2018, Qiu, Xinkai, Castañeda Ocampo, Olga, de Vries, Hendrik W., van Putten, Maikel, Loznik, Mark, Herrmann, Andreas, Chiechi, Ryan C.

This paper describes the fabrication of soft, stretchable biophotovoltaic devices that generate photocurrent from photosystem I (PSI) complexes that are self-assembled onto Au electrodes with a preferred orientation. Charge is collected by the direct injection of electrons into the Au electrode and the transport of holes through a redox couple to liquid eutectic gallium-indium (EGaIn) electrodes that are confined to microfluidic pseudochannels by arrays of posts. The pseudochannels are defined in a single fabrication step that leverages the non-Newtonian rheology of EGaIn. This strategy is extended to the fabrication of reticulated electrodes that are inherently stretchable. A simple shadow evaporation technique is used to increase the surface area of the Au electrodes by a factor of approximately 106 compared to planar electrodes. The power conversion efficiency of the biophotovoltaic devices decreases over time, presumably as the PSI complexes denature and/or detach from the Au electrodes. However, by circulating a solution of active PSI complexes the devices self-regenerate by mass action/self-assembly. These devices leverage simple fabrication techniques to produce complex function and prove that photovoltaic devices comprising PSI can retain the ability to regenerate, one of the most important functions of photosynthetic organisms. © 2018 American Chemical Society.

2018, Nakamura, Shigenobu, Maljuk, Andrey, Maruyama, Yuki, Nagao, Masanori, Watauchi, Satoshi, Hayashi, Takeshi, Anzai, Yutaka, Furukawa, Yasunori, Ling, Chris D., Deng, Guochu, Avdeev, Maxim, Büchner, Bernd, Tanaka, Isao

We have grown LiCoO2 single crystals by the traveling solvent floating zone (TSFZ) growth with Li-rich solvent, having observed the incongruent melting behavior of LiCoO2 between 1100 and 1300 °C. The optimum growth conditions in terms of atmosphere and solvent composition were determined to be Ar flow and an atomic ratio Li/Co 85:15, respectively. The crystals grown using a conventional-mirror-type furnace contained periodic inclusions of a Co-O phase due to the influence of Co-O phase segregation on the stability of the molten zone during growth. By using a tilted-mirror FZ furnace, inclusion-free LiCoO2 crystals of about 5 mm in diameter and 70 mm long were obtained at a tilting angle Î = 10°. The grown crystals were confirmed to be single-domain by neutron Laue diffraction. © 2018 American Chemical Society.

2018, Wiedensohler, A., Ma, N., Birmili, W., Heintzenberg, J., Ditas, F., Andreae, M.O., Panov, A.

Aerosol particle number size distributions (PNSD) were investigated to verify, if extremely low-volatility organic vapors (ELVOC) from natural sources alone could induce new particle formation and growth events over the remote boreal forest region of Siberia, hundreds of kilometers away from significant anthropogenic sources. We re-evaluated observations determined at a height of 300 m of the remote observatory ZOTTO (Zotino Tall Tower Observatory, http://www.zottoproject.org). We found that new particle formation events occurred only on 11 days in a 3-year period, suggesting that homogeneous nucleation with a subsequent condensational growth could not be the major process, maintaining the particle number concentration in the planetary boundary layer of the remote boreal forest area of Siberia. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd

2017, Kuehne, Alexander J.C.

Conjugated polymer nanoparticles are highly fluorescent colloids with tunable emission colors ranging from the visible deep into the near infrared spectrum. Conjugated polymer nanoparticles are easy to prepare, tunable in their size, and virtually nonbleachable. Conjugated polymer particles can also be designed to give off heat upon irradiation. All these properties make conjugated polymer particles ideal materials for biomedical fluorescence and photoacoustic imaging as well as for theranostic applications. Here, different examples of surface functionalization to attach pathological homing devices, imaging modalities, as well as the emerging possibilities for therapeutic measures are discussed. Furthermore, clearance of the particles is considered, which is important to ultimately apply the materials for in vivo theranostics. Due to the conjugated backbone of the conjugated polymers, established degradation strategies, as known from hydrophilic nonconjugated polymer carriers, cannot be applied. Bioinspired strategies and potential pathways for degradation and clearance via structural changes upon triggers such as pH, oxidation, and temperature are also discussed in this progress report. © 2017 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

