A chameleon under pressure: The observed piezochromic behavior of the title compound (BP2VA) was found to depend on its molecular aggregation state and specifically on the strength of the π–π interaction between the anthracene rings of adjacent molecules. When BP2VA is ground or placed under pressure, its molecular aggregation state changes, and a red shift in the fluorescence emission from green via orange to red occurs (see picture).

The proper energy band structure and excellent visible-light responses enable halide perovskites as potential photocatalysts for CO 2 reduction, but the conversion efficiency is still low due to the serious radiative recombination, low CO 2 capturing ability, and poor stability. Here we illustrate the design and synthesis of a halide perovskite@metal−organic framework (MOF) composite photocatalyst with enhanced CO 2 reduction activity. A facile in situ synthetic procedure is employed to directly grow a zinc/cobalt-based zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF) coating on the surface of CsPbBr 3 quantum dots. The CsPbBr 3 @ZIF composite shows largely improved moisture stability, CO 2 capturing ability, and charge separation efficiency. Moreover, the catalytic active Co centers in ZIF-67 can further accelerate the charge separation process and activate the adsorbed CO 2 molecules, which leads to enhanced catalytic activity for gaseous CO 2 reduction. This work would provide new insight for designing excellent perovskite/MOF-based catalysts.

Measuring the energy intake (kcal) of a person in day-to-day life is difficult. The best laboratory tool achieves 95 % accuracy on average, while tools used in daily living typically achieve 60–80 % accuracy. This paper describes a new method for measuring intake via automated tracking of wrist motion. Our method uses a watch-like device with a micro-electro-mechanical gyroscope to detect and record when an individual has taken a bite of food. Two tests of the accuracy of our device in counting bites found that our method has 94 % sensitivity in a controlled meal setting and 86 % sensitivity in an uncontrolled meal setting, with one false positive per every 5 bites in both settings. Preliminary data from daily living indicates that bites measured by the device are positively related to caloric intake illustrating the potential of the device to monitor energy intake. Future research should seek to further explore the relationship between bites taken and kilocalories consumed to validate the device as an automated measure of energy intake.

This paper is motivated by the growing prevalence of obesity, a health problem affecting over 500 million people. Measurements of energy intake are commonly used for the study and treatment of obesity. However, the most widely used tools rely upon self-report and require a considerable manual effort, leading to underreporting of consumption, noncompliance, and discontinued use over the long term. The purpose of this paper is to describe a new method that uses a watch-like configuration of sensors to continuously track wrist motion throughout the day and automatically detect periods of eating. Our method uses the novel idea that meals tend to be preceded and succeeded by the periods of vigorous wrist motion. We describe an algorithm that segments and classifies such periods as eating or noneating activities. We also evaluate our method on a large dataset (43 subjects, 449 total h of data, containing 116 periods of eating) collected during free-living. Our results show an accuracy of 81% for detecting eating at 1-s resolution in comparison to manually marked event logs of periods eating. These results indicate that vigorous wrist motion is a useful indicator for identifying the boundaries of eating activities, and that our method should prove useful in the continued development of body-worn sensor tools for monitoring energy intake.

A novel divinylanthracene derivative 9,10-bis((E)-2-(pyridin-4-yl)vinyl)anthracene (BP4VA) was synthesized and its two polymorphs with different crystal structures were obtained. The introduction of pyridine in BP4VA leads to multi-stimuli responsive fluorescence. An investigation of the photophysical and stimuli responsive luminescent properties of BP4VA, including the piezochromism and protonation effect, demonstrates that the piezochromic luminescence originates from changes in the molecular aggregation state. Additionally, protonation-deprotonation of the pyridine moieties in BP4VA has a significant effect on the frontier molecular orbitals, resulting in distinct green and red emissions under acid and base stimuli. This study on BP4VA provides a comprehensive insight into the mechanisms within this type of stimuli-responsive luminescent material, and suggests that BP4VA may be a potential candidate for applications in sensing, detection and display devices with remarkable color-changing properties.

Cross dipole stacking based on a novel fluorescent molecule, 9,10-bis (2,2-diphenylvinyl) anthracene (BDPVA), is presented. The butterfly-like structure of BDPVA is the key feature to form the unique aggregation structure and such a stacking mode is highly beneficial for fluorescence emission, resulting in high-performance amplified spontaneous emission and electroluminescence of BDPVA.

Engineering non-noble metal-based electrocatalysts with superior water oxidation performance is highly desirable for the production of renewable chemical fuels. Here, an atomically thin low-crystallinity Fe-Mn-O hybrid nanosheet grown on carbon cloth (Fe-Mn-O NS/CC) is successfully synthetized as an efficient oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalyst. The synthesis strategy involves a facile reflux reaction and subsequent low-temperature calcination process, and the morphology and composition of hybrid nanosheets can be tailored conveniently. The defect-rich Fe-Mn-O ultrathin nanosheet with uniform element distribution enables exposure of more catalytic active sites; moreover, the atomic-scale synergistic action of Mn and Fe oxide contributes to an enhanced intrinsic catalytic activity. Therefore, the optimized Fe-Mn-O hybrid nanosheets, with lateral sizes of about 100-600 nm and ≈1.4 nm in thickness, enable a low onset potential of 1.46 V, low overpotential of 273 mV for current density of 10 mA cm −2 , a small Tafel slope of 63.9 mV dec −1 , and superior durability, which are superior to that of individual MnO 2 and FeOOH electrode, and even outperforming most reported MnO 2 -based electrocatalysts.

Three functionalized 9,10-distyrylanthracene (DSA) derivatives, namely, 9,10-bis(4-hydroxystyryl)anthracene (2), 9,10-bis{4-[2-(diethylamino)ethoxy]styryl}anthracene (4), and 9,10-bis{4-[2-(N,N,N-triethylammonium)ethoxy]styryl}anthracene dibromide (5), were synthesized and their fluorescence properties were investigated. The three DSA derivatives possess a typical aggregation-induced emission (AIE) property (i.e., they are nonluminescent in dilute solutions but are efficiently fluorescent as induced by molecular aggregation). Different AIE properties were tuned through molecular structure control. Dye 2 is a phenol-moiety-containing compound, which shows aggregation at pH values smaller than 10, resulting in a high fluorescence intensity. Thus, dye 2 has a pK(a) of 9.94. 4 is an amine-containing compound that starts to aggregate at slightly basic conditions, resulting in a pK(a) of 6.90. Dye 5 is an ammonium-salt-containing compound. Because it is very soluble in water, this compound has no AIE phenomenon but can interact strongly with protein or DNA to amplify its emission. Therefore, 5 is a fluorescent turn "on" biological probe for protein and DNA detection and it is also selective, which works for native BSA and ct DNA but not their denatured forms. Therefore, we not only developed a few new compounds showing the AIE phenomena but also controlled the AIE through environmental stimulation and demonstrated that the new AIE molecules are suitable for pH and biomacromolecule sensing.