of the time-dependent 2-D Ginzburg-Landau model for superconductivity with L ² initial data in the case of Coulomb gauge. This question was left open in Tang and Wang (Physica D, 88:139?C166, 1995). We also prove the uniqueness of the 3-D radially symmetric solution in bounded annular domain with the choice of Lorentz gauge and L ² initial data.