[en] Highlights: • Bimetallic Au-Cu/Au-Cu sosoloid nanocrystals embedded in glass have been synthesized. • We achieved good size control of the nanocrystals. • The glasses with bimetallic nanoparticles exhibit enhanced for NLO. • The mechanisms on the nonlinear effects of the obtained glasses are discussed. - Abstract: Bimetallic gold-copper and gold-copper solid solutions nanocrystals (NCs) with orthorhombic morphologies were successfully embedded in sodium borosilicate glass; these materials were fabricated via a facile and synthetic sol-gel technique. Microstructural investigations demonstrate that the Au-Cu intermetallic nanostructure is generated in the glass host. Z-scan technique was applied to reveal the third-order nonlinear optical properties of the as-obtained glasses at the wavelength of 800 nm. The as-synthesized glasses exhibit similar nonlinear behaviors with reverse saturation absorption effects and self-focusing performances. The third-order nonlinear susceptibility χ⁽³⁾ values were optimized by tuning the sizes of the Au-Cu NCs. The χ⁽³⁾ of Au-Cu(1), Au-Cu(2) and Au-Cu(3) measured to be 3.1 × 10⁻¹², 5.4 × 10⁻¹², and 4.4 × 10⁻¹² esu for the single-pulse energy of 1 μJ. We have discussed the nonlinear optical mechanism of Au-Cu sodium borosilicate glass that may be due to the quantum confinement effects and surface plasmon resonance effects.

[en] Highlights: • Luminescence of Mn⁴⁺:YAG red phosphor was enhanced via Zn²⁺ doping. • Mn⁴⁺/Zn²⁺:YAG GC was successfully prepared via one-step low temperature co-sintering technique. • A series of lighting device was achieved by coupling the Mn⁴⁺/Zn²⁺:YAG GC with the commercial blue chips and Ce³⁺:LuAG GC. - Abstract: The rare-earth-free Mn⁴⁺-activated oxide red phosphors draw great attention for their potential applications in the field of light-emitting diodes (LEDs). In this work, the red-emitting Mn⁴⁺/Zn²⁺:Y₃Al₅O₁₂ phosphor, showing strong red emission peaked at ∼ 672 nm as a result of the spin-forbidden ²E_2g → ⁴A_2g electron transition of Mn⁴⁺ ions under 478 nm excitation, was synthesized by a traditional solid-state reaction route in air. The microstructure and luminescent performance of this red-emission phosphor was investigated in detail. From the experimentally measured spectroscopic data, the crystal field strength (Dq) and the Racah parameters B and C were calculated, respectively. In addition, Zn²⁺ dopant was found to be beneficial for enhancing Mn⁴⁺ luminescence. Subsequently, Mn⁴⁺/Zn²⁺:YAG glass ceramic was successfully prepared via using Mn⁴⁺/Zn²⁺:YAG phosphors incorporated into tellurate glass. A tunable lighting device was successfully achieved by coupling the red-emitting Mn⁴⁺/Zn²⁺:YAG GC with the commercial blue chips and Ce³⁺:Lu₃Al₅O₁₂ GC.

[en] Highlights: • A stable carbazole-bearing porous organic polymer was successfully prepared to fabricate an electrochemical aptasensor. • The biosensor shows a low limit of detection of 0.32 pg·mL⁻¹ for detecting penicillin. • The electrochemical aptasensor can detect penicillin in various real samples. A carbazole-bearing porous organic polymer (POP) was successfully prepared by an efficient Friedel − Crafts coupling reaction of 2,4,6-tri(9H-carbazol-9-yl)-1,3,5-triazine and 2,4,6-tris(bromomethyl)mesitylene. The as-synthesized POP can load aptamers to fabricate an electrochemical aptasensor because of its high surface area, outstanding stability, and extended π-conjugation structure, which can rapidly monitor penicillin (PCL) with excellent sensitivity, high selectivity, fine reproducibility, and good stability. More importantly, the POP-based aptasensor can precisely detect trace PCL in various real samples.

[en] Highlights: • A ferriporphyrin-based porous organic framework was prepared successfully. • The aptasensor can detect ultra-trace oxytetracycline even in real samples. • The biosensor exhibits outstanding selectivity, high stability and available reproducibility. A ferriporphyrin-based porous organic framework (Fe-PPOF) was successfully synthesized via the Sonogashira coupling reaction. By reason of high surface area, extended π-conjugation skeleton and excellent stability, Fe-PPOF can efficiently immobilize aptamers to fabricate an electrochemical aptasensor for detecting ultra-trace oxytetracycline (OTC) with the low limitation of detection of 2.05 fg·mL⁻¹. Meanwhile, this biosensor exhibits high selectivity, good stability and available reproducibility. More importantly, the Fe-PPOF-based electrochemical aptasensor can quantitatively detect OTC in real samples.

[en] Highlights: • A porous Cd-organic framework is synthesized successfully. • This MOF can selective adsorption of CO₂ over CH₄ and catalyze the CO₂ cycloaddition reaction. • It exhibits different sorption abilities of benzene, toluene, m, o, p-xylene. With the rapid development of population and industry all over the world, extensive use of fossil fuels leads to carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions with a series of thorny problems. In addition, benzene, toluene, m, o, p-xylene are commonly used organic solvents. The separation and purification is an important change in modern industrials. In this work, a two-dimensional (2D) porous metal-organic framework (MOF), [Cd₂(DCBA)·(H₂O)₃]·2DEF, H₄DCBA​=​4″,6′-diamino-5′,5″-bis(4-carboxyphenyl)-[1,1’:3′,1’’:3″,1‴-quaterphenyl]-4,4‴-dicarboxylic acid, DEF​=​N,N-diethylformamide), is successfully prepared by the solvothermal method. The as-synthesized sample has a rare occurrence of 5-connected mononuclear [CdO₂(CO₂)₂N] secondary building unit (SBU), which performs commendable selectivity for CO₂ over CH₄ at 273 and 298​K under 1​atm. In addition, the porous structure, preferable CO₂ adsorbability and open Cd(II) site can provide a platform to catalyze the CO₂ cycloaddition reaction with good recyclability. Meanwhile, this MOF exhibits different sorption abilities of benzene, toluene, m, o, p-xylene.

[en] Highlights: • An azobenzene-containing porous organic framework is synthesized successfully. • The azobenzene-containing POF material has high surface area and excellent stability. • It exhibits a reversible stimuli-responsive CO₂ adsorption property triggered by UV irradiation and heat treatment. An azobenzene-containing porous organic framework (POF) was rationally designed and synthesized via Sonogashira-Hagihara coupling reaction. By virtue of high porous skeleton and azobenzene as light responsive group, this task-specific POF exhibits the reversible stimuli-responsive adsorption property triggered by UV irradiation and heat treatment. The initial Brunauer-Emmet-Teller (BET) surface area of this porous material is 571​m²​g⁻¹, while the BET surface area after UV irradiation decreases to 550​m²​g⁻¹ along with the reduction of micropores around 0.5​nm and 1.3​nm during the trans to cis isomerization process. Furthermore, CO₂ sorption isotherms show a slight decrease, which is caused by the trans to cis conversion of azobenzene side group. It is worth mentioning that CO₂ uptakes of POFs are almost constant for three cycles via alternating external stimuli to confirm the excellently reversible switchability of trans-to-cis isomerization.