Latest ArticlesHerein, a rapid alkenylation of quinoxalin-2(1H)-ones enabled by a combination of Mannich-type reaction and solar photocatalysis is demonstrated. A wide range of functional groups are compatible, affording the corresponding products in moderate-to-good yields. Control experiments illustrate that the in situ generated 1O2 plays a central role in this reaction. This green and efficient strategy provides a practical solution for the synthesis of potentially bioactive compounds that containing a 3, 4-dihydroquinoxalin-2(1H)-one structure.
Designing non-noble metal electrocatalysts toward alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) with high performance at a large current density is urgent. Herein, a CoO/CoP heterostructure catalyst (termed POZ) was designed by a phosphating strategy. The strong electron transfer on the interface of CoO/CoP was experimentally and theoretically proven. POZ showed a low overpotential of 236 mV at 400 mA/cm2, which was 249 mV lower than non-phosphated sample. It also exhibited a remarkable solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency of 10.5%. In this work, the construction of CoO/CoP interface realized by a simple phosphating strategy could provide an important reference to boost the HER performance on those materials not merely metal oxides.
Thirteen new fluorine-containing drugs, which have been granted approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2020, are profiled in this review. Therapeutic areas of these new fluorinated pharmaceuticals include medicines and diagnostic agents for Cushing's disease, neurofibromatosis, migraine, Alzheimer's disease, myelodysplastic syndromes, hereditary angioedema attacks, and various cancers. Molecules of these approved drugs feature aromatic fluorine (Ar-F) (11 compounds), aromatic Ar-CF3 (1), aliphatic CHF (1) and CF2 (1) groups. For each compound, we provide a spectrum of biological activity, medicinal chemistry discovery, and synthetic approaches.
Air batteries are promising energy storage technologies that have gained continuous attraction due to their high energy densities. At present, investigations on anodes of air batteries are usually focused on various metals such as Li, Zn, Al. In contrast, the semiconductor anodes like Si and Ge are less investigated. Si-air battery possesses a high theoretical energy density and Ge-air battery has a high actual power density and ideal safety. Besides anodes, air cathodes where oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are also the key components in air batteries. To further promote the discharging performance and facilitate energy conversion/storage, semiconductor materials have been introduced in electrochemical cells like Li-O2 and Zn-air batteries. This review briefly summarizes semiconductor materials utilized in various air batteries, including the progress of Si-air and Ge-air batteries and recent advances in semiconductor cathodes catalysts. Finally, the remaining challenges and further perspective are discussed.
Zwitterionic polymer materials have been extensively studied, but zwitterionic peptides supramolecular hydrogel materials are rarely studied. In this study, the preparation of two zwitterionic hydrogels using self-assembled peptides were reported. The hydrogels could be fabricated easily by changing the temperature or enzyme catalysis in a short time. And the differences in structure and function of the zwitterion peptide hydrogels caused by the two preparation methods were also be compared. We found that the hydrogel prepared by enzyme induced self-assembly has better solubility and lower cytotoxicity than that prepared by the heating-cooling process. The result showed the enzyme induced self-assembly way to form zwitterionic peptides supramolecular hydrogel materials could have further biomedical applications.
At present, frequent outbreaks of bacteria and viruses have seriously affected people's normal lives. Therefore, the study of broad-spectrum antibacterial nanocomposites is very promising. However, most antibacterial materials have some disadvantages, such as single bactericidal mechanisms and unrepeatable use. Based on the current situation, a kind of nanocomposite with three structures of graphene oxide (GO), quaternary ammonium salt (QAs) and N-halamine was prepared, which showed synergistic effect to improve antibacterial activity and combined with a variety of sterilization mechanisms. Meanwhile, GO can provide richer ways of sterilization and high specific surface area, which is conducive to the grafting of quaternarized N-halamine. The advantages of physical sterilization of GO, charge adsorption of QAs, reuse of N-halamine and efficient sterilization are fully utilized. The results showed that the quaternarized N-halamine-grafted GO was obtained successfully. GO grafted with quaternarized N-halamine polymer showed strong speedy bactericidal activity against Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) (99%). It had good storage and regeneration properties.
