Many compounds containing a five-membered heterocyclic ring display exceptional chemical properties and versatile biological activities. In this Minireview, thiadiazoles are summarized according to their therapeutic potential, highlighting the versatility of this scaffold in medicinal chemistry. The unique properties of thiadiazoles are also discussed in relation to their potential effect on activity. Thiadiazole is a bioisostere of pyrimidine and oxadiazole, and given the prevalence of pyrimidine in nature it is unsurprising that thiadiazoles exhibit significant therapeutic potential. The sulfur atom of the thiadiazole imparts improved liposolubility, and the mesoionic nature of thiadiazoles makes these compounds better able to cross cellular membranes. By summarizing the thiadiazole-containing compounds reported in recent decades, we aim to give a brief introduction to their synthesis and diverse biological activities, such as anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antiparasitic, anticonvulsant, anticoagulant, antidiabetic, and to show the significant utility of the thiadiazole scaffolds in medicinal chemistry.

Organic cocrystals possess valuable properties owing to the synergistic effect of the individual components. However, the growth of molecular cocrystals is still in its primary stage. Here we develop a microspacing in-air sublimation method to grow organic cocrystals, and furthermore to realize morphology control on them, which is essential for structure–property relations. A series of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)‒1,2,4,5-tetracyanobenzene (TCNB) complexes cocrystals are grown directly on the substrate, with the morphology tunable from 1D needle-like to 2D plate-like on demand. Spatially resolved photoluminescence spectra analyses on different cocrystals display morphology dependent and anisotropic optical waveguiding properties. In situ observation and energy calculations of the crystallization processes reveal the formation mechanism being from a competition between growth kinetics-defined crystal habit and the thermodynamics driving force. This growth technique may serve the future demand for tunable morphology organic cocrystals in different functional applications.

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The emergence of organic–inorganic halide perovskites has reformed the research status of optoelectronics to a great extent. The bulk single crystals of halide perovskite, which in theory reflect the intrinsic physical properties of the material, are however hard to integrate into functional devices. Just as in the case that silicon wafers have revolutionized modern industries including electronics and solar cells, the availability of perovskite crystal wafers may pave the way to functional devices. Here we designed a new settled temperature and controlled antisolvent diffusion system to precisely control all key factors that affect the supersaturation metastable zone during the crystal growth process, to grow MAPbBr3 single crystals more than 50 mm in size. Second, we fabricated MAPbBr3 single crystal wafers with different orientations, specifically, the (100), (010), (001), (110), and (111) wafers, with high crystalline quality (half-peak width of rocking curve of 60–100 arc sec). Some key parameters were measured and compared on the wafers, where the results hint that anisotropy of carrier transport may exist for this pseudocubic structure. We hope the availability of oriented single-crystal wafers can provide more scientists the materials and devices to clarify the debatable physicochemical properties and to integrate the wafers as active layers or substrates in optoelectronic devices.

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Analogues of the natural product gallinamide A were prepared to elucidate novel inhibitors of the falcipain cysteine proteases. Analogues exhibited potent inhibition of falcipain-2 (FP-2) and falcipain-3 (FP-3) and of the development of Plasmodium falciparum in vitro. Several compounds were equipotent to chloroquine as inhibitors of the 3D7 strain of P. falciparum and maintained potent activity against the chloroquine-resistant Dd2 parasite. These compounds serve as promising leads for the development of novel antimalarial agents.

Charge-to-spin conversion in various materials is the key for the fundamental understanding of spin-orbitronics and efficient magnetization manipulation. Here we report the direct spatial imaging of current-induced spin accumulation at the channel edges of Bi2Se3 and BiSbTeSe2 topological insulators as well as Pt by a scanning photovoltage microscope at room temperature. The spin polarization is along the out-of-plane direction with opposite signs for the two channel edges. The accumulated spin direction reverses sign upon changing the current direction and the detected spin signal shows a linear dependence on the magnitude of currents, indicating that our observed phenomena are current-induced effects. The spin Hall angle of Bi2Se3, BiSbTeSe2, and Pt is determined to be 0.0085, 0.0616, and 0.0085, respectively. Our results open up the possibility of optically detecting the current-induced spin accumulations, and thus point towards a better understanding of the interaction between spins and circularly polarized light.

Directional DNA transporting is realized by formation of in-plane nanomaterial heterojunction where the DNA maintains a stable helix structure. This phenomenon could guide the future studies of design of functional nano-heterojunctions for biomedical applications.