Synthesis, growth and characterization of a new nonlinear optical material: 4-phenylpyridinium hydrogen squarate (4PHS)

A novel organic non-linear optical organic single crystal of 4-phenylpyridinium hydrogen squarate (4PHS) has been synthesized and successfully grown from aqueous solutions by slow evaporation solution growth method. In the present investigation the title compound has been synthesized by taking equimolar quantity of 4-phenylpyridine and squaric acid and mixed thoroughly using double distilled water as the solvent. The prepared concentrated solution was placed in an undisturbed condition, and then the solution was periodically inspected. The good quality single crystals have been harvested in a time span of 3 weeks. Then the grown crystal was characterized as single crystal XRD, differential thermal analysis, thermogravimetric analysis, FTIR, UV-vis-NIR, SHG, (1)H NMR and (13)C NMR analyses, respectively. The observed results from the characterization analyses show its suitability for NLO applications when compared with some of the existing organic crystals. The relative second harmonic generation of this grown crystal was found to be five times higher than that of KDP crystal. The UV cut-off wavelength and decomposition temperature of this grown crystal were also comparatively better. (1)H NMR and (13)C NMR spectroscopic studies were employed to elucidate the structure of the grown specimen.     

One-pot enyne metathesis/Diels-Alder reaction for the construction of highly functionalized novel polycyclic aza-compounds

Various tricyclic dienes were synthesized via enyne metathesis using the first generation Grubbs catalyst. The enyne metathesis proceeded smoothly in refluxing CH₂Cl₂ with a low catalyst loading (3.0 mol %), giving good yields (72-89%) of the tricyclic products 6 and 16. The resulting 1,3-dienes are suitable precursors of polycyclic structures via a Diels-Alder process. One-pot RCM/Diels-Alder reactions of the enyne products with dienophiles proceeded smoothly to afford polycyclic compounds as a single cycloadduct. The structures of the Diels-Alder adducts were determined by ¹H NMR spectra and X-ray analysis. The cycloadducts were formed via the approach of the dienophiles towards the diene in endo mode.     

Recent progress in the development of polymers for white light-emitting polymer devices

Much effort has been devoted to the design and synthesis of polymers for use in flat panel display, solid state lighting, transistors, and photovoltaic devices. Especially, development of white light emitting polymeric materials has recently attracted much interest owing to their possible use in lighting application and backlights for flat panel displays. White emission has been obtained from polymeric molecules, small organic molecules, organometallic molecules, and phosphor-based or quantum dot-based inorganic molecules. Among materials used in white light emitting diodes, we summarize the white light emitting polymeric materials synthesized and published till December 2007. Correspondence: In Tae Kim, Department of Chemistry, Kwangwoon University, 447-1 Wolgye-Dong, Nowon-Ku, Seoul 139-701, Korea, So Ha Lee, Life Sciences Research Division, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 131, Cheongryang, Seoul 130-650, Korea.     

Designing,Structural Elucidation and Comparison of the Cleavage Ability of Metal Complexes Containing Tetradentate Schiff Bases 1

New N₂O₂ donor type Schiff bases have been designed and synthesized by condensing acetylaceto-4-aminoantipyrine/acetoacetanilido-4-aminoantipyrine with 2-amino benzoic acid in ethanol. Solid metal complexes of the Schiff bases with Cu(II), Ni(II), Co(II), Mn(II), Zn(II), VO(IV), Hg(II) and Cd(II) metal ions were synthesized and characterized by elemental analyses, magnetic susceptibility, molar conduction, FAB Mass, IR, UV-Vis., ¹H NMR, and ESR spectral studies. The data show that the complexes have a composition of the ML type. The UV-Vis., magnetic susceptibility, and ESR spectral data of the complexes suggest a square planar geometry around the central metal ion, except for VO(IV) complexes, which have square-pyramidal geometry. The redox behavior of copper and vanadyl complexes has been studied by cyclic voltammetry. The nuclease activity of the above metal complexes shows that the complexes cleave DNA through redox chemistry. In the presence of H₂O₂, all the complexes are capable of cleaving calf thymus DNA plasmids, in order to compare the cleavage efficiency of all metal complexes in the two different ligand environments. In this assay, Cu(II), Ni(II), Co(II), and Zn(II) exhibit more cleavage efficiency than other metal ions. This article was submitted by the authors in English.     

Design, synthesis, spectroscopic characterization, biological screening, and DNA nuclease activity of transition metal complexes derived from a tridentate Schiff base

A new series of transition metal complexes of Cu(II), Ni(II), Co(II), Mn(II), Zn(II), Cd(II), Hg(II), and VO(IV) have been designed and synthesized from the Schiff base derived from cinnamidene-4-aminoantipyrine and 2-aminophenol by involving the carbonyl group of 4-aminoantipyrine. The structural features have been arrived from their elemental analyses, magnetic susceptibility, molar conduction, FAB mass, IR, UV-Vis, ¹H NMR and ESR spectral studies. The data show that the complexes have composition of the ML₂ type. The UV-Vis, magnetic susceptibility, and ESR spectral data of the complexes suggest an octahedral geometry around the central metal ion except the VO(IV) complex, which has a square-pyramidal geometry. The redox behavior of the copper and vanadyl complexes has been studied by cyclic voltammetry. The antimicrobial activity of the ligand and its complexes has been extensively studied on microorganisms such as Salmonella typhi, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Aspergillus niger, and Rhizoctonia bataicola. It has been found that most of the complexes have higher activities than that of the free ligand. The nuclease activity of the above metal complexes shows that the complexes cleave DNA through redox chemistry. In the presence of H₂O₂, the complexes are capable of cleaving calf thymus DNA. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Surface-Degenerate Semiconductor Photocatalysis for Efficient Water Splitting without Sacrificial Agents via a Reticular Chemistry Approach

