H2/CO2 separations in multicomponent metal-adeninate MOFs with multiple chemically distinct pore environments

Metal–organic frameworks constructed from multiple (≥3) components often exhibit dramatically increased structural complexity compared to their 2 component (1 metal, 1 linker) counterparts, such as multiple chemically unique pore environments and a plurality of diverse molecular diffusion pathways. This inherent complexity can be advantageous for gas separation applications. Here, we report two isoreticular multicomponent MOFs, bMOF-200 (4 components; Cu, Zn, adeninate, pyrazolate) and bMOF-201 (3 components; Zn, adeninate, pyrazolate). We describe their structures, which contain 3 unique interconnected pore environments, and we use Kohn–Sham density functional theory (DFT) along with the climbing image nudged elastic band (CI-NEB) method to predict potential H₂/CO₂ separation ability of bMOF-200. We examine the H₂/CO₂ separation performance using both column breakthrough and membrane permeation studies. bMOF-200 membranes exhibit a H₂/CO₂ separation factor of 7.9. The pore space of bMOF-201 is significantly different than bMOF-200, and one molecular diffusion pathway is occluded by coordinating charge-balancing formate and acetate anions. A consequence of this structural difference is reduced permeability to both H₂ and CO₂ and a significantly improved H₂/CO₂ separation factor of 22.2 compared to bMOF-200, which makes bMOF-201 membranes competitive with some of the best performing MOF membranes in terms of H₂/CO₂ separations.

Tailorable multicomponent MOFs and MOF membranes for efficient H₂/CO₂ separation.     

New Dammarane Monodesmosides from the Acidic Deglycosylation of Notoginseng‐Leaf Saponins

Three new dammarane monodesmosides, named notoginsenosides Ft₁ ( 1 ), Ft₂ ( 2 ), and Ft₃ ( 3 ), together with three known ginsenosides, were obtained from a mild acidic hydrolysis of the saponins from notoginseng (Panax notoginseng (Burk .) F. H. Chen ) leaves. Their structures were elucidated to be (3β,12β,20R)‐12,20‐dihydroxydammar‐24‐en‐3‐yl O‐β‐D ‐xylopyranosyl‐(1 → 2)‐O‐β‐D ‐glucopyranosyl‐(1 → 2)‐β‐D ‐glucopyranoside ( 1 ), (3β,12β)‐12,20,25‐trihydroxydammaran‐3‐yl O‐β‐D ‐xylopyranosyl‐(1 → 2)‐O‐β‐D ‐glucopyranosyl‐(1 → 2)‐β‐D ‐glucopyranoside ( 2 ), and (3β,12β,24ξ)‐12,20,24‐trihydroxydammar‐25‐en‐3‐yl O‐β‐D ‐xylopyranosyl‐(1 → 2)‐O‐β‐D ‐glucopyranosyl‐(1 → 2)‐β‐D ‐glucopyranoside ( 3 ), by means of spectroscopic evidences. The known ginsenosides Rh₂ and Rg₃ 4 – 6 were obtained as the major products from this acidic deglycosylation.     

A serpentine laminating micromixer combining splitting/recombination and advection

Mixing enhancement has drawn great attention from designers of micromixers, since the flow in a microchannel is usually characterized by a low Reynolds number (Re) which makes the mixing quite a difficult task to accomplish. In this paper, a novel integrated efficient micromixer named serpentine laminating micromixer (SLM) has been designed, simulated, fabricated and fully characterized. In the SLM, a high level of efficient mixing can be achieved by combining two general chaotic mixing mechanisms: splitting/recombination and chaotic advection. The splitting and recombination (in other terms, lamination) mechanism is obtained by the successive arrangement of "F"-shape mixing units in two layers. The advection is induced by the overall three-dimensional serpentine path of the microchannel. The SLM was realized by SU-8 photolithography, nickel electroplating, injection molding and thermal bonding. Mixing performance of the SLM was fully characterized numerically and experimentally. The numerical mixing simulations show that the advection acts favorably to realize the ideal vertical lamination of fluid flow. The mixing experiments based on an average mixing color intensity change of phenolphthalein show a high level of mixing performance was obtained with the SLM. Numerical and experimental results confirm that efficient mixing is successfully achieved from the SLM over the wide range of Re. Due to the simple and mass producible geometry of the efficient micromixer, SLM proposed in this study, the SLM can be easily applied to integrated microfluidic systems, such as micro-total-analysis-systems or lab-on-a-chip systems.     

