Dramatic Enhancement of Rare-Earth Metal–Organic Framework Stability Via Metal Cluster Fluorination
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Organic framework materials, as a unique sub-class of carbon-based sorbents, have gained increasing attention for promising attributes toward gas storage. Calculations of the hydrogen capacity of optimized frameworks show potential to achieve greater than 60 g/L storage of hydrogen, placing metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and COFs near the top of the class of porous materials. However, at the ensemble level, poor stacking creates a quasi-amorphous material with low structural integrity and low effective surface area. The chemical versatility of COFs allows for additional methods for producing long-range order that specifically target the inter-layer interactions in COFs but that leave key pore-accessible linker sites open. These modifications (either during synthesis or post-synthetic) enable a host of strategies to both improve crystalline order for more stable and higher surface, as well as add metals with open coordination for enhanced H 2 binding enthalpy.
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Here, the success of Y6-type nonfullerene small molecule acceptors (NF-SMAs) in polymer solar cells (PSCs) can be attributed to their unique honeycomb stacking style, which leads to favorable thin-film morphologies. The intermolecular interactions related to the crystallization tendency of these NF-SMAs is closely governed by their electron accepting end groups. For example, the high performance Y6 derivative L8-BO (BTP-4F) presents three types of stacking modes in contrast to two stacking modes of Y6. Hence, it is ultimately interesting to obtain more insight on the packing properties and the preferences influenced by chemical modifications such as end group engineering. This work designs and synthesizes asymmetric and symmetric L8-BO derivatives with brominated end groups and explores the stacking preferences in various modes. The asymmetric BTP-3FBr displays an optimized crystallization tendency and thin film morphology, leading to a decent power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 18.34% in binary devices and a top PCE of 19.32% in ternary devices containing 15 wt% IDIC as the second acceptor.
The performance of all‐polymer solar cells is often enhanced by incorporating solvent additives during solution processing. Here, in particular, blends based on the model all‐polymer system PBDBT:N2200 have been shown to have increased short‐circuit current and fill factor when processed with dilute diiodooctane (DIO). However, the morphological mechanism that drives the increase in performance is often not well understood due to limitations in common characterization techniques. In this study, it is shown that a combination of X‐ray techniques with cryogenic high‐resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) analysis can provide a quantitative and spatially resolved picture of polymer chain orientation and alignment in all‐polymer blends. It is found that DIO induces vertical phase separation in PBDBT‐2F:F‐N2200 and increases donor crystallite thickness in the pi‐stacking direction leading to an acceptor‐rich film surface. However, it is also shown that DIO does not disrupt the formation of face‐on donor–acceptor interfaces. These findings suggest that dilute DIO primarily affects crystalline domain formation in single component regions as opposed to mixed regions; thus, dilute DIO can impact vertical charge transport pathways without sacrificing donor–acceptor interfacial connectivity.
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For proton exchange membrane fuel cells to be cost-competitive in light- and heavy-duty vehicle applications, their Pt content in the catalyst layers needs to be lowered. However, lowering the Pt content results in voltage losses due to high local oxygen transport resistances at the ionomer–Pt interface. It is therefore crucial to use ionomers that have higher oxygen permeability than Nafion. In this paper, novel high oxygen permeability ionomers (HOPIs) are presented, with up to five times higher oxygen permeability than Nafion, synthesized by copolymerization of perfluoro-2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxole (PDD) with perfluoro(4-methyl-3,6-dioxaoct-7-ene) sulfonyl fluoride (PFSVE). PDD is the source of higher permeability due to its open ring structure, while PFSVE provides ionic conductivity. Optimization of PDD content and equivalent weight enables increased fuel cell performance, mainly at high current densities, where HOPIs can achieve power densities >1.25 W cm -2 and exceed the 0.8 A cm -2 U.S. Department of Energy durability target by losing only 4.5 mV, which is over six times less than 30 mV. Finally, the interactions between HOPI and SO 3 - groups with a PtCo/C catalyst are also elucidated here at a fundamental level.
