轨道对称性匹配:MXene基体上的单原子催化以实现优异的氮还原反应

氨作为一种可被植物直接吸收用以合成其他有机物的重要成分,在化学化工及含氮化合物的生产当中起着至关重要的作用.传统工业生产氨气采用Haber-Bosch工艺,将空气中丰富的氮气转化为氨气,但该工艺需要较高的压强和温度来促进氮气分解,因此会消耗大量能源.近年来,电催化反应发展迅速.在电催化工艺中,通过控制操作电位及电解质便可提高生产效率,降低能源消耗.基于这种策略,各种针对能源环境的催化研究应运而生,如二氧化碳还原、水分解反应等.其中,对于氮还原的催化研究尤其是电催化设计领域研究相对较少.研究发现,在电催化剂中,异构掺杂及原子尺度的调控可以极大地影响催化剂的催化活性.其中,单原子催化(SAC)因其在催化活性和催化选择性上的优势受到广泛关注.MXene是一种二维过渡金属碳化物或氮化物,其优异的化学性能和稳定的表面构型可以对单原子起到良好的锚定与支撑作用,是一种更具潜力的单原子催化基体.本文基于上述思想,利用密度泛函第一性原理等模拟软件,设计并研究了以MXene为基体的28种过渡金属单原子催化体系,计算并分析了各SAC@MXene体系对氮还原反应的催化效果,从限制电势、催化路径、反应机制等方面探索了其催化性能.并对体系进行了态密度、晶体轨道哈密顿量、差分电荷密度等电子结构分析,找到了适用于MXene体系的单原子催化设计原则.通过对限制电势的计算表明,Ni@MXene和Co@MXene体系具有很低的限制电势(-0.13和-0.17 V),说明这些体系在较低的启动电压下即可发生氮还原反应.研究发现了一种新型适用于SAC@MXene氮催化体系的酶促-远端反应机制.电子结构分析得到SAC原子与MXene基体的Ti原子在催化过程中存在一种协同作用.态密度及晶体轨道哈密顿量也显示出SAC原子与MXene基体Ti之间的一种轨道对称性匹配关系,揭示了这种协同作用对催化反应的积极作用.计算的氢析出反应(HER)结果也显示,在相同化学环境下,SAC@MXene体系氮还原反应相对于氢析出反应更易发生.     

Using Terpene Synthase Plasticity in Catalysis: On the Enzymatic Conversion of Synthetic Farnesyl Diphosphate Analogues

Four synthetic farnesyl diphosphate analogues were enzymatically converted with three bacterial sesquiterpene synthases, including β-himachalene synthase (HcS) and (Z)-γ-bisabolene synthase (BbS) from Cryptosporangium arvum, and germacrene A synthase (SmTS6) from Streptomyces mobaraensis. These enzyme reactions not only yielded several previously unknown compounds, showing that this approach opened the door to a new chemical space, but substrates with blocked or altered reactivities also gave interesting insights into the cyclisation mechanisms and the potential to catalyse reactions with different initial cyclisation modes.     

Single‐crystalline gold microplates grown on substrates by solution‐phase synthesis

Chemically synthesized single‐crystalline gold microplates have been attracting increasing interest because of their potential as high‐quality gold films for nanotechnology. We present the growth of tens of nanometers thick and tens of micrometers large single‐crystalline gold plates directly on solid substrates by solution‐phase synthesis. Compared to microplates deposited on substrates from dispersion phase, substrate‐grown plates exhibit significantly higher quality by avoiding severe small‐particle contamination and aggregation. Substrate‐grown gold plates also open new perspectives to study the growth mechanism via step‐growth and observation cycles of a large number of individual plates. Growth models are proposed to interpret the evolution of thickness, area and shape of the plates. It is found that the plate surface remains smooth after regrowth, implying the applicability of regrowth for producing giant plates as well as unique single‐crystalline nano‐structures.     

Chemical Probing of the Human Sirtuin 5 Active Site Reveals Its Substrate Acyl Specificity and Peptide‐Based Inhibitors

Sirtuins are NAD⁺‐dependent deacetylases acting as sensors in metabolic pathways and stress response. In mammals there are seven isoforms. The mitochondrial sirtuin 5 is a weak deacetylase but a very efficient demalonylase and desuccinylase; however, its substrate acyl specificity has not been systematically analyzed. Herein, we investigated a carbamoyl phosphate synthetase 1 derived peptide substrate and modified the lysine side chain systematically to determine the acyl specificity of Sirt5. From that point we designed six potent peptide‐based inhibitors that interact with the NAD⁺ binding pocket. To characterize the interaction details causing the different substrate and inhibition properties we report several X‐ray crystal structures of Sirt5 complexed with these peptides. Our results reveal the Sirt5 acyl selectivity and its molecular basis and enable the design of inhibitors for Sirt5.     

