Latest ArticlesThe key building blocks, tetrachlorinated terrylene diimides and the targeted sila-annulated terrylene diimides (Si-TDIs and 2Si-TDIs) were synthesized for the first time. Single-crystal analysis verified the almost planar molecular configurations of both Si-TDIs and 2Si-TDIs. They exhibited intriguing optical properties including red-shifted absorption and near-infrared emission properties with excellent fluorescence quantum yields, as well as precisely controlled HOMO/LUMO energy levels by Si-heteroannulation. The single-crystal organic field-effect transistors based on 2Si-TDI 5a featuring long and branched alkyl chains demonstrated well-balanced ambipolar transporting properties with electron/hole mobilities of 0.10/0.18 cm2 V−1 s−1.
Nitrogen-doped carbon catalysts with hierarchical porous structure are promising oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts due to the faster mass transfer and better charge carrying ability. Herein, an exquisite high nitrogen-containing ligand was designed and readily synthesized from the low-cost biomolecule adenine. Accordingly, three new MOFs (TJU-103, TJU-104 and TJU-105) were prepared using the Co(Ⅱ) or Mn(Ⅱ) ions as metal nodes. Through rationally controlling pyrolysis condition, in virtue of the high nitrogen content in well-defined periodic structure of the pristine MOFs, TJU-104–900 among the derived MOFs with hierarchical porous structure, i.e., N-doped graphitic carbon encapsulating homogeneously distributed cobalt nanoparticles, could be conveniently obtained. Thanks to the synergistic effect of the hierarchical structure and well dispersed active components (i.e., C=O, Co‒Nx, graphitic C and N, pyridinic N), it could exhibit an overpotential of 280 mV@10 mA/cm2 on carbon cloth for OER activity. This work provides the inspiration for fabrication of nitrogen-doped carbon/metal electrocatalysts from cost-effective and abundant biomolecules, which is promising for practical OER application.
To understand the deformation mechanism of molecular crystals under mechanical forces will accelerate the molecular design and preparation of deformable crystals. Herein, the relationship between structural halogenation and molecular-level stacking, micro/nanoscale surface morphology, and macroscopic mechanical properties are investigated. Elastic crystals of halo-pyrimidinyl carbazoles (CzM-Cl, CzM-Br and CzM-Ⅰ) with lamellar structure and brittle crystal (CzM-F) were quantitatively analyzed by crystal energy framework (CEF) providing the inter/intralayer interaction energy (Inter/Intra-IE). It is revealed that the elastic crystals bend under external force as a result from stronger Intra-IE to prevent cleavage and weaker Inter-IE for the short-range movement of molecules on the slip plane. This research will provide an insight for the molecular design of flexible crystals and facilitate the development of next-generation smart crystal materials.
To tackle undesirable shuttle reaction and sluggish reaction kinetics in lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries, we develop a porous and high-density oxygen-doped tantalum nitride nanostructure (nano-TaNO) as an efficient catalyst through delicate tailoring. Benefiting from well-defined interior and surface nanopore channels, the nano-TaNO favors abundant sulfur storage, easy electrolyte infiltration and good electrons/Li+ transport. More importantly, high-density O dopant in nano-TaNO not only provides high conductivity, but also promotes polysulfide adsorption/conversion via Li–O chemical interactions and the generation of S3*− radicals to activate additional evolution path from S8 to Li2S. Consequently, the nano-TaNO-based cathode exhibits excellent specific capacity and cyclability even under high sulfur loading condition. These interesting findings suggest the great potential of tantalum nitride and a high amount of anion doping engineering in manipulating intermediates and building high-performance Li−S rechargeable batteries.
Small molecule activators could equally provide powerful tools as inhibitors do for interrogating cellular signal transduction. However, targeted protein activation is chemically challenging. Developing activators against Src homology region 2 domain-containing phosphatase-1 (SHP-1) to block STAT3 pathway represents a promising strategy for DLBCL therapy. Here we reported a new class of thieno[2,3-b]quinoline-procaine hybrid molecules as SHP-1 allosteric activators. The representative hybrid compound 3b displayed SHP-1 activating effect with EC50 of 5.48 ± 0.28 µmol/L. Further investigations confirmed that 3b allosterically interacted with SHP-1, switched it from close to open conformation, blocked SHP-1/p-STAT3 pathway, induced apoptosis and inhibited ABC-DLBCL cell proliferation in vitro, and delayed tumor growth in the xenograft model of SU-DHL-2. Overall, this work offered a novel paradigm to develop SHP-1 allosteric activators through chemical space evolution of PTPs inhibitors, and firstly validated the therapeutic strategy that directly activating SHP-1 alone could be a potential therapy against ABC-DLBCL via blocking STAT3 pathway.
The oxalate-phosphate polyanion-mixed cathode materials are promising for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) due to their unique open-framework structures and high voltage property. However, materials of this type generally contain crystal water molecules in the lattice frameworks, which may affect their energy storage properties. This work aims to disclose the impacts of crystal water on physiochemical and electrochemical properties of Na2(VO)2(HPO4)2(C2O4)·2H2O (NVPC-W). It shows that the water molecules can be eliminated by vacuum drying at 150 ℃. The elimination of water molecules does not change the crystal phase of the material, while the obtained Na2(VO)2(HPO4)2(C2O4) (NVPC) exhibits significant improvements in cycling stability, Coulombic efficiency, as well as rate performances. Kinetics analysis indicates that the existence of lattice water molecules hinders sodium-ion diffusion and promotes the degradation of electrodes. We believe the findings can help to develop high-performance cathode materials.
