Samir Kumar Nayak, Khushboo Bhardwaj, P K Verma, Sharma S R K C Yamijala
{"title":"Plasmon-Induced Degradation of Short-Chain PFAS by Noble Metal Nanoclusters.","authors":"Samir Kumar Nayak, Khushboo Bhardwaj, P K Verma, Sharma S R K C Yamijala","doi":"10.1021/acs.jpclett.5c01683","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.5c01683","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are widely used in industry and consumer products due to their unique physical and chemical properties. However, due to their toxicity and environmental persistence, the production of long-chain PFAS such as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) has been systematically phased out. Instead, short-chain PFAS have been widely used as replacements for long-chain PFAS. However, recent studies indicate that even short-chain PFAS can be toxic to the environment. Despite numerous attempts, complete degradation of these short-chain PFAS has not yet been achieved, leaving room for further exploration. In this work, we explored the potential of plasmonic silver (Ag) and gold (Au) nanoclusters (NCs) in the complete degradation of short-chain PFAS. By considering icosahedral Ag<sub>55</sub> and Au<sub>55</sub> NCs, as well as different types of PFAS, we present a thorough study of plasmon-induced processes for NC-PFAS complexes. Among different decay channels, our study focuses on plasmon decay through the direct hot electron transfer (DHET) and direct hot hole transfer (DHHT) pathways from NC to PFAS. Our calculations reveal that DHET is more probable in Ag-PFAS complexes and DHHT is more probable in Au-PFAS complexes. Furthermore, among all complexes, the Ag-PFBS complex exhibits the highest DHET with a total probability of 10%. Our Ehrenfest molecular dynamics simulations show that the PFAS in Ag-PFAS complexes undergo efficient degradation in the presence of these hot carriers, albeit at different rates.</p>","PeriodicalId":62,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters","volume":" ","pages":"8046-8055"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2025-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144751890","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Multifunctional Pentafluorobenzoic Acid Boosts the Efficiency and Stability for Tin Halide Perovskite Solar Cells.","authors":"Yong Guo,Miao Zhang,Junke Liu,Cheng Wu,Pengyu Yan,Jialin Du,Liming Ding,Feng Hao","doi":"10.1021/acs.jpclett.5c01921","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.5c01921","url":null,"abstract":"Tin halide perovskite solar cells (TPSCs) have made remarkable breakthroughs in photovoltaic performance recently. However, the Sn2+/Sn4+ oxidation has limited the stability of TPSCs, which is related to many factors, including film crystallinity, hydrophobicity, etc. In this work, we report a multifunctional molecule of pentafluorobenzoic acid (PFBA) as an additive into tin halide perovskite to enhance the stability. The carboxyl and hydroxyl groups in PFBA effectively acted with SnI2 through Lewis acid-base addition and hydrogen bonding, respectively, which effectively regulated the crystallization process of tin halide perovskite and reduced the lattice stress, thus avoiding defect-induced recombination centers in TPSCs. In addition, the hydrophobicity of the -F functional group in PFBA was conducive to improving the hydrophobicity of the tin halide perovskite film, thus alleviating the invasion of water and oxygen. Finally, the target device with PFBA obtained a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 11.59% and maintained 88.00% of the initial PCE after aging 1500 h in a N2 glovebox.","PeriodicalId":62,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters","volume":"96 1","pages":"8007-8013"},"PeriodicalIF":6.475,"publicationDate":"2025-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144748032","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Konstantin Davydov, Daochen Long, Jack A Tavakley, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Ke Wang
