Series of Benzoquinone-Bridged Dicobalt(II) Single-Molecule Magnets.

Mononuclear complexes within a particular coordination geometry have been well recognized for high-performance single-molecule magnets (SMMs), while the incorporation of such well-defined geometric ions into multinuclear complexes remains less explored. Using the rigid 2-(di(1-pyrazol-1-yl)methyl)-6-(1-pyrazol-1-yl)pyridine (PyPz) ligand, here, we prepared a series of benzoquinone-bridged dicobalt(II) SMMs [{(PyPz)Co}(L)][PF], (, L = 2,5-dioxo-1,4-benzoquinone (dhbq); , L = chloranilate (CA); and , L = bromanilate (BA)), in which each Co(II) center adopts a distorted trigonal prismatic (TPR) geometry and the distortion increases with the sizes of 3,6-substituent groups (H () < Cl () < Br ()). Accordingly, the magnetic study revealed that the axial anisotropy parameter () of the Co ions decreased from -78.

(NHC)Pd(II) hydride-catalyzed dehydroaromatization by olefin chain-walking isomerization and transfer-dehydrogenation.

Transition-metal-catalyzed homogeneous dehydrogenation and isomerization are common organic molecular activation reactions. Palladium hydrides are good olefin isomerization catalysts but are usually short-lived species under redox-active dehydrogenation conditions. Here, we show that Pd-H in the presence of an N-heterocyclic carbene ligand and an alkene regulator enables transfer-dehydroaromatization, avoiding the homo-disproportionation pathway.

Green-Solvent-Processable Low-Cost Fluorinated Hole Contacts with Optimized Buried Interface for Highly Efficient Perovskite Solar Cells.

Solution-processed hole contact materials, as an indispensable component in perovskite solar cells (PSCs), have been widely studied with consistent progress achieved. One bottleneck for the commercialization of PSCs is the lack of hole contact materials with high performance, cost-effective preparation, and green-solvent processability. Therefore, the development of versatile hole contact materials is of great significance.

Heterostructured FeNi hydroxide for effective electrocatalytic oxygen evolution.

Hydrogen production technology by water splitting has been heralded as an effective means to alleviate the envisioned energy crisis. However, the overall efficiency of water splitting is limited by the effectiveness of the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) due to the high energy barrier of the 4e process. The key to addressing this challenge is the development of high-performing catalysts.

A solution-processed n-type conducting polymer with ultrahigh conductivity.

Conducting polymers (CPs) with high conductivity and solution processability have made great advances since the pioneering work on doped polyacetylene, thus creating the new field of 'organic synthetic metals,. Various high-performance CPs have been realized, which enable the applications of several organic electronic devices. Nevertheless, most CPs exhibit hole-dominant (p-type) transport behaviour, whereas the development of n-type analogues lags far behind and only a few exhibit metallic state, typically limited by low doping efficiency and ambient instability.

Organic Cation-Directed Modulation of Emissions in Zero-Dimensional Hybrid Tin Bromides.

Zero-dimensional hybrid metal halides (0D HMHs) are attractive due to their intriguing self-trapped exciton (STE) emission properties. However, the effect of organic cations on the emission of 0D HMHs is relatively underexplored. Herein, we report two types of 0D hybrid tin bromides, (BMe)SnBr (BMe = CNH) and (MeH)SnBr (MeH = CNH), which share similar structural features with different hydrogen bonding (HB) interactions between [SnBr] anions and organic cations.

High-Entropy Intermetallic PtRhBiSnSb Nanoplates for Highly Efficient Alcohol Oxidation Electrocatalysis.

The control of multimetallic ensembles at the atomic-level is challenging, especially for high-entropy alloys (HEAs) possessing five or more elements. Herein, the one-pot synthesis of hexagonal-close-packed (hcp) PtRhBiSnSb high-entropy intermetallic (HEI) nanoplates with intrinsically isolated Pt, Rh, Bi, Sn, and Sb atoms is reported, to boost the electrochemical oxidation of liquid fuels. Taking advantage of these combined five metals, the well-defined PtRhBiSnSb HEI nanoplates exhibit a remarkable mass activity of 19.

