Stepwise Assembly of Coordination-Based Metal−Organic Networks

Chemical and Morphological Modifications Induced by Argon Plasma Treatments on Fluorinated Polybenzoxazole Films

Fluorinated photodefinable polymers are widely employed as re-distribution layers in wafer-level packaging to produce microelectronic devices because of their suitable low dielectric constant and moisture absorption, high mechanical toughness, thermal conductivity and stability, and chemical inertness. Typically, fluorinated photodefinable polybenzoxazoles (F-PBOs) are the most used in this field. In the present work, we investigated by atomic force microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy the morphological and chemical modifications induced by Ar plasma treatments on F-PBO films. This process, used to remove surface contaminant species, as well as increase the polymeric surface roughness, to improve the adhesion to the other components during electronic packaging, is a crucial step during the manufacturing of some microelectronic devices. We found that argon plasma treatments determine the wanted drastic increase of the polymer surface roughness but, in the presence of a patterned silver layer on F-PBO, needed for the fabrication of electric contacts in microelectronic devices, also induce some unwanted formation of silver fluoride species.

Synthesis, Characterization and Photocatalytic Behavior of SiO2 @nitrized-TiO2 Nanocomposites Obtained by a Straightforward Novel Approach

We report on the facile synthesis of SiO2 @nitrized-TiO2 nanocomposite (NST) by calcination of TiO2 xerogel with OctaAmmonium POSS® (N-POSS; POSS=polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes). The as-obtained nanoporous mixed oxide is constituted by uniformly distributed SiO2 and nitrized-TiO2 , where the silica component is present in an amorphous state and TiO2 in an anatase/rutile mixed phase (92.1 % vs. 7.9 %, respectively) with very small anatase crystallites (3.7 nm). The TiO2 lattice is nitrized both at interstitial and substitutional positions. NST features a negatively charged surface with a remarkable surface area (406 m2  g-1 ), endowed with special adsorption capabilities towards cationic dyes. Its photocatalytic behavior was tested by following the degradation of standard aqueous methylene blue and methyl orange solutions under UV and visible light irradiation, according to ISO 10678:2010. For comparison, analogous investigations were carried out on a silica-free N-TiO2 , obtained by using NH4 Cl as nitrogen source.

Multilink F* Method for Combined Quantum Mechanical and Molecular Mechanical Calculations of Complex Systems

Combined quantum mechanical and molecular mechanical (QM/MM) studies on catalysis in metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are relatively undeveloped in contrast to the wide use of QM/MM for enzyme catalysis. One reason is that the currently available methods for treating QM-MM boundaries are not fully compatible with the combination of features in MOFs, namely, their high connectivity, their polar bonds (e.g., metal-oxygen bonds), and their potential boundary atoms with high partial atomic charges. The treatment of polar bonds can be improved by using tuned link atoms, but both the widely used H link atom method and the F* link atom method provide limited options in placing the QM-MM boundary in MOFs and other covalently bonded solids, which seriously reduces the efficiency of QM/MM calculations. Here, we propose a generalized version of the F* link atom method with greater flexibility for the placement of the QM-MM boundary in MOFs and with a practical scheme for tuning. The new method, called the multilink F* method, allows a large part of an inorganic node of a MOF to be partitioned into the MM subsystem to increase the efficiency. Our validation calculations on dimerization of ethylene to 1-butene by a nickel catalyst supported on a MOF show that the overall performance of QM/MM calculations with the multilink F* method is excellent for energies, geometries, and partial atomic charges.

Protein-Bound Freestanding 2D Metal Film for Stealth Information Transmission

The welding and sintering of nanomaterials is usually achieved at high temperatures and high pressures. Here, it is found that merging of metal nanoparticles occurs under ambient conditions in an aqueous solution via protein bonding. It is discovered that the silver nanoparticles from the in situ reduction of silver ammonium ions by glucose undergo confined nucleation and growth and are bound by ultrathin amyloid-like β-sheet stacking of lysozyme. This merging of silver nanoparticles creates a freestanding large-area (e.g., 400 cm² ) 2D silver film at the air/water interface with a purity up to 98% and controls nanoscale thickness. This reaction system is general to other proteins and metals, and shows the great ability for controlled synthesis of highly reflective and highly conductive silver films with elongation nearly 10 times higher than that of pure metal without protein bonding. The ultrathin protein-bonding layer functions as a key mediator to dynamically tune the silver conductance in response to external pressures and strains. The sensors exhibit ultrasensitive capability for stealth transmission of Morse code and for silent speech recording via the detection of tiny vibrations of the human throat. This approach will shed light on the development of protein bonding of a given material for bespoke functions.