Pillar[5]arenes, designed and prepared by Ogoshi et al. in 2008 initially, refer to fifth classical macrocyclics. Among a wide range of pillar[5]arenes, rim-differentiated pillar[5]arenes containing five identical substituents on one rim and five different identical groups on the other rims are considered the most noteworthy type of pillar[5]arenes. As compared with the perfunctionalized pillar[5]arene, the self-assembly properties of rim-differentiated pillar[5]arenes have more varieties. On the other hand, in comparison with other types of pillar[5]arenes, the rim-differentiated pillar[5]arenes exhibit a more rigid symmetrical structure. In the present review, the synthetic methods, host-guest interactions, self-assembly properties and applications of rim-differentiated pillar[5]arenes are summarized. Hopefully, this review will be conducive to researchers in macrocyclic supramolecular chemistry.
With the ever-growing demand of clean water for the healthy world, water purification has become an urgent global issue. Singlet oxygen (1O2) as unique non-radical derivative of oxygen, possessing unoccupied π* orbital and exhibiting high selectivity towards electron-rich organic pollutants. Nevertheless, most of the approaches suffer from low-efficiency or biotoxicity, which severely restrict their potential applications. Therefore, in this work, we propose a general strategy via photoelectrocatalytic for selectively reducing oxygen to 1O2 with designed carbon bridged carbon nitride (CBCN). This work highlights the important role of synergistic photo-electro-catalytic effect for selectively generating the 1O2 via oxygen reduction pathway, which can be a promising way especially for degrading electron-rich pollutants.
The conversion of CO2 under mild condition is of great importance because these reactions involving CO2 can not only produce value-added chemicals from abundant and inexpensive CO2 feedstock but also close the carbon cycle. However, the chemical inertness of CO2 requires the development of high-performance catalysts. Herein, Ag nanoparticles/MIL-100(Fe) composites were synthesized by simple impregnation-reduction method and employed as catalysts for the photothermal carboxylation of terminal alkynes with CO2. MIL-100(Fe) could stabilize Ag nanoparticles and prevent them from aggregation during catalytic process. Taking the advantages of photothermal effects and catalytic activities of both Ag nanoparticles and MIL-100(Fe), various aromatic alkynes could be converted to corresponding carboxylic acid products (86%–92% yields) with 1 atm CO2 at room temperature under visible light irradiation when using Ag nanoparticles/MIL-100(Fe) as photothermal catalysts. The catalysts also showed good recyclability with almost no loss of catalytic activity for three consecutive runs. More importantly, the catalytic performance of Ag nanoparticles/MIL-100(Fe) under visible light irradiation at room temperature was comparable to that upon heating, showing that the light source could replace conventional heating method to drive the reaction. This work provided a promising strategy of utilizing solar energy for achieving efficient CO2 conversion to value-added chemicals under mild condition.
The effects of different species and concentrations' signal molecules on aerobic activated sludge system were investigated through batch experiments. Results showed that the fastest NH4+-N oxidization rate and the most extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) secretion were obtained by adding 5 nmol/L N-hexanoyl-l-homoserine lactone (C6-HSL) into the aerobic activated sludge. Further study investigated the correlation among N-acyl-homoserine lactones-mediated quorum sensing (AHLs-mediated QS), nutrient removal performances and microbial communities with the long-term addition of 5 nmol/L C6-HSL. It was found that C6-HSL-manipulation could enhance the stability and optimize the decontamination performance of aerobic granular sludge (AGS) system. Microbial compositions considerably shifted with long-term C6-HSL-manipulation. Exogenous C6-HSL-manipulation inhibited quorum quenching-related (QQ-related) activities and enhanced QS-related activities during the stable period. The proposed C6-HSL-manipulation might be a potential technology to inhibit the growth of harmful bacteria in AGS, which could provide a theoretical foundation for the realization of more stable biological wastewater treatments.
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