TR-FTIR absorption spectroscopy of transition metal carbonyl radicals generated by photodissociation of metal-metal bonds, by halogen abstraction or by radical ligand substitution

Three methods of obtaining time-resolved Fourier-Transform infrared (TR-FTIR) absorption spectra of transition metal carbonyl radicals in hexane are reported here. For the first method, CpM(CO)₂L and Cp*M(CO)₂L (M = Mo, W; L = CO, PR₃) radicals have been generated by photodissociation of the corresponding metal-metal bonded dimers. Radicals of formula M(CO)₄L (M = Mn, Re; L = CO, PR₃, AsPh₃, SbPh₃) and CpM(CO)_n (M = Fe, Mo; n = 2, 3) have been produced via the second method which is halogen abstraction of the transition metal carbonyl halides using CpMo(CO)₃ radical. For the third method, fast radical ligand substitution kinetics has been exploited to generate CpMo(CO)₂PR₃ radicals from CpMo(CO)₃ in the presence of free phosphines. An assessment of the three methods with respect to TR-FTIR spectroscopic detection of radicals was also discussed.     

Asymmetric Synthesis of Calyculin C. 2. Synthesis of the C(26)-C(37) Fragment and Model Wittig Couplings

We report our synthesis of the C(26)-C(37) fragment of serine/threonine protein phosphatase PP1 and PP2A inhibitor calyculin C (1). Outlined in this paper are synthetic approaches to the two components based on disconnection at the C(33)-N(3) amide bond. We report the successful synthesis of the C(33)-C(37) aza-sugar derived from D-lyxose which was coupled onto a C(26)-C(32) aminooxazole originating from L-pyroglutamic acid. Elaboration of the resulting amide to a fully deprotected C(26)-C(37) fragment of calyculin C completed our synthesis. This provided an appropriate phosphonium salt for use in a Wittig olefination for joining both halves of the natural product.     

Polymeric silver(I) complexes with pyridyl dithioether ligands: experimental and theoretical investigations on the coordination properties of the ligands

The reactions of four flexible tetradentate ligands, 1,3-bis(2-pyridylthio)propane (L1), 1,4-bis(2-pyridylthio)butane (L2), 1,5-bis(2-pyridylthio)pentane (L3) and 1,6-bis(2-pyridylthio)hexane (L4) with AgX (X = BF4-, ClO4-, PF6-, or CF3SO3-) lead to the formation of seven new complexes: [AgL1(BF4)]2 (1), [[AgL2](ClO4)]infinity (2), [[AgL2(CH3CN)](PF6)]infinity (3), [[AgL3](BF4)(CHCl3)]2 (4), [[AgL3(CF3SO3)](CH3OH)(0.5)]infinity (5), [[Ag2L4(2)](BF4)2]infinity (6), and [[AgL4](PF6)]infinity (7), which have been characterized by elemental analyses, IR spectroscopy, and X-ray crystallography. Single-crystal X-ray analyses show that complexes 1 and 4 possess dinuclear macrometallacyclic structures, and complexes 2, 3 and 5-7 take chain structures. In all the complexes, the nitrogen atoms of ligands preferentially coordinate to silver atoms to form normal coordination bonds, while the sulfur atoms only show weak interactions with silver atoms and the intermolecular AgS weak contacts connect the low-dimensional complexes into high-dimensional supramolecular networks. Additional weak interactions, such as pi-pi stacking, F...F weak interactions, Ag...O contacts or C-H...O hydrogen bonds, also help to stabilize the crystal structures. It was found that the parity of the -(CH2)n- spacers (n = 3-6) affect the orientation of the two terminal pyridyl rings, thereby significantly influence the framework formations of these complexes. The coordination features of ligands and their conformation changes between free and coordination states have been investigated by DFT calculations.     

