Organic molecules in materials science articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Using highly sensitive and selective in situ techniques to investigate the dynamics of intermediates formation is key to better understand reaction mechanisms but investigating the early stages of solid-state reactions or transformations is still challenging. Here the authors use in situ fluorescence spectroscopy to observe the evolution of intermediates during a two-step [2 + 2] photocycloaddition process in a coordination polymer.

    • Meng-Fan Wang
    • , Yun-Hu Deng
    •  & Jian-Ping Lang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The entanglement of fibrous elements produces flexible structures with enhanced strength and resilience to abrasion. Here, the authors report the weaving of organic crystals into flexible and robust patches with plain, twill, and satin topologies of arbitrary porosity, expanding one-dimensional crystals into flexible, two-dimensional planar structures with potential for future applications in flexible electronics.

    • Linfeng Lan
    • , Liang Li
    •  & Hongyu Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The stimuli responsive color-shifting properties of fluorescent materials have been used for 2D encoding for information encryption applications but possessing a risk of information leakage. Here, the authors develop shape-memory fluorescent films with reversible fluorescence-shifting and thermadapt shape-memory properties for integrating rewritable 2D/3D encoding in one system.

    • Jinhui Huang
    • , Yue Jiang
    •  & Shaobing Zhou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Light-responsive polymers with polarization-dependent deformation are promising material to develop tunable devices usually limited by irreversible dynamic control. Here, the authors use controlled polarization of visible light to produce arbitrary deformations into amorphous composites containing azopolymer microdomains to unlock the next level of complex actuation in soft lightdriven robots.

    • David Urban
    • , Niccolò Marcucci
    •  & Emiliano Descrovi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The synergetic regulation of the electronic structure and interfacial reaction of covalent organic frameworks (COF) for water purification remains a challenge. Here the authors propose that COFs materials possessing molecular interfaces with ordered π skeletons, suitable pore size, and hydrophilic/hydrophobic channels synergically break through the adsorption energy barrier achieving high removal rates for micropollutants.

    • Chencheng Qin
    • , Yi Yang
    •  & Hou Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The development of liposome-based drug delivery systems has been hindered by the systemic toxicity and limited duration of effect due to insufficient drug loading and leakage of payload. Here the authors address these issues by designing aromatized liposomes that feature increased drug loading and slowed release compared to conventional liposomes.

    • Yang Li
    • , Tianjiao Ji
    •  & Daniel S. Kohane

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Complex computerized geometries can be obtained by additive manufacturing. However, the printing of purely three-dimensional polymer shapes possesses inherent poor mechanical stability. Here, the authors overcome this drawback by the light-driven orientation of liquid crystals to guide the alignment of acrylate prepolymers along the direction parallel to UV light vibrations.

    • Xiaolu Sun
    • , Shaoyun Chen
    •  & Dongxian Zhuo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Smart monitoring devices with integrated mechanical protection and piezoelectric induction are limited. Here, the authors report a strategy to grow piezoelectric Rochelle salt crystals in 3D-printed cuttlebone-inspired structures to produce smart monitoring devices with integrated mechanical protection and electrical sensing capability.

    • Qingqing He
    • , Yushun Zeng
    •  & Yang Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The soft fluidic robots designed so far are lacking intelligent self-protection and present poor fluidic power source. Here, the authors report soft fluidic robots that integrate soft electrohydrodynamic pumps, healing electrofluids, actuators and E-skins endowing them with self-sensing, self-judgment, and self-heating behaviours for rapid self-healing.

    • Wei Tang
    • , Yiding Zhong
    •  & Jun Zou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The development of efficient adsorbents to capture iodine originating from radioactive wastes is of importance. Here, the authors synthesize hexacationic imidazolium organic cages and study the crucial role of the counter anions for iodine capture and the iodine binding modes at the molecular level on the solid state.

