The luminescence properties of Dy3+-activated SrB4O7 under VUV excitation

Dy³⁺-doped SrB₄O₇ phosphors were synthesized by solid-state reaction. The luminescence properties of white-light SrB₄O₇:Dy³⁺ under vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) excitation were firstly investigated. According to strong absorption around 147 nm in excitation spectra, energy can easily be transferred to the energy levels of Dy³⁺ from host absorption, and hence luminescence of SrB₄O₇:Dy³⁺ under VUV excitation was effective, and it has the potential of being applied to a white lamp-house for mercury-free lamp.     

Synthesis,self‐assembly and drug‐loading capacity of well‐defined drug‐conjugated amphiphilic A2B2 type miktoarm star copolymers based on poly(ε‐caprolactone) and poly(ethylene glycol)

Well‐defined drug‐conjugated amphiphilic A₂B₂ miktoarm star copolymers [(PCL)₂‐(PEG)₂‐D] were prepared by the combination of controlled ring‐opening polymerization (CROP) and “click” reaction strategy. First, bromide functionalized poly(ε‐caprolactone) (PCL‐Br) with double hydroxyl end groups was synthesized by the CROP of ε‐caprolactone using 2,2‐bis(bromomethyl)propane‐1,3‐diol as a difunctional initiator in the presence of Sn(Oct)₂ at 110 °C. Next, the bromide groups of PCL‐Br were quantitatively converted to azide form by NaN₃ to give PCL‐N₃. Subsequently, the end hydroxyl groups of PCL‐N₃ were capped with ibuprofen as a model drug at room temperature. Finally, copper(I)‐catalyzed cycloaddition reaction between ibuprofen‐conjugated PCL‐N₃ and slightly excess alkyne‐terminated poly(ethylene glycol) (A‐PEG) led to ibuprofen‐conjugated A₂B₂ miktoarm star copolymer [(PCL)₂‐(PEG)₂‐D]. The excess A‐PEG was removed by dialysis. ¹H NMR, FTIR and SEC analyzes confirmed the expected miktoarm star architecture. These amphiphilic miktoarm star copolymers could self‐assemble into multimorphological aggregates in aqueous solution, which were characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). In addition, the drug‐loading capacity of these drug‐conjugated miktoarm star copolymers as well as their nondrug‐conjugated analogs were also investigated in detail. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2009     

Study on the interaction mechanism between aromatic amino acids and quercetin

In this paper, we selected quercetin and aromatic amino acids (tryptophan, tyrosine, phenylalanine) as the research objects to investigate the change rules in the reaction process. The thermodynamic functions (Ka, ΔG, and ΔS) of the interactions between quercetin and aromatic amino acids (tryptophan, tyrosine, phenylalanine) were measured by isothermal titration calorimetry. The values of binding constant (Ka) reached maximum at 25°C; the entropies and Gibbs free energies were both negative at different temperatures. The kinetic parameters of quercetin and amino acids in the interaction process was determined by microcalorimetry. The results inferred that the driving force of the reaction was hydrogen bond or van der Waals force.     

Enhancement of light-emitting efficiency using combined plasmonic Ag grating and dielectric grating

Based on the analysis of the near-field evanescent wave in total internal reflection, the flip-chip light-emitting diode (LED) structure was proposed by placing a plasmonic Ag grating and a perforated sapphire grating in the substrate. The finite difference time domain (FDTD) method has been applied to study the spectral properties of the hybrid structure and the enhancement factor of light extraction efficiency of the LED model. From the computation examples, the effects of structure parameters on the extraction enhancement have been investigated. The results indicate that the plasmonic grating can enhance the near-field evanescent wave and couple it to propagation wave in the specific wavelength bands, which leads to the photons emitting out of the LED chip with high extraction efficiency. Due to the combined gratings used, the enhancement factor of the light extraction efficiency can reach approximately 4 times at a relatively longer wavelength.     

Copper‐catalyzed asymmetric 1,4‐conjugate addition of dialkylzinc to enones

Asymmetric 1,4‐conjugation addition of dialkylzinc (diethylzinc and dimethylzinc) to cyclic enones, chalcone and nitroalkenes was achieved by a 25 mol% (R)‐6,6′‐Br₂‐BINOL( 1f ), 25 mol% CuSPh and 100 mol% dicyclohexylmethylamin(Cy₂NMe) catalyst system. The Cu(I) catalyst system enables the cyclic enone, chalcone and nitroalkene generality with high enantioselectivity (up to 84% ee) and isolated yield (up to 94%) under mild reaction conditions. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.