Non-edible biomass, a prime, renewable and abundant carbon-based alternative, can serve as a viable substitute for the sustainable production of fuels, chemicals and materials.
　　Pentanoic esters, produced from lignocellulose-derived levulinic acid (LA), have been identified as promising biofuels due to its high energy density and superior compatibility with traditional gasoline.
　　Recently, Dr. LUO Wenhao and Prof. ZHANG Tao's group from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with Professor Bert M. Weckhuysen from Utrecht University, designed a new strategy for efficient production of pentanoic biofuels.
　　The researchers synthesized well-dispersed and ultra-small Ru metal nanoclusters, confined within the micropores of zeolite Y, which provided the required active site intimacy and boosted the chemoselectivity towards the production of pentanoic biofuels in the direct, one-pot hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of neat ethyl levulinate.
　　This study was published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition on August 19th.
　　Zeolite-tailored active site proximity boosts the catalytic activity and selectivity for the direct hydrodeoxygenation of neat ethyl levulinate into pentanoic biofuels (Image by HE Jiang)
　　Instead of usually starting molecule LA, the researchers proposed a novel strategy for the direct production of pentanoic biofuels starting from neat ethyl levulinate (EL), using zeolite-supported bifunctional catalysts with confined active site proximity. They revealed that confined proximity significantly promoted the catalytic activity and selectivity to the production of pentanoic biofuels in the direct hydrodeoxygenation of neat EL.
　　In addition, They found that La modification was an efficient approach to retain the catalyst performance, owing to stabilizing the zeolite framework against deconstruction during thermocatalysis in the liquid phase.
　　Those findings extended the notion of "the closer, the better" into biomass catalysis. Such confined proximity in the zeolite cavities enabled efficiently coupling of catalytic reactions in a direct, one-pot process, which created opportunities for the practical production of pentanoic biofuels.
　　The above work was supported by National Key R&D Program of China, National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Foundation of Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics. (Text by HE Jiang)

　　Lead-free perovskite nanocrystals (NCs) with low toxicity and high stability are promising for light-emitting diode (LED) applications.
　　These lead-free perovskite NCs exhibit prominent excitonic effect.
　　Different from free excitons in lead-perovskite NCs, the self-trapped excitons (STEs) are widely observed in lead-free perovskite NCs.
　　Recently, a research team led by HAN Keli from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) published a Perspective paper about ultrafast dynamics of self-trapped excitons (STEs) in lead-free perovskite NCs.
　　This Perspective was published in J. Phys. Chem. Lett. on August 23.
　　Ultrafast dynamics of self-trapped excitons in lead-free perovskite nanocrystals (Image by YANG Bin)
　　STEs-based photoluminescence (PL) is always observed in these lead-free perovskite NCs. However, due to strong carrier-phonon coupling, most of the initially reported lead-free perovskite NCs exhibit "dark" STEs, that is, the STEs give no emission at room temperature.
　　The researchers summarized the effects of the carrier–phonon coupling strength on the photoluminescence (PL) properties of STEs. Indirect bandgap NCs exhibited much stronger carrier–phonon coupling in comparison to the direct bandgap NCs, which resulted in an ultrafast nonradiative transitions of STEs.
　　They presented the exciton energy transfer mediated by STEs to provide an efficient thermally activated delayed fluorescence and dopant PL, and illustrated the promising directions for future applications based on STEs.
　　"We hope that this work can provide a new viewpoint for researchers to understand the ultrafast dynamics of STEs and promote lead-free perovskite NCs for optoelectronic applications," said Prof. HAN.
　　This work was supported by the key research project of National Natural Science Foundation. (Text by YANG Bin)

　　High pressure, as an extreme condition, can effectively change the interaction between atoms inside the material, forcing the electronic structure and optical properties of the material to change.
　　Studying the optical and ultrafast dynamical properties of materials under pressure is helpful to understand the relationship between the structure and properties of materials.
　　Recently, Prof. YUAN Kaijun's group from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) revealed the luminescence mechanism of Cs2NaBiCl6 crystal under high pressure by using a home-made comprehensive steady-state and transient spectral characterization system.
　　This study was published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters on July 28.
　　The researchers found that the non-luminous cubic phase Cs2NaBiCl6 transforms into tetragonal phase at high pressure, which resulted in the distortion of [BiCl6]3- octahedron and produced dual-color emission self-trapped exciton fluorescence.
　　By analyzing the results of in situ high-pressure experiments and the density functional theory, they revealed that the dual-color emission was attributed to singlet self-trapped excitons (STEs) and triplet STEs, respectively.
　　Moreover, they observed the transformation of dark and bright excitons in Cs2NaBiCl6 crystal by femtosecond transient absorption experiments at different pressures.
　　"This work provides a deep understanding about the relationship between the self-trapped exciton emission and the crystal structure under pressure. It may offer a guidance for designing and preparing new lead-free double perovskites," said Prof. YUAN.
　　This work was supported by the Chemical Dynamics Research Center, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Key Technology Team of the CAS, and Liaoning Revitalization Talents Program. (Text by JIANG Jutao and SUI Laizhi)

