Metal-facilitated Photocatalytic Nanohybrids: Rational Design and Promising Environmental Applications

As a promising technique to potentially address the energy crisis and environmental issues, photocatalysis has been reported widely to exhibit various outstanding behaviors in production of new fuels/chemicals and treatment of contaminants. The photocatalytic performance is extremely dependent on the used photocatalysts, so that the design and preparation of efficient photocatalysts are critically important for significantly improving the photocatalytic activity. Among various strategies, the hybridization of metal with semiconductors has recently been attracting more and more research interest owing to their expended spectral absorption, promoted transferring rate of charge carriers and Plasmon-enhanced effect. In this minireview, the metal-facilitated hybrid photocatalysts are overviewed comprehensively to first reveal unique functions of metals in improvement of photoactivity and summarize the emerging metal-involved hybrid systems. Subsequently, the synthetic methods towards hybrid photocatalysts are introduced and their practical applications are emphasized in environmental remediation including degradation of organic pollutants, conversion of harmful gases, treatment of heavy metal ions and sterilization of bacteria. At the end, the challenges for industrializing these hybrid photocatalysts are discussed carefully and future development is suggested rationally.     

Scale-Up Preparation of Crocins I and II from Gardenia jasminoides by a Two-Step Chromatographic Approach and Their Inhibitory Activity Against ATP Citrate Lyase

Crocins are highly valuable natural compounds for treating human disorders, and they are also high-end spices and colorants in the food industry. Due to the limitation of obtaining this type of highly polar compound, the commercial prices of crocins I and II are expensive. In this study, macroporous resin column chromatography combined with high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC) was used to purify crocins I and II from natural sources. With only two chromatographic steps, both compounds were simultaneously isolated from the dry fruit of Gardenia jasminoides, which is a cheap herbal medicine distributed in a number of countries. In an effort to shorten the isolation time and reduce solvent usage, forward and reverse rotations were successively utilized in the HSCCC isolation procedure. Crocins I and II were simultaneously obtained from a herbal resource with high recoveries of 0.5% and 0.1%, respectively, and high purities of 98.7% and 99.1%, respectively, by HPLC analysis. The optimized preparation method was proven to be highly efficient, convenient, and cost-effective. Crocins I and II exhibited inhibitory activity against ATP citrate lyase, and their IC₅₀ values were determined to be 36.3 ± 6.24 and 29.7 ± 7.41 μM, respectively.     

Translating Molecular Recognition into a Pressure Signal to enable Rapid,Sensitive, and Portable Biomedical Analysis

Herein, we demonstrate that a very familiar, yet underutilized, physical parameter—gas pressure—can serve as signal readout for highly sensitive bioanalysis. Integration of a catalyzed gas‐generation reaction with a molecular recognition component leads to significant pressure changes, which can be measured with high sensitivity using a low‐cost and portable pressure meter. This new signaling strategy opens up a new way for simple, portable, yet highly sensitive biomedical analysis in a variety of settings.     

Rapid determination of products of phenol hydrogenation in a supercritical water system using headspace gas chromatography

This paper reports a headspace analysis technique for the determination of products, i.e., cyclohexanone (CE) and cyclohexanol (CL), of phenol hydrogenation in a supercritical water reaction system (SWRS) with water removal by hydrate formation. An addition of anhydrous calcium chloride leads to water absorption resulting in crystal water; thus, the samples can be quantitatively measured without the influence of water. After achieving equilibrium at 150°C and maintaining it for 5 min, the obtained results showed a relative standard deviation of less than 5.3% and the recovery ranged from 93% to 104%. The presented method is simple and accurate for the analysis of CL, CE and phenol in samples from phenol conversion in SWRS.     

六核(3,3,4,5)-连接2-(4’-羧基苯基)咪唑-4,5-二羧酸金属有机配合物

用缩合氧化反应,成功合成了一个新的咪唑羧酸配体2-(4’-羧基苯基)咪唑-4,5-二羧酸(H4CPhIDC)。在水热条件下以H4CPhIDC为主配体,邻菲咯啉(phen)为辅助配体,合成了镉的六核金属有机配合物[Cd6(CPhIDC)(HCPhIDC)2(H2CPhIDC) (phen)6]?H2O (MOF)。H4CPhIDC配体在该配合物中呈现出不同的去质子模式H2CPhIDC2-、HCPhIDC3-、CPhIDC4-,从而形成了一个新的六核(3,3,4,5)-连接拓扑结构。测定了配体和配合物的固体荧光光谱,并用溴化乙锭荧光探针测定了配体和配合物与DNA及BSA的作用,结果表明,配合物对生物大分子的作用更强些。CCDC：969815。     

Cyclometalated Iridium(III) Complexes as Two‐Photon Phosphorescent Probes for Specific Mitochondrial Dynamics Tracking in Living Cells

Five cyclometalated iridium(III) complexes with 2‐phenylimidazo[4,5‐f][1,10]phenanthroline derivatives ( IrL1 – IrL5 ) were synthesized and developed to image and track mitochondria in living cells under two‐photon (750 nm) excitation, with two‐photon absorption cross‐sections of 48.8–65.5 GM at 750 nm. Confocal microscopy and inductive coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry (ICP‐MS) demonstrated that these complexes selectively accumulate in mitochondria within 5 min, without needing additional reagents for membrane permeabilization, or replacement of the culture medium. In addition, photobleaching experiments and luminescence measurements confirmed the photostability of these complexes under continuous laser irradiation and physiological pH resistance. Moreover, results using 3D multicellular spheroids demonstrate the proficiency of these two‐photon luminescent complexes in deep penetration imaging. Two‐photon excitation using such novel complexes of iridium(III) for exclusive visualization of mitochondria in living cells may substantially enhance practical applications of bioimaging and tracking.     

离子液体作为功能单体制备溶菌酶分子印迹复合膜的研究

以1-乙烯基-3-乙酸乙酯咪唑氯离子液体为功能单体,以再生纤维素膜为基膜,采用温和的表面ATRP接枝聚合技术在水溶液中制备了溶菌酶分子印迹膜.通过紫外-可见光谱分析了离子液体与模板分子的作用力,讨论了功能单体1-乙烯基-3-乙酸乙酯咪唑氯用量对印迹复合膜性能的影响,研究了分子印迹复合膜对溶菌酶模板分子及其结构类似物的吸附行为和选择性识别特性.结果表明,以1-乙烯基-3-乙酸乙酯咪唑氯离子液体作为功能单体的溶菌酶分子印迹膜能够从结构类似物混合体系中选择性分离富集溶菌酶,且具有很好的稳定性和可再生性能.