Genome-wide characterization of nascent RNA processing in plants.

Following transcription initiation, RNA polymerase II (Pol II) elongates through the genic region and terminates after the polyadenylation signal. This process is accompanied by splicing, 3' cleavage, and polyadenylation, to eventually form a mature mRNA. Recent advances in short-read and long-read high-throughput sequencing methods have shed light on the global landscape of these co-transcriptional events at nucleotide resolution.

Ultrasmall Copper Nanoclusters in Zirconium Metal-Organic Frameworks for the Photoreduction of CO.

Encapsulating ultrasmall Cu nanoparticles inside Zr-MOFs to form core-shell architecture is very challenging but of interest for CO reduction. We report for the first time the incorporation of ultrasmall Cu NCs into a series of benchmark Zr-MOFs, without Cu NCs aggregation, via a scalable room temperature fabrication approach. The Cu NCs@MOFs core-shell composites show much enhanced reactivity in comparison to the Cu NCs confined in the pore of MOFs, regardless of their very similar intrinsic properties at the atomic level.

Catalyst-Controlled Divergent Reactions of 2,3-Disubstituted Indoles with Propargylic Alcohols: Synthesis of 3-Benzo[]azepines and Axially Chiral Tetrasubstituted Allenes.

Catalyst-controlled divergent reactions of 2,3-disubstituted indoles with propargylic alcohols were developed for the first time. In the presence of TsOH or B(CF) as catalyst, 2,3-disubstituted indoles reacted smoothly with 3-alkynyl-3-hydroxyisoindolinones to afford 3-benzo[]azepines by selective C2(sp)-C3(sp) ring expansion of indoles. In contrast, decreasing the catalyst strength (e.

Bioinspired Artificial Ion Pumps.

Ion pumps are important membrane-spanning transporters that pump ions against the electrochemical gradient across the cell membrane. In biological systems, ion pumping is essential to maintain intracellular osmotic pressure, to respond to external stimuli, and to regulate physiological activities by consuming adenosine triphosphate. In recent decades, artificial ion pumping systems with diverse geometric structures and functions have been developing rapidly with the progress of advanced materials and nanotechnology.

New Wine in an Old Bottle: Utilizing Chemical Genetics to Dissect Apical Hook Development.

The apical hook is formed by dicot seedlings to protect the tender shoot apical meristem during soil emergence. Regulated by many phytohormones, the apical hook has been taken as a model to study the crosstalk between individual signaling pathways. Over recent decades, the roles of different phytohormones and environmental signals in apical hook development have been illustrated.

Multi-Omics Profiling Reveals Resource Allocation and Acclimation Strategies to Temperature Changes in a Marine Dinoflagellate.

Temperature is a critical environmental factor that affects the cell growth of dinoflagellates and bloom formation. To date, the molecular mechanisms underlying the physiological responses to temperature variations are poorly understood. Here, we applied quantitative proteomic and untargeted metabolomic approaches to investigate protein and metabolite expression profiles of a bloom-forming dinoflagellate at different temperatures.

Antisymmetric Seebeck Effect in a Tilted Weyl Semimetal.

Tilting the Weyl cone breaks the Lorentz invariance and enriches the Weyl physics. Here, we report the observation of a magnetic-field-antisymmetric Seebeck effect in a tilted Weyl semimetal, Co_{3}Sn_{2}S_{2}. Moreover, it is found that the Seebeck effect and the Nernst effect are antisymmetric in both the in-plane magnetic field and the magnetization.

Layer Hall effect induced by hidden Berry curvature in antiferromagnetic insulators.

The layer Hall effect describes electrons spontaneously deflected to opposite sides at different layers, which has been experimentally reported in the MnBiTe thin films under perpendicular electric fields. Here, we reveal a universal origin of the layer Hall effect in terms of the so-called hidden Berry curvature, as well as material design principles. Hence, it gives rise to zero Berry curvature in momentum space but non-zero layer-locked hidden Berry curvature in real space.

