Efficient unsymmetric disulfide formation by molecular-scale tailoring of ortho-polyquinone-based polymer photocatalyst.

Disulfide bonds, especially unsymmetric disulfide bonds, have important applications in bioactivity and drug molecules, but the synthesis of unsymmetric disulfide bonds remains challenging due to efficiency and selectivity issues. Herein, this work utilizes anthraquinone (AQ) and cyclictriphosphonononitrile through a nucleophilic substitution reaction to synthesize an organic polymer (ANTH-AMI) that incorporates an ortho-polyquinone (o-polyquinone) redox center. The anthraquinone molecule functions as a redox center, capable of accepting photoinduced electrons and subsequently transferring them to initiate an electron-coupled hydrogenation reaction (AQ to AQH). Moreover, the proximity of the o-polyquinone redox sites facilitates the catalysis of unsymmetric disulfide bond formation. Consequently, the ANTH-AMI photocatalysts demonstrate exceptional yields (up to 82 %), substrate versatility, cycling stability, and scalable preparation in promoting unsymmetric coupling reactions of thiol. This work offers a solution for designing organic polymer photocatalysts with adjacent multiple redox centers for cross-coupling reactions.

Nitrogen-Doped Graphene via In-situ Alternating Voltage Electrochemical Exfoliation for Supercapacitor Application.

Doping heteroatom, an effective way to enhance the electrochemical performances of graphene, has received wide attention, especially related to nitrogen. Alternating voltage electrochemical exfoliation, as a low cost and green electrochemical approach, has been developed to construct in-situ N-doped graphene (N-Gh) material. The N-Gh presents a much higher capacity than that of pure graphene prepared via the same method, which might be attributed to the introduction of nitrogen, which has much more effects and a disordered structure. As-prepared N-Gh exhibits a low O/C ratio that is helpful in maintaining high electrical conductivity. And the effects and disorder structure are also conductive to reduce the overlaps of graphene layers. A symmetric supercapacitor assembled with N-Gh electrodes displays a satisfactory rate behavior and long cycling stability (92.3% retention after 5,000 cycles).