The production of green hydrogen through photocatalytic water splitting is crucial for a sustainable hydrogen economy and chemical manufacturing. However, current approaches suffer from slow hydrogen production (<70 μmol ⋅ g_cat⁻¹ ⋅ h⁻¹) due to the sluggish four-electrons oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and limited catalyst activity. Herein, we achieve efficient photocatalytic water splitting by exploiting a multifunctional interface between a nano-photocatalyst and metal–organic framework (MOF) layer. The functional interface plays two critical roles: (1) enriching electron density directly on photocatalyst surface to promote catalytic activity, and (2) delocalizing photogenerated holes into MOF to enhance OER. Our photocatalytic ensemble boosts hydrogen evolution by ≈100-fold over pristine photocatalyst and concurrently produces oxygen at ideal stoichiometric ratio, even without using sacrificial agents. Notably, this unique design attains superior hydrogen production (519 μmol ⋅ g_cat⁻¹ ⋅ h⁻¹) and apparent quantum efficiency up to 13-fold and 8-fold better than emerging photocatalytic designs utilizing hole scavengers. Comprehensive investigations underscore the vital role of the interfacial design in generating high-energy photoelectrons on surface-degenerate photocatalyst to thermodynamically drive hydrogen evolution, while leveraging the nanoporous MOF scaffold as an effective photohole sink to enhance OER. Our interfacial approach creates vast opportunities for designing next-generation, multifunctional photocatalytic ensembles using reticular chemistry with diverse energy and environmental applications.     

Purification of monoclonal antibody from tobacco extract using membrane-based bioseparation techniques

Transgenic plants offer a promising system for large-scale production of therapeutic proteins such as monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). This paper describes a membrane-based process suitable for purification of a humanized mAb expressed in tobacco. Most monoclonal antibody purification schemes rely on the use of Protein A as the affinity ligand for antibody capture. The main objective of our work was to develop non-Protein A-based purification methods to avoid some of the problems and limitations associated with this ligand, e.g. cost, immunotoxicity, and antibody aggregation during elution. Ion exchange membrane chromatography (IEMC) was used for primary capture and preliminary purification of the mAb from tobacco juice. Hydrophobic interaction membrane chromatography (HIMC) was then used for high-resolution purification, followed by ultrafiltration for polishing, desalting and buffer exchange. Using this scheme, both high mAb purity (single peak in size exclusion chromatogram, i.e., ca. 100% purity) and high recovery (77% of mAb spiked into the tobacco extract) were achieved. Membrane chromatography is generally considered unsuitable for resolving bound proteins by gradient elution and is therefore commonly used in the bind and elute mode with a single-step change of mobile phase. We show that the gradient elution process in the HIMC step can be optimized to increase the resolution and thereby obtain product of high purity.     

Terpyridine Based Heteroleptic Ruthenium Complexes: Influence of Donor and Acceptor Ligands in Photosensitization

We report heteroleptic ruthenium complexes of terpyridine (tpy) ligands with directly linked carboxylic acid anchors. These complexes feature methyl or methoxy-substituted ^4′−Phtpy as donor ligands. We prepared these heteroleptic complexes from the ruthenium (II) precursor via a milder route to preclude the homoleptic complex formation. The donor−acceptor arrangement of tpy ligands in these ruthenium complexes renders visible light absorption giving metal and ligand-to-ligand charge transfer excitations at c.a. 490 nm. We evaluate the effect of the tpy donor substituents on the light-harvesting ability in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs) and compare their photosensitizing ability with heteroleptic complexes bearing phenyl spacer at the acceptor end. Further, scrutinizing their photovoltaic performance, we studied their electron transfer kinetics in DSSCs using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. This paper presents the structure-photosensitization relationship of these heteroleptic ruthenium complexes through a combined experimental and computational approach.     

Bed of polydisperse viscous spherical drops under thermocapillary effects

Viscous flow past an ensemble of polydisperse spherical drops is investigated under thermocapillary effects. We assume that the collection of spherical drops behaves as a porous media and estimates the hydrodynamic interactions analytically via the so- called cell model that is defined around a specific representative particle. In this method, the hydrodynamic interactions are assumed to be accounted by suitable boundary conditions on a fictitious fluid envelope surrounding the representative particle. The force calculated on this representative particle will then be extended to a bed of spherical drops visualized as a Darcy porous bed. Thus, the “effective bed permeability” of such a porous bed will be computed as a function of various parameters and then will be compared with Carman–Kozeny relation. We use cell model approach to a packed bed of spherical drops of uniform size (monodisperse spherical drops) and then extend the work for a packed bed of polydisperse spherical drops, for a specific parameters. Our results show a good agreement with the Carman–Kozeny relation for the case of monodisperse spherical drops. The prediction of overall bed permeability using our present model agrees well with the Carman–Kozeny relation when the packing size distribution is narrow, whereas a small deviation can be noted when the size distribution becomes broader.