Enhancement of electrostatic charge dissipation properties of polymers by a sustained‐release effect of mesoporous silica nanoparticles

Small molecular surfactant (SMS), used as antistatic agent of polymers, is prone to the wash‐out effects thus reducing its lifetime. To address this issue, the sustained‐release antistatic agent is prepared by encapsulating SMS (HDC‐102 or HDC‐193) into mesoporous silica nanoparticles such as MCM‐41 and is used to modify the antistatic properties of polystyrene (PS). The water‐resistant test is used to evaluate the sustained‐release effect, and the results showed that the HDC‐102/MCM‐41/PS composite retains favorable antistatic properties with the R_s of 6.2 × 10¹¹ after five times washing, while the HDC‐102/PS loses antistatic properties after twice washing. The contact angle measurement demonstrates that the sustained‐release effect is affected by the characteristics of SMS. Moreover, the coefficient of thermal expansion of SMS/PS composites is decreased, and the thermal decomposition temperature is increased with incorporation of MCM‐41. This approach may be used in polymer systems with the other small molecular additives to prolong their lifetime. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Global well-posedness for the incompressible MHD equations with density-dependent viscosity and resistivity coefficients

This paper concerns an initial–boundary value problem of the inhomogeneous incompressible MHD equations in a smooth bounded domain. The viscosity and resistivity coefficients are density-dependent. The global well-posedness of strong solutions is established, provided the initial norms of velocity and magnetic field are suitably small in some sense, or the lower bound of the transport coefficients are large enough. More importantly, there is not any smallness condition on the density and its gradient.     

Enantioselective Synthesis of cis-Decalins by Merging the Birch Reduction and Inverse-Electron-Demand Diels–Alder Reaction

Herein, we show that the combination of the Birch reduction of readily available anisole derivatives and the catalytic asymmetric inverse-electron-demand Diels–Alder reaction of 2-pyrones can serve as a powerful platform for the diverse synthesis of synthetically important cis-decalin scaffolds. Enabled by a well-modified chiral bis(oxazoline) ligand/Cu^II complex, a wide range of polysubstituted cis-decalin scaffolds with up to six contiguous stereocenters were generated efficiently. The synthetic potential of this method is demonstrated by the concise synthesis of the sesquiterpene (+)-occidentalol and a key intermediate for seven triterpenes. Mechanistic studies suggest the 1,3-cyclohexadienes formed in situ are the key intermediates, and efficient kinetic resolution occurs when C2- and/or C3-substituted 1,4-cyclohexadienes are utilized as substrates. DFT calculations elucidated that the Diels–Alder reaction proceeds in a stepwise fashion and revealed the origins of the stereoselectivities.     

Biosynthesis of Hybrid Neutral Lipids with Archaeal and Eukaryotic Characteristics in Engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Discovery of the Asgard superphylum of archaea provides new evidence supporting the two-domain model of life: eukaryotes originated from an Asgard-related archaeon that engulfed a bacterial endosymbiont. However, how eukaryotes acquired bacterial-like membrane lipids with a sn-glycerol-3-phosphate (G3P) backbone instead of the archaeal-like sn-glycerol-1-phosphate (G1P) backbone remains unknown. In this study, we reconstituted archaeal lipid production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by expressing unsaturated archaeol-synthesizing enzymes. Using Golden Gate cloning for pathway assembly, modular gene replacement was performed, revealing the potential biosynthesis of both G1P- and G3P-based unsaturated archaeol by uncultured Asgard archaea. Unexpectedly, hybrid neutral lipids containing both archaeal isoprenoids and eukaryotic fatty acids were observed in recombinant S. cerevisiae. The ability of yeast and archaeal diacylglycerol acyltransferases to synthesize such hybrid lipids was demonstrated.     

π-hole bonding: A new retention mechanism for the solid phase extraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from the hexane extracts of soil samples

In this work, the perfluorobenzene-bonded silica sorbent was tested to adsorb polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in hexane. In the comparison experiments, the perfluorobenzene-bonded sorbent's performance was better than octadecyl silica sorbent and phenyl-bonded silica sorbents, which indicated that the π-hole···π bonds between perfluorobenzene and the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were stronger than π···π interactions and hydrophobic interactions in hexane. Then the perfluorobenzene-bonded silica sorbent was applied to solid-phase extraction of 15 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from the hexane extracts of soil samples directly without the solvent replacement, which simplified the soil pretreatment process. And the results showed that under the optimal conditions, the proposed method for the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the environment soil presented good recoveries and stabilities for the 10 heavier polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons with the recoveries ranging from 75.1% to 104.6% and the relative standard deviations being in the range of 1.4%–5.8%. The limits of detection of the method varied from 0.1 to 2 ng/g. This work reveals the great application potential of the π-hole bond as a new retention mechanism in the field of solid-phase extraction.     

