An Eu Coordination Polymer: Its Single-Crystal Transformation Synthesis, Fluorescence Detection of Melamine, and Proton Conductivity.

In this work, an Eu coordination polymer () was synthesized by a single-crystal-to-single-crystal transformation based upon complex under the stimulation of water molecules ({[Eu(bpdc)(HO)]·4HO} (), {[Eu(bpdc)(HO)]·5HO} (), and Hbpdc = 2,2'-bipyridine-3,3'-dicarboxylic acid ligand). Complex exhibited considerable pH fluorescence stability in an aqueous solution. Notably, the experiment showed that complex achieved high selectivity and sensitivity for the detection of the notorious food additive melamine (MEL) through a significant fluorescence enhancement response; and yet complex had no fluorescent response with MEL.

Efficient Electrocatalytic Semi-Hydrogenation of Alkynes by Interfacial Engineering of Atomically Precise Silver Nanoclusters.

Owing to its green energy and hydrogen sources, electrocatalytic semi-hydrogenation of alkynes is an attractive alternative for industrial alkene production. However, its broad application is hindered by low selectivity and low Faradaic efficiency (FE) due to side reactions like over-hydrogenation to alkanes. Here, we demonstrate that atomically precise Ag(MHA) nanoclusters (NCs) can electrocatalyze alkyne semi-hydrogenation with 98 % conversion, 99 % selectivity, and 85 % FE, in a broad substrate pool.

Homo-Hetero Double Junction Coupling Weakens Exciton Effects to Enhance Selective Photocatalytic O Activation on Carbon Nitride.

Exciton effects caused by the inherent dielectric confinement in the 2D material carbon nitride (CN) severely limit the transfer of photogenerated carriers and the selective generation of free radicals. Herein, a homo-hetero double junction coupling strategy is reported to address these challenges. Ternary homojunction carbon nitride (HCCN) functionalized with cyano and cyanamide groups is constructed with a built-in electric field that efficiently separates the electron-hole into different structural units, thereby reducing reverse charge recombination and weakening exciton effects.

Graphene rolls with tunable chirality.

Creating chirality in achiral graphene and other two-dimensional materials has attracted broad scientific interest due to their potential application in advanced optics, electronics and spintronics. However, investigations into their optical activities and related chiro-electronic properties are constrained by experimental challenges, particularly in the precise control over the chirality of these materials. Here a universal wax-aided immersion method is developed to yield graphene rolls with controllable chiral angles, and the method can be generalized in other two-dimensional materials for high-yield fabrication.

Tuning Absorption State and Intermolecular Potential of Organic Semiconductors for Narrowband Ultraviolet Photodetection.

Narrowband response of organic semiconductors determines the band selectivity and anti-interference of the organic photodetectors, which are pursued for a long time but have not yet been resolved in the UV band. Herein, a feasible strategy is developed to realize narrowband UV response by tuning the absorption state and intermolecular potential of organic semiconductors. The as-designed non-Donor-Acceptor molecule, 2,5-diphenylthieno[3,2-b]thiophene (2,5-DPTT), exhibits narrowband absorption by fully suppressing the charge transfer state absorption.

Advancing Room-Temperature Magnetic Semiconductors with Organic Radical Charge Transfer Cocrystals.

Developing purely organic room-temperature magnetic semiconductors has been a long-sought goal in the material community toward the simultaneous control of spin and charge. Organic cocrystals, known for their structural versatility and multifunctionality, are ideal candidates for these magnetoelectric coupling applications. However, organic room-temperature magnetic semiconductor cocrystals have rarely been reported, and their mechanisms remain poorly understood due to the complexity of cocrystal structures.

Unraveling the Stoichiometric Interactions and Synergism between Ligand-Protected Gold Nanoparticles and Proteins.

Nanomaterials that engage in well-defined and tunable interactions with proteins are pivotal for the development of advanced applications. Achieving a precise molecular-level understanding of nano-bio interactions is essential for establishing these interactions. However, such an understanding remains challenging and elusive.

High Mobility Emissive Organic Semiconductors for Optoelectronic Devices.

