Latest ArticlesA nonanuclear Cu4ⅡTi5Ⅳ heterometallic cluster, [Ti5Cu4O6(ba)16] (1, Hba=benzoic acid) was synthesized in one-pot reaction under the solvothermal condition. The metallic skeleton 1 contains a Ti5 core constructed from two vertex-shared Ti3 triangles and four separated Cu atoms outside which are connected together by μ3-O2- ions. Total 16 ba- ligands adopt μ2-η1:η1 coordination mode to protect the overall heterometallic core. Due to the unique d-d transitions of CuⅡ ion, the reflectance spectrum of 1 displays broad and strong absorption towards visible light extending to the near-infrared region. Moreover, 1 shows almost purely paramagnetic behavior with the presence of weak antiferromagnetic interactions at low temperatures.
A metal-organic framework, Ce-FDM-50, was constructed by employing gallic acid featuring both carboxylate and pyrogallate as the coordinating sites and Ce(Ⅲ). The co-assembly of the carboxylates and pyrogallates with two metal ions have achieved a new type of paddle wheel secondary building unit. These building units were further joined by organic struts to obtain frameworks in sql topology. This synthetic approach could be expanded to five different lanthanide metals (Nd, Eu, Gd, Tb, Yb) for the construction of a series of isoreticular MOFs based on FDM-50, and even MTV-MOFs in which mixed lanthanide metals with specific ratios were distributed. In addition, featuring the lanthanide metals as the inorganic nodes in the network, Tb-FDM-50 showed distinct luminescence properties that could be furtherly tuned for variable applications.
In this study, we report the synthesis of novel palladium nanoflowers (Pd NFs) on amino-functionalized fullerene (C60-NH2) by hydrothermal self-assembly growth using ethylenediamine (EA) as a functional reagent. The successful formation of Pd nanoflowers supported amino-functionalized fullerene (C60-NH2/Pd NFs) is evidenced by UV-vis and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD). The morphology of Pd NFs over the C60-NH2 surface has been investigated by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) techniques. The supported Pd nanoflowers (Pd NFs/C60-NH2) exhibit remarkably superior catalytic activity toward the reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP). It exhibits remarkable UV-vis spectra response from 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol (4-AP) (99% in 2.0 min) with a turnover frequency of 12.35 min-1. Its excellent catalytic stability and durability offer the promising application in catalysis.
Existing grasping technologies have persistent challenges with unstructured objects and environments, highlighting an increasing demand for methods that conform to various application scenarios. Inspired by the chameleon tongue, a soft-contact grasping manipulator empowered by a class of adhesive gels has been demonstrated. The adhesives enable the manipulator to rapidly and strongly adhere to diverse substrates with varied surfaces, shapes and sizes, also to release objects under mild conditions. The robustness of such adhesive gels was highlighted with the remarkable recyclability, broad temperature tolerance and long-term stability. Furthermore, a general approach was developed to reconcile the contradiction of simultaneously enhancing their interfacial adhesion and cohesion strength that exists in conventional glues. We anticipate that this work will offer a strategy of developing adhesive materials and pave the way towards new applications of soft materials in the emerging fields of soft robotic devices and smart manufacturing.
Recent development of self-healing material has attracted tremendous attention, owing to its biomimetic ability to restore structure and functionality when encountering damages. Here, we develop a threedimensional (3D) printable self-healing composite conductive polymer by mixing hydrogen-bond-based supramolecular polymer with low-cost carbon black. It has a room-temperature self-healing capability in both conductivity and mechanical property, while its shear-thinning behavior enables fabrication of a self-healable circuit by 3D printing technology. As an application, the circuit shows an excellent temperature-dependent behavior of the resistance, indicating its great potential for practical application in the artificial intelligence field.
Polymer electrolytes are essential for next-generation lithium batteries because of their excellent safety record. However, low ionic conductivity is the main obstacle restricting their commercial application. Composites with nanoparticles are a promising route to overcome this obstacle. In this work, lithium polystyrene sulfonate brushes (LiPSS) is anchored to silicon dioxide nanoparticles with chemical bonding using atom transfer radial polymerization (SI-ATRP). The composite polymer electrolytes are made by mixing vinylene carbonate and nanoparticles via a facile in situ polymerization process. The ionic conductivity of composite polymer electrolytes is improved to 7.2 ×10-4 S/cm at room temperature, which is attributed to the low degree of crystallinity of polymer electrolyte and the fast ion transport on the surfaces of polymer brush layers that act as a conductive network. The composite polymer electrolytes show a wide electrochemical window of approximately 4.5 V vs. Li+/Li and excellent cycling performance retention of approximately 95% after 100 cycles at ambient temperature. The results also prove that surface groups of ceramic nanoparticles are an important way to increase the electrochemical properties of composite polymer electrolytes.
