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Control of Charge Separation and Nonradiative Recombination in Host–Guest Azabuckybowl@C60 by Tweezer Linker Substitutions
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To forecast more active photovoltaic materials, the recent effort has concentrated on the charge transfer dynamics in host–guest systems. Charge carrier dynamics of buckybowl-substituted phenanthrenes in azabuckybowl@C60 hybrids have been investigated employing nonadiabatic molecular dynamics within the density-based tight-binding framework. Our investigation shows 3,6-azabuckybowl@C60 exhibits quicker electron transfer of 803 fs, well corroborated with experiment. Whereas 2,7-azabuckybowl@C60 produces an ultrafast electron transfer (250 fs) by lowering torsional angles between linker and azabuckybowl from ∼60° to ∼19°, which enhances orbital overlap with small band offset relative to 3,6-azabuckybowl@C60. The 3,6-positions of phenanthrene functions as rigid lever arms that rotate sharply about 60° whereas the 2,7-positions require an out-of-plane rotation because of congestion and reduce torsional angle. Furthermore, widening the band gap with weak nonadiabatic coupling, 2,7-azabuckybowl@C60 shows delayed electron–hole recombination (12 ns) compared to 3,6-azabuckybowl@C60 (8.3 ns), signifying its potential as a more effective photovoltaic device and facilitating host–guest studies.
Belousov Y., Кискин М. А., Sidoruk A. et al., Australian Journal of Chemistry 2022 Vol. 75 No. 9 P. 572–580
Four new complexes [Ln(pfaa)3(H2O)2]n (Ln = Eu (1), Tb (2)) and [Ln2Cd2(pfaa)10 (phen)2(EtOH)2]·2MeCN (Ln = Eu (3), Tb (4), phen = 1,10-phenanthroline) based on pentaphorphenylacetic acid (Hpfaa) have been prepared and completely investigated. The structures of compounds 1 and 3 were studied by single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis: the isostructural complexes 1 and 2 represent ...
Added: August 26, 2026
Mazur D., Brandyshev P., Doronin S. V. et al., Electrochimica Acta 2026 Vol. 577 Article 149729
The electric double layer (EDL) at a single-crystal metal surface is controlled not only by the electrolyte composition and the electrode potential, but also by the atomic structure of the surface itself. This makes the Ag(hkl)/NaF interface a stringent test for continuum theories of the EDL. In the third part of our series, we examine ...
Added: August 20, 2026
Budkov Y., Kalikin N., Journal of Chemical Physics 2026 Vol. 165 Article 064506
A self-consistent statistical-mechanical theory of the Hall effect in electrolyte solutions is developed by extending the self-consistent Debye–Hückel–Onsager (SCDHO) framework to crossed electric and magnetic fields. The theory incorporates non-local ionic charge distributions via Slater-type form factors, regularizing the Coulomb interaction at short range, and accounts for dielectric friction through ion-specific coefficients, employing experimental values ...
Added: August 12, 2026
Novikov A., New Journal of Chemistry 2026 Vol. 50 P. 13931–13957
The rational design of coinage metal nanocarriers requires a mechanistic understanding of metal-drug binding and predictive descriptors that translate molecular interactions into design rules. Using DFT (B3LYP-D3BJ/def2-TZVP, SMD water), we systematically investigated the binding of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and levodopa (l-DOPA) to neutral and cationic homo- and heteronuclear dimers of Au, Ag, and Cu (Au2, Ag2, ...
Added: August 12, 2026
Voropaeva D., S. Novikova, I. Stenina et al., Solid State Ionics 2026 Vol. 445 Article 117288
Composite gel polymer electrolytes based on a perfluorinated sulfonic acid cation-exchange MF-4SC membrane
containing surface-sulfonated nanoparticles of aluminum oxide, cerium (IV) oxide, and titanium oxide (sAl2O3,
sCeO2, and sTiO2, respectively) were prepared by casting from a dispersion in N,N-dimethylformamide and
plasticized with a 1,3-dioxolane/1,2-dimethoxyethane mixture. The influence of the filler nature on ionic conductivity,
solvent uptake, activation energy, lithium ...
Added: July 30, 2026
Korogod D., Shapeev A., Ivan S. Novikov, Physical Review B: Condensed Matter and Materials Physics 2026 Vol. 114 No. 2 Article 024104
We present two models with explicit long-range electrostatics in the form of Coulomb interactions. Both models include point charges depending on their local atomic environments, and the second model also conserves a total charge of an atomic system. We combine the proposed long-range models with the local moment tensor potential (MTP) and demonstrate that they ...
