Dynamic coating of a capillary with room-temperature ionic liquids for the separation of amino acids and acid drugs by capillary electrophoresis

A room-temperature ionic liquid (IL), 1-ethyl-3-methyl-imidazolium tetrafluoroborate (1E-3MI-TFB), used for the coating of a silica capillary enables one to reduce or invert the electroosmotic flow (EOF) in capillary zone electrophoresis. Excellent separations of amino acids and ary lalkanoic acids were obtained. Such separations could not be obtained in a naked capillary in the presence of the cationic surfactants cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) or polycationic polymer hexadimethrine bromide (HDB). The results indicate that 1E-3MI-TFB not only modulates the EOF but also acts as a discriminator. Further experiments indicate that the interaction between hydrogen at C-2 carbon of IL and acid drugs plays an important role in the separation. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Thermal degradation kinetics of polyimide containing 2,6-benzobisoxazole units

A novel polyimide (PI) based on 2,6-bis(p-aminophenyl)-benzo[1,2-d;5,4-d′]bisoxazole has been synthesized via a conventional two-stage procedure with bis(ether anhydrides) (HQDPA). The intermediate poly(amic acid) had inherent viscosities of 1.70 dl/g and could be thermally converted into light yellow polyimide film. The resulted polyimide showed excellent thermal stability, and the glass transition temperatures (T_g) were above 283 °C, the 5% weight loss temperature of the polymer was at 572 °C in N₂. The thermal degradation of the polyimide was studied by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) in order to determine the actual reaction mechanisms of the decomposition process. The activation energy of the solid-state process was determined using Flynn-Wall-Ozawa method, which does not require knowledge of the reaction mechanism, which resulted to be 361.36 kJ/mol. The activation energy of different mechanism models and pre-exponential factor (A) were determined by Coats-Redfern method. Compared with the value obtained from the Ozawa method, the actual reaction mechanism obeyed nucleation and growth model, Avrami-Erofeev function (A₃) with integral form g(X) = [−ln(1−X)]³.     

Anion and Additive Effects on the Structure of Mercury(II) Halides Complexes with Tripodal Ligand

The metal complexes [Hg₂(tbim)₂Br₄]·2DMF ( 1 ) and [Hg₂(tbim)I₄]·1.5DMF ( 2 ) were prepared by reactions of 1,3,5‐tris(benzimidazol‐1‐ylmethyl)‐2,4,6‐trimethylbenzene (tbim) with HgBr₂, HgI₂, respectively, and [Hg₂(tbim)I₄]·0.5(FeCp₂)·H₂O ( 3 ) was obtained by the same method with addition of ferrocene (FeCp₂) as additive. Their structures were determined by X‐ray crystallographic analyses. Complex 1 has a macrocyclic binuclear structure with one benzimidazole arm of the ligand free of coordination and the binuclear units are further connected by C‐H···N hydrogen bonds to give an infinite zigzag chain. Complexes 2 and 3 have a 2D network structure in which tbim serves as a tridentate ligand. The results showed that the halides of bromide and iodide have remarkable impact on the structure of the complexes. The FeCp₂ molecules are trapped in the voids of framework 3 .     

Competitive adsorption of Pb2+, Cu2+, and Cd2+ ions on microporous titanosilicate ETS-10

In the present study, the competitive adsorption characteristics of binary and ternary heavy metal ions Pb2+, Cu2+, and Cd2+ on microporous titanosilicate ETS-10 were investigated in batch systems. Pure microporous titanosilicate ETS-10 was synthesized with P25 as the Ti source and characterized by the techniques of X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission-scanning electron microscope (FESEM), nitrogen adsorption, and zeta-potential. Equilibrium and kinetic adsorption data showed that ETS-10 displays a high selectivity toward one metal in a two-component or a three-component system with an affinity order of Pb2+ > Cd2+ > Cu2+. The equilibrium behaviors of heavy metals species with stronger affinity toward ETS-10 can be described by the Langmuir equation while the adsorption kinetics of the metals can be well fitted to a pseudo-second-order (PSO) model.     

