The synthesis of new Schiff base-like ligands with asymmetric substituents pattern and their iron complexes with pyridine as axial ligand is described. Two of the ligands and one of the iron(II) complexes were characterized by single crystal X-ray structure analysis. One of the the iron(II) complexes shows spin crossover behavior while the others remain in the high spin state. The influence of the reduced symmetry of the ligand on the properties of the complexes is discussed.
Poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) was tethered with a 1,5-disubstituted tetrazole through a quaternary ammonium linkage. The formation of a tetrazole-ion network in the resulting polymers was found to promote the hydroxide ion transport through the Grotthus-type mechanism.
A mild and efficient synthesis for the biaryl acids via rhodium-catalyzed cross-dehydrogenative coupling reaction has been developed. This novel protocol with sodium chlorite as an oxidant featured many advantages such as mild reaction conditions, high regioselectivity, tolerance of various functional groups, and good to excellent yields.
A review of recent research related to microporous polymeric membranes formed via thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) and the morphologies of these membranes is presented. A summary of polymers and suitable diluents that can be used to prepare these microporous membranes via TIPS are summarized. The effects of different kinds of polymer materials, diluent types, cooling conditions, extractants and additive agents on the morphology and performance of TIPS membranes are also discussed. Finally new developments in TIPS technology are summarized.
Copper nanoparticles-decorated polyaniline-derived mesoporous carbon that can serve as noble metal-free electrocatalyst for the hydrazine oxidation reaction (HzOR) is synthesized via a facile synthetic route. The material exhibits excellent electrocatalytic activity toward HzOR with low overpotential and high current density. The material also remains stable during the electrocatalytic reaction for long time. Its good electrocatalytic performance makes this material a promising alternative to conventional noble metal-based catalysts (e.g., Pt) that are commonly used in HzOR-based fuel cells.
A palladium catalyst supported on 2-aminopyridine functionalized cellulose was synthesized and fully characterized by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy, transmission electron microscope, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and X-ray photoelectron spectrometry. This catalyst can be applied in the Suzuki cross-coupling reaction of aryl halides with arylboronic acids in 50% ethanol to afford biaryls in good yields, and easily recycled by simple filtration after reaction without the loss of metal Pd.
Great interests have arisen over the last decade in the development of hierarchically porous materials. The hierarchical structure enables materials to have maximum structural functions owing to enhanced accessibility and mass transport properties, leading to improved performances in various applications. Hierarchical porous materials are in high demand for applications in catalysis, adsorption, separation, energy and biochemistry. In the present review, recent advances in synthesis routes to hierarchically porous materials are reviewed together with their catalytic contributions.
Establishment of the regeneratable whole-cell catalyst platform for the production of biobased polymeric materials is a typical topic of synthetic biology. In this commentary, discovery story of a “lactate-polymerizing enzyme” (LPE) and LPE-based achievements for creating a new variety of polyesters with incorporated unnatural monomers are presented. Besides the importance of microbial platform itself is discussed referring to the “ballooning”-Escherichia coli.
X-ray crystallography is a powerful strategy for 3-D structure determination of macromolecules, such as nucleic acids and protein-nucleic acid complexes. However, the crystallization and phase determination are the major bottle-neck problems in crystallography. Recently we have successfully developed synthesis and strategy of selenium-derivatized nucleic acids (SeNA) for nucleic acid crystallography. SeNA might not only provide the rational strategies to solve the phase determination problem, but also offer a potential strategy to explore crystallization solutions.
We have successfully prepared a series of Pd-Ni/TiO2 catalysts by a one-step impregnation-reduction method. Among these catalysts with different compositions of Ni and Pd, the one with the Ni:Pd ratio of 2.95 showed the best activity. Small monodispersed Pd-Ni bimetallic nanoparticles were loaded on the surface of titanium oxide nanopowder as confirmed with TEM and EDS mapping. The XPS analysis demonstrated that Pd exists as 31% Pd(II) species and 69% Pd(0) species and all nickel is Ni(II). The prepared Pd-Ni/TiO2 exhibited enhanced catalytic activity compared to an equal amount of Pd/TiO2 for Suzuki-Miyaura reactions together with excellent applicability and reusability.
A simple nitrobenzyl-umbelliferone (NCOU1) was synthesised containing a nitroreductase (NTR) trigger moiety. The presence of NTR, resulted in the fragmentation of the parent molecule and release of the highly emissive fluorophore umbelliferone via an NTR-catalyzed reduction of the nitro group. In the presence of the NTR enzyme, NCOU1 gave rise to a 5-fold increase in fluorescence intensity at 455 nm and was selective for NTR over other reductive enzymes. These results indicate that NCOU1 can be used as a simple assay for the detection of NTR.
Amyloid peptides are renowned to be related to neurodegenerative diseases, however, a fruitful avenue is to employ them as high-performance nanomaterials. These materials benefit from the intrinsic outstanding mechanical robustness of the amyloid backbone made of β-strands. In this work, we exploited amyloid-like fibrils as functional material to attach pristine L-cysteine aggregates (cystine oligomers) and gold nanoparticles, without the need of templating compounds. This work will open new avenues on functional materials design and their realisation.
