Systematic Modulation of Thiol Functionalities in Inexpensive Porous Polymers for Effective Mercury Removal

Through accumulation, mercury contamination in aquatic systems still poses serious health risks despite the strict regulations on drinking water and industrial discharge. One effective strategy against this is adsorptive removal, in which a suitably functionalized porous material is added to water treatment protocols. Thiol (SH) group-grafted structures perform commendably; however, insufficient attention is paid to the cost, scalability, and reusability or how the arrangement of sulfur atoms could affect the Hg^II binding strength. We used an inexpensive and scalable porous covalent organic polymer (COP-130) to systematically introduce thiol functional groups with precise chain lengths and sulfur content. Thiol-functionalized COP-130 demonstrates enhanced wettability and excellent Hg^II uptake of up to 936 mg g⁻¹, with fast kinetics and exceptionally high selectivity. These Hg adsorbents are easily regenerated with HCl and can be used at least six times without loss of capacity even after treatment with strong acid, a rare performance in the domain of Hg-removal research.     

Encapsulated Neutral Ruthenium Catalyst for Substrate-Selective Oxidation of Alcohols

The neutral complex dichloro-{diethyl[(5-phenyl-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-ylamino)-(4-trifluoro-methylphenyl)methyl]phosphonate} (p-cymene)-ruthenium(II) was encapsulated inside a self-assembled hexameric host obtained upon reaction of 2,8,14,20-tetra-undecyl-resorcin[4]arene and water. The formation of an inclusion complex was inferred from a combination of spectral measurements (MS, UV/Vis spectroscopy, ¹H and DOSY NMR). The ³¹P and ¹⁹F NMR spectra are consistent with motions of the ruthenium complex inside the self-assembled capsule. Molecular dynamics simulations carried out on the inclusion complex confirmed these intra-cavity movements and highlighted possible supramolecular interactions between the ruthenium first coordination sphere ligands and the inner part (aromatic rings) of the capsule. The embedded ruthenium complex was assessed in the catalytic oxidation (using NaIO₄ as oxidant) of mixtures of three arylmethyl alcohols into the corresponding aldehydes. The reaction kinetics were shown to vary as a function of the substrates’ size, with the oxidation rate varying in the order benzylalcohol >4-phenyl-benzylalcohol >9-anthracenemethanol. Control experiments realized in the absence of hexameric capsule did not allow any discrimination between the substrates.     

Structure of Two Acetylene Derivatives of Salicylic Acid

Crystallography Reports - Methyl 2-hydroxy-5-[(trimethylsilyl)ethynyl]benzoate and methyl 2-hydroxy-5-ethynylbenzoate have been synthesized, and the crystallographic data on these compounds are...     

On Convergent Series Expansions for Solutions of Nonlinear Ordinary Differential Equations

Doklady Mathematics - We consider a large class of nonlinear ordinary differential equations of arbitrary order with coefficients in the form of power series that converge in a neighborhood of the...     

Contact Interaction of Two Piezoelectric Half-Spaces,One of Which Contains a Near-Surface Notch of Elliptical Cross-Section*

International Applied Mechanics - Based on a rigorous mathematical statement that takes into account the coupling of the mechanical and electric fields, the problem of the compression of two...     

Critical assessment of thermodynamic properties of perovskite-type cesium lead chloride CsPbCl3

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - The results of thermochemical study of the CsPbCl3 formation thermodynamics available in literature were critically evaluated by comparison with those...     

Synthesis and Some Properties of Tungstophosphatozincates and Their Thermolysis Products

Russian Journal of General Chemistry - Tungstophosphatozincates with the Keggin anion structure Kt5[PW11O39Zn(H2O)]?nH2O, Kt = Rb+, Cs+, (CH3)4N+; (C2H5)4N+ were synthesized. Their...     

Evolutionary Development and Structural Diversity of Natural Antimicrobial Peptides,Peptidometics, and Cationic Amphiphiles Based on Amino Acids

Russian Journal of General Chemistry - The review article traces the main trends of the synthetic approach to the solution of the problem of overcoming the resistance of pathogenic bacterial...     

On the Standard Conjecture for Compactifications of Néron Models of Three-Dimensional Abelian Varieties with Multiplications in an Imaginary Quadratic Field

Mathematical Notes -     

A sharp integral inequality for closed spacelike submanifolds immersed in the de Sitter space

Archiv der Mathematik - In this paper, we establish a sharp integral inequality for n-dimensional closed spacelike submanifolds with constant scalar curvature immersed with parallel normalized mean...