双功能型嵌入镍纳米颗粒的碳棱柱状微米棒电极用于电化学甲醇氧化助力的节能产氢

With the rapid development of human society, clean energy forms are imperative to sustain the normal operations of various mechanical and electrical facilities under a cozy environment. Hydrogen is considered among the most promising clean energy sources for the future. Recently, electrochemical water splitting has been considered as one of the most efficient approaches to harvest hydrogen energy, which generates only non-pollutant water on combustion. However, the sluggish anodic oxygen evolution reaction significantly restricts the efficiency of water splitting and requires a relatively high cell voltage to drive the electrolysis. Therefore, seeking a thermodynamically favorable anodic reaction to replace the sluggish oxygen evolution reaction by utilizing highly active bifunctional electrocatalysts for the anodic reaction and hydrogen evolution are crucial for achieving energy-efficient hydrogen production for industrial applications. Nevertheless, it is known that the oxygen evolution reaction can be replaced with other useful and thermodynamically favorable reactions to reduce the electrolysis voltage for realizing energy-efficient hydrogen production. Therefore, in this study, we present a bifunctional nickel nanoparticle-embedded carbon (Ni@C) prism-like microrod electrocatalyst synthesized via a two-step method involving the synthesis of a precursor metal-organic framework-74 and subsequent carbonization treatment for methanol oxidation and hydrogen evolution. The interfacial structure consisting of a nickel and carbon skeleton was realized via in situ carbonization. However, the dispersed nickel nanoparticles do not easily aggregate owing to the partition by the surrounding carbon as it would sufficiently expose the active Ni sites to the electrolytes, ensuring fast charge transfer between the catalyst and electrolytes by accelerating the electrochemical kinetics. In the anodic methanol oxidation, the products were detected as carbon dioxide and formate with faradaic efficiencies of 36.2% and 62.5%, respectively, at an applied potential of 1.55 V. Meanwhile, the Ni@C microrod catalyst demonstrated high activity and durability (2.7% current decay after 12 h of continuous operation) toward methanol oxidation, which demonstrates that methanol oxidation precedes oxidation under voltage forces. Notably, the bifunctional catalyst not only exhibits excellent performance toward methanol oxidation but also yields a low overpotential of 155 mV to drive 10 mA∙cm⁻² toward hydrogen evolution in 1.0 mol∙L⁻¹ KOH aqueous solution with 0.5 mol∙L⁻¹ methanol at room temperature, which guarantees the hydrogen production efficiency. More importantly, the constructed two-electrode electrolyzer produced a current density of 10 mA∙cm⁻² at a low cell voltage of 1.6 V, which decreased by 240 mV after replacing the oxygen evolution reaction with methanol oxidation.     

Flow-injection chemiluminescence determination of aminomethylbenzoic acid and aminophylline based on N-bromosuccinimide-luminol reaction

A novel and sensitive chemiluminescence (CL) method for the determination of aminomethylbenzoic acid and aminophylline coupled with flow-injection analysis (FIA) technique is developed in this paper. It is based on the inhibition effect of the studied drugs on the chemiluminescence emission of N-bromosuccinimide-luminol (NBS-luminol) system. Under the optimum conditions, the decreased CL intensity is linear with the concentration of aminomethylbenzoic acid in the range of 2×10⁻⁸ to 1.0×10⁻⁶ g ml⁻¹ and with the concentration of aminophylline in the range of 1×10⁻⁷ to 7.0×10⁻⁶ g ml⁻¹, respectively. The detection limit is 7.0×10⁻⁹ g ml⁻¹ for aminomethylbenzoic acid (3σ) and 3.4×10⁻⁸ g ml⁻¹ for aminophylline (3σ). The relative standard deviations (R.S.D.) for 11 parallel measurements of 2.0×10⁻⁷ g ml⁻¹ aminomethylbenzoic acid and 1.0×10⁻⁶ g ml⁻¹ aminophylline are 2.6 and 3.0%, respectively. The proposed methods have been applied for the determination of the studied drugs in their pharmaceutical formulations with satisfactory results. The possible use of the proposed system for the determination of aminomethylbenzoic acid in plasma sample was also tested. The possible inhibition mechanism of aminomethylbenzoic acid and aminophylline on luminol-NBS system was discussed briefly.     

Highly efficient non-doped blue fluorescent OLEDs with low efficiency roll-off based on hybridized local and charge transfer excited state emitters

Designing a donor–acceptor (D–A) molecule with a hybridized local and charge transfer (HLCT) excited state is a very effective strategy for producing an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) with a high exciton utilization efficiency and external quantum efficiency. Herein, a novel twisting D–π–A fluorescent molecule (triphenylamine–anthracene–phenanthroimidazole; TPAAnPI) is designed and synthesized. The excited state properties of the TPAAnPI investigated through photophysical experiments and density functional theory (DFT) analysis reveal that its fluorescence is due to the HLCT excited state. The optimized non-doped blue OLED using TPAAnPI as a light-emitting layer exhibits a novel blue emission with an electroluminescence (EL) peak at 470 nm, corresponding to the Commission International de L''Eclairage (CIE) coordinates of (0.15, 0.22). A fabricated device termed Device II exhibits a maximum current efficiency of 18.09 cd A⁻¹, power efficiency of 12.35 lm W⁻¹, luminescence of ≈29 900 cd cm⁻², and external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 11.47%, corresponding to a high exciton utilization efficiency of 91%. Its EQE remains as high as 9.70% at a luminescence of 1000 cd m⁻² with a low efficiency roll-off of 15%. These results are among the best for HLCT blue-emitting materials involved in non-doped blue fluorescent OLEDs. The performance of Device II highlights a great industrial application potential for the TPAAnPI molecule.

