Synergistic Enhancement of Ligand & Cluster Connectivity to Construct Highly Stable Fluorescein-Based MOFs with Thickened Channel Walls for Boosting Photocatalytic Activity.

Fabricating visible-light-responsive metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with high stability and effective catalytic functionality remains a long-term pursuit yet a great challenge. Herein, a strategy of increasing ligand and cluster connectivity is developed to construct highly stable fluorescein MOFs, La-CFL, presenting a new (4,8)-connected topological structure compared to Cd-FL constructed using 6-connected dinuclear clusters and 3-connected tritopic ligands. La(CFL) containers like Chinese "Ritual Wine Vessels (Jue)" resemble linear arrangements interconnected by the [La(COO)] clusters.

Enhanced dielectric losses in α-MnO protonation modulation.

MnO octahedra without distortions in α-MnO have a low dipole content, which limits their dielectric loss capabilities. Herein, we develop protonated MnO with distorted MnO octahedra for increased dipole numbers a two-step hydrothermal method. In comparison with α-MnO, this protonated MnO provides greatly improved dipole polarization loss capabilities, resulting in a reflection loss value of -19.

Engineering Planar Crystallinity in Nitrogen-Vacancy-Incorporated Carbon Nitride for Efficient Photoredox Catalysis.

The concurrent evolution of value-added benzimidazole compounds and hydrogen within the domain of chemical synthesis is of paramount importance. The utilization of photocatalysis enhances both the efficiency and environmental benignity of the synthetic process. However, it is profoundly challenging within a photocatalytic system to simultaneously augment the number of active sites and the internal transport rate of photogenerated charge carriers.

Constructing new-generation ion exchange membranes under confinement regime.

Ion exchange membranes (IEMs) enable fast and selective ion transport and the partition of electrode reactions, playing an important role in the fields of precise ion separation, renewable energy storage and conversion, and clean energy production. Traditional IEMs form ion channels at the nanometer-scale via the assembly of flexible polymeric chains, which are trapped in the permeability/conductivity and selectivity trade-off dilemma due to a high swelling propensity. New-generation IEMs have shown great potential to break this intrinsic limitation by using microporous framework channels for ion transport under a confinement regime.

Monitoring C-C coupling in catalytic reactions via machine-learned infrared spectroscopy.

Tracking atomic structural evolution along chemical transformation pathways is essential for optimizing chemical transitions and enhancing control. However, molecule-level knowledge of structural rearrangements during chemical processes remains a great challenge. Here, we couple infrared spectroscopy as a non-invasive method to probe molecular transformations, with a machine-learned protocol to immediately map the spectroscopic fingerprints to atomistic structures.

A review of large language models and autonomous agents in chemistry.

Large language models (LLMs) have emerged as powerful tools in chemistry, significantly impacting molecule design, property prediction, and synthesis optimization. This review highlights LLM capabilities in these domains and their potential to accelerate scientific discovery through automation. We also review LLM-based autonomous agents: LLMs with a broader set of tools to interact with their surrounding environment.

Single-atom catalysts enabled electrochemical sensing for glucose.

Accurate and rapid monitoring of the glucose concentration in blood is essential for the prevention and treatment of diabetes. However, existing glucose sensors still have room for improvement in terms of sensitivity, selectivity, and stability. Benefiting from the fully exposed metal sites and uniform coordination environment, single-atom catalysts (SACs) have exhibited unique electrochemical sensing performances and received extensive attention in blood glucose detection.

Manipulating Charge Distribution at Organic-inorganic Interface via Optimizing Substituents for Sustainable Water Electrolysis.

The space charge effect induced by high-quality heterojunctions is essential for efficient electrocatalytic processes. Herein, we delicately manipulate intermolecular charge transfer by modifying substituents (-g=-CH, -H, -NO) with various electron donating/withdrawing capabilities in CoPc-g/CoS organic-inorganic heterostructures. CoPc-CH, as a typical electron donor, transfers more electrons to CoS due to the presence of -CH, forming the strongest space electric field and thus regulating the dual active sites at the interface.

Merging SOMO activation with transition metal catalysis: Deoxygenative functionalization of amides to β-aryl amines.

