Red–Green–Blue Trichromophoric Nanoparticles with Dual Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer: Highly Sensitive Fluorogenic Response Toward Polyanions

A red–green–blue (RGB) trichromophoric fluorescent organic nanoparticle exhibiting multi‐colour emission was constructed; the blue‐emitting cationic oligofluorene nanoparticle acted as an energy‐donor scaffold to undergo fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) to a red‐emitting dye embedded in the nanoparticle (interior FRET) and to a green‐emitting dye adsorbed on the surface through electrostatic interactions (exterior FRET). Each FRET event occurs independently and is free from sequential FRET, thus the resultant dual‐FRET system exhibits multi‐colour emission, including white, in aqueous solution and film state. A characteristic white‐emissive nanoparticle showed visible responses upon perturbation of the exterior FRET efficiency by acceptor displacement, leading to highly sensitive responses toward polyanions in a ratiometric manner. Specifically, our system exhibits high sensitivity toward heparin with an extremely low detection limit.     

Purification of low-abundance lysozyme in egg white via free-flow electrophoresis with gel-filtration chromatography

As an effective separation tool, free-flow electrophoresis has not been used for purification of low-abundance protein in complex sample matrix. Herein, lysozyme in complex egg white matrix was chosen as the model protein for demonstrating the purification of low-content peptide via an FFE coupled with gel fitration chromatography (GFC). The crude lysozyme in egg while was first separated via free-flow zone electrophoresis (FFZE). After that, the fractions with lysozyme activity were condensed via lyophilization. Thereafter, the condensed fractions were further purified via a GFC of Sephadex G50. In all of the experiments, a special poly(acrylamide- co-acrylic acid) (P(AM-co-AA)) gel electrophoresis and a mass spectrometry were used for identification of lysozyme. The conditions of FFZE were optimized as follows: 130 μL/min sample flow rate, 4.9 mL/min background buffer of 20 mM pH 5.5 Tris-Acetic acid, 350 V, and 14 °C as well as 2 mg/mL protein content of crude sample. It was found that the purified lysozyme had the purity of 80% and high activity as compared with its crude sample with only 1.4% content and undetectable activity. The recoveries in the first and second separative steps were 65% and 82%, respectively, and the total recovery was about 53.3%. The reasons of low recovery might be induced by diffusion of lysozyme out off P(AM-co-AA) gel and co-removing of high-abundance egg ovalbumin. All these results indicated FFE could be used as alternative tool for purification of target solute with low abundance.     

Amphiphilic poly(ionic liquid)/Wells–Dawson-type phosphovanadomolybdate ionic composites as efficient and recyclable catalysts for the direct hydroxylation of benzene with H2O2

Three novel amphiphilic poly(ionic liquid) (PIL)/Wells–Dawson-type phosphovanadomolybdate (V-POM) ionic composites with tunable oxidative catalytic activity and unique nanostructure were synthesized using carboxylic acid-functionalized PIL and H₇[P₂Mo₁₇VO₆₂], H₈[P₂Mo₁₆V₂O₆₂] and H₉[P₂Mo₁₅V₃O₆₂] as synthetic units via self-assembly in water. The results of characterization indicated that V-POM anions were finely dispersed in the PIL cation framework, and their structures were well preserved. The three composites are amorphous V-POM salts of PIL cation with a considerable thermal stability, and an open three-dimensional network structure with hierarchical porosity. The as-synthesized composites were found to be efficient heterogeneous catalysts for the direct hydroxylation of benzene to phenol with H₂O₂ in the liquid phase. Under optimum conditions, a phenol yield of 37.3% was achieved with selectivity of 100%. The high catalytic performance could be attributed to the synergistic catalytic effect between V-POM anion and carboxylic acid-functionalized PIL cation framework, and good benzene adsorption and phenol desorption ability of amphiphilic micropores in the structure of the composites. Additionally, these composites exhibited high stability under the reaction conditions and could be easily recovered and reused at least six times without noticeably loss of activity.     

Radiation-induced degradation of aqueous 2–chlorophenol assisted by zeolites

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - This study aims to demonstrate that zeolite has the potential to increase the efficiency of radiolysis treatment of aqueous organic pollutants by...     

Deprotection of dithioacetals with 30% hydrogen peroxide catalyzed by tantalum(V) chloride–sodium iodide or niobium(V) chloride–sodium iodide

The reaction of dithioacetals with 30% hydrogen peroxide in the presence of catalytic amounts of tantalum(V) and iodide ion effectively produced carbonyl compounds in high yields. Dithioacetals also can be deprotected using the niobium(V) catalyzed oxidation of iodide ion by hydrogen peroxide under mild conditions.