Optical materials articles within Nature Chemistry

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  • Article |

    Accessing longer-wavelength emitting organic fluorophores is critical for diagnostic imaging. Here a series of silicon-RosIndolizine fluorophores with emission maxima at 1,300 nm, 1,550 nm and 1,700 nm were synthesized. The fluorophores generate high-resolution in vivo fluorescence images in mice and establish design principles for future shortwave-infrared fluorophore designs.

    • William E. Meador
    • , Eric Y. Lin
    •  & Jared H. Delcamp

  • Article |

    The synthesis of two-dimensional (2D) organic lateral heterostructures with desirable properties from organic single crystals remains challenging. Now, 2D organic lateral heterostructures have been produced by using a liquid-phase growth approach and vapour-phase growth method, enabling the structural inversion of organic lateral heterostructures via a two-step strategy.

    • Qiang Lv
    • , Xue-Dong Wang
    •  & Liang-Sheng Liao

  • Article |

    While chiral hybrid organic–inorganic perovskites are promising materials for optoelectronic applications, the synthesis of three-dimensional single crystals has proven challenging. Now, a general strategy has been shown to synthesize chiral, three-dimensional perovskites by heterogeneous nucleation. The single-crystalline materials contain no chiral component; their chiroptical activity arises from supercells formed by chiral patterns of the A-site cations.

    • Gaoyu Chen
    • , Xiaoyu Liu
    •  & Xun Wang

  • Article |

    Current strategies for photoinduced olefin metathesis lack wavelength tunability. Now, plasmonic nanoparticles have been used to activate latent ruthenium catalysts, enabling light-induced olefin metathesis in the infrared range with several advantages when compared with conventional heating. Implementing this approach in ring-opening metathesis polymerization resulted in photoresponsive polymer–nanoparticle composites with enhanced mechanical properties.

    • Nir Lemcoff
    • , Noy B. Nechmad
    •  & Yossi Weizmann

  • Article |

    The properties of chiral conjugated molecules, such as the absorption and/or emission of circularly polarized light or electron transport, are highly anisotropic. Now it has been shown that templating layers can control the orientation and anisotropic properties of small chiral molecules in bulk thin films useful for a range of emerging technologies.

    • Jessica Wade
    • , Francesco Salerno
    •  & Matthew J. Fuchter

  • Article |

    Room-temperature phosphorescence in organic solids is attractive for practical applications but remains rare. Now, highly phosphorescent boroxine-linked covalent organic frameworks have been prepared by covalent doping with halogen atoms through the use of halogenated precursors. The resulting porous COFs exhibited oxygen-sensing capabilities with millisecond response time over a wide range of partial oxygen pressures.

    • Ehsan Hamzehpoor
    • , Cory Ruchlin
    •  & Dmytro F. Perepichka

  • Article |

    Halogen-bonded co-crystals of a fluorinated azobenzene derivative and a volatile co-former can be cut, carved or engraved with micrometre-scale precision using low-power visible light. The proposed mechanism involves the local evaporation of the volatile component followed by recrystallization of the azobenzene co-former near the edge of the irradiation area.

    • T. H. Borchers
    • , F. Topić
    •  & C. J. Barrett

  • Article |

    A material based on a three-dimensional –Fe–N≡C–Mo– anionic framework that hosts a Cs+ cation in every other pore has been shown to exhibit superionic conductivity, despite its polar crystal structure. It also exhibits second harmonic generation (SHG)—usually observed in insulators—and its ionic conductivity was reversibly altered under light irradiation.

    • Shin-ichi Ohkoshi
    • , Kosuke Nakagawa
    •  & Asuka Namai

  • Article |

    Generating high-energy triplet excitons from singlet fission without excess energy loss is a critical goal for potential applications. Now it is shown that molecular chromophores that are connected covalently can harbour multiple long-lived and high-energy triplets—created from one photon—only if more than two chromophoric units are present and they have sufficient flexibility to isolate the excitations upon torsional motion.

