Methanol Tolerant Non-noble Metal Co-C-N Catalyst for Oxygen Reduction Reaction Using Urea as Nitrogen Source

机械研磨尿素、氯化钴、乙炔黑混合物并经800 oC热处理后,制备出了非贵金属Co-C-N(800)催化剂. X射线衍射测试表明催化剂中有单质β-Co生成. 用循环伏安法表征了催化剂的电化学特性,结果表明Co-C-N(800)具有良好的催化活性和耐甲醇性能. 45 h浸泡实验表明,催化剂在酸性电解液中具有较好的稳定性.     

Synthesis,Two-Photon Absorption,and Cellular Imaging of Two Curcumin Derivatives

Russian Journal of General Chemistry - Two curcumin derivatives, 1,7-bis(4-bromoethyloxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-1,6-heptadiene-3,5-dione (1) and...     

Photoinduced Reversible Solid‐to‐Liquid Transitions for Photoswitchable Materials

Heating and cooling can induce reversible solid‐to‐liquid transitions of matter. In contrast, athermal photochemical processes can induce reversible solid‐to‐liquid transitions of some newly developed azobenzene compounds. Azobenzene is photoswitchable. UV light induces trans‐to‐cis isomerization; visible light or heat induces cis‐to‐trans isomerization. Trans and cis isomers usually have different melting points (T_m) or glass transition temperatures (T_g). If T_m or T_g of an azobenzene compound in trans and cis forms are above and below room temperature, respectively, light may induce reversible solid‐to‐liquid transitions. In this Review, we introduce azobenzene compounds that exhibit photoinduced reversible solid‐to‐liquid transitions, discuss the mechanisms and design principles, and show their potential applications in healable coatings, adhesives, transfer printing, lithography, actuators, fuels, and gas separation. Finally, we discuss remaining challenges in this field.     

Recent advances in the chemical synthesis and semi-synthesis of poly-ubiquitin-based proteins and probes

Ubiquitination, a key and extensive posttranslational modification of proteins, has profound effects on a variety of physiological and pathological processes. The inherent complexity of ubiquitin conjugates makes it highly challenging to study the functional and structural mechanisms of ubiquitination. To address these challenges, accesses to sufficient poly-ubiquitin chains or ubiquitinated proteins are urgently needed. Over the last decade, synthetic protein chemists have developed several novel peptide ligation methods for the preparation of ubiquitin conjugates with precise control over the atomic structure. In this review, we summarize the recent breakthroughs and potential challenges in the chemical synthesis and semi-synthesis of ubiquitin conjugates with respect to the preparation of poly-ubiquitin-based proteins and ubiquitin-based probes.     

Single‐Molecule Measurement of Adsorption Free Energy at the Solid–Liquid Interface

Adsorption plays a critical role in surface and interface processes. Fractional surface coverage and adsorption free energy are two essential parameters of molecular adsorption. However, although adsorption at the solid–gas interface has been well‐studied, and some adsorption models were proposed more than a century ago, challenges remain for the experimental investigation of molecular adsorption at the solid–liquid interface. Herein, we report the statistical and quantitative single‐molecule measurement of adsorption at the solid–liquid interface by using the single‐molecule break junction technique. The fractional surface coverage was extracted from the analysis of junction formation probability so that the adsorption free energy could be calculated by referring to the Langmuir isotherm. In the case of three prototypical molecules with terminal methylthio, pyridyl, and amino groups, the adsorption free energies were found to be 32.5, 33.9, and 28.3 kJ mol^?1, respectively, which are consistent with DFT calculations.     

The Ultrafast and Continuous Fabrication of a Polydimethylsiloxane Membrane by Ultraviolet‐Induced Polymerization

The polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane commonly used for separation of biobutanol from fermentation broth fails to meet demand owing to its discontinuous and polluting thermal fabrication. Now, an UV‐induced polymerization strategy is proposed to realize the ultrafast and continuous fabrication of the PDMS membrane. UV‐crosslinking of synthesized methacrylate‐functionalized PDMS (MA‐PDMS) is complete within 30 s. The crosslinking rate is three orders of magnitude larger than the conventional thermal crosslinking. The MA‐PDMS membrane shows a versatile potential for liquid and gas separations, especially featuring an excellent pervaporation performance for n‐butanol. Filler aggregation, the major bottleneck for the development of high‐performance mixed matrix membranes (MMMs), is overcome, because the UV polymerization strategy demonstrates a freezing effect towards fillers in polymer, resulting in an extremely high‐loading silicalite‐1/MA‐PDMS MMM with uniform particle distribution.     

