Chemical Communications Blog

Antibodies emerge as a key player for disease detection and biologics due to its specificity of interaction and high binding affinity at target site. The application site for antibodies restricted to extracellular compartment as it has a poor plasma membrane permeability. Vehicles for direct intracellular delivery of antibodies are an extremely important alternative approach and various route have been explored including nanocarriers, liposomes, cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs). For most of these cases, loss of protein activity due to endolysosomal trapping or loss of protein activity lowers the efficacy of the antibody. So, it is highly desirable to formulate a fabrication strategy that is easily operable and antibody can be directly delivered to cytosol. In this aspect, cell-penetrating poly(disulfide)s (CPDs) which consist of disulfide polymer backbone with arginine-rich side chains permits thiol-mediated cellular uptake, which is insensitive to endocytosis inhibition, ensuing an efficient cytosolic availability. A team of researcher from Zhejiang University of China, reported a pH-responsive monomer to form new CPDs for enhanced intracellular delivery of antibodies into cancer cells. They tried to explore the stimuli responsiveness (lower pH) of tumor environment compared to healthy cells.

They have replaced the positively charged arginine moiety with neutral imidazole-based side chains. The resulting neutral CPD converts to positive charge upon protonation of the imidazole groups in acidic tumor environment. The advantage of charge reversal is easier cellular uptake by a combination of thiol-mediated and counter ion-activated uptake without significant endosomal trapping. The authors used a GSH-controlled NIR probe labelled at the N-terminal of the cargo protein so that the CPD could insert the cell followed by spectroscopic signal activation. Live-cell imaging of cancer cells using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) showed higher green fluorescence at pH 6.5 using IgG^FITC-CPD_IMD than neutral pH. This suggests higher uptake of imidazole based CPDs into cancer cells.

Fig2: In-vivo results show long-term effect by using the synthesized conjugate

For in-vivo experiments, the authors used GSH-activatable NIR fluorophore DCM-NH₂ and attached it to CPD_IMD. In vivo imaging of mice after intratumoral injection of the conjugate shows fluorescence signal at 1 h, that became stronger at 4 h, which indicate high drug dose accumulation at the tumor site. Both live-cell and in vivo results showed the great potential of this strategy for trackable and cancer-selective protein delivery with immediate cytosolic bioavailability. This new class of CPDs are expected to open an efficient platform for future cancer theranostics.

For details, please follow the article Chem. Commun., 2022, 58, 1314

About the blogger:

Dr Damayanti Bagchi is a postdoctoral researcher at University of California, Los Angeles, United States. She has obtained her PhD in Physical Chemistry from Satyendra Nath Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, India. Her research is focused on spectroscopic studies of nano-biomaterials. She is interested in exploring light enabled therapeutics. She enjoys travelling and experimenting with various cuisines, which she found resembles with products/ side products of chemical reactions!

You can find her on Twitter at @DamayantiBagchi.

In this post you can find out more about the latest HOT research published in ChemComm. All of the articles in our HOT collection have been carefully selected by our Editors for their significance, impact and quality.

Watch the following videos to learn more from the authors publishing this urgent research.

Distinct impact of glycation towards the aggregation and toxicity of murine and human amyloid-β
Eunju Nam, Jiyeon Han, Sunhee Choib and Mi Hee Lim
ChemCommun., 2021, 57, 7637-7640

 

Enhanced polysaccharide nanofibers via oxidation over SiliaCat TEMPO
Rosaria Ciriminna, Antonino Scurria and Mario Pagliaro
Chem. Commun., 2021, 57, 7863-7868

 

A novel ¹⁸F-labeled clickable substrate for targeted imaging of SNAP-tag expressing cells by PET in vivo
Dominic Alexej Depke, Christian Paul Konken, Lukas Rösner, Sven Hermann, Michael Schäfers and Andrea Rentmeister
Chem. Commun., 2021, 57, 9850-9853

Find out more here: https://www.uni-muenster.de/Cells-in-Motion/newsviews/2021/09-30.html (link active from 30 Sep 2021)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) are used in large amounts in the paper and biomedical industry. The synthesis process, the nature of the catalyst used, and the recyclability of the catalyst has a direct impact on the cost effectiveness of industrial grade CNFs. CNF production follows carboxylation of the primary alcohol groups at the surface of the cellulose fibres mediated by catalyst 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-1-piperidine-N-oxy radicals (TEMPO). The genotoxic nature of TEMPO suggests the requirement of a lower concentration of the catalyst used during the reaction.

