Hydroxyundecanethiol-Modified Steel Fibers for the Selective Solid-Phase Microextraction of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons from River and Wastewater

A novel organic–inorganic composite-coated fiber was developed for selective solid-phase microextraction (SPME) by direct electrodeposition of zinc oxide microparticles on a pretreated stainless steel wire followed by self-assembly of hydroxyundecanethiol with zinc–sulfur bonds. The performance of the hydroxyundecyl-modified zinc oxide-coated steel fiber was then assessed for SPME of polar aromatic compounds coupled to high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection. Excellent extraction and selectivity were obtained for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The extraction and desorption times, temperature, stirring rate, and ionic strength were optimized. The limits of detection were from 0.034 to 0.132?µg?L^?1. The relative standard deviations were from 3.4 to 4.9% for a single fiber and from 5.1 to 6.4% for multiple fibers. The recovery of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in environmental water fortified at 5.0 and 50?µg?L^?1 was from 83.1 to 103% with relative standard deviations below 8.4%. This fiber was shown to withstand at least 200 extraction and desorption cycles. The method was used for the preconcentration and determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in environmental water.     

Phosphoprotein Analysis by MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry using On-Probe Tandem Proteolysis and Dephosphorylation

In this investigation, methods based on on-probe enzymatic cleavage matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometric (MALDI-TOF-MS) analyses have been developed, allowing the rapid assignment of phosphorylation sites within phosphoproteins. The procedures involved robotic sample deposition of a phosphoprotein, such as intact bovine β-casein, on stainless steel or gold MALDI plates, on-probe proteolysis with trypsin for 10–180?s at 37°C, on-probe dephosphorylation for 1–10?min at 37°C with alkaline phosphatase, followed by differential mass spectrometry with peptide mass mapping. The dephosphorylation conditions were initially optimized using in-solution tryptic digestion of the phosphoprotein performed in the presence of MS-compatible anionic surfactant sodium 3-[(2-methyl-2-undecyl-1,3-dioxolan-4-yl)methoxy]-1-propanesulfonate. Two methods of trypsin deactivation were investigated, cooling and quenching by acidification, which resulted in the surfactant either staying intact or becoming cleaved, respectively. Since the surfactant had no detrimental effects on dephosphorylation of phosphopeptides, the acidification and neutralization steps were not included in the final analytical method. A protocol, comprising on-probe tandem, surfactant-aided proteolysis for 3?min followed by on-probe dephosphorylation for 10?min was thus established, allowing the rapid identification of location and sequence of phosphopeptides within a phosphoprotein by these procedures.     

Characterization of the Reduction of Oxygen at Anthraquinone-Modified Glassy Carbon and Highly Oriented Pyrolytic Graphite Electrodes

1-(N-Boc-aminomethyl)-4-(aminomethyl)benzene, bearing a protected amine group, was electrochemically grafted to glassy carbon and edge plane and basal plane highly oriented pyrolytic graphite electrodes by the oxidation of the corresponding linker. Following the removal of tert-butyloxycarbonyl protecting group, anthraquinone-2-carboxylic acid was coupled to the amine-terminated linker using solid-phase synthesis. The surface coverage of the immobilized anthraquinone redox centers was investigated by cyclic voltammetry and found to be the highest at edge plane and the lowest at the basal plane electrodes. The electrocatalytic activity of the anthraquinone-modified electrodes toward oxygen reduction was explored by cyclic voltammetry, chronoamperometry, and chronocoulometry at the unmodified and modified graphite electrodes. The immobilized anthraquinone was shown to catalyze the reduction of oxygen to hydrogen peroxide and the number of electrons transferred was two for all modified electrodes.     

Synthesis of a secretoglobin 3A2 type C (98–139) fragment by Dawson’s native chemical ligation

A secretoglobin 3A2 type C (98–139) peptide was synthesized by native chemical ligation between ¹¹⁵Ile and ¹¹⁶Cys residues using Dawson’s linker. The peptide-N-acyl-benzimidazolinone-glycine amide, a C-terminal thioesters precursor, was provided from 3-amino-4-(methylamino)benzoic acid. In addition, an N-terminal cysteine fragment, the (116–139) peptide, was prepared by ordinary Fmoc-solid phase peptide synthesis. Native chemical ligation of the (98–115) fragment with the Dawson’s linker and the (116–139) peptide smoothly proceeded to give SCGB3A2 type C (98–139) peptide.     

