Co−Co Dinuclear Active Sites Dispersed on Zirconium-doped Heterostructured Co9S8/Co3O4 for High-current-density and Durable Acidic Oxygen Evolution

Developing cost-effective and sustainable acidic water oxidation catalysts requires significant advances in material design and in-depth mechanism understanding for proton exchange membrane water electrolysis. Herein, we developed a single atom regulatory strategy to construct Co−Co dinuclear active sites (DASs) catalysts that atomically dispersed zirconium doped Co₉S₈/Co₃O₄ heterostructure. The X-ray absorption fine structure elucidated the incorporation of Zr greatly facilitated the generation of Co−Co DASs layer with stretching of cobalt oxygen bond and S−Co−O heterogeneous grain boundaries interfaces, engineering attractive activity of significantly reduced overpotential of 75 mV at 10 mA cm⁻², a breakthrough of 500 mA cm⁻² high current density, and water splitting stability of 500 hours in acid, making it one of the best-performing acid-stable OER non-noble metal materials. The optimized catalyst with interatomic Co−Co distance (ca. 2.80 Å) followed oxo-oxo coupling mechanism that involved obvious oxygen bridges on dinuclear Co sites (1,090 cm⁻¹), confirmed by in situ SR-FTIR, XAFS and theoretical simulations. Furthermore, a major breakthrough of 120,000 mA g⁻¹ high mass current density using the first reported noble metal-free cobalt anode catalyst of Co−Co DASs/ZCC in PEM-WE at 2.14 V was recorded.     

Catalyst- and Oxidant-Free Electrochemical Regioselective Halogenation and Trifluoromethylation of 4H-Pyrido[1,2-a]pyrimidin-4-ones

The catalyst-free electrochemical halogenation and trifluoromethylation of 4H-pyrido[1,2-a]pyrimidin-4-ones was realized under external-oxidant-free conditions. This strategy provides an easy and green access to functionalized new 4H-pyrido[1,2-a]pyrimidin-4-one derivatives with broad scope, good functional group tolerance and high regioselectivity.     

Determination of 3-chloro-1,2-propanediol in biological samples by quick-easy-cheap-effective-rugged-and-safe extraction coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and its biodistribution in rats

3-Chloro-1,2-propanediol is a common food contaminant, but reports on its determination in biological tissues are lacking. In the present study, a method was developed to detect 3-chloro-1,2-propanediol contents in rat tissues by quick-easy-cheap-effective-rugged-and-safe extraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis. Biological samples were extracted with ethyl acetate and purified with adsorbents. The optimized adsorbent for each sample was selected from 4–5 combinations of N-propylethylenediamine, octadecylsilane, graphitized carbon black, strong anion exchange, and florisil. Extracted 3-chloro-1,2-propanediol was derivatized with heptafluorobutyric anhydride and subjected to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. This method had good linearity (correlation coefficients >0.99) in the range of 2–2000 ng/g for blood, kidney, liver, testis, and brain samples. The limits of detection were under 0.8 ng/g; the limits of quantification were 2 ng/g; the recovery rates were 85%–102%; and the matrix effects were 1.98%–7.67%. This method also had good precision. The dynamic changes in 3-chloro-1,2-propanediol in rats gavaged with 20 mg/kg b.w. for 24 h were detected using this method. The 3-chloro-1,2-propanediol content in each tissue sharply increased to a peak, rapidly decreased within 2 h, and stabilized at 12 h. 3-Chloro-1,2-propanediol persisted in the kidney, testis, and liver 24 h after gavage.     

Implementation of molecular symmetry in valence bond calculation

A novel strategy for the construction of many-electron symmetry-adapted wave function is proposed for ab initio valence bond (VB) calculations and is implemented for valence bond self-consistent filed (VBSCF) and breathing orbital valence bond (BOVB) methods with various orbital optimization algorithms. Symmetry-adapted VB functions are constructed by the projection operator of symmetry group. The many-electron symmetry-adapted wave function is expressed in terms of symmetry-adapted VB functions, and thus the VB calculations can be performed with the molecular symmetry restriction. Test results show that molecular symmetry reduces the computational cost of both the iteration numbers and CPU time. Furthermore, excited states with specific symmetry can be conveniently obtained in VB calculations by using symmetry-adapted VB functions.     

