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The performance of organic photovoltaic blend devices is critically dependent on the polymer:fullerene interface. These interfaces are expected to impact the structural and thermal properties of the polymer with regards to the conjugated backbone planarity and transition temperatures during annealing/cooling processes. Here, we report the impact of fullerene intercalation on structural and thermal properties of poly(2,5-bis(3-tetradecylthiophen-2-yOthieno[3,2-b]thiophene (PBTTT), a highly stable material known to exhibit liquid crystalline behavior. We undertake a detailed systematic study of the extent of intercalation in the PBTTT:fullerene blend, considering the use of four different fullerene derivatives and also varying the loading ratios. Resonant Raman spectroscopy allows morphology in situ during controlled heating and cooling. We find that small fullerene molecules readily intercalate into PBTTT crystallites, resulting in a planarization of the polymer backbone, but high fullerene loading ratios or larger fullerenes result in nonintercalated domains. During cooling from melt, nonintercalated blend films are found to return to their original morphology and reproduce all thermal transitions on cooling with minimal hysteresis. Intercalated blend films show significant hysteresis on cooling due to the crystallized fullerene attempting to reintercalate. The strongest hysteresis is for intercalated blend films with excess fullerene loading ratio, which form a distinct nanoribbon morphology and exhibit a reduced geminate recombination rate. These results reveal that careful consideration should be taken during device fabrication, as postdeposition thermal treatments significantly impact the charge generation and recombination dynamics.
Synthesis of Pyridylanthracenes and Their Reversible Reaction with Singlet Oxygen to Endoperoxides
(2017)
The ortho, meta, and para isomers of 9,10-dipyridylanthracene 1 have been synthesized and converted into their endoperoxides 1-O-2 upon oxidation with singlet oxygen. The kinetics of this reaction can be controlled by the substitution pattern and the solvent: in highly polar solvents, the meta isomer is the most reactive, whereas the ortho isomer is oxidized fastest in nonpolar solvents. Heating of the endoperoxides affords the parent anthracenes by release of singlet oxygen.
The reaction of oxygen-substituted naphthalenes with singlet oxygen (O-1(2)) has been investigated, and labile endoperoxides have been isolated and characterized at -78 degrees C for the first time. Low-temperature kinetics by UV spectroscopy revealed that alkoxy and silyloxy substituents remarkably increase the rate of photooxygenations compared to 1,4-dimethylnaphthalene, whereas acyloxy-substituted acenes are inert towards O-1(2). The reactivities nicely correlate with HOMO energies and free activation energies, which we determined by density functional theory calculations. The lability of the isolated endoperoxides is due to their very fast back reaction to the corresponding naphthalenes even at -20 degrees C under release of O-1(2), making them to superior sources of this reactive species under very mild conditions. Finally, a carbohydrate-substituted naphthalene has been synthesized, which reacts reversibly with O-1(2) and might be applied for enantioselective oxidations in future work.
Editorial
(2017)
A new type of self-organized materials based on cholesteric networks filled with photoactive side-chain copolymer is being developed. Supramolecular helical structure of cholesteric polymer network resulting in the selective reflection is used as a photonic scaffold. Photochromic azobenzene-containing nematic copolymer is embedded in cholesteric scaffold and utilized as a photoactive media for optical pattering. 1D and 2D transmission diffraction gratings are successfully recorded in composite films by holographic technique. For the first time the possibility to create selective reflection gratings in cholesteric material mimicking the natural optical properties of cholesteric mesophase is demonstrated. That enables the coexistence of two selective gratings, where one has an intrinsic cholesteric periodic helical structure and the other is a holographic grating generated in photochromic polymer. The full-polymer composites provide high light-induced optical anisotropy due to effective photo-orientation of side-chain fragments of the azobenzene-containing liquid crystalline polymer, and prevent the degradation of the helical superstructure maintaining all optical properties of cholesteric mesophase. The proposed class of optical materials could be easily applied to a broad range of polymeric materials with specific functionality. The versatility of the adjustment and material preprogramming combined with high optical performance makes these materials a highly promising candidate for modern optical and photonic applications.