Scheme for different synthesis strategies and characterization of TEMPO mediated CNFs.

Researchers across the world tried a green synthetic approach for CNFs preparation. This also includes successful removal of the catalyst from the product after completion of the reaction. One of the processes employs oxidation of wood pulp fibres using the magnetically recoverable Karimi’s catalyst (TEMPO@SiO2@Fe3O4). The products obtained using the modified catalyst is 5 nm thick cellulose nanofibrils like those obtained in the oxidation mediated by TEMPO in solution. Whereas, the catalyst was easily recovered with a magnet and successfully reused in 4 successive reaction cycles.

Differently modulated TEMPO like SiliaCat TEMPO (a commercial immobilized TEMPO catalyst) and others, show that hybrid sol–gel catalyst allows the synthesis of insoluble polysaccharide nanofibers of superior quality, eliminating waste.

New production strategies involve TEMPO-mediated oxidation followed by homogenisation. The residual hypochlorite can be quenched with 0.3% ascorbic acid to produce chloride and subsequently CNF is separated from the solid catalyst via simple filtration. This dramatically reduced the polysaccharide nanofiber production costs opening the route to large-scale production of functional products where their use has been limited by high cost.

For details: please visit https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2021/sc/d1sc03114g

 

About the blogger:

Dr. Damayanti Bagchi is a postdoctoral researcher in Irene Chen’s lab at University of California, Los Angeles, United States. She has obtained her PhD in Physical Chemistry from Satyendra Nath Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, India. Her research is focused on spectroscopic studies of nano-biomaterials. She is interested in exploring light enabled therapeutics. She enjoys travelling and experimenting with various cuisines.

You can find her on Twitter at @DamayantiBagchi.

 

Carbazole based polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) are considered as an important material for organic LED applications. The scalable synthetic approach for PAH still lacks efficiency due to the formation of unwanted by-products. The other issues are often related to high cost of catalysts, harsh reaction condition and multi-step methods. In this aspect, researchers from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, developed a transition metal-free rapid protocol for structurally versatile PAHs.

They have employed a Brønsted acid catalyst for the one pot cascade benzannulation strategy. The reported method allows conjugation of densely functionalized aromatic entities. The first step involves coupling reaction between unprotected 2-arylindoles (nucleophile) and benzyloxy/hydroxy aldehydes (electrophile) in the presence of an inexpensive Brønsted acid catalyst (Scheme1). The course of reaction proceeds through a pinacol-type rearrangement followed by an intramolecular nucleophilic addition leading to poly-aryl benzo[a]carbazole (B[a]C) formation.

After optimizing this step, they have attempted fabrication of carbazole based PAHs with extensive annulated p-conjugation. 2,3-Dichloro-5,6-dicyano-1,4-benzoquinone system (DDQ/H+) served as an excellent oxidant for the C–C bond forming reactions due to its high oxidation potential. The oxidative coupling reaction in the anhydrous dichloromethane solvent under an inert atmosphere, stiches number of aryl units together depending upon stoichiometry of DDQ. Appropriate ratio of DDQ and precursors in one-pot generate a challenging ‘‘six–seven–six’’ tricyclic-fused system (Scheme2).

The photophysical characterization suggests B[a]C systems show solvent polarity dependent fluorescence quantum yield. The highly emissive property of these molecules is beneficial for future OLED applications.

For details, please check: Chem. Commun., 2021,57, 5762-5765

About the blogger:

Dr. Damayanti Bagchi is a postdoctoral researcher in Irene Chen’s lab at University of California, Los Angeles, United States. She has obtained her PhD in Physical Chemistry from Satyendra Nath Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, India. Her research is focused on spectroscopic studies of nano-biomaterials. She is interested in exploring light enabled therapeutics. She enjoys travelling and experimenting with various cuisines. You can find her on Twitter at @DamayantiBagchi.

Crystalline MOF structures with high porosity serve well for a range of applications including shape selective catalysis, gas storage or capture, and drug delivery. These entail the prominence of new methodologies for the synthesis of MOFs, either with unusual metal ion oxidation states or already existing molecular counterparts. In this vein, researchers from TU Denmark have used a ligand transferability strategy for the reaction of homoleptic carbonyl complexes of the Group 6 elements, M(CO)₆ (M = Cr, Mo, W), with neutral bridging ligands for the formation of heteroleptic M(CO)_6-nL_n complexes. For the first time, they have presented the synthesis and characterization of a series of MOFs obtained from M(CO)₆ (M = Cr, Mo, W) through the substitution of the ditopic pyrazine (pyz) ligand.

