两种功能化纳米金粒子固酶电极的催化性能

以合成的4-巯基苯甲酸功能化纳米金粒子和聚乙烯基吡啶包覆纳米金粒子分别作为固酶载体,制备了2种新型固酶电极,在此基础上组装了2种酶燃料电池。采用电化学方法结合紫外可见分光光度法、透射电镜技术等手段研究了固酶载体的形貌,酶-载体间相互作用对电极表面固定酶分子的光谱学性质,酶-电极间直接电子迁移能力和催化底物反应性能的影响,进一步评估和比较了两种酶燃料电池的能量输出性能。实验结果表明：4-巯基苯甲酸功能化纳米金粒子固酶基电极可以实现酶-电极间的直接电子迁移而且对葡萄糖和氧气具有良好的催化性能(催化反应起始电位分别为-0.03和0.96 V,底物转化频率分别是1.3和0.5 s^-1),其催化性能的重现性、长期使用性能、酸碱耐受性和热稳定性良好,随着自组装固酶层数的增加,催化性能随之增强直至达到极限催化电流;电池性能测试结果表明4-巯基苯甲酸功能化纳米金粒子固酶基燃料电池的开路电压为0.88 V,最大输出能量密度：864.0 μW·cm^-2,长期使用性能优异(储存3 周后仍可达到最佳能量输出的80%以上)。     

Cs的覆盖度对Cs/石墨烯的结构稳定性和场发射性能影响

采用密度泛函理论方法,对Cs以不同覆盖度吸附在石墨烯表面时系统的结构稳定性和场发射性能进行了研究。计算结果表明单原子Cs吸附在石墨烯表面的碳六元环的中心位置时系统的能量最低。随着Cs的覆盖度增加,碱金属Cs与石墨烯之间的吸附作用逐渐增强,(4×4)R 0°和(2×2)R 0°结构是稳定的。由于碱金属Cs的修饰作用,Cs/石墨烯体系的功函明显下降,且随着碱金属Cs的覆盖度增大,系统的功函逐渐减小。态密度的计算结果表明功函的下降主要与Cs和石墨烯之间的电子转移有关。随着覆盖度的增大,石墨烯的电子态逐渐向低能方向移动,系统的费米能级升高并导致材料的功函下降。     

亲电取代反应中活性位点预测方法的比较

预测发生亲电取代反应的活性位点具有重要的理论和实际意义. 目前已提出了许多基于反应物自身电子结构的预测方法. 本文选择14 个单取代苯和8 个双取代苯作为测试集,对14 种预测方法的可靠性进行了详细的比较分析. 结果表明,福井函数、平均局部离子化能等体现局部电子软度的方法特别适合含有邻对位定位基的单取代苯和双取代苯体系,但对于含有单个间位定位基的体系,这类方法往往预测失败. 基于静电效应的预测方法整体表现明显不如体现局部软度的方法,但更适合含有单个间位定位基的体系. 对所有体系预测能力最稳健的是双描述符,因此可以作为普适性的预测方法.     

Tutorial review on validation of liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry methods: Part I

This is the part I of a tutorial review intending to give an overview of the state of the art of method validation in liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC–MS) and discuss specific issues that arise with MS (and MS/MS) detection in LC (as opposed to the “conventional” detectors). The Part I briefly introduces the principles of operation of LC–MS (emphasizing the aspects important from the validation point of view, in particular the ionization process and ionization suppression/enhancement); reviews the main validation guideline documents and discusses in detail the following performance parameters: selectivity/specificity/identity, ruggedness/robustness, limit of detection, limit of quantification, decision limit and detection capability. With every method performance characteristic its essence and terminology are addressed, the current status of treating it is reviewed and recommendations are given, how to determine it, specifically in the case of LC–MS methods.     

Desirability functions as response in a d‐optimal design for evaluating the extraction and purification steps of six tranquillizers and an anti‐adrenergic by liquid chromatography‐tandem mass spectrometry

Internal standards can be added at different stages of an analytical procedure. When they are added at the beginning of a multiresidue method and their behavior is not exactly the same as that of the analytes, the intended correction for small variations within the analytical process could not be achieved. Because of this, in the present work, the use of d ‐optimal designs together with desirability functions is proposed to state the experimental response under study. The overall desirability function used relates two analytical criteria: to assess a similar chemical behavior of each analyte in relation to its internal standard and to avoid a significant reduction of the absolute peak area of the internal standards. This strategy has been applied to the analysis of the effect of four factors related to the extraction and purification steps of six tranquillizers and a β‐blocker from pig muscle analyzed by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. The effect of those factors has been evaluated by means of an ad hoc d ‐optimal design consisting of only 11 experiments. The resulting levels of the four factors that enable to achieve the greatest overall desirability have also been compared with those obtained when either the standardized or absolute peak area has been considered as response. Differences in both the significant factors and their optimum levels have been observed. It is noticeable that the experimental effort necessary to study the effect of the factors has been reduced by more than 50% thanks to the d ‐optimal design. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