高频燃烧–红外吸收法测定低合金钢中的碳含量

采用高频红外碳硫分析仪测定低合金钢中的碳含量。分别考察了取样量、助熔剂种类、助熔剂用量对测量结果的影响。结果显示当取样量为400 mg、钨助熔剂用量为样品取样量的1.2倍时,测定低合金钢中的碳含量效果最好,测定结果的相对标准偏差为0.9%(n=10),加标回收率在97.5%~102.7%之间。     

山梨酸钾与Zn2+在NaCl溶液中对Q235钢的缓蚀协同作用

采用失重法、电化学法、X射线光电子能谱(XPS)和扫描电子显微镜(SEM)研究了0.5 mol/L NaCl溶液中,山梨酸钾(PS)与Zn²⁺对Q235钢的缓蚀协同效应。 失重实验结果表明,在0.5 mol/L NaCl溶液中,PS对Q235钢具有一定的缓蚀效果,缓蚀效率随PS质量浓度的增加而增大,当添加PS的质量浓度为25.0 g/L时,最大缓蚀效率仅为38.37%,而PS与Zn²⁺复配后存在显著的缓蚀协同作用,缓蚀效率高达91.03%。 动电势极化结果表明,PS与Zn²⁺混合物可同时抑制Q235钢的阴、阳极反应,属于阳极型缓蚀剂。 阻抗谱表明,该混合物可在电极表面形成致密的保护膜。 XPS分析证明保护膜是由PS、铁的氧化物/氢氧化物和Zn(OH)₂沉淀组成。     

高分辨电感耦合等离子体磁质谱法测定含铜不锈钢中痕量磷

作者通过试验,用电感耦合等离子体磁质谱(HR-ICP-MS)测定含铜不锈钢中磷含量时,采用高分辨率模式,选择分辨率为4000,在此条件下磷峰可与干扰双原子分子或离子的峰分开。又通过以含铁基的磷标准溶液优化了气体流量和离子透镜的参数,使磷的信号值提高至3×105cps。而加入45Sc作为内标元素又可显著提高测定的稳定性。分别用不锈钢样品和纯铁粉作基体,加入标准溶液制作标准曲线。结果表明:两种方法的线性均较好,分别测得实际样品的结果及其相对标准偏差也基本一致。但两种方法的检出限(3s)不同,前者为1.0μg·g^-1,后者为0.18μg·g^-1。所提出方法的样品处理过程如下:称取样品0.10g置于消解罐中,加入盐酸溶液2mL及硝酸溶液1mL,待剧烈反应缓解时,将消解罐加盖并置于微波消解仪中,于100℃消解10min,升温至200℃继续消解20min。冷却后将溶液转移至100 mL石英容量瓶中,加入0.2mg·L^-1钪内标溶液1mL,加水至刻度,摇匀。此溶液在仪器工作条件下进行HR-ICP-MS测定。对含磷51μg·g^-1的含铜不锈钢,按本方法测定所得结果的相对标准偏差(n=10)小于4%。应用本方法分析了7种标准物质或已知样品(包括低合金钢、含铜不锈钢、高温合金),并同时用ICP-AES进行校对分析。结果表明,本方法与ICP-AES的测定结果基本一致。但本方法的结果与标准物质的认定值更接近,而且对低含量磷(9μg·g^-1)也可很好测定。     

Bent-core liquid crystal-functionalised flexible polymer substrates for liquid crystal alignment

ABSTRACT

A transparent flexible polymer film is chemically functionalised with a bent-core liquid crystal (BCLC) compound for effective alignment of the bulk BCLC sample at the substrate–LC interface. The surface attachment was achieved via a simple procedure which involved pre-treatment of the polymer film (commercial name: over head projector film) using piranha solution followed by chemically attaching the BCLC compound through silane condensation reaction. Surface characterisation of the unmodified and BC-modified flexible films was carried out through X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), attenuated total reflectance fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, contact angle (CA) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques. The BC-modified flexible substrates are analysed for their efficiency to orient the bulk LC sample. Remarkably, the chemically modified polymer substrates are highly efficient in vertically aligning both the BC and rod-like LC samples at the substrate–LC interface, in comparison to their unmodified counterparts. The described method is simple, reproducible, surface modified substrates are highly stable and more importantly reusable. The demonstrated method for the alignment of BCLCs advances a step forward towards the realisation of applications proposed for these fascinating compounds.     

Spatially Resolved Bottom‐Side Fluorination of Graphene by Two‐Dimensional Substrate Patterning

Patterned functionalization can, on the one hand, open the band gap of graphene and, on the other hand, program demanding designs on graphene. The functionalization technique is essential for graphene‐based nanoarchitectures. A new and highly efficient method was applied to obtain patterned functionalization on graphene by mild fluorination with spatially arranged AgF arrays on the structured substrate. Scanning Raman spectroscopy (SRS) and scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy (SEM‐EDS) were used to characterize the functionalized materials. For the first time, chemical patterning on the bottom side of graphene was realized. The chemical nature of the patterned functionalization was determined to be the ditopic scenario with fluorine atoms occupying the bottom side and moieties, such as oxygen‐containing groups or hydrogen atoms, binding on the top side, which provides information about the mechanism of the fluorination process. Our strategy can be conceptually extended to pattern other functionalities by using other reactants. Bottom‐side patterned functionalization enables utilization of the top side of a material, thereby opening up the possibilities for applications in graphene‐based devices.