Deposition of platinum (Pt) monolayers (PtML) on Au substrate represents a robust strategy to maximally utilize the Pt atoms and meanwhile achieve high catalytic activity towards methanol oxidation reaction for direct methanol fuel cells owing to a substrate-induced tensile strain effect. However, recent studies showed that PtML on Au substrate are far from perfect smooth monoatomic layer, but actually exhibited three-dimensional nanoclusters. Moreover, the PtML suffered from severe structural instability and thus activity degradation during long-term electrocatalysis. To regulate the growth of PtML on Au surface and also to improve its structural stability, we exploit dealloyed AuCu core-shell nanoparticles as a new substrate for depositing PtML. By using high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray elemental mapping combined with electrochemical characterizations, we reveal that the dealloyed AuCu core-shell nanoparticles can effectively promote the deposition of PtML closer to a smooth monolayer structure, thus leading to a higher utilization efficiency of Pt and higher intrinsic activity towards methanol oxidation compared to those on pure Au nanoparticles. Moreover, the PtML deposited on the AuCu core-shell NPs showed substantially enhanced stability compared to those on pure Au NPs during long-term electrocatalysis over several hours, during which segregation of Cu to the Au/Pt interface was revealed and suggested to play an important role in stabilizing the PtML catalysts.
We report on the synthesis of two acentric and one centrosymmetric Zn metal-organic complexes with 3-tetrazolemethyl pyridine spacers obtained in situ by hydrothermal routes. X-ray diffraction structural analysis reveals that they have the same equivalent nodes but with dissimilar topologies. The two acentric frameworks[Zn(Tzmp)Cl]n (1) and ([Zn(Tzmp)Br]n (2), HTzmp=3-tetrazolemethyl pyridine) are isomorphism which exhibit an acentric 3D framework with (10, 3)-b net called "ths", while the centrosymmetric complex ([Zn(Tzmp)N3]n (3)) features a distinctive 2D sheet with Shubnikov hexagonal plane net. Photo-luminescent studies suggest the ligand-field strength of coordinated negative ions (Cl- > Br- > N3-) has ordered adjusting effects on the emission redshift. The second harmonic generation (SHG) measurement shows that compounds 1 and 2 are nonlinear optically active, with SHG responses being 2/3 and half of the standard potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP), respectively.
High-performance anodes of sodium ion batteries (SIBs) largely depends on rational architecture design and binder-free smart hybridization. Herein, we report TiC/C core/shell nanowires arrays prepared by a one-step chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method and apply it as the anode of SIBs for the first time. The conductive TiC core is intimately decorated with carbon shell. The as-obtained TiC/C nanowires are homogeneously grown on the substrate and show core/shell heterostructure and porous architecture with high electronic conductivity and reinforced stability. Owing to these merits, the TiC/C electrode displays good rate performance and outstanding cycling performance with a capacity of 135.3 mAh/g at 0.1 A/g and superior capacity retention of 90.14% after 1000 cycles at 2 A/g. The reported strategy would provide a promising way to construct binder-free arrays electrodes for sodium ion storage.
In this work, we adopt a new tobramycin (TOB)-dopamine coating system to endow thin film composite membranes with excellent antifouling and antimicrobial properties. Combining the hydrophilic and antibiofouling properties of both TOB and polydopamine, the TOB-dopamine modified membrane exhibits improved antifouling and antimicrobial properties compared with the conventional dopamine modified and unmodified membranes. The TOB-dopamine system has two advantages over the conventional modification with dopamine and tris buffer solution. First, TOB-dopamine modification is more efficient than the conventional dopamine modification due to the accelerating effect of TOB on dopamine polymerization. Second, the TOB-dopamine modified membranes exhibit better hydrophilicity, and enhanced antifouling and antimicrobial properties than the conventional dopamine modified membrane. Beyond engineering membranes, the proposed TOB-dopamine system can also be extended for wider surface hydrophilic and antimicrobial modifications.
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