    • Jian Yang
    • , Shao-Jun Hu
    •  & Qing-Fu Sun

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Due to the complexity of living systems, it is challenging to identify the factors influencing the formation of native heterogeneous structures. Here, the authors employ flexible polymer networks with embedded stiff cellulose nanocrystals to simulate heterogeneous core-sheath structures interrelated with the divergence of Deborah number.

    • Dan Xu
    • , Yang Yang
    •  & Kai Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The use of macrocycles to develop charge-transfer complexes in the solid state was recently demonstrated. Here, the authors develop an on-off type vapochromic system toward positional bromoalkane isomers by the reassembly and disassembly of charge-transfer complexes between a pillar[5]arene and electron-deficient aromatic guests in the solid state.

    • Jia-Rui Wu
    • , Gengxin Wu
    •  & Ying-Wei Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Dispersion of colloidal particles in water or oil is desired for industrial and environmental applications but it often strongly depends on indispensable assistance of chemical surfactants or introduction of nanoprotrusions onto the particle surface. Here, the authors demonstrate the omnidispersity of hydrophilic-hydrophobic heterostructure particles, synthesized by a surface heterogeneous nanostructuring strategy.

    • Yongyang Song
    • , Jiajia Zhou
    •  & Shutao Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The performance of membrane desalination of seawater is hampered by fouling. Here the authors develop smart gating hybrid membranes by surface coating with polymer-embedded thermosalient crystals. These membranes enhance pure water flux by over 40% in saltwater desalination by osmotic distillation.

    • Elvira Pantuso
    • , Ejaz Ahmed
    •  & Gianluca Di Profio

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chiral receptors with an endo-functionalized cavity for chiral recognition are of interest in the field of molecular recognition. Here, the authors develop chiral naphthotubes containing a bis-thiourea endo-functionalized cavity to effectively recognize neutral chiral molecules with high enantioselectivity.

    • Song-Meng Wang
    • , Yan-Fang Wang
    •  & Liu-Pan Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The 3D/4D printing of shape memory polymers to create shape-morphing structures typically goes through a hot programming step possessing limited reconfigurability. Here the authors introduce a cold-programmed grayscale digital light processing-based 3D printing to encode different configurations during the 3D printing of shape-morphing structures.

    • Liang Yue
    • , Xiaohao Sun
    •  & H. Jerry Qi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Enriching the toolbox of polymers, the design and construction of novel polymers with desired properties and functions remains an attractive topic in polymer chemistry. Here the authors demonstrate rotaxane-branched dendronized polymers with rotaxane-branched dendrons attached onto the polymer chains as polymers with attractive dynamic properties.

    • Yu Zhu
    • , Hanqiu Jiang
    •  & Hai-Bo Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Phase separation is driven by the component activity, elasticity, or composition of a homogeneous mixture. Here the authors, develop heterogeneous colloidal suspensions exhibiting both liquid-liquid phase separation of polymers and liquid crystal phase separation of nanoparticles controlled by the trade-off between thermodynamics and kinetics.

    • Han Tao
    • , Carlo Rigoni
    •  & Guang Chu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    To correlate the microstructure of flexible covalent organic frameworks with their flexibility is challenging. Here, the authors visually track the deformation behaviors of single covalent organic framework particles with dark-field microscopy discovering that their flexibility is dictated by the pedal motion around rigid imine bonds.

    • Hongbin Chi
    • , Yang Liu
    •  & Yi He

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The mechanisms by which changes in local geometries of receptor sites lower activation reaction barriers in electronically uncoupled, remote reaction moieties remain relatively unexplored. Here, the authors demonstrate allosteric acceleration in the thermal isomerization of an alkene triggered by the binding of a metal ion to a remote receptor site.

    • Yichen Yu
    • , Robert T. O’Neill
    •  & Stephen L. Craig

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Porous crystals with molecular recognition sites in the inner pores are promising for achieving functional control, where the local binding of effectors triggers a distortion which propagates throughout the structure. Here the authors report that the structure of a porous molecular crystal can be allosterically controlled by local adsorption of effectors within low-symmetry nanochannels with multiple molecular recognition sites.