　　Tetracyclic isochromans, a type of polyketide oligomers, are ubiquitously present in numerous natural products and bioactive molecules.
　　Recently, a group led by Prof. LI Can and Prof. LIU Yan from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) prepared a diversity of tetracyclic isochromans with high levels of diastereoselectivities and enantioselectivities by biomimetic approach.
　　This study was published in nature communications on August 16.
　　Biomimetic approach to the catalytic enantioselective synthesis of tetracyclic isochroman (Image by LIN Xiangfeng and LIU Yan)
　　Ortho-quinone methide (o-QM) is proposed to be the diene intermediate in the biosynthesis of several polyketide natural products via hetero-Diels-Alder (HDA) reaction.
　　The researchers designed a highly efficient Au(I)/chiral Sc(III) bimetallic catalytic system by mimicking the biosynthetic pathway of polyketide oligomer natural products, and achieved asymmetric HDA reaction of in-situ generated isochromene and ortho-quinonemethide (o-QM).
　　They prepared a series of chiral tetracyclic isochromans from readily available -propargyl benzyl alcohols and 2-(hydroxylmethyl) phenols under mild conditions.
　　The study demonstrated the potential utility of biomimetic synthesis in the development of reaction and expanding the limitation of substrates. It was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.(Text by LIN Xiangfeng and LIU Yan)

　　Aggregation-induced enhanced emission (AIEE) molecules, novel luminescent materials with high solid-state emission efficiencies, are important in the applications of optoelectronics, biomedical probes and chemical sensors.
　　Most aromatic AIEE molecules have complex structures consisting of multiple aromatic rings and/or polycyclic skeletons.
　　Recently, Prof. QING Guangyan's group from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) found that 2-aminophenylboronic acid (2-APBA) with a simple structure was highly emissive in the solid state. They further revealed that 2-APBA exists in a dimeric form, and the 2-APBA dimer is a novel AIEE molecule.
　　This work was published in Chemical Science on August 18.
　　The 2-APBA dimer tending to aggregate into a highly ordered structure is AIEE-active (Image by LI Xiaopei)
　　"We are glad to find that a small and simple molecule, because of the ordered aggregation, could emit extraordinary strong fluorescence with high absolute quantum yield," said Prof. QING.
　　The researchers applied 2-APBA in sensing CO2 based on its reversible AIEE fluorescence quenching and recovery, and disclosed new kind of dynamic covalent B–N and B–O bonds. They proposed a strategy to fabricate a CO2-responsive nano-gating system based on the dynamic covalent B–N and B–O bonds.
　　This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, DICP Innovation Funding, and the Liaoning Revitalization Talents Program. (Text by LI Xiaopei)

　　Recently, a research group led by Prof. XU Guowang from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) integrated nano-electrospray ionization high-resolution mass spectrometry (nanoESI DI-HRMS) with data-independent acquisition (DIA), spectral-stitching method, and capillary microsampling technology, and respectively achieved high-throughput analysis of the metabolome in large-scale clinical samples and high-throughput and high-sensitivity detection of lipidome for 20 mammalian cells.
　　These studies were published in Analytical Chemistry on July 16 and July 22.
　　Chromatography-mass spectrometry is the current mainstream technique of metabolomics analysis. However, the speed of chromatographic separation limits its application in large-scale sample analysis.
　　DI-MS, which is high-throughput, also faces the challenges of reduced sensitivity caused by ion suppression as well as difficulty in qualification and quantitation due to the lack of chromatographic separation.
　　The researchers proposed a strategy for annotation and quantitation of nontargeted metabolomics data by using a spectral-stitching DI-nESI-HRMS with DIA.
　　The qualification was fulfilled in combination with the accurate mass, the isotopic distribution, MS/MS spectrum similarity, and precursor and product ion correlation, obtaining a qualitative accuracy rate of > 94%. The quantitation was achieved in combination with precursor ions and characteristic product ions.
　　"The proposed method is stable and reliable, and takes 2-3 minutes to analyze one serum sample, suitable for high-throughput analysis of the metabolome in large-scale clinical samples," said Prof. XU.
　　On the other hand, conventional analytical methods for studying cellular metabolism usually use millions of cells. Whereas, these methods will encounter the problem for rare cells such as circulating tumor cells, primary tumor cells, stem cells.
　　The researchers proposed a novel platform by using capillary microsampling combined with online lipid extraction in a 96-well plate and high-resolution spectral stitching nanoESI DI-MS, achieving the detection of more than 500 lipids covering 19 lipid subclasses from 20 mammalian cells within 3 min.
　　The above work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Innovation Fund of DICP, and the Integration Fund of DICP-Qingdao Institute of Bioprocess Technology. (Text by XU Tianrun, Wang Lichao, and HU Chunxiu)