High mobility emissive organic semiconductors (HMEOSCs) are a kind of unique semiconducting material that simultaneously integrates high charge carrier mobility and strong emission features, which are not only crucial for overcoming the performance bottlenecks of current organic optoelectronic devices but also important for constructing high-density integrated devices/circuits for potential smart display technologies and electrically pumped organic lasers. However, the development of HMEOSCs is facing great challenges due to the mutually exclusive requirements of molecular structures and packing modes between high charge carrier mobility and strong solid-state emission. Encouragingly, considerable advances on HMEOSCs have been made with continuous efforts, and the successful integration of these two properties within individual organic semiconductors currently presents a promising research direction in organic electronics.

Dynamic supramolecular snub cubes.

Mimicking the superstructures and properties of spherical biological encapsulants such as viral capsids and ferritin offers viable pathways to understand their chiral assemblies and functional roles in living systems. However, stereospecific assembly of artificial polyhedra with mechanical properties and guest-binding attributes akin to biological encapsulants remains a formidable challenge. Here we report the stereospecific assembly of dynamic supramolecular snub cubes from 12 helical macrocycles, which are held together by 144 weak C-H hydrogen bonds.

Janus graphene nanoribbons with localized states on a single zigzag edge.

Topological design of π electrons in zigzag-edged graphene nanoribbons (ZGNRs) leads to a wealth of magnetic quantum phenomena and exotic quantum phases. Symmetric ZGNRs typically show antiferromagnetically coupled spin-ordered edge states. Eliminating cross-edge magnetic coupling in ZGNRs not only enables the realization of a class of ferromagnetic quantum spin chains, enabling the exploration of quantum spin physics and entanglement of multiple qubits in the one-dimensional limit, but also establishes a long-sought-after carbon-based ferromagnetic transport channel, pivotal for ultimate scaling of GNR-based quantum electronics.

Association Between Lead Exposure and Red Blood Cell Folate Concentrations in U.S. Children Aged 2-17 Years: An Analysis of Data from NHANES 2007-2018.

The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of low blood lead levels (BLLs) on the red blood cell folate concentrations in U.S. children aged 2-17 years.

Atomically engineering interlayer symmetry operations of two-dimensional crystals.

Crystal symmetry, which governs the local atomic coordination and bonding environment, is one of the paramount constituents that intrinsically dictate materials' functionalities. However, engineering crystal symmetry is not straightforward due to the isotropically strong covalent/ionic bonds in crystals. Layered two-dimensional materials offer an ideal platform for crystal engineering because of the ease of interlayer symmetry operations.

Navigating the transitional window for organic semiconductor single crystals towards practical integration: from materials, crystallization, and technologies to real-world applications.

Organic semiconductor single crystals (OSSCs), which possess the inherent merits of long-range order, low defect density, high mobility, structural tunability and good flexibility, have garnered significant attention in the organic optoelectronic community. Past decades have witnessed the explosive growth of OSSCs. Despite numerous conceptual demonstrations, OSSCs remain in the early stages of implementation for applications that require high integration and multifunctionality.

Stabilizing Electron Transport of 2D Materials.

2D materials are promising candidates for beyond-Si electronic devices. However, their stability is a key bottleneck in their industrial applications. The instability of 2D materials is mainly attributed to their intrinsic susceptibility to O and HO-particularly to reactive oxygen species (ROS), which have strong oxidizing properties.

Ligand-Mediated Surface Reaction for Achieving Pure 2D Phase Passivation in High-Efficiency Perovskite Solar Cells.

The surface passivation with the heterostructure of the 2D/3D stack has been widely used for boosting the efficiency of n-i-p perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, the disordered quantum well width distribution of 2D perovskites leads to energy landscape inhomogeneity and crystalline instability, which limits the further development of n-i-p PSCs. Here, a versatile approach, ligand-mediated surface passivation, was developed to produce a phase-pure 2D perovskite passivation layer with a homogeneous energy landscape by dual-ligand codeposition.

Improving electron injection of organic light-emitting transistors interface layer design.

