Suppression of the Verwey Transition by Charge Trapping

The Verwey transition in Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles with a mean diameter of 6.3 nm is suppressed after capping the particles with a 3.5 nm thick shell of SiO₂. By X‐ray absorption spectroscopy and its associated X‐ray magnetic circular dichroism this suppression can be correlated to localized Fe²⁺ states and a reduced double exchange visible in different site‐specific magnetization behavior in high magnetic fields. The results are discussed in terms of charge trapping at defects in the Fe₃O₄/ SiO₂ interface and the consequent difficulties in the formation of the common phases of Fe₃O₄. By comparison to X‐ray absorption spectra of bare Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles in course of the Verwey transition, particular changes in the spectral shape could be correlated to changes in the number of unoccupied d states for Fe ions at different lattice sites. These findings are supported by density functional theory calculations.     

Influence of the Linker Chemistry on the Photoinduced Charge-Transfer Dynamics of Hetero-dinuclear Photocatalysts

To optimize light-driven catalytic processes, light-mediated multi-electron transfer dynamics in molecular dyads need to be studied and correlated with structural changes focusing on the catalytically active metastable intermediates. Here, spectro-electrochemistry has been employed to investigate the structure-dependent photoelectron transfer kinetics in catalytically active intermediates of two Ru−Rh catalysts for light-driven NAD⁺ reduction. The excited-state reactivity of short-lived intermediates was studied along different photoreaction pathways by resonance Raman and time-resolved transient absorption spectro-electrochemistry with sub-picosecond time resolution under operando conditions. The results demonstrate, for the first time, how the bridging ligand serves as a (multi-)electron storage structure, mediates the strength of the electronic coupling of catalytic and photocenter and impacts the targeted electron transfer as well as parasitic electron-transfer kinetics.     

Elastic wave radiation and scattering in heterogeneous soil using the scaled boundary finite element method

A time-domain approach for the simulation of elastic waves in heterogeneous soil domains is presented. It is based on modelling both near and far field by the scaled boundary finite element method (SBFEM). The SBFEM facilitates the use of a structured mesh in the near field region without the need to circumvent hanging nodes. The quadtree mesh is obtained automatically from image data. Radiation damping in the far field is modelled accurately by means of a displacement unit-impulse-response-based formulation. An example analysis of wave radiation by an alluvial basin illustrates the potential of the proposed methodology. (© 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Water Oxidation Catalysis by Synthetic Manganese Oxides with Different Structural Motifs: A Comparative Study

Manganese oxides are considered to be very promising materials for water oxidation catalysis (WOC), but the structural parameters influencing their catalytic activity have so far not been clearly identified. For this study, a dozen manganese oxides (MnO_x) with various solid‐state structures were synthesised and carefully characterised by various physical and chemical methods. WOC by the different MnO_x was then investigated with Ce⁴⁺ as chemical oxidant. Oxides with layered structures (birnessites) and those containing large tunnels (todorokites) clearly gave the best results with reaction rates exceeding 1250 ${{\rm{mmol}}_{{\rm{O}}_{\rm{2}} } }$ ${{\rm{mol}}_{{\rm{Mn}}}^{ - 1} }$ h^?1 or about 50 μmol_O2 m^?2 h^?1. In comparison, catalytic rates per mole of Mn of oxides characterised by well‐defined 3D networks were rather low (e.g., ca. 90 ${{\rm{mmol}}_{{\rm{O}}_{\rm{2}} } }$ ${{\rm{mol}}_{{\rm{Mn}}}^{ - 1} }$ h^?1 for bixbyite, Mn₂O₃), but impressive if normalised per unit surface area (>100 ${{\rm{{\rm \mu} mol}}_{{\rm{O}}_{\rm{2}} } }$ m^?2 h^?1 for marokite, CaMn₂O₄). Thus, two groups of MnO_x emerge from this screening as hot candidates for manganese‐based WOC materials: 1) amorphous oxides with tunnelled structures and the well‐established layered oxides; 2) crystalline Mn^III oxides. However, synthetic methods to increase surface areas must be developed for the latter to obtain good catalysis rates per mole of Mn or per unit catalyst mass.     

