Two-dimensional protein database of human pancreas

We report here the two-dimensional protein database of human pancreas. The proteins were analyzed by two-dimensional electrophoresis followed by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight-mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS). Totally, 302 proteins were identified, of which about 27% were enzymes with a broad range of catalytic activities. Several of these are specifically expressed in pancreas, such as pancreatic amylase, pancreatic stone protein, pancreatitis-associated protein, pancreatic lipase, pancreatic elastase, etc. Structural and cytoskeletal proteins are also strongly represented on the gels. Thus, the pancreatic proteome reflects the organ's function. This work paves the way for further studies on pancreatic protein expression in health and disease, such as diabetes and pancreatic cancer.     

Photo-and Electro-luminescence of the New Ternary Europium(III) Complex

In recent years, the interest in developing luminescent lanthanide complexes has been greatly stimulated by their potential use in electroluminescent displays1. Europium complexes appear most attractive in view of the high photoluminescent efficiency and the high monochromatic red light that are widely exploited in full-color displays2. It has been approved that the second ligand plays an important role in europium complexes, the synergistic complexation of the second ligand can not only lead …     

Speciation of dissolved iron(II) and iron(III) in environmental water samples by gallic acid-modified nanometer-sized alumina micro-column separation and ICP-MS determination

A method has been developed for the speciation of trace dissolved Fe(II) and Fe(III) in water by coupling gallic acid (GA) modified nanometer-sized alumina micro-column separation with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The separation of Fe(II) and Fe(III) was achieved based on the obvious difference in reaction kinetics between Fe(II) and Fe(III) with GA. Fe(III) was selectively retained on the micro-column at pH 5.5-6.5, while Fe(II) could not be retained by the micro-column at the whole tested pH range of 1.0-6.5, and passed through the micro-column. The Fe(II) can be determined by ICP-MS directly without preconcentration/separation procedure, while Fe(III) retained on the micro-column was then eluted with 1.0 mL of 1 mol L(-1) HCl and determined by ICP-MS. The parameters affecting the separation of Fe(II) and Fe(III) were investigated systematically and the optimum separation conditions were established. Under the optimized conditions, the detection limits of 0.48 microg L(-1) and 0.24 microg L(-1) with relative standard deviation of 5.6% and 4.3%(C= 5 microg L(-1), n= 7) for Fe(II) and Fe(III) were found, respectively. No obvious effect on the speciation of Fe(II) and Fe(III) was found with the change of the ratio of Fe(II) and Fe(III) from 0 ratio 10 to 10 ratio 0. The proposed method was applied for the determination of trace Fe(II) and Fe(III) in environmental water and the recoveries for spiked samples were found to be in the range of 97-105%.     

Synthesis of silk-like FeS2/NiS2 hybrid nanocrystals with improved reversible oxygen catalytic performance in a Zn-air battery

The development of highly active and stable reversible oxygen electrocatalysts is crucial for improving the efficiency of metal-air battery devices. Herein, an efficient liquid exfoliation strategy was designed for producing silk-like FeS₂/NiS₂ hybrid nanocrystals with enhanced reversible oxygen catalytic performance that displayed excellent properties for Zn-air batteries. Because of the unique silk-like morphology and interface nanocrystal structure, they can catalyze the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) efficiently with a low overpotential of 233 mV at j = 10 mA cm^?2. This is an improvement from the recently reported catalysts in 1.0 M KOH. Meanwhile, the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity of the silk-like FeS₂/NiS₂ hybrid nanocrystals showed an onset potential of 911 mV and a half-wave potential of 640 mV. In addition, the reversible oxygen electrode activity of the silk-like FeS₂/NiS₂ hybrid nanocrystals was calculated to be 0.823 V, based on the potential of the OER and ORR. Further, the homemade rechargeable Zn-air batteries using FeS₂/NiS₂ hybrid nanocrystals as the air-cathode displayed a high open-circuit voltage of 1.25 V for more than 17 h and an excellent rechargeable performance for 25 h. The solid Zn-air batteries exhibited an excellent rechargeable performance for 15 h. This study provided a new method for designing interface nanocrystals with a unique morphology for efficient multifunctional electrocatalysts in electrochemical reactions and renewable energy devices.     

Efficient synthesis of complex glycopeptides based on unprotected oligosaccharides

N-Glycopeptides containing 1 to 4 trisaccharide chains, with the carbohydrates vicinal to each other in the multivalent glycopeptides, were efficiently synthesized by using the glycosylated Fmoc-asparagine as a key building block. While the couplings of amino acids with glycopeptides could be achieved in the homogeneous solutions in N-methylpyrrolidinone (NMP) to give excellent yields, all products were conveniently isolated from the reaction mixtures through a precipitation method by using the free carbohydrate chains as phase tags. Commercially available pentafluorophenyl (Pfp) esters of amino acids were employed for the glycopeptide elongation. Longer glycopeptides were constructed by means of a highly convergent synthetic design that is based on the coupling of glycopeptide/peptide fragments. Hydrogen bond interactions between free oligosaccharides were proposed to explain the exceptionally high efficiency of the couplings between two glycosylated building blocks.     

Photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue on Fe3+-doped TiO2 nanoparticles under visible light irradiation

Fe³⁺-doped TiO₂ composite nanoparticles with different doping amounts were successfully synthesized using sol-gel method and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and ultravioletvisible spectroscopy (UV-Vis) diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS). The photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue was used as a model reaction to evaluate the photocatalytic activity of Fe³⁺/TiO₂ nanoparticles under visible light irradiation. The influence of doping amount of Fe³⁺ (ω: 0.00%–3.00%) on photocatalytic activities of TiO₂ was investigated. Results show that the size of Fe³⁺/TiO₂ particles decreases with the increase of the amount of Fe³⁺ and their absorption spectra are broaden and absorption intensities are also increased. Doping Fe³⁺ can control the conversion of TiO₂ from anatase to rutile. The doping amount of Fe³⁺ remarkably affects the activity of the catalyst, and the optimum efficiency occurs at about the doping amount of 0.3%. The appropriate doping of Fe³⁺ can markedly increase the catalytic activity of TiO₂ under visible light irradiation. __________ Translated from Journal of Northwest Normal University (Natural Science), 2006, 42(6): 55–56 [译自: 西北师范大学学报(自然科学版)]     

反向流动注射化学发光法测定痕量铁

基于邻菲别名林对高碘酸钾－碱性鲁米诺－铁体系发光强度的增敏作用建立了水体中总铁的反向流动性化学发光检测方法。该法线性范围在１×１０＾－４－１０ｍｇ／Ｌ，检测限为３×１０＾－６ｍｇ／Ｌ，对于５×１０＾－３ｍｇ／Ｌ Ｆｅ测定９次的相对标准偏差为０．９％。此方法已用在水处理中总铁的监测。     

A Minor New Flavone from Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi

A new flavone,6,2′-dihydroxy-5,7,8,6′-tetramethoxyflavone,was isolated from the roots of Scutellaria baicalensis. Its structure was established on the basis of spectral evidences.