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Forming a dipole layer at the electron-collecting interface is a proposed method of efficiency enhancement in solar cells. Here, Nam et al. report the use of PEOz as a dipole layer, which increases the work function at the electron-collecting interface within the polymer solar cell leading to an efficiency of 10.7%.

Nature Communications doi: 10.1038/ncomms9929

Authors: Sungho Nam, Jooyeok Seo, Sungho Woo, Wook Hyun Kim, Hwajeong Kim, Donal D. C. Bradley, Youngkyoo Kim

Link up: A molecular Solomon link has been prepared by using the title reaction. This template-free approach favors the doubly interlocked [2]catenane because of multiple π–π and CH⋅⋅⋅π interactions, as evidenced by X-ray crystal structure and computational analysis.

[Communication]
Young Ho Song, Nem Singh, Jaehoon Jung, Hyunuk Kim, Eun-Hee Kim, Hae-Kap Cheong, Yousoo Kim, Ki-Whan Chi
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., December 28, 2015, DOI: 10.1002/anie.201508257. Read article

Redox-controlled guest binding: A redox-active coordination cage based on the extended tetrathiafulvalene framework could be disassembled upon oxidation and reassembled upon reduction, through drastic conformational changes. This reversible process makes it possible to control the binding and the releasing of an anionic guest.

[Communication]
Vincent Croué, Sébastien Goeb, György Szalóki, Magali Allain, Marc Sallé
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., December 22, 2015, DOI: 10.1002/anie.201509265. Read article

Nature Chemistry. doi:10.1038/nchem.2410

Authors: Salma Kassem, Alan T. L. Lee, David A. Leigh, Augustinas Markevicius & Jordi Solà

Factory assembly lines often feature robots that pick up, reposition and connect components in a programmed manner. Now, it has been shown that a molecular machine is able to pick up a cargo, reposition it, set it down and release it at a site approximately 2 nm away from the starting position.

Acid test: The fluorinated carborane acid H(CHB₁₁F₁₁) protonates CO₂ forming the proton disolvate H(CO₂)₂⁺. Traditional mixed superacids do not, so carborane acids are the strongest known acids.

[Communication]
Steven Cummings, Hrant P. Hratchian, Christopher A. Reed
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., December 14, 2015, DOI: 10.1002/anie.201509425. Read article

Molecular compressor: Self-assembled coordination cages can compress the bowl-shaped guest corannulene when encapsulated in a pillared cage. Unsubstituted corannulene was pairwise included together with naphthalene diimide, while bromocorannulene formed a defined homodimer to be accommodated.

[Communication]
Bernd M. Schmidt, Takafumi Osuga, Tomohisa Sawada, Manabu Hoshino, Makoto Fujita
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., December 09, 2015, DOI: 10.1002/anie.201509963. Read article

Dr. Daniel Beaudoin, Olivier Levasseur-Grenon, Dr. Thierry Maris and Prof. Dr. James D. Wuest

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Giant macrocyclic hydrocarbons can be obtained by a facile approach that is based on the reversible formation of carbon–carbon bonds. Extended spirobifluorene-substituted derivatives of Wittig’s hydrocarbon were synthesized and found to undergo oligomerization, leading to the largest hydrocarbon that has been crystallized and characterized by X-ray diffraction to date.

C Bond Formation">Read more now

Wenyang Dai, Feng Shao, Jacek Szczerbiński, Ryan McCaffrey, Prof. Dr. Renato Zenobi, Dr. Yinghua Jin, Prof. Dr. A. Dieter Schlüter and Prof. Dr. Wei Zhang

On the edge: A large, two-dimensional, covalently bound organic monolayer was synthesized through dynamic imine chemistry at the air/water interface. The imine-linked chemical structure of the aromatic monolayer was characterized by tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) and further supported by density functional theory (DFT) simulations.

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Nature Chemistry. doi:10.1038/nchem.2398

Authors: Philip J. M. Johnson, Alexei Halpin, Takefumi Morizumi, Valentyn I. Prokhorenko, Oliver P. Ernst & R. J. Dwayne Miller

The isomerization of the retinal chromophore of rhodopsin is the photochemical process that initiates the sense of vision. Now, heterodyne-detected transient grating spectroscopy has been used to resolve coherent vibrational dynamics during this process, helping to identify strictly local vibrational motions as the origin of the coherent surface crossing, which occurs on a sub-50-fs timescale.

Nature Chemistry. doi:10.1038/nchem.2392

Authors: Hao Li, Huacheng Zhang, Aaron D. Lammer, Ming Wang, Xiaopeng Li, Vincent M. Lynch & Jonathan L. Sessler

Purely organic molecules with complex interlocked architectures have proved difficult to prepare in water. Now, a three-dimensional organic [2]catenane has been obtained in a weakly acidic aqueous solution, through an almost quantitative self-assembly process relying on dynamic hydrazone linkages. The catenane is kinetically stable in neutral and weakly basic environments.

A double cone: A synthetic route is developed to give a double-cone shaped six-membered pyrene macrocycle, thus extending the aromatic system of the cyclohexa-m-phenylene.

[Communication]
Dominik Lorbach, Ashok Keerthi, Teresa Marina Figueira-Duarte, Martin Baumgarten, Manfred Wagner, Klaus Müllen
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., November 06, 2015, DOI: 10.1002/anie.201508180. Read article

In a state of flux: When an α-cyclodextrin was capped covalently with a hexaphyrin(1.1.1.1.1.1) derivative (see structure), the 26 and 28 π-electron oxidation states of the planar hexaphyrin unit were interconvertible, thus affording a rare switchable aromatic–antiaromatic system. The hexaphyrin cap with a rectangular conformation appeared to rotate above the cyclodextrin through a short-side-to-long-side shape-shifting mechanism.

[Communication]
Mickaël Ménand, Matthieu Sollogoub, Bernard Boitrel, Stéphane Le Gac
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., October 30, 2015, DOI: 10.1002/anie.201508009. Read article.