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Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) produced and metabolized by mitochondria is closely associated to human physiological function, but its mechanism is not fully revealed due to the difficulty in determining the dose of hydrogen sulfide. Therefore, fluorescent probes with both excellent mitochondrial targeting ability and rapid H2S detection are urgently needed. In this work, a novel fluorescent probe, TPAS-TN, was developed to detect H2S in mitochondria. TPAS-TN with a D–π–A structure had a large Stokes shift (213 nm), and possessed low background interference in cell imaging. By introducing a twisted triphenylamine group as the donor, TPAS-TN was endowed with AIE properties, and the positively charged pyridium unit was the acceptor, so that TPAS-TN exhibited good mitochondrial targeting ability and biocompatibility. Meanwhile, the π-bridge was composed of phenyl and dinitrophenyl (DNP) ether to make TPAS-TN exhibit "off–on" properties, low detection limit (69.5 nM), and high sensitivity and selectivity. Besides, TPAS-TN with the above characteristics was successfully applied to high-contrast H2S imaging in mitochondria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An effective NH4Cl-assisted method for purification of carbon nanotube (CNT) macro-films is reported. Compared to previous oxidation in acid, this method induces little destruction to the graphitic structure of CNTs, and more importantly, the morphology and integrity of the macroscopic film are maintained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small-molecule (SM) donor based ternary organic solar cells (OSCs) have drawn increasing attention owing to the remarkable photovoltaic performances achieved recently. In this study, a chlorinated benzodithiophene core and selenophene-containing π bridge based SM donor, namely CBTSeHR, was used as an SM donor guest to fabricate ternary OSCs owing to its favorable optoelectronic properties. CBTSeHR exhibits a good complementary absorption band and matched energy levels with the prevailing polymer donors and SM nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs), which is beneficial to light harvesting and charge transport. In addition, the incorporation of CBTSeHR could modulate the micro morphology and endow the ternary blend with more favorable phase separation size. Accordingly, the as cast ternary device prepared by introducing CBTSeHR into the D18:CH-6F host system exhibits an excellent power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 17.33%, which is even higher than that of the optimal binary host device (17.08%). After thermal annealing (TA) treatment, an outstanding PCE value of 18.41% with a high Voc of 0.901 V, FF of 0.767, and Jsc of 26.64 mA cm−2 was achieved, demonstrating the great success of SM donor based ternary OSCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel photocatalytic water splitting device was constructed using economic graphene quantum dots as a photocatalyst and a Ni-based complex [(tpy-CH＝N)2Ni]Cl2 (tpy = terpyridine) as a co-catalyst. Under visible light irradiation and with a bias of −0.1 V vs. NHE, it produced an extremely stable photocurrent density of −9 μA cm−2 for 3 h. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solution-processable 4,4′,4″-{[9,9-bis(hexyl)-9H-fluorene-2,4,7-triyl]tri-2,1-ethenediyl}tris(N,N-diphenyl)benzeneamine (TF), consisting of a fluorene core and terminal triphenylamine groups, was synthesized by the Wittig reaction. The characteristics of TFwere analyzed by 1H-NMR, elemental analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, optical spectra, cyclic voltammetry, and atomic force microscopy. The triphenylamine terminals were intentionally incorporated to increase its hole-transporting ability that reduces the barrier height of hole-injection. A multilayer light-emitting diode using TFas a hole-transporting layer [ITO/PEDOT:PSS/TF/Alq3(70 nm)/LiF(0.5 nm)/Al(100 nm)] was readily fabricated by the spin-coating process. Its maximum brightness (9390 cd m−2) and current efficiency (2.90 cd A−1) were superior to those using conventional NPB as a hole-transporting layer. In addition, the TFcould also be blended with polyfluorene (PF) to be applied as an emitting layer; the devices [ITO/PEDOT:PSS/blend (110 nm)/LiF(0.5 nm)/Ca(50 nm)/Al(100 nm)] exhibited high maximum brightness (4040 cd m−2) and current efficiency (1.62 cd A−1). Our results indicate that the TFis a potential optoelectronic material which is readily processed by wet processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The supramolecular interaction between the host molecule β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) and the guest molecule adamantane is extensively applied in several disciplines. However, recent studies on the applications of this molecular recognition mainly focused on glass, silicon, and gold substrates. Few studies have explored the field of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS), an optically transparent elastomer widely used in biological microfluidic devices. In the present study, various functional group-modified adamantyl-terminated dendronized molecules were synthesized via an efficient and facile route. The binding of adamantyl-terminated dendronized molecules onto β-CD-conjugated PDMS surfaces and their reversible dissociation from PDMS surfaces through the competitive mechanism of β-CD-N3 were studied. The results showed that the dissociation is relatively slow compared with the binding, and the former process can be accelerated through exchanging the original β-CD-N3 solution with a fresh one. Afterward, more complex multilayer assemblies were constructed on PDMS surfaces using the host–guest interaction between adamantane and β-CD as well as between biotin and streptavidin. A further study on the association and dissociation of the established multilayer assemblies showed that the assembly constructed with a biotinylated monoadamantyl-terminated molecule has a reversible property, whereas that with a biotinylated triadamantyl-terminated molecule has an irreversible property. These results demonstrated that the reversible properties of the fabricated assembly can be easily modulated on the PDMS surfaces by regulating the valence of the supramolecular interaction between adamantane and β-CD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]