In nature, proteins self-assemble into various structures with different dimensions. To construct these nanostructures in laboratories, normally proteins with different symmetries are selected. However, most of these approaches are engineering-intensive and highly dependent on the accuracy of the protein design. Herein, we report that a simple native protein LecA assembles into one-dimensional nanoribbons and nanowires, two-dimensional nanosheets, and three-dimensional layered structures controlled mainly by small-molecule assembly-inducing ligands RnG (n = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) with varying numbers of ethylene oxide repeating units. To understand the formation mechanism of the different morphologies controlled by the small-molecule structure, molecular simulations were performed from microscopic and mesoscopic view, which presented a clear relationship between the molecular structure of the ligands and the assembled patterns. These results introduce an easy strategy to control the assembly structure and dimension, which could shed light on controlled protein assembly.
Magnetosome Organization in Magnetotactic Bacteria Unraveled by Ferromagnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
(2017)
Magnetotactic bacteria form assemblies of magnetic nanoparticles called magnetosomes. These magnetosomes are typically arranged in chains, but other forms of assemblies such as clusters can be observed in some species and genetic mutants. As such, the bacteria have developed as a model for the understanding of how organization of particles can influence the magnetic properties. Here, we use ferromagnetic resonance spectroscopy to measure the magnetic anisotropies in different strains of Magnetosprillum gtyphiswaldense MSR-1, a bacterial species that is amendable to genetic mutations. We combine our experimental results with a model describing the spectra. The model includes chain imperfections and misalignments following a Fisher distribution function, in addition to the intrinsic magnetic properties of the magnetosomes. Therefore, by applying the model to analyze the ferromagnetic resonance data, the distribution of orientations in the bulk sample can be retrieved in addition to the average magnetosome arrangement. In this way, we quantitatively characterize the magnetosome arrangement in both wild-type cells and Delta mamJ mutants, which exhibit differing magnetosome organization.
Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is one of the most important food crops worldwide. Current potato varieties are highly susceptible to drought stress. In view of global climate change, selection of cultivars with improved drought tolerance and high yield potential is of paramount importance. Drought tolerance breeding of potato is currently based on direct selection according to yield and phenotypic traits and requires multiple trials under drought conditions. Marker-assisted selection (MAS) is cheaper, faster and reduces classification errors caused by noncontrolled environmental effects. We analysed 31 potato cultivars grown under optimal and reduced water supply in six independent field trials. Drought tolerance was determined as tuber starch yield. Leaf samples from young plants were screened for preselected transcript and nontargeted metabolite abundance using qRT-PCR and GC-MS profiling, respectively. Transcript marker candidates were selected from a published RNA-Seq data set. A Random Forest machine learning approach extracted metabolite and transcript markers for drought tolerance prediction with low error rates of 6% and 9%, respectively. Moreover, by combining transcript and metabolite markers, the prediction error was reduced to 4.3%. Feature selection from Random Forest models allowed model minimization, yielding a minimal combination of only 20 metabolite and transcript markers that were successfully tested for their reproducibility in 16 independent agronomic field trials. We demonstrate that a minimum combination of transcript and metabolite markers sampled at early cultivation stages predicts potato yield stability under drought largely independent of seasonal and regional agronomic conditions.
microRNAs (miRNAs) have been identified as high-value drug targets. A widely applied strategy in miRNA inhibition is the use of antisense agents. However, it has been shown that oligonucleotides are poorly cell permeable because of their complex chemical structure and due to their negatively charged backbone. Consequently, the general application of oligonucleotides in therapy is limited. Since miRNAs’ functions are executed exclusively by the Argonaute 2 protein, we therefore describe a protocol for the design of a novel miRNA inhibitor class: antagonists of the miRNA-Argonaute 2 protein complex, so-called anti-miR-AGOs, that not only block the crucial binding site of the target miRNA but also bind to the protein’s active site. Due to their lower molecular weight and, thus, more drug-like chemical structure, the novel inhibitor class may show better pharmacokinetic properties than reported oligonucleotide inhibitors, enabling them for potential therapeutic use.
The conformational equilibrium of the axial/equatorial conformers of 4-methylene-cyclohexyl pivalate is studied by dynamic NMR spectroscopy in a methylene chloride/freon mixture. At 153K, the ring interconversion gets slow on the nuclear magnetic resonance timescale, the conformational equilibrium (-G degrees) can be examined, and the barrier to ring interconversion (G(#)) can be determined. The structural influence of sp(2) hybridization on both G degrees and G(#) of the cyclohexyl moiety can be quantified.