2017, Liu, Kai, Ma, Chao, Göstl, Robert, Zhang, Lei, Herrmann, Andreas

ConspectusBiomacromolecules, such as nucleic acids, proteins, and virus particles, are persistent molecular entities with dimensions that exceed the range of their intermolecular forces hence undergoing degradation by thermally induced bond-scission upon heating. Consequently, for this type of molecule, the absence of a liquid phase can be regarded as a general phenomenon. However, certain advantageous properties usually associated with the liquid state of matter, such as processability, flowability, or molecular mobility, are highly sought-after features for biomacromolecules in a solvent-free environment. Here, we provide an overview over the design principles and synthetic pathways to obtain solvent-free liquids of biomacromolecular architectures approaching the topic from our own perspective of research. We will highlight the milestones in synthesis, including a recently developed general surfactant complexation method applicable to a large variety of biomacromolecules as well as other synthetic principles granting access to electrostatically complexed proteins and DNA.These synthetic pathways retain the function and structure of the biomacromolecules even under extreme, nonphysiological conditions at high temperatures in water-free melts challenging the existing paradigm on the role of hydration in structural biology. Under these conditions, the resulting complexes reveal their true potential for previously unthinkable applications. Moreover, these protocols open a pathway toward the assembly of anisotropic architectures, enabling the formation of solvent-free biomacromolecular thermotropic liquid crystals. These ordered biomaterials exhibit vastly different mechanical properties when compared to the individual building blocks. Beyond the preparative aspects, we will shine light on the unique potential applications and technologies resulting from solvent-free biomacromolecular fluids: From charge transport in dehydrated liquids to DNA electrochromism to biocatalysis in the absence of a protein hydration shell. Moreover, solvent-free biological liquids containing viruses can be used as novel storage and process media serving as a formulation technology for the delivery of highly concentrated bioactive compounds. We are confident that this new class of hybrid biomaterials will fuel further studies and applications of biomacromolecules beyond water and other solvents and in a much broader context than just the traditional physiological conditions. © 2017 American Chemical Society.

2018, Kaiser, Selina K., Lin, Ronghe, Mitchell, Sharon, Fako, Edvin, Krumeich, Frank, Hauert, Roland, Safonova, Olga V., Kondratenko, Vita A., Kondratenko, Evgenii V., Collins, Sean M., Midgley, Paul A., López, Núria, Pérez-Ramírez, Javier

Carbon-supported gold catalysts have the potential to replace the toxic mercuric chloride-based system applied industrially for acetylene hydrochlorination, a key technology for the manufacture of polyvinyl chloride. However, the design of an optimal catalyst is essentially hindered by the difficulties in assessing the nature of the active site. Herein, we present a platform of carbon supported gold nanostructures at a fixed metal loading, ranging from single atoms of tunable oxidation state and coordination to metallic nanoparticles, by varying the structure of functionalised carbons and use of thermal activation. While on activated carbon particle aggregation occurs progressively above 473 K, on nitrogen-doped carbon gold single atoms exhibit outstanding stability up to temperatures of 1073 K and under reaction conditions. By combining steady-state experiments, density functional theory, and transient mechanistic studies, we assess the relation between the metal speciation, electronic properties, and catalytic activity. The results indicate that the activity of gold-based catalysts correlates with the population of Au(i)Cl single atoms and the reaction follows a Langmuir-Hinshelwood mechanism. Strong interaction with HCl and thermodynamically favoured acetylene activation were identified as the key features of the Au(i)Cl sites that endow their superior catalytic performance in comparison to N-stabilised Au(iii) counterparts and gold nanoparticles. Finally, we show that the carrier (activated carbon versus nitrogen-doped carbon) does not affect the catalytic response, but determines the deactivation mechanism (gold particle aggregation and pore blockage, respectively), which opens up different options for the development of stable, high-performance hydrochlorination catalysts. © 2019 The Royal Society of Chemistry.

