Mononuclear aggregation-induced emission (AIE)-active gold(I)-isocyanide phosphors: Contrasting phosphorescent mechanochromisms and effect of halogen substitutions on room-temperature phosphorescence nature

Synthesis and structure of 1,1',1''-[(2-bromo-eth-oxy)methane-tri-yl]tri-benzene and 1,1',1''-[(2-iodoeth-oxy)methane-tri-yl]tri-benzene

The present study reports on the mol-ecular structures and syntheses of 1,1',1''-[(2-bromo-eth-oxy)methane-tri-yl]tri-benzene, C21H19BrO, and 1,1',1''-[(2-iodo-eth-oxy)methane-tri-yl]tri-benzene, C21H19IO. Both compounds crystallized from a saturated solution in THF by slow vapour diffusion of n-hexane in the monoclinic space group P21/c. While the two independent mol-ecules in the asymmetric unit of 1,1',1''-[(2-iodo-eth-oxy)methane-tri-yl]tri-benzene show no close contacts to other mol-ecules, in the structure of 1,1',1''-[(2-bromo-eth-oxy)methane-tri-yl]tri-benzene the mol-ecules inter-act with each other via C-H⋯π contacts.

Size, composition, and surface capping-dependent catalytic activity of spherical gold nanoparticles

Gold nanostructures are used as catalysts in heterogeneous catalytic processes and have intrigued chemists and materials scientists. Isotropic spherical gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are ideal for catalysis due to their simple preparation process, controllable surface-active site, tunable size, and composition-dependent catalytic activity. In this study, spherical AuNPs with different size, composition, and surface capping agents have been prepared, and their catalytic activity in reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) is evaluated. The catalytic activity of AuNPs decreases as their size increases. Meanwhile, the catalytic activity of AuNPs with tartrate as the reducing agent show no evident changes because of containing anisotropic AuNPs. Moreover, silver not only improves monodisperse and spherical AuNPs, but also increases the catalytic activity of small AuNPs. Since the molecular structures of tartrate and citrate are similar, there is no remarkable difference in the catalytic activity of AuNPs using tartrate and citrate as capping agents. These results demonstrate the influence of size, composition, and surface capping on the catalytic activity of AuNPs. Overall, this study facilitates the applicability of gold-based catalyst and AuNPs in plasmonics, nanophotonics, biomedical photonics, and photocatalysis.