Scheme 1: Synthesis of Cr, Mo, and W.

The synthesis follows reaction at an elevated temperature between M(CO)₆ (M = Cr, Mo, W) and an excess of the pyz ligand in a sealed ampoule (Scheme1), leading to dark coloured crystalline products. The reaction is highly favourable for the Mo complex, due to the low dissociation energy of the first Mo–CO bond (119 kJ mol^-1), and a reaction temperature of 150°C produced a high yield of crystals. The same reaction conditions provided a minute amount of product for M = Cr and no indication of reactivity for M = W. However, a higher temperature of 200°C lead to the production of the W complex due to the high dissociation energy of the W-CO bond (142 kJ mol^-1).

The single-crystal X-ray diffraction pattern of the dark shiny crystals suggests that the composition is fac-M(CO)₃(pyz)_3/2.1/2 pyz (with M = Cr, Mo, W) (Fig. 1). Cr and Mo crystallize in the triclinic P1 space group, whereas W crystallizes with higher symmetry in the monoclinic C2/m space group. The crystal structure predicts that the three remaining carbonyl ligands reach into the voids of the hexagonal tiling. The hexagon is in chair conformation leading to <M–M–M angles approaching 90° with hexagonal pore channels of roughly 5.5–6.5 Å. The hexagon for W is nearly equilateral in nature compared to Mo, which exhibits unequal hexagon edges.

Fig 1: Single crystal structure of Cr, Mo, and W: (a) View of the hexagonal pore channels in W. (b) Stack of coordination layers in W. (c) Chair conformation of the hexagonal arrangement shown for W. The solvent molecules inside the pores and the disorder are not shown for clarity in (a–c). (d–f) Hexagonal fragments of Cr, Mo, and W together with the pyz molecule contained in the pores (not visible for W due to solvent mask, see methods). The positional disorder of the pyz molecules in W is also shown.

The typical IR absorption band related to M-CO stretching is explored for characterizing the complexes. A red shift of ~310 cm^-1 in the spectra of the average carbonyl stretching band was obtained, which is approximated as a ~25% decrease of the force constant associated with the C–O bond. The thermogravimetric analysis showed that the Mo complex has the highest thermal stability with an onset of degradation around 180°C, whereas Cr and W underwent significant mass loss from around 150°C and 130°C, respectively. A similar trend is observed for the stability of the complexes in atmospheric air.

These first examples of structurally characterized zero-valent MOFs with metal nodes derived from metal carbonyls could be attractive architectures for the exploration of catalytic applications as they facilitate the possibility for the non-destructive removal of pore-filling molecules.

 

For further details, please go to:

Zero-valent metals in metal–organic frameworks: fac-M(CO)3(pyrazine)3/2

Laura Voigt, Rene´ Wugt Larsen, Mariusz Kubus and Kasper S. Pedersen*

Chem. Commun., 2021, 57, 3861

About the writer:

Damayanti Bagchi, PhD, is a postdoctoral researcher in Irene Chen’s lab at University of California, Los Angeles, United States. She has obtained her PhD in Physical Chemistry from Satyendra Nath Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, India. Her research is focused on spectroscopic studies of nano-bio interface and phage therapy. She is interested in science communication and science policy-diplomacy. She enjoys travelling and experimenting with various cuisines!

You can find her on Twitter @DamayantiBagchi

 

Paul Wilson and colleagues at University of Warwick, UK, recently published their Communication on a simplified ‘plug-and-play’ approach to aqueous electrochemical atom transfer radical polymerization. In this video Paul gives more detail about the team’s work.

View the open access article ‘Plug-and-play aqueous electrochemical atom transfer radical polymerization’ here

How can you study an unstable biomolecule? One research team’s answer to this is to surround it in a protective cradle. The molecules in question here are cysteine sulfenic acids (Cys-SOH); although they are crucial in various cellular processes and biological functions, they have proven elusive for isolated small-molecule studies due to their instability. Researchers in Japan have now reported the first synthesis and isolation of a stable small molecule cysteine sulfenic acid by employing a protective cradle for the reactive Cys-SOH unit. This bio-inspired design mimics the supramolecular protein environments that can stabilise Cys-SOH residues in situ.

