Probing the Catalytic Promiscuity of a Regio‐ and Stereospecific C‐Glycosyltransferase from Mangifera indica

The catalytic promiscuity of the novel benzophenone C‐glycosyltransferase, MiCGT, which is involved in the biosynthesis of mangiferin from Mangifera indica, was explored. MiCGT exhibited a robust capability to regio‐ and stereospecific C‐glycosylation of 35 structurally diverse druglike scaffolds and simple phenolics with UDP‐glucose, and also formed O‐ and N‐glycosides. Moreover, MiCGT was able to generate C‐xylosides with UDP‐xylose. The OGT‐reversibility of MiCGT was also exploited to generate C‐glucosides with simple sugar donor. Three aryl‐C‐glycosides exhibited potent SGLT2 inhibitory activities with IC₅₀ values of 2.6×, 7.6×, and 7.6×10⁻⁷ M , respectively. These findings demonstrate for the first time the significant potential of an enzymatic approach to diversification through C‐glycosidation of bioactive natural and unnatural products in drug discovery.     

Homopolyimides containing both benzimidazole and benzoxazole with high Tg and low coefficient of thermal expansion

A pair of isomer diamines containing both benzimidazole and benzoxazole and derived homopolyimides were synthesized for the first time. Due to rich rigid and linear benzoazole units, as well as the strong intermolecular interactions from the hydrogen bonding and the charge transfer complexation (CTC), the obtained polyimides (PIs) exhibited outstanding thermal properties, including high thermal weight loss temperature (T_d5% = 540–561°C), high glass transition temperature (T_g = 392–421°C), and low coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE = 1.3–20.9 ppm/°C). In addition, the obtained PIs also showed ideal mechanical properties (T_S = 189–240 MPa, T_M = 4.1–5.0 GPa and E_B = 2.9%–4.7%). These potential novel PI films with high T_g and low CTE were expected to be applied to next generation of flexible display substrate material.     

Sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) composite membranes based on amino-modified halloysite nanotubes that effectively immobilize phosphotungstic acid

In this work, we prepared amino-modified halloysite nanotubes (PEI-DHNTs) via the co-deposition of self-polymerized dopamine and polyethylenimine (PEI) on the surface of nanotubes, which was confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). A series of composite proton exchange membranes (PEMs) were prepared by incorporating PEI-DHNTs and phosphotungstic acid (HPW) into sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) (SPEEK). It was found that both PEI-DHNTs and HPW were well dispersed in the polymer matrix, exhibiting excellent filler-matrix compatibility. The composite membranes demonstrated enhanced proton conductivity, reaching as high as 0.078 S cm⁻¹ with 33.3 wt.% HPW loading, which was ~90% higher than that of SPEEK control membrane. Such improvement was mainly attributed to the strong acid–base pairs formed by PEI-DHNT with both SPEEK and HPW, which shortened proton hopping distance and created more continuous proton conduction pathways. Furthermore, the membrane conductivity remained almost constant after 1 year's immersion in liquid water, indicating the successful immobilization of HPW in the composite membranes.