Ambipolar transport is crucial for constructing high performance organic light-emitting transistors (OLETs), but the ambipolar feature is usually not exhibited due to ineffective electron injection especially in symmetric device geometry. Herein, we show that electron injection could be greatly enhanced through the judicious design of an organic interface layer of 3,7-di(2-naphthyl)dibenzothiophene ,-dioxide (DNaDBSO) which shows an interfacial dipole effect upon contact with a metal electrode, especially an Au electrode. When incorporating a DNaDBSO film beneath Au electrodes, the electron injection and mobility were significantly enhanced in 2,6-diphenylanthracene-based OLETs, and thus ambipolar transport (maxh: 2.

Surface-Assisted Passivation Growth of 2D Ultrathin β-BiO Crystals for High-Performance Polarization-Sensitive Photodetectors.

2D nonlayered materials (NLMs) have garnered considerable attention due to unique surface structure and bright application prospect. However, owing to the strong interatomic forces caused by intrinsic isotropic chemical bonds in all directions, the direct synthesis of ultrathin and large area 2D NLMs remains a tremendous challenge. Here, the surface-assisted passivation growth strategy is designed to synthesize ultrathin and large size β-BiO crystals with the thickness down to 0.

Space-Confined Vertical Growth of Large-Size Organic Semiconductor Single Crystals.

Organic semiconductor single crystals (OSSCs) have garnered considerable attention because of their high charge mobility and atomic-scale smooth surface. However, their large-size high-quality preparation remains challenging due to the inevitable defects and limited growth speed brought by traditional epitaxial growth. Here, we demonstrate a space-confined strategy, named out-of-plane microspacing in-air sublimation (OPMAS), for growing vertically millimeter-sized OSSCs in several minutes by revolutionizing the heterogeneous epitaxial growth mode severely depending on substrates into a spontaneous homogeneous growth mode free from substrates.

Achieving Significant Multilevel Modulation in Superior-quality Organic Spin Valve.

Organic semiconductors, characterized by their exceptionally long spin relaxation times (≈ms) and unique spinterface effects, are considered game-changers in spintronics. However, achieving high-performance and wide-range tunable magnetoresistance (MR) in organic spintronic devices remains challenging, severely limiting the development of organic spintronics. This work combines straintronic multiferroic heterostructures with organic spin valve (OSV) to develop a three-terminal OSV device with a gate structure.

Organic Nonvolatile 2T Memory Cell Employing a NOT-Gate-Like Architecture Toward Binary Output Level With Enhanced Noise Tolerance.

Organic nonvolatile memory has been considered a low-cost memory technology for flexible electronics and Internet-of-things (IoT). However, a major concern is the nonuniformity of memory units, which is primarily caused by random grain boundaries, interface defects, and charge traps, making it difficult to develop high-density reliable memory arrays. This nonuniformity problem would induce read error, which is directly caused by the narrow distribution margin of memory states and low noise tolerance in conventional organic memory cells.

Quinoline Substituted Anthracene Isomers: A Case Study for Simultaneously Optimizing High Mobility and Strong Luminescence in Herringbone-Packed Organic Semiconductors.

The development of high mobility emissive organic semiconductors is significant for advancing optoelectronic devices with simplified architecture and enhanced performance. The herringbone-packed structure is regarded as the ideal arrangement for simultaneously achieving high mobility and strong emission in organic semiconductors. However, it remains a great challenge that the relationship between molecular structure and optoelectronic property is still elusive.

In situ continuous hydrogen-bonded engineering for intrinsically stretchable and healable high-mobility polymer semiconductors.

As a key component for wearable electronics, intrinsically stretchable and healable semiconducting polymers are scarce because carrier mobility is often reduced with increasing stretchability and self-healability. Here, we combine stepwise polymerization and thermal conversion to introduce in situ continuous hydrogen bonding sites in a polymer backbone without breaking the conjugation or introducing bulky softer side chains, benefiting the intrachain and interchain charge transport. We demonstrate that a regular sequence structure facilitated the formation of big nanofibers with a high degree of aggregation, providing the loose and porous thin film with simultaneously improved charge transport, stretchability, and self-healability.