Synthesis,Characterization, and Property Evaluation of a Hydrophobically Modified Polyacrylamide as Enhanced Oil Recovery Chemical

A novel hydrophobically modified polyacrylamide p(AM/NaA/OP-10-AC/BOAM) was successfully synthesized via an aqueous micellar copolymerization method from acrylamide (AM), sodium acrylate (NaA), octylphenol polyoxyethylene acrylate (OP-10-AC), and small amounts of N-benzyl-N-octylacrylamide (BOAM), with the aim of investigating the copolymer's rheological behaviors under various conditions such as polymer concentration, shearing, temperature, and salinity. The copolymer was characterized by infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and atomic force microscope. Scanning electron micrographs show large aggregates in solution formed by the association from the hydrophobic groups of the copolymer. Compared with partially hydrolyzed polyacryamide (HPAM), the copolymer shows a much higher thickening capability and a much greater ability to resist shearing, heat, and salts. This good property of the copolymer is attributed to its three-dimensional dimensional network structure. According to the core flooding test, it can be obtained that oil recovery is enhanced about 4.3% by the copolymer flooding contrasted to the HPAM flooding in mid-low permeability cores under conditions of 1500 mg/L of polymers and 45°C. All the results prove that the copolymer has the capability of increasing oil recovery by improving waterflood sweep efficiency in high-salinity reservoirs.     

Preparation of core–shell structure Fe3O4@SiO2 superparamagnetic microspheres immoblized with iminodiacetic acid as immobilized metal ion affinity adsorbents for His‐tag protein purification

The core–shell structure Fe₃O₄/SiO₂ magnetic microspheres were prepared by a sol–gel method, and immobiled with iminodiacetic acid (IDA) as metal ion affinity ligands for protein adsorption. The size, morphology, magnetic properties and surface modification of magnetic silica nanospheres were characterized by various modern analytical instruments. It was shown that the magnetic silica nanospheres exhibited superparamagnetism with saturation magnetization values of up to 58.1 emu/g. Three divalent metal ions, Cu²⁺, Ni²⁺ and Zn²⁺, were chelated on the Fe₃O₄@SiO₂–IDA magnetic microspheres to adsorb lysozyme. The results indicated that Ni²⁺‐chelating magnetic microspheres had the maximum adsorption capacity for lysozyme of 51.0 mg/g, adsorption equilibrium could be achieved within 60 min and the adsorbed protein could be easily eluted. Furthermore, the synthesized Fe₃O₄@SiO₂–IDA–Ni²⁺ magnetic microspheres were successfully applied for selective enrichment lysozyme from egg white and His‐tag recombinant Homer 1a from the inclusion extraction expressed in Escherichia coli. The result indicated that the magnetic microspheres showed unique characteristics of high selective separation behavior of protein mixture, low nonspecific adsorption, and easy handling. This demonstrates that the magnetic silica microspheres can be used efficiently in protein separation or purification and show great potential in the pretreatment of the biological sample. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Screening and identification of Caulis Sinomenii bioactive ingredients with dual‐target NF‐κB inhibition and β2‐AR agonizing activities

