Macroscale Conjugated Microporous Polymers: Controlling Versatile Functionalities Over Several Dimensions

Since discovered in 2007, conjugated microporous polymers (CMPs) have been developed for numerous applications including gas adsorption, sensing, organic and photoredox catalysis, energy storage, etc. While featuring abundant micropores, the structural rigidity derived from CMPs' stable π-conjugated skeleton leads to insolubility and thus poor processability, which severely limits their applicability, e.g., in CMP-based devices. Hence, the development of CMPs whose structure can not only be controlled on the micro- but also on the macroscale have attracted tremendous interest. In conventional synthesis procedures, CMPs are obtained as powders, but in recent years various bottom-up synthesis strategies have been developed, which yield CMPs as thin films on substrates or as hybrid materials, allowing to span length scales from individual conjugated monomers to micro-/macrostructures. This review surveys recent advances on the construction of CMPs into macroscale structures, including membranes, films, aerogels, sponges, and other architectures. The focus is to describe the underlying fabrication techniques and the implications which follow from the macroscale morphologies, involving new chemistry and physics in such materials for applications like molecular separation/filtration/adsorption, energy storage and conversion, photothermal transformation, sensing, or catalysis.

Porous Polyelectrolytes: The Interplay of Charge and Pores for New Functionalities

The past decade has witnessed rapid advances in porous polyelectrolytes and there is tremendous interest in their synthesis as well as their applications in environmental, energy, biomedicine, and catalysis technologies. Research on porous polyelectrolytes is motivated by the flexible choice of functional organic groups and processing technologies as well as the synergy of the charge and pores spanning length scales from individual polyelectrolyte backbones to their nano-/micro-superstructures. This Review surveys recent progress in porous polyelectrolytes including membranes, particles, scaffolds, and high surface area powders/resins as well as their derivatives. The focus is the interplay between surface chemistry, Columbic interaction, and pore confinement that defines new chemistry and physics in such materials for applications in energy conversion, molecular separation, water purification, sensing/actuation, catalysis, tissue engineering, and nanomedicine.

Water-Soluble Naked Gold Nanoclusters Are Not Luminescent

Here, the synthesis of water-dispersible naked gold nanoclusters (AuNC_naked ) is reported by a simple reduction of HAuCl₄ with NaOH at room temperature, and it is shown that they are non-luminescent. They are then easily passivated with different thiols and adenosine monophosphate, leading to luminescent NCs. This is an important finding because the photoluminescence of the passivated NCs can now be clearly attributed to the ligand-AuNC surface interaction. These results are also highly relevant from the point of view of the preparation of luminescent NCs from the same NC batch. This strategy can be valuable for the preparation of a broad range of nano(bio)composites.

Neuron-like polyelectrolyte–carbon nanotube composites for ultra-high loading of metal nanoparticles

We report a simple protocol for the fabrication of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with a neuron-like structure for loading ultra-high densities of metal nanoparticles (NPs).