Design of and Stability Studies on Trefoil Knots Featuring RhCp* Building Blocks

Four flexible ligands with different lengths, degrees of flexibility, and steric bulk were synthesized and used to prepare metal-directed assemblies. Interestingly, minor differences among the ligands led to products with dramatically different topologies: a binuclear D -shaped macrocycle, tetranuclear rectangles, and hexanuclear trefoil knots. The interconversion of the trefoil-shaped complexes was also investigated. This contribution introduces a rare ligand-controlled trefoil–rectangle shape transformation in solution.     

PPh3/I2/HCOOH: An efficient CO source for the synthesis of phthalimides

A straightforward and general method has been developed for the synthesis of phthalimide derivatives from 2-iodobenzamides and PPh₃/I₂/HCOOH in the presence of a catalytic amount of Pd(OAc)₂. The reaction results demonstrate that PPh₃/I₂/HCOOH is a facile, efficient and safe CO source. The whole process is carried out in toluene at 80?°C and furnishes the desired products in good to excellent yields.     

Cyclic Controlled Quantum Teleportation Using Three-Dimensional Hyper-Entangled State

International Journal of Theoretical Physics - We propose the scheme for cyclic controlled symmetry quantum teleportation by using one three-dimensional hyper-entangled state as the quantum...     

Stimuli-Responsive Fluorescent Nanoswitches: Solvent-Induced Emission Enhancement of Copper Nanoclusters

Copper nanoclusters (CuNCs) as a new class of fluorescent materials have attracted a great deal of interest due to their outstanding fluorescence properties. In this work, a variety of organic solvents were used to induce self-assembly of glutathione-capped CuNCs (GSH-CuNCs) to form ordered assemblies with enhanced fluorescence properties. Assemblies with multicolor fluorescence emission were constructed on the basis of the aggregation-induced emission (AIE) of GSH-CuNCs and the solvent effect. The fluorescence emission from these GSH-CuNCs assemblies can also be tuned from yellow to purple by changing the organic solvent. A possible mechanism based on the size of the assemblies and electron transfer was explored to explain the solvent effects on GSH-CuNCs. Stimuli-responsive nanoswitches with excellent reversibility can be controlled by changing the type of organic solvent and the ratio of the organic solvent to the aqueous solution of GSH-CuNCs. As the CuNCs assemblies exhibit strong, stable, and color-tunable fluorescence, they were employed as color-conversion materials for recognizing different organic solvents.     

How Does Solvation Affect the Binding of Hydrophilic Amino Saccharides to Cucurbit[7]uril with Exceptional Anomeric Selectivity?

Cucurbit[7]uril (CB[7]) is known to bind strongly to hydrophilic amino saccharide guests with exceptional α‐anomer selectivities under aqueous conditions. Single‐crystal X‐ray crystallography and computational methods were used to elucidate the reason behind this interesting phenomenon. The crystal structures of protonated galactosamine (GalN) and glucosamine (GluN) complexes confirm the inclusion of α anomers inside CB[7] and disclose the details of the host–guest binding. Whereas computed gas‐phase structures agree with these crystal structures, gas‐phase binding free energies show preferences for the β‐anomer complexes over their α counterparts, in striking contrast to the experimental results under aqueous conditions. However, when the solvation effect is considered, the binding structures drastically change and the preference for the α anomers is recovered. The α anomers also tend to bind more tightly and leave less space in the CB[7] cavity toward inclusion of only one water molecule, whereas loosely bound β anomers leave more space toward accommodating two water molecules, with markedly different hydrogen‐bonding natures. Surprisingly, entropy seems to contribute significantly to both anomeric discrimination and binding. This suggests that of all the driving factors for the strong complexation of the hydrophilic amino saccharide guests, water mediation plays a crucial role in the anomer discrimination.     

Quantitation of Oxidative Stress Gene Expression in MCF-7 Human Cell Lines Treated with Water-Dispersible CuO Nanoparticles

The objective of this study was to assess the cytotoxicity of water-dispersible CuO nanoparticles by quantifying the reactive oxygen species (ROS)-related genes (glutathione S-transferase (GST) and catalase) using real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Monodisperse CuO nanoparticles of 14 nm in size were used. Cytotoxicity of CuO nanoparticles was evaluated under in vitro condition at different concentrations (10, 50, and 100 μg/ml) and incubation times (12, 24, and 48 h) with human cancer cell lines (breast cancer epithelial cells). The genetic level cytotoxic screening produced consistent results showing that GST and catalase ROS gene expression was maximized in 24 h incubation at 100 μg/ml concentration of CuO nanoparticles. However, the cytotoxicity of water-dispersible CuO nanoparticle was not significant compared with control experiments, demonstrating its high potential in the application of nanomedicines for a diagnostic and therapeutic tool.