Latest ArticlesAn enantioselective organo-catalyzed reaction of furanones with α, β-unsaturated ketones has been established herein, which provides an efficient access to chiral bicyclic γ-butyrolactones in good yields, enantioselectivities and diastereoselectivities. Further transformations of product are demonstrated. A diamine mediated catalytic cycle is proposed.
Prodrug self-delivery carriers with targeting that specifically responded to tumor microenvironments have good potential to improve the application dilemma of approved clinical therapeutic drugs (systemic distribution and side effects). It's noted the conversion of gemcitabine (GEM) to inactive ingredients under the action of cytidine deaminase (CDA) during metabolism in vivo limits its clinical effect. A high level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) results in a high level of oxidative stress in tumor cells, which changes the expression of CDA and optimizes the metabolism of GEM in vivo and overcome drug resistance. In this study, the ROS responsive and ROS self-supplied prodrug of artemisia (ART)-thioacetal bond (TK)-GEM was synthesized and self-vectors based on ART-TK-GEM (TK@FA NPs) was prepared by using nano precipitation. ROS responsive characteristics ensure specific release of prodrugs in tumor cells with high level of ROS thereby reducing side effects on normal cells and tissues. The endogenous ROS and newly generated ROS by ART can reduce the expression of CDA and optimizes the metabolism of GEM, and the accumulated ROS can also induce apoptosis of tumor cells, realizing synergistic anti-tumor effect of chemical drugs and traditional Chinese medicines. This paper proposes a simple method by using clinically approved drugs to improve the insufficient effect of existing chemotherapy and overcome resistance, which has potential to appropriately shorten the drug development cycle and accelerate the clinical investigation of drugs.
Covalent organic frameworks (COFs), as highly tunable porous crystalline materials, have promising applications in potassium-ion batteries (PIBs) due to their abundant charge carrier transport channels and excellent structural stability. However, the excessive stacking of interlayer electron clouds makes it difficult to expose internal active sites. Strategies to design functional COFs with controllable morphology and copious active sites are promising but still challenging. Herein, by utilizing the condensation between 1,3,5-triformylbenzene (TFB) and p-phenylenediamine (PPD) and using amino-modified SiO2 nanospheres as templates, we synthesize core-shell NH2-SiO2@TP-COF. Through NaOH etching of NH2-SiO2@TP-COF, we obtain imine-based TP-COF hollow nanospheres, which shows excellent potassium storage performance when applied to the anode for PIBs. Ex-situ analysis and density functional theory calculations reveal that CN groups and benzenes are active sites for K+ storage.
A huge amount of waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs) was produced while the electronic manufacturing industry developed rapidly. WPCBs mainly consist of organic compounds, which makes it possible to prepare them into porous carbon as valuable adsorbent. However, WPCBs are also rich in valuable metals. Cu makes up the most of these metals. It is worth studying whether the residual metal will affect the application of carbon materials. In this study, the porous active carbon (AC) was prepared from WPCBs as an adsorbent. Sulfadiazine (SD), a widely detected antibiotic contaminant, was used as a target pollutant. Nitric acid (HNO3) was used to modify AC (AC-HNO3) to remove the residual Cu. The experiment results showed that the adsorption kinetics of SD by AC (k = 0.0025) and AC-HNO3 (k = 0.0029) can be described better using a pseudo-second-order kinetic equation. The adsorption isotherms of AC and AC-HNO3 on SD could be fitted by the Langmuir model. AC had a larger adsorption capacity than AC-HNO3. Density functional theory (DFT) calculation results suggested that the −OH group and Cu on the surface of AC could be the adsorption sites and promote the SD adsorption. This work provides practical methods to recycle WPCBs into wealth and realized waste control by waste.
After discovering a new class of two-dimensional (2D) material, i.e., MXene, a further new scope, came into existence for researchers. Due to their remarkable physical, chemical, and biological properties, MXenes find their role in almost every research discipline. They have been used in biosensors, bioimaging, tissue engineering, drug delivery systems, and other areas. The MXenes can be functionalized with a wide range of atoms/molecules, making them diverse materials. Therefore, the potential of using MXenes in nanofibers can be much more than expected. In this review, we will understand the structure, synthesis, and general properties of MXenes. We will explain using MXenes while encasing them into nanofibers, providing their specific properties. For instance, MXenes-incorporated nanofibers are used in biomedical applications, including soft and hard-tissue engineering and delivery of antimicrobials. Furthermore, MXenes, when incorporated into nanofibers, are used in promoting cellular differentiation, wound healing, and neural tissue restoration, which are briefly discussed in this communication.
Developing redox switches that not only perform specific mechanical movements but also drive important chemical reactions is important but a great challenge. Herein, we report a redox pair of cobalt species (CoⅢ/CoⅡ) that switches through photo-dehydrogenation of alcohol and hydrogenation of azo-ligand. The cobalt species is equipped with a flexible azo-ligand containing two bulky planar substituents. A planar oxidated sate (CoⅢ species) can be photo-reduced to a saddle-like reduced state (CoⅡ) with alcohol molecules as electron donors, and in turn the CoⅢ species can be recovered with azo-ligand as oxidant under acidic surrounding. Both the redox states of the pair are isolated and characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction. In the switching cycle, alcohol is oxidized to aldehyde by azo-ligand through proton coupled electron transfer and the cobalt complex acts as a redox catalyst. These results provide important insights into alcohol dehydrogenation catalyzed by redox complexes.
Efficient cathode-catalysts with multi-functional properties are essential for Li-CO2 battery, while the construction of them with simultaneously enhanced CO2 reduction and evolution kinetics is still challenging. Here, a kind of hybrid nanosheets based on Ru nanoparticles, Fe-TAPP and grapheme oxide (GO) has been designed through a one-pot self-assembly strategy. The Ru, Fe-porphyrin and GO based hybrid nanosheets (denoted as Ru/Fe-TAPP@GO) with integrated multi-components offer characteristics of ultrathin thickness (~4 nm), high electro-redox property, uniformly dispersed morphology, and high electrical conductivity, etc. These features endow Ru/Fe-TAPP@GO with ultra-low overpotential (0.82 V) and fully reversible discharge/charge property with a high specific-capacity of 39,000 mAh/g within 2.0–4.5 V at 100 mA/g, which are much superior to Ru@GO and Fe-TAPP@GO. The achieved performance was presented as one of the best cathode-catalysts reported to date. The synergistically enhanced activity originated from the integrated hybrid nanosheets may provide a new pathway for designing efficient cathode-catalysts for Li-CO2 batteries.