
Xunjin ZhuHong Kong Baptist University · Department of Chemistry
Xunjin Zhu
Doctor of Philosophy
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171
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Introduction
Dr. Xunjin Zhu is now Associate Professor at the Department of Chemistry, Hong Kong Baptist University. His research interests mainly focus on Design and Synthesis of Porphyrins and Analogues for Photovoltaics, Photocatalysis & Electrocatalysis, and Imaging & Phototherapy.
Skills and Expertise
Additional affiliations
Education
July 2003 - August 2006
September 1999 - July 2002
September 1993 - July 1997
Publications
Publications (171)
(Chemical Equation Presented) Running rings around mercuric ions: A [26]hexaphyrin(1.1.1.1.1.0), comprising an α,α′-bipyrrole unit and four pyrrolic and five pentafluorophenyl rings, was prepared and characterized by X-ray crystallography (see picture; N blue, F green, C black). The expanded porphyrin displays near-infrared luminescence above 900 n...
A series of unsymmetrical π-conjugated small molecules have been constructed from meso-alkyl substituted porphyrins as the central unit and 3-ethylrhodanine as the terminal group. Using PC71BM as an acceptor, and these small molecules as electron donors in solution-processed bulk-heterojunction solar cells, a high power conversion efficiency of 6.4...
A series of simple phenothiazine-based dyes have been synthesized, in which a cyanoacrylate acceptor directly attached to the C(3) position of phenothiazine, and an additional linear electron-rich (4-hexyloxy)phenyl group at C(7) on the opposite side of the acceptor, and an alkyl chain with different length at N(10) of the phenothiazine periphery a...
New perylenediimide-porphyrin acceptors, 4PDI-ZnP and 2PDI-ZnP have been facilely synthesized by the acid-catalyzed condensation of perylenediimide-substituted benzaldehyde with respective dipyrromethance and pyrrole, and subsequent Zn(II)-complexation. The 4PDI-ZnP with four perylenediimide (PDI) moieties appended onto the zinc(II)-porphyrin core...
Two new iridium motif linked porphyrins, MBPyZnP-Ir and TBPyZnP-Ir are developed for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution (PHE). The tetra-iridium linked one, TBPyZnP-Ir, displayed the highest H2 production rate (ηH2) of 16.12 mmol g−1 h−1 within 5 hours of irradiation, which is over 2.73-fold higher than MBPyZnP-Ir (5.90 mmol g−1 h−1) and much higher...
Electrochemical CO2 reduction has garnered significant interest in the conversion of sustainable energy to valuable fuels and chemicals. Cu‐based bimetallic catalysts play a crucial role in enhancing *CO concentration on Cu sites for efficient C─C coupling reactions, particularly for C2 product generation. To enhance Cu's electronic structure and d...
2D conjugated metal‐organic frameworks (c‐MOFs) have emerged as promising materials for (opto)electronic applications due to their excellent charge transport properties originating from the unique layered‐stacked structures with extended in‐plane conjugation. The further advancement of MOF‐based (opto)electronics necessitates the development of nov...
Owing to the strong π-π (C···C/C···H) interactions of planar porphyrin moiety in the solid state, porphyrins consistently show aggregation caused quenching (ACQ) of photoluminescence. Subsequently, ACQ destabilizes the photoexcited states...
Tetraphenylethylene (TPE)‐conjugated porphyrin TPE‐ZnPF is synthesized in high yield and characterized by single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction. The propeller‐shaped TPE groups not only enable exceptional aggregation‐induced emission (AIE) in the solid state but also abolish the strong π‐π stacking of porphyrin moieties and thus prohibit aggregation‐cau...
Abstract One of the major obstacles of porphyrins is the aggregation‐caused quenching (ACQ) of photoluminescence due to the strong intermolecular π–π interaction of the planar porphyrin core in the solid state. However, ACQ leads to the nonradiative deactivation of the photoexcited states which results in short‐lived charge‐separated states and thu...
Developing visible-to-near-infrared light-harvesting porphyrin photosensitizers is very important for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution (PHE) since most of the tetra-meso-substituted porphyrins absorb up to the visible region only. Herein, two new...
