Supramolecular Arrangement and DFT analysis of Zinc(II) Schiff Bases: An Insight towards the Influence of Compartmental Ligands on Binding Interaction with Protein

We report, for the first time, a detailed crystallographic study of the supramolecular arrangement for a set of zinc(II) Schiff base complexes containing the ligand 2,6-bis((E)-((2-(dimethylamino)ethyl)imino)methyl)-4-R-phenol], where R=methyl/tert-butyl/chloro. The supramolecular study acts as a pre-screening tool for selecting the compartmental ligand R of the Schiff base for effective binding with a targeted protein, bovine serum albumin (BSA). The most stable hexagonal arrangement of the complex [Zn − Me] (R=Me) stabilises the ligand with the highest FMO energy gap (ΔE=4.22 eV) and lowest number of conformations during binding with BSA. In contrast, formation of unstable 3D columnar vertebra for [Zn − Cl] (R=Cl) tend to activate the system with lowest FMO gap (3.75 eV) with highest spontaneity factor in molecular docking. Molecular docking analyses reported in terms of 2D LigPlot+ identified site A, a cleft of domains IB, IIIA and IIIB, as the most probable protein binding site of BSA. Arg144, Glu424, Ser428, Ile455 and Lys114 form the most probable interactions irrespective of the type of compartmental ligands R of the Schiff base whereas Arg185, Glu519, His145, Ile522 act as the differentiating residues with ΔG=−7.3 kcal mol⁻¹.     

直接碳燃料电池燃料的研究进展

直接碳燃料电池(DCFC)是一种清洁高效利用碳资源发电的装置。其因能量转换率高,对环境污染小,燃料选择范围广等优点获得了越来越多的关注。DCFC的性能与使用的燃料密切相关,为了探究燃料对DCFC的影响,本文分别阐述了石墨、炭黑、中密度纤维板、生物质、煤、活性炭的特性及改性方法,分析讨论了燃料表面含氧官能团以及燃料中的金属催化剂对阳极电化学反应的促进作用,发现燃料表面化学性质要比比表面积更加重要。同时,本文也提出了对生物质这一优良的可再生资源的期待,为未来DCFC燃料的发展提供参考。     

新型功能碳材料的高压截获

高性能功能材料在诸多领域具有广泛的应用前景,是人们一直关注的研究热点。高压可以有效地改变物质的原子间距和成键方式,是获得新型功能材料的重要途径。在碳材料的高压研究中,许多有趣的功能碳材料,如光学透明碳、高强度弹性碳和超硬非晶碳等,已经通过不同的碳前驱体合成。本文简要介绍了作者近年来在低维碳基纳米复合材料高压研究中取得的进展,基于设计的不同低维碳前驱体,高压下截获了具有超硬特性、新型压致共价聚合及发光增强的碳材料。     

Generalized gradient approximation adjusted to transition metals properties: Key roles of exchange and local spin density

Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) and PBE adapted for solids (PBEsol) are exchange-correlation (xc) functionals widely used in density functional theory simulations. Their differences are the exchange, μ, and correlation, β, coefficients, causing PBEsol to lose the Local Spin Density (LSD) response. Here, the μ/β two-dimensional (2D) accuracy landscape is analyzed between PBE and PBEsol xc functional limits for 27 transition metal (TM) bulks, as well as for 81 TM surfaces. Several properties are analyzed, including the shortest interatomic distances, cohesive energies, and bulk moduli for TM bulks, and surface relaxation degree, surface energies, and work functions for TM surfaces. The exploration, comparing the accuracy degree with respect experimental values, reveals that the found xc minimum, called VV, being a PBE variant, represents an improvement of 5% in mean absolute percentage error terms, whereas this improvement reaches ~11% for VVsol, a xc resulting from the restoration of LSD response in PBEsol, and so regarded as its variant.     

Dinuclear gold (I)-di-N-heterocyclic carbene complexes: syntheses,structure, density functional theory calculation and photoluminescence study

The synthesis and characterizations for a series of dinuclear gold (I)-di-NHC complexes, 1–8 through the trans-metalation method of their respective silver (I)-di-NHC complexes, i–viii are reported (where NHC = N-heterocyclic carbene). The successful complexation of a series of unusual non-symmetrical and symmetrical di-NHC ligands, 3,3'-(ethane-1,2-diyl)-1-alkylbenzimidazolium-1'-butylbenzimidazolium (with alkyl = methyl, ethyl, propyl, butyl, pentyl, hexyl, heptyl, benzyl) with the gold (I) ions are suggested by elemental analysis, Fourier transform-infrared, ¹H- and ¹³C-NMR data. The ¹³C-NMR spectra of 1–8 show a singlet sharp peak in the range of 190.00–192.00 ppm, indicating the presence of a carbene carbon that bonded to the gold (I) ion. From single crystal X-ray diffraction data, the structure of complex 6 with the formula of [di-NHC-Au (I)]₂·2PF₆ is obtained [where NHC = 3,3'-(ethane-1,2-diyl)-1-hexylbenzimidazolium-1'-butylbenzimidazolium]. The photophysical study in solid state of 6 displays an intense photoluminescence with a strong emission maxima, λ_em = 480 nm, upon excitation at 340 nm at room temperature. Interestingly, the emission maximum at 77 K shows a structural character with a strong peak at 410 nm, a medium at 433 nm and a weak at 387 nm, accompanied by a tail band to about 500 nm.     