Isostable DNA

The high fidelity detection of multiple DNA sequences in multiplex assays calls for duplexes whose stability is independent of sequence (isostable DNA), forming under universally stringent conditions. Nature did not evolve DNA to form isostable duplexes. Here we report how probe strands can be modified so that an all-A/T target strand is bound with the same or slightly higher affinity than the corresponding all-G/C strand with the same sequence of purines and pyrimidines. We refer to these probes that feature covalently attached ligands as "decorated nucleic acids". Caps, intercalators, and locks were used to stabilize A/T duplexes, and N4-ethylcytosine residues were employed to tune down the stability of G/C duplexes without significantly affecting base pairing selectivity. Near-isostability was demonstrated in solution and on microarrays of high and low density. Further, it is shown that hybridization results involving decorated probes on microarrays can be predicted on the basis of thermodynamic data for duplex formation in solution. Predictable formation of isostable DNA not only benefits microarrays for gene expression analysis and genotyping, but may also improve the sequence-specificity of other applications that rely on the massively parallel formation of Watson-Crick duplexes.     

Improved cyclodextrin-based receptors for camptothecin by inverse virtual screening

We report the computer-aided optimization of a synthetic receptor for a given guest molecule, based on inverse virtual screening of receptor libraries. As an example, a virtual set of beta-cyclodextrin (beta-CD) derivatives was generated as receptor candidates for the anticancer drug camptothecin. We applied the two docking tools AutoDock and GlamDock to generate camptothecin complexes of every candidate receptor. Scoring functions were used to rank all generated complexes. From the 10 % top-ranking candidates nine were selected for experimental validation. They were synthesized by reaction of heptakis-[6-deoxy-6-iodo]-beta-CD with a thiol compound to form the hepta-substituted beta-CDs. The stabilities of the camptothecin complexes obtained from solubility measurements of five of the nine CD derivatives were significantly higher than for any other CD derivative known from literature. The remaining four CD derivatives were insoluble in water. In addition, corresponding mono-substituted CD derivatives were synthesized that also showed improved binding constants. Among them the 9-H-purine derivative was the best, being comparable to the investigated hepta-substituted beta-CDs. Since the measured binding free energies correlated satisfactorily with the calculated scores, the applied scoring functions appeared to be appropriate for the selection of promising candidates for receptor synthesis.     

Stimuli-Responsive Thiomorpholine Oxide-Derived Polymers with Tailored Hydrophilicity and Hemocompatible Properties

Thermo-responsive hydrophilic polymers, including those showing tuneable lower critical solution temperature (LCST), represent a continuous subject of exploration for a variety of applications, but particularly in nanomedicine. Since biological pH changes can inform the organism about the presence of disequilibrium or diseases, the development of dual LCST/pH-responsive hydrophilic polymers with biological potential is an attractive subject in polymer science. Here, we present a novel polymer featuring LCST/pH double responsiveness. The monomer ethylthiomorpholine oxide methacrylate (THOXMA) can be polymerised via the RAFT process to obtain well-defined polymers. Copolymers with hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) were prepared, which allowed the tuning of the LCST behaviour of the polymers. Both, the LCST behaviour and pH responsiveness of hydrophilic PTHOXMA were tested by following the evolution of particle size by dynamic light scattering (DLS). In weak and strong alkaline conditions, cloud points ranged between 40–60 °C, while in acidic medium no LCST was found due to the protonation of the amine of the THOX moieties. Additional cytotoxicity assays confirmed a high biocompatibility of PTHOXMA and haemolysis and aggregation assays proved that the thiomorpholine oxide-derived polymers did not cause aggregation or lysis of red blood cells. These preliminary results bode well for the use of PTHOXMA as smart material in biological applications.     

Gold- and platinum-bismuth donor-acceptor interactions supported by an ambiphilic PBiP pincer ligand

Noble metals meet a heavyweight: A pincer ligand brings together bismuth with gold and platinum, so that metallophilic interactions are established. According to DFT calculations, these interactions contain dominant metal→bismuth contributions.     

Optimization of spin-triplet supercurrent in ferromagnetic Josephson junctions

We have observed long-range spin-triplet supercurrents in Josephson junctions containing ferromagnetic (F) materials, which are generated by noncollinear magnetizations between a central Co/Ru/Co synthetic antiferromagnet and two outer thin F layers. Here we show that the spin-triplet supercurrent is enhanced up to 20 times after our samples are subject to a large in-plane field. This occurs because the synthetic antiferromagnet undergoes a "spin-flop" transition, whereby the two Co layer magnetizations end up nearly perpendicular to the magnetizations of the two thin F layers. We report direct experimental evidence for the spin-flop transition from scanning electron microscopy with polarization analysis and from spin-polarized neutron reflectometry. These results represent a first step toward experimental control of spin-triplet supercurrents.