Hydrogen-bonded organic frameworks (HOFs) with multiple functions and permanent pores have received widespread attention due to their potential applications in gas adsorption/separation, drug delivery, photocatalysis, proton conduction, and other fields. Herein, we constructed a three-dimensional (3D) HOF with 1D square channels by utilizing a dual...
Organic spacers in the Ruddlesden-Popper perovskite (RPP) materials significantly enhance the operating stability of the corresponding solar cells, but limit their devices performance owing to inefficient charge transport. Inspired by 3D perovskites, binary spacer-based RPP devices show great potential in outperforming their unary spacer counterpar...
Organic dyes, porphyrins and inorganic complexes containing imidazole (IM) motifs have been demonstrated as a new class of sensitizers in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Particularly, the amphoteric nature of IM-based motifs allows them to be used as donors (D), auxiliary donors (DA), linker/branch (π), or acceptors (A) in D–π–A-based organic d...
Wide-bandgap perovskites as a class of promising top-cell materials have shown great promise in constructing efficient perovskite-based tandem solar cells, but their intrinsic relatively low radiative efficiency results in a large open-circuit voltage (VOC) deficit and thereby limits the whole device performance. Reducing film flaws or optimizing i...
[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1021/acsaem.2c00977.].
In the field of non‐fullerene organic solar cells (OSCs), most of the promising polymer donors are based on benzo[1,2‐b:4,5‐b′]dithiophene (BDT) units while benzo[1,2‐b:4,5‐b′]difuran (BDF)‐based polymers have drawn less attention since the efficiencies of BDF polymer‐based devices are generally lower than those of BDT polymer‐based ones. In this c...
Cu3(HHTT)2 (HHTT: 2,3,7,8,12,13‐hexahydroxytetraazanaphthotetraphene) is a novel two‐dimensional conjugated metal‐organic framework (2D c‐MOF) with efficient in‐plane d‐π conjugations and strong interlayer π‐π interactions while the growth of Cu3(HHTT)2 thin films has never been reported until now. Here, we present the successful fabrication of hig...
Two D−A−D (D = donor, A = acceptor)-based small-molecule donors, TPDI-2P and F-TPDI-2P, are designed and synthesized for organic solar cells (OSCs), with two strong donor porphyrin units bridged by either an electron-deficient diethynyl-substituted thiophene−perylenediimide (TPDI) linker for the former or a diethynyl-fused TPDI linker for the latte...
Among the vast array of transition metal complexes which have been previously reported, organometallic compounds based on iridium(III) and relevant metal complexes have been shown to possess particularly interesting features; including a wide range of versatile chemical structures, unique photophysical properties and, perhaps most importantly, outs...
Three new A-π-D-π-A structural porphyrin-based donors, C19-H2P, C19-PdP, and C19-PtP, are designed and synthesized, with porphyrin (D) moieties equipped with no metal, palladium (Pd), and platinum (Pt) as the core, respectively, and end-capped with electron-deficient 3-ethylrhodanine (A) via a π-bridge of phenylene ethynylene linker. C19-PdP and C1...
A T-Ir complex was conjugated to a porphyrin ring via a phenylene linkage to afford a new ZnP-T-Ir photosensitizer which exhibits aggregation induced emission (AIE) for the T-Ir unit, an...
Lead-based hybrid perovskites have sparked substantial research interests due to immense progress in the fields of optoelectronics and photocatalysis. However, owing to the environmental issues of lead toxicity, lead-free hybrid...
Two Pt(II)-porphyrins conjugated with naphthalimide (NI) chromophore, PtT(p-NI)PP and PtD(p-NI)PP, are synthesized in excellent yields and characterized by photophysical, electrochemical, and density functional theory studies. Both Pt(II)-porphyrins possess an efficient...
Two acceptor-donor-acceptor-based porphyrin dimers, C8TEBDT-2P and C8TBDT-2P, are presented as donors for high-performance semitransparent indoor organic photovoltaics. Both compounds vary in that benzodithiophene (BDT) bridged the two porphyrins at the meso-carbon directly for the latter with a less planar structure, and via ethynylene for the for...
To explore the effect of the introduction of heteroatoms on the properties of porphyrin materials, a new porphyrin-based derivative small-molecule donor named as PorTT-T was designed and synthesized based on alkyl-thieno[3,2-b]thiophene(TT)-substituted porphyrins. The linker bridge and end groups of PorTT-T were the same as those of XLP-II small-mo...
