Effects of Coverage,Water, and Defects on Catechol/TiO2 Interface

Catechol adsorbed on TiO₂ is one of the simplest models to explore the relevant properties of dye-sensitized solar cells. However, the effects of water and defects on the electronic levels and the excitonic properties of the catechol/TiO₂ interface have been rarely explored. Here, we investigate four catechol/TiO₂ interfaces aiming to study the influence of coverage, water, and defects on the electronic levels and the excitonic properties of the catechol/TiO₂ interface through the first-principles many-body Green's function theory. We find that the adsorption of catechol on the rutile (110) surface increases the energies of both the TiO₂ valence band maximum and conduction band minimum by approximately 0.7 eV. The increasing coverage and the presence of water can reduce the optical absorption of charge-transfer excitons with maximum oscillator strength. Regarding the reduced hydroxylated TiO₂ substrate, the conduction band minimum decreases greatly, resulting in a sub-bandgap of 2.51 eV. The exciton distributions in the four investigated interfaces can spread across several unit cells, especially for the hydroxylated TiO₂ substrate. Although the hydroxylated TiO₂ substrate leads to a lower open-circuit voltage, it may increase the separation between photogenerated electrons and holes and may therefore be beneficial for improving the photovoltaic efficiency by controlling its concentration. Our results may provide guidance for the design of highly efficient solar cells in future.     

Earth-abundant Metal-catalyzed Reductive Amination: Recent Advances and Prospect for Future Catalysis

Nitrogen-containing compounds, as an important class of chemicals, have been used widely in pharmaceuticals, materials synthesis. Transition metal-catalyzed reductive amination of an aldehyde or a ketone with ammonia or an amine has been proved to be an efficient and practical method for the preparation of nitrogen-containing compounds in academia and industry for a century. Given the above, several effective methods using transition metals have been developed in recent years. Noble transition metals like Pd, Pt, and Au-based catalysts have been predominately used in reductive amination. Because of their high prices, strict official regulations of residues in pharmaceuticals, and deleterious effects on the biological system, their industrial applications are severely hampered. With the increasing sustainable and environmental problems, the Earth-abundant transition metals including Ti, Fe, Co, Ni, and Zr have also been investigated for the reductive amination reaction and showed great potential to the advancement of sustainable and cost-effective reductive amination processes. This critical review will mainly summarize the work using Earth-abundant metals. The effects of different transition metals used in catalytic reduction amination were discussed and compared, and some suggestions were given. The last section highlights the catalytic activities of bi- and tri-metallic catalysts. Indeed, this latter family is very promising and simultaneously benefits from increased stability, and selectivity, compared to monometallic NPs, due to synergistic substrate activation. Few comprehensive reviews focusing on Earth-abundant transition metals catalyst has been published since 1948, although several authors reported some summaries dealing with one or the other part of this aspect. It is hoped that this critical review will inspire researchers to develop new efficient and selective earth-abundant metal catalysts for highly, environmentally sustainable reductive amination methods, as well as improve the pharmaceutical industry and related chemical synthesis company traditional method with the utilization of the green method widely.     

SO2 Resisting Pd-doped Pr1-xCexMnO3 Perovskites for Efficient Denitration at Low Temperature

H₂-SCR is served as the promising technology for the controlling of NO_x emission, and the Pd-based derivative catalyst exhibited high NO_x reduction performance. Effectively regulating the electronic configuration of the active component is favorable to the rational optimization of noble Pd. In this work, a series of Pr_1-xCe_xMn_1-yPd_yO₃@Ni were successfully synthesized and exhibited superior NO conversion efficiency at low temperatures. 92.7 % conversion efficiency was achieved at 200 °C over Pr_0.9Ce_0.1Mn_0.9Pd_0.1O₃@Ni in the presence of 4 % O₂ with a GHSV of 32000 h⁻¹. Meanwhile, the outstanding performance was obtained in the resistance to SO₂ (200 ppm) and H₂O (8 %). Deduced from the results of XRD, Raman, XPS, and H₂-TPR, the modification of d orbit states in palladium was confirmed originating from the incorporation in the B site of Pr_0.9Ce_0.1Mn_0.9Pd_0.1O₃. The existence of higher valence (Pd³⁺ and Pd⁴⁺) than the bivalence in Pr_0.9Ce_0.1Mn_0.9Pd_0.1O₃ catalyst was evidenced by XPS analysis. Our research provides a new sight into the H₂-SCR through the higher utilization of Pd.     

