Characterization and Optimization of Injectable In Situ Crosslinked Chitosan-Genipin Hydrogels

In recent years, there has been an increased interest in injectable, in situ crosslinking hydrogels due to their minimally invasive application and ability to conform to their environment. Current in situ crosslinking chitosan hydrogels are either mechanically robust with poor biocompatibility and limited biodegradation due to toxic crosslinking agents or the hydrogels are mechanically weak and undergo biodegradation too rapidly due to insufficient crosslinking. Herein, the authors developed and characterized a thermally-driven, injectable chitosan-genipin hydrogel capable of in situ crosslinking at 37 °C that is mechanically robust, biodegradable, and maintain high biocompatibility. The natural crosslinker genipin is utilized as a thermally-driven, non-toxic crosslinking agent. The chitosan-genipin hydrogel's crosslinking kinetics, injectability, viscoelasticity, swelling and pH response, and biocompatibility against human keratinocyte cells are characterized. The developed chitosan-genipin hydrogels are successfully crosslinked at 37 °C, demonstrating temperature sensitivity. The hydrogels maintained a high percentage of swelling over several weeks before degrading in biologically relevant environments, demonstrating mechanical stability while remaining biodegradable. Long-term cell viability studies demonstrated that chitosan-genipin hydrogels have excellent biocompatibility over 7 days, including during the hydrogel crosslinking phase. Overall, these findings support the development of an injectable, in situ crosslinking chitosan-genipin hydrogel for minimally invasive biomedical applications.     

催化裂解-金汞齐富集-冷原子吸收光谱仪测定土壤样品中总汞含量

为建立采用催化裂解-金汞齐富集-冷原子吸收光谱仪即直接测汞仪测定土壤样品中汞含量的方法,本研究配制汞总量为0~2 ng、0~15 ng和25~1023 ng的三种不同汞浓度系列的标准工作曲线,选取9个土壤样品,3种国家土壤有证标准物质,同一样品分别进行6组平行测定,并抽取3个土壤样品进行3种不同浓度加标回收试验,以对其方法精密度和准确度进行论证。 结果显示：仪器信号值与Hg总量之间均呈良好的线性关系。根据仪器多次测定空白数据结果,按照称样量0.1 g计算,方法最小检出量为0.09 ng/g;平行测定结果相对标准偏差均小于10%,土壤标准物质测定值与标准物质标准参考值均相符,不同浓度的加标回收率范围为78.4%～92.7%。结果表明催化裂解-金汞齐富集-冷原子吸收光谱仪,可用于批量土壤样品中汞含量的快速测定分析,方法的精密度和准确度可满足测定分析要求,且实验过程中无需前处理消煮,操作方便、快速高效。     

β-Silylacrylate as a Multipurpose Reagent in Organic Synthesis

Acrylates are well known electrophilic alkenes having multitude of applications in organic synthesis. They are very good acceptors in Michael addition reactions and are good enophile/dienophile/dipolarophile partners in cycloaddition reactions. Replacing the β-alkyl/aryl groups in acrylates by a silicon group would be interesting. In addition to the conventional reactions displayed by acrylates, β-silylacrylates (β-SAs) can show reactivity specifically related to the silicon group. Many conventional organic reactions such as hydrodimerization, organocatalytic asymmetric Michael additions, inter- and intra-molecular Diels–Alder reactions, and asymmetric 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions have been used to generate the complex chemical entities from β-SAs. Some of the reaction outcomes were vastly influenced by the silicon substituent. This review describes the practical synthesis β-SAs and their use as starting point in complex molecule generation including total synthesis of some natural products/bioactive molecules.     

Overreact,an in silico lab: Automative quantum chemical microkinetic simulations for complex chemical reactions

Today's demand for precisely predicting chemical reactions from first principles requires research to go beyond Gibbs' free energy diagrams and consider other effects such as concentrations and quantum tunneling. The present work introduces overreact, a novel Python package for propagating chemical reactions over time using data from computational chemistry only. The overreact code infers all differential equations and parameters from a simple input that consists of a set of chemical equations and quantum chemistry package outputs for each chemical species. We evaluate some applications from the literature: gas-phase eclipsed-staggered isomerization of ethane, gas-phase umbrella inversion of ammonia, gas-phase degradation of methane by chlorine radical, and three solvation-phase reactions. Furthermore, we comment on a simple solvation-phase acid–base equilibrium. We show how it is possible to achieve reaction profiles and information matching experiments.     