Singly occupied molecular orbital (SOMO) activation of in situ generated enamines has achieved great success in (asymmetric) α-functionalization of carbonyl compounds. However, examples on the use of this activation mode in the transformations of other functional groups are rare, and the combination of SOMO activation with transition metal catalysis is still less explored. In the area of deoxygenative functionalization of amides, intermediates such as iminium ions and enamines were often generated in situ to result in the formation of α-functionalized amines.

Mesoporous Single-Crystal FeFe(CN) Microspheres for Superior Potassium-Ion Storage.

Metal hexacyanoferrates (HCFs), also known as Prussian blue analogues, are ideal cathodes for potassium-ion batteries (PIBs) due to their nontoxicity and cost-effectiveness. Nevertheless, obtaining metal HCF cathode materials with both long-term cycling stability and high rate performance remains a daunting challenge. In this study, we present mesoporous single-crystalline iron hexacyanoferrate (MSC-FeHCF) microspheres, featuring a single-crystalline structure that contains interconnected pores spanning the entire crystal lattice.

A temperature-sensitive and fluorescent Tr-CD/AuNP-based catalyst for efficient, monitorable, and recyclable catalytic reactions.

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have been widely used as efficient and environmentally friendly catalysts due to their high specific surface area and abundant active sites. However, AuNP-based catalytic systems face several challenges, including the instability of AuNPs during the reaction, the difficulty in monitoring the process, which can easily result in insufficient reaction due to short reaction time or waste of resources due to long reaction time, as well as issues of catalyst recovery. This study proposes a novel catalyst integrating various functions, such as high stability, the capacity for real-time monitoring of the catalytic process, and rapid recycling.

High-performance solid-state proton gating membranes based on two-dimensional hydrogen-bonded organic framework composites.

Biological ion channels exhibit strong gating effects due to their zero-current closed states. However, the gating capabilities of artificial nanochannels have typically fallen short of biological channels, primarily owing to the larger nanopores that fail to completely block ion transport in the off-states. Here, we demonstrate solid-state hydrogen-bonded organic frameworks-based membranes to achieve high-performance ambient humidity-controlled proton gating, accomplished by switching the proton transport pathway instead of relying on conventional ion blockage/activation effects.

Biodegradable Vanadium-Based Nanomaterials for Photothermal-Enhanced Tumor Ferroptosis and Pyroptosis.

The designability and high reactivity of nanotechnology provide strategies for antitumor therapy by regulating the redox state in tumor cells. Here, we synthesize a kind of vanadium dioxide nanoparticle encapsulated in bovine serum albumin and containing disulfide bonds (VSB NPs) for photothermal-enhanced ferroptosis and pyroptosis effects. Mechanism studies show that disulfide bonds can effectively consume overexpressed glutathione (GSH) in the tumor microenvironment, leading to a decrease in glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) activity.

Remote epitaxial crystalline perovskites for ultrahigh-resolution micro-LED displays.

The miniaturization of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is pivotal in ultrahigh-resolution displays. Metal-halide perovskites promise efficient light emission, long-range carrier transport and scalable manufacturing for bright microscale LED (micro-LED) displays. However, thin-film perovskites with inhomogeneous spatial distribution of light emission and unstable surface under lithography are incompatible with the micro-LED devices.

PSMA-Targeted Intracellular Self-Assembled Probe for Enhanced PET Imaging.

Positron-emission tomography (PET) offers high sensitivity for cancer diagnosis. However, small-molecule-based probes often exhibit insufficient accumulation in tumor sites, while nanoparticle-based agents typically have limited delivery efficiency. To address this challenge, this study proposes a novel PET imaging probe, Ga-CBT-PSMA, designed for prostate cancer.

Solar-driven production of renewable chemicals via biomass hydrogenation with green methanol.

Solar-driven, selective biomass hydrogenation is recognized as a promising route to renewable chemicals production, but remains challenging. Here, we report a TiO supported Cu single-atom catalyst with a four-coordinated Cu-O structure, which can be universally applied for solar-driven production of various renewable chemicals from lignocellulosic biomass-derived platform molecules with good yields using green methanol as a hydrogen donor, to address this challenge. It is significant that the biomass upgrading driven by natural sunlight on a gram scale demonstrates the great practical potential.