One-Step Assembly of a Biomimetic Biopolymer Coating for Particle Surface Engineering

Advances in material design and applications are highly dependent on the development of particle surface engineering strategies. However, few universal methods can functionalize particles of different compositions, sizes, shapes, and structures. The amyloid-like lysozyme assembly-mediated surface functionalization of inorganic, polymeric or metal micro/nanoparticles in a unique amyloid-like phase-transition buffer containing lysozyme are described. The rapid formation of a robust nanoscale phase-transitioned lysozyme (PTL) coating on the particle surfaces presents strong interfacial binding to resist mechanical and chemical peeling under harsh conditions and versatile surface functional groups to support various sequential surface chemical derivatizations, such as radical living graft polymerization, the electroless deposition of metals, biomineralization, and the facile synthesis of Janus particles and metal/protein capsules. Being distinct from other methods, the preparation of this pure protein coating under biocompatible conditions (e.g., neutral pH and nontoxic reagents) provides a reliable opportunity to directly modify living cell surfaces without affecting their biological activity. The PTL coating arms yeasts with a functional shell to protect their adhered body against foreign enzymatic digestion. The PTL coating further supports the surface immobilization of living yeasts for heterogeneous microbial reactions and the sequential surface chemical derivatization of the cell surfaces, e.g., radical living graft polymerization.

Sorting of Molecular Building Blocks from Solution to Surface

We demonstrate that molecular gradients on an organic monolayer is formed by preferential binding of ruthenium complexes from solutions also containing equimolar amounts of isostructural osmium complexes. The monolayer consists of a nanometer-thick assembly of 1,3,5-tris(4-pyridylethenyl)benzene (TPEB) covalently attached to a silicon or metal-oxide surface. The molecular gradient of ruthenium and osmium complexes is orthogonal to the surface plane. This gradient propagates throughout the molecular assembly with thicknesses over 30 nm. Using other monolayers consisting of closely related organic molecules or metal complexes results in the formation of molecular assemblies having an homogeneous and equimolar distribution of ruthenium and osmium complexes. Spectroscopic and computational studies revealed that the geometry of the complexes and the electronic properties of their ligands are nearly identical. These subtle differences cause the isostructural osmium and ruthenium complexes to pack differently on modified surfaces as also demonstrated in crystals grown from solution. The different packing behavior, combined with the organic monolayer significantly contributes to the observed differences in chemical composition on the surface.

Application of Nano FeIII-Tannic Acid Complexes in Modifying Aqueous Acrylic Latex for Controlled-Release Coated Urea

Acrylic latexes are valuable waterborne materials used in controlled-release fertilizers. Controlled-release urea coated with these latexes releases a large amount of nutrients, making it difficult to meet the requirement of plants. Herein, Fe^III-tannic acid (TA) complexes were blended with acrylic latex and subsequently reassembled on a surface of polyacrylate particles. These complexes remarkably retarded the release of urea (the preliminary solubility was decreased from 22.3 to 0.8%) via decreasing the coating tackiness (T_g was increased from 4.17 to 6.42 °C), increasing the coating strength (tensile stress was improved from 3.88 to 4.45 MPa), and promoting the formation of denser structures (surface tension was decreased from 37.37 to 35.94 mN/m). Overall, our findings showed that a simple blending of Fe^III-TA complexes with acrylic latex produces excellent coatings that delay the release of urea, which demonstrates great potential for use in controlled-release fertilizers coated with waterborne polymers.

Polymeric Tubular Structures

Nature makes use of tubular structures for the spatial separation of matter on many different length scales, ranging from the nanometer scale (selective channels based on folded proteins) up to the centimeter scale (blood vessels). Today, polymer chemists and engineers can prepare polymeric tubular structures via a variety of different methods also covering many lengthscales, from nanometers to meters. The synthetic approaches described in this chapter vary significantly from the folding of single polymer chains via the self-assembly of DNA fragments to coordinative metal-organic nanotubes to tubes engineerd from bulk polymers using a range of porous or fibrous templates. While all examples reported in this chapter form tubular structures and thereby mimic their naturally occuring counterparts, it is mainly the engineered tubes that are more straightforward to prepare that also show some bio-inspired function.

