The thermal stability of graphene in air investigated by Raman spectroscopy

The thermal stability in air of graphene synthesized by either chemical vapor deposition or mechanical cleavage is studied. It is found that single layer graphene prepared by both methods starts to show defects at ~500 °C, indicated by the appearance of a disorder‐induced Raman D peak. The defects are initially sp³ type and become vacancy like at higher temperature. On the other hand, bilayer graphene shows better thermal stability, and the D peak appears at ~600 °C. These results are quite different from those annealing in vacuum and controlled atmosphere. Raman images show that the defects in chemical vapor deposition graphene are not homogeneous, whereas those in mechanical cleavage graphene are uniformly distributed across the whole sample. The factors that affect the thermal stability of graphene are discussed. Our results could be important for guiding the future electronics process and chemical decoration of graphene. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Click and Release Chemistry for Activity-Based Purification of β-Lactam Targets

β-Lactams, the cornerstone of antibiotherapy, inhibit multiple and partially redundant targets referred to as transpeptidases or penicillin-binding proteins. These enzymes catalyze the essential cross-linking step of the polymerization of cell wall peptidoglycan. The understanding of the mechanisms of action of β-lactams and of resistance to these drugs requires the development of reliable methods to characterize their targets. Here, we describe an activity-based purification method of β-lactam targets based on click and release chemistry. We synthesized alkyne-carbapenems with suitable properties with respect to the kinetics of acylation of a model target, the Ldt_fm L,D-transpeptidase, the stability of the resulting acylenzyme, and the reactivity of the alkyne for the cycloaddition of an azido probe containing a biotin moiety for affinity purification and a bioorthogonal cleavable linker. The probe provided access to the fluorescent target in a single click and release step.     

Synthesis and structures of copper complexes bearing unsymmetric derivatives of (R,R)‐1,2‐diaminocyclohexane: An efficient catalyst for asymmetric Henry reaction

A series of Cu (II) complexes bearing asymmetric derivatives of (R,R)‐1,2‐diaminocyclohexane were synthesised and characterised. The X‐ray structures of the complexes showed distorted square planar geometry. The catalytic activities of in situ‐generated copper acetate complexes in the presence of 10 mol% of N,N‐diisopropylethylamine were evaluated in the asymmetric Henry reaction. The current catalysts showed high enantioselectivity (up to 99%) for (S)‐1‐nitro‐4‐phenylbutan‐2‐ol from the reaction of 3‐phenylpropanal and nitromethane.     

Unraveling the concerted catalytic mechanism of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) protease: a hybrid QM/MM study

Structural Chemistry - We give an account of a one-step concerted catalytic mechanism of HIV-1 protease (PR) hydrolysis of its natural substrate using a hybrid QM/MM method. The mechanism is a...     

Morphologically Divergent Development of SnS Photocatalysts from Under-Utilized Ionic Precursors of SILAR Process

Journal of Cluster Science - Successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) process has been diversely used for deposition of various metal chalcogenides. SnS is one of them. Owing to the...     

Potentiometric,spectral characterization,and antioxidant activity studies of ternary complexes involving Cu(II) and carbamoylcholine chloride drug with amino acids

A potentiometric method was used to determine the stability constants for the various complexes of copper(II) with carbamoylcholine chloride (C) drug as a ligand in the presence of some biorelevant amino acid constituents like glycine (Gly), alanine (Ala), valine (Val), proline (Pro), β-phenylalanine (Phe), S-methylcysteine (Met), threonine (Thr), ornithine (Orn), lysine (Lys), histidine (Hisd), histamine (Hist), and imidazole (Imz) as ligands (L). Stability constants of complexes were determined at 25°C and I = 0.10 mol/L NaNO₃. The relative stability of each ternary complex was compared with that of the corresponding binary complexes in terms of Δlog K and % R.S. values. Cu(II) complexes of drug C were synthesized in 1:1 and 1:1:1 M ratios of copper to drug [Cu(C)(NO₃)₂] (1) and copper to drug to glycine[Cu(C)(Gly)(NO₃)].NO₃ (2), respectively. Glycine ternary complex with drug and copper [Cu(C)(Gly)(NO₃)].NO₃ was considered as representative amino acid. The complexes 1 and 2 were isolated and characterized using various physicochemical and spectral techniques. Both complexes 1 and 2 were found to have magnetic moments corresponding to one unpaired electron. The possible square planar and square-pyramidal geometries of the copper (II) complexes were assigned on the basis of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis) and infrared (IR) spectral studies, and the discrete Fourier transform method from DMOL3 calculations. Antioxidant activities of all the synthesized compounds were also investigated.     