Corroborating study on the absolute configurations of trigochinins A–C

Trigochinins A–C (1–3) are three highly oxygenated daphnane-type diterpenes isolated from Trigonostemon chinensis. Their structures with the absolute configurations were initially assigned by a combination of spectroscopic data, X-ray crystallography (Mo Kα radiation) study and CD analysis. In the current study, the absolute configurations of trigochinins A–C were confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffraction (Cu Kα radiation) study, CD spectral analogy, and theoretical ECD study by using quantum chemical TDDFT calculations.     

Late stage modification of peptides via CH activation reactions

Recently developed strategies for late stage modification of peptides through CH activation, an arena of contemporary interest in chemical biology and drug discovery, are discussed. Through this tactic, non-polar amino acids in peptides have been selectively functionalized and CH activation enabled new CC and CX bond formations (arylation, alkynylation, fluorination, hydroxylation, azidation, etc.) are documented. Significant advances have been made in Pd or Au-catalyzed, racemization-free, tryptophan specific modifications of large peptides via CH arylation and alkynylation reactions without any protecting group requirement. Development of a new biaryl stapling technique for complex peptides, 18F radiofluorine introduction and diversity oriented post synthetic applications on bio-active cyclopeptides like valinomycin and aureobasidin are additional highlights which underscores the vast potential of late stage CH activation reactions in peptide based therapeutics research.     

Toward amino acid typing for proteins in FFLUX

Continuing the development of the FFLUX, a multipolar polarizable force field driven by machine learning, we present a modern approach to atom‐typing and building transferable models for predicting atomic properties in proteins. Amino acid atomic charges in a peptide chain respond to the substitution of a neighboring residue and this response can be categorized in a manner similar to atom‐typing. Using a machine learning method called kriging, we are able to build predictive models for an atom that is defined, not only by its local environment, but also by its neighboring residues, for a minimal additional computational cost. We found that prediction errors were up to 11 times lower when using a model specific to the correct group of neighboring residues, with a mean prediction of ∼0.0015 au. This finding suggests that atoms in a force field should be defined by more than just their immediate atomic neighbors. When comparing an atom in a single alanine to an analogous atom in a deca‐alanine helix, the mean difference in charge is 0.026 au. Meanwhile, the same difference between a trialanine and a deca‐alanine helix is only 0.012 au. When compared to deca‐alanine models, the transferable models are up to 20 times faster to train, and require significantly less ab initio calculation, providing a practical route to modeling large biological systems. © 2016 The Authors. Journal of Computational Chemistry Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

阳极改性对微生物燃料电池处理秸秆水解物性能影响

以玉米秸秆稀酸水解液为阳极底物,用污水处理厂活性污泥为产电微生物菌源构建双室微生物燃料电池(MFC),采用三种不同方法改性阳极碳毡,并对其MFC产电性能进行研究。结果表明,以未改性碳毡(CC)、HNO_3酸解CC(HNO_3/CC)、壳聚糖改性CC(chitosan/CC)、PDADMAC/α-Fe_2O_3层层自组装改性碳毡(PDADMAC/α-Fe_2O_3/CC)的MFC的最大产电量分别为248、315、452和522 mV,最大功率密度分别为54.6、92.7、203.8和248.1 mW/m~2,COD的去除率分别为82.21%、81.46%、82.53%和86.44%。循环伏安曲线显示,PDADMAC/α-Fe_2O_3层层自组装改性的阳极碳毡具有较高的氧化还原电位。电化学阻抗谱图表明,PDADMAC/α-Fe_2O_3层层自组装改性碳毡的极化内阻最小,为7Ω。几种改性材料为阳极的MFC性能依次为PDADMAC/α-Fe_2O_3/CC壳聚糖/CCHNO_3/CC空白CC。     