Caulis Sinomenii (CS) is a valuable traditional medicine in China. Its extract can act as an anti‐inflammatory agent and a vascular smooth muscle relaxant. However, the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. In this study, we developed a simple dual‐target method based on ultra‐performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry combined with a dual‐target bioactive screening assay for anti‐inflammatory and antispasmodic activities to characterize the chemical structure of various bioactive compounds of CS rapidly. Seven potential NF‐κB inhibitors were identified, including laudanosoline‐1‐O‐xylopyranose, 6‐O‐methyl‐laudanosoline‐1‐O‐glucopyranoside, menisperine, sinomenine, laurifoline, magnoflorine and norsinoacutin. Furthermore, IL‐6 and IL‐8 assays confirmed the anti‐inflammatory effects of these potential NF‐κB inhibitors, in which laudanosoline‐1‐O‐d ‐xylopyranose and menisperine were revealed as novel NF‐κB inhibitors. Among the seven identified alkaloids, three potential β₂‐adrenergic receptor agonists, including sinomenine, magnoflorine and laurifoline, were characterized using a luciferase reporter system to measure for the activity of β₂‐adrenergic receptor agonists. Finally, sinomenine, magnoflorine and laurifoline were identified not only as potential NF‐κB inhibitors but also as potential β₂‐adrenegic receptor agonists, which is the first time this has been reported. Molecular dynamic simulation and docking results suggest that the three dual‐bioactive constituents could not only inhibit Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAK strain‐induced inflammatory responses via a negative regulation of the Braf protein that participates in MAPK signaling pathway but also activate the β₂‐adrenegic receptor. These results suggest that CS extract has dual signaling activities with potential clinical application as a novel drug for asthma.     

LC–MS/MS determination and interaction of the main components from the traditional Chinese drug pair Danshen–Sanqi based on rat intestinal absorption

The Chinese drug pair Danshen (Salvia miltiorrhiza)–Sanqi (Panax ginseng) has been widely used for centuries treating various cardiovascular disorders, among which salvianlic acid B (SAB), ginsenoside Rg₁ (GRg₁), ginsenoside Rb₁ (GRb₁) and notoginsenoside R₁ (NGR₁) were identified as the major components. The present study focused on the interaction between these components based on investigating their intestinal absorption using the Ussing chamber technique. The concentrations of SAB, GRg₁, GRb1 and NGR₁ in the intestinal perfusate were determined by LC–MS/MS method, followed by Q (accumulative quantity) and P_app (apparent permeability). The results showed that all these four main components displayed very low permeabilities, which implied their poor absorption in the rat intestine. The intestinal absorption level of SAB displayed regioselectivity: duodenum < jejunum < ileum. However, there was no significant difference in the absorption of GRg₁ and GRb₁ in the different segments. The Q and P_app values of the four main components were obviously increased in jejunum when co‐administrating Danshen extract with Sanqi extract. In conclusion, compatibility of Danshen and Sanqi could remarkably improve the intestinal absorption level of the main components in the pair. To some extent, this might explain the nature of the compatibility mechanisms of composite formulae in TCMs.     

Asymmetric Michael Addition of Aldimino Esters with Chalcones Catalyzed by Silver/Xing‐Phos: Mechanism‐Oriented Divergent Synthesis of Chiral Pyrrolines

The mechanism‐oriented reaction design for the divergent synthesis of chiral molecules from simple starting materials is highly desirable. In this work, aromatic amide‐derived nonbiarylatropisomer/silver (silver/Xing‐Phos) complex was used to catalyze the Michael addition of glycine aldimino esters to chalcones and successfully applied to the subsequent cyclocondensation to afford substituted cis‐Δ(1)‐pyrroline derivatives with up to 98 % ee. Besides the inherent performance of the chiral Ag/Xing‐Phos catalyst system, it was found that the workup of such reactions played an important role for the stereoselective construction of stereodivergent Δ(1)‐pyrrolines, in which an epimerization of the cis‐Δ(1)‐pyrrolines to the trans‐isomers during was revealed.     

非晶硅界面缓冲层对非晶硅锗电池性能的影响

针对非晶硅锗电池本征层高锗含量时界面带隙失配以及高界面缺陷密度造成电池开路电压和填充因子下降的问题,通过在PI界面插入具有合适带隙的非晶硅缓冲层,不仅有效缓和了带隙失配,降低界面复合,同时也通过降低界面缺陷密度改善内建电场分布,从而提高了电池的收集效率. 进一步引入IN界面缓冲层以及对非晶硅锗本征层进行能带梯度设计,在仅采用Al背电极时,单结非晶硅锗电池转换效率达8.72%. 关键词： 非晶硅缓冲层 非晶硅锗薄膜太阳电池 带隙 界面