Insight into the Formation and Transfer Process of the First Intermediate of CO2 Reduction over Ag-Decorated Dendritic Cu

It is still poorly understood how the first intermediates of CO₂ reduction are formed and converted to multi-carbon products over Cu-based electrodes. Herein, Ag is used to decorate dendritic Cu and a high Faradaic efficiency (FE) for C₂H₄ (25 %) is obtained on a CuAg electrode, which is about five times higher than dendritic Cu. The intermediates including *CO₂⁻, OH groups, Cu-CO, C-O rotation, and CH_x species are investigated by in situ Raman spectroscopy. This work provides spectroscopic evidence that the first intermediate of CO₂ reduction on Ag-decorated Cu is carboxylate anion *CO₂⁻ bonded with the catalyst surface through the C and O atom. The formation and evolution process of the *CO₂⁻ intermediate over the applied potential are investigated in depth as well. This research contributes to a better understanding of the mechanism of CO₂ reduction and multi-carbon product formation pathways over Ag-decorated Cu.     

Asymmetric Synthesis of Multi-Substituted Tetrahydrofurans via Palladium/Rhodium Synergistic Catalyzed [3+2] Decarboxylative Cycloaddition of Vinylethylene Carbonates

Unlike the comprehensive development of tandem multi-metallic catalysis, bimetallic synergistic catalysis has been challenging to achieve high stereoselectivity with the generation of multi-stereogenic centers. Herein, an efficient synergistic catalysis for the diastereo- and enantioselective synthesis of multi-substituted tetrahydrofuran derivatives has been developed. Under mild reaction conditions, a series of target molecules with three consecutive stereocenters were synthesized by a palladium(0)/rhodium(III) bimetal-catalyzed asymmetric decarboxylative [3+2]-cycloaddition of vinylethylene carbonates with α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds. The corresponding adducts were obtained with moderate to high yields (67 %∼98 %) and excellent stereoselectivities (>20 : 1 d.r., up to 99 % ee).     

Synthesis,Characterization, and Biological Evaluation of Some Novel Pyrazolo[5,1-b]thiazole Derivatives as Potential Antimicrobial and Anticancer Agents

The pharmacological activities of thiazole and pyrazole moieties as antimicrobial and anticancer agents have been thoroughly described in many literature reviews. In this study, a convenient synthesis of novel pyrazolo[5,1-b]thiazole-based heterocycles was carried out. The synthesized compounds were characterized by IR, ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. Some selected examples were screened and evaluated for their antimicrobial and anticancer activities and showed promising results. These products could serve as leading compounds in the future design of new drug molecules.     

Hydromagnetic Carreau Nanoliquid in Frames of Dissipation and Activation Energy

The novel characteristics of magnetic field and entropy generation in mixed convective flow of Carreau fluid towards a stretched surface are investigated.Buongiornio nanoliquid model consists of thermophoresis and Brownian movement aspects is opted for analysis.Energy expression is modeled subject to thermal radiation and viscous dissipation phenomenon.Concentration by zero mass flux condition is implemented.Consideration of chemical reaction and activation energy characterizes the mass transfer mechanism.Total entropy generation rate and Bejan number is formulated.The utilization of transformation variables reduces the PDEs into non-linear ODEs.The obtained nonlinear complex problems are computed numerically through Shooting scheme.The impact of involved variables like local Weissenberg number,magnetic parameter,thermal radiation parameter,Brownian motion parameter,thermophoresis parameter,buoyancy ratio parameter,mixed convection parameter,Prandtl parameter,Eckert number,Schmidt number,non-dimensional activation energy parameter,chemical reaction parameter,Brinkman number,dimensionless concentration ratio variable,diffusive variable and dimensionless temperature ratio variable on velocity,temperature,nanoparticles concentration,entropy generation,Bejan number,surface drag force and heat transfer rate are examined through graphs and tables.