The researchers utilised the m-phenylene dendrimer framework from their previous studies as the molecular cradle to encapsulate cysteine intermediates for further study (Figure 1). A cysteine unit was first installed into the framework (denoted as Bpsc) via the central benzoyl group to generate the cysteine thiol residue, Cys-SH. The cradled Cys-SH was then converted to the cysteine sulfenic acid by treatment with H₂O₂, to give the isolable small molecule Cys-SOH (compound 6). The cysteine sulfenic acid 6 proved to be air and thermally stable, and the researchers characterised 6 using NMR and IR spectroscopies, as well as X-ray crystallographic analysis that definitively revealed its structure (Figure 2).

Once the structure of the cradled cysteine sulfenic acid 6 was established, the researchers investigated its biologically relevant reactivity. The reaction of Cys-SOH with a thiol is important for redox regulation and protein folding, and the researchers observed that 6 did indeed react with the thiol N-acetylcysteine methyl ester to yield the expected disulfide product. Although this reaction initially proved slow, the researchers were able to show that this was not due to steric hinderance from the Bpsc cradle. Optimisation of this reaction revealed that the addition of triethylamine significantly enhanced the reactivity, and this suggests that the presence of basic residues in the vicinity of cysteine sulfenic acids are important for biological disulfide formations.

In addition to the disulfide formation, the researchers also investigated the reactivity of their cysteine sulfenic acid 6 towards reduction and trapping experiments. The Cys-SOH 6 could be reduced by DTT (dithiothreitol) to regenerate the Cys-SH thiol residue, demonstrating the reversibility of the redox processes between Cys-SH and Cys-SOH within the cradle. The researchers also looked at trapping the Cys-SOH residue using various chemical probes to mimic trapping experiments used for protein-generated cysteine sulfenic acids. They observed the expected formation of the thiol adducts, and again noticed enhanced reactivity in the presence of triethylamine.

Overall, the researchers have demonstrated the first example of an isolable and stable cysteine sulfenic acid that is enabled by a cradling framework. The protective cradle was shown to not impact the biologically-relevant reactivity of the Cys-SOH residue, and ultimately, this framework could serve as a useful biorepresentative model for future studies on Cys-SOH to further understand its behaviour.

 

To find out more, please read:

Isolable small-molecule cysteine sulfenic acid

Tsukasa Sano, Ryosuke Masuda, Shohei Sase and Kei Goto*

Chem. Commun., 2021, 57, 2479-2482

 

About the blogger:

Dr. Samantha Apps recently finished her post as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Lu Lab at the University of Minnesota, USA, and obtained her PhD in 2019 from Imperial College London, UK. She has spent the last few years, both in her PhD and postdoc, researching synthetic nitrogen fixation and transition metal complexes that can activate and functionalise dinitrogen. Outside of the lab, you’ll likely find her baking at home, where her years of synthetic lab training has sparked a passion in kitchen chemistry too.

 

What do sea anemones and two-dimensional (2D) carbon-based materials have in common? Sea anemones are predatory marine animals and 2D materials are often used for applications in catalysis and energy storage. Most would assume there is little in common between this obscure pairing, however, researchers in China took inspiration from the unique anatomy of sea anemones (particularly their tentacles that can trap and capture prey) for their design of new 2D hybrid porous carbon materials.

Hybrid 2D carbon-based materials combine the desirable properties of 2D porous carbon materials (large surface area and good electronic conductivity) with additional functional components (e.g. metal ions or inorganic acids), which can enhance and control the properties of the material. However, the construction of hybrid materials is often limited by poor dispersion of the functional component on the carbon structure, as the functional precursors tend to aggregate on the surface, and thus diminish the desired properties for the material. To overcome this undesirable aggregation, the researchers turned to their sea-anemone, bio-inspired strategy, where they used carbon-based molecular brushes as building blocks to imitate tentacles, allowing functional precursors to be trapped within the brush network make the hybrid materials (Figure 1).