A simple and low-energy strategy for the separation of water and acetonitrile

As acetonitrile is a widely used solvent for the chemical industry, the recovery of acetonitrile from acetonitrile wastewater is significant for both industrial cost reduction and environmental protection. In this article, a simple, low-energy, and low-cost strategy is proposed for the effective separation of acetonitrile from high-concentration acetonitrile wastewater. The approach is based on a sequential combination of two steps: salt-induced phase separation and hydrophobic filtration. The acetonitrile wastewater was first induced to split into two phases by salt, that is, the acetonitrile-rich phase and the water-rich phase, then the above two phases were poured into the hydrophobic filter paper funnel for the separation. It was shown that NaCl is a suitable salting-out reagent, and that hydrophobic filter papers—obtained from modification by butyltrichlorosilane and octyltrichlorosilane were the optimal choice for hydrophobic filtration. The salt-induced phase separation process is able to increase the volume fraction of acetonitrile in the acetonitrile-rich phase up to 92%. The acetonitrile-rich phase can pass through the hydrophobic filter paper, whereas the water-rich phase was intercepted. The hydrophobic filter paper retained strong hydrophobicity and high acetonitrile-separating capacity after 3 months storage, or upon immersion in acetonitrile-water mixtures for 12 h, or applied for 25 consecutive separations.     

Restrained ion population transfer: a novel ion transfer method for mass spectrometry

Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FTICR) mass spectrometers function such that the ion accumulation event takes place in a region of higher pressure outside the magnetic field which allows ions to be thermally cooled before being accelerated toward the ICR cell where they are decelerated and re-trapped. This transfer process suffers from mass discrimination due to time-of-flight effects. Also, trapping ions with substantial axial kinetic energy can decrease the performance of the FTICR instrument compared with the analysis of thermally cooled ions located at the trap center. Therefore, it is desirable to limit the energy imparted to the ions which results in lower applied trap plate potentials and reduces the spread in axial kinetic energy. The approach presented here for ion transfer, called restrained ion population transfer or RIPT, is designed to provide complete axial and radial containment of an ion population throughout the entire transfer process from the accumulation region to the ICR cell, eliminating mass discrimination associated with time-of-flight separation. This was accomplished by use of a number of quadrupole segments arranged in series with independent control of the direct current (DC) bias voltage applied to each segment of the quadrupole ion guide. The DC bias voltage is applied in such a way as to minimize the energy imparted to the ions allowing transfer of ions with low kinetic energy from the ion accumulation region to the ICR cell. Initial FTICR mass spectral data are presented that illustrate the feasibility of RIPT. A larger m/z range for a mixture of peptides is demonstrated compared with gated trapping. The increase in ion transfer time (3 ms to 130 ms) resulted in an approximately 11% decrease in the duty cycle; however this can be improved by simultaneously transferring multiple ion populations with RIPT. The technique was also modeled with SIMION 7.0 and simulation results that support our feasibility studies of the ion transfer process are presented.     

New algorithm in the basin hopping Monte Carlo to find the global minimum structure of unary and binary metallic nanoclusters

The basin-hopping Monte Carlo algorithm was modified to more effectively determine a global minimum structure in pure and binary metallic nanoclusters. For a pure metallic Ag55 nanocluster, the newly developed quadratic basin-hopping Monte Carlo algorithm is 3.8 times more efficient than the standard basin-hopping Monte Carlo algorithm. For a bimetallic Ag42Pd13 nanocluster, the new algorithm succeeds in finding the global minimum structure by 18.3% even though the standard basin-hopping Monte Carlo algorithm fails to achieve it.     

Purine and pyrimidine derivatives from the South China Sea gorgonian Subergorgia suberosa

Three new purine derivatives, namely, 4-caryboxy-5,6-dihydro-4H,8H-pyrimido[1,2,3-cd]purine-8,10(9H)-dione (1), 7,9-dihydro-1-(3-oxobutyl)-1H-purine-6,8-dione (2), and 7-hydro-9-(3-oxobutyl)-1H-purine-6,8-dione (3) together with six known purine and pyrimidine derivatives were isolated from the EtOH/CH(2)Cl(2) extracts of the South China Sea gorgonian Subergorgia suberosa. The structures of 1-3 were determined on the bases of extensive spectroscopic analysis, including 1D and 2D NMR data.     

Synthesis and Evaluation of Optical 2‐Benzyl‐5‐bromo‐4‐oxopentanoic Acids as Transition‐state Analog Inhibitors against Carboxypeptidase A

Both enantiomers of 2‐benzyl‐5‐bromo‐4‐oxopentanoic acid were prepared utilizing the diazo ketones as the key intermediates. The compounds were assayed for inhibitory activity against carboxypeptidase A (CPA, EC 3.4.17.1). The (R)‐form is 260‐fold more potent than the corresponding (S)‐form. The finding that (R)‐form, which belongs to the L‐series, is mostly responsible for the inhibitory activity accords with the substrate specificity of CPA. For comparison, both the optical forms of 2‐benzyl‐4‐oxopentanoic acid were also synthesized and evaluated as the inhibitors against CPA. These results reveal that the introduction of a bromo group at the α‐position of ketones can significantly enhance the electrophilicity of the carbonyl group. Further molecular docking study suggested that the gem‐diol form of the α‐bromo ketone, which mimics the transition state in the CPA catalytic process, could chelate the zinc ion in the active site of CPA and thus result in the strong inhibition.