PCB酸性蚀刻液中缓蚀剂对厚铜线路制作的影响

以2-巯基苯并噻唑(2-MBT)、 苯并三氮唑(BTA)和苯氧基乙醇(MSDS)作为缓蚀剂, 研究了其加入在酸性蚀刻液后对PCB厚铜线路的缓蚀效果。通过接触角测试、电化学测试和蚀刻因子得出缓蚀状态,并结合扫描电子显微镜观察铜表面形貌。通过分子动力学计算和量子化学模拟分析缓蚀剂在铜表面的吸附机理。结果表明,2-MBT + MSDS与BTA + MSDS的分子结构可有效地平行吸附在铜表面,且吸附能高于单一缓蚀剂。加入了2-MBT + MSDS的蚀刻液,对厚度约为33 μm铜线路进行刻蚀,铜线路的蚀刻因子提高到6.59,可有效应用于PCB厚铜线路制作。     

Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor curcumin upregulates mitochondrial uncoupling protein1 (UCP1) and mitochondrial function in brown adipocytes,in-silico study and screening natural drug library

Mitochondrial dysfunction has been associated with diverse pathological conditions globally. Specifically, in adipose tissues, mitochondrial dysfunction is the primary cause of obesity and obesity-related illnesses. An existing drugs such as atorvastatin and other lipid-lowering drugs demonstrated adverse effects and initiated other diseases. Thus, we need to explore new methods to prevent and treat obesity. In this study, we used the cell screening method to identify several natural compounds that increase adipocyte UCP1 gene expression. The identified drug Curcumin was evaluated in cell models and the In-silico model. We found curcumin is an active compound of turmeric belonging to Zingiberaceae (ginger family), which activates the Nrf2 mechanism. Curcumin potentially endorses the expression of UCP1 in the brown adipocyte in vitro cellular model. Curcumin plays an important role that modulating mitochondrial function and improving mitochondrial DNA quantification, ATP production, and cell viability. We have established an efficient in vitro cell experiment system to study the metabolic regulation of UCP1. The in-silico model revealed curcumin-UCP1 interaction. Curcumin, via enhancing mitochondrial activity, could be a helpful therapeutic molecule against metabolic disorders or obesity-related diseases. Curcumin will be the subject of more research in both human and murine models, which will provide novel therapeutic pathways for the treatment of metabolic illnesses by modulating the control of mitochondrial function.     

Generalized Fourth-Order Decompositions of Imaginary Time Path Integral: Implications of the Harmonic Oscillator

The imaginary time path integral formalism offers a powerful numerical tool for simulating thermodynamic properties of realistic systems. We show that, when second-order and fourth-order decompositions are employed, they share a remarkable unified analytic form for the partition function of the harmonic oscillator. We are then able to obtain the expression of the thermodynamic property and the leading error terms as well. In order to obtain reasonably optimal values of the free parameters in the generalized symmetric fourth-order decomposition scheme, we eliminate the leading error terms to achieve the accuracy of desired order for the thermodynamic property of the harmonic system. Such a strategy leads to an efficient fourth-order decomposition that produces third-order accurate thermodynamic properties for general systems.     

Effects of Coverage,Water, and Defects on Catechol/TiO2 Interface

Catechol adsorbed on TiO₂ is one of the simplest models to explore the relevant properties of dye-sensitized solar cells. However, the effects of water and defects on the electronic levels and the excitonic properties of the catechol/TiO₂ interface have been rarely explored. Here, we investigate four catechol/TiO₂ interfaces aiming to study the influence of coverage, water, and defects on the electronic levels and the excitonic properties of the catechol/TiO₂ interface through the first-principles many-body Green's function theory. We find that the adsorption of catechol on the rutile (110) surface increases the energies of both the TiO₂ valence band maximum and conduction band minimum by approximately 0.7 eV. The increasing coverage and the presence of water can reduce the optical absorption of charge-transfer excitons with maximum oscillator strength. Regarding the reduced hydroxylated TiO₂ substrate, the conduction band minimum decreases greatly, resulting in a sub-bandgap of 2.51 eV. The exciton distributions in the four investigated interfaces can spread across several unit cells, especially for the hydroxylated TiO₂ substrate. Although the hydroxylated TiO₂ substrate leads to a lower open-circuit voltage, it may increase the separation between photogenerated electrons and holes and may therefore be beneficial for improving the photovoltaic efficiency by controlling its concentration. Our results may provide guidance for the design of highly efficient solar cells in future.