Two new A-D-A porphyrin derivatives, denoted as XLP-I and XLP-II, were prepared through extending the π-conjugation of thienothiophene-porphyrin center with phenylethynyl bridges and electron-deficient ethylrhodanine terminal units, and varying the structures of alkyl chain (linear vs branched) on peripheral thienothiophene substitutions of porphyr...
Photocatalytic hydrogen evolution (PHE) is a promising strategy to produce environmentally friendly clean energy with the use of solar power and water. For this, developing an efficient and noble metal free photocatalytic system (PS) comprising high light-harvesting and photostable photosensitizers is an important and challenging task. Herein, a ne...
A simple heteroleptic iridium(III) photosensitizer, Ir-1, containing two ligands 5-(trifluoromethyl)-2-phenylpyridine (Ĉ N−CF3) and bipyridine (N̂ N) has for the first time been studied for cocatalyst-free photocatalytic hydrogen evolution (PHE). The complex Ir-1 produces a hydrogen production rate (ηH2) of 3.2 mmol g−1 h−1, which is over 3.6-fold...
A novel dual-functional chemosensor, derived from the conjugation of rhodamine B with a quinoline derivative (RHQ), was firstly synthesized with high efficiency and cost-effectiveness for the distinguishable detections of Cu²⁺ and Hg²⁺ via ring-opening and ring-forming mechanism. The chemosensor exhibits highly selective and distinguishable respons...
A simple heteroleptic iridium(III) photosensitizer,
Ir-1, containing two ligands 5-(trifluoromethyl)-2-phenylpyridine
(Ĉ
N−CF3) and bipyridine (N̂
N) has for the first time been
studied for cocatalyst-free photocatalytic hydrogen evolution
(PHE). The complex Ir-1 produces a hydrogen production rate
(ηH2) of 3.2 mmol g−1 h−1
, which is over 3.6-fold...
Luminescent copper(I) halide complexes with bi- and tridentate rigid ligands have gained wide research interests. In this paper, six tetracoordinate dinuclear copper(I) halide complexes, Cu2X2(ppda)2 [ppda = 2-[2-(dimethylamino)phenyl(phenyl)phosphino]-N,N-dimethylaniline, X = I (1), Br (2), Cl (3)] and Cu2X2(pfda)2 [pfda = 2-[2-(dimethylamino)-4-(...
The synthesis of conjugated polymers specifically for organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) has attracted much attention recently for the great potential in biological applications. In this case, not only the carrier...
Organic solar cells (OSCs) have been considered as a promising cost-effective alternative to silicon-based solar cell counterparts due to their lightweight, mechanical flexibility, and easy fabrication features. Over the past...
Two intermediate-sized acceptor-π-porphyrin-π-acceptor type molecules MPor1 and MPor2 with panchromatic absorption were here presented toward improved photovoltaic property. A breakthrough of absorption spectrum to cover the gap between Soret and...
New perylenediimide-porphyrin acceptors, 4PDI-ZnP and 2PDI-ZnP, have been facilely synthesized by acid-catalyzed condensation of perylenediimide-substituted benzaldehyde with pyrrole and dipyrromethane, respectively, and subsequent Zn(II)-complexation. 4PDI-ZnP with four perylene diimide (PDI) moieties appended onto the zinc(II)-porphyrin core show...
Donor–acceptor two-dimensional covalent organic frameworks, PD-COF-23 and PD-COF-23-Ni, are constructed and applied for selective CO2 reduction with CO conversion rates of 20.9 μmol g⁻¹ h⁻¹ and 40.0 μmol g⁻¹ h⁻¹, respectively, in the absence of any additional photosensitizers and noble metal co-catalysts within an operation time of 25 h. The multil...
A uniform nickel film could be coated on crown ether-modified carbon nanotubes (c-CNTs) by electroless deposition.
Two new A2–π–D–A1–D–π–A2 structural porphyrin small molecules denoted as TDPP-2P and ETDPP-2P are constructed from dimeric porphyrin centers, in which the two porphyrin moieties are linked by either the electron deficient 3,6-di(thiophen-2-yl)pyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole-1,4(2H,5H)-dione (TDPP) for the former, or diethynyl substituted TDPP for the latter,...
