Rational syntheses under controllable reducing conditions in the preparation of superatoms with cluster electron number not exceeding two are challenging. Herein a dithiolate-stabilized two-electron silver nanocluster, Ag 10 -{S 2 P(O i Pr) 2 } 8 (1), is isolated via a self-redox reaction of Ag 7 (H){S 2 P(O i Pr) 2 } 6 without adding extra reducing agents. The metal framework of Ag 7 , a bicapped trigonal bipyramid, is highly correlated to that of Ag 10 , suggesting Ag 7 (H){S 2 P-(O i Pr) 2 } 6 acts as both reducing agent and template in cluster growth. 1 is highly fluorescent at ambient temperature and TD-DFT calculations indicate that the emission is of 1P x !1S nature.

The bimetallic M20 and M21 compounds, {[Cu3Ag17{S2P(O i Pr)2}12]0.5 [Cu4Ag16{S2P(O i Pr)2}12]0.5} ({[1a]0.5[1b]0.5}) and [Cu4Ag17{S2P(O i Pr)2}12](PF6) (2) have been structurally characterized, in which the Cu(I) ions are randomly distributed on the eight outer positions capping the 8-electron [Ag13] 5+ core. DFT calculations show that his statistical disorder results from the nearly neutral preference of copper to occupy any of the eight outer positions. Surprisingly, the UV-Vis absorption spectra of the M20 and M21 bimetallic nanoclusters display an almost identical absorption profile as that of their homometallic [Ag20{S2P(O i Pr)2}12] and [Ag21{S2P(O i Pr)2}12] + relatives. This is rationalized by TD-DFT calculations which show that the frontier orbitals of such 8-electron alloys are largely independent from the nature of the capping metal ions. A blue-shifted absorption is observed upon replacing by Au the central Ag atom in 2, forming the trimetallic compound [Cu4AuAg16{S2P(O i Pr)2}12](PF6) (3).

Mesomorphous butterfly-like shape molecules based on benzodithiophene, benzodithiophene-4,8-dione and cyclopentadithiophen-4-one core moieties were efficiently synthesized by the Suzuki-Miyaura coupling and Scholl oxidative cyclo-dehydrogenation reactions' tandem. Most of the butterfly molecules spontaneously self-organize into columnar hexagonal mesophase. The electron-deficient systems possess strong solvent-gelling ability but are not luminescent, whereas the electron-rich terms do not form gels but strongly emit light between 400 and 600 nm. The charge carrier mobility was also measured by time-of-flight transient photocurrent technique in the mesophases for some of the compounds. They display hole-transport performances with positive charge mobility in the 10 À 3 cm À 2 V À 1 s À 1 range, consistent with the high degree of ordering and stability of the columnar superstructures. In particular, the mesogen with a benzodithiophen-4,8-dione core shows ambipolar charge carrier transport with both high electron (μ e = 6.6 × 10 À 3 cm À 2 V À 1 s À 1 ) and hole (μ h = 4.5 × 10 À 3 cm À 2 V À 1 s À 1 ) mobility values.

A biocompatible Dex-MA/PAA hydrogel was prepared through copolymerization of glycidyl methacrylate substituted dextran (Dex-MA) with acrylic acid (AA), which was applied as the adsorbent to remove cationic dyes from aqueous solutions.

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Voltage responsive micelles prepared from noncovalently grafted amphiphilic polymers were reported. The noncovalent amphiphilic polymers were prepared through the host–guest interaction between β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) grafted dextran (Dex-CD) and ferrocene (Fc) terminated poly­(ε-caprolactone) (PCL-Fc). Because of the presence of Fc groups, the inclusion complex between Fc and β-CD can be reversibly controlled by an external stimulating voltage, leading to reversible formation and disassembly of the micelles. The occurrence of the inclusion complex between Fc and β-CD was confirmed by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and the 2D NOESY spectrum. Furthermore, meloxicam was selected as a model drug to test the controlled release performance of these voltage responsive micelles. It was found that the release rate and the final cumulative release amount of meloxicam can be effectively controlled by the external voltage, which may be of use in controlled drug delivery.

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