A new pure fluorescent blue HLCT-emitter was designed and synthesized. Highly efficient non-doped blue OLEDs with low efficiency roll-off were achieved.     

One-step preparation of branched PEG functionalized AIE-active luminescent polymeric nanoprobes

The synthesis of amphiphilic aggregation-induced emission(AIE) dyes based organic nanoparticles has recently attracted increasing attention in the biomedical fields. These AIE dyes based nanoparticles could effectively overcome the aggregation caused quenching effect of conventional organic dyes, making them promising candidates for fabrication of ultrabright organic luminescent nanomaterials. In this work, AIE-active luminescent polymeric nanoparticles(4-NH_2-PEG-TPE-E LPNs) were facilely fabricated through Michael addition reaction between tetraphenylethene acrylate(TPE-E) and 4-arm-poly(ethylene glycol)-amine(4-NH_2-PEG) in rather mild ambient. The 4-NH_2-PEG can not only endow these AIE-active LPNs good water dispersibility, but also provide functional groups for further conjugation reaction. The size, morphology and luminescent properties of 4-NH_2-PEG-TPE-E LPNs were characterized by a series of techniques in detail. Results suggested that these AIE-active LPNs showed spherical morphology with diameter about 100–200 nm. The obtained 4-NH_2-PEG-TPE-E LPNs display high water dispersibility and strong fluorescence intensity because of their self assembly and AIE properties of TPE-E.Biological evaluation results demonstrated that 4-NH_2-PEG-TPE-E LPNs showed negative toxicity toward cancer cells and good fluorescent imaging performance. All of these features make 4-NH_2-PEG-TPE-E LPNs promising candidates for biological imaging and therapeutic applications.     

Seed‐Mediated Synthesis of Gold Tetrahedra in High Purity and with Tunable,Well‐Controlled Sizes

We report a facile synthesis of Au tetrahedra in high purity and with tunable, well‐controlled sizes via seed‐mediated growth. The success of this synthesis relies on the use of single‐crystal, spherical Au nanocrystals as the seeds and manipulation of the reaction kinetics to induce an unsymmetrical growth pattern for the seeds. In particular, the dropwise addition of a precursor solution with a syringe pump, assisted by cetyltrimethylammonium chloride and bromide at appropriate concentrations, was found to be critical to the formation of Au tetrahedra in high purity. Their sizes could be readily tuned in the range of 30–60 nm by simply varying the amount of precursor added to the reaction solution. The current strategy not only enables the synthesis of Au tetrahedra with tunable and controlled sizes but also provides a facile and versatile approach to reducing the symmetry of nanocrystals made of a face‐centered cubic lattice.     

Determination of hydroxysafflor yellow A in biological fluids of patients with traumatic brain injury by UPLC‐ESI‐MS/MS after injection of Xuebijing

A simple, novel, specific, rapid and reproducible ultra‐performance liquid chromatography electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry method has been developed and validated for the determination of hydroxysafflor yellow A (HSYA) in biological fluids (plasma, urine and cerebrospinal fluid) of patients with traumatic brain injury after intravenous injection of Xuebijing (XBJ). Liquid–liquid extraction was performed, and separation was carried out on an Acquity UPLC? BEH C₁₈ column, with gradient elution using a mobile phase composed of methanol and 0.1% formic acid at a flow rate of 0.3 mL/min. A triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer with electrospray ionization was used for the detection of HSYA. The mass transition followed was m/z 611.0 → 491. The retention time was less than 3.0 min. The calibration curve was linear in the concentration range from 2 to 6125 ng/mL for cerebrospinal fluid, plasma and urine. The intra‐ and inter‐day precisions were <10%, and the relative standard deviation of recovery was <15% for HSYA in biological matrices. The method was successfully applied for the first time to quantify HSYA in the biological fluids (especially in cerebrospinal fluid) of patients with traumatic brain injury following intravenous administration of XBJ. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.