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Two-dimensional ferroelectrics is attractive for synaptic device applications because of its low power consumption and amenability to high-density device integration. Here, we demonstrate that tin monosulfide (SnS) films less than 6 nm thick show optimum performance as a semiconductor channel in an in-plane ferroelectric analogue synaptic device, whereas thicker films have a much poorer ferroelectric response due to screening effects by a higher concentration of charge carriers. The SnS ferroelectric device exhibits synaptic behaviors with highly stable room-temperature operation, high linearity in potentiation/depression, long retention, and low cycle-to-cycle/device-to-device variations. The simulated device based on ferroelectric SnS achieves ∼92.1% pattern recognition accuracy in an artificial neural network simulation. By switching the ferroelectric domains partially, multilevel conductance states and the conductance ratio can be obtained, achieving high pattern recognition accuracy.

Covalent organic frameworks are an emerging class of porous crystalline organic materials that can be designed and synthesized from the bottom up. Despite progress made in synthesizing COFs of diverse topologies, the synthesis methods are often tedious and unscalable, hampering practical applications. Herein, we demonstrate a scalable, robust method of producing highly crystalline acylhydrazone two-dimensional (2D) COFs with diversified structures (six examples) under open and stirred conditions, with growth typically completed in only 30 min. Our strategy involves selecting molecular building blocks that have bond dipole moments with spatial orientations that favor antiparallel stacking and whose structure allows the restriction of intramolecular bond rotation (RIR) via intra- and interlayer hydrogen bonding. This method is widely applicable for hydrazide linkers containing various side-chain functionalities and topicities. By this strategy, the gram-scale synthesis of two highly crystalline COFs (up to 1.4 g yield) was obtained in a one-pot reaction within 30 min.

Hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites (HOIPs) are a new generation of high-performance materials for solar cells and light emitting diodes. Beyond these applications, ferroelectricity and spin-related properties of HOIPs are increasingly attracting interests. The presence of strong spin-orbit coupling, allied with symmetry breaking ensured by remanent polarization, should give rise to Rashba-type splitting of electronic bands in HOIP. However, the report of both ferroelectricity and Rashba effect in HOIP is rare. Here we report the observation of robust ferroelectricity and Rashba effect in two-dimensional Dion-Jacobson perovskites. NRF (Natl Research Foundation, S’pore) ASTAR (Agency for Sci., Tech. and Research, S’pore) MOE (Min. of Education, S’pore) Accepted version

Porphyrin-based isostructural porous organic networks have been synthesized by varying the central metal atoms to cobalt, nickel and copper. Their selectivities for CO2 capture over N2 and Ar are found to be enhanced as the heats of adsorption for CO2 are increased in the order of Co, Ni and Cu, while the pore structures are well maintained.

Porphyrin-based isostructural porous organic networks have been synthesized by varying the central metal atoms to cobalt, nickel and copper. Their selectivities for CO2 capture over N2 and Ar are found to be enhanced as the heats of adsorption for CO2 are increased in the order of Co, Ni and Cu, while the pore structures are well maintained.

We report a new route to fabricate size-controlled Co nanoparticles (NPs) on carbon nitride nanotubes (CNNTs). The size of the Co nanoparticles is controlled down to 2 nm. Our density functional theory calculations provide the clue for the formation mechanism of these size-controllable Co NPs in the presence of sodium hypophosphite, water, Co2+ ions and OH− ions on the pyridine-like nitrogen of CNNTs. First, two H-adatoms from water are bonded onto the pyridine-like nitrogen while sodium hypophosphite is bonded with the oxygen of water. Next, the reduction of Co2+ ions occurs via combination with two electrons donated from these two H-adatoms. The Co NPs-CNNT fabricated via this method shows the highest hydrogen generation rate of 19.6 kg h−1 per kg of catalyst from aqueous metal hydride solution. This superior catalytic activity (about 82 times higher than that for the Co powder in the bulk state) is attributed to the increased surface area, as well as the approx. 1.5 times larger number of Co nanoparticle catalysts with about 2 nm sizes formed via mediation of the two H-adatoms bonded to the pyridine-like nitrogen.