Targeting One- and Two-Dimensional Ta-Te Structures via Nanotube Encapsulation.

Fine control over material synthesis on the nanoscale can facilitate the stabilization of competing crystalline structures. Here, we demonstrate how carbon nanotube reaction vessels can be used to selectively create one-dimensional TaTe chains or two-dimensional TaTe nanoribbons with exquisite control of the chain number or nanoribbon thickness and width. Transmission electron microscopy and scanning transmission electron microscopy reveal the detailed atomic structure of the encapsulated materials.

Structured-Liquid Batteries.

Chemical systems may be maintained far from equilibrium by sequestering otherwise reactive species into different microenvironments. It remains a significant challenge to control the amount of chemical energy stored in such systems and to utilize it on demand to perform useful work. Here, we show that redox-active molecules compartmentalized in multiphasic structured-liquid devices can be charged and discharged to power a load on an external circuit.

Chemical crystallography by serial femtosecond X-ray diffraction.

Inorganic-organic hybrid materials represent a large share of newly reported structures, owing to their simple synthetic routes and customizable properties. This proliferation has led to a characterization bottleneck: many hybrid materials are obligate microcrystals with low symmetry and severe radiation sensitivity, interfering with the standard techniques of single-crystal X-ray diffraction and electron microdiffraction. Here we demonstrate small-molecule serial femtosecond X-ray crystallography (smSFX) for the determination of material crystal structures from microcrystals.

Competing Roles of Crystallization and Degradation of a Metal-Organic Chalcogenolate Assembly under Biphasic Solvothermal Conditions.

Metal-organic chalcogenolate assemblies have attracted recent interest as ensemble nanomaterials that contain one- or two-dimensional inorganic nanostructures in a periodic array with supramolecular isolation provided by an associated organic ligand lattice. Biphasic immiscible synthesis at liquid-liquid interfaces is a convenient way to grow crystalline d metal-organic chalcogenolate assemblies. However, there has been little systematic study of the role of temperature on the nucleation, growth, and stability of hybrid chalcogenolates during biphasic synthesis.

Tarnishing Silver Metal into Mithrene.

Silver metal exposed to the atmosphere corrodes and becomes tarnished as a result of oxidation and precipitation of the metal as an insoluble salt. Tarnish has so poor a reputation that the word itself connotes corruption and disrespectability; however, tarnishing is a facile synthetic approach for preparing thin metal-sulfide films on silver or copper metal that might be exploited to prepare more elaborate materials with desirable optoelectronic properties. In this work, we prepare luminescent semiconducting thin films of mithrene, a metal-organic chalcogenolate assembly, by replacing the tarnish-causing atmospheric sulfur source with diphenyl diselenide.