Rational Design of Star-shaped Molecules with Benzene Core and Naphthalimide Derivatives End Groups as Organic Light-emitting Materials

A series of star-shaped molecules with benzene core and naphthalimides derivatives end groups have been designed to explore their optical,electronic,and charge transport properties as charge transport and/or luminescent materials for organic light-emitting diodes（OLEDs）. The frontier molecular orbitals（FMOs） analysis has turned out that the vertical electronic transitions of absorption and emission are characterized as intramolecular charge transfer（ICT）. The calculated results show that the optical and electronic properties of star-shaped molecules are affected by the substituent groups in N-position of 1,8-naphthalimide ring. Our results suggest that star-shaped molecules with n-butyl（1）,benzene（2）,thiophene（3）,thiophene S？,S？-dioxide（4）,benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole（5）,and 2,7a-dihydrobenzo[d]thiazole（6） fragments are expected to be promising candidates for luminescent and electron transport materials for OLEDs. This study should be helpful in further theoretical investigations on such kind of systems and also to the experimental study for charge transport and/or luminescent materials for OLEDs.

Positively charged microporous ceramic membrane for the removal of Titan Yellow through electrostatic adsorption

To develop a depth filter based on the electrostatic adsorption principle, positively charged microporous ceramic membrane was prepared from a diatomaceous earth ceramic membrane.The internal surface of the highly porous ceramic membrane was coated with uniformly distributed electropositive nano-Y2O3 coating. The dye removal performance was evaluated through pressurized filtration tests using Titan Yellow aqueous solution. It showed that positively charged microporous ceramic membrane exhibited a flow rate of 421 L/（m^2·hr） under the trans-membrane pressure of 0.03 bar. Moreover it could effectively remove Titan Yellow with feed concentration of 10 mg/L between pH 3 to 8. The removal rate increased with the enhancement of the surface charge properties with a maximum rejection of 99.6%. This study provides a new and feasible method of removing organic dyes in wastewater. It is convinced that there will be a broad market for the application of charged ceramic membrane in the field of dye removal or recovery from industry wastewater.

Effect of algal flocculation on dissolved organic matters using cationic starch modified soils

Modified soils（MSs） are being increasingly used as geo-engineering materials for the sedimentation removal of cyanobacterial blooms. Cationic starch（CS） has been tested as an effective soil modifier, but little is known about its potential impacts on the treated water.This study investigated dissolved organic matters in the bloom water after algal removal using cationic starch modified soils（CS-MSs）. Results showed that the dissolved organic carbon（DOC） could be decreased by CS-MS flocculation and the use of higher charge density CS yielded a greater DOC reduction. When CS with the charge density of 0.052, 0.102 and0.293 meq/g were used, DOC was decreased from 3.4 to 3.0, 2.3 and 1.7 mg/L, respectively.The excitation–emission matrix fluorescence spectroscopy and UV254 analysis indicated that CS-MS exhibits an ability to remove some soluble organics, which contributed to the DOC reduction. However, the use of low charge density CS posed a potential risk of DOC increase due to the high CS loading for effective algal removal. When CS with the charge density of 0.044 meq/g was used, DOC was increased from 3.4 to 3.9 mg/L. This study suggested, when CS-MS is used for cyanobacterial bloom removal, the content of dissolved organic matters in the treated water can be controlled by optimizing the charge density of CS. For the settled organic matters, other measures（e.g., capping treatments using oxygen loaded materials） should be jointly applied after algal flocculation.

Charge transfer between biogenic jarosite derived Fe^3＋ and TiO2 enhances visible light photocatalytic activity of TiO2

In this work, we have shown that mining waste derived Fe^3＋can be used to enhance the photocatalytic activity of TiO2. This will allow us to harness a waste product from the mines, and utilize it to enhance TiO2 photocatalytic waste water treatment efficiency. An organic linker mediated route was utilized to create a composite of TiO2 and biogenic jarosite. Evidence of Fe／O／Ti bonding in the TiO2/jarosite composite was apparent from the FTIR, EFTEM, EELS and ELNEFS analysis. The as prepared material showed enhanced photocatalytic activity compared to pristine TiO2, biogenic jarosite and mechanically mixed sample of jarosite and TiO2 under both simulated and natural solar irradiation. The prepared material can reduce the electrical energy consumption by 4 times compared to pristine P25 for degradation of organic pollutant in water. The material also showed good recyclability. Results obtained from sedimentation experiments showed that the larger sized jarosite material provided the surface to TiO2 nanoparticles, which increases the settling rate of the materials. This allowed simple and efficient recovery of the catalyst from the reaction system after completion of photocatalysis. Enhanced photocatalytic activity of the composite material was due to effective charge transfer between TiO2 and jarosite derived Fe^3＋as was shown from the EELS and ELNEFS. Generation of OHU was supported by photoluminesence（PL） experiments.

Ethynyl-linked perylene bisimide based electron acceptors for non-fullerene organic solar cells

In this work, star-shaped perylene bisimide（PBI） derivatives with spiro-aromatic cores linked with ethynyl units were developed as electron acceptors for non-fullerene organic solar cells. The ethynyl linkers were found to enhance the planarity of the conjugated backbone, resulting in high electron mobilities and near-infrared absorption. The ethynyl-linked PBI acceptors showed high power conversion efficiencies（PCEs） up to 4.27% due to the high short-circuit current density（Jsc） of 8.52 mA/cm^2 and fill factor（FF） of 0.59, while the PBI acceptor without ethynyl units provided a low PCE of 3.57% in nonfullerene solar cells. The results demonstrate that ethynyl units can be applied into designing new PBI electron acceptors with improved charge transport properties and photovoltaic performance.