    • Nadezhda V. Korovina
    • , Christopher H. Chang
    •  & Justin C. Johnson

  • Article |

    Quantum dots functionalized with energy-accepting dyes hold promise for converting low-energy photons into higher-energy visible light for bioimaging, catalysis and solar energy harvesting. Now, it has been shown that non-toxic silicon quantum dots can be used in these systems; the transfer of spin-triplet excitons to molecules at their surface has been observed.

    • Pan Xia
    • , Emily K. Raulerson
    •  & Sean T. Roberts

  • Article |

    Aryl functionalization of carbon nanotubes generates sp3 defects capable of quantum light emission. A multiplicity of possible binding configurations, however, leads to spectrally diverse emission bands. Now, it is shown that the structural symmetry of zigzag nanotubes and a high chemical selectivity for ortho configurations results in defect-state emission from a single narrow band.

    • Avishek Saha
    • , Brendan J. Gifford
    •  & Stephen K. Doorn

  • Article |

    Colloidal particles of metal–organic frameworks (ZIF-8 and UiO-66) with different polyhedral shapes can self-assemble into well-ordered, porous three-dimensional superstructures. These superstructures function as photonic crystals, with a photonic band gap that depends on the size of the MOF particles and shifts upon the sorption of guests within their pores.

    • Civan Avci
    • , Inhar Imaz
    •  & Daniel Maspoch

  • Article |

    A family of fluorescent molecular rotors has been developed and their mechanism for emission understood. It has been observed that, although most fluorescent molecules emit from their lowest energy excited state, S1 (in accordance with Kasha's rule), BODIHY dyes do not. Furthermore, their fluorescence is enhanced through restricted rotor rotation, which suppresses internal conversion to the dark S1 state.

    • Hai Qian
    • , Morgan E. Cousins
    •  & Ivan Aprahamian

  • Article |

    Photoexcited holes in CdS nanocrystals rapidly trap to the surface and although they are integral to nanocrystal photophysics and photochemistry, their dynamics have remained elusive. Time-resolved spectroscopy and theoretical modelling have now revealed that trapped holes in CdS nanorods are mobile and undergo a random walk on the nanocrystal surface.

    • James K. Utterback
    • , Amanda N. Grennell
    •  & Gordana Dukovic

  • Review Article |

    Numerous dynamic molecular crystals whose physical properties can be switched by external stimuli have recently been developed. This Review discusses how the precise control of the electron, proton and molecular movement within the crystals through the application of external stimuli can lead to considerable changes in their properties.

    • Osamu Sato

  • Article |

    Perovskite materials show great promise for solar cell devices, owing in particular to their high power conversion efficiency. Now, the addition of butylphosphonic acid 4-ammonium cations during a one-step process has been shown to improve both the efficiency and moisture stability of perovskite photovoltaics, through the formation of hydrogen-bonding crosslinks between neighbouring grains.

    • Xiong Li
    • , M. Ibrahim Dar
    •  & Michael Grätzel

  • Article |

    Rigid star-shaped azobenzene tetramers form a porous molecular crystal when the azobenzene moieties are in the trans configuration, and a non-porous amorphous material on their isomerization to the cis configuration. These two forms are reversibly interconverted in the solid state by light irradiation, thus enabling the photoswitching of optical and gas-capture properties.

    • Massimo Baroncini
    • , Simone d'Agostino
    •  & Alberto Credi

  • Article |

    The average single-nanocrystal spectral linewidth within an ensemble of nanocrystal emitters in solution can be directly and quantitatively measured using photon-correlation Fourier spectroscopy (S-PCFS). Variations in single-nanocrystal linewidths between batches are found to be significant and synthetically tunable, introducing new avenues for the optimization of nanocrystals for optical applications.

    • Jian Cui
    • , Andrew P. Beyler
    •  & Moungi G. Bawendi

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