Developments on carbon dioxide reduction: Their promise,achievements, and challenges

CO₂ reduction processes continue to be developed for electrosynthesis, energy storage applications, and environmental remediation. A number of promising materials have shown high activity and selectivity to target reduction products. However, the progress has been mainly at a small laboratory scale, and the technical challenges of large scale CO₂ reduction have not been considered adequately. This review covers recent advancements in catalyst materials and cell designs. The leading materials for CO₂ reduction to a number of useful products are presented with their corresponding cell and reactor designs. The latest efforts to progress to industrially relevant scales are discussed, along with the challenges that must be met for carbon dioxide reduction to be a viable route for mass scale production.     

Chiral coordination polymer as a luminescence sensor for small organic molecules

1. Download high-res image (178KB)
2. Download full-size image

     

Isolation and purification of flavonoid glycosides from Trollius ledebouri using high-speed counter-current chromatography by stepwise increasing the flow-rate of the mobile phase

Three flavonoid glycosides including orientin, vitexin, quercetin-3-O-neohesperidoside and one unknown compound were isolated and purified by high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC) and semi-preparative HPLC from Trollius ledebouri Reichb., a traditional Chinese medicine. Preparative HSCCC with a two-phase solvent system composed of ethyl acetate-n-butanol-water (2:1:3, v/v/v) was successfully performed by increasing the flow-rate of the mobile phase from 1.5 to 2.5 ml/min after 190 min. Consequently, 95.8 mg orientin, 11.6 mg vitexin, 9.3 mg unknown compound with purities of over 97% and one partially purified peak fraction (contained quercetin-3-O-neohesperidoside at 85.1% purity) were obtained from 500 mg of the crude extract. Then the partially purified fraction was further purified by reversed-phase semi-preparative high-performance liquid chromatography. The structure identification of all pure fractions was carried out by UV, MS, 1H NMR and 13C NMR.     

Itosides A – I,New Phenolic Glycosides from Itoa orientalis

Eight new benzoylated gentisyl alcohol (=2‐(hydroxymethyl)benzene‐1,4‐diol) glucosides, itosides A–H ( 1 – 8 ), together with the new pyrocatechol (=benzene‐1,2‐diol) glycoside itoside I ( 9 ) were isolated from the bark and twigs of Itoa orientalis (Flacourtiaceae). In itosides B–D ( 2 – 4 ), the gentisyl alcohol moiety was esterified by 1‐hydroxy‐6‐oxocyclohex‐2‐ene‐1‐carboxylic acid, while itosides E–H ( 5 – 8 ) contained instead an additional 2‐hydroxybenzoic acid moiety. The compounds were accompanied by the known derivatives 4‐hydroxytremulacin ( 10 ), poliothyrsoside ( 11 ), poliothyrsin ( 12 ), homaloside D ( 13 ), tremulacin, and pyrocatechol β‐D ‐glucopyranoside. The structures of the new compounds were elucidated by spectral and chemical methods.     

Synthesis of (-)-ilimaquinone via a radical decarboxylation and quinone addition reaction

[reaction: see text] A stereoselective synthesis of (-)-ilimaquinone (4) is presented. The synthetic strategy is based on a novel radical decarboxylation and quinone addition methodology that produces quinone 7 from reaction of thiohydroxamic acid derivative 8 with benzoquinone (9). Final functionalization of 7 to ilimaquinone (4) is achieved by exploring the electronic effects of the residual thiopyridyl group.     

Aging of poly(2-methoxy-5-(2'-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene)/toluene solutions and subsequent effects on luminescence behavior of cast films

Morphological effects in luminescence properties of a representative semiconducting polymer, poly(2-methoxy-5-(2'-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene) (MEH-PPV), has recently attracted much attention. Previous studies indicated that short-term heat treatment of solution-cast MEH-PPV films may result in the formation of mesomorphic order that is responsible for the "red" emission around 640 nm, in contrast to the single-chromophore "yellow" emission near 590 nm from the disordered matrix. On the basis of microscopic and spectroscopic evidence for films cast from freshly prepared and aged solutions, here we show that prolonged storage of MEHyellowPPV solutions at room temperature or lower may result in retardation of the thermally induced mesophase formation in the subsequently cast films. According to small-angle neutron scattering and differential scanning calorimetric observations over aged MEH-PPV/toluene solutions, we propose that the suppressed transformation into mesomorphic order is due to further development of nanocrystalline aggregates that serve as physical cross-links among MEH-PPV chains in the solution state upon long-term storage. These solvent-induced nanocrystalline aggregates, however, do not exhibit new spectroscopic features beyond the suppression of "red" emission at 640 nm from the mesomorphic phase.     

Fingerprint quality control of Tianjihuang by high-performance liquid chromatography-photodiode array detection

A novel, simple and accurate fingerprint method was developed using high-performance liquid chromatography-photodiode array detection (HPLC-DAD) for the quality control of Hypericum japonicum thunb (Tianjihuang), a Chinese herbal medicine used for the treatment of several bacterial diseases, infectious hepatitis, gastrointestinal disorder, internal hemorrhage and tumors. For the first time, the feasibility and advantages of employing chromatographic fingerprint were investigated and demonstrated for the evaluation of Tianjihuang by systematically comparing chromatograms with a professional analytical software recommended by State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA). Our results revealed that the chromatographic fingerprint combining similarity evaluation could efficiently identify and distinguish raw herbs of Tianjihuang from different sources. The effects resulted from collecting locations, harvesting time and storage time on herbal chromatographic fingerprints were also examined.     

Synthesis of 2‐Dihydrooxadiazolinyl Chromones

Reactions of the substituted 2‐formyl chromones with aroylhydrazines gave corresponding 2‐(aroylhydrazonomethylidyne) chromones. Then 2‐(3′‐acetyl‐5′‐aryl‐2′,3′‐dihydro‐1′,3′,4′‐oxadiazol‐2′‐yl) chromones were prepared by these 2‐(aroylhydrazonomethylidyne) chromones under refluxing with Ac₂O. All target compounds were characterized through elemental analysis and IR, ¹H NMR, MS.     

Synthesis of （2R,4R）—2—N—tert—Butyloxycarbonyl Amino—4,5—epoxido—valeric Acid Methyl Ester

The stereoselective synthesis of (2R,4R)-2-N-tert-butyloxycarbonyl amino-4,5-epoxido-valeric acid methyl ester 8,which is the key intermediate for the synthesis of (2′S,2R)-3-trans-nitrocyclopropyl-alanine,was first accomplished.     

A Novel Method for Quantification of Circulating DNA in Serum by Capillary Zone Electrophoresis

In this paper, we first presented a novel method for quantification of circulating DNA in human serum based on capillary zone electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescence detection (CZE-LIF). The serum was digested by proteinase to release free DNA, and then CZE-LIF system was used for the quantification of total circulating DNA. This method was successfully used to quantify the circulating DNA levels in sera from healthy individuals and certain cancer patients.We found the significantly elevated circulating DNA levels in certain prostate cancer patients. Our results demonstrated that CZE-LIF system has good linearity, excellent sensitivity (0.5 ng/mL DNA),satisfactory reproducibility (RSDs in one day and between days were both less than 5%) and reliability, and is well suitable to the quantification of the circulating DNA in human serum or plasma.