Latest ArticlesThe properties of biomass-derived multifunctional materials have garnered increasing attention in the fields of environmental remediation, energy storage, and heterogeneous catalysis due to their abundant content of N and C, which can effectively modulate electronic structure and facilitate the anchoring of active centers. In this review, we summarized the progress of our team over the past decade on a variety of multifunctional materials with diverse morphologies, electronic structures, and geometric sites, developed through novel synthetic strategies that employ biomass and its derivatives as carbon sources. Those multifunctional materials exhibited excellent catalytic performance for the adsorption and degradation of pollutants in wastewater, absorption of electromagnetic waves (EMW), and photocatalytic reactions. Moreover, the underlying mechanisms of adsorption, degradation, and activation during the reaction process as well as the relationship between activity and structure are also discussed. This review offers comprehensive insights for fabricating biomass-derived materials, with a specific emphasis on their physicochemical properties characterized by controlled morphology, tunable electronic properties, and precise localization of active species, as well as the aspect of the intricate relationship between activity-structure and catalytic mechanisms, providing reference for future advancements in various catalysis fields involving biomass-derived materials.
The development of highly sensitive electrocatalysts for the electrochemical detection of ortho-nitrophenol (ONP) is critical for environmental monitoring due to its high toxicity in water environment. Herein, a novel electronic configuration engineering on CoSeO3/AlO(OH) heterostructure with precisely modulated d-band centers is successfully designed. Crucially, a negative shift in the d-band center enhances the catalysis and adsorption ability of the heterostructure. Benefiting from the electron transfer behavior from AlO(OH) to CoSeO3, the electrocatalyst exhibits exceptional ONP sensing performance, achieving an ultrahigh sensitivity of 0.499 μA L μmol-1 and a record-low detection limit of 5.353 nmol/L. Furthermore, the experimental characterizations and density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the heterostructure-induced d-band center downshifting optimizes the adsorption strength of ONP, further accelerating the electrochemical redox kinetics. The CoSeO3/AlO(OH) also demonstrates good stability, anti-interference capabilities, and successful application in detecting ONP in real water samples. This study offers a promising strategy for designing advanced electrochemical sensors through heterointerface-based electronic structure engineering.
Indole-containing polyheterocycles belong to an extremely important class of organic compounds, and the related skeletons are found in many natural products and bioactive molecules. They play an important role in synthetic and medicinal chemistry, agrochemicals, and advanced materials. Moreover, they also serve as versatile building blocks and tools for constructing more complex molecules. Thus, development of efficient methods for assembly of indole-containing polyheterocycles has attracted considerable attention in recent years. The aim of this review is to summarize recent developments in the synthesis of indole-fused or spired polycyclic compounds via cyclization of indole-tethered alkenes. Indole-tethered alkenes with alkenyl species linked to different position of indole moiety is presented.
The iron-based pyrophosphate Na2FeP2O7 (NFPO) exhibits remarkable advantages including economic viability, exceptional structural stability, and outstanding safety characteristics. Nevertheless, the widespread implementation is fundamentally constrained by its poor inherent electronic conductivity and inadequate Na+ transport kinetics. This work employs a Cu doping strategy to achieve systematic electrochemical optimization through inducing local lattice distortions. The optimized Na2Fe0.97Cu0.03P2O7@C (0.03Cu-NFPO@C) composite delivers an impressive specific capacity of 91.32 mAh/g at 0.05 C and exhibits remarkable rate capability of 39.07 mAh/g at 50 C, whereas pristine NFPO@C merely provides 24.12 mAh/g. Furthermore, 0.03Cu-NFPO@C demonstrates extraordinary cycling stability, retaining 86.40% capacity after 12, 000 cycles at 40 C. Structural characterization through in-situ X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) confirms that Cu doping effectively stabilizes the crystal framework, modifies Fe coordination environments and shortens Fe-O bond lengths. Theory calculations demonstrate that Cu doping reduces the band gap and lowers Na+ diffusion barriers, thereby optimizing intrinsic electronic conductivity and ion transport kinetics. This study introduces an innovative methodology for designing polyanionic cathodes, accelerating the commercialization of sodium-ion batteries for grid-scale energy storage.
We present the synthesis and host-guest complexation of endo-functionalized shape-persistent hexa(ethynylpyridine) macrocycles (Py6MCs). The challenging macrocyclization of linear hexapyridine precursors was achieved by using catalytic amount of PdCl2(PPh3)2 and stoichiometric CuI in the Sonogashira reaction, or with K2CO3 as an additive under copper-free conditions. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction revealed that Py6MCs with different side chains all feature a near-planar framework, with notable flexibility to adopt chair-like or boat-like conformations. The polar and electron-rich cavities of Py6MCs render them attractive hosts for cationic guests. 1H NMR and fluorescence titrations showed that Py6MC1 and Py6MC2 formed 1:1 complexes with N-methyl pyridinium and quaternary ammonium cations, and high affinity (up to 3.1 × 105 L/mol) was achieved for cations of distinct shapes and sizes. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations showed that Py6MC readily deforms to complement the structures of different guests, demonstrating a high level of adaptivity.
