Search

Artificial photosynthesis from CO2 reduction is severely hampered by the kinetically challenging multi-electron reaction process. Oxygen vacancies (Vo) with abundant localized electrons have great potential to overcome this limitation. However, surface Vo usually have low concentrations and are easily oxidized, causing them to lose their activities. For practical application of CO2 photoreduction, fabricating and enhancing the stability of Vo on semiconductors is indispensable. Here we report the first synthesis of ultrathin WO[sub 3]⋅0.33H2O nanotubes with a large amount of exposed surface Vo sites, which can realize excellent and stable CO2 photoreduction to CH3COOH in pure water under solar light. The selectivity for acetum generation is up to 85%, with an average productivity of about 9.4 µmol g-1 h-1. More importantly, Vo in the catalyst are sustainable, and their concentration was not decreased even after 60 h of reaction. Quantum chemical calculations and in situ DRIFT studies revealed that the main reaction pathway might be CO2→ •COOH→ (COOH)2→ CH3COOH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of alkylated indigos were synthesized. Alkylated indigos were characterized by NMR, mass spectrometry, absorption spectra, cyclic voltammetry, and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Propyl and butyl group substituted indigo was most soluble in chloroform and 1,2-dicrolobenzene, and these solubility were 65-89 times increased as compared to the parent indigo. DFT calculations suggested that the presence of the alkyl chains at the 5.5'-position increases the energy of the highest occupied molecular orbital, while reducing the energy of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital. This theoretical finding was in good agreement with the experimental results. Crystal structures obtained by X-ray diffraction showed one-dimensional pi-pi stacking. Alkylated molecules were converted to leuco structure, and these structures were then converted to the corresponding indigos in the film state. After deposition of the films on TiO2/FTO substrate, oxidative photocurrents were observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All possible pseudogeminal-, pseudoortho-, pseudometa-, and pseudopara-dibromo[3.3]paracyclophanes were synthesized by the (ptolylsulfonyl) methyl isocyanide (TosMIC) coupling method, and characterized by the aromatic proton signals of the 1H NMR spectra and finally by the X-ray crystal structure analyses of the pseudogeminal, pseudoortho, and pseudopara isomers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New π-conjugated 1,2-bis(2-aryl-1H-indol-3-yl)ethynes 1a-j having various substituents on the two aryl groups were efficiently synthesized via unusual 5-exo-digonal double isocyanide-acetylene cyclization reactions of 1,4-bis(2-isocyanophenyl)buta-1,3-diyne 3 and aryl Grignard reagents (R-MgBr, R = C6H5 (1a), 4-H3CC6H4 (1b), 2-H3CC6H4 (1c), 3-MeOC6H4 (1d), 3-(CH3)2NC6H4 (1e), 4-F3CC6H4 (1f), 4-FC6H4 (1g), 3-FC6H4 (1h), 4-PhOC6H4 (1i), and 2-Naph (1j)) in 19-85% yields. The UV-vis spectra were rationalized in detail using time-dependent DFT and single point calculations. The fluorescence emission peaks for 1a-j were observed at around 450 nm. Especially for 1f and 1j, those spectra displayed broad emission bands and relatively large Stokes shifts (3977-4503 cm-1), indicating the contribution of an intramolecular charge transfer. The absolute quantum yields (0.50-0.62) of 1a-j were higher than those of parent 8 (0.19) and 2-phenyl-1H-indole (0.11). The electrochemical features for 1a-j were investigated by cyclic voltammetry. The frontier molecular orbital levels for 1a-j were estimated based on the combination of oxidation potentials, UV-vis, and DFT calculated data. The structural property of 1,2-bis(2-phenyl-1H-indol-3-yl)ethyne 1a was characterized by several spectroscopic methods and finally determined by X-ray analysis of a single crystal of 1a recrystallized from ethyl acetate. The structural features of 1a-j were also supported by DFT calculations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photocatalytic water splitting is one of the ideal methods for solving the global energy crisis and its associated environmental problems. In this study, the effect of altering the molecular structure of porphyrins was investigated to improve the water splitting activity of Zr-doped KTaO3 (KTa(Zr)O3) modified with porphyrin dyes. UV-vis spectra indicated that porphyrins with long alkoxy chains tended to form well-developed H-aggregates on the KTa(Zr)O3 surface. The photocatalytic activity of Pt-loaded KTa(Zr)O3 was improved by using porphyrins with longer alkoxy chains because of the improvement in the charge migration between porphyrin dye molecules. While the charge transfer between the inorganic semiconductor and porphyrin dye interface is important, it was found that the formation of H-aggregation was more effective in improving the water splitting activity of the porphyrin-modified photocatalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three types of the donor(D)-donor'(D')-acceptor(A) triads 1-6 with different D-A combinations, carbazole (Cz, D)-[n.n]PCP(D')-1,8-naphthalimide (NI, A) (1-3), 10H-phenothiazine (PTZ, D)-[n.n]PCP(D')-NI(A) (4, 5), and 10-methyl-10H-phenothiazine (Me-PTZ, D)-[2.2]PCP-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole (BTD, A) 6, were synthesized for the elucidation of their photophysical properties. The absorption spectra and electrochemical properties indicated that the chromophores (D, D', and A) do not interact with each other in the ground state. Cz-(CH2)3-[2.2]PCP-(CH2)3-NI 1 and Cz-(CH2)3-[3.3]PCP-(CH2)3-NI 2 show an exciplex emission between the PCP and NI moieties in cyclohexane and the intensity of the band is much higher in 2 than in 1, whereas Cz-(CH2)2-[2.2]PCP-(CH2)2-NI 3 does not show any exciplex emission in cyclohexane. These results indicated that the combination of [3.3]PCP and a trimethylene chain is preferable for the exciplex formation. PTZ-(CH2)3-[2.2]PCP-(CH2)3-NI 4 shows a broad band at 519 nm in cyclohexane, which is associated with the formation of the exterplex band among the NI, [2.2]PCP, and PTZ moieties, while PTZ-(CH2)3-[3.3]PCP-(CH2)3-NI 5 does not show the band. Me-PTZ-(CH2)2-[2.2]PCP-(CH2)2-BTD 6 shows a broad fluorescence band due to both the BTD and PTZ moieties in cyclohexane. In CH3CN, the fluorescence spectra of 1-6 suggest the presence of a photoinduced charge separation process. The study of the photoinduced charge separation process will be soon reported elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water splitting activity of a GaN:ZnO photocatalyst was improved by meso-hexakis(pentafluorophenyl) [26]hexaphyrin (3). The hexaphyrin (3) assisted the water splitting reaction over the GaN:ZnO photo-catalyst by using visible light energy around 600 nm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]