Ozonolysis is important for the removal of unsaturated volatile organic compounds emitted into the Earth's atmosphere. The alkene + ozone reaction (alkene ozonolysis) forms a carbonyl oxide – a Criegee intermediate (CI). CIs are interesting from an atmospheric chemistry perspective. They are implicated in enhancing the oxidizing capacity of the troposphere and in secondary organic aerosol formation. CIs may participate in bimolecular reactions with trace atmospheric vapors like water and methanol. Here, the chemistry of the two isomers of CFHOO and of CF 3 CHOO with water, water dimer, and methanol is explored. The present study confirms that the syn-conformer is the minimum energy structure for both CIs and that the reactions of anti-CFHOO display slightly lower activation energies cf. syn-CFHOO, thus promoting faster reaction. For both syn- and anti-CFHOO, the energy barrier in the pathway to adding water, water dimer, or methanol is lower—and the overall reaction exoergicity greater—than for the corresponding reactions involving the nonfluorinated analogue, CH 2 OO. Here, the corresponding bimolecular reaction rates are thus predicted to be faster for CFHOO than CH 2 OO. Similar reactivity trends are found when comparing the same reactions of syn-CF 3 CHOO, cf. syn-CH 3 CHOO, but not when comparing the energetics of the reactions involving anti-CF 3 CHOO cf. anti-CH 3 CHOO.
Integrated rocksalt‐polyanion cathodes (DRXPS) are promising candidates for next‐generation lithium‐ion battery cathode materials that combine high energy density, stable cycling performance, and reduced reliance on Co and Ni. In this work, we investigated Li 3 Mn 1.6 P 0.4 O 5.4 F 0.6 , a new DRXPS cathode with fluoride incorporation. A pure spinel phase was formed and a discharge capacity retention of 84% was achieved after 200 cycles between 1.5 and 4.8 V versus Li/Li + . In comparison, the similarly synthesized Li 3 Mn 1.6 Nb 0.4 O 5.4 F 0.6 , in which all P 5+ was substituted by Nb 5+ while maintaining the same stoichiometry for all other elements, crystallized in a disordered rocksalt structure, and exhibited inferior capacity retention and rate capability than the P 5+ counterpart. Our findings expand the compositional space of DRXPS to include F − , justify the viability of integrating polyanion groups in rocksalt‐type cathodes, and highlight the superiority of P 5+ as a cation charge compensator compared to the commonly used Nb 5+ . This work thereby advances the design of robust, high‐performance cathode materials for sustainable batteries.
Abstract Ionic thermoelectrics (TEs), in which voltage generation is based on ion migration, are suitable for applications based on their low cost, high flexibility, high ionic conductivity, and wide range of Seebeck coefficients. This work reports on the development of ionic TE materials based on the poly(vinylidene fluoride‐trifluoroethylene), Poly(VDF‐co‐TrFE), as host polymer blended with different contents of the ionic liquid, IL, 1‐ethyl‐3‐methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide, [EMIM][TFSI]. The morphology, physico‐chemical, thermal, mechanical, and electrical properties of the samples are evaluated together with the TE response. It is demonstrated that the IL acts as a nucleating agent for polymer crystallization. The mechanical properties and ionic conductivity values are dependent on the IL content. A high room temperature ionic conductivity of 0.008 S cm −1 is obtained for the sample with 60 wt% of [EMIM][TFSI] IL. The TE properties depend on both IL content and device topology‐vertical or planar‐the largest generated voltage range being obtained for the planar topology and the sample with 10 wt% of IL content, characterized by a Seebeck coefficient of 1.2 mV K −1 . Based on the obtained maximum power density of 4.9 µW m −2 , these materials are suitable for a new generation of TE devices.
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World is witnessing one of the worst pandemics of this century caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus which has affected millions of individuals. Despite rapid efforts to develop vaccines and drugs for COVID-19, the disease is still not under control. Chloroquine (CQ) and Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) are two very promising inhibitors which have shown positive effect in combating the disease in preliminary experimental studies, but their use was reduced due to severe side-effects. Here, we performed a theoretical investigation of the same by studying the binding of the molecules with SARS-COV-2 Spike protein, the complex formed by Spike and ACE2 human receptor and a human serine protease TMPRSS2 which aids in cleavage of the Spike protein to initiate the viral activation in the body. Both the molecules had shown very good docking energies in the range of -6kcal/mol. Subsequently, we did a high throughput screening for other potential quinoline candidates which could be used as inhibitors. From the large pool of ligand candidates, we shortlisted the top three ligands (binding energy -8kcal/mol). We tested the stability of the docked complexes by running Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations where we observed the stability of the quinoline analogues with the Spike-ACE2 and TMPRSS2 nevertheless the quinolines were not stable with the Spike protein alone. Thus, although the inhibitors bond very well with the protein molecules their intrinsic binding affinity depends on the protein dynamics. Moreover, the quinolines were stable when bound to electronegative pockets of Spike-ACE2 or TMPRSS2 but not with Viral Spike protein. We also observed that a Fluoride based compound: 3-[3-(Trifluoromethyl)phenyl]quinoline helps the inhibitor to bind with both Spike-ACE2 and TMPRSS2 with equal probability. The molecular details presented in this study would be very useful for developing quinoline based drugs for COVID-19 treatment.