    • Ryunosuke Hayashi
    • , Shohei Tashiro
    •  & Mitsuhiko Shionoya

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Light driven synthetic molecular motors represent crucial building blocks for advanced molecular machines and their applications but the development of very fast motors remains challenging. Here the authors restrict fast molecular motor rotations and force them to proceed in two separate rotation-photoequilibria enabling them to elucidate the directionality of the motion.

    • Benjamin Lukas Regen-Pregizer
    • , Ani Ozcelik
    •  & Henry Dube

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The reversible transformation of a nanohelix is one of the most exquisite and important phenomenon in nature but nanomaterials usually fail to twist into helical crystals or untwist. Here, the authors report a reciprocal effect between molecular geometry and crystal structure which triggers a twisting-untwisting-retwisting cycle for tri-cobalt salicylate hydroxide hexahydrate.

    • Wei Du
    • , Feng Gao
    •  & Qingyi Lu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The synthesis of sp2 carbon-conjugated covalent organic frameworks is limited to a few reactions and monomers due to the poor irreversibility of carbon double bonds. Here the authors synthesize propenone-linked covalent organic frameworks for the removal of radionuclide uranium from mine wastewater samples.

    • Cheng-Peng Niu
    • , Cheng-Rong Zhang
    •  & Jian-Ding Qiu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Controlling the ketoenamine-enolimine tautomerism and correlating their structure to photoelectronic properties remains challenging in organic solids. Here, the authors show tautomerization in a crystalline dynamic 3D covalent organic framework (dynaCOF) through host-guest interactions leading to reversible framework deformation accompanied by chromic effects which can be used in chemosensing.

    • Yangyang Xu
    • , Tu Sun
    •  & Yue-Biao Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Proximity effect (PE) can impact the behaviour of heterocyclic luminogens, but is rarely used to manipulate the aggregation-induced emission (AIE) related properties. Here, the authors systematically illustrate the impacts of PE and AIE on luminescent behaviors.

    • Jianyu Zhang
    • , Yujie Tu
    •  & Ben Zhong Tang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Synthesis of buckybowls has remained challenging due to the inherent high strain induced by the curvature. Herein, the authors report the synthesis of two bowl-shaped polycyclic aromatics with three chalcogen atoms and three methylene groups embedded at the bay regions of hexa-peri-hexabenzocoronene and demonstrate guest host complexation with trithiasupersumanene.

    • Yixun Sun
    • , Xin Wang
    •  & Junfa Wei

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Heterohelicenes are of increasing importance in materials science but organocatalytic enantioselective synthesis of these molecules remains challenging. Here, the authors synthesize enantioenriched 1-(3-indol)-quino[n]helicenes through chiral phosphoric acid-catalyzed Povarov reaction followed by oxidative aromatization and explore the photochemical and electrochemical properties of these compounds.

    • Chengwen Li
    • , Ying-Bo Shao
    •  & Xin Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The development of ultramicroporous covalent organic frameworks (COFs) remains a daunting challenge. Here, the authors report a pore partition strategy, which allows for the segmentation of mesopores of COFs into multiple uniform ultramicroporous domains.

    • Xiaoyi Xu
    • , Xinyu Wu
    •  & Ning Huang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Preparation of porous liquids are fluids with the permanent porosity still requires complicated and tedious use of porous hosts and bulky liquids. Here, the authors develop a facile method to produce a porous metal-organic cage liquid by self-assembly of long polyethylene glycolimidazolium chain functional linkers, calixarene molecules and Zn ions.

