2024年1月12日，ACS旗下top期刊《ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces》在线发表了云南师范大学化学与化工学院引进人才段良飞博士、中国科学院理化技术研究所刘静研究员等团队合作的最新研究成果《Liquid-Metal Molecular Scissors》。云南师范大学化学与化工学院引进人才段良飞博士、中国科学院理化技术研究所刘静研究员为共同通讯作者。

Abstract

Molecules are the smallest units of matter that can exist independently, relatively stable, maintaining their physical and chemical activities. The key factors that dominate the structures and properties of molecules include atomic species, alignment commands, and chemical bonds. Herein, we reported a generalized effect in which liquid metals can directly cut off oxygen-containing groups in molecular matter at room temperature, allowing the remaining groups to recombine to form functional materials. Thus, we propose basic liquid-metal scissors for molecular directional clipping and functional transformations. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate the capabilities of liquid-metal scissors and reveal that the gallium on the surface of liquid metals directly extracts oxygen atoms from H2O or CH3OH molecules to form oxides. After clipping, the remaining hydrogen atoms from the H2O molecules recombine to form H2, while the remaining fragments of CH3OH produce H2, carbon materials, and carboxylates. This finding refreshes our basic understanding of chemistry and should lead to the development of straightforward molecular weaving techniques, which can help to overcome the limitations of molecular substances with single purposes. It also opens a universal route for realizing future innovations in molecular chemical engineering, life sciences, energy and environment research, and biomedicine.

扩展阅读：

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsami.3c15841