Dispersed fluorescence spectroscopy of jet-cooled HCF and DCF: Vibrational structure of the X 1A' state

We recorded dispersed fluorescence (DF) spectra following excitation of the pure bending levels 2(0) (n) and the combination states 1(0) (1)2(0) (n) and 2(0) (n)3(0) (1) in the A 1A"<--X 1A' system of HCF and DCF. Spectra were measured with a 0.3 m spectrograph equipped with a gated intensified charge coupled device (CCD) detector and obtained under jet-cooled conditions using a pulsed discharge source. The DF spectra reveal rich detail concerning the vibrational structure of the X state up to 10 000 cm(-1). For HCF, resonances among the nearly degenerate levels 1(1)2n, 2n+13(1), and 2n+2 produce a polyadlike structure in the spectrum, and the usual effective spectroscopic Hamiltonian (Dunham expansion) poorly reproduces the experimental term energies. In contrast, this Hamiltonian works well for the term energies of DCF. Density functional calculations of the ground state vibrational frequencies were performed; the results are in excellent agreement with the experimentally derived vibrational parameters. The search for perturbations involving the low-lying a 3A" state is described.     

Ce10Cl4Ga5 and Ln3ClGa4 (Ln = La,Ce): reduced halides or oxidized intermetallics?

The compounds Ce(10)Cl(4)Ga(5) and Ln(3)ClGa(4) (Ln = La, Ce) were synthesized from stoichiometric mixtures of Ln, LnCl(3), and Ga under Ar atmosphere in sealed Ta ampules at 910-1020 degrees C for 25-26 days. Ce(10)Cl(4)Ga(5) is isostructural to La(10)Cl(4)Ga(5) (space group I4/mcm, No. 140) with lattice constants a = 7.9546(11) A, c = 31.793(6) A. Ln(3)ClGa(4) represents a new structural type, also in the space group I4/mcm, with a = 8.1955(8) and 8.1123(11) A, c = 11.363(2) and 11.229(2) A, respectively, for Ln = La and Ce. Ce(10)Cl(4)Ga(5) features building blocks of Ga-centered Ce(6) trigonal prisms and distinctive two-dimensional intermetallic CuAl(2) and U(3)Si(2) type nets. Its electronic structure falls within the realm of reduced rare-earth halides. Ln(3)ClGa(4) also contains the intermetallic CuAl(2) type nets, but the interstitials are inverted: The building blocks are Cl-centered Ln(6) octahedra. Its electronic structure is characterized by strong peripheral Ln-Ga bonding stabilizing the Ln(6)Cl octahedron which normally would have its Ln-Ln antibonding orbitals filled with electrons from interstitials beyond chalcogen. Magnetic susceptibility and conductivity measurements confirm the metallic nature of all three compounds.     

Simulation of large-scale production of a soluble recombinant protein expressed in Escherichia coli using an intein-mediated purification system

Inteins are self-cleavable proteins that under reducing conditions can be cleaved from a recombinant target protein. Industrially, an intein-based system could potentially reduce production costs of recombinant proteins by facilitating a highly selective affinity purification using an inexpensive substrate such as chitin. In this study, SuperPro Designer was used to simulate the large-scale recovery of a soluble recombinant protein expressed in Escherichia coli using an intein-mediated purification process based on the commercially available IMPACT system. The intein process was also compared with a conventional process simulated by SuperPro. The intein purification process initially simulated was significantly more expensive than the conventional process, primarily owing to the properties of the chitin resin and high reducing-agent (dithiothreitol [DTT]) raw material cost. The intein process was sensitive to the chitin resin binding capacity, cleavage efficiency of the intein fusion protein, the size of the target protein relative to the intein tag, and DTT costs. An optimized intein purification process considerably reduced costs by simulating an improved chitin resin and alternative reducing agents. Thus, to realize the full potential of intein purification processes, research is needed to improve the properties of chitin resin and to find alternative, inexpensive raw materials.