    • Chang He
    • , Yu-Huang Zou
    •  & Yuan-Biao Huang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Growth constitutes a powerful method to post-modulate materials’ structures and functions without compromising their mechanical performance for sustainable use, but the process is irreversible. To address this issue, the authors here report a growing-degrowing strategy that enables thermosetting materials to either absorb or release components for continuously changing their sizes, shapes, compositions, and a set of properties simultaneously.

    • Xiaozhuang Zhou
    • , Yijun Zheng
    •  & Jiaxi Cui

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Producing functional soft fibers via existing spinning methods is environmentally and economically costly due to the complexity of spinning equipment, involvement of copious solvents, intensive consumption of energy. Here, the authors report a nonsolvent vapor-induced phase separation spinning approach under ambient conditions, which resembles the native spider silk fibrillation’.

    • Songlin Zhang
    • , Mengjuan Zhou
    •  & Swee Ching Tan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Long-range magnetic ordering of two-dimensional crystals can be sensitive to interlayer coupling, enabling the effective control of interlayer magnetism. Here, the authors report the pressure-controlled interlayer magnetic coupling of chromiumpyrazine coordinated magnets.

    • Yulong Huang
    • , Arjun K. Pathak
    •  & Shenqiang Ren

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chemical fuel-driven supramolecular systems have been developed showing out of-equilibrium functions such as transient gelation and oscillations but these systems suffer from undesired waste accumulation and they function only in open systems. Here, the authors we report non-equilibrium supramolecular polymerizations in a closed system, which is built by viologens and pyranine in the presence of hydrazine hydrate.

    • Xianhua Lang
    • , Yingjie Huang
    •  & Hui Zhao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Phototunable full-color circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) features large storage density which is important for the field of information encryption and decryption. Here, the authors present a device-friendly solid film with color-tunability by employing Förster resonance energy transfer among a chiral donor and achiral molecular switches in a liquid crystal photonic capsules.

    • Siyang Lin
    • , Yuqi Tang
    •  & Quan Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The development of three-dimensional (3D) covalent organic frameworks (COFs) with novel topologies is of both fundamental and practical interest but the construction of highly crystalline 3D COF remains challenging. Here, the authors report highly crystalline 3D COFs with pto and mhq-z topologies by rationally selecting rectangular-planar and trigonal-planar building blocks with appropriate conformational strains.

    • Dongyang Zhu
    • , Yifan Zhu
    •  & Rafael Verduzco

  • Article
    | Open Access

    ‘Molecular motors, fuelled by various physical and chemical means, can perform asymmetric linear and rotary motions that are inherently related to their asymmetric shapes. Here, the authors describe silver-organic micro-complexes of random shapes that exhibit macroscopic unidirectional rotation on water surface through the asymmetric release of cinchonine or cinchonidine chiral molecules.

    • Itai Carmeli
    • , Celine M. Bounioux
    •  & Shachar E. Richter

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Transition metal-based homogenous photocatalysts are important in organic synthesis, but the metals used can be rare and immobilization of the catalysts for recycling is challenging. Here, the authors report the recovery of such catalysts using covalent organic framework membranes with tuneable pore sizes.

    • Hao Yang
    • , Jinhui Xu
    •  & Dan Zhao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Molecular biology achieves control over complex reaction networks by means of molecular systems that translate a chemical input into an orthogonal chemical output but the application of dynamic foldamers has been limited by the restriction to stereochemical changes that produce spectroscopic signals. Here, the authors present an artificial molecular translation device that converts a chemical input into an unrelated chemical output.

    • David P. Tilly
    • , Jean-Paul Heeb
    •  & Jonathan Clayden

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photosensitizers (PS) with nano- or micro-sized pore provide a great promise in the conversion of light energy into chemical fuel but pore deformation and blocking often decreases the catalytic efficiency. Here, the authors prepare an ordered porous PSs by cross-linking hierarchical porous assemblies of hydrogen donating PSs and functionalized acceptors.

    • Yajun Fang
    • , Yuntian Yang
    •  & Zhegang Huang

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