Molybdenum(VI) Bis(imido) Complexes: From Frustrated Lewis Pairs to Weakly Coordinating Cations

Molybdenum(VI) bis(imido) complexes [Mo(NtBu)₂(L^R)₂] (R=H 1 a ; R=CF₃ 1 b ) combined with B(C₆F₅)₃ ( 1 a /B(C₆F₅)₃, 1 b /B(C₆F₅)₃) exhibit a frustrated Lewis pair (FLP) character that can heterolytically split H−H, Si−H and O−H bonds. Cleavage of H₂ and Et₃SiH affords ion pairs [Mo(NtBu)(NHtBu)(L^R)₂][HB(C₆F₅)₃] (R=H 2 a ; R=CF₃ 2 b ) composed of a Mo(VI) amido imido cation and a hydridoborate anion, while reaction with H₂O leads to [Mo(NtBu)(NHtBu)(L^R)₂][(HO)B(C₆F₅)₃] (R=H 3 a ; R=CF₃ 3 b ). Ion pairs 2 a and 2 b are catalysts for the hydrosilylation of aldehydes with triethylsilane, with 2 b being more active than 2 a . Mechanistic elucidation revealed insertion of the aldehyde into the B−H bond of [HB(C₆F₅)₃]⁻. We were able to isolate and fully characterize, including by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis, the inserted products Mo(NtBu)(NHtBu)(L^R)₂][{PhCH₂O}B(C₆F₅)₃] (R=H 4 a ; R=CF₃ 4 b ). Catalysis occurs at [HB(C₆F₅)₃]⁻ while [Mo(NtBu)(NHtBu)(L^R)₂]⁺ (R=H or CF₃) act as the cationic counterions. However, the striking difference in reactivity gives ample evidence that molybdenum cations behave as weakly coordinating cations (WCC).     

High Sensitive Electrochemiluminescence Biosensor Based on Ru(phen)32+-loaded Double Strand DNA as Signal Tags use to Detect DNA Methyltransferase Activity

DNA methyltransferase (DNA MTase) can act as biomarker for many diseases and it is important to develop some new methods for sensitive detection of DNA MTase. In this work, a highly efficient electrochemiluminescence (ECL) sensor had been designed for detection of DNA MTase based on Ru(phen)₃²⁺ loaded double strand DNA (dsDNA- Ru(phen)₃²⁺) as signal tags. Ru(phen)₃²⁺ had been efficiently embed in the dsDNA produced through a simple hybridization chain reaction. First, a hairpin probe was designed, which can be specifically recognized by Dam MTase and modified with -SH at one end. It was modified on the surface of gold electrode by -SH as an immobilization probe (IP). This IP will be methylated in the present of Dam MTase and digested by DpnI following. Results in the release of capture probe (CP) which remains on the surface of gold electrode. The CP can hybridize with the single stand part of the dsDNA- Ru(phen)₃²⁺ and make the immobilization of ECL tags on the electrode surface, which results in a strong ECL signals detected. However, without the effect of Dam MTase, the hairpin structure of IP remains stable and cannot capture signal tags, and can only detecte weak ECL signals. The biosensor can detect the activity of Dam MTase in the concentration range of 0.01 U/mL to 20 U/mL with the ECL intensity and the logarithm of the concentration have a linear relationship, and the detection limit is calculated to be 7.6 mU/mL. The developed sensor has the ability to specifically detect Dam MTase, which can be differentiated from other types of DNA MTase. In addition, the designed method has good applicability to detect Dam MTase activity in serum samples and been applied to detect its inhibitor with high efficiency.     

In vivo Toxicity Evaluation of a Nano-drug Delivery System Using a Caenorhabditis elegansModel System

Drug carrier materials need to possess good biological safety. Presently, most biosafety evaluation studies use rodent animal models, including rats and rabbits. However, the cost of raising these animals is relatively high and the experimental period is long. Caenorhabditis elegans(C. elegans) presents an ideal toxicological evaluation model due to its simple structure, easy cultivation, short life cycle, and evolutionary conservation. In this paper, we used C. elegans to test the biological safety of our pH-responsive carrier system(FFPFF self-assembling into a nanosphere structure, FFPFF Nps), which was designed for anti-tumor drug delivery. Our results showed that exposure to high doses of FFPFF Nps did not have a significant impact on the survival rate, growth, development, movement, and reproduction of C. elegans. The preliminary evaluation of the overall biological model of C. elegans shows that FFPFF Nps has good biological safety and warrants further study.     

Thermal behaviors and kinetic analysis of two natural kaolinite samples selected from Qingshuihe region in Inner Mongolia in China

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - The thermal characteristic behaviors of two kaolinite samples selected from Qingshuihe region in Inner Mongolia in China were studied through...     

