Anticancer agents that present nonapoptotic cell death pathways are required for treating apoptosis-resistant pancreatic cancer. Here, we synthesized three fluorescent dithiocarbazate–copper complexes, {[CuII(L)­(Cl)] 1, [CuII 2(L)2(NO3)2] 2, and [CuII 2CuI(L)2(Br)3] 3}, to assess their antipancreatic cancer activities. Complexes 1–3 showed significantly greater cytotoxicity toward several pancreatic cancer cell lines with better IC50 than those of the HL ligand and cisplatin. Confocal fluorescence imaging showed that complex 3 was primarily localized in the mitochondria. Primarily, compound 3 also can be applied to in vivo imaging. Further studies revealed that complex 3 kills pancreatic cancer cells by triggering multiple mechanisms, including ferroptosis. Complex 3 is the first copper complex to evoke cellular events consistent with ferroptosis in cancer cells. Finally, it significantly retarded the ASPC-1 cells’ growth in a mouse xenograft model.

For highly efficient organic solar cells (OSCs), the electron donor should possess not only a narrow band gap (E g ) but also a low highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy level. To achieve it, in this paper, we designed and synthesized a diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) derivative end capped with an ethyl thiophene-2-carboxylate moiety, 3,6-bis{5-[(ethyl thiophene-2-carboxylate)-2-yl]thiophene-2-yl}-2,5-bis(2-ethylhexyl)pyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole-1,4-dione (DPP(CT) 2 ). Through UV-vis absorption and cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurements, we demonstrated that the resulting molecule exhibits both a low optical E g of 1.65 eV and a lower-lying HOMO energy level of À5.33 eV owing to the electronegativity of the ester group and the conjugation effect of the thiophene ring. Therefore, when DPP(CT) 2 is used as the electron donor to blend with [6,6]-phenyl-C 71 -butyric acid methyl ester (PC 71 BM) for solution processable OSCs, a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 4.02% combined with an open-circuit voltage (V OC ) as high as 0.94 V and a broad photovoltaic response range extending to around 750 nm is obtained.

All solution-processed flexible large area small molecule bulk heterojunction solar cells were fabricated via roll-coating technology. Our devices were produced from slot-die coating on a lab-scale mini roll-coater under ambient conditions without the use of spin-coating or vacuum evaporation methods. Four diketopyrrolopyrrole based small molecules (SMs 1-4) were utilized as electron donors with (6,6)phenyl-C 61 -butyric acid methyl ester as an acceptor and their photovoltaic performances based on rollcoated devices were investigated. The best power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 1.01%, combined with an open circuit voltage of 0.73 V, a short-circuit current density of 3.13 mA cm À2 and a fill factor of 44% were obtained for the device with SM1, which was the first example reported for efficient roll-coating fabrication of flexible large area small molecule solar cells with PCE exceeding 1%. In addition, rollcoated devices based on SMs 2-4 also showed good performances with PCEs of 0.41%, 0.54%, and 0.31%, respectively. Our results prove that small molecules have the potential for use in industries for large scale production of efficient organic solar cells.

Three star-shaped D-A small molecules, (P-DPP)(3)TPA, (4-FP-DPP)(3)TPA, and (4-BuP-DPP)(3)TPA were designed and synthesized with triphenylamine (TPA) as the core, diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) as the arm, and unsubstituted or substituted benzene rings (phenyl, P; 4-fluoro-phenyl, 4-FP; 4-n-butyl-phenyl, 4-BuP) as the end-group. All the three small molecules show relatively narrow optical band gaps (1.68-1.72 eV) and low-lying highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy levels (-5.09∼-5.13 eV), implying that they are potentially good electron donors for organic solar cells (OSCs). Then, photovoltaic properties of the small molecules blended with [6,6]-phenyl-C(61)-butyric acid methyl ester (PC(61)BM) as electron acceptor were investigated. Among three small molecules, the OSC based on (P-DPP)(3)TPA:PCBM blend exhibits a best power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 2.98% with an open-circuit voltage (V(oc)) of 0.72 V, a short-circuit current density (J(sc)) of 7.94 mA/cm(2), and a fill factor (FF) of 52.2%, which may be ascribed to the highest hole mobility of (P-DPP)(3)TPA.

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Structures of Thg1-like proteins provide insight into the template-dependent nucleotide addition in the reverse (3′-5′) direction.

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