Jie Shu

High‐Performance Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Reduction Derived from Cobalt Porphyrin‐Based Conjugated Mesoporous Polymers

A cobalt-nitrogen-doped porous carbon that exhibits a ribbon-shape morphology, high surface area, mesoporous structure, and high nitrogen and cobalt content is fabricated for high-performance self-supported oxygen reduction electrocatalytsts through template-free pyrolysis of cobalt porphyrin-based conjugated mesoporous polymer frameworks.

Photocatalytic hydrogen evolution through fully conjugated poly(azomethine) networks

Three-dimensional conjugated poly(azomethine) networks were found to be promising candidates for applications in photocatalytic water splitting. Straightforward synthetic protocols lead to fully organic photocatalysts that showed enhanced long-time stability. Furthermore, the catalytic performance of these materials was correlated to the molecular composition and the optoelectronic properties of the samples.

Probing the Relation Between Charge Transport and Supramolecular Organization Down to Ångström Resolution in a Benzothiadiazole‐Cyclopentadithiophene Copolymer

Molecular modeling shows that longitudinal displacement of the backbones by a couple of ångströms has a profound impact on the electronic coupling mediating charge transport in a conjugated copolymer. These changes can be probed by monitoring the calculated X-ray scattering patterns and NMR chemical shifts as a function of sliding of the polymer chains and comparing them to experiment.

Coexistence of helical morphologies in columnar stacks of star-shaped discotic hydrazones.

Discotic hydrazone molecules are of particular interest as they form discotic phases where the discs are rigidified by intramolecular hydrogen bonds. Here, we investigate the thermotropic behavior and solid-state organizations of three discotic hydrazone derivatives with dendritic groups attached to their outer peripheries, containing six, eight, and ten carbons of linear alkoxy chains. On the basis of two-dimensional wide angle X-ray scattering (2DWAXS), the elevated temperature liquid crystalline (LC) phases were assigned to a hexagonal columnar (Colh) organization with nontilted hydrazone discs for all three compounds. With WAXS, advanced solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (SSNMR) techniques, and ab initio computations, the compounds with six and ten carbons of achiral alkoxy side chains were further subjected to studies at 25 °C, revealing complex crystalline phases with rigid columns and flexible side chains. This combined approach led to models of coexisting helical columnar stacking morphologies for both systems with two different tilt/pitch angles between successive hydrazone molecules. The differences in tilt/pitch angles between the two compounds illustrate that the columns with short alkoxy chains (six carbons) are more influenced by the presence of other stacks in their vicinity, while those with long side chains are less tilted due to a larger alkoxy (ten carbons) buffer zone. The formation of different packing morphologies in the crystalline phase of a columnar LC has rarely been reported so far, which suggests the possibility of complex stacking structures of similar organic LC systems, utilizing small molecules as potential materials for applications in organic electronics.