Uncovering Factors Controlling Reactivity of Metal-TEMPO Reaction Systems in the Solid State and Solution.

Nitroxides find application in various areas of chemistry, and a more in-depth understanding of factors controlling their reactivity with metal complexes is warranted to promote further developments. Here, we report on the effect of the metal centre Lewis acidity on both the distribution of the O- and N-centered spin density in 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-N-oxyl (TEMPO) and turning TEMPO from the O- to N-radical mode scavenger in metal-TEMPO systems. We use Et(Cl)Zn/TEMPO model reaction system with tuneable reactivity in the solid state and solution. Among various products, a unique Lewis acid-base adduct of Cl2Zn with the N-ethylated TEMPO was isolated and structurally characterised, and the so-called solid-state 'slow chemistry' reaction led to a higher yield of the N-alkylated product. The revealed structure-activity/selectivity correlations are exceptional yet are entirely rationalised by the mechanistic underpinning supported by theoretical calculations of studied model systems. This work lays a foundation and mechanistic blueprint for future metal/nitroxide systems exploration.

Elucidation of the role of guanidinium incorporation in single-crystalline MAPbI3 perovskite on ion migration and activation energy.

Ion migration plays a significant role in the overall stability and power conversion efficiency of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). This process was found to be influenced by the compositional engineering of the A-site cation in the perovskite crystal structure. However, the effect of partial A-site cation substitution in a methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI3) perovskite on the ion migration process and its activation energy is not fully understood. Here we study the effect of a guanidinium (GUA) cation on the ion transport dynamics in the single crystalline GUAxMA1-xPbI3 perovskite composition using temperature-dependent electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). We find that the small substitution of MA with GUA decreases the activation energy for iodide ion migration in comparison to pristine MAPbI3. The presence of a large GUA cation in the 3D perovskite structure induces lattice enlargement, which perturbs the atomic interactions within the perovskite lattice. Consequently, the GUAxMA1-xPbI3 crystal exhibits a higher degree of hysteresis during current-voltage (J-V) measurements than the single-crystalline MAPbI3 counterpart. Our results provide the fundamental understanding of hysteresis, which is commonly observed in GUA-based PSCs and a general protocol for in-depth electrical characterization of perovskite single crystals.

Facile Mechanosynthesis of the Archetypal Zn-Based Metal-Organic Frameworks.

Mechanochemical methods have been successful in providing rapid access to a number of inorganic-organic functional materials under mild conditions. Recently, we demonstrated a novel mechanochemical strategy for metal-organic framework (MOF) preparation based on predesigned oxo-centered secondary building units. Herein, we develop this method for the facile preparation of the isoreticular MOF (IRMOF) family members based on a combination of an oxozinc amidate cluster, [Zn4(µ4-O)(NHOCPh)6], and selected ditopic aminoterephthalate and 4,4'-biphenyldicarboxylate as well as tritopic 1,3,5-benzenetribenzoate ligands. The resulting IRMOF-3, IRMOF-10, and MOF-177 crystalline materials were characterized using powder X-ray diffraction, IR spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and thermogravimetric analysis. We found that the character of the organic linker strongly affects the nature of the resulting MOF crystallites after activation processes. The SEM images demonstrate that IRMOF-3 formed microcrystallites in the range of 400-500 nm, while the two other materials exhibited microstructures of amorphous phases. The porosity of each sample was estimated by N2 sorption measurements at 77 K. These results provide an efficient and general method for the mechanosynthesis of Zn-based MOF materials using a predesigned oxozinc cluster.

Synthesis, structure and magnetic properties of a novel high-nuclearity oxo-carboxylate [ZnxCo13-x(µ4-O)4(O2CPh)18] cluster.

The charge-neutral bimetallic Zn(ii)/Co(ii) tridecanuclear oxocarboxylate cluster [ZnxCo13-x(µ4-O)4(O2CPh)18] (x≈ 5.6) was synthesized under anaerobic conditions by the controlled hydrolysis of an alkylzinc carboxylate [EtZn(O2CPh)] in the presence of cobalt(ii) benzoate Co(O2CPh)2. The composition and molecular structure of the resulting aggregates were solved by a combination of elemental analysis, infrared spectroscopy and single-crystal X-ray diffraction.