Latest ArticlesAn efficient Pd-catalyzed double annulation reaction of 1-(2, 6-dibromophenyl)-1 H-pyrroles with arynes is developed to synthesize π-extended dibenzo[d, k]ullazines in good to excellent yields. For the first time, the parent dibenzo[d, k]ullazine core is obtained and characterized.
An interlocked M4L8 coordination cage was synthesized by coordination-driven self-assembly of palladium(Ⅱ) ions with aromatic amide bidentate ligands. The reaction of the ligand and the metal at 2:1 ratio led to the monomeric M2L4 cage as the kinetic product, while the thermodynamic product M4L8 cage was obtained by prolongating the reaction. This conversion and the interlocked structure was clearly revealed by using 1H NMR, mass spectrometry and X-ray crystallography. The driving force of interlocking was mainly attributed to the interactions (hydrogen bonding, aromatic stacking and electrostatic interaction) arising from the aptitude of flexibility of the amide ligand.
Mercury ions are highly toxic and can accumulate along food chains in water, soil, crops and animals. Effective detection of mercury ions in various media is of great significance for maintaining the ecological environment and protecting people's health. In this work, a mercury ions specific fluorescent probe was developed by a simple one-step reaction of commercial substrates of 4-chloro-7-nitro-2, 1, 3-benzoxadiazole and 1-(2-aminoethyl)-4-methylpiperazine. Investigation on sensing behavior showed that this probe had high sensitivity and selectivity towards mercury ions. Furthermore, this probe could be used as a tool to track the level of mercury ions in living system. In living cells, the probe with green emission emitted a bright red fluorescence when it was bound to mercury ions. In Arabidopsis thaliana, similar red emission could be detected from the root tip and stalk when A. thaliana was grown in culture medium containing mercury ions. The imaging in zebrafish showed that mercury ions were mainly concentrated in the stomach and head of zebrafish. Especially, this probe could be applied in quantitative analysis of mercury ions in tap water, green tea, sea shrimp and soil. This work provided a practical tool for the detection of mercury ions in living systems and quantitative analysis in real samples.
Acephate pesticide contamination in agricultural production has caused serious human health problems. Metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) gas sensor can be used as a portable and promising alternative tool for efficiently detection of acephate. In this study, hierarchical assembled SnO2 nanosphere, SnO2 hollow nanosphere and SnO2 nanoflower were synthesized respectively as high efficiency sensing materials to build rapid and selective acephate pesticide residues sensors. The morphologies of different SnO2 3D nanostructures were characterized by various material characterization technology. The sensitive performance test results of the 3D SnO2 nanomaterials towards acephate show that hollow nanosphere SnO2 based sensor displayed preferable sensitivity, selectivity, and rapid response (9 s) properties toward acephate at the optimal working temperature (300 ℃). This SnO2 hollow nanosphere based gas sensor represents a useful tool for simple and highly effective monitoring of acephate pesticide residues in food and environment. According to the characterization results, particularly Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) and Ultraviolet-Visible Spectroscopy (UV–vis), the obvious and fast response can be attributed to the mesoporous hollow nanosphere structure and appropriate band gap of SnO2 hollow nanosphere.
Fluorescent sensing for specific detection of berberine is an important issue in view of its potential jeopardization to food safety and human health, but remains less investigated. To the best of our knowledge, there is no fluorescence turn-on and ratiometric sensors available for specific detection of berberine. In this study, calix[4]carbazole (3) has been synthesized and its property of recognizing berberine has been evaluated by UV–vis, fluorescence, NMR, DLS and TEM techniques. The results show that 3 selectively recognizes berberine among the tested drugs and detects it with turn-on and ratiometric fluorescence due to their co-assembly nature. Moreover, 3 is not only low toxic and can reduce toxicity of berberine to human normal liver L02 cell, but also can release berberine to tumor HepG2 cells at acid micro-environment. It therefore holds a great potential for further exploration
A Ru(Ⅱ)-catalyzed para-difluoroalkylation of aromatic aldehydes and ketones with a transient directing group has been developed. It utilizes less expensive ruthenium catalysts and allows facile access to challenging difluoroalkylated aldehydes. The mechanism studies suggest that the distinct coordination mode of ruthenium complex with imine moieties is responsible for para-selectivity.
Disclosed herein is an efficient Ag-catalyzed [4+1] heteroannulation reaction of enamides with α-carbonyl sulfoxonium ylides. The diastereoselective transformation provides a practical access to a diverse range of multi-functionalized oxazoline derivatives. The synthetic utility of the resultant tetra-substituted oxazolines is further demonstrated by a series of useful manipulations into valuable building blocks of pharmaceutical relevance.
With excellent color purity (full-width half maximum (FWHM) < 40 nm) and high quantum yield, multi-resonance (MR) molecules can harvest both singlet and triplet excitons for highly efficient narrowband organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) owing to their thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) nature. However, the highly rigid molecular skeleton with the oppositely positioned boron and nitrogen in generating MR effects results in the intrinsic difficulties in the solution-processing of MR-OLEDs. Here, we demonstrate a facile strategy to increase the solubility, enhance the efficiencies and modulate emission color of MR-TADF molecules by extending aromatic rings and introducing tert-butyls into the MR backbone. Two MR-TADF emitters with smaller singlet-triplet splitting energies (ΔEST) and larger oscillator strengths were prepared conveniently, and the solution-processed MR-OLEDs were fabricated for the first time, exhibiting efficient bluish-green electroluminescence with narrow FWHM of 32 nm and external quantum efficiency of 16.3%, which are even comparable to the state-of-the-art performances of the vacuum-evaporated devices. These results prove the feasibility of designing efficient solution-processible MR molecules, offering important clues in developing high-performance solution-processed MR-OLEDs with high efficiency and color purity.
Benzo-21-crown-7 (B21C7) is one of the most important crown ethers, which not only shows excellent physicochemical properties but also exhibits promising binding capability with dialkylammonium salts. In this paper, we designed and synthesized a fixed-tetraphenylethylene (FTPE) motif bridged ditopic benzo-21-crown-7 molecule (H). The fixed tetraphenylethylene motif endows H with aggregation induced emission (AIE) property. In the presence of a ditopic dialkylammonium salt guest molecule (G), a fluorescent supramolecular polymer with golden luminescent property could be fabricated. This B21C7-based host-guest supramolecular polymer with golden fluorescence may have potential application in dynamic luminescent materials.
Phosphatase plays a vital important role in many biological functions due to the dephosphorylation serves varied roles in cellular regulation and signaling. Among the family of phosphatase, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) could act as crucial prognostic indicators for many diseases such as bone diseases and cancer. However, the detection of ALP is mainly limited to in vitro colorimetric method in clinic. Therefore, huge efforts have been paid on the fluorescence imaging that provides a reliable method to detect the real-time and in vivo changes of the level of ALP. In this review, we summarize recent advances in fluorescence imaging of phosphatase, mainly focused on ALP. The imaging probes of phosphatase are mainly classified according to their luminescence mechanisms. In the end, we assessed the challenges and future prospects of phosphatase probes.