Thermogravimetry study of the pyrolytic characteristics and kinetics of macro-algae Macrocystis pyrifera residue

Macrocystis pyrifera is one important marine macro-algae, while its residues produced by industrial alginate extraction is a hot potato. To figure out whether its residue is suitable for pyrolysis for biofuel, the pyrolytic characteristics and kinetics of macro-algae M. pyrifera residue was investigated using thermogravimetric method from 50 to 800 °C in an inert argon atmosphere at different heating rates of 5, 10, 20, and 30 °C min^?1. The activation energy and pre-exponential factor was calculated by Flynn–Wall–Ozawa, Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose, and Popescu methods, and the kinetic mechanism was deduced by Popescu method. The results showed that the primary devolatilization stage of M. pyrifera residue can be described by Jander function $ \left(\left[ {1 - \left( {1 - \alpha } \right)^{1/3} } \right]^{2}\right) $ . The average activation energy of M. pyrifera residue was 222.4 kJ mol^?1. The results suggested that the experimental results and kinetic parameters provided useful information for the design of pyrolytic processing system using M. pyrifera residue as feedstock.     

First‐Principles Investigation of Anisotropic Electron and Hole Mobility in Heterocyclic Oligomer Crystals

Based on quantum chemistry calculations combined with the Marcus–Hush electron transfer theory, we investigated the charge‐transport properties of oligothiophenes (nTs) and oligopyrroles (nPs) (n=6, 7, 8) as potential p‐ or n‐type organic semiconductor materials. The results of our calculations indicate that 1) the nPs show intrinsic hole mobilities as high as or even higher than those of nTs, and 2) the vertical ionization potentials (VIPs) of the nPs are about 0.6–0.7 eV smaller than the corresponding VIPs of the nTs. Based on their charge‐transport ability and hole‐injection efficiency, the nPs have potential as p‐type organic semiconducting materials. Furthermore, it was also found that the maximum values of the electron‐transfer mobility for the nTs are larger by one‐to‐two orders of magnitude than the corresponding maximum values of hole‐transfer mobility, which suggests that the nTs have the potential to be developed as promising n‐type organic semiconducting materials owing to their electron mobility.     

3-乙基-2-乙酰吡嗪缩4-苯基氨基脲Ag(Ⅰ)配合物的合成、结构和DNA结合性质

合成并通过单晶衍射、元素分析及红外光谱表征了配合物[Ag₂（HL）（NO₃）₂]_n（1）的结构（HL为3-乙基-2-乙酰吡嗪缩4-苯基氨基脲）。单晶衍射结果表明,配合物1中,HL作为中性四齿配体连接2个Ag（Ⅰ）中心,其中一个Ag（Ⅰ）中心与HL配体中的ON₂供体（羰基O,亚胺N和吡嗪N1原子）和2个单齿硝酸根配位,构成扭曲的四方锥配位构型;而另一个Ag（Ⅰ）离子与1个单齿硝酸根,1个双齿硝酸根和HL配体中的吡嗪N4原子配位,形成扭曲平面正方形配位构型。另外,相邻的Ag（Ⅰ）离子通过桥联的硝酸根离子相互连接形成二维层状结构。此外,配合物1与DNA的相互作用强于配体。     

Design and Synthesis of Tri-substituted Chiral Pyrrolidin-2-one Derivatives as CCR4 Antagonists

A series of tri-substituted chiral pyrrolidin-2-one derivatives have been designed and synthesized as CC chemokine receptor 4 （CCR4） antagonists. The structure of CCR4 was built by homology modeling. Asymmetric synthesis was applied to synthesize the R,R configuration chiral pyrrolidin-2-one scaffold. The stereoisomeric con- figurations of the compounds were identified by 2D I H-~H COSY spectroscopy and 1D NOESY spectroscopy. This method was more economical and convenient than traditional X-ray single crystal diffraction. In addition, the inter- actions between these compounds and the N-terminal extracellular tail of CCR4 were studied using capillary zone electrophoresis. The CCR4 chemotaxis inhibition effect was tested in CCR4-transfected HEK293 cells. Several compounds showed potent activities as CCR4 antagonists. Among these compounds, lc is the most active one. Its apparent binding constant of CZE experiment result is （1.569±0.11）× 10s L·mol ^-1, and its percentage inhibition of the HEK293/CCR4 cells migration with the concentration of I gmol·L ^-1 in DMSO is 59%. And compound If has slightly higher affinity to N-terminal of CCR4 according to its apparent binding constant than lb because of the in- troduced ester linkage. Further studies on the mechanism of these compounds are in progress.     

3,4-Dinitrobenzamide Functionalized CdTe/ZnTe Quantum Dots as a Nanoprobe for Imaging Glutathione S-Transferase in Living Cells

A novel fluorescent nanoprobe for glutathione S‐transferase (GST) has been developed by incorporating 3,4‐dinitrobenzamide (a specific substrate of GST) onto CdTe/ZnTe quantum dots. The probe itself displays a low background signal due to the strong quenching effect of the electron‐withdrawing unit of 3,4‐dinitrobenzamide on the quantum dots. However, GST can efficiently catalyze the nucleophilic substitution of reduced glutathione on the p‐nitro group of the nanoprobe, leading to a large fluorescence enhancement. Most notably, this enhancement shows high selectivity and sensitivity towards GST instead of the other biological substances. With this nanoprobe, a simple fluorescence imaging method for intracellular GST has been established, and its applicability has been successfully demonstrated for imaging GST in different living cells, which reveals that A549 cells express GST about 3 times higher than NIH‐3T3 and Hela cells.     

Continuous Detection of pH‐responsive Drug Delivery System in Cells in situ by Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy

Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN) were coated by pH‐responsive polymer chitosan‐poly (methacrylic acid) (CS‐PMAA). This nano drug delivery system showed good application prospects and the polymer‐coated microspheres were promising site‐specific anticancer drug delivery carriers in biomedical field. A continuous detection of pH‐responsive drug delivery system in cells in situ, utilizing MSN/CS‐PMAA composite microspheres, was proposed. Two kinds of different cell lines, tumor cell line (Hela) and normal somatic cells (293T), were used to investigate the behaviours of the drug loaded system in the cells. Conclusions could be drawn from the fluorescent images obtained by confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), modified drug‐loaded microspheres (MSN/CS‐PMAA) were ingested into cells more easily, the uptake of DOX@FITC‐MSN/CS‐PMAA by HeLa/293T cells were performed at pH 7.4/pH 6.8, DOX was released during the ingestion process, fluorescence intensity decreased with time because of efflux transport and photo‐bleaching. Fluoresence detection by flow cytometry was performed as comparison. The continuous fluorescent observation in situ could be widely used in the pH‐responsive releasing process of drug delivery system in the cells.