This review highlights the recent advances in the development of porous organic polymers (POPs) for CO2 capture, separation and conversion and evaluates their structural and textural features to outline design principles for efficient sorbents.

Synchrotron-infrared microscopy provides a non-destructive technique to investigate the chemical composition of latent fingermarks in-situ. The high spatial resolution and brightness of the synchrotron source also lends itself to the chemical characterisation of trace amounts of material on surfaces. However, only the lipid fraction of fingermark deposits is targeted when transmission-reflection is used. The fingermark lipid residues appeared to be relatively homogenous in composition across the deposit for any particular donor. No significant variation in the lipid composition as a function of age or gender of the donor was observed. Investigations into fingermark degradation were carried out by collecting spectra from fingermarks at three month intervals. An overall decrease in signal intensity was observed, ascribed to evaporation of the fingermark deposit. Greatest loss of material appeared to occur during the first 3 months following deposition. However, no significant variation in lipid composition was detected over a 9-month period. The outcomes of this study indicate that latent fingermark visualisation reagents that target lipids should produce accurate and reliable renditions of fingermarks irrespective of the age or gender of the donor, albeit with reduced sensitivity as the fingermark ages.

Dimensionality plays an important role in the charge transport properties of organic semiconductors. Although three‐dimensional semiconductors, such as Si, are common in inorganic materials, imparting electrical conductivity to covalent three‐dimensional organic polymers is challenging. Now, the synthesis of a three‐dimensional π‐conjugated porous organic polymer (3D p‐POP) using catalyst‐free Diels–Alder cycloaddition polymerization followed by acid‐promoted aromatization is presented. With a surface area of 801 m2 g−1, full conjugation throughout the carbon backbone, and an electrical conductivity of 6(2)×10−4 S cm−1 upon treatment with I2 vapor, the 3D p‐POP is the first member of a new class of permanently porous 3D organic semiconductors.

Use of C3 carbon dioxide (CO2) fixation cycle by the sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.), a dicotyledenous plant, and C4 carbon fixation cycle by 2 monocotyledenous plants, corn and cane, results in a physiological discrimination between 13C and 12C isotopes. Therefore, determination of 13C/12C ratio of maple syrup by mass spectrometry can be used to detect adulteration with cane and corn sugars. Four samples of pure maple syrup and 3 adulterated maple syrup samples were analyzed in a collaborative study. Results indicate that stable carbon isotope analysis can determine authenticity of maple products. Samples with δ13C values less negative than – 23.49%c (parts per thousand) can, with a high degree of confidence (95%), be classified as adulterated. The method has been adopted official first action.

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The preparation of 9,10-dicyanoanthracene triflates is reported. Ta king advantage of the high reactivity of these precursors in Suzuki coupling reactions, sterically hindereds ubstituents were introduced. The impact of the substituents on the crystallographic and photophysical properties was investigated. The results highlight the usefulness of the new triflate derivatives and the substituents for the development of 9,10-dicyanoanthracene-based materials.

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With the advent of silicon-baseds emiconductors, ap lethora of previously unknown technologies becamep ossible. The development of lightweightl ow-dimensional organic semiconductors followeds oon after.H owever,t he efficient charge/electron transfers enabled by the non-porous 3D structure of silicon is rather challenging to be realized by their (metal-)organic counterparts. Nevertheless, the demand for lighter,m ore efficient semiconductors is steadilyi ncreasing resulting in ag rowing interest in (metal-)organic semiconductors. These novel materials are faced with av ariety of challenges originating from their chemical design, their packinga nd crystallinity.A lthough the effect of molecular design is quite well understood, the influence of dimensionality and the associated change in properties (porosity,p acking, conjugation)i ss till an uncharted area in (metal-)organic semiconductors, yet highly important for their practical utilization. In thisM inireview,a no verview on the design and synthesis of porous semiconductors, with ap articular emphasis on organic semiconductors, is presenteda nd the influence of dimensionality is discussed.