卡罗琳·露丝·贝尔托西——诺贝尔化学奖史上第八位女性得主

卡罗琳·露丝·贝尔托西因开创了生物正交化学而获得2022年诺贝尔化学奖,该反应使科学家能够在不破坏细胞正常化学功能的情况下探索细胞、跟踪生物过程并实现了多种应用,提高了人类探索生命运动的能力和医学药物治疗的发展水平。通过回顾贝尔托西的研究背景以及相关的科研历程,提出了重视自主研究能力,在实践探索中收获无限可能;关注跨学科知识生产,在交叉领域开拓学科前沿;发挥科研“她”力量,更加多元与开放包容的思考与启示。     

甲烷与氯气取代反应实验的创新设计*

基于甲烷氯代反应的机理,对物质体系、反应容器、光照条件、实验表征等进行分析,创新设计甲烷氯代反应实验,利用数字化实验的压强和温度传感器采集的实验数据为支持,更直观地多重表征甲烷与氯气发生的“取代”过程,对于成功实现甲烷氯代反应实验具有指导意义。     

化学系统性思维的背景、应用与特征*

当今地球与社会系统所面临的可持续发展、气候变化、环境退化等全球性挑战问题,用还原主义方法不足以应对,需要化学教育等领域的工作者采用系统性思维方法。梳理了国外学者在应用化学系统性思维理解化学学科系统复杂性、化学学习系统层级性、化学教育系统整合性的研究进展。概述了化学系统性思维具有重视跨学科关联、整体综合思考目标系统问题、强调可持续发展的全球观念等特征。建议加强化学教育内外部系统的协作,注重各学段化学课程与教学的跨学科、系统性,重视学生解决化学问题的认识方式差异。     

绿色氧化法制备联苯类化合物的研究性实验设计与实践*

以苯甲醛和丙酮为原料,利用Robinson增环反应先制备3-甲基-5-苯基环己-2-烯-1-酮,再引导学生设计并研究了水相绿色氧化3-甲基-5-苯基环己-2-烯-1-酮合成联苯类化合物3-乙氧基-5-甲基-1,1′-联苯的影响因素,利用核磁共振确定了产物结构。该研究性实验教学以绿色化学为中心,结合了2步连续反应,产物易提纯且产率高,并开展了开放式大型分析仪器教学和测试,对学生有机合成实验能力和科学研究能力的培养具有很好的教学效果。     

金刚石纳米线氮空位色心的表面与尺寸效应

使用大规模自旋极化密度泛函理论计算研究了表面修饰和尺寸对金刚石纳米线(DNs)中氮空位(NV)色心的几何结构、 电子结构、 磁性和稳定性的影响. 理论上设计了几种不同的DNs, 这些DNs具有不同的表面修饰(干净、 氢化和氟化), 并且直径达数百个原子. 实验结果证明, 中性(NV⁰)和带1个负电荷(NV^-)的NV色心的电子结构不受半导体表面修饰和DNs直径大小的影响, 但NV色心的稳定性对这两个因素具有不同的响应. 此外, 研究中还发现, 由于DNs中存在圆柱形表面电偶极子层, 对DNs中掺杂的NV^-色心的稳定性, 表面改性诱导了不依赖尺寸的长程效应. 特别地, 对于n型氟化金刚石表面, 掺杂在DN中的NV^-色心可以稳定存在, 而对于p型氢化表面, NV⁰则相对更稳定. 因此, 表面修饰为控制金刚石纳米线中的NV色心的电子结构和稳定性提供了一种精确有效的调控方法.     

Quality-by-Design-Based Development of n-Propyl-Gallate-Loaded Hyaluronic-Acid-Coated Liposomes for Intranasal Administration

The present study aimed to develop n-propyl gallate (PG)-encapsulated liposomes through a novel direct pouring method using the quality-by-design (QbD) approach. A further aim was to coat liposomes with hyaluronic acid (HA) to improve the stability of the formulation in nasal mucosa. The QbD method was used for the determination of critical quality attributes in the formulation of PG-loaded liposomes coated with HA. The optimized formulation was determined by applying the Box–Behnken design to investigate the effect of composition and process variables on particle size, polydispersity index (PDI), and zeta potential. Physiochemical characterization, in vitro release, and permeability tests, as well as accelerated stability studies, were performed with the optimized liposomal formulation. The optimized formulation resulted in 90 ± 3.6% encapsulation efficiency, 167.9 ± 3.5 nm average hydrodynamic diameter, 0.129 ± 0.002 PDI, and −33.9 ± 4.5 zeta potential. Coated liposomes showed significantly improved properties in 24 h in an in vitro release test (>60%), in vitro permeability measurement (420 μg/cm²) within 60 min, and also in accelerated stability studies compared to uncoated liposomes. A hydrogen-peroxide-scavenging assay showed improved stability of PG-containing liposomes. It can be concluded that the optimization of PG-encapsulated liposomes coated with HA has great potential for targeting several brain diseases.