Evoking Ferroptosis by Synergistic Enhancement of a Cyclopentadienyl Iridium-Betulin Immune Agonist

Ferroptosis is a form of programmed cell death driven by iron-dependent lipid peroxidation (LPO) with the potential for antitumor immunity activation. In this study, a nonferrous cyclopentadienyl metal-based ferroptosis inducer [Ir(Cp*)(Bet)Cl]Cl ( Ir-Bet ) was developed by a metal-ligand synergistic enhancement (MLSE) strategy involving the reaction of [Ir(Cp*)Cl]₂Cl₂ with the natural product Betulin. The fusion of Betulin with iridium cyclopentadienyl (Ir-Cp*) species as Ir-Bet not only tremendously enhanced the antiproliferative activity toward cancer cells, but also activated ferritinophagy for iron homeostasis regulation by PI3K/Akt/mTOR cascade inhibition with a lower dosage of Betulin, and then evoked an immune response by nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB) activation of Ir-Cp* species. Further immunogenic cell death (ICD) occurred by remarkable ferroptosis through glutathione (GSH) depletion, glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) deactivation and ferritinophagy. An in vivo vaccination experiment demonstrated desirable antitumor and immunogenic effects of Ir-Bet by increasing the ratio of cytotoxic T cells (CTLs)/regulatory T cells (Tregs).     

An interlocked coordination cage based on aromatic amide ligands

An interlocked M_4 L_8 coordination cage was synthesized by coordination-driven self-assembly of palladium(Ⅱ) ions with aromatic amide bidentate ligands.The reaction of the ligand and the metal at 2:1 ratio led to the monomeric M_2 L_4 cage as the kinetic product,while the thermodynamic product M_4 L_8 cage was obtained by prolongating the reaction.This conve rsion and the interlocked structure was clearly revealed by using ~1 H NMR,mass spectrometry and X-ray crystallography.The driving force of interlocking was mainly attributed to the interactions(hydrogen bonding,aromatic stacking and electrostatic interaction) arising from the aptitude of flexibility of the amide ligand.     

基于手机录像实现莱顿弗罗斯特现象的观察*

莱顿弗罗斯特现象在化工领域具有重要的研究价值。为将该现象的实验引入到本科实验教学中,设计制作了基于手机录像功能的莱顿弗罗斯特现象观察装置,可研究表面温度、液滴种类、表面活性剂等因素对莱顿弗罗斯特现象的影响。该装置制作简便,成本低廉,使用方便,效果明显,有利于提高学生的学习积极性,加深学生对泡核沸腾和膜状沸腾等沸腾传热不同状态的理解。     

基于电化学传感器检测赭曲霉毒素A的研究进展

赭曲霉毒素A(Ochratoxin A,OTA)是一种由赭曲霉、青霉菌等真菌产生的次级代谢产物,在自然界分布广泛,具有肝毒性、肾毒性、致癌、致突变作用。鉴于其危害的严重性和污染的广泛性,发展高灵敏度的OTA检测技术引起了研究者的广泛关注。该文阐述了近年来新型电化学传感技术在OTA 检测方面的发展及应用,全面综述了目前OTA电化学传感器的主要类型及其优缺点,并对其发展方向提出了展望,从而为基于OTA的电化学传感器的深入研究与应用提供了参考。     

Positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy of advanced reduced-activation alloy (ARAA) in cold‐worked conditions

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - The defects due to cold-rolling deformation in the advanced reduced-activation alloy (ARAA) have been analyzed using positron annihilation...     

BirA*-protein A fusion protein based BioEnhancer amplifies western blot immunosignal

Western blot (protein immunoblot) is a widely used analytical technique in molecular biology. Utilizing the specific recognizing primary antibody, proteins immobilized on various matrix are investigated by subsequent visualization steps, for example, by the horse radish peroxidase conjugated secondary antibody incubation. Methods to improve the sensitivity in protein identification or quantification are appreciated by biochemists. Herein, we report a new strategy to amplify Western blot signals by constructing a probe with proximal labeling and IgG targeting abilities. The R118G mutation attenuated the biotin-AMP binding affinity of the bacterial biotin ligase BirA*, offering a proximity-dependent labeling ability, which could be used as a signal amplifier. We built a BirA*-protein A fusion protein (BioEnhancer) that specifically binds to IgG and adds biotin tags to its proximal amine groups, enhancing the immunosignal of target proteins. In our experiments, the BioEnhancer system amplified the immunosignal by tenfold compared to the standard western blot. Additionally, our strategy could couple with other signal enhancement methods to further increase the western blot sensitivity.