Water-soluble green perylenediimide (PDI) dyes as potential sensitizers for photodynamic therapy

[reaction: see text] A series of water-soluble green perylenediimide (PDI) dyes have been synthesized. On red light excitation, these dyes were shown to be efficient generators of singlet oxygen, and in cell culture media, they were shown to display significant light-induced cytotoxic effects on the human erythroleukemia cell line (K-562). It appears that highly versatile PDI dyes are likely to find new applications in photodynamic therapy.     

Determination of iron and nickel by flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry after preconcentration on Saccharomyces cerevisiae immobilized sepiolite

Iron and nickel have been preconcentrated on Saccharomyces cerevisiae immobilized sepiolite and determined by flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry (FAAS). Preconcentration studies were conducted by the column method. Effect of pH, amount of adsorbent, elution solution, flow rate and interfering ions on the recovery of the analytes have been investigated. Recoveries of Fe and Ni were 95+/-1 and 99.5+/-0.1%, respectively, at 95% confidence level. The breakthrough capacities of analytes were also investigated and found to be 0.042 mmol g(-1) for Fe and 0.055 mmol g(-1) for Ni. The proposed method was applied to the determination of iron and nickel in brass (NBS SRM 37e). The detection limit of iron and nickel were found as 0.065 and 0.087 mug ml(-1), respectively. The direct determination of trace metals by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS) is limited and difficult because of low concentration and/or matrix interferences. The proposed method is excellent for the determination of trace metal in matrixes, such as metal alloys.     

Bees algorithm for generalized assignment problem

Bees algorithm (BA) is a new member of meta-heuristics. BA tries to model natural behavior of honey bees in food foraging. Honey bees use several mechanisms like waggle dance to optimally locate food sources and to search new ones. This makes them a good candidate for developing new algorithms for solving optimization problems. In this paper a brief review of BA is first given, afterwards development of a BA for solving generalized assignment problems (GAP) with an ejection chain neighborhood mechanism is presented. GAP is a NP-hard problem. Many meta-heuristic algorithms were proposed for its solution. So far BA is generally applied to continuous optimization. In order to investigate the performance of BA on a complex integer optimization problem, an attempt is made in this paper. An extensive computational study is carried out and the results are compared with several algorithms from the literature.     

Water soluble distyryl-boradiazaindacenes as efficient photosensitizers for photodynamic therapy

We introduce a novel class of water soluble, extended conjugation boradiazaindacene dyes which are efficient singlet oxygen generators and have spectacular photoinduced cytotoxicity when excited in the "therapeutic window" of the electromagnetic spectrum.     

Micro‐/Mesoporous Platinum–SiCN Nanocomposite Catalysts (Pt@SiCN): From Design to Catalytic Applications

The synthesis, characterization, and catalytic studies of platinum (Pt) nanoparticles (NPs) supported by a polymer‐derived SiCN matrix are reported. In the first step and under mild conditions (110 °C), a block copolymer (BCP) based on hydroxyl‐group‐terminated linear polyethylene (PEOH) and a commercially available polysilazane (PSZ: HTT 1800) were synthesized. Afterwards, the BCP was microphase separated, modified with an aminopyridinato (Ap) ligand‐stabilized Pt complex, and cross‐linked. The green bodies thus obtained were pyrolyzed at 1000 °C under nitrogen and provided porous Pt@SiCN nanocomposite via decomposition of the PEOH block while Pt nanoparticles grew in situ within the SiCN matrix. Powder X‐ray diffraction (PXRD) studies confirmed the presence of the cubic Pt phase in the amorphous SiCN matrix whereas transmission electron microscopy (TEM) measurements revealed homogeneously distributed Pt nanoparticles in the size of 0.9 to 1.9 nm. N₂ sorption studies indicated the presence of micro‐ and mesopores. Pt@SiCN appears to be an active and robust catalyst in the hydrolysis of sodium borohydride under harsh conditions.     

Postfunctionalization of polyoxanorbornene backbone through the combination of bromination and nitroxide radical coupling reactions

The brominated backbone of poly(oxanorbornene imide) (PONB) (PONB‐Br) was functionalized with 2,2,6,6‐tetramethylpiperidine 1‐oxyl (TEMPO)‐acrylate, ‐epoxy, and poly (ethylene glycol) (PEG) yielding PONB‐acrylate, PONB‐epoxy, and PONB‐PEG through the nitroxide radical coupling (NRC) reaction. Although an excess amount of functional‐TEMPOs were used. The observed NRC efficiencies were found in the range of 7–25%. Notably, ¹H NMR spectra of all polymers exhibited a signal at 6.08 ppm after NRC reactions indicating rebuilding of the main chain double bond and further identified by ¹³C NMR analysis. The inevitable formation of double bond through the tendency of the recombination of the formed radicals was supported by a separate experiment conducted without utilizing functional‐TEMPO. Besides, the versatility of the ROMP backbone further demonstrated by the introduction hetero functionality onto the polymer by a consecutive reactions. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2015 , 53, 2381–2389