Hydrolysis of Organophosphate Esters: Phosphotriesterase Activity of Metallo‐β‐lactamase and Its Functional Mimics

The phosphotriesterase (PTE) activity of a series of binuclear and mononuclear zinc(II) complexes and metallo‐β‐lactamase (mβl) from Bacillus cereus was studied. The binuclear complex 1 , which exhibits good mβl activity, shows poor PTE activity. In contrast, complex 2 , a poor mimic of mβl, exhibits much higher activity than 1 . The replacement of Cl^? ligands by OH^? is important for the high PTE activity of complex 2 because this complex does not show any catalytic activity in methanol. The natural enzyme mβl from B. cereus is also found to be an inefficient catalyst in the hydrolysis of phosphotriesters. These observations indicate that the binding of β‐lactam substrates at the binuclear zinc(II) center is different from that of phosphotriesters. Furthermore, phosphodiesters, the products from the hydrolysis of triesters, significantly inhibit the PTE activity of mβl and its functional mimics. Although the mononuclear complexes 3 and 4 exhibited significant mβl activity, these complexes are found to be almost inactive in the hydrolysis of phosphotriesters. These observations indicate that the elimination of phosphodiesters from the reaction site is important for the PTE activity of zinc(II) complexes.     

Highly efficient one-pot synthesis of α-aminophosphonates using nanoporous AlSBA-15 catalyst in a three-component system

Research on Chemical Intermediates - Nanoporous AlSBA-15 catalysts with different nSi/nAl ratios (41, 129, and 210) were synthesized using a hydrothermal method. These catalysts were characterized...     

Photocatalytic bacteria inactivation by polyethylene glycol-assisted sol–gel synthesized Cd-doped TiO2 under visible light

Cd-doped TiO₂ nanoparticles have been obtained by polyethylene glycol-assisted sol–gel synthesis and characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, energy dispersive X-ray analysis, high-resolution scanning electron microscopy and UV–visible diffuse reflectance, photoluminescence and impedance spectroscopies. Use of polyethylene glycol as templating agent provides club-shaped particles. Doping TiO₂ with Cd decreases the average crystallite size and charge transfer resistance, increases the capacitance, and leads to blue emission. Cd-doping enhances the visible light photocatalytic disinfection of bacteria but not dye degradation.     

Catalytic Reduction of Graphene Oxide Nanosheets by Glutathione Peroxidase Mimetics Reveals a New Structural Motif in Graphene Oxide

A catalytic reduction of graphene oxide (GO) by glutathione peroxidase (GPx) mimics is reported. This study reveals that GO contains peroxide functionalities, in addition to the epoxy, hydroxyl and carboxylic acid groups that have been identified earlier. It also is shown that GO acts as a peroxide substrate in the GPx‐like catalytic activity of organoselenium/tellurium compounds. The reaction of tellurol, generated from the corresponding ditelluride, reduces GO through the glutathione (GSH)‐mediated cleavage of the peroxide linkage. The mechanism of GO reduction by the tellurol in the presence of GSH involves the formation of a tellurenic acid and tellurenyl sulfide intermediates. Interestingly, the GPx mimics also catalyze the decarboxylation of the carboxylic acid functionality in GO at ambient conditions. Whereas the selenium/tellurium‐mediated catalytic reduction/decarboxylation of GO may find applications in bioremediation processes, this study suggests that the modification of GO by biologically relevant compounds such as redox proteins must be taken into account when using GO for biomedical applications because such modifications can alter the fundamental properties of GO.