{"title":"Stability Diagram of Layer-Polarized Quantum Hall States in Twisted Trilayer Graphene.","authors":"Konstantin Davydov, Daochen Long, Jack A Tavakley, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Ke Wang","doi":"10.1021/acs.jpclett.5c01221","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.5c01221","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In the twisted trilayer graphene (tTLG) platform, the rich beating patterns between the three graphene layers give rise to a plethora of new length scales and reconstructed electronic bands arising from the emergent moiré and moiré-of-moiré superlattices. The coexisting lattices and superlattices interact and compete with each other to determine the overall transport properties of tTLG, the hierarchy of which can be electrostatically controlled by tuning the out-of-plane charge distribution or layer polarization. In this work, we measure the stability diagram of layer-polarized quantum Hall states in tTLG by systematically mapping out layer-specific Chern numbers in each layer and intra- and interlayer Chern transitions as a function of displacement field <i>D</i> and total carrier density <i>n</i>. In contrast to twisted bilayer systems, the rich interplay between the three atomic layers gives rise to a complex layer-polarized stability diagram with unconventional transport features that evolve rapidly with electric and magnetic fields. The stability diagram quantitatively characterizes the interlayer screening and charge distribution in tTLG with implication of strong interatomic-layer Coulomb coupling. Our work provides comprehensive guidance and insights into predicting and controlling layer-polarization and interlayer transitions in tTLG, and for tuning the individual role and interactions of each participating constituent toward novel material properties.</p>","PeriodicalId":62,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters","volume":" ","pages":"7990-7997"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2025-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144740609","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Somnath Biswas,Ruyan Zhao,Dwight S Seferos,Gregory D Scholes
{"title":"Higher Order Polaronic-Exciton Recombination in Two-Dimensional Dion-Jacobson-Type Perovskites.","authors":"Somnath Biswas,Ruyan Zhao,Dwight S Seferos,Gregory D Scholes","doi":"10.1021/acs.jpclett.5c01620","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.5c01620","url":null,"abstract":"Understanding electronic and structural factors governing non-radiative recombination is key to developing hybrid low-dimensional materials for light-emitting applications. Here, we demonstrate that the ultrafast (0.6-5 ps) biexcitonic Auger process is the dominant exciton recombination pathway that occurs within the sub-picosecond to few picoseconds in two-dimensional Dion-Jacobson (2D DJ) hybrid perovskites. Studying two DJ perovskites with polaronic character and different exciton-phonon coupling, we reveal that ultrafast non-radiative recombination rates are primarily governed by strong exciton-phonon coupling and dielectric confinement in these materials. The third-order recombination rate reflects the interplay among exciton-phonon coupling, lattice distortion, band gap, and exciton binding energy. We show that Auger recombination occurs well below the Mott density in these 2D materials. We therefore establish a lower bound of 1.3 × 1019 cm-3 for the Mott density, much higher than that of three-dimensional (3D) perovskites. This work highlights the intrinsically ultrafast higher order recombination of polaronic-excitons in 2D DJ perovskites, emphasizing their unique excitonic properties and fundamental differences from conventional 3D systems.","PeriodicalId":62,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters","volume":"1 1","pages":"7998-8006"},"PeriodicalIF":6.475,"publicationDate":"2025-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144737275","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Symmetric Ligand Binding Pathways and Dual-State Bottleneck in [NiFe] Hydrogenases from Unbiased Molecular Dynamics.","authors":"Farzin Sohraby, Ariane Nunes-Alves","doi":"10.1021/acs.jpclett.5c01673","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.5c01673","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>[NiFe] hydrogenases make up a family of enzymes that can be used to produce biofuel, thus making them important for industrial applications. In this work, we utilized unbiased molecular dynamics simulations to capture binding and unbinding events of the substrate, H<sub>2</sub>, to and from the [NiFe] hydrogenases from two different organisms. We obtained multiple (un)binding events and reproduced experimental association rate constants. We observed symmetry between the binding and unbinding pathways used by H<sub>2</sub> to access and leave the catalytic site. Moreover, we found that the main bottleneck for ligand binding, the distance between residues V74 and L122, can shift between two states with different bottleneck widths, a feature which can be exploited to modulate the access of small molecules to the catalytic site. The pathway probabilities presented here can be used to benchmark enhanced sampling methods which investigate protein-ligand binding.</p>","PeriodicalId":62,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters","volume":" ","pages":"7960-7967"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2025-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144740610","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yang Zhang,Jiao Li,Guoxia Gou,Ruru Wei,Dongping Chen,Peifeng Su,Wei Wu
