The construction of branched coumarin dyes based on a 2D-π-A system is focused to optimize the light-harvesting capability and enhance the photovoltaic performance. Three novel coumarin dyes, coded as MS-C, MS-F, and MS-M, respectively, were obtained by incorporating different units (carbazole, fluorene and methyl groups) with different molecular volume and degrees of electron-donating capability into the π-conjugation linker. Through molecular engineering, their light-harvesting capabilities, energy levels and photovoltaic performance were studied systematically. As expected, with the additional donor, especially utilizing strong electron-donating carbazole unit, the IPCE action spectrum of MS-C keeps a high plateau from 390 nm to 580 nm with nearly unity values. Along with the improvement of IPCE, the J_sc values of the three dyes were increased by 77% from 7.61 (MS-M) to 13.47 mA cm⁻² (MS-C). Using DCA as the co-adsorbed material, the J_sc of MS-M was increased while these values were decreased in the cases of branched MS-C and MS-F. This means that the twist structure arising from the branched donors could prevent π-aggregation effectively. More importantly, the V_oc was also improved significantly by introducing the additional donor. While the branched 2D-π-A system was constructed, the V_oc was sharply increased from 508 (MS-M) to 610 mV (MS-C). Comprehensively, a more than 100% enhancement in overall conversion efficiency (5.53%) was realized by branched MS-C compared to the linear MS-M (2.74%). Although the overall conversion efficiencies of these dyes are not very high, these results will still afford significant value for future development of efficient coumarin sensitizers with high open-circuit voltage.

Several effective PSGs have been developed from a series of glucose-based compounds for the removal of aniline and nitrobenzene from their biphasic mixtures with water via a simple shaking strategy at room temperature within 1 min. The morphologies of the gels formed in aniline and nitrobenzene in the absence or presence of a large amount of water have been examined by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The dominant factors that drive gelation in the case of the gelator and aniline or nitrobenzene have been studied using FT-IR, concentration-dependent ¹H NMR, and XRD. Additionally, the efficient purification of toxic dye solutions has been realized by using one of these gelators as the adsorbent in a gel column. And the corresponding xerogel can also be used for efficient dye removal. HPLC and UV/vis spectroscopy provide the quantification means for the estimation of the purification efficacy. The easy-to-implement performance and high removal efficiency of the organic pollutants from water indicate the potential and promising applicability of these organogelators in water purification.

Polyhydroquinoline (PHQ) are the unsymmetrical Hantzsch derivatives of 1,4-dihydropyridines with several biological applications. In this work, twenty-five (3–27) new Schiff’s base derivatives of polyhydroquinoline hydrazide were synthesized in excellent to good yields by a multi-component reaction. The structures of the synthesized products (1–27) were deduced with the help of spectroscopic techniques, such as ¹H-, ¹³C -NMR, and HR-ESI-MS. The synthesized products (1–27) were tested for their antibacterial and in vitro calcium -channel-blocking (CCB) potentials using the agar-well diffusion method, and isolated rat aortic ring preparations, respectively. Among the series, sixteen compounds were found to inhibit the growth of Escherichia coli and Enterococcus faecalis. Among them, compound 17 was observed to be the most potent one at a dose 2 µg/mL, with an 18 mm zone of inhibition against both bacteria when it was compared with the standard drug amoxicillin. Eight compounds showed CCB activity of variable potency; in particular, compound 27 was more potent, with an EC₅₀ value of 0.7 (0.3–1.1) µg/mL, indicating their CCB effect.

The ZnIn ₂ S ₄ /In(OH) ₃ modified ZnWO ₄ nanocomposite exhibited enhanced photocatalytic H ₂ -evolution activity.