Metal-driven folding and assembly of a minimal β-sheet into a 3D-porous honeycomb framework

This research was supported by the DST Inspire Faculty Fellowship (No. DST/INSPIRE/04/2020/002499), and National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, S. A. S. Nagar. S. B. thanks SERB, Govt. of India for the Ramanujan Fellowship (ref. no. RJF/2022/000042) and Ashoka University.In contrast to short helical peptides, constrained peptides, and foldamers, the design and fabrication of crystalline 3D frameworks from the β-sheet peptides are rare because of their high self-aggregation propensity to form 1D architectures. Herein, we demonstrate the formation of a 3D porous honeycomb framework through the silver coordination of a minimal β-sheet forming a peptide having terminal metal coordinated 4- and 3-pyridyl ligands.Peer reviewe

Peptide hydrogen-bonded organic frameworks

This research was supported by the DST Inspire Faculty Fellowship (No. DST/INSPIRE/04/2020/002499) from the Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi. R. M. is also thankful to the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, S.A.S. Nagar, for providing the research facilities. T. V. thanks Tel Aviv University for the postdoctoral fellowship. E. G. thanks European Research Council PoC project PepZoPower (101101071). A. I. N. thanks the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund (62285-DNI). S. B. thanks SERB, Govt. of India, for the Ramanujan Fellowship (Ref. no. RJF/2022/000042), and Ashoka University, Sonipat, Haryana, for the infrastructure. S. N. acknowledges Vellore Institute of Technology Chennai for the funding and infrastructure.Hydrogen-bonded porous frameworks (HPFs) are versatile porous crystalline frameworks with diverse applications. However, designing chiral assemblies or biocompatible materials poses significant challenges. Peptide-based hydrogen-bonded porous frameworks (P-HPFs) are an exciting alternative to conventional HPFs due to their intrinsic chirality, tunability, biocompatibility, and structural diversity. Flexible, ultra-short peptide-based P-HPFs (composed of 3 or fewer amino acids) exhibit adaptable porous topologies that can accommodate a variety of guest molecules and capture hazardous greenhouse gases. Longer, folded peptides present challenges and opportunities in designing P-HPFs. This review highlights recent developments in P-HPFs using ultra-short peptides, folded peptides, and foldamers, showcasing their utility for gas storage, chiral recognition, chiral separation, and medical applications. It also addresses design challenges and future directions in the field.Peer reviewe

2021 roadmap for sodium-ion batteries

Abstract: Increasing concerns regarding the sustainability of lithium sources, due to their limited availability and consequent expected price increase, have raised awareness of the importance of developing alternative energy-storage candidates that can sustain the ever-growing energy demand. Furthermore, limitations on the availability of the transition metals used in the manufacturing of cathode materials, together with questionable mining practices, are driving development towards more sustainable elements. Given the uniformly high abundance and cost-effectiveness of sodium, as well as its very suitable redox potential (close to that of lithium), sodium-ion battery technology offers tremendous potential to be a counterpart to lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) in different application scenarios, such as stationary energy storage and low-cost vehicles. This potential is reflected by the major investments that are being made by industry in a wide variety of markets and in diverse material combinations. Despite the associated advantages of being a drop-in replacement for LIBs, there are remarkable differences in the physicochemical properties between sodium and lithium that give rise to different behaviours, for example, different coordination preferences in compounds, desolvation energies, or solubility of the solid–electrolyte interphase inorganic salt components. This demands a more detailed study of the underlying physical and chemical processes occurring in sodium-ion batteries and allows great scope for groundbreaking advances in the field, from lab-scale to scale-up. This roadmap provides an extensive review by experts in academia and industry of the current state of the art in 2021 and the different research directions and strategies currently underway to improve the performance of sodium-ion batteries. The aim is to provide an opinion with respect to the current challenges and opportunities, from the fundamental properties to the practical applications of this technology

Potential of metal–organic frameworks for adsorptive separation of industrially and environmentally relevant liquid mixtures