Aqueous zinc ion batteries (AZIBs) have attracted much attention in recent years due to their high safety, low cost, and decent electrochemical performance. However, the traditional electrodes development process requires tedious synthesis and testing procedures, which reduces the efficiency of developing high-performance battery devices. Here, we proposed a high-throughput screening strategy based on first-principles calculations to aid the experimental development of high-performance spinel cathode materials for AZIBs. We obtained 14 spinel materials from 12,047 Mn/Zn-O based materials by examining their structures and whether they satisfy the basic properties of electrodes. Then their band structures and density of states, open circuit voltage and volume expansion rate, ionic diffusion coefficient and energy barrier were further evaluated by first-principles calculations, resulting in five potential candidates. One of the promising candidates identified, Mg2MnO4, was experimentally synthesized, characterized and integrated into an AZIB based cell to verify its performance as a cathode. The Mg2MnO4 cathode exhibits excellent cycling stability, which is consistent with the theoretically predicted low volume expansion. Moreover, at high current density, the Mg2MnO4 cathode still exhibits high reversible capacity and excellent rate performance, indicating that it is an excellent cathode material for AZIBs. Our work provides a new approach to accelerate the development of high-performance cathodes for AZIBs and other ion batteries.
Single atom catalysts (SACs) have become the frontier research fields in catalysis. The M1-Nx-Cy based SACs, wherein single metal atoms (M1) are stabilized by N-doped carbonaceous materials, have provided new opportunities for catalysis due to their high reactivity, maximized atomic utilization, and high selectivity. In this review, the fabrication methods of M1-Nx-Cy based SACs via support anchoring strategy and coordination design strategy are summarized to help the readers understand the interaction mechanism of single atoms and support. Then, characterization technologies for identifying single metal atoms are presented. Besides, the environmental applications including management of harmful gases, water purification are discussed. Finally, future opportunities and challenges for preparation strategies, mechanisms and applications are concluded. We conclude this review by emphasizing the fact that M1-Nx-Cy based SACs has the potential to become an important candidate for solving current and future environmental pollution problems.
Ferroelectric semiconductors have sparked growing attention in the field of optoelectronics, due to their unique ferroelectric photovoltaic effect. Recently, substantial efforts have been devoted to the development of ferroelectric semiconductors, including inorganic oxides, organic-inorganic hybrids, and metal-free perovskites. Nevertheless, reports of ferroelectric semiconductors with a bandgap of less than 2 eV have been scarce. Here, in combination with the incorporation of triiodide (I3−) and the introduction of chiral cations, we successfully constructed a pair of enantiomeric organic-inorganic hybrid ferroelectric semiconductors, (S-1,2-DAP·I)4·I3·BiI6 and (R-1,2-DAP·I)4·I3·BiI6 (R/S-1,2-DAP = (R/S)-(–)-1,2-diaminopropane), which possess high-temperature multiaxial ferroelectric phase transition with an Aizu notation of 422F2(s) at 405 K, a narrow bandgap of 1.56 eV comparable to that of CH3NH3PbI3 (~1.5 eV), and an impressive piezoelectric response (piezoelectric coefficient, d22 of 35 pC/N) on par with PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride, 30 pC/N). With intriguing attributes, (S-1,2-DAP·I)4·I3·BiI6 and (R-1,2-DAP·I)4·I3·BiI6 exhibit great potential for application of self-power polarized-light detection and piezoelectric sensors.
Non-fused ring electron acceptors (NFREAs) have a broad application prospect in the commercialization of organic solar cells (OSCs) due to the advantages of simple synthesis and low cost. The selection of intermediate block cores of non-fused frameworks and the establishment of the relationship between molecular structure and device performance are crucial for the realization of high-performance OSCs. Herein, two A-D-A'-D-A type NFREAs namely CBTBO-4F and CBTBO-4Cl, constructed with a novel electron-deficient block unit N-(2-butyloctyl)-carbazole[3,4-c: 5,6-c]bis[1,2,5]thiadiazole (CBT) and bridging unit 4,4-bis(2-ethylhexyl)-4H-cyclopenta[2,1-b: 3,4-b']dithiophene (DTC) coupling with different terminals (IC-2F/2Cl), were designed and synthesized. The two NFREAs feature broad and strong photoresponse from 500 nm to 900 nm due to the strong intramolecular charge transfer characteristics. Compared with CBTBO-4F, CBTBO-4Cl shows better molecular planarity, stronger crystallinity, more ordered molecular stacking, larger van der Waals surface, lower energy level and better active layer morphology, contributing to much better charge separation and transport behaviors in its based devices. As a result, the CBTBO-4Cl based device obtains a higher power conversion efficiency of 10.18% with an open-circuit voltage of 0.80 V and a short-circuit current density of 21.20 mA/cm2. These results not only demonstrate the great potential of CBT, a new building block of the benzothiazole family, in the construction of high-performance organic conjugated semiconductors, but also suggest that the terminal chlorination is an effective strategy to improve device performance.
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