The development of near-infrared (NIR)-absorbing nanoagents for personalized multifunctional phototheranostics has attracted considerable attentions in the past decade. Recently, the organic nanomaterials with good biosafety are considered as promising phototheranostic agents while their facile synthesis remains challenging. Inspired by the prepara...
Two new A-D-A small molecule donors (C8T-BDTDP and C8ST-BDTDP) are prepared from benzodithiophene (BDT) linked dimeric porphyrin (DP), which differ in side chains of BDT linkers with 4,8-bis[5-(2-ethylhexyl)thiophen-2-yl]benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene (C8T-BDT) for the former and 4,8-bis{5-[(2-ethylhexyl)thio]-2-thienyl}benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophe...
We employ facile aromatic nucleophilic substitution between the mercapto (-SH) and arylfluoro (Ar-F) groups to achieve extensive and robust cross-linking of a coordination host by porphyrin guests that also serve the purpose of versatile postsynthetic functionalization. For this, a tritopic linker with three trident-like thiol-flanked carboxyl unit...
The development of organic nanoagents that integrate diagnosis and therapy has gained considerable attention over the last decades. Here, phthalocyanine‐based nanodots (ZnPc‐NDs) are developed through a facile hydrothermal method. The self‐aggregation of molecules in nanostructures facilitates the fluorescence quenching and nonradiative heat genera...
Organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells are promising indoor light energy harvesters because organic materials absorb strongly in the visible range. An indoor photovoltaic (IPV) device is an effective tool for the remote off‐grid wireless charging. However, as the indoor light fluxes are much weaker than the 1‐Sun condition, high‐performance indoor cells...
More efficient intramolecular energy transfer in naphthalimide-porphyrin complex, ZnT(p-NI)TP is accomplished by electron rich coplanar thiophene π-linkage than the analogue porphyrin ZnT(p-NI)PP bearing less coplanar phenylene π-linker. As a result, the ZnT(p-NI)TP shows enhanced light-harvesting ability, electron life time and photoinduced charge...
Independence of photodynamic or photothermal modality has difficulty in the success toward tumor therapy. In this current study, a multifunctional nanotheranostic agent of PDE-Ce6-HA was developed for tumor targeted and MRI-guided photodynamic/photothermal combined therapy (PDT/PTT). For this purpose, the near-infrared-absorbing nanoparticles of Pr...
Carbon dots (CDs) as an emerging type of carbon nanomaterials exhibited a great potential in bioimaging applications owing to their superior optical properties and excellent biocompatibility. However, it’s still challenging to fabricate sole carbon dots with integrated functionalities of diagnostic and therapeutic modalities. Herein, we developed a...
Abstract Following publication of the original article [1], it was flagged that Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 in the article were (incorrectly) formatted with a yellow highlighting of the background of the figures.
A theranostic nanosystem is emerging as a promising approach of controlled-drug delivery, diagnosis and multimodal therapeutics. Herein, a multifunctional theranostic nanoplatform is reported for photothermal-chemo combination therapy functioned with magnetic and thermal imaging. Hyaluronic acid (HA) coated Fe3O4@polydopamine nanoparticle through a...
Three new molecular A-π-D-π-A type donors, P1, P2 and P3, comprising an alkylthiothienyl substituted porphyrin electron donor core (D) and two 3-ethylrhodanine electron acceptor moieties (A) connected peripherally to the porphyrin core via respectively a monomeric, dimeric or trimeric phenylethynyl π-linkage, are synthesized and studied for their o...
A series of NP/g-C3N4 hybrids of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) with naphthalimide-porphyrin (NP) are developed for photocatalytic hydrogen production. Planar naphthalimide-porphyrins are facilely adsorbed onto flexible two-dimensional g-C3N4 through π–π stacking. Except for its function as photosensitizer, NP in the hybrid could efficient inhib...
Fabricating multifunctional theranostic nanoparticles is highly pursued but still challenging for effective cancer treatment. Here was reported a new theranostic nanoagent as both MRI and targeted chemo/photothermal therapeutic agent. Prussian blue nanoparticles (PB) were first decorated with polydopamine (PDA), then conjugated with polyethylene gl...
Bis[di(4-methoxyphenyl)amino)]carbazole-capped indacenodithiophene (IDT) has been constructed as hole transport materials (HTMs) for perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Two IDT-based HTMs, one with 3,6-bis[di(4-methoxyphenyl)amino)carbazole (YK1) and another with 2,7-bis[di(4-methoxyphenyl)amino)carbazole (YK2), show different performances in PSCs. PSCs...