Switchable Materials for Smart Windows

This article reviews the basic principles of and recent developments in electrochromic, photochromic, and thermochromic materials for applications in smart windows. Compared with current static windows, smart windows can dynamically modulate the transmittance of solar irradiation based on weather conditions and personal preferences, thus simultaneously improving building energy efficiency and indoor human comfort. Although some smart windows are commercially available, their widespread implementation has not yet been realized. Recent advances in nanostructured materials provide new opportunities for next-generation smart window technology owing to their unique structure-property relations. Nanomaterials can provide enhanced coloration efficiency, faster switching kinetics, and longer lifetime. In addition, their compatibility with solution processing enables low-cost and high-throughput fabrication. This review also discusses the importance of dual-band modulation of visible and near-infrared (NIR) light, as nearly 50% of solar energy lies in the NIR region. Some latest results show that solution-processable nanostructured systems can selectively modulate the NIR light without affecting the visible transmittance, thus reducing energy consumption by air conditioning, heating, and artificial lighting.

Pyridine coordination chemistry for molecular assemblies on surfaces

CONSPECTUS: Since the first description of coordination complexes, many types of metal-ligand interactions have creatively been used in the chemical sciences. The rich coordination chemistry of pyridine-type ligands has contributed significantly to the incorporation of diverse metal ions into functional materials. Here we discuss molecular assemblies (MAs) formed with a variety of pyridine-type compounds and a metal containing cross-linker (e.g., PdCl2(PhCN2)). These MAs are formed using Layer-by-Layer (LbL) deposition from solution that allows for precise fitting of the assembly properties through molecular programming. The position of each component can be controlled by altering the assembly sequence, while the degree of intermolecular interactions can be varied by the level of π-conjugation and the availability of metal coordination sites. By setting the structural parameters (e.g., bond angles, number of coordination sites, geometry) of the ligand, control over MA structure was achieved, resulting in surface-confined metal-organic networks and oligomers. Unlike MAs that are constructed with organic ligands, MAs with polypyridyl complexes of ruthenium, osmium, and cobalt are active participants in their own formation and amplify the growth of the incoming molecular layer. Such a self-propagating behavior for molecular systems is rare, and the mechanism of their formation will be discussed. These exponentially growing MAs are capable of storing metal salts that can be used during the buildup of additional molecular layers. Various parameters influencing the film growth mechanism will be presented, including (i) the number of binding sites and geometry of the organic ligands, (ii) the metal and the structure of the polypyridyl complexes, (iii) the influence of the metal cross-linker (e.g., second or third row transition metals), and (iv) the deposition conditions. By systematic variation of these parameters, switching between linear and exponential growth could be demonstrated for MAs containing structurally well-defined polypyridyl complexes. The porosity of the MAs has been estimated by using electrochemically active probes. Incorporating multiple polypyridyl complexes of osmium and ruthenium into a single assembly give rise to composite materials that exhibit interesting electrochemical and electrochromic properties. These functional composites are especially attractive as they exhibit properties that neither of each metal complex possesses individually. Some of our MAs have very high coloration efficiencies, redox stability, fast responsive times and operate at voltages < 1.5 V. Moreover, their electrochemical properties are dependent on the deposition sequence of the polypyridyl complexes, resulting in MAs that possesses distinctive electron transfer pathways. Finally, some of these MAs are described in terms of their practical applications in electrochromic materials, storage-release chemistry, solar cells, and electron transport properties.

Composite molecular assemblies: nanoscale structural control and spectroelectrochemical diversity

The controlled deposition of metal complexes from solution on inorganic surfaces offers access to functional materials that otherwise would be elusive. For such surface-confined interfaces to form, specific assembly sequences are often used. We show here that varying the assembly sequence of two well-defined and iso-structural osmium and ruthenium polypyridyl complexes results in interfaces with strikingly different spectroelectrochemical properties. Successive deposition of redox-active layers of osmium and ruthenium polypyridyl complexes, leads to self-propagating molecular assemblies (SPMAs) with distinct internal interfaces and individually addressable components. In contrast, the clear separation of these interfaces upon sequential deposition of these two complexes, results in charge trapping or electrochemical communication between the metal centers, as a function of layer thickness and applied assembly sequence. The SPMAs were characterized using a variety of techniques, including: UV–vis spectroscopy, spectroscopic ellipsometry, electrochemistry, synchrotron X-ray reflectivity, angle-resolved X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and spectroelectrochemistry. The combined data demonstrate that the sequence-dependent assembly is a decisive factor that influences and provides the material properties that are difficult to obtain otherwise.

