Five non-charged Salphen metal complexes of Pt(ii), Pd(ii), Ni(ii), Cu(ii) and Zn(ii) bind selectively Kit1 and Kit2, two DNA G-quadruplexes of KIT promoter. They also exhibit dose-dependent cytotoxic activity in MCF-7, HepG2 and HeLa cancer cells.

Low-dimensional hybrid organic–inorganic metal halide perovskites are rapidly emerging as a fascinating sub-class of the three-dimensional parent structures, thanks to their appealing charge and thermal transport properties, paired to better chemical and thermal stabilities. Extensive investigations of the thermal behavior in these systems are of paramount relevance to understand their optoelectronic and thermoelectric applications. Herein, we present a complete thermophysical characterization of imidazolium lead iodide, (IMI)PbI₃, a 1D pseudo-perovskite with chains of face-sharing octahedra, and histammonium lead iodide, (HIST)PbI₄, a 2D layered perovskite with corner-sharing octahedra. Upon heating, the two compounds show highly anisotropic thermal expansion effects and high thermal stability until 250–300 °C. The thermal diffusivity of pelletized powders was measured with the laser flash technique from room temperature up to 225 °C. To account for the reduced density of the pelletized powders with respect to the bulk, the diffusivity data in different atmospheres were modeled as a function of the volume fraction and dimensionality of the pores, allowing to extrapolate the thermal conductivity of the bulk materials. The two compounds exhibit an ultralow thermal conductivity of 0.15 W/m K, two to three times lower than that reported on 3D MAPbI₃ using the same technique. This finding suggests the primary role of the organic molecules within the hybrid systems, regardless of the octahedra connectivity and dimensionality.

New molecular and polymeric NDI-based materials, containing constitutional isomers of aromatic amines, have been prepared as powders and thin films, studied by XRD and grazing-incidence diffraction methods, and compared to n -alkyl aliphatic congeners.

Defect interactions and short-range ordering determine the bandgap reduction in linear lead/bismuth iodide chains.

Hybrid organic/inorganic lead halides with the proton sponge moiety show face-sharing [PbX₆] octahedra forming linear 1D chains. These species exhibit complete (Br, I) miscibility and exceptional anisotropic thermal expansion.

Trigonal-prismatic coordinated transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) are formed from stacked (chalcogen)–(transition metal)–(chalcogen) triple layers, where the chemical bond is covalent within the triple layers and van der Waals (vdW) forces are effective between the layers. Bonding is at the origin of the great interest in these compounds, which are used as 2D materials in applications such as catalysis, electronics, photoelectronics, sensors, batteries and thermoelectricity. This paper addresses the issue of modelling the structural disorder in multilayer TMDCs. The structural model takes into account stacking faults, correlated displacement of atoms and average crystallite size/shape, and is assessed by simulation of the X-ray diffraction pattern and fitting to the experimental data relative to a powdered sample of MoS₂ exfoliated and restacked via lithiation. From fitting, an average crystallite size of about 50 Å, nearly spherical crystallites and a definite probability of deviation from the fully eclipsed atomic arrangement present in the ordered structure are determined. The increased interlayer distance and correlated intralayer and interlayer atomic displacement are attributed to the presence of lithium intercalated in the vdW gap between triple layers (Li/Mo molar ratio of about 0.06). The model holds for the whole class of trigonal-prismatic coordinated TMDCs, and is suitably flexible to take into account different preparation routes.