Hexagonal Monolayer Ice without Shared Edges.

When adsorbed on solids, water molecules are usually arranged into a honeycomb hydrogen-bond network. Here we report the discovery of a novel monolayer ice built exclusively from water hexamers but without shared edges, distinct from all conventional ice phases. Water grown on graphite crystalizes into a robust monolayer ice after annealing, attaining an exceedingly high density of 0.

84% efficiency improvement in all-inorganic perovskite light-emitting diodes assisted by a phosphorescent material.

A novel mixed perovskite emitter layer is applied to design all-inorganic cesium lead halide perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs) with high electroluminescence (EL) performance, by combining CsPbBr with iridium(iii)bis[2-(4',6'-difluorophenyl)pyridinato-N,C']-picolinate (FIrpic), where FIrpic is a phosphorescent material with very high internal quantum efficiency (IQE) approaching 100%. The CsPbBr:FIrpic PeLEDs show a maximum luminance of 5486 cd m, and an external quantum efficiency of 0.47%, which are 1.

Chirality switching of the self-assembled CuPc domains induced by electric field.

Chiral switching of the self-assembled domains of CuPc molecules on the Cd(0001) surface has been investigated by means of a low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). With the coverage increasing, the CuPc molecules show the structural evolutions from an initial gas-like state to a network phase, a square phase, and finally to a compact phase at full monolayer. In the network and square phases, the achiral CuPc molecules reveal both the point chirality and chiral domains.

Supramolecular Motors on Graphite Surface Stabilized by Charge States and Hydrogen Bonds.

Molecular motors are nanoscale machines that convert external energies into controlled mechanical movements. In supramolecular motors, the rotator and stator are held together mechanically, and thus the rotation can be essentially barrier free when molecular conformation is negligible. However, nearly all the supramolecular motors appeared in solutions or host-guest complexes.

Nearly 100% Efficiency Enhancement of CHNHPbBr Perovskite Light-Emitting Diodes by Utilizing Plasmonic Au Nanoparticles.

Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites have drawn considerable attention due to their great potentials in lighting and displaying. Despite great progress being demonstrated in perovskites light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs), the commercialization of PeLEDs was still limited by their low efficiencies and poor device stabilities. Utilizing the metallic nanoparticles was a feasible way to further improve the efficiencies of PeLEDs.

Highly Efficient Perovskite Light-Emitting Diodes Incorporating Full Film Coverage and Bipolar Charge Injection.

Solution-processable organometal halide perovskites have been emerging as very promising materials for light-emitting diodes (LEDs) because of their high color purity, low cost, and high photoluminescence quantum yield. However, their electroluminescent performance is still limited by incomplete surface coverage and inefficient charge injection into the perovskite. Here, we demonstrate highly efficient perovskite LEDs (PeLEDs) incorporating full film coverage and bipolar charge injection within the active layer by introducing perovskite precursor poly(9-vinylcarbazole):1,3,5-tris(1-phenyl-1H-benzimidazol-2-yl)benzene (PVK:TPBi) toluene solution into CHNHPbBr N,N-dimethylformamide solution.

Luminescent golden silk and fabric through in situ chemically coating pristine-silk with gold nanoclusters.

Silk is an excellent natural material and has been used for a variety of applications. Modification of the pristine silk is usually needed depending on the intended purpose. The technical treatments involved in the modification not only should be easy, rapid, environmentally friendly, and cheap but should also retain the features of the pristine silk.

Rapid synthesis of highly luminescent and stable Au20 nanoclusters for active tumor-targeted imaging in vitro and in vivo.

Rapid synthesis of protein-stabilized Au20 nanoclusters (Au20NCs) with high fluorescence quantum yield (QY) up to ∼15% is successfully achieved by manipulating the reaction kinetics. The as-obtained Au20NCs, identified by mass spectrometry, have an average size of 2.6 nm, with strong fluorescence emission at 620 nm (2.

Highly selective detection of bacterial alarmone ppGpp with an off-on fluorescent probe of copper-mediated silver nanoclusters.

In this study, a facile strategy for highly selective and sensitive detection of bacterial alarmone, ppGpp, which is generated when bacteria face stress circumstances such as nutritional deprivation, has been established by developing an off-on fluorescent probe of Cu(2+)-mediated silver nanoclusters (Ag NCs). This work not only achieves highly selective detection of ppGpp in a broad range concentration of 2-200 μM, but also improves our understanding of the specific recognitions among DNA-Ag NCs, Cu(2+), and ppGpp. The present strategy, together with other reports on the Ag NCs-related analytical methods, has also identified that Ag NCs functionalized with different molecules on their surfaces can be engineered fluorescent probes for a wide range of applications such as biosensing and bioimaging.

Highly selective and sensitive detection of coralyne based on the binding chemistry of aptamer and graphene oxide.

In this contribution, an organic small molecule (OSM)-participating interaction between its aptamer and graphene oxide (GO) is investigated by taking coralyne as an example. Based on their interactions, a simple, rapid, highly sensitive and selective fluorometric method for the detection of coralyne is developed. GO can effectively quench the fluorescence of dye-labeled aptamer, while stronger binding of the aptamer and its target can make the fluorescence be recovered, which have been well demonstrated by the studies of the fluorescence spectra, fluorescence anisotropy, and circular dichroism spectra.

Chiral pinwheel clusters lacking local point chirality.

The supramolecular pinwheel cluster is a unique chiral structure with evident handedness. Previous studies reveal that the chiral pinwheels are composed of chiral or achiral molecules with polar groups, which result in strong intermolecular interactions such as hydrogen-bonding or dipole interactions. Herein, it is shown that the simple linear aromatic molecule, pentacene, can be self-assembled into large chiral pinwheel clusters on the semimetal Bi(111) surface, due to enhanced intermolecular interactions.

Comparative studies of pentacene and perfluoropentacene grown on a Bi(0001) surface.

We report two distinct growth modes of pentacene (PEN) and perfluoropentacene (PFP) films on a Bi(0001) substrate investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). PEN grows epitaxially on Bi(0001) at room temperature (RT), resulting in the formation of bulk-like crystalline films. In contrast, submonolayer PFP forms a two-dimensional (2D) liquid-like phase with PFP molecules loosely bound on Bi(0001).