Microfluidic chip has been applied in various biological fields owing to its low-consumption of reagents, high throughput, fluidic controllability and integrity. The well-designed microscale intermediary is also ideal for the study of cell biology. Particularly, microfluidic chip is helpful for better understanding cell-cell interactions. A general survey of recent publications would help to generalize the designs of the co-culture chips with different features. With ingenious and combinational utilization, the chips facilitate the implementation of some special coculture models that are highly concerned in a different spatial and temporal way.
Ribozymes are widespread, and catalyze some extremely important reactions in the cell. Mechanistically most fall into one of two classes, using either metal ions or general acid-base catalysis. The nucleolytic ribozymes fall into the latter class, mostly using nucleobases. A sub-set of these use a combination of guanine base plus adenine acid to catalyze the cleavage reaction. New ribozymes are still being discovered at regular intervals and we can speculate on the potential existence of ribozymes that catalyze chemistry beyond phosphoryl transfer reactions, perhaps using small-molecule coenzymes.
A series of amphiphilic copolymers containing poly(vinyl chloride-r-acrylic acid) (P(VC-r-AA) ) was synthesized and used to prepare membranes via a nonsolvent induced phase separation method. The prepared membranes were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and water contact angle and zeta potential measurements. The copolymer P(VC-r-AA) chains did not dissolved in a coagulation bath, indicating that the AA segments were completely retained within the membrane. Enriching degree of AA segments in surface layer was 2 for copolymer membrane. In addition, the introduction of AA segments made the membrane electronegative and hydrophilic so that the membrane was sensitive to the solution pH. The fouling resistance, adsorption of Cu(II), Cr(III) and Ce(IV) ions and the desorption properties of the membranes were also determined. The copolymer membranes exhibited good antifouling performance with a fouling reversibility of 92%. The membranes also had good adsorption capacities for Cu(II), Cr(III) and Ce(IV) ions. The optimal pH for Cu(II) adsorption was 6 and the copolymer membrane has potential applications for low concentration Cu(II) removal.
Cyanobacteria can produce useful renewable fuels and high-value chemicals using sunlight and atmospheric carbon dioxide by photosynthesis. Genetic manipulation has increased the variety of chemicals that cyanobacteria can produce. However, their uniquely abundant NADPH-pool, in other words insufficient supply of NADH, tends to limit their production yields in case of utilizing NADH-dependent enzyme, which is quite common in heterotrophic microbes. To overcome this cofactor imbalance and enhance cyanobacterial fuel and chemical production, various approaches for cofactor engineering have been employed. In this review, we focus on three approaches: (1) utilization of NADPH-dependent enzymes, (2) increasing NADH production, and (3) changing cofactor specificity of NADH-dependent enzymes from NADH to NADPH.
Aqueous solutions of methyldiethanolamine (MDEA) and piperazine (PZ) are commonly used solvent nowadays. In this work a thermodynamic analysis with the Electrolyte-NRTL model has been performed for systems composed of acidic gases and MDEA + PZ aqueous solution. ASPEN Plus® has been used for thermodynamic modeling. Values of binary interaction parameters for liquid phase activity coefficients have been estimated from regressions of experimental data. Moreover, the influence of the interactions between ion pairs and MDEA or PZ molecular species has been analyzed. The final aim is to obtain a reliable tool for design and simulation of absorption and stripping columns, fundamentals also in order to carry out energy saving studies.
The synthetic chromosome rearrangement and modification by loxP-mediated evolution (SCRaMbLE) system has been used to improve prodeoxyviolacein (PDV) production in haploid yeast containing chromosome synV. To rapidly and continuously generate genome diversification with the desired phenotype, the multiplex SCRaMbLE iterative cycle strategy has been developed for the screening of high PDV production strains. Wholegenome sequencing analysis reveals large duplications, deletions, and even the whole genome duplications. The deletion of YER151C is proved to be responsible for the increase. This study demonstrates that artificial DNA rearrangement can be used to accelerate microbial evolution and the production of biobased chemicals.
The growing use of energy by most of world population and the consequent increasing demand for energy are making unexploited low quality gas reserves interesting from an industrial point of view. To meet the required specifications for a natural gas grid, some compounds need to be removed from the sour stream. Because of the high content of undesired compounds (i.e., CO2) in the stream to be treated, traditional purification processes may be too energy intensive and the overall system may result unprofitable, therefore new technologies are under study. In this work, a new process for the purification of natural gas based on a low temperature distillation has been studied, focusing on the dynamics of the system. The robustness of the process has been studied by dynamic simulation of an industrial-scale plant, with particular regard to the performances when operating conditions are changed. The results show that the process can obtain the methane product with a high purity and avoid the solidification of carbon dioxide.
Self-standing porous WP2 nanosheet arrays on carbon fiber cloth (WP2 NSs/CC) were synthesized and used as a 3D flexible hydrogen evolution electrode. Because of its 3D porous nanoarray structure, the WP2 NSs/CC exhibits a remarkable catalytic activity and a high stability. By using the experimental measurements and first-principle calculations, the underlying reasons for the excellent catalytic activity were further explored. Our work makes the present WP2 NSs as a promising electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution and provides a way to design and fabricate efficient hydrogen evolution electrodes through 3D porous nano-arrays architecture.
