Non-covalent interactions in organic-inorganic hybrid compounds derived from amino amides

Crystal structure and Hirshfeld surface analysis of 6,6'-dimethyl-2,2'-bi-pyridine-1,1'-diium tetra-chlorido-cobaltate(II)

In the title mol-ecular salt, (C12H14N2)[CoCl4], the dihedral angle between the pyridine rings of the cation is 52.46 (9)° and the N-C-C-N torsion angle is -128.78 (14)°, indicating that the ring nitro-gen atoms are in anti-clinal conformation. The Cl-Co-Cl bond angles in the anion span the range 105.46 (3)-117.91 (2)°. In the extended structure, the cations and anions are linked by cation-to-anion N-H⋯Cl and C-H⋯Cl inter-actions, facilitating the formation of R 4 4(18) and R 4 4(20) ring motifs. Furthermore, the crystal structure features weak anion-to-cation Cl⋯π inter-actions [Cl⋯π = 3.4891 (12) and 3.5465 (12) Å]. Hirshfeld two-dimensional fingerprint plots revealed that the most significant inter-actions are Cl⋯H/H⋯Cl (45.5%), H⋯H (29.0%), Cl⋯C/C⋯Cl (7.8%), Cl⋯N/N⋯Cl (3.5%), Cl⋯Cl (1.4) and Co⋯H (1%) contacts.

Dipole-Dipole Tuned Electronic Reconfiguration of Defective Carbon Sites for Efficient Oxygen Reduction into H2O2

Metal-free carbon-based materials are one of the most promising electrocatalysts toward 2-electron oxygen reduction reaction (2e-ORR) for on-site production of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), which however suffer from uncontrollable carbonizations and inferior 2e-ORR selectivity. To this end, a polydopamine (PDA)-modified carbon catalyst with a dipole-dipole enhancement is developed via a calcination-free method. The H2O2 yield rate outstandingly reaches 1.8 mol gcat -1 h-1 with high faradaic efficiency of above 95% under a wide potential range of 0.4-0.7 VRHE, overwhelming most of carbon electrocatalysts. Meanwhile, within a lab-made flow cell, the synthesized ORR electrode features an exceptional stability for over 250 h, achieved a pure H2O2 production efficacy of 306 g kWh-1. By virtue of its industrial-level capabilities, the established flow cell manages to perform a rapid pulp bleaching within 30 min. The superior performance and enhanced selectivity of 2e-ORR is experimentally revealed and attributed to the electronic reconfiguration on defective carbon sites induced by non-covalent dipole-dipole influence between PDA and carbon, thereby prohibiting the cleavage of O-O in OOH intermediates. This proposed strategy of dipole-dipole effects is universally applicable over 1D carbon nanotubes and 2D graphene, providing a practical route to design 2e-ORR catalysts.

Ratiometric luminescent sensing of a biomarker for sugar consumption in an aqueous medium using a Cu(II) coordination polymer

An innovative [Cu(Hadp)₂(Bimb)]_n (KA@CP-S3) coordination polymer expands its dimensionality from a 1D chain to a 2D network. The topological analysis reveals that KA@CP-S3 has 2-connected uninodal 2D 2C1 topology. KA@CP-S3 has capable luminescent sensing for volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nitroaromatics, heavy metal ions, anions, disposed antibiotics (nitrofurantoin and tetracycline) and biomarkers. Intriguingly, KA@CP-S3 exhibits outstanding selective quenching of about 90.7% and 90.5% for the 125 mg dl^-1 and 150 mg dl^-1 strengths of sucrose, respectively, in aqueous solution along with other ranges in between. The photocatalytic degradation efficiency of KA@CP-S3 for the potentially harmful organic dye Bromophenol Blue displays 95.4%, which is the highest among the 13 dyes that were evaluated.