{"title":"Valence Bond Wave-Function-Based Automatic Diabatization Approach.","authors":"Yang Zhang,Jiao Li,Guoxia Gou,Ruru Wei,Dongping Chen,Peifeng Su,Wei Wu","doi":"10.1021/acs.jpclett.5c01643","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.5c01643","url":null,"abstract":"In this work, an automatic diabatization approach based on valence-bond (VB) wave functions, called VBADA, is proposed. Compared with the original VB based diabatization implementation [Zhang, Y.; et al. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2020, 11, 5295-5301; Zhang, Y.; et al. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2021, 12, 1885-1892], VBADA introduces two critical advancements: (1) the improved framework enables rigorous treatment of three-state diabatization, and (2) it relies on VB adiabatic wave functions rather than explicit Hamiltonian matrix operations. These are achieved by a novel criterion, which maximizes both the diversity of adiabatic VB wave functions and the trace of the adiabatic-to-diabatic (ATD) transformation matrix. The diabatic representations of two prototype hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) reactions, including Na + H2 → NaH + H and H + HCl → Cl + H2, is studied by employing VBADA. The computational results demonstrate that VBADA enables rigorous construction of three-state diabatic state, with benchmark validation showing exact numerical equivalence to conventional VB based diabatization implementation in two-state systems.","PeriodicalId":62,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters","volume":"31 1","pages":"7921-7928"},"PeriodicalIF":6.475,"publicationDate":"2025-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144720315","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
M Rams-Baron,A Błażytko,M Matussek,P Lodowski,A Radoń,M Paluch
{"title":"Onset and Morphological Evolution of Cooperativity in Glass-Forming Liquids Composed of Anisotropically Shaped Molecules.","authors":"M Rams-Baron,A Błażytko,M Matussek,P Lodowski,A Radoń,M Paluch","doi":"10.1021/acs.jpclett.5c01863","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.5c01863","url":null,"abstract":"Many theories attribute the dramatic slowdown in glass-forming liquid dynamics to a transition from independent to cooperative molecular motion. Although the concept of cooperative rearranging regions (CRRs) is well established, the microscopic nature of these regions and their evolution upon cooling remain subjects of active investigation. Molecules with anisotropic shapes offer a new perspective, as molecular reorientations along their long and short axes act as distinct and complementary probes of emerging cooperativity. Here, we introduce model molecules with tailored dipole orientations and demonstrate that the temperature-dependent evolution of a bimodal dielectric response captures the transition from independent to cooperative dynamics. This clear spectroscopic signature marks a significant advance in our understanding of how cooperativity emerges and evolves in glass-forming systems. Upon cooling, CRRs adopt increasingly compact morphologies, leading to a reduction in effective shape anisotropy. This transition from anisotropic to isotropic CRR geometries reveals previously unrecognized mechanisms by which anisotropy becomes suppressed during vitrification.","PeriodicalId":62,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters","volume":"1 1","pages":"7953-7959"},"PeriodicalIF":6.475,"publicationDate":"2025-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144737321","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hridip Sarma,Jhonatan S Puelles,Shebin K Joby,Anthony Somers,Maria Forsyth,Steve Rowlands,Baozhi Yu,Paul M Bayley,Fangfang Chen,Luke A O'Dell
