Facile electrochemical synthesis of a conducting copolymer from 5-aminoindole and EDOT and its use as Pt catalyst support for formic acid electrooxidation

5-Aminoindole and 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT) were copolymerized electrochemically on a carbon cloth (CC) electrode in an aqueous sulfuric acid solution. The as-prepared copolymer was characterized by cyclic voltammogram, SEM, and UV-vis and FT-IR spectra through which the electrochemical properties, structure, and composition of the as-obtained copolymer were determined. The electrochemical activity and stability of the as-formed copolymer are significantly improved in comparison with poly(5-aminoindole) due to the incorporation of EDOT units into the conjugated chain. The copolymer film-modified CC electrode was used as substrate for Pt particle deposition (denoted as Pt/copolymer/CC), and then, its catalytic activity towards formic acid electrooxidation was studied. Experimental results indicate that the catalytic activity of Pt/copolymer/CC towards formic acid electrooxidation is enhanced in comparison with that of Pt/homopolymer/CC, which can be attributed to the homogeneous distribution of Pt nanoparticles on the copolymer/CC substrate and the improved electrochemical activity of the copolymer film.     

From electronic excited state theory to the property predictions of organic optoelectronic materials

We introduce here a work package for a National Natural Science Foundation of China Major Project. We propose to develop computational methodology starting from the theory of electronic excitation processes to predicting the opto-electronic property for organic materials, in close collaborations with experiments. Through developing methods for the electron dynamics, considering superexchange electronic couplings, spin-orbit coupling elements between excited states, electron-phonon relaxation, intermolecular Coulomb and exchange terms we combine the statistical physics approaches including dynamic Monte Carlo, Boltzmann transport equation and Boltzmann statistics to predict the macroscopic properties of opto-electronic materials such as light-emitting efficiency, charge mobility, and exciton diffusion length. Experimental synthesis and characterization of D-A type ambipolar transport material as well as novel carbon based material will provide a test ground for the verification of theory.     

Multicomponent Reaction for Synthesis of 2-(Indol-3-yl)pyridine Derivatives Under Microwave Irradiation

A short, practical, and efficient preparation of 2-(indol-3-yl)pyridine derivatives via a one-pot procedure of 3-cyanoacetylindole, chalcones, and ammonium acetate under microwave irradiation was described. All these compounds were obtained in good yield, and their structures were confirmed by ¹H NMR, infrared, and elementary analysis.      

Studies on the Effects of Additional Components on Micellization of CTAB via Surface Tension Measurements

The effects of Tris-HCl buffer solution on the cmc of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) were studied by surface tension measurement. The result shows that the effect of the buffer solution depends on the interaction between CTAB and NaCl and the structure accelerants of water, Tris. A series of parameters, including the critical micelle concentration (cmc), the surface tension at cmc (γ_cmc), the adsorption efficiency (pC₂₀), and the effectiveness of surface tension reduction (∏_cmc) were obtained from the surface tension measurements in the presence of glycine with different concentration in the Tris-HCl buffer solution at 27°C. In addition, maximum surface excess concentration (Γ _max) and minimum surface area per molecule (A_min) at the air-water interface were estimated according to the Gibbs adsorption isotherm. The thermodynamic parameters (Δ C _p,m , Δ H _m,tr , Δ C _p,m,tr ) of micellization for CTAB in the absence and presence of glycine at different temperature were also been obtained.     

Synthesis and Characterization of Mesoporous Silica Templated by Amphiphilic RTILs

This article reports a novel preparation of mesoporous silica with series of 1-alky-3-methylimidazolium bromide (C_nMIM)Br (n = 12, 14, 16), a kind of amphiphilic room-temperature ionic liquids (RTILs), as a template via a sol-gel nanocasting technique. The pore morphology and structures of these mesoporous silica were characterized by Transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results show that the RTIL bearing longer alkyl chain is preferred to form the mesoporous silica material with bigger pores. (C₁₆MIM)Br has been chosen to study how the various influencing factors affect the synthesis and structure of the mesoporous silica material, such as the acid concentration, the solling time, the gelling time and the calcination time. N₂ adsorption-desorption isotherms measurement was used to characterize the pore size distribution and BET surface area. The results indicate that all of the factors can make an influence on the preparation of the mesoporous silica, which is more sensitive to the concentration of the acid.     

A quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics study on the hydrolysis mechanism of New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase-1

New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase-1 (NDM-1) has emerged as a major global threat to human health for its rapid rate of dissemination and ability to make pathogenic microbes resistant to almost all known β-lactam antibiotics. In addition, effective NDM-1 inhibitors have not been identified to date. In spite of the plethora of structural and kinetic data available, the accurate molecular characteristics of and details on the enzymatic reaction of NDM-1 hydrolyzing β-lactam antibiotics remain incompletely understood. In this study, a combined computational approach including molecular docking, molecular dynamics simulations and quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics calculations was performed to characterize the catalytic mechanism of meropenem catalyzed by NDM-1. The quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics results indicate that the ionized D124 is beneficial to the cleavage of the C–N bond within the β-lactam ring. Meanwhile, it is energetically favorable to form an intermediate if no water molecule coordinates to Zn2. Moreover, according to the molecular dynamics results, the conserved residue K211 plays a pivotal role in substrate binding and catalysis, which is quite consistent with previous mutagenesis data. Our study provides detailed insights into the catalytic mechanism of NDM-1 hydrolyzing meropenem β-lactam antibiotics and offers clues for the discovery of new antibiotics against NDM-1 positive strains in clinical studies.     

Initial‐Boundary Value Problems for the Coupled Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation on the Half‐Line

Initial‐boundary value problems for the coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equation on the half‐line are investigated via the Fokas method. It is shown that the solution can be expressed in terms of the unique solution of a matrix Riemann–Hilbert problem formulated in the complex k‐plane, whose jump matrix is defined in terms of the matrix spectral functions and that depend on the initial data and all boundary values, respectively. If there exist spectral functions satisfying the global relation, it can be proved that the function defined by the above Riemann–Hilbert problem solves the coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equation and agrees with the prescribed initial and boundary values. The most challenging problem in the implementation of this method is to characterize the unknown boundary values that appear in the spectral function . For a particular class of boundary conditions so‐called linearizable boundary conditions, it is possible to compute the spectral function in terms of and given boundary conditions by using the algebraic manipulation of the global relation. For the general case of boundary conditions, an effective characterization of the unknown boundary values can be obtained by employing perturbation expansion.     

广义sine-Gordon方程高精度隐式紧致差分方法

本文研究一类二维非线性的广义sine-Gordon(简称SG)方程的有限差分格式.首先构造三层时间的紧致交替方向隐式差分格式,并用能量分析法证明格式具有二阶时间精度和四阶空间精度.然后应用改进的Richardson外推算法将时间精度提高到四阶.最后,数值算例证实改进后的算法在空间和时间上均达到四阶精度.     

Synthesis and characterization of π-extended thienoacenes with up to 13 fused aromatic rings

π-Extended thienoacenes that comprise alternatively arranged anthracene and thieno[3,2-b]thiophene moieties and have 8 or 13 aromatic rings were synthesized. The delocalization of their HOMO and LUMO orbitals is over the entire molecules, and low-lying HOMO levels endow them good stability.