Aprotic Amine-modified Manganese Dioxide Catalysts for Selectivity-tunable Oxidation of Amines

Organic modifiers have shown promising potential for regulating the activity and selectivity of heterogeneous catalysts via tuning their surface properties. Despite the increasing application of organic modification technique in regulating the redox-acid catalysis of metal oxides, control of the acidity of metal oxide catalysts for enhanced reaction selectivity without sacrificing their redox activity remains a substantial challenge. Herein, we show the successful control of redox-acid catalysis of metal oxides with aprotic tertiary amine modifiers. Robust modification of manganese dioxide catalysts with N,N-dialkylcyclohexylamine selectively blocks the Lewis acid sites, with their redox activity mostly unaffected. This enables efficient synthesis of imines in high to excellent selectivity via aerobic oxidation of structurally diverse aryl amines.     

Enhanced Oral Absorption of Icaritin by Using Mixed Polymeric Micelles Prepared with a Creative Acid-Base Shift Method

The purpose of this study was to develop mixed polymeric micelles with high drug loading capacity to improve the oral bioavailability of icaritin with Soluplus^® and Poloxamer 407 using a creative acid-base shift (ABS) method, which exhibits the advantages of exclusion of organic solvents, high drug loading and ease of scaling-up. The feasibility of the ABS method was successfully demonstrated by studies of icaritin-loaded polymeric micelles (IPMs). The prepared IPMs were characterized to have a spherical shape with a size of 72.74 ± 0.51 nm, and 13.18% drug loading content. In vitro release tests confirmed the faster release of icaritin from IPMs compared to an oil suspension. Furthermore, bioavailability of icaritin in IPMs in beagle dogs displayed a 14.9-fold increase when compared with the oil suspension. Transcellular transport studies of IPMs across Caco-2 cell monolayers confirmed that the IPMs were endocytosed in their intact forms through macropinocytosis, clathrin-, and caveolae-mediated pathways. In conclusion, the results suggested that the mixed micelles of Soluplus^® and Poloxamer 407 could be a feasible drug delivery system to enhance oral bioavailability of icaritin, and the ABS method might be a promising technology for the preparation of polymeric micelles to encapsulate poorly water-soluble weakly acidic and alkaline drugs.     

Rutin and Quercetin Decrease Cholesterol in HepG2 Cells but Not Plasma Cholesterol in Hamsters by Oral Administration

Rutin (R) and quercetin (Q) are two widespread dietary flavonoids. Previous studies regarding the plasma cholesterol-lowering activity of R and Q generated inconsistent results. The present study was therefore carried out to investigate the effects of R and Q on cholesterol metabolism in both HepG2 cells and hypercholesterolemia hamsters. Results from HepG2 cell experiments demonstrate that both R and Q decreased cholesterol at doses of 5 and 10 µM. R and Q up-regulated both the mRNA and protein expression of sterol regulatory element binding protein 2 (SREBP2), low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR), and liver X receptor alpha (LXRα). The immunofluorescence study revealed that R and Q increased the LDLR expression, while only Q improved LDL-C uptake in HepG2 cells. Results from hypercholesterolemia hamsters fed diets containing R (5.5 g/kg diet) and Q (2.5 g/kg diet) for 8 weeks demonstrate that both R and Q had no effect on plasma total cholesterol. In the liver, only Q reduced cholesterol significantly. The discrepancy between the in vitro and in vivo studies was probably due to a poor bioavailability of flavonoids in the intestine. It was therefore concluded that R and Q were effective in reducing cholesterol in HepG2 cells in vitro, whereas in vivo, the oral administration of the two flavonoids had little effect on plasma cholesterol in hamsters.     