Organocatalytic formal [3 + 3] cyclization of α-(6-indolyl) propargylic alcohols.

With the aid of acetic acid, a 1,10-conjugate addition-mediated formal [3 + 3] cyclization of alkynyl indole imine methides formed from α-(6-indolyl) propargylic alcohols with 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds such as 4-hydroxycoumarins and cyclohexane-1,3-diones was developed, which provided robust access to a wide range of pyranocoumarin and pyran derivatives containing an indole skeleton with high efficiency under mild conditions.

Efficient and Selective Electroreduction of CO to HCOOH over Bismuth-Based Bromide Perovskites in Acidic Electrolytes.

Metal halide perovskites, primarily used as optoelectronic devices, have not been applied for electrochemical conversion due to their insufficient stability in moisture. Herein, two bismuth-based perovskites are introduced as novel electrocatalysts to convert CO into HCOOH in aqueous acidic media (pH 2.5), exhibiting a high Faradaic efficiency for HCOOH of >80 % in a wide potential range from -0.

Significant hot hand effect in the game of cricket.

We investigate the predictability and persistence of individual and team performance (hot-hand effect) by analyzing the complete recorded history of international cricket. We introduce an original temporal representation of performance streaks, which is suitable to be modelled as a self-exciting point process. We confirm the presence of predictability and hot-hands across the individual performance and the absence of the same in team performance and game outcome.

Stabilization of Imines and Hemiaminals in Water by an Endo-Functionalized Container Molecule.

Stabilizing water-sensitive reaction intermediates is challenging but desirable for guiding reactions to desired products in water. Herein, we report that labile imine and hemiaminal functional groups can be stabilized inside a synthetic container compound, a water-soluble naphthotube. The naphthotube features a primary amine group anchored in a cavity with both hydrogen bonding sites and hydrophobic surfaces.

Carboxylate-Containing Wide-Bandgap Polymers for High-Voltage Non-Fullerene Organic Solar Cells.

As one of the polymer modification strategies, carboxylate functionalization has proved effective in downshifting the energy levels and enhancing polymer crystallinity and aggregation. However, high-performance carboxylate-containing polymers are still limited for organic solar cells (OSCs), especially with open-circuit voltage () above 1.0 V.

Microfluidic-based exosome isolation and highly sensitive aptamer exosome membrane protein detection for lung cancer diagnosis.

Non-invasive methods of detecting cancer by circulating exosomes are challenged by inefficient purification and identification. This study hereby proposed an automated centrifugal microfluidic disc system combined with functionalized membranes (Exo-CMDS) to isolate and enrich exosomes, which will then be processed by a novel aptamer fluorescence system (Exo-AFS) in order to detect the exosome surface proteins in an effective manner. Exo-CMDS features in highly qualified yields with optimal exosomal concentration of 5.

Nanoionics from Biological to Artificial Systems: An Alternative Beyond Nanoelectronics.

Ion transport under nanoconfined spaces is a ubiquitous phenomenon in nature and plays an important role in the energy conversion and signal transduction processes of both biological and artificial systems. Unlike the free diffusion in continuum media, anomalous behaviors of ions are often observed in nanostructured systems, which is governed by the complex interplay between various interfacial interactions. Conventionally, nanoionics mainly refers to the study of ion transport in solid-state nanosystems.

Imide-Functionalized Fluorenone and Its Cyanated Derivative Based n-Type Polymers: Synthesis, Structure-Property Correlations, and Thin-Film Transistor Performance.

The development of high-performance n-type polymer semiconductors is powered by the design and synthesis of electron-deficient building blocks with optimized physicochemical properties. By meticulously installing an imide group onto fluorene and its cyanated derivative, we report here two very electron-deficient building blocks, imide-functionalized fluorenone (FOI) and its cyanated derivative (FCNI), both featuring a deep-lying lowest unoccupied molecular orbital energy level down to -4.05 eV and highly coplanar framework, endowing them ideal units for constructing n-type polymers.