Highly shifted LIPOCEST agents based on the encapsulation of neutral polynuclear paramagnetic shift reagents

Improved LIPOCEST MRI contrast agents with highly shifted intraliposomal water protons were prepared by entrapping neutral polynuclear Tm(III)-based paramagnetic shift reagents in phospholipidic vesicles.     

Copper(II) complex intercalated graphene oxide nanocomposites as versatile,reusable catalysts for click reaction

In this work, we report the efficient, high stable copper(II) complexes intercalated graphene oxide (GO) used as green catalysts for copper(II) complex mediated click reaction. Copper(II) Bis(2,2′-bipyridine) [Cu^II (bpy)₂] (C1) and Copper(II) Bis(1,10-phenanthroline) [Cu^II (phen)₂] (C2) have synthesized for the intercalation of corresponding nanocomposites with GO, [GO@Cu^II (bpy)₂] (GO-C1) and [GO@Cu^II (phen)₂] (GO-C2). The noncovalent interaction of complexes supported on the surface of the GO nanosheets proves as an evident active site to facilitate the enhanced catalytic activity of copper-catalyzed alkyne azide cycloaddition (Cu^IIAAC) reaction for the isolation of 1,4-disubstituted-1,2,3-triazoles as click products in shorter reaction time with 80%–91% yield (five examples). The X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern of these composites shows the enhanced interlayers d-spacing range of 1.01–1.12 nm due to the intercalation of copper(II) complexes in between the GO basal planes and characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Raman, UV, scanning electron microscope (SEM), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The as-prepared nanocomposites were employed for the typical click reactions using the substrates of azide and acetylene. These classes of composite materials can be referred to recyclable, heterogeneous, green catalysts with high atom economy and could also be used for the isolation of click products in biomolecules.     

Synthesis and relaxivity studies of a tetranuclear gadolinium(III) complex of DO3A as a contrast-enhancing agent for MRI

A tetranuclear gadolinium(III) complex, [Gd4(H2O)8], of DO3A appended onto the pentaerythrityl framework was synthesized to improve the water proton relaxivity for MRI application. The longitudinal relaxivity of [Gd4(H2O)8] is 28.13 mM-1 s-1 (24 MHz, 35+/-0.1 degrees C, pH 5.6) which is 5.86 times higher than that of [Gd(DO3A)(H2O)2]. The relaxivity is based on "molecular" relaxivity of the tetramer and the r1p value is "7 per Gd". The high relaxivity of the tetramer is the result of the decrease in the rotational correlation (tauR) and the presence of eight inner-sphere water molecules (q=8). The complex exhibits pH-dependent longitudinal relaxivity, and the high relaxivity both at low and high pH (r1p=28.13 mM-1 s-1 at pH 5.6 and 16.52 mM-1 s-1 at pH 9.5) indicates that it could be used as a pH-responsive MRI contrast agent. The transverse relaxivity of the tetramer is 129.97 mM-1 s-1 (24 MHz, 35+/-0.1 degrees C, pH 5.6), and the r2p/r1p ratio of 4.6 shows that it could be used as a T2-weighted contrast agent.