The researchers used poly(4-vinylpyridine)-grafted-graphene oxide (GO-g-P4VP) as the molecular brush substrate and carbon source for the creation of their 2D hybrid materials. They created the substrate by covalently grafting a thin layer of poly(4-vinylpyridine) (P4VP) from a single-layer graphene oxide (GO) surface and used microscopy techniques to characterise the resulting materials, where various protuberances were observed on the GO sheets to signify the brushes. Next, the GO-g-P4VP brushes were subjected to various Lewis acids (Co²⁺ ions, B or P; using either cobalt nitrate, boric acids or phytic acids, respectively). The researchers observed spontaneous chemisorption and immobilisation of the Lewis acids within the brush structure, due to the strong interaction with the Lewis basic pyridine groups of the P4VP chains. Lastly, the material was then carbonized at 800 °C to produce the 2D hybrid porous carbon materials (2DHPCs), functionalised with Co (2DHPC-Co), B (2DHPC-B) or P species (2DHPC-P).

The new 2DHPCs were characterised using microscopy techniques and X-ray diffraction, which confirmed 2D morphologies of the materials, uniform distribution of the Lewis acid species and porous structures. The researchers then demonstrated the potential of these high-porosity and functionalised materials by testing them in applications as oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts or as sulfur hosts within Li-S batteries, where in both cases, the 2DHPCs excelled compared to other graphene-based materials. Ultimately, the researchers have demonstrated that their sea-anemone inspired strategy allows for the successful construction of high performance 2D hybrid materials, and could be translated for the design of promising new materials for future energy conversion and storage applications.

 

To find out more, please read:

A versatile sea anemone-inspired strategy toward 2D hybrid porous carbons from functional molecular brushes

Xidong Lin, Zelin Wang, Ruliang Liu, Shaohong Liu,* Kunyi Leng, He Lou, Yang Du, Bingna Zheng, Ruowen Fu and Dingcai Wu*

Chem. Commun., 2021, 57, 1446–1449

 

About the blogger:

Dr. Samantha Apps recently finished her post as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Lu Lab at the University of Minnesota, USA, and obtained her PhD in 2019 from Imperial College London, UK. She has spent the last few years, both in her PhD and postdoc, researching synthetic nitrogen fixation and transition metal complexes that can activate and functionalise dinitrogen. Outside of the lab, you’ll likely find her baking at home, where her years of synthetic lab training has sparked a passion in kitchen chemistry too.

Imagine if a pile of laundry could spontaneously organise itself into a neat, folded pile of clothes (and how useful this would be!). This principle can actually happen for some molecules in a process known as self-assembly, whereby a molecule or molecules will organise themselves spontaneously to form a supramolecular structure. Molecules can be specifically designed to self-assemble, by relying on the inclusion of functional groups and motifs that create repulsions and interactions to form unique nanostructures and functional materials.

Researchers in Japan have been studying scissor-shaped azobenzene dyads that can self-assemble by folding, using π-π stacking and hydrogen-bonding (Figure 1a and 1b). They previously observed two key self-assembly processes for two example dyads with formation of either toroidal (doughnut-shaped) structures through intramolecular folding, which can subsequently stack onto each other to create tubular motifs; or fibre/ribbon-type structures through one-dimensional helical stacking. The researchers hypothesised that these different self-assembly pathways could be attributed to differences in the degree of intermolecular aggregation of the dyads and set about verifying this using alkylated or perfluoroalkylated azobenzene dyads (2 and 3, Figure 1a) that have different aggregation properties.

The researchers prepared the supramolecular assemblies of the new dyads by cooling hot solutions (at 90 °C) of 2 or 3 in methylcyclohexane. Both absorption spectroscopy and dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements indicated self-assembly of the dyads after cooling to 20 °C, and the resulting assemblies precipitated from the cooled solutions with minutes. The structures of these assemblies were then revealed by atomic force microscopy (AFM), showing different nanostructures for 2 and 3. The alkylated dyad 2 assembled into both toroidal and cylindrically extended nanostructures (Figure 2a and b), where the cylinders were composed of stacked toroidal components (as in Figure 1c). On the other hand, the perfluoroalkylated dyad 3 assembled into entangled fibres after cooling (Figure 2c and d), with no well-defined nanostructures observed even with moderate heating.

The researchers investigated the two different self-assembly pathways of 2 and 3 using multiple characterisation techniques. They found that the perfluoroalkylated dyad 3 self-assembles directly into extended fibres as a result of the enhanced intermolecular interactions provided by fluorophilic interactions, whereas the unique toroidal assembly for the alkylated dyad 2 is a result of weak molecular interactions. The extended fibres of self-assembled dyad 3 were found to form organogels at higher concentrations, in which the researchers also studied the photoresponsive properties. Overall, the results confirm the original hypothesis of different self-assembly pathways for dyads with different aggregation properties, and this study will guide future work into creating targets that can switch their self-assembly pathways under external stimuli.

