Spotlights Cite This: J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2019, 141, 6109−6109
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J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2019.141:6109-6109. Downloaded from pubs.acs.org by 81.22.47.224 on 04/17/19. For personal use only.
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IMPROVED CONDUCTIVITY IN SOLID ELECTROLYTES THROUGH METAL−ORGANIC FRAMEWORKS Metal and metal ion batteries are popular and competitive energy storage technologies that offer high volumetric capacity, relatively high voltages, and the ability to be cycled up to 1000 times. The current industry standard employs liquid electrolytes that suffer in the areas of lifetime, safety, and efficiency. Solid electrolytes present a desirable alternative in terms of safety and stability, but they can suffer from low conductivity and poor interfacial contact between the electrode and the electrolyte. Mircea Dincă and co-workers have developed a metal−organic framework (MOF) that offers significant conductivity improvements for solid electrolytes (DOI: 10.1021/jacs.8b13418). The authors employ a copper azolate MOF to control the identity, geometry, and distribution of mobile cationic sites. This structure enables closely packed cation hopping sites resulting in excellent conductivity for Mg2+ and Li+. The MOF also provides a high surface area that provides a high density of mobile cations and binding sites. This lays the groundwork for a versatile template for application-directed design of solid electrolytes through a wide variety of combinations of mobile cations and immobilized anions. Dalia Yablon, Ph.D.
PLAYING WITH FIRE RECOVERS AN UNUSUAL CARBON COMPOUND Carbon fullerenes are fascinating molecules whose cage structure holds the possibility for unconventional molecular bonding. Since the initial discovery of buckminsterfullerene, with its famous soccer-ball pattern, a number of other variants have been found. Although fullerenes spontaneously occur in nature from origins as simple as candle soot, a method known as combustion synthesis now allows for making relatively pure fullerenes in bulk. Following this method of burning a hydrocarbon and oxygen mixture at low pressure, Qianyan Zhang, Sun-Liu Deng, SuYuan Xie, and co-workers retrieved a new class of fullerene cages known as C66H4 (DOI: 10.1021/jacs.9b01638). Unknown until recently, C66H4 is a form of carbon with 66 carbon atoms, arranged as two heptagons with fused pentagons to form a hollow cage. This renders the molecule symmetrical and offers better thermostability and more stable covalent C− H bonds with respect to other benchmark fullerenes. Due to fullerene’s appealing physical, photochemical, and electrochemical properties, C66H4 may be a great starting point for further research across a broad spectrum of chemical disciplines. Lucka Bibic
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NEW INFLAMMATION WARFARE TOOL FOR MRI SCANS Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) gives researchers and clinicians a detailed but selective view inside the body, providing valuable information about processes such as blood flow. Neuroscientists have long used that information to relate blood flow to brain activity. For decades, researchers have also tried to develop substances they could release into the body to provoke and track biochemical reactions. Now, Eric M. Gale and co-workers report the design of an iron complex that oxidizes in the presence of biological inflammatory molecules and is much easier to detect via MRI than other proposed contrast agents, such as gadolinium- or manganese-based agents (DOI: 10.1021/jacs.9b00603). The authors injected the iron complex Fe-PyC3A in pancreatic tissue in mice and compared the MRI scans after Fe-PyC3A injections to those after saline injections. In mice with inflammations, reactive oxygen molecules oxidized the Fe2+-PyC3A complexes to Fe3+-PyC3A, which has an order of magnitude higher relaxivity, making it more easily detectable via MRI than a gadolinium-based agent. Iron is a promising contrast agent for biomedicine because it is nontoxic in humans. The authors also report that both the original and oxidized iron complexes can endure for the necessary time inside the body. Lucas Laursen © 2019 American Chemical Society
Published: April 17, 2019 6109
DOI: 10.1021/jacs.9b03757 J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2019, 141, 6109−6109