Sparse representation-based image restoration via nonlocal supervised coding

Sparse representation (SR) and nonlocal technique (NLT) have shown great potential in low-level image processing. However, due to the degradation of the observed image, SR and NLT may not be accurate enough to obtain a faithful restoration results when they are used independently. To improve the performance, in this paper, a nonlocal supervised coding strategy-based NLT for image restoration is proposed. The novel method has three main contributions. First, to exploit the useful nonlocal patches, a nonnegative sparse representation is introduced, whose coefficients can be utilized as the supervised weights among patches. Second, a novel objective function is proposed, which integrated the supervised weights learning and the nonlocal sparse coding to guarantee a more promising solution. Finally, to make the minimization tractable and convergence, a numerical scheme based on iterative shrinkage thresholding is developed to solve the above underdetermined inverse problem. The extensive experiments validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

High-throughput screening against $$\sim $$6.1 million structurally diverse,lead-like compounds to discover novel ROCK inhibitors for cerebral injury recovery

Rho-associated protein kinase (ROCK) has been recognized as an attractive therapeutic target to promote neurogenesis, neuroregeneration, and neurorecovery after cerebral injury. Here, a high-throughput screening protocol was described to discover novel ROCK inhibitors from a large chemical library containing \(\sim \)6.1 million structurally diverse, lead-like compounds. The protocol employed empirical rules such as ADMET evaluation and chemical similarity analysis to exclude those of drug-unlike candidates, and then molecular docking and binding affinity predictions were performed to suggest few promising candidates with high scores. Consequently, five compounds were successfully identified to have satisfactory activity profile with \(\hbox {IC}_{50}\) values at nanomolar level. In order to elucidate the molecular mechanism of inhibitor binding to target, the complex structures of ROCK kinase domain with the five identified compounds were modeled and examined in detail. A number of polar chemical forces such as hydrogen bonds and cation-\(\pi \) interactions as well as nonpolar contacts such as \(\pi \)–\(\pi \) stacking and hydrophobic forces were revealed at the complex interface, conferring high affinity and strong specificity to inhibitor binding. In addition, several key residues around the kinase active site, including Val90, Lys105, Asn203, and Phe368, were found to play an important role in binding.     

Magnetocaloric properties of DyCo2−xGax alloys

The influence of the substitution of Ga atoms for Co atoms in DyCo₂ compounds on magnetocaloric properties has been investigated. A series of DyCo_2−xGa_x alloys with x=0, 0.03, 0.06, 0.1, 0.15, and 0.2 was prepared by the arc-melting method for this investigation. Experimental results revealed that the Ga substitution for Co in DyCo₂ can form a single phase with the cubic Laves phase structure up to x=0.2. As the Ga content x increases, the lattice parameter and the Curie temperature T_c increases from 143 to 196 K linearly. The maximum magnetic entropy changes in a low field change of 0-1.5 T, increasing from 8.24 to 10.61 J/K kg when the Ga content x increases from 0 to 0.03, but decreasing gradually to 3.51 J/K kg as the Ga content further increases to x=0.2. All the samples show a relatively large magnetic entropy change with very small hysteresis loss.     

二维材料用于渗透能转换的研究进展

在河水与海水的交界处实现渗透能提取与捕获是解决未来能源危机的重要方式之一. 渗透能因为储量大, 容易获取以及绿色可持续的优势受到广泛关注. 反向电渗析技术是一种能够有效捕获渗透能的方法之一, 目前已经得到了深入的研究与发展. 离子交换膜是反向电渗析技术转换渗透能的关键组件, 其性能的优异程度决定能量转换效率的高低. 常见的膜材料主要是高分子聚合物及其改性化合物, 最近一些二维材料如石墨烯、 氧化石墨烯、 二硫化钼、 各种框架材料及其改性复合物因优异的选择性离子传输、 纳米级通道、 丰富的表面功能基团以及可修饰性成为捕获渗透能的重要膜材料. 本文综合评述了二维材料作为离子传输通道的类型以及相应的传输机理; 例举了二维材料及其复合物的设计方案和在渗透能转换方面的具体应用; 最后提出了目前二维材料在渗透能转换领域中面临的挑战以及未来的发展方向.     

基于多孔金结构的三相界面酶电极的制备及高效电化学酶传感性能

界面微环境是影响酶催化反应及酶传感性能的关键因素. 本研究基于三维微纳米结构多孔金基底, 通过调控电极表面的亲水和疏水浸润性, 制备了具有固-液-气三相界面微环境的氧化酶电极, 并研究了界面微环境对酶催化反应动力学的影响规律. 基于所制备的三相界面多孔金结构酶电极, 反应物氧气能够从气相直接快速地传输到酶催化反应界面, 极大地提升了界面氧气浓度及其稳定性, 从而大幅度提高了氧化酶活性及酶电极响应的稳定性. 以葡萄糖为模型待测物, 基于该三相界面酶电极的电化学酶生物传感器拥有宽的线性范围、 高的灵敏度、 低的检出限以及良好的稳定性. 这类独特的三相反应界面设计为高效酶生物传感器的建构以及生物分子的精准检测提供了新思路.     

Controlled synthesis of dendritic ruthenium nanostructures under microwave irradiation and their catalytic properties for p-chloronitrobenzene hydrogenation

Transition Metal Chemistry - In this study, the shape-controlled synthesis of ruthenium (Ru) nanostructures was examined using microwave irradiation. Dendritic Ru nanostructures, with an average...