Excitation Wavelength-Dependent Fluorescence of a Lanthanide Organic Metal Halide Cluster for Anti-Counterfeiting Applications

The achievement of significant photoluminescence (PL) in lanthanide ions (Ln³⁺) has primarily relied on host sensitization, where energy is transferred from the excited host material to the Ln³⁺ ions. However, this luminous mechanism involves only one optical antenna, namely the host material, which limits the accessibility of excitation wavelength-dependent (Ex-De) PL. Consequently, the wider application of Ln³⁺ ions in light-emitting devices is hindered. In this study, we present an organic–inorganic compound, (DMA)₄LnCl₇ (DMA⁺=[CH₃NH₂CH₃]⁺, Ln³⁺=Ce³⁺, Tb³⁺), which serves as an independent host lattice material for efficient Ex-De emission by doping it with trivalent antimony (Sb³⁺). The pristine (DMA)₄LnCl₇ compounds exhibit high luminescence, maintaining the characteristic sharp emission bands of Ln³⁺ and demonstrating a high PL quantum yield of 90–100 %. Upon Sb³⁺ doping, the compound exhibits noticeable Ex-De emission with switchable colors. Through a detailed spectral study, we observe that the prominent energy transfer process observed in traditional host-sensitized systems is absent in these materials. Instead, they exhibit two independent emission centers from Ln³⁺ and Sb³⁺, each displaying distinct features in luminous color and radiative lifetime. These findings open up new possibilities for designing Ex-De emitters based on Ln³⁺ ions.     

Braided Fiber Current Collectors for High-Energy-Density Fiber Lithium-Ion Batteries

Fiber lithium-ion batteries represent a promising power strategy for the rising wearable electronics. However, most fiber current collectors are solid with vastly increased weights of inactive materials and sluggish charge transport, thus resulting in low energy densities which have hindered the development of fiber lithium-ion batteries in the past decade. Here, a braided fiber current collector with multiple channels was prepared by multi-axial winding method to not only increase the mass fraction of active materials, but also to promote ion transport along fiber electrodes. In comparison to typical solid copper wires, the braided fiber current collector hosted 139 % graphite with only 1/3 mass. The fiber graphite anode with braided current collector delivered high specific capacity of 170 mAh g⁻¹ based on the overall electrode weight, which was 2 times higher than that of its counterpart solid copper wire. The resulting fiber battery showed high energy density of 62 Wh kg⁻¹.     

Development of an Organic Dye-Conjugated β-Diketonate-Europium Complex Luminescence Probe for Discrimination and Detection of Intracellular Biothiols

Small molecular biothiols, cysteine (Cys), homocysteine (Hcy) and glutathione (GSH), play important roles in organisms, and their concentration levels are indicative of some human diseases. Herein we report an organic dye-conjugated β-diketonate-Eu³⁺ complex, [Eu(NBD-keto)₃(DPBT)] (NBD-keto: 7-nitro-2,1,3-benzoxadiazole (NBD)-conjugated to 1,1,1,2,2-pentafluoro-5-phenyl-3,5-pentanedionate through a “O” ether bond; DPBT: 2-(N,N-diethylanilin-4-yl)-4,6-bis(3,5-dimethylpyrazol-1-yl)-1,3,5-triazine), which acts as a unique luminescent probe for detecting and discriminating biothiols. [Eu(NBD-keto)₃(DPBT)] itself is not luminescent due to intramolecular interactions between NBD and β-diketonate-Eu³⁺ moieties. Upon reaction with biothiols, the β-diketonate-Eu³⁺ complex [Eu(keto)₃(DPBT)] is generated, which emits long-lived red emission at 610 nm. Meanwhile, three biothiol-substituted NBD derivatives that exhibit different luminescence behaviors, green emissive (short-lived) NBD-NR (R=Cys or Hcy) at 540 nm and non-luminescent NBD-SR (R=GSH), are also generated. These luminescence response behaviors allow time-gated and steady-state luminescence modes to be combined for detecting total biothiols and discriminating GSH and Cys/Hcy. Using this probe, the quantitative detection and discrimination of GSH and Cys/Hcy in lysis solutions of HeLa cells were realized, which revealed the potential of the probe for biomedical applications.     

Composite Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles with Dual-color Afterglow for Cross-correlation-based Living Cell Imaging

Room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) materials are characterized with emission after removing the excitation source. Such long-lived emission feature possesses great potential in biological fluorescence imaging because it enables a way regarding temporal dimension for separating the interference of autofluorescence and common noises typically encountered in conventional fluorescence imaging. Herein, we constructed a new type of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs)-based composite nanoparticles (NPs) with dual-color long-lived emission, namely millisecond-level green phosphorescence and sub-millisecond-level delayed red fluorescence by encapsulating a typical RTP dye and Rhodamine dye in the cavities of the MSNs with the former acting as energy donor (D) while the latter as acceptor (A). Benefiting from the close D-A proximity, energy match between the donor and the acceptor and the optimized D/A ratio in the composite NPs, efficient triplet-to-singlet Förster resonance energy transfer (TS-FRET) in the NPs occurred upon exciting the donor, which enabled dual-color long-lived emission. The preliminary results of dual-color correlation imaging of live cells based on such emission feature unequivocally verified the unique ability of such NPs for distinguishing the false positive generated by common emitters with single-color emission feature.     