Surface-confined core-shell structures based on gold nanoparticles and metal-organic networks

Here we show a step-wise approach for the formation of continuous shell-structures on surface-confined gold nanoparticles. The nanoparticle-cores induce order in the shell-structure, which consists of metal-organic networks. Communication between the organic and inorganic parts is reflected in their optical properties.

A ternary memory module using low-voltage control over optical properties of metal-polypyridyl monolayers

A resettable ternary memory module is proposed via commutable redox states.

Durable contact active antimicrobial materials formed by a one-step covalent modification of polyvinyl alcohol, cellulose and glass surfaces

In this work we have applied a direct covalent linkage of quaternary ammonium salts (QAS) to prepare a series of contact active antimicrobial surfaces based on widely utilized materials. Formation of antimicrobial polyvinyl alcohol (PVA-QAS), cellulose (cellulose-QAS) and glass (glass-QAS) surfaces was achieved by one step synthesis with no auxiliary linkers. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) revealed tridentate binding mode of the antimicrobial agent. The antimicrobial activity of the prepared materials was tested on Bacillus cereus, Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Active site density of the modified materials was examined and found to correlate with their antimicrobial activity. Stability studies at different pH values and temperatures confirmed that the linkage of the bioactive moiety to the surface is robust and resistant to a range of pH and temperatures. Prolonged long-term effectiveness of the contact active materials was demonstrated by their repeated usage, without loss of the antimicrobial efficacy.

Functionalization of SnO₂ crystals with a covalently-assembled porphyrin monolayer

The functionalization of micro- and nano-sized metal-oxide powders offers many advantages because of their large surface areas and, therefore, the large number of functional molecules that can be grafted onto the grain surfaces. Porphyrin molecules on large band-gap semiconducting metal oxides represent key materials for many different optical and electronic applications. Herein, we have proposed a general two-step procedure for the functionalization of metal-oxide crystals with dye-sensitizers. In particular, we functionalized SnO₂ nanoparticles with a monolayer of the bifunctional trichloro[4-(chloromethyl)phenyl]silane. Then, a monolayer of 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(4-hydroxyphenyl)-21H,23H-porphyne was covalently bound to the silanized SnO₂ grains. IR, UV/Vis, and luminescence measurements were used for optical characterization. The measured footprint of the grafted porphyrin molecules indicated total surface coverage of the grains. The surface electronic characterization was performed by using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Emission measurements revealed two strong bands at 664.1 and 721.0 nm that were attributed to the porphyrin monolayer assembled on the surface of the SnO₂ crystals.

Sequence-dependent assembly to control molecular interface properties

Variation's what you need: variation of the assembly sequence in which layers of two isostructural metal complexes are built up leads to molecular materials with electrochemical properties that depend on the assembly sequence. These properties vary from reversible electron transfer to unidirectional current flows and even charge trapping. The sequence-dependent assembly strategy has implications for various disciplines that involve self-assembly.

Synergism in multicomponent self-propagating molecular assemblies

Multicomponent self-propagating molecular assemblies (SPMAs) have been generated from an organic chromophore, a redox-active polypyridyl complex, and PdCl(2). The structure of the multicomponent SPMA is not a linear combination of two assemblies generated with a single molecular constituent. Surface-confined assemblies formed from only the organic chromophore and PdCl(2) are known to follow linear growth, whereas the combination of polypyridyl complexes and PdCl(2) results in exponential growth. The present study demonstrates that an iterative deposition of both molecular building blocks with PdCl(2) results in an exponentially growing assembly. The nature of the assembly mechanism is dictated by the polypyridyl complex and overrides the linear growth process of the organic component. Relatively smooth, multicomponent SPMAs have been obtained with a thickness of ∼20 nm on silicon, glass, and indium-tin oxide (ITO) coated glass. Detailed information of the structure and of the surface-assembly chemistry were obtained using transmission optical (UV/Vis) spectroscopy, ellipsometry, atomic force microscopy (AFM), synchrotron X-ray reflectivity (XRR), and electrochemistry.