In article number, 1802820, by Jacqueline M. Cole and co‐workers, a ‘design‐to‐device’ strategy is employed to systematically engineer panchromatic optical absorption for dye‐sensitized solar cell applications. The cover shows how a series of algorithmically encoded forms of structure‐property relationships act as molecular engineering machinery to...
For Zn-nanopapers obtained from grafting of Zn(II)-terpyridine complex (Zn-tpy) into tCNFs (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl radical, TEMPO, oxidized cellulose nanofibrils), their optical hazes were first found to be highly dependent on alcohol-characteristic solvent stimulation. By addressing the controllable issue of benzyl alcohol (BA) dispo...
In this study, a polymerizable terpyridine 2-(4-(4-(4-vinylbenzyloxy)phenyl)-6-(pyridin-2-yl)pyridin-2-yl)pyridine was synthesized, with N-(2-hydroxyethyl)acrylamide (HEAA) used to obtain an amphipathic polymer (Poly) through free radical polymerization. Then, Poly was coordinated with LnCl3 or Ln(ABM)3(H2O)2 (ABM = 4,4,4-trifluoro-1-phenylbutane-1...
Data‐driven materials discovery has become increasingly important in identifying materials that exhibit specific, desirable properties from a vast chemical search space. Synergic prediction and experimental validation are needed to accelerate scientific advances related to critical societal applications. A design‐to‐device study that uses high‐thro...
Photosensitizers are light-sensitive molecules that are highly hydrophobic, which poses a challenge to their use for photodynamic therapy. Hence, considerable efforts have been made to develop carriers for the delivery of PSs. Herein, we synthesized a new theranostic nanoagent (CQDs@PtPor) through the electrostatic interaction between the tetraplat...
To address the intrinsic issue of conventional porphyrin derivatives with a deficient absorption between Soret and Q bands, we design and synthesize two porphyrin molecules (BDTP-1 and BDTP-2) bearing meso-alkyl substituted porphyrin core, benzodithiohene (BDT) ethynylene π-bridge and end-capping ethylrhodanine derivatives. Except for the character...
This study examines the correlation between the structure of four perylenediimide (PDI) derivatives and their optoelectronic behaviors. Three of them with one, two or four PDI moieties conjugated peripherally to porphyrin core by phenylene linker, denoted as nPDI-ZnP (n = 1,2,4), are investigated as acceptors on the charge transport property and de...
The carbon quantum dots termined with amine groups (CQDs-NH2) were synthesized in one-pot hydrothermal method with citric acid as carbon source and branched polyethylenimine (BPEI) as passive agent, which was then covalently linked to 1, 4, 7, 10-tetraazacyclononane (DOTA) framework to yield CQDs-DOTA. The CQDs-DOTA provide excellent ligand scaffol...
Tris(2,2′-bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) dichloride [Ru(bpy)3Cl2] and analogous complexes have been studied extensively in the literature due to their luminescent and photochemical properties as well as their excited-state lifetimes. Conducting polymers with similar ruthenium groups have also been investigated for various applications. In this study, synt...
Three new naphthalimide conjugated isomeric porphyrin molecules, ZnT(p-NI)PP, ZnT(m-NI)PP and ZnT(o-NI)PP are synthesized and tested on photoinduced H2 production (ηH2) rate. The para-substituted isomer, ZnT(p-NI)PP delivered the high ηH2 of 973 μmol g−1 h−1 compared to that of meta- and ortho-substituted isomers, ZnT(m-NI)PP (597 μmol g−1 h−1) and...
1D protonated graphitic carbon nitride (HCN) are prepared through free-template chemical method and further modified with different amount of carbon quantum dots (CQDs) to afford new hybrids denoted as HCNC-x (x represents weight ratio of CQDs) for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. The immobilization of CQDs onto HCN not only significantly improve...
2D graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) has attracted great attention as one of the rising-star candidates for prominent water-splitting photocatalysts. Here, we report an extremely facile one-step, template-free method to synthesize ultrathin g-C3N4 nanosheets (CN-UMF) by thermal polycondensation of urea simply covered with kitchen-available melamine...