1,1′‐[(Ethane‐1,2‐diyldioxy)di‐o‐phenylene]bis(indoline‐2,3‐dione) (L) and a novel [Ag2L2]2+ metallocycle based on coordination‐driven Ag—O and Ag—π bonds

1,1′‐[(Ethane‐1,2‐diyldioxy)di‐o‐phenylene]bis(indoline‐2,3‐dione), C₃₂H₂₄N₂O₆, L or (I), adopts a trans conformation with the two terminal indoline‐2,3‐dione groups located on opposite sides of the central ether bridge, as required by a centre of inversion located at the mid‐point of the ethane C—C bond. However, in the discrete binuclear Ag^I metallocycle complex salt bis{μ‐1,1′‐[(ethane‐1,2‐diyldioxy)di‐o‐phenylene]bis(indoline‐2,3‐dione)}disilver(I) bis(hexafluoridoantimonate), [Ag₂(C₃₂H₂₄N₂O₆)₂][SbF₆]₂, (II), synthesized by combination of L with AgSbF₆, L adopts a gauche conformation to bind Ag^Ivia the two indolinedione O atoms and two C atoms from the phenoxy ring. One dione O atom from the opposite side of the ether bridge completes the irregular coordination environment of each Ag^I atom. The complex is on a centre of inversion located between the Ag^I atoms. In the solid state, these binuclear [Ag₂L₂]²⁺ metallocycles stack together via intermolecular π–π interactions to generate a one‐dimensional chain motif, with the [SbF₆]⁻ counter‐ions, which are disordered, located between the chains.     

An eigen-based high-order expansion basis for structured spectral elements

We present an eigen-based high-order expansion basis for the spectral element approach with structured elements. The new basis exhibits a numerical efficiency significantly superior, in terms of the conditioning of coefficient matrices and the number of iterations to convergence for the conjugate gradient solver, to the commonly-used Jacobi polynomial-based expansion basis. This basis results in extremely sparse mass matrices, and it is very amenable to the diagonal preconditioning. Ample numerical experiments demonstrate that with the new basis and a simple diagonal preconditioner the number of conjugate gradient iterations to convergence has essentially no dependence or only a very weak dependence on the element order. The expansion bases are constructed by a tensor product of a set of special one-dimensional (1D) basis functions. The 1D interior modes are constructed such that the interior mass and stiffness matrices are simultaneously diagonal and have identical condition numbers. The 1D vertex modes are constructed to be orthogonal to all the interior modes. The performance of the new basis has been investigated and compared with other expansion bases.     

Developing a novel alkaline anion exchange membrane derived from poly(ether‐imide) for improved ionic conductivity

We have developed a novel alkaline anion exchange membrane derived from poly(ether‐imide) for improved ionic conductivity. The effects of several important parameters on the chloromethylation of the membrane were investigated. These parameters included reaction temperature, reaction time, concentration of chloromethylation agent, concentration of polymer, and the amount of catalyst. The quaternization of the synthesized chloromethylated polymer was studied as well. The results show that all the studied parameters exhibited significant impacts on chloromethylation. Among them, the concentration of the chloromethylation agent played a key role in increasing the chloromethyl functional group attachment onto the polymer. It was found that the gelation could be avoided if these reaction parameters were controlled. It was also found that using an appropriate quaternization approach could significantly improve the ionic conductivity and optimize the conductivity of the membrane even though the functional chloromethyl groups attached to the polymer are limited. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cell-Penetrating Mitochondrion-Targeting Ligands for the Universal Delivery of Small Molecules,Proteins and Nanomaterials

Mitochondria are key organelles that perform vital cellular functions such as those related to cell survival and death. The targeted delivery of different types of cargos to mitochondria is a well-established strategy to study mitochondrial biology and diseases. Of the various existing mitochondrion-transporting vehicles, most suffer from poor cytosolic entry, low delivery efficiency, limited cargo types, and cumbersome preparation protocols, and none was known to be universally applicable for mitochondrial delivery of different types of cargos (small molecules, proteins, and nanomaterials). Herein, two new cell-penetrating, mitochondrion-targeting ligands (named Mito^Ligand) that are capable of effectively “tagging” small-molecule drugs, native proteins and nanomaterials are disclosed, as well as their corresponding chemoselective conjugation chemistry. Upon successful cellular delivery and rapid endosome escape, the released native cargos were found to be predominantly localized inside mitochondria. Finally, by successfully delivering doxorubicin, a well-known anticancer drug, to the mitochondria of HeLa cells, we showed that the released drug possessed potent cell cytotoxicity, disrupted the mitochondrial membrane potential and finally led to apoptosis. Our strategy thus paves the way for future mitochondrion-targeted therapy with a variety of biologically active agents.     

Interbasis expansions for isotropic harmonic oscillator

The exact solutions of the isotropic harmonic oscillator are reviewed in Cartesian, cylindrical polar and spherical coordinates. The problem of interbasis expansions of the eigenfunctions is solved completely. The explicit expansion coefficients of the basis for given coordinates in terms of other two coordinates are presented for lower excited states. Such a property is occurred only for those degenerated states for given principal quantum number n.     

Investigations on the growing, cracking and spalling of oxides scales of powder metallurgy Rene95 nickel-based superalloy

The surface and cross-sectional morphologies of powder metallurgy (PM) Rene95 nickel-based superalloy after 100 h oxidation in the temperature range of 700-1100 °C were investigated. It is shown that oxides nucleate first on the surface of the alloy and form an oxides scale. Afterwards, oxides scale endures decohesion, rumpling, cracking and finally spalling owing to the weak cohesive strength of the scale/alloy interface. The XRD and EDS analyses confirmed that the oxides scale of PM Rene95 superalloy is mainly composed by Cr₂O₃ at 800 °C and NiCr₂O₄ is the main spinel at 1100 °C. The subsequent analysis of internal stress verified that cracking and spalling are caused by growth stress and promoted by thermal stress. On these bases, improvement of the cohesive strength of the scale/alloy interface is considered to be the main way to increase the oxidation resistance of PM Rene95 superalloy.