2018, Sun, J., Birmili, W., Hermann, M., Tuch, T., Weinhold, K., Spindler, G., Schladitz, A., Bastian, S., Löschau, G., Cyrys, J., Gu, J., Flentje, H., Briel, B., Asbac, C., Kaminski, H., Ries, L., Sohme, R., Gerwig, H., Wirtz, K., Meinhardt, F., Schwerin, A., Bath, O., Ma, N., Wiedensohler, A.

This work reports the first statistical analysis of multi-annual data on tropospheric aerosols from the German Ultrafine Aerosol Network (GUAN). Compared to other networks worldwide, GUAN with 17 measurement locations has the most sites equipped with particle number size distribution (PNSD) and equivalent black carbon (eBC) instruments and the most site categories in Germany ranging from city street/roadside to High Alpine. As we know, the variations of eBC and particle number concentration (PNC) are influenced by several factors such as source, transformation, transport and deposition. The dominant controlling factor for different pollutant parameters might be varied, leading to the different spatio-temporal variations among the measured parameters. Currently, a study of spatio-temporal variations of PNSD and eBC considering the influences of both site categories and spatial scale is still missing. Based on the multi-site dataset of GUAN, the goal of this study is to investigate how pollutant parameters may interfere with spatial characteristics and site categories. © 2019 The Authors

2017, Wang, Tao, Li, Peining, Chigrin, Dmitry N., Giles, Alexander J., Bezares, Francisco J., Glembocki, Orest J., Caldwell, Joshua D., Taubner, Thomas

A conventional thermal emitter exhibits a broad emission spectrum with a peak wavelength depending upon the operation temperature. Recently, narrowband thermal emission was realized with periodic gratings or single microstructures of polar crystals supporting distinct optical modes. Here, we exploit the coupling of adjacent phonon-polaritonic nanostructures, demonstrating experimentally that the nanometer-scale gaps can control the thermal emission frequency while retaining emission line widths as narrow as 10 cm-1. This was achieved by using deeply subdiffractional bowtie-shaped silicon carbide nanoantennas. Infrared far-field reflectance spectroscopy, near-field optical nanoimaging, and full-wave electromagnetic simulations were employed to prove that the thermal emission originates from strongly localized surface phonon-polariton resonances of nanoantenna structures. The observed narrow emission line widths and exceptionally small modal volumes provide new opportunities for the user-design of near- and far-field radiation patterns for advancements in infrared spectroscopy, sensing, signaling, communications, coherent thermal emission, and infrared photodetection. © 2017 American Chemical Society.

2018, Oubaassine, Saadia, Köckritz, Angela, Eckelt, Reinhard, Martin, Andreas, Ait Ali, Mustapha, El Firdoussi, Larbi

In a one-step procedure, various ß-bromoalcohols were synthesized from natural terpenes in good to excellent yields. Using different catalysts, the reaction was carried out at room temperature, with H 2 O as nucleophile and N-bromosuccinimide as a bromine source under mild reaction conditions. The synthesized ß-bromoalcohols were subsequently converted in situ to the corresponding epoxides in good yields. © 2019 Saadia Oubaassine et al.

2018, Barthel, Stefan, Tegen, Ina, Wolke, Ralf

Sea spray aerosol particle is a dominating part of the global aerosol mass load of natural origin. Thus, it strongly influences the atmospheric radiation balance and cloud properties especially over the oceans. Uncertainties of the estimated climate impacts by this aerosol type are partly caused by the uncertainties in the particle size dependent emission fluxes of sea spray aerosol particle. We present simulations with a regional aerosol transport model system in two domains, for three months and compared the model results to measurements at four stations using various sea spray aerosol particle source source functions. Despite these limitations we found the results using different source functions are within the range of most model uncertainties. Especially the model's ability to produce realistic wind speeds is crucial. Furthermore, the model results are more affected by a function correcting the emission flux for the effect of the sea surface temperature than by the use of different source functions. © 2018 The Authors