Added: July 22, 2026
Moshkina E., Molokeev M., Zolotov A. et al., Journal of Alloys and Compounds 2026 Vol. 1077 Article 189412
A wide series of substitutions in a subsystem of small radii cations M = Al, Cr, Fe, Ga, Sc is possible in rare-earth borates ReM3(BO3)4 with the huntite structure. However, the existence of these compounds where M = Mn still raises doubts. The study presents a synthetic approach developed in the framework of the flux method allowing for the required ...
Added: June 29, 2026
Schneider M., Zaripov D., Dokin R. et al., Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation 2026 Vol. 22 No. 9 P. 4405–4414
Density functional theory (DFT) is the workhorse of modern reactions and materials modeling. While the exact functional remains unknown, many approximations to it have been constructed either by hand-crafting functional forms to satisfy exact constraints or by machine learning. In this work, we show how both of these approaches can be fused to build both ...
Added: June 26, 2026
Laurinavichyute V., Levin E. E., Mironkova A. A. et al., Surfaces and Interfaces 2026 Vol. 81 Article 108389
In this work we characterize mixed Mo-W acidic deposition solutions with Mo content ranging from 0 to 100 mol.% by Raman and UV–Vis spectroscopy. The obtained distribution diagram of mixed isopolyanions allows one to explain the observed change in film deposition rate with increase in Mo content. It was found that the initial decrease in ...
Added: June 24, 2026
Filippova A. V., Yurchenko N. Y., Smirnov S. A. et al., Journal of Alloys and Compounds 2026 No. 1074 Article 189162
This study investigates the effects of post-processing heat treatment at 300–500 °C on the microstructure, hardness, and tensile properties of laser powder bed fusion (PBF-LB) processed Al-bronze processed with energy densities (ED) in the range of 125–938 J/mm3. In the as-printed state, sharp needle-like α + β′ laths form at lower ED whereas with increasing ED, the β′ ...
Added: June 12, 2026
Obijiofor O., Novikov A., New Journal of Chemistry 2026 Vol. 50 No. 23 P. 9749–9768
Rational design of gold-based nanocarriers for neurotherapeutics requires atomic-scale understanding of drug-material interactions. Density functional theory calculations were performed to investigate levodopa (L-DOPA) adsorption on small gold clusters (Au2–Au4) with cationic, neutral, and anionic charges, with additional validation on a larger Au10 cluster using multiple low-energy isomers. Binding free energies (ΔGbind), charge transfer, and electronic descriptors ...
Added: June 3, 2026
Das A., Saikia J., Maji N. et al., ChemNanoMat 2026 Vol. 12 No. 5 Article e202500733
Developing efficient photoactive materials from bio-derived resources is vital yet challenging for achieving effective water splitting performance. In this work, nano carbon dots (CDs) of zero-dimensional (0D) were synthesized from papaya peel through a simple and eco-friendly process and subsequently anchored onto the two-dimensional (2D) layered structure of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4, GCN) at various ...
Added: June 2, 2026
Wary R. R., Mahato B., Sharma N. et al., The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 2026 Vol. 17 No. 17 P. 5099–5107
Development of heterojunction materials is an efficient approach for enhancing photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical processes. We develop a ZnO/CuO heterojunction via Cu doping into a ZnO matrix. Structural characterization confirmed that Cu was effectively incorporated into ZnO without any structural changes. The improved optical properties and reduced charge carrier recombination of the doped samples were confirmed ...
Added: June 2, 2026
Ostovari Moghaddam A., Mehrabi-Kalajahi S., Hossein Vasigh S. A. et al., The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 2026 Vol. 17 No. 13 P. 3978–3985
Water electrolysis is a key technology for sustainable energy conversion and hydrogen generation. Recently, high-entropy oxides (HEOs) have emerged as promising materials because they allow tuning of structural, electronic, and catalytic properties in multifunctional systems. Here, we report the synthesis of a multicomponent La(FeCoCuTiNiMnMgSnZn)O3 perovskite, and its hybridization with reduced graphene oxide (rGO) to form a ...
Added: June 1, 2026
Chowdhury U., Mondal S., Dey S. et al., Journal of the american chemical society 2026 Vol. 148 No. 23 P. 24538–24550
Covalent functionalization offers a versatile platform to engineer carbon nanotube properties for optoelectronics applications. We demonstrate by atomistic quantum dynamics simulation that covalent functionalization can renormalize the CNT band gap, split the degenerate CNT band edge states, and strongly influence charge carrier separation and recombination dynamics. Open-ring CNT functionalization (O-CNT) largely retains the π-conjugation, whereas ...