In this work, a series of novel non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors featuring pyridine-difluoro/dimethylaniline fragment and 4-aminepiperidine moiety were synthesized based on structure-based design strategy. Among these, the dimethyl-substituted analogue 20m, characterized by a larger dihedral angle, emerged as the most potent inhibitor against wild-type (WT) human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) as well as multiple resistant strains. Compound 20m exhibited remarkable antiviral activity with median effect concentration (EC50) values of 0.003 µmol/L (WT), 0.011 µmol/L (L100I), 0.001 µmol/L (K103N), 0.006 µmol/L (Y181C), 0.108 µmol/L (Y188L), 0.008 µmol/L (E138K), 0.196 µmol/L (F227L + V106A), and 0.032 µmol/L (Y181C + K103N), consistently outperforming efavirenz (EFV). Notably, 20m also demonstrated dramatically enhanced aqueous solubility, reaching >3954.5 µg/mL in phosphate buffer at pH 4.5 and >7380.6 µg/mL at pH 2.0, far exceeding that of etravirine (ETR). Collectively, these findings lay a robust foundation for the future optimization and development of next-generation non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs).
Triketones are fundamental building blocks in discovering many bioactive compounds due to their unique structural features. With three carbonyl groups and the ability to tautomerize into enol forms, triketones can form hydrogen bond donors and acceptors when binding to receptors and serve as metal chelation function groups. This structural diversity enables triketone compounds to be widely applied in herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, anticancer treatments, and tyrosine metabolism disorders, particularly applications as HPPD (4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase) inhibitors, where their herbicidal activity stems from the disruption of plant photosynthesis processes to effectively control weed growth. Moreover, in materials applications, their excellent reactivity allows for the post-polymerization modification of triketone-modified polymers. To facilitate the discovery of triketone pesticides and drugs, in this review, we summarize the current research progress of triketone compounds, highlighting their potential mechanisms of action and environmental fate.
White-light organic molecules (WLOMs) exhibit distinct advantages over multi-component systems, such as good reproducibility and high long-term stability. However, the complex synthesis method and the unsatisfactory CIE coordinates hinder their further application. To meet this challenge, a series of novel white-light-emitting single-molecule compounds (BTP-Phs) based on the benzothiazolopyridinone skeleton were rationally designed and synthesized by modulating the donor-acceptor (D-A) structure of the molecules. The study of the structure-spectra relationship indicated that the strong electron-donating ability of the aromatic substituents and the synergistic effect of the extended π-conjugated system enhanced the intramolecular charge transfer (ICT), which reduces the energy gap of the molecules and favors the long-wavelength emission of BTP-Phs. Notably, ideal white light emission (0.31, 0.34) was achieved through the aldehyde-gemdiol equilibrium in mixed solvents. The emission color could be finely tuned by solvent composition, excitation wavelength and concentration. In addition, a fluorescent ink was developed based on BTP-CHO-OPh as a functional material, which could realize information storage and encryption through QR codes or ASCII binary encoding. This study not only provides valuable design strategies for constructing WLOMs based on aldehyde-geminal diol equilibrium, but also highlights their potential in the field of secure information technology.
Equilateral triangular lattices (TLs) with antiferromagnetic interactions are ideal templates for inducing magnetic frustration, offering a platform to explore exotic quantum spin states that are crucial for advancing quantum science and technology. However, few examples meet these structural criteria, and even fewer realize these fascinating physical properties. We report four novel equilateral TL magnets realized through a crystal-symmetry-protected molecular-brick strategy. By deliberately selecting a high-symmetry nonmagnetic structural template and incorporating magnetic molecular building blocks, magnetic ions are geometrically constrained by three-fold rotational symmetry within the a-b plane, enforcing an ideal equilateral TL and turning on magnetism in a nonmagnetic structural template. Magnetic susceptibility and specific heat measurements reveal a long-range magnetic ordering in BaCoBe2(BO3)2F2 around 180 mK, while BaNiBe2(BO3)2F2 remains disordered at 140 mK. Furthermore, crystal orbital Hamilton population analysis shows that different molecular bricks exhibit distinct bonding characteristics, resulting in diverse magnetic properties. Our results demonstrate that the molecular-brick chemical strategy offers valuable insights into the investigation of geometrically frustrated magnets.
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