TiO2@Ag修饰的粉煤灰微集料增强水泥基材料光催化性能

自清洁和空气净化能力是绿色建筑发展的两个重要方向,它们不仅使建筑体向功能多样化方向发展,而且为新材料的应用提供了平台.因与大量城市环境污染物(氮氧化物,挥发性有机化合物等)直接接触,具有空气净化能力的光催化水泥基材料引起了人们广泛关注.在过去几十年里,通过使用直接喷洒到浆体表层或与水泥原材料预先共混的方法,国内外已相继将TiO2光催化材料应用到了一些实际工程中.但TiO2光催化剂在水泥基材料中高效和稳定发挥其性能仍需解决两个关键问题:(1)它在水泥基体中分散性和效能耐久性问题;(2)其量子效率和对可见光利用率问题.对于后者,目前的材料制备与改性方法,如金属、非金属改性等已能获得量子效率和可见光活性都较好的TiO2类光催化材料.研究表明,水泥水化产物(氢氧化钙、C-S-H凝胶等)的包覆、后期碳化所致气体和光线扩散孔隙的降低是导致TiO2光催化剂在水泥基材料中耐久性和利用率差的可能原因.我们前期报道了一种将纳米TiO2催化剂预先负载到水泥基材料用的多孔粗集料表面,然后将负载型催化剂整体引入到水泥基体中的催化剂应用方法,发现该法能有效提升TiO2催化剂在水泥基材料中的催化效率和耐久性.微米级活性粉煤灰具有良好的水泥基材料兼容性,通过采用简单的碱激发手段,可形成孔径小于50 nm的介孔和微孔类沸石材料,从而影响光催化材料的催化性能.因此,基于粉煤灰的特征,为了进一步提高TiO2催化剂在水泥基材料中的应用效率和催化耐久性,我们采用碱激发法获得了大比表面和介孔结构的沸石类粉煤灰材料,将其用于负载纳米TiO2催化剂,然后引入到水泥基体中,制备了沸石类粉煤灰/TiO2光催化水泥基材料,同时研究了光还原Ag修饰对沸石类粉煤灰/TiO2光催化水泥基材料的催化性能影响及其催化耐久性.结果表明,具有分级孔结构的沸石粉煤灰载体可有效提升纳米TiO2光催化剂在水泥基体中的暴露度,同时还增加了其对气相苯(200×10–6初始浓度)的光催化去除能力.最佳Ag修饰量(1.4×10–4 wt%)沸石类粉煤灰/TiO2光催化水泥样品对气相苯的光催化伪一级反应速率常数达到9.91×10–3 min?1,分别是沸石类粉煤灰/TiO2光催化水泥样品和纯TiO2光催化水泥样品效能的3和10倍.光催化稳定性结果发现,在3次催化循环后,样品对气相苯的光催化去除率仍能达到96.3%(180 min).考虑到水泥基材料碳化是影响光催化剂使用耐久性的一个关键因素,我们还评估了沸石类粉煤灰/TiO2光催化水泥样品28 d加速碳化后的光催化性能.结果表明,经过加速碳化后,样品对气相苯光催化去除率只降低了11%,相比于同条件下纯TiO2水泥样品性能,其催化耐久性显著提高,表明沸石类粉煤灰载体可有效提升TiO2在水泥基体中的催化耐久性.这可能是由于其高孔隙特性可降低周围水泥水化产物的形成量,如高钙/硅比C-S-H凝胶及氢氧化钙结晶,进而降低了这些水化产物碳化所带来的影响.     

用有限解析差分格式数值求解化学输运方程

本文用有限解析差分格式研究在多孔介质中化学输运问题的数值模型,系统地计算结果表明:1.有限解析差分格式能够消除数值弥散和伪振荡; 2.随着弥散数(Peclct数)的减小(增加),浓度突破曲线将延迟到达和形状变陡,最终趋近浓度对流曲线;3.当流速数增加后,非稳态吸附对浓度分布的影响趋近稳态吸附的影响。