Single‐Atom Gold Catalysis in the Context of Developments in Parahydrogen‐Induced Polarization

A highly isolated monoatomic gold catalyst, with single gold atoms dispersed on multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), has been synthesized, characterized, and tested in heterogeneous hydrogenation of 1,3‐butadiene and 1‐butyne with parahydrogen to maximize the polarization level and the contribution of the pairwise hydrogen addition route. The Au/MWCNTs catalyst was found to be active and efficient in pairwise hydrogen addition and the estimated contributions from the pairwise hydrogen addition route are at least an order of magnitude higher than those for supported metal nanoparticle catalysts. Therefore, the use of the highly isolated monoatomic catalysts is very promising for production of hyperpolarized fluids that can be used for the significant enhancement of NMR signals. A mechanism of 1,3‐butadiene hydrogenation with parahydrogen over the highly isolated monoatomic Au/MWCNTs catalyst is also proposed.     

Extraction products from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Miscanthus</Emphasis> var. ‘Soranovskii’

The chemical structures of Miscanthus var. ‘Soranovskii’ lignin fractions released via extraction of lignin from the lignocellulosic feedstock using moderately heated acetone under atmospheric pressure, without acidic and alkaline catalysts, were studied. A blend of Miscanthus stems and leaves was pretreated with water under thermobaric conditions. The acetone organosolv process subsequently afforded a substance related to a lignin-like matter-acetone organosolv Miscanthus lignin (AOML). Non-destructive analytical techniques such as FTIR spectroscopy, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, size-exclusion chromatography, and 2D NMR were used. The IR and NMR spectroscopies revealed the AOML structure to comprise all the three major types of phenylpropane units: guaiacyl (G), syringyl (S), and p-hydroxyphenyl (H). The resultant acetone-organosolv lignin exhibits good solubility in polar solvents, moderate solubility in aromatic chemicals, and is insoluble in non-polar solvents, exhibiting the physicochemical properties of a thermoplastic polymer with a softening point of 67.0°C (onset 33.0°C, endset 81.5°C).     

Nutritional Value and Preventive Role of Nigella sativa L. and Its Main Component Thymoquinone in Cancer: An Evidenced-Based Review of Preclinical and Clinical Studies

In recent times, scientific attention has been paid to different foods and their bioactive components for the ability to inhibit the onset and progress of different types of cancer. Nigella sativa extract, powder and seed oil and its main components, thymoquinone and α-hederin, have showed potent anticancer and chemosensitizing effects against various types of cancer, such as liver, colon, breast, renal, cervical, lung, ovarian, pancreatic, prostate and skin tumors, through the modulation of various molecular signaling pathways. Herein, the purpose of this review was to highlight the anticancer activity of Nigella sativa and it constitutes, focusing on different in vitro, in vivo and clinical studies and projects, in order to underline their antiproliferative, proapoptotic, cytotoxic and antimetastatic effects. Particular attention has been also given to the synergistic effect of Nigella sativa and it constitutes with chemotherapeutic drugs, and to the synthesized analogs of thymoquinone that seem to enhance the chemo-sensitizing potential. This review could be a useful step towards new research on N. sativa and cancer, to include this plant in the dietary treatments in support to conventional therapies, for the best achievement of therapeutic goals.     

Characterisation of anodic oxide films on zirconium formed in sulphuric acid: XPS and corrosion resistance investigations

Present work describes investigations of a two-step process consisting of galvanostatic anodising in a 1 M H₂SO₄ solution at 100 mA cm⁻² up to the limiting voltages of 20, 60, 80, 100 and 120 V, directly after which potentiostatic regime was employed and the current was allowed to drop. The total treatment time (5 min) was held constant for all samples. The treatment was carried out to improve the corrosion resistance of zirconium in physiological conditions, which was determined by electrochemical evaluation in Ringer’s solution. XPS studies revealed that after anodising sulphur was incorporated into the oxide film in the form of sulphated zirconia. The maximum content of sulphate in the oxide layer was observed after anodising at 80 V. Anodising at higher voltages resulted in formation of coatings with decreasing amount of sulphur. It was found that there is a strong correlation between the sulphur content in the oxide layers and the measured corrosion current density. On the other hand, the pitting corrosion resistance seemed to be unaffected by the presence of S and it was improving with the increasing limiting voltage of the treatment.

     

Kinetic Study of Propylene Hydrogenation over Pt/Al2O3 by Parahydrogen-Induced Polarization

Parahydrogen-induced polarization has been successfully used for a kinetic study of propylene hydrogenation over a Pt/Al₂O₃ catalyst. It was shown that the reaction orders with respect to hydrogen are different for the pairwise and the non-pairwise hydrogen addition and are equal to 0.7 and 0.1, respectively. This observation of different reaction orders confirms the coexistence of different types of active sites which are responsible for the overall and the pairwise hydrogen addition to the propylene C=C double bond. Moreover, 0.7 reaction order with respect to H₂ for pairwise hydrogen addition indicates that the contribution of pairwise addition depends on the concentration of molecular hydrogen. Therefore, this observation can be developed into a practical tool for producing fluids with highly polarized nuclear spins by changing the hydrogen concentration.     

On the chromatic numbers of low-dimensional spaces

New lower bounds are found for the minimum number of colors needed to color all points of a Euclidean space in such a way that any two points at a distance of 1 have different colors.     

Long‐Lived Spin States for Low‐Field Hyperpolarized Gas MRI

Parahydrogen induced polarization was employed to prepare a relatively long‐lived correlated nuclear spin state between methylene and methyl protons in propane gas. Conventionally, such states are converted into a strong NMR signal enhancement by transferring the reaction product to a high magnetic field in an adiabatic longitudinal transport after dissociation engenders net alignment (ALTADENA) experiment. However, the relaxation time T₁ of ～0.6 s of the resulting hyperpolarized propane is too short for potential biomedical applications. The presented alternative approach employs low‐field MRI to preserve the initial correlated state with a much longer decay time T_LLSS=(4.7±0.5) s. While the direct detection at low‐magnetic fields (e.g. 0.0475 T) is challenging, we demonstrate here that spin‐lock induced crossing (SLIC) at this low magnetic field transforms the long‐lived correlated state into an observable nuclear magnetization suitable for MRI with sub‐millimeter and sub‐second spatial and temporal resolution, respectively. Propane is a non‐toxic gas, and therefore, these results potentially enable low‐cost high‐resolution high‐speed MRI of gases for functional imaging of lungs and other applications.     

Stripping Analysis of As(III) by Means of Screen‐Printed Electrodes Modified with Gold Nanoparticles and Carbon Black Nanocomposite

A novel sensor based on carbon black‐gold nanoparticle nanocomposite modified screen‐printed electrode (CB‐AuNPs/SPE) for the detection of As(III) has been developed. The sensor was prepared modifying the SPE with CB and AuNPs by a drop casting automatable deposition. The As(III) was detected by CB‐AuNPs/SPE using anodic stripping voltammetry, with a high sensitivity (673±6 µA µM^?1 cm^?2) and reaching a LOD of 0.4 ppb. Finally, CB‐AuNPs/SPE has been applied to As(III) trace analysis in drinking water, obtaining satisfactory recovery values (99±9 %).