Separation and purification of quinolyridine alkaloids from seeds of Thermopsis lanceolata R. Br. by conventional and pH-zone-refining counter-current chromatography

In this work, the preparative separation of quinolyridine alkaloids from seeds of T. lanceolata by conventional and pH-zone-refining counter-current chromatography. Traditional counter-current chromatography separation was performed by a flow-rate changing strategy with a solvent system of ethyl acetate-n-butanol-water (1:9:10, v/v) and 200 mg sample loading. Meanwhile, the pH-zone-refining mode was adopted for separating 2.0 g crude alkaloid extracts with the chloroform-methanol-water (4:3:3, v/v) solvent system using the stationary and mobile phases of 40 mM hydrochloric acid and 10 mM triethylamine. Finally, six compounds, including N-formylcytisine (two conformers) ( 1 ), N-acetycytisine (two conformers) ( 2 ), (-)-cytisine ( 3 ), 13-β-hydroxylthermopsine ( 4 ), N-methylcytisine ( 5 ), and thermopsine ( 6 ) were successfully obtained in the two counter-current chromatography modes with the purities over 96.5%. Moreover, we adopted nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectrometry for structural characterization. Based on the obtained findings, the pH-zone-refining mode was the efficient method to separate quinolyridine alkaloids relative to the traditional mode.     

Synthesis and luminescent properties of a silylated-terpyridine derivative and its metalated complexes in solutions and self-assembled monolayers

A silylated-terpyridine(Si TPy) derivative was newly synthesized and reacted with various transition metal ions in the solutions and self-assembled monolayers(SAMs).Composition and morphology of the SAMs were characterized by using absorption spectra,X-ray photoelectron spectra and atomic force microscope.The silylated-TPy compound gave off a luminescent emission at about 456 nm,which slightly shifted to 452 nm in the Zn2+-Si TPy and Fe2+-Si TPy metalated complexes.The absorbed energy can be further transferred to lanthanide ions(Tb3+and Eu3+) to give off the typical emissions of the lanthanide complexes together with an emission of the silylated-TPy at about 363 nm.     

离子色谱法-间接紫外检测离子液体中三种含氟酸根阴离子

建立了离子色谱-间接紫外检测法同时分析离子液体中的三氟乙酸根(CF3COO-)、四氟硼酸根(BF4-)和三氟甲烷磺酸根(CF3SO3-)的方法。用Shodex IC NI-424阴离子交换柱作为分离柱,探讨了影响上述三种离子保留和检测的因素及其保留规律。最终选用色谱条件为:以1.75 mmol·L-1邻苯二甲酸-1.68 mmol·L-1三(羟甲基)氨基甲烷为淋洗液,柱温45℃,流速1.0 m L·min-1,UV检测波长设定在265 nm。在此条件下,可实现上述三种阴离子的同时分析,且色谱峰形良好。所测阴离子的检出限(S/N=3)为0.39~1.57 mg·L-1,保留时间和峰面积的相对标准偏差(n=5)均在1%以下。将此方法应用于测定离子液体中的三氟乙酸根、四氟硼酸根及三氟甲烷磺酸根,加标回收率为99%~102%。该方法简单、准确、可靠,具有较好的实用性。     

顶空气相色谱-质谱联用结合同位素峰形校正检索技术鉴别芝麻油风味成分

采用顶空气相色谱-质谱联用(GC-MS)仪结合同位素峰形校正检索技术鉴别了市售芝麻油风味成分中的71种化合物,占总检出化合物的90.2%。检出化合物可分为吡嗪、吡咯、吡啶、噻唑、噻吩、吲哚、唑、呋喃、醛类和酚类等,其中醛、酚、吡嗪和呋喃类化合物的含量较高,分别占风味成分含量的37.4%,20.1%,10.0%和6.7%。同位素峰形校正检索技术在低分辨率质谱上可对化合物的相对分子质量实现精确测量,从而为低分辨率四极杆质谱确定化合物的元素组成和解析化合物结构提供了重要依据,同时也为芝麻油的成分分析提供了新的技术手段。     

重组人胰岛素注射液中B3和B3iso脱氨人胰岛素的分析与鉴定

建立了有效分离重组人胰岛素注射液中B3和B3iso脱氨人胰岛素的反相高效液相色谱(RP-HPLC)法,并采用高效液相色谱-四极杆-飞行时间质谱联用技术(HPLC-MS/MS)对其进行氨基酸序列的鉴定。在《中国药典》2010版重组人胰岛素注射液有关物质检查分析方法的基础上,优化流动相p H值,以0.2mol/L硫酸盐缓冲液(p H 3.6)-乙腈(90∶10)作为A相,乙腈-水(50∶50)为B相,梯度洗脱,分别收集杂质峰1和杂质峰2,脱盐浓缩后,用丝氨酸蛋白酶(V8酶)酶切,取部分酶切溶液经三(2-羧乙基)膦盐酸盐(TCEP)还原,分别得到还原和非还原肽段溶液,利用LC-MS/MS鉴定氨基酸序列,未知杂质分别为重组人胰岛素B3位发生脱氨和异构化的产物,即B3和B3iso脱氨人胰岛素。将优化后的方法与《中国药典》方法对市售重组人胰岛素注射液进行有关物质的对比分析,已上市厂家的重组人胰岛素注射液均有不同程度的B3和B3iso脱氨人胰岛素存在。该方法不影响重组人胰岛素其它有关物质的检测,可用于监控人胰岛素注射液产品储存过程中脱氨类杂质的增长趋势。