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) or porous coordination polymers (PCPs) are defined as crystalline, open,coordination network architectures with potential voids. They have drawn momentous attention across several crossroads of material chemistry since their discovery, owing to an exciting plethora of application-oriented footprints left by this class of crystalline, supramolecular and open coordination architectures. The unmatched aspect of tunable  coordination nanospace arising from the countless choice of pre-functionalized organic struts pertaining to varying lengths alongside multivariate coordination geometries/oxidation states of  the metal nodes, bestows a distinct chemical tailorability facet to this class of porous materials.  Amidst the two-decade long attention dedicated to the adsorption-governed purification of gases,  the MOF literature has substantially expanded its horizon into the manifestation of industrially  relevant liquid mixtures’ adsorptive separation-driven purification. Such chemical separation  phenomena categorically encompasses high importance to the manufacturing and processing  industry sectors, apart from the fundamental scientific pursuit of discovering novel  physicochemical principles. Aimed at the energy-economic preparation of pure industrial  feedstocks and their consequent usage as end products, structure-property correlations pursued in  the alleys of coordination chemistry has led to major advancements in a number of critical  separation frontiers, inclusive of biofuels (alcohol/water), diverse hydrocarbon mixtures, and  chiral species. This comprehensive review summarizes the topical developments accrued in the  field of MOF-based liquid mixtures’ adsorptive separation phenomena, structure-selectivity  relationships as well as the associated plausible mechanisms substantiating such behavior.</p

Mechanochemical synthesis of sodium carboxylates as anode materials in sodium ion batteries

The ever-growing global energy demand necessitates, amongst other technologies, advances in materials for electrochemical energy storage such as sodium ion batteries. The recent advent of organic-based electrodes is driven by their tremendous structural versatility and the great potential in developing a green battery cycle. Current research aims to solve remaining obstacles such as a lack of robust, efficient and scalable synthesis procedures. In this vein, we present a fast and sustainable mechanochemical synthesis route towards four sodium carboxylates compounds. Target materials can be obtained in the substantially decreased reaction time of only one hour, while retaining the good electrochemical performance reported for conventionally synthesised compounds. More importantly, no solvent is required for these mechanosynthetic transformations, making this approach attractive with respect to goals in line with green chemistry as well as from an economical point of view. The variety of synthesised compounds hints at possible generalisability of the developed methodology and its potential applicability for many other known compounds, beyond the sphere of rechargeable battery systems

Mechanochemical synthesis of sodium carboxylates as anode materials in sodium ion batteries

Funding: D. N. R. acknowledges funding through the EPSRC (EP/N509759/1). The authors thank the Faraday Institution for funding (Grant FIRG018). The authors also acknowledge the EPSRC Light Element Facility Grant (EP/T019298/1) and the EPSRC Strategic Equipment Resource Grant (EP/R023751/1).The ever-growing global energy demand necessitates, amongst other technologies, advances in materials for electrochemical energy storage such as sodium ion batteries. The recent advent of organic-based electrodes is driven by their tremendous structural versatility and the great potential in developing a green battery cycle. Current research aims to solve remaining obstacles such as a lack of robust, efficient and scalable synthesis procedures. In this vein, we present a fast and sustainable mechanochemical synthesis route towards four sodium carboxylates compounds. Target materials can be obtained in the substantially decreased reaction time of only one hour, while retaining the good electrochemical performance reported for conventionally synthesised compounds. More importantly, no solvent is required for these mechanosynthetic transformations, making this approach attractive with respect to goals in line with green chemistry as well as from an economical point of view. The variety of synthesised compounds hints at possible generalisability of the developed methodology and its potential applicability for many other known compounds, beyond the sphere of rechargeable battery systems.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

A &#960;-electron deficient diaminotriazine functionalized MOF for selective sorption of benzene over cyclohexane

A diaminotriazine functionalized novel MOF (DAT-MOF-1) has been synthesized stemming out of a &#960;-electron-deficient pore-surface functionalization based linker-design principle, which results in efficient selectivity of benzene sorption over its aliphatic analogue cyclohexane, crucial from the industrial standpoint

Ultrastable Luminescent Hybrid Bromide Perovskite@MOF Nanocomposites for the Degradation of Organic Pollutants in Water

Hybrid bromide perovskites (HBPs) have emerged as a promising candidate in optoelectronic applications, although instability of the materials under working conditions has retarded the progress toward commercialization. As a rational approach to address this core issue, we herein report the synthesis of a series of ultrastable composite materials, wherein HBP nanocrystals (NCs) have been stabilized within a well-known chemically stable metal-organic framework (MOF) viz. zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-8) via a pore-encapsulated solvent-directed (PSD) approach. The composites maintain their structural integrity as well as photoluminescence (PL) properties upon dipping into a wide range of polar solvents including water (even in boiling conditions), prolonged exposure to UV irradiation, and elevated temperature for longer periods of time. Further, on the basis of high stability, HBP@MOF composites have been demonstrated as heterogeneous photocatalysts to degrade toxic organic pollutants directly in water