 

To find out more, please read:

Self-assembly of alkylated and perfluoroalkylated scissor-shaped azobenzene dyads into distinct structures

Hironari Arima, Takuho Saito, Takashi Kajitani and Shiki Yagai *

Chem. Commun., 2020, 56, 15619-15622

 

About the blogger:

Dr. Samantha Apps recently finished her post as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Lu Lab at the University of Minnesota, USA, and obtained her PhD in 2019 from Imperial College London, UK. She has spent the last few years, both in her PhD and postdoc, researching synthetic nitrogen fixation and transition metal complexes that can activate and functionalise dinitrogen. Outside of the lab, you’ll likely find her baking at home, where her years of synthetic lab training has sparked a passion in kitchen chemistry too.

 

Nanomaterials are small and mighty. Scaling down to the molecular level imparts desirable properties to materials, for example high conductivity that is useful for electronic applications. Conjugated polymers (CPs) are one-dimensional nanomaterials with promising potential in optoelectronics and spintronics, due to their enhanced conductivity as a result of the delocalised π-electrons along the backbone of the polymer. Doubly-linked CPs, referred to as π-conjugated ladder polymers, have more unique features compared to their singly-linked counterparts, but such nanomaterials are often difficult to synthesise.

Polycyclic aromatic molecules such as acenes have shown potential as organic semiconductors and are therefore ideal materials for new CPs, but polymer formation by coupling the acenes is limited by repulsions between hydrogen atoms of adjacent acene motifs. These constraints can be overcome by installing wider ethynylene or cumulene π-conjugated bridges between the acenes, as demonstrated by researchers from Spain and the Czech Republic in their design and synthesis of a new one-dimensional π-conjugated ladder polymer (Figure 1). This ladder polymer is based on doubly-linked pentacenes (5 linearly-fused benzene rings).

The new conjugated ladder polymer was synthesised by vacuum deposition of the precursor molecule (5,7,12,14-tetrakis(dibromomethylene)-5,7,12,14-tetrahydropentacene, 8BrPN) onto a gold surface, Au(111). Subsequent thermal treatment up to 360 °C resulted in the formation of ethynylene linkages between the pentacenes, forming a ladder polymer on the gold surface (Figure 1a). The researchers determined the ladder polymer structure using scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) and non-contact atomic force microscopy (nc-AFM) techniques, as shown in Figure 1b-e. The STM images showed mostly one-dimensional chains with some disordered segments (Figure 1b), and the close-up image in Figure 1c confirms the double-linkages between each pentacene. The nc-AFM images show even more detail, confirming that the backbone of the polymer contains the pentacenes, doubly-linked to adjacent moieties in the 5,7,12 and 14 positions (Figure 1d/e). The nc-AFM characterisation also confirmed ethynylene (–C≡C–) rather than cumulene (=C=C=) linkages, shown by the brighter regions in the middle of the connections that correspond to the ethynylene triple bonds.

The researchers also probed the electronic structure of the new polymer on the gold surface using scanning tunnelling spectroscopy (STS). They determined an electronic bandgap that is 0.22 eV larger than that of a singly cumulene-linked pentacene polymer, thus demonstrating the advantages of the ladder-type structure in this instance. The technique used to create the pentacene ladder polymer in this report could be adopted for the creation of other π-conjugated ladder polymers with varying acenes, which could ultimately be useful for new nanomaterials in optoelectronics and spintronics.

 

To find out more, please read:

On-surface synthesis of doubly-linked one-dimensional pentacene ladder polymers

Kalyan Biswas, José I. Urgel, Ana Sánchez-Grande, Shayan Edalatmanesh, José Santos, Borja Cirera, Pingo Mutombo, Koen Lauwaet, Rodolfo Miranda, Pavel Jelínek,* Nazario Martín* and David Écija*

Chem. Commun., 2020, 56, 15309–15312

 

About the blogger:

Dr. Samantha Apps recently finished her post as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Lu Lab at the University of Minnesota, USA, and obtained her PhD in 2019 from Imperial College London, UK. She has spent the last few years, both in her PhD and postdoc, researching synthetic nitrogen fixation and transition metal complexes that can activate and functionalise dinitrogen. Outside of the lab, you’ll likely find her baking at home, where her years of synthetic lab training has sparked a passion in kitchen chemistry too.