Scintillators, one of the essential components in medical imaging and security checking devices, rely heavily on rare-earth-containing inorganic materials. Here, a new type of organic-inorganic hybrid scintillators containing earth abundant elements that can be prepared via low-temperature processes is reported. With room temperature co-crystallization of an aggregation-induced emission (AIE) organic halide, 4-(4-(diphenylamino) phenyl)-1-(propyl)-pyrindin-1ium bromide (TPA-PBr), and a metal halide, zinc bromide (ZnBr ), a zero-dimensional (0D) organic metal halide hybrid (TPA-P) ZnBr with a yellowish-green emission peaked at 550 nm has been developed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNanocomposites with unusual and superior properties often contain well-dispersed nanoparticles. Polydimethylsiloxane, PDMS, offers a fluidlike or rubbery (when cross-linked) response, which complements the high-modulus nature of inorganic nanofillers. Systems using PDMS as the nanoparticulate, rather than the continuous, phase are rare because it is difficult to make PDMS nanoparticles.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIonically bonded organic metal halide hybrids have emerged as versatile multicomponent material systems exhibiting unique and useful properties. The unlimited combinations of organic cations and metal halides lead to the tremendous structural diversity of this class of materials, which could unlock many undiscovered properties of both organic cations and metal halides. Here we report the synthesis and characterization of a series benzoquinolinium (BZQ) metal halides with a general formula (BZQ)PbX (X = Cl, Br), in which metal halides form a unique two-dimensional (2D) structure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCathepsin L (CTL) is a cysteine protease demonstrating upregulated activity in many disease states. Overlapping substrate specificity makes selective detection of CTL activity difficult to parse from that of its close homologue CTV and the ubiquitous CTB. Current probes of CTL activity have limited applications due to either poor contrast or extra assay steps required to achieve selectivity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHighly porous nickel-aluminum oxide aerogels were prepared according to a one-pot sol-gel process and dried under supercritical carbon dioxide conditions. Although the surface properties of these materials were very appealing for applications in catalysis, these aerogels were never applied in adsorption. The nickel effect on the structure and surface properties of the aerogels has been investigated via a broad range of structural, textural, and morphology characterization of the aerogels before and after heat treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe photophysical tuning is reported for a series of tetraphenylphosphonium (TPP) metal halide hybrids containing distinct metal halides, TPP MX (MX =SbCl , MnCl , ZnCl , ZnCl Br , ZnBr ), from efficient phosphorescence to ultralong afterglow. The afterglow properties of TPP cations could be suspended for the hybrids containing low band gap emissive metal halide species, such as SbCl and MnCl , but significantly enhanced for the hybrids containing wide band gap non-emissive ZnCl . Structural and photophysical studies reveal that the enhanced afterglow is attributed to stronger π-π stacking and intermolecular electronic coupling between TPP cations in TPP ZnCl than in the pristine organic ionic compound TPPCl.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBinuclear platinum(II) complexes with strong Pt-Pt interactions are an interesting class of luminescent materials, of which photophysical properties could be controlled via multiple ways through organic ligands and Pt-Pt distance. While a number of binuclear platinum(II) complexes have been developed with tunable emissions, achieving high photoluminescence quantum efficiency (PLQE) remains challenging and of great interest. Here we report the synthesis and characterization of a series of binuclear 2,4-difluorophenylpyridine platinum(II) complexes bridged by thiazol-2-thiolate ligands with different bulkiness.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMetal halide perovskite nanocrystals (NCs) have emerged as new-generation light-emitting materials with narrow emissions and high photoluminescence quantum efficiencies (PLQEs). Various types of perovskite NCs, e.g.
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