Loading of a Coordination Polymer Nanobelt on a Functional Carbon Fiber: A Feasible Strategy for Visible‐Light‐Active and Highly Efficient Coordination‐Polymer‐Based Photocatalysts

To improve the photocatalytic properties of coordination polymers under irradiation in the visible‐light region, coordination polymer nanobelts (CPNB) were loaded on functional carbon fiber (FCF) through the use of a simple colloidal blending process. The resulting coordination polymer nanobelt loaded functional carbon fiber composite material (CPNB/FCF) exhibited dramatically improved photocatalytic activity for the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) under visible‐light irradiation. Optical and electrochemical methods illustrated the enhanced photocatalytic activity of CPNB/FCF originated from high separation efficiency of photogenerated electrons and holes on the interface of CPNB and FCF, which was produced by the synergy effect between them. In the composite material, the role of FCF could be described as photosensitizer and good electron transporter. For FCF, the number of functional groups on its surface has a significant influence on the photocatalytic performance of the resulting CPNB/FCF composite material, and an ideal FCF carrier was obtained as a highly efficient CPNB/FCF photocatalyst. CPNB/FCF showed outstanding stability during the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB); thus, the material is suitable for use as a photocatalyst in the treatment of organic dyes in water.     

Dual‐signal amplification strategy for ultrasensitive chemiluminescence detection of PDGF–BB in capillary electrophoresis

Many efforts have been made toward the achievement of high sensitivity in capillary electrophoresis coupled with chemiluminescence detection (CE‐CL). This work describes a novel dual‐signal amplification strategy for highly specific and ultrasensitive CL detection of human platelet‐derived growth factor–BB (PDGF–BB) using both aptamer and horseradish peroxidase (HRP) modified gold nanoparticles (HRP–AuNPs–aptamer) as nanoprobes in CE. Both AuNPs and HRP in the nanoprobes could amplify the CL signals in the luminol–H₂O₂ CL system, owing to the excellent catalytic behavior of AuNPs and HRP in the CL system. Meanwhile, the high affinity of aptamer modified on the AuNPs allows detection with high specificity. As proof‐of‐concept, the proposed method was employed to quantify the concentration of PDGF–BB from 0.50 to 250 fm with a detection limit of 0.21 fm. The applicability of the assay was further demonstrated in the analysis of PDGF–BB in human serum samples with acceptable accuracy and reliability. The result of this study exhibits distinct advantages, such as high sensitivity, good specificity, simplicity, and very small sample consumption. The good performances of the proposed strategy provide a powerful avenue for ultrasensitive detection of rare proteins in biological sample, showing great promise in biochemical analysis. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Palladium‐Catalyzed Direct Cross‐Coupling of Carboranyllithium with (Hetero)Aryl Halides

A palladium‐catalyzed direct C‐arylation reaction of readily available cage carboranyllithium reagents with aryl halides has been developed for the first time. This method is applicable to a wide range of aryl halide substrates including aryl iodides, aryl bromides, and heteroaromatic halides.     

A Kinetic Study for the Noncatalytic Esterification of Palm Fatty Acid Distillate

In this work, the reaction scheme for the esterification of palm fatty acid distillate performed under the noncatalytic and high‐temperature condition (230–290°C) was investigated with a rigorous mathematical modeling. The esterification reaction was assumed to be the pseudo–homogeneous second‐order reversible reaction, and the mass transfer effectiveness factor (η) was introduced in the modeling framework to systematically and collectively consider both evaporation and reaction, which are simultaneously and competitively occurred in the liquid phase. The nonlinear programming problem was constructed with the objective function consisting of the errors between experimental data and the estimated values from the reaction model. The problem was solved by using the Nelder–Mead simplex algorithm to identify kinetic parameters, reaction rate constants, and mass transfer coefficients. The values of mass transfer coefficients were found to follow the Hertz–Knudsen relation and expressed as a function of reaction temperature. From the reaction rate constants obtained from the proposed kinetic models, the apparent activation energy was estimated to be 43.98 kJ/mol, which is lower than the value obtained from the reaction using heterogeneous catalysts. This low value indicates that reactants and products behave as an acid catalyst at relatively high operating temperature and constant pressure.     

Curing thermodynamics and kinetics of unsaturated polyester resin with different chain length of saturated aliphatic binary carboxylic acid

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - The saturated aliphatic binary carboxylic acid, including succinic acid, adipic acid and sebacic acid, were used to improve the curing process of...     

Close‐Packed Two‐Dimensional Silver Nanoparticle Arrays: Quadrupolar and Dipolar Surface Plasmon Resonance Coupling

Silver nanoparticles (NPs) ranging in size from 40 to 100 nm were prepared in high yield by using an improved seed‐mediated method. The homogeneous Ag NPs were used as building blocks for 2D assembled Ag NP arrays by using an oil/water interface. A close‐packed 2D array of Ag NPs was fabricated by using packing molecules (3‐mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane) to control the interparticle spacing. The homogeneous 2D Ag NP array exhibited a strong quadrupolar cooperative plasmon mode resonance and a dipolar red‐shift relative to individual Ag NPs suspended in solution. A well‐arranged 2D Ag NP array was embedded in polydimethylsiloxane film and, with biaxial stretching to control the interparticle distance, concomitant variations of the quadrupolar and dipolar couplings were observed. As the interparticle distance increased, the intensity of the quadrupolar cooperative plasmon mode resonance decreased and dipolar coupling completely disappeared. The local electric field of the 2D Ag NP array was calculated by using finite difference time domain simulation and qualitatively showed agreement with the experimental measurements.