Confinement Effects in Zeolite‐Confined Noble Metals

Confinement of noble nanometals in a zeolite matrix is a promising way to special types of catalysts that show significant advantages in size control, site adjustment, and nano‐architecture design. The beauty of zeolite‐confined noble metals lies in their unique confinement effects on a molecular scale, and thus enables spatially confined catalysis akin to enzyme catalysis. In this Minireview, the confined synthesis strategies of zeolite‐confined noble metals will be briefly discussed, showing the processes, advantages, features, and mechanisms. The confined catalysis carried on zeolite‐confined noble metals will be summarized, and great emphasis will be paid to the confinement effects involving size, encapsulation, recognition, and synergy. Great progress of atomic sites in the size effect, supercage stabilization in the encapsulation effect, site adsorption in the recognition effect, and cascade reaction in the synergy effect are highlighted. This Minireview is concluded with challenges and opportunities in terms of the synthesis of zeolite‐confined noble metals and their applications to design multifunctional catalysts with high catalytic activity, selectivity, and stability.     

Oxygen Evolution Reaction over the Au/YSZ Interface at High Temperature

The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a sluggish electrocatalytic reaction in solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs) at high temperatures (600–850 °C). Perovskite oxide has been widely investigated for catalyzing the OER; however, the formation of cation‐enriched secondary phases at the oxide/oxide interface blocks the active sites and decreases OER performance. Herein, we show that the Au/yttria‐stabilized zirconia (YSZ) interface possesses much higher OER activity than the lanthanum strontium manganite/YSZ anode. Electrochemical characterization and density functional theory calculations suggest that the Au/YSZ interface provides a favorable path for OER by triggering interfacial oxygen spillover from the YSZ to the Au surface. In situ X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy results confirm the existence of spillover oxygen on the Au surface. This study demonstrates that the Au/YSZ interface possesses excellent catalytic activity for OER at high temperatures in SOECs.     

Intermolecular C−H Amidation of (Hetero)arenes to Produce Amides through Rhodium‐Catalyzed Carbonylation of Nitrene Intermediates

Amide bond formation is one of the most important reactions in organic chemistry because of the widespread presence of amides in pharmaceuticals and biologically active compounds. Existing methods for amides synthesis are reaching their inherent limits. Described herein is a novel rhodium‐catalyzed three‐component reaction to synthesize amides from organic azides, carbon monoxide, and (hetero)arenes via nitrene‐intermediates and direct C?H functionalization. Notably, the reaction proceeds in an intermolecular fashion with N₂ as the only by‐product, and either directing groups nor additives are required. The computational and mechanistic studies show that the amides are formed via a key Rh‐nitrene intermediate.     

点缺陷石墨烯的电导

Graphene is one of the most promising materials in nanotechnology and has attracted worldwide attention and research interest owing to its high electrical conductivity, good thermal stability, and excellent mechanical strength. Perfect graphene samples exhibit outstanding electrical and mechanical properties. However, point defects are commonly observed during fabrication which deteriorate the performance of graphene based-devices. The transport properties of graphene with point defects essentially depend on the imperfection of the hexagonal carbon atom network and the scattering of carriers by localized states. Furthermore, an in-depth understanding of the effect of specific point defects on the electronic and transport properties of graphene is crucial for specific applications. In this work, we employed density functional theory calculations and the non-equilibrium Green's function method to systematically elucidate the effects of various point defects on the electrical transport properties of graphene, including Stone-Waals and inverse Stone-Waals defects; and single and double vacancies. The electrical conductance highly depends on the type and concentration of point defects in graphene. Low concentrations of Stone-Waals, inverse Stone-Waals, and single-vacancy defects do not noticeably degrade electron transport. In comparison, DV585 induces a moderate reduction of 25%–34%, and DV55577 and DV5555-6-7777 induce significant suppression of 51%–62% in graphene. As the defect concentration increases, the electrical conductance reduces by a factor of 2–3 compared to the case of graphene monolayers with a low concentration of point defects. These distinct electrical transport behaviors are attributed to the variation of the graphene band structure; the point defects induce localized states near the Fermi level and result in energy splitting at the Dirac point due to the breaking of the intrinsic symmetry of the graphene honeycomb lattice. Double vacancies with larger defect concentrations exhibit more flat bands near the Fermi energy and more localized states in the defective region, resulting in the presence of resonant peaks close to the Fermi energy in the local density of states. This may cause resonant scattering of the carriers and a corresponding reduction of the conductance of graphene. Moreover, the partial charge densities for double vacancies and point defects with larger concentrations exhibit enhanced localization in the defective region that hinder the charge carriers. The electrical conductance shows an exponential decay as the defect concentration and energy splitting increase. These theoretical results provide important insights into the electrical transport properties of realistic graphene monolayers and will assist in the fabrication of high-performance graphene-based devices.