Challenges in the Highly Selective [3 + 1]-Cycloaddition of an Enoldiazoacetamide to Form a Donor–Acceptor Cis-Cyclobutenecarboxamide

A substituted donor–acceptor cyclobutenecarboxamide is synthesized with modest enantiocontrol through a chiral copper(I) complex catalyzed [3 + 1]-cycloaddition reaction of α-acyl diphenylsulfur ylides with 3-siloxy-2-diazo-3-butenamides. With a methyl substituent on the 4-position of the 3-butenamide, the cis-vicinal-3,4-disubstituted cyclobutenecarboxamide is formed with >20:1 diastereocontrol. Donor-acceptor 3-methyl-2-siloxycyclopropenecarboxamide is rapidly formed from the reactant enoldiazoamide and undergoes catalytic ring opening to give only the Z-γ-substituted metallo-enolcarbene. Elimination from 3-siloxy-2-diazo-3-pentenamide to form the conjugated 3-siloxy-2,4-pentadienamide is competitive but minimized at low temperature.     

Mechanisms of a Cyclobutane-Fused Lactone Hydrolysis in Alkaline and Acidic Conditions

Searching for functional polyesters with stability and degradability is important due to their potential applications in biomedical supplies, biomass fuel, and environmental protection. Recently, a cyclobutane-fused lactone (CBL) polymer was experimentally found to have superior stability and controllable degradability through hydrolysis reactions after activation by mechanical force. In order to provide a theoretical basis for developing new functional degradable polyesters, in this work, we performed a detailed quantum chemical study of the alkaline and acidic hydrolysis of CBL using dispersion-corrected density functional theory (DFT-D3) and mixed implicit/explicit solvent models. Various possible hydrolysis mechanisms were found: B_AC2 and B_AL2 in the alkaline condition and A_AC2, A_AL2, and A_AL1 in the acidic condition. Our calculations indicated that CBL favors the B_AC2 and A_AC2 mechanisms in alkaline and acidic conditions, respectively. In addition, we found that incorporating explicit water solvent molecules is highly necessary because of their strong hydrogen-bonding with reactant/intermediate/product molecules.     

Flexible all-solid-state supercapacitor based on polyhedron C-ZIF-8/PANI composite synthesized by unipolar pulse electrodeposition method

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - In this work, the unipolar pulse electrodeposition (UPED) method is used to electrodeposit the conductive polyaniline (PANI) on the carbonized polyhedron...     

The Effect of Hispidulin,a Flavonoid from Salvia plebeia,on Human Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma CNE-2Z Cell Proliferation,Migration, Invasion,and Apoptosis

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a common malignant head and neck tumor. Drug resistance and distant metastasis are the predominant cause of treatment failure in NPC patients. Hispidulin is a flavonoid extracted from the bioassay-guided separation of the EtOH extract of Salvia plebeia with strong anti-proliferative activity in nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells (CNE-2Z). In this study, the effects of hispidulin on proliferation, invasion, migration, and apoptosis were investigated in CNE-2Z cells. The [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide] (MTT) assay and the colony formation assay revealed that hispidulin could inhibit CNE-2Z cell proliferation. Hispidulin (25, 50, 100 μM) also induced apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner in CNE-2Z cells. The expression of Akt was reduced, and the expression of the ratio of Bax/Bcl-2 was increased. In addition, scratch wound and transwell assays proved that hispidulin (6.25, 12.5, 25 μM) could inhibited the migration and invasion in CNE-2Z cells. The expressions of HIF-1α, MMP-9, and MMP-2 were decreased, while the MMPs inhibitor TIMP1 was enhanced by hispidulin. Moreover, hispidulin exhibited potent suppression tumor growth and low toxicity in CNE-2Z cancer-bearing mice at a dosage of 20 mg/kg/day. Thus, hispidulin appears to be a potentially effective agent for NPC treatment.