Rational Molecular Design of Diketopyrrolopyrrole-Based n-Type and Ambipolar Polymer Semiconductors.

Diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP)-based polymer semiconductors have drawn great attention in the field of organic electronics due to the planar structure, decent solubilizing capability, and high crystallinity. However, the electron-deficient capacity of DPP derivatives are not strong enough, leading to relatively high-lying lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy levels of the corresponding polymers. As a result, n-type and ambipolar DPP-based polymers are rare and their electron mobilities also lag far behind the p-type counterparts, which limits the development of important p-n-junction-based electronic devices.

Control of the Hydroquinone/Benzoquinone Redox State in High-Mobility Semiconducting Conjugated Coordination Polymers.

Conjugated coordination polymers (c-CPs) are unique organic-inorganic hybrid semiconductors with intrinsically high electrical conductivity and excellent charge carrier mobility. However, it remains a challenge in tailoring electronic structures, due to the lack of clear guidelines. Here, we develop a strategy wherein controlling the redox state of hydroquinone/benzoquinone (HQ/BQ) ligands allows for the modulation of the electronic structure of c-CPs while maintaining the structural topology.

High-Performance - Dual-Modal MRI Contrast Agents through Interface Engineering.

Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) have been developed as contrast agents for - or -weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on account of their excellent physicochemical and biological properties. However, general strategies to improve longitudinal relaxivity () often decrease transverse relaxivity (), thus synchronously strengthening the and enhancement effect of IONPs remains a challenge. Here, we report interface regulation and size tailoring of a group of FePt@FeO core-shell nanoparticles (NPs), which possess high and relaxivities.

Semiconducting Conjugated Coordination Polymer with High Charge Mobility Enabled by "4 + 2" Phenyl Ligands.

Electrically conductive coordination polymers and metal-organic frameworks are attractive emerging electroactive materials for (opto-)electronics. However, developing semiconducting coordination polymers with high charge carrier mobility for devices remains a major challenge, urgently requiring the rational design of ligands and topological networks with desired electronic structures. Herein, we demonstrate a strategy for synthesizing high-mobility semiconducting conjugated coordination polymers (c-CPs) utilizing novel conjugated ligands with symmetry, namely, "4 + 2" phenyl ligands.

A Dual-Kinetic Control Strategy for Designing Nano-Metamaterials: Novel Class of Metamaterials with Both Characteristic and Whole Sizes of Nanoscale.

Increasingly intricate in their multilevel multiscale microarchitecture, metamaterials with unique physical properties are challenging the inherent constraints of natural materials. Their applicability in the nanomedicine field still suffers because nanomedicine requires a maximum size of tens to hundreds of nanometers; however, this size scale has not been achieved in metamaterials. Therefore, "nano-metamaterials," a novel class of metamaterials, are introduced, which are rationally designed materials with multilevel microarchitectures and both characteristic sizes and whole sizes at the nanoscale, investing in themselves remarkably unique and significantly enhanced material properties as compared with conventional nanomaterials.

Photo-Reduction with NIR Light of Nucleus-Targeting Pt Nanoparticles for Combined Tumor-Targeted Chemotherapy and Photodynamic Immunotherapy.

The development of Pt prodrugs which are selectively reduced within cancerous cells into their Pt therapeutically active species has received increasing attention within the last decade. Despite recent research progress, the majority of investigated compounds are excited using ultraviolet or blue light. As the light penetration depth is low at these wavelengths, the treatment of deep-seated or large tumors is limited.

Direct Characterization of Thermal Nonequilibrium between Optical and Acoustic Phonons in Graphene Paper under Photon Excitation.

Raman spectroscopy has been widely used to measure thermophysical properties of 2D materials. The local intense photon heating induces strong thermal nonequilibrium between optical and acoustic phonons. Both first principle calculations and recent indirect Raman measurements prove this phenomenon.

Weak Interlayer Interaction in 2D Anisotropic GeSe.

