Enantioselective Construction of Silicon‐Stereogenic Silanes by Scandium‐Catalyzed Intermolecular Alkene Hydrosilylation

The catalytic asymmetric construction of silicon‐stereogenic silanes is of great interest and significance, but has met with only limited success to date. We herein report the enantioselective hydrosilylation of alkenes with dihydrosilanes by a chiral half‐sandwich scandium catalyst, which constitutes an efficient and general route for the synthesis of a wide range of enantioenriched silicon‐stereogenic silanes from easily accessible starting materials. This reaction features a broad substrate scope, high yields, and high enantioselectivity. Some of the chiral tertiary silane products were also converted into valuable derivatives, such as chiral silanol, quaternary silane, and benzosilole compounds.     

Cross‐Linked Aptamer–Lipid Micelles for Excellent Stability and Specificity in Target‐Cell Recognition

The specific binding ability of DNA–lipid micelles (DLMs) can be increased by the introduction of an aptamer. However, supramolecular micellar structures based on self‐assemblies of amphiphilic DLMs are expected to demonstrate low stability when interacting with cell membranes under certain conditions, which could lead to a reduction in selectivity for targeting cancer cells. We herein report a straightforward cross‐linking strategy that relies on a methacrylamide branch to link aptamer and lipid segments. By an efficient photoinduced polymerization process, covalently linked aptamer–lipid units help stabilize the micelle structure and enhance aptamer probe stability, further improving the targeting ability of the resulting nanoassembly. Besides the development of a facile cross‐linking method, this study clarifies the relationship between aptamer–lipid concentration and the corresponding binding ability.     

The use of hydrophobicity and pozzolanic reactivity of the PMHS/nanosilica hybrid composites on the water absorption of cement mortar

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - The durability of cement-based materials can be significantly improved by surface treatment with organic or inorganic silica-based treatment agents. In...     

Patterned Colloidal Photonic Crystals

Colloidal photonic crystals (PCs) have been well developed because they are easy to prepare, cost‐effective, and versatile with regards to modification and functionalization. Patterned colloidal PCs contribute a novel approach to constructing high‐performance PC devices with unique structures and specific functions. In this review, an overview of the strategies for fabricating patterned colloidal PCs, including patterned substrate‐induced assembly, inkjet printing, and selective immobilization and modification, is presented. The advantages of patterned PC devices are also discussed in detail, for example, improved detection sensitivity and response speed of the sensors, control over the flow direction and wicking rate of microfluidic channels, recognition of cross‐reactive molecules through an array‐patterned microchip, fabrication of display devices with tunable patterns, well‐arranged RGB units, and wide viewing‐angles, and the ability to construct anti‐counterfeiting devices with different security strategies. Finally, the perspective of future developments and challenges is presented.     

Direct Observation of Transition Metal Dichalcogenides in Liquid with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy

We present atomic-resolution images of TiSe\begin{document}$_2$\end{document}, MoTe\begin{document}$_2$\end{document} and TaS\begin{document}$_2$\end{document} single crystals in liquid condition using our home-built scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). By facilely cleaving of single crystals in liquid, we were able to keep the fresh surface not oxidized within a few hours. Using the high-stable home-built STM, we have obtained atomic resolution images of TiSe\begin{document}$_2$\end{document} accompanied with the single atom defects as well as the triangle defects in solution for the first time. Besides, the superstructure of MoTe\begin{document}$_2$\end{document} and hexagonal charge-density wave domain structure in nearly commensurate phase of TaS\begin{document}$_2$\end{document} were also obtained at room temperature (295 K). Our results provide a more efficient method in investigating the lively surface of transition metal dichalcogenides. Besides, the high stable liquid-phase STM will support the further investigations in liquid-phase catalysis or electrochemistry.     

Hypersurfaces in a sphere with constant mean curvature

Let be a closed hypersurface of constant mean curvature immersed in the unit sphere . Denote by the square of the length of its second fundamental form. If , is a small hypersphere in . We also characterize all with .

     

Asymmetric ring-opening reaction of oxabicyclic alkenes with aryl boronic acids catalyzed by P-containing palladacycles

The chiral phosphine-containing palladacycle, synthesized easily from H-MOP, showed its high catalytic activity as well as asymmetric induction ability in ring-opening reaction of oxabicyclic alkenes with arylboronic acids, providing corresponding products in high yields and high ee.     

Facile synthesis and high d33 of single-crystalline KNbO3 nanocubes

Single-crystalline KNbO(3) nanocubes with orthorhombic phase were prepared in a large scale by a simple one-step molten salt route without using any surfactant as template; the nanostructures exhibited high piezoelectric properties such as d(33)=105 pC/N and k(p)=0.34 as piezoelectric materials.