By performing measurements at low temperature, we provide evidence for a competition between two terminal relaxation pathways from the lowest (metal-centered) triplet to the ground state: a slow ground state relaxation process proceeding in timescales beyond 1.6 ns and a faster pathway dictated by a sloped conical intersection, which is thermally accessible at room temperature from the triplet state. The overall triplet decay at a given temperature is dictated by the interplay of these two contributions. This observation bears significance in understanding the underlying fast relaxation processes in Ni-based molecules and related transition metal complexes, opening avenues for potential applications for energy harvesting and optoelectronics. 

Highly emissive Ag2S-based NCs with PLQY values ranging from 10% to 1% in the temperature range of 25–45°C were synthesized. Chemical strategies, the formation of core-shell structures, and phase transfer to water leading to highly luminescent biocompatible nanoprobes are discussed. The subtissue performance of the probes demonstrate the superior performance of aqueous core/shell NCs exhibiting a PLQY of only 1% at 45°C versus NCs dispersed in organic solvents exhibiting an initial PLQY above 10%, indicating the importance of the ligand shell 

The creation of complex hollow nanostructures with precise control over size and shape represents a great challenge in supramolecular soft materials. Here, we have further developed a bioinspired methodology for the formation of aqueous nanotubes of well-defined dimensions and pore coating through the self-assembly of amphiphiles that are chemically programmed with complementary nucleobases. These nanotubes are endowed with a hydrophobic lumen, whose diameter can be expanded as a function of the monomer length, in which apolar dyes can be efficiently encapsulated.

Porphyrins, a type of heterocyclic aromatic compounds consistingof tetrapyrroles connected by four substituted methine groups, are appealingbuilding blocks for solar energy applications. However, their photosensitization capability is limited by their large optical energy gap, whichresults in a mismatch in absorption toward efficient harvesting of the solarspectrum. Porphyrin𝝅-extension by edge-fusing with nanographenes can beemployed for narrowing their optical energy gap from 2.35 to 1.08 eV, enabling the development of porphyrin-based panchromatic dyes with an optimizedenergy onset for solar energy conversion in dye-sensitized solar fuel and solarcell configurations. 

The development of sodium ion batteries will require high-performance electrodes with very large areal capacity and reasonable rate performance. Although red phosphorus is a very promising electrode material, it has not yet fulfilled these requirements. Here, liquid phase exfoliation is used to convert solid red phosphorus into amorphous, quasi-2D nanoplatelets. These nanoplatelets have lateral sizes of hundreds of nanometers, thickness of 10s of nanometers and are quite stable in ambient conditions, displaying only low levels of oxidation on the nanosheet surface 

Two-dimensional conjugated metal-organic frameworks (2D c-MOFs) have attracted increasing interests for (opto)-electronics and spintronics. They generally consist of van der Waals stacked layers and exhibit layer-depended electronic properties. While considerable efforts have been made to regulate the charge transport within a layer, precise control of electronic coupling between layers has not yet been achieved. Herein, we report a strategy to precisely tune interlayer charge transport in 2D c-MOFs via side-chain induced control of the layer spacing.  

An unprecedentedly large cove-edged nanographene (NG), hexa-peri-hexabenzo-bis-peri-octacene (HBPO), was synthesized. Different ratios of contorted conformations, “waggling” and “butterfly”, were found in the crystals. The amplified spontaneous emission, which was previously only reported for zigzag-edged NGs, can be observed in this cove-edged NG, thus enriching the choices of edge structures for potential applications in laser cavities. 

Gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) are nanomaterials with interesting photoluminescent properties that can be endowed with biomolecular recognition and biocompatibility when stabilized with proteins. The interplay between the optical features of AuNCs and the function added by the protein makes them perfect candidates for generating hybrid protein-inorganic nanomaterials. Focusing on protein stabilized-AuNCs, hitherto most of the work has covered the use of natural proteins for in situ growth of AuNCs. However, the exploitation of design proteins for such endeavors enables fine-tuning of the photoluminescent assets of AuNCs. In this work, rational protein engineering of modular protein scaffolds is applied for capping of non-emissive, non-passivated naked AuNCs, resulting in a fast and easy method for the synthesis of customizable and emissive protein-AuNC nanomaterials.