{"title":"Adsorption of Fluorinated Ether Electrolyte Solvent Molecules on Boron Nitride Nanosheets Studied by Solid-State NMR and Computational Methods.","authors":"Hridip Sarma,Jhonatan S Puelles,Shebin K Joby,Anthony Somers,Maria Forsyth,Steve Rowlands,Baozhi Yu,Paul M Bayley,Fangfang Chen,Luke A O'Dell","doi":"10.1021/acs.jpclett.5c01962","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.5c01962","url":null,"abstract":"Boron nitride has recently been shown to play advantageous roles in lithium battery performance through its use as an electrolyte additive. However, its interactions with the electrolyte species remain poorly understood. In this work, a combination of solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and computational simulations has been used to probe the adsorption of a fluorinated electrolyte solvent molecule onto the surface of boron nitride nanosheets. 19F magic angle spinning NMR spectra obtained from a sample of BN nanosheets wetted with a 1,1,2,2-tetrafluoroethyl 2,2,3,3-tetrafluoropropyl ether (TTE)-based electrolyte show asymmetric peak shapes that stem from ring current effects arising from the aromatic nature of the BN sheets, which, along with computational analysis, provide information on the orientation of this solvent molecule when adsorbed on the BN surface.","PeriodicalId":62,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters","volume":"13 1","pages":"7968-7975"},"PeriodicalIF":6.475,"publicationDate":"2025-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144737324","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Xin Hu,Wei Cheng,Xin Zhang,Tianyi Wang,Shaoheng Cheng,Nan Gao,Hongdong Li
{"title":"One-Step Exsolution Strategy for the Reconstruction of the RuO2/La0.9Fe0.92Ru0.08O3 Composite for the Enhanced Oxygen Evolution Reaction.","authors":"Xin Hu,Wei Cheng,Xin Zhang,Tianyi Wang,Shaoheng Cheng,Nan Gao,Hongdong Li","doi":"10.1021/acs.jpclett.5c01769","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.5c01769","url":null,"abstract":"The noble metal oxide RuO2 is an efficient catalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and its catalytic activity can be significantly improved by Ru exsolution and subsequent oxidation to RuO2 nanoparticles on the perovskite surface. Conventional methods typically require sequential H2/Ar reduction for Ru exsolution followed by oxidation, which complicates the process and introduces potential safety hazards. Herein, we propose introducing nanodiamond (ND) into La0.9Fe0.92Ru0.08O3 (LFR) gels for ambient calcination. ND facilitates Ru exsolution and oxidation to RuO2, significantly simplifying RuO2/LFR preparation. The ND-modified RuO2/LFR exhibits high OER activity, achieving an overpotential of 275 mV at 10 mA cm-2 and a Tafel slope of 48.16 mV decade-1. This Tafel slope represents a 50% reduction compared to that of pure RuO2. Furthermore, the catalyst retains 84% of its initial current density after 24 h. Our work provides insight into enhancing electrocatalytic activity by a one-step in situ exsolution of metal oxides.","PeriodicalId":62,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters","volume":"59 1","pages":"7944-7952"},"PeriodicalIF":6.475,"publicationDate":"2025-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144720278","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Benign Hydrogen Vacancy in Bromide-Based Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Perovskites.","authors":"Shi-Yao Liu,Xingxing Jiang,Bing-Bin Li,Zhen-Kun Tang,Chuan-Jia Tong","doi":"10.1021/acs.jpclett.5c02036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.5c02036","url":null,"abstract":"Bromide-based organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites (OIHPs) have emerged as one of the outstanding photovoltaic materials. We demonstrate using density functional theory and nonadiabatic molecular dynamics simulations that detrimental hydrogen vacancy (VH) in iodide-based OIHPs turns out to be benign in bromide-based OIHPs. Benign VH in MAPbBr3 [MA = CH3NH3] is mainly attributed to the absence of deep trap states. Although the VH in FAPbBr3 [FA = HC(NH2)2] has been demonstrated to be a deep-level defect, its remarkably high formation energy and low total capture coefficient (7.69 × 10-13 cm3 s-1), associated with the weak electron-phonon coupling and efficient thermal excitation, effectively suppress the nonradiative charge recombination. As a result, the long charge carrier lifetime of FAPbBr3 can be maintained. These findings reveal the intrinsic advantage owing to benign VH in bromide-based OIHPs and provide critical theoretical insights for minimizing nonradiative charge losses.","PeriodicalId":62,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters","volume":"26 1","pages":"7976-7983"},"PeriodicalIF":6.475,"publicationDate":"2025-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144737320","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}