Germanium diselenide (GeSe) has recently emerged as a new member of in-plane anisotropic 2D materials, notable for its wide bandgap of 2.74 eV, excellent air stability, and high performance in polarization-sensitive photodetection. However, the interlayer interaction in GeSe has never been reported, which usually plays an important role in layer-number-dependent physical properties.

Asymmetric Wide-Bandgap Polymers Simultaneously Improve the Open-Circuit Voltage and Short-Circuit Current for Organic Photovoltaics.

A trade-off between open-circuit voltage (V ) and high short-circuit (J ) becomes one of the most vital problems limiting further improvement in polymer solar cells' (PSCs) efficiency. In this work, two asymmetric polymer donors PBDT-F-2TC and PBDT-SF-2TC are designed and synthesized. When blended with a state-of-the-art acceptor IT-4F with low lowest-unoccupied molecular orbital level, simultaneously high V (up to 0.

A Rapid Colorimetric Method to Visualize Protein Interactions.

As key molecules in most biological pathways, proteins physically contact one or more biomolecules in a highly specific manner. Several driving forces (i.e.

Facile and Scalable Synthesis of Robust Ni(OH) Nanoplate Arrays on NiAl Foil as Hierarchical Active Scaffold for Highly Efficient Overall Water Splitting.

Developing highly efficient low-cost electrocatalysts for both hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in alkaline electrolyte is essential to advance water electrolysis technology. Herein, Ni(OH) nanoplates aligned on NiAl foil (Ni(OH)/NiAl) are developed by simply dealloying NiAl foil in KOH, which exhibits high electrocatalytic activity for OER with a small overpotential of 289 mV to achieve 10 mA cm and outstanding durability with no detectable degradation during long-term operation. Furthermore, such Ni(OH)/NiAl can effectively act as an active and robust hierarchical scaffold to simply electrodeposit other catalysts with intrinsically higher activity such as NiMo and NiFe nanoparticles for highly efficient HER and OER, respectively.

Van der Waals Epitaxial Growth of Atomic Layered HfS Crystals for Ultrasensitive Near-Infrared Phototransistors.

As a member of the group IVB transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) family, hafnium disulfide (HfS ) is recently predicted to exhibit higher carrier mobility and higher tunneling current density than group VIB (Mo and W) TMDs. However, the synthesis of high-quality HfS crystals, sparsely reported, has greatly hindered the development of this new field. Here, a facile strategy for controlled synthesis of high-quality atomic layered HfS crystals by van der Waals epitaxy is reported.

Efficient Purification and Release of Circulating Tumor Cells by Synergistic Effect of Biomarker and SiO2 @Gel-Microbead-Based Size Difference Amplification.

Microfluidics-based circulating tumor cell (CTC) isolation is achieved by using gelatin-coated silica microbeads conjugated to CTC-specific antibodies. Bead-binding selectively enlarges target cell size, providing efficient high-purity capture. CTCs captured can be further released non-invasively.

Polystyrene spheres-assisted matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry for quantitative analysis of plasma lysophosphatidylcholines.

The quantitative analysis by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI MS) is a challenge due to the poor reproducibility originating from the heterogeneity of the matrix-analyte crystals. Polystyrene (PS) colloidal spheres have superior monodispersed property and can self-assemble to form photonic crystals. With the assistance of PS spheres, a uniform matrix-analyte cocrystal was constructed for the quantitative analysis of plasma lysophosphatidylcholines (LPCs).

Multilayer Formation on a Curved Drop Surface.

Folded drops: A skinlike folded drop surface is formed by the coadsorption of two components from different phases at the chloroform/water interface. Both pure β-lactoglobulin and mixtures of α-dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and β-lactoglobulin can form the skinlike film; the lipid accelerates this process by coadsorption with the protein. Atomic force microscopy provided information on the morphology of the complex film and confirmed the formation of a multilayer film at the liquid/liquid interface.