Chemistry of Materials

Nonfused ring electron acceptors (NFREAs) have emerged as promising candidates for high-efficiency organic solar cells, owing to their cost-effectiveness. Notably, the number of aromatic rings in their nonfused conjugated backbones plays a crucial role in determining optical and electronic properties, as well as molecular packing and orientation. Herein, a simple terthiophene backbone was employe…

Chemically preintercalated bilayered vanadium oxide (BVO) electrodes derived from V2CTx MXene exhibit superior Na-ion storage performance compared to compositionally similar BVO counterparts synthesized from α-V2O5 powder. Here, we report for the first time the precursor-dependent structural differences in Na-preintercalated BVO electrodes (δ-NaxV2O5·nH2O) synthesized from α-V2O5 powder (AD-NVO) …

Metal halide hybrids have long celebrated their halometallate moieties as the luminescent center, leaving organic cations behind. Although the thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) strategy has enabled efficient solid-state organic emitters, the complex molecular design required for TADF emitters has limited their facile integration into metal halide hybrid architectures. Here, we demon…

Host–guest chemistry has predominantly advanced within organic systems, whereas the integration of inorganic frameworks into such architectures remains limited. Here, we report two types of organic–inorganic hybrid macrocycles synthesized by cyclizing lacunary Wells–Dawson–type polyoxotungstates with oligo(ethylene oxide) chains. The resulting macrocycles exhibit distinct cavity structures depend…

Silylethynyl pentacenes have been a workhorse of small-molecule organic semiconductor research over the last two decades, but previous studies have identified dynamic disorder as a serious downfall for these materials. Thermal motion causing molecular vibrations results in fluctuation of the transfer integral between adjacent molecules and disrupts the charge transfer pathway through the bulk sol…

The inability of graphite to store Na+ ions at low potentials necessitates the use of disordered materials as anodes in Na-ion batteries, wherein complex degradative pathways limit cycle life. This study delineates the influence of synthetically induced material disorder in facilitating stable, high-rate sodium ion storage in a series of anatase titania analogs. The degree of disorder in the tita…

Space-limited and low-temperature environments demand battery materials with both high volumetric capacity and fast charge-storage kinetics. To address this need, we investigate the electrochemical Li+-insertion behavior of high-density niobium–tungsten oxide (NWO) Wadsley–Roth phases at room temperature (25 °C) and 0 °C. These phases contain orthogonal crystallographic shear planes that form an …

Exploring heterometallic architectures and uncoordinated nitrogen sites in zeolitic imidazole–tetrazole frameworks provides an unconventional route to enhancing electrocatalytic activity. Herein, we report a mechanochemical alloying approach that simultaneously induces metal–metal (Co–Zn) and ligand–ligand (imidazole–tetrazole) mixing to yield an amorphous solid solution, aZn0.5Co0.5ZI0.5T0.5F-8,…

Colorectal liver metastasis is one of the major causes of poor survival in colorectal cancer patients as it causes organ dysfunction and disrupts metabolic homeostasis. Apart from the primary tumor microenvironment (TME) challenges arising from cell proliferation, immunosuppression, and angiogenesis, premetastatic niches also represent an attractive therapeutic target for preventing liver metasta…

Li-rich sulfides are promising alternatives to Li-rich oxides as intercalation materials, the latter suffering from limited cycling reversibility and copious voltage fade, all associated with the redox activity of oxygen ligands upon cycling. Although moving from oxygen to sulfur ligands alleviates some of these drawbacks, sulfides suffer from their lower redox potential, which limits the energy …

Argyrodites are a compositionally diverse family of materials that exhibit remarkable ion transport properties. While the average crystal structures of argyrodites have been extensively studied, ion transport in these materials is governed by a confluence of dynamic processes spanning the cation, anion, and polyanionic sublattices. This Perspective synthesizes recent advances in understanding the…

Bone mineral forms both inside and between collagen fibrils in the extracellular matrix. While the morphology of intrafibrillar bone mineral has been hypothesized to be primarily controlled by the size and shape of the restricted spaces inside collagen fibrils within which the mineral forms, what controls the architecture of the extrafibrillar mineral is still an open question. While bone mineral…

Despite significant advances in nonlinear optical (NLO) materials, a systematic strategy for designing mid-infrared (mid-IR) NLO oxides that simultaneously exhibit strong second-harmonic generation (SHG) efficiency and wide optical transparency remains elusive. Herein, we report two polar antiperovskite oxide materials, (Pb1.5Cd1.5)GeO5 (PCGO) and Pb3GeO5 (PGO). Structural analyses reveal that PC…

Few-atom metal chalcogenide clusters may be realized through the sequential infiltration of metal–organic precursors in polymer films. However, the underlying nucleation and growth mechanisms that allow for cluster synthesis with near atomic-scale precision are not fully resolved. The kinetics of the sequential infiltration synthesis (SIS) method that control the nucleation and growth mechanisms …

Two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenide nanosheets made of MoS2 are widely studied owing to their applications as electrocatalysts and electrode materials. To specify key design parameters for optimizing catalytic performance of MoS2, we developed a soft-chemical lattice manipulation strategy to precisely tune their structural, defect, and morphological characteristics via self-assembly o…

Cuprophilic interactions are increasingly recognized as key determinants in the design of functional assemblies, particularly for enhancing luminescence. However, achieving precise control of cuprophilic interactions in self-assembled, atomically precise copper nanoclusters remains challenging. Here, we present a straightforward strategy to systematically modulate cuprophilic interactions through…