Added: June 1, 2026
Jiménez-Grávalos F., Alexander S. Novikov, Pendás Á. M., Communications in Computational Chemistry 2026 Vol. 8 No. 2 P. 203–210
Chalcogen bonds (ChBs) are often interpreted as 𝜎-hole driven electrostatic interactions between a chalcogen atom and a Lewis base, yet their covalent character remains under active discussion. Here, we present a real-space, reference-free study of prototypical X2Ch···X– complexes (X = F, Cl; Ch = O, S) using the Interacting Quantum Atoms (IQA) energy decomposition within ...
Added: May 27, 2026
Uskov F., Korobkov S., Birin K. P. et al., Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology A: Chemistry 2026 Vol. 474 Article 116936
Oxidation of sulfides by singlet oxygen has been extensively studied, yet the structure-photoactivity relationship of these photosensitizers remains underinvestigated. In the present work the photocatalytic performance of a set of functionalized palladium(II) porphyrinates was comprehensively investigated in the photocatalytic oxidation of sulfides to reveal mutual influence of structural peculiarities onto the photosensitizing properties. The photophysical ...
Added: May 27, 2026
Mezentsev I., Dudarova N., Druzina A. et al., Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology A: Chemistry 2026 Vol. 479 Article 117316
Novel cobalt bis(dicarbollide) based terminal alkynes with charge-compensated group in a spacer were synthesized by the nucleophilic ring-opening reactions of cyclic oxonium derivatives of cobalt bis(dicarbollide) with N,N-dimethylbut-3-yn-1-amine. A series of zwitterionic conjugates of cobalt bis(dicarbollide) with BODIPY were synthesized using the copper(I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition reaction. The absorption-emission spectra of the synthesized fluorescent conjugates of cobalt ...
Added: May 27, 2026
Sarkar R., Habib M., Kar M. et al., Nanoscale Advances 2020 Vol. 2 No. 4 P. 1502–1511
Nonradiative electron–hole (e–h) recombination is the primary source of energy loss in photovoltaic cells and inevitably, it competes with the charge transfer process, leading to poor device performance. Therefore, much attention has to be paid for delaying such processes; increasing the excitonic lifetime may be a solution for this. Using the real-time, density functional tight-binding ...
Added: November 19, 2025
Sarkar R., Habib M., Pal S. et al., Journal of Applied Physics 2021 Vol. 129 No. 2 P. 025501
Supramolecular nanohybrids composed of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and organic molecules are appealing candidates for many applications. We investigate charge separation and recombination dynamics in extended tetrathiafulvalene (exTTF), a well-known sulfur (S)-rich electron donor, immobilized on a CNT surface, and study the role of the chalcogen atom by comparing with the selenium (Se)-rich tetraselenafulvalene (exTSeF) analog. ...
Added: November 19, 2025
Sarkar R., Kar M., Habib M. et al., Journal of the american chemical society 2021 Vol. 143 No. 17 P. 6649–6656
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are appealing candidates for solar and optoelectronic applications. Traditionally used as electron sinks, CNTs can also perform as electron donors, as exemplified by coupling with perylenediimide (PDI). To achieve high efficiencies, electron transfer (ET) should be fast, while subsequent charge recombination should be slow. Typically, defects are considered detrimental to material performance ...
Added: November 19, 2025
Sarkar R., Habib M., Kovalenko S. M. et al., Journal of Physical Chemistry C 2021 Vol. 125 No. 30 P. 16620–16628
Saddle-shaped zinc porphyrin nanorings are utilized as light-harvesting materials. To achieve high performance, both fast charge transfer and slow charge recombination are required. Fast transfer favors efficient separation of exciton into free carriers, enhancing photocurrent. Slow recombination reduces charge and energy losses. We simulated both processes using time-dependent self-consistent-charge density functional tight binding theory combined ...
Added: November 19, 2025
Sarkar R., Habib M., Pal S., The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 2022 Vol. 13 No. 31 P. 7213–7219
Macromolecular porphyrin nanorings are receiving significant attention because of their excellent optoelectronic properties. However, their efficiencies as potential solar materials are significantly affected by nonradiative charge recombination. To understand the recombination mechanism by alternating structural parameters and using tight-binding nonadiabatic molecular dynamics, we demonstrate that charge recombination depends strongly on the mode of the linker ...
Added: November 19, 2025
Nguyen H. L., Do T. N., Durmusoglu E. G. et al., ACS Nano 2023 Vol. 17 No. 3 P. 2411–2420
We measure the ultrafast spectral diffusion, vibronic dynamics, and energy relaxation of a CdSe colloidal quantum wells (CQWs) system at room temperature using two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy (2DES). The energy relaxation of light-hole (LH) excitons and hot carriers to heavy-hole (HH) excitons is resolved with a time scale of ∼210 fs. We observe the equilibration dynamics ...
Added: November 19, 2025