Olfactory-Inspired Separation-Sensing Nanochannel-Based Electronics for Wireless Sweat Monitoring.

Human sweat has the potential to be sufficiently utilized for noninvasive monitoring. Given the complexity of sweat secretion, the sensitivity and selectivity of sweat monitoring should be further improved. Here, we developed an olfactory-inspired separation-sensing nanochannel-based electronic for sensitive and selective sweat monitoring, which was simultaneously endowed with interferent separation and target detection performances.

N-oxide-Functionalized Bipyridines as Strong Electron-Deficient Units to Construct High-Performance n-Type Conjugated Polymers.

Developing low-cost unipolar n-type organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) is necessary for logic circuits. To achieve this objective, the usage of new electron-deficient building blocks with simple structure and easy synthetic route is desirable. Among all electron-deficient building units, N-oxide-functionalized bipyridines can be prepared through a simple oxidized transformation of bipyridines.

Lanthanide-polyoxometalate-based self-erasing luminescent hydrogels with time-dependent and resilient properties for advanced information encryption.

In such an era of information explosion, improving the level of information security is still a challenging task. Self-erasing luminescent hydrogels are becoming ideal candidates for improving the level of information security with simple encryption and decryption methods. Herein, a lanthanide-polyoxometalate-based self-erasing luminescent hydrogel with time-dependent and resilient properties was constructed through a covalent crosslinked network constructed with polyacrylamide and a non-covalent crosslinked network constructed with [2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl]trimethyl ammonium chloride/NaDyWO, along with doping urease.

Deciphering the endogenous SUMO-1 landscape: a novel combinatorial peptide enrichment strategy for global profiling and disease association.

Small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) plays a pivotal role in diverse cellular processes and is implicated in diseases such as cancer and neurodegenerative disorders. However, large-scale identification of endogenous SUMO-1 faces challenges due to limited enrichment methods and its lower abundance compared to SUMO-2/3. Here we propose a novel combinatorial peptide strategy, combined with anti-adhesive polymer development, to enrich endogenous SUMO-1 modified peptides, revealing a comprehensive SUMOylation landscape.

Accessing renewable magnetic cellulose nanofiber adsorbent to enhance separation efficiency for adsorption and recovery of Cd.

To address the issue of toxic cadmium pollution and meet the need for rapid separation from water body, a magnetic bio-composite material, marked as CFeMg, was prepared via a facile method. It explicitly includes components of cellulose nanofiber (CNF), FeO and Mg (OH). The microstructures and morphology were characterized and analyzed using XRD, FT-IR, SEM, and TEM.

High-Strength Ultrafine-Grained Al-Mg-Si Alloys Exposed to Mechanical Alloying and Press-Forming: A Comparison with Cast Alloys.

A high-strength Al-Mg-Si alloy was prepared using mechanical alloying (MA) combined with press-forming (PF) technology, achieving a strength of up to 715 MPa and a hardness of 173 HB. The microstructures were comparatively analyzed with conventional cast Al-Mg-Si alloys using XRD, TKD, and TEM. The XRD results showed that the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the alloy prepared by MA+PF was significantly broadened and accompanied by a shift in the diffraction peak.

Prediction of Thermodynamic Properties of C-Based Fullerenols Using Machine Learning.

Traditional machine learning methods face significant challenges in predicting the properties of highly symmetric molecules. In this study, we developed a machine learning model based on graph neural networks (GNNs) to accurately and swiftly predict the thermodynamic and photochemical properties of fullerenols, such as C(OH) ( = 1 to 30). First, we established a global method for generating fullerenol isomers through isomer fingerprinting, which can generate all possible isomers or produce diverse structural types on demand.

Recent Advances in Ruddlesden-Popper Phase-Layered Perovskite SrTiO Photocatalysts.

SrTiO, a prominent member of the Ruddlesden-Popper (RP) perovskite family, has garnered significant interest in photocatalysis, primarily owing to its distinctive two-dimensional (2D) layered structure. In this review, we provide an insightful and concise summary of the intrinsic properties of SrTiO, focusing on the electronic, optical, and structural characteristics that render it a promising candidate for photocatalytic applications. Moreover, we delve into the innovative strategies that have been developed to optimize the structural attributes of SrTiO.