Pressure controllable phase transition in MoTe2 by the interlayer band occupancy

High pressure can effectively control the phase transition of MoTe₂ in experiment, but the mechanism is still unclear. In this work, we show by first-principles calculations that the phase transition is suppressed and $1T^{\prime }$ phase becomes more stable under high pressure, which originates from the pressure-induced change of the interlayer band occupancies near the Fermi energy. Specifically, the interlayer states of $1T^{\prime }$ phase tend to be fully occupied under high pressure, while they keep partially occupied for the $T_d$ phase. The increase of the band occupancies makes the $1T^{\prime }$ phase more favorable in energy and prevents the structure changing from $1T^{\prime }$ to $T_d$ phase. Moreover, we also analyze the superconductivity under high pressure based on BCS theory by calculating the density of states and phonon spectra. Our results may shed some light on understanding the relationship between the interlayer band occupancy and crystal stability of MoTe₂ under high pressures.     

Fe,Co,Ni掺杂石墨烯表面吸附C_2H_4的第一性原理研究

基于密度泛函理论(DFT)的广义梯度近似(GGA),本文对本征石墨烯以及掺杂Fe,Co,Ni石墨烯的几何结构和电子性质进行了优化计算,并计算了C_2H_4在本征石墨烯以及掺杂石墨烯表面的吸附过程,讨论了体系的吸附能、稳定性、DOS及掺杂对键长的影响.结果表明C_2H_4在本征石墨烯B位的吸附和掺杂石墨烯的吸附为化学吸附,在本征石墨烯T和H位的吸附为物理吸附;掺杂后石墨烯的比表面积增大,与本征石墨烯相比,掺杂使费米能级附近的态密度积分显著提高,表明掺杂石墨烯的电导性会发生变化,从而影响对C_2H_4的气敏度..C_2H_4在Fe、Co、Ni分别掺石墨烯的最佳吸附位为T位、H位和B位;掺杂Fe,Ni后体系的吸附能力显著提高,且掺杂Ni时体系的吸附能力最好.     

利用太赫兹光谱和密度泛函理论研究烟酰胺-庚二酸共晶体的多晶型

烟酰胺, 又称为维生素PP，是辅酶Ⅰ和辅酶Ⅱ的组成部分，是许多脱氢酶的辅酶。庚二酸是一种广泛使用的共晶体前体。烟酰胺与庚二酸形成的药物共晶体具有两种不同的多晶型, 分别为晶型Ⅰ和晶型Ⅱ。不同的药物晶型常常具有不同的物理化学性质，这些差异可能会对药物的溶出速率、稳定性以及药效具有较大影响，因此在药物领域中寻找合适的技术手段鉴别药物的不同晶型非常重要。利用太赫兹时域光谱在室温下对烟酰胺-庚二酸的两种共晶体在0.2～2.2 THz范围内进行检测，发现两者的特征吸收峰具有明显的差异，晶型Ⅰ在1.51，1.73，1.94，2.01和2.17 THz有五个特征吸收峰，其中在1.94，2.01和2.17 THz处是三个吸收强度较大的峰，而晶型Ⅱ在1.66，1.74，1.88，2.02和2.16 THz有五个特征吸收峰，与晶型Ⅰ不同的是在2.02和2.16 THz处有两个强度较大的吸收峰。利用密度泛函理论对烟酰胺-庚二酸两种共晶体进行理论计算，计算结果表明实验峰与理论峰基本对应，对吸收峰指认归属表明特征吸收峰来源于分子骨架的振动与包含氢键的振动。研究结果表明太赫兹时域光谱技术对于区分药物共晶体的多晶型现象具有重要的应用。     

Insight into room-temperature catalytic oxidation of NO by CrO2(110): A DFT study

The first-principles DFT calculations together with microkinetic analysis reveal the complex catalytic mechanism of low-content NO oxidation on CrO₂(110) at room temperature. It quantitatively makes clear that CrO₂(110) can exhibit considerable activity with the Mars-van-Krevelen mechanism preferred, and the nitrate species serves as the key poisoning species.     

Increasing the antioxidant capability via the synergistic effect of coupling diphenylamine with sterically hindered phenol

A series of novel diphenylamine-phenol antioxidants were synthesised that combined the two antioxidant types into a single molecule. These antioxidants were then functionalised with alkyl chains to aid their solubility in hydrocarbon media. As part of a structure-activity study, diphenylamine derivatives were also generated bearing carboxylic acid functionalities in either the ortho, meta or para position with respect to the secondary amine. Methyl or ethyl spacers were also incorporated between the carboxylic acid and the aromatic ring. The antioxidant ability of the diphenylamine-phenols was evaluated using Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and compared to commercially available antioxidants Irganox L135 and Irganox L57 both as individual components and when blended together. The diphenylamine-phenol antioxidant with an ethyl spacer between the diphenylamine and carboxylic acid in the meta position with respect to the secondary amine functionality showed an impressive oxidation induction time of ca. 24 min in direct comparison with the blend of Irganox L135 and Irganox L57 (ca. 16 min).