Tuning Electrical- and Photo-Conductivity by Cation Exchange within a Redox-Active Tetrathiafulvalene-Based Metal–Organic Framework

To activate electronic and optical functions of the redox-active metal–organic framework, (Me₂NH₂)[In^III(TTFTB)]⋅0.7 C₂H₅OH⋅DMF (Me₂NH₂@ 1 , TTFTB=tetrathiafulvalene-tetrabenzoate, DMF=N,N-dimethylformamide), has been exchanged by tetrathiafulvalenium (TTF^.+) and N,N′-dimethyl-4,4′-bipyridinium (MV²⁺). These cations provide electron carriers and photosensitivity. The exchange retains the crystallinity allowing single-crystal to single-crystal post-synthetic transformation to TTF@ 1 and MV@ 1 . Both TTF^.+ and MV²⁺ enhance the electrical conductivity by a factor of 10² and the visible light induced photocurrent by 4 and 28 times, respectively. EPR evidences synergetic effect involving charge transfer between the framework redox-active TTFTB bridges and MV²⁺. The results demonstrate that functionalization of MOF by cation exchange without perturbing the crystallinity extends possibilities to achieve switchable materials.     

Adaptive Bifunctional Electrocatalyst of Amorphous CoFe Oxide @ 2D Black Phosphorus for Overall Water Splitting

Water electrolysis offers a promising green technology to tackle the global energy and environmental crisis, but its efficiency is greatly limited by the sluggish reaction kinetics of both the cathodic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER). In this work, by growing amorphous multi-transition-metal (cobalt and iron) oxide on two-dimensional (2D) black phosphorus (BP), we develop a bifunctional electrocatalyst (CoFeO@BP), which is able to efficiently catalyze both HER and OER. The overpotentials for the hybrid CoFeO@BP catalyst to reach a current density of 10 mA cm⁻² in 1 m KOH are 88 and 266 mV for HER and OER, respectively. Based on a series of ex-situ and in situ investigations, the excellent catalytic performance of CoFeO@BP is found to result from the adaptive surface structure under reduction and oxidation potentials. CoFeO@BP can be transformed to CoFe phosphide under reduction potential, in situ generating the real active catalyst for HER.     

Intrinsic Apyrase-Like Activity of Cerium-Based Metal–Organic Frameworks (MOFs): Dephosphorylation of Adenosine Tri- and Diphosphate

Apyrase is an important family of extracellular enzymes that catalyse the hydrolysis of high-energy phosphate bonds (HEPBs) in ATP and ADP, thereby modulating many physiological processes and driving life activities. Herein, we report an unexpected discovery that cerium-based metal–organic frameworks (Ce-MOFs) of UiO-66(Ce) have intrinsic apyrase-like activity for ATP/ADP-related physiological processes. The abundant Ce^III/Ce^IV couple sites of Ce-MOFs endow them with the ability to selectively catalyse the hydrolysis of HEPBs of ATP and ADP under physiological conditions. Compared to natural enzymes, they could resist extreme pH and temperature, and present a broad range of working conditions. Based on this finding, a significant inhibitory effect on ADP-induced platelet aggregation was observed upon exposing the platelet-rich plasma (PRP) to the biomimetic UiO-66(Ce) films, prefiguring their wide application potentials in medicine and biotechnology.     

Effect of the topology on the antibacterial activity of cationic polythioether synthesized by all-click chemistry

Cationic compounds often serve as antibacterial materials for a wide range of applications. However, the relationship of topology−antibacterial activity has been rarely revealed. Herein, three cationic polythioethers (CPTEs) with hyperbranched topologies are well designed and facilely synthesized via an all-click chemistry strategy (including thiol-ene and epoxy-amine additions). These as-prepared CPTEs were found to exhibited outstanding antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus with minimum inhibitory concentrations against E. coli of 7.3, 14.6, and 14.6 μg ml⁻¹, and against S. aureus of 14.6, 29.2, and 29.2 μg ml⁻¹, respectively. The antibacterial activity is coincident with their degree of branching (DB, their DB values of 0.81, 0.48, and 0.27), which is mainly attributed to the inherent three-dimensional structure. The present strategy reveals the relationship of polymer topology and antibacterial activity, providing a novel possibility for designing and/or synthesis of high-efficiency antibacterial agents.     

Vapor-assisted epitaxial growth of porphyrin-based MOF thin film for nonlinear optical limiting

Fabrication of metal-organic frameworks(MOFs) thin films has been an efficient way to expand their functionalities and applications. Here, we use the vapor-assisted deposition(VAD) method to epitaxially grow a porphyrin-based MOF PCN-222 film. That is, vapor source assists to deposit pre-treated precursor solution on quartz substrate to form a continuous PCN-222 film. Furthermore, utilizing the post-treated encapsulation of functional carbon-based nanoparticles, the carbon nanodots(CND)and Pt doped CND(Pt/CND) are well loaded into the pores of PCN-222 film, the size(～3.1 nm) of which is highly close to the pore size of the corresponding MOF(～3.7 nm). The Z-scan results reveal that PCN-222 film exhibits high reverse saturable absorption. In addition, encapsulation of carbon based nanodots into PCN-222 film could enhance the nonlinear optical limiting effect benefiting from the host-guest combination. This study serves to present both the available toolbox of thin film preparation and high potential for precise synthetic nanocomposite films in optical limiting devices.     

An efficient stereoselective synthesis of aminocyclohexenes from 7-azanorbornenes via LiAlH4 mediated tandem double bond migration-ring opening sequence

hNav1.7 had received great interest in the past decade owing to its attractive mechanism of actions in pain processing pathway. More recently, we developed a series of efficacious hNav1.7 inhibitors for analgesic, which were characterized with a novel aminocyclohexene as pharmacophore. Herein, we reported our synthetic efforts to construct the unique scaffold, which can be rapidly accessed from readily available 7-azanorbornenes via an unexpected catalyst-free, LiAlH₄ mediated tandem double bond migration-ring opening sequence. A probable mechanism was proposed to illuminate the good regio- and stereoselectivity.     

Anisotropic dc conductivity of pentagonal quasicrystals

The dc conductivity in the system with a fivefold rotational symmetry in theX-Y plane (QC plane) but having periodicity along theZ direction (C axis) are theoretically investigated from Kubo formula using the recursion method. Numerical results are suggestive of a metallic behavior for the dc conductivity in theQC plane as well as along theC direction, but these two kinds of dc conductivity are anisotropic in magnitude.     

低能离子注入宫颈癌细胞的红外光谱分析

利用离子注入机所产生的低能N+模仿宇宙中低能离子作用于人宫颈癌细胞(HeLa cell),探索其对人类细胞的影响及作用机制。因实验中的低能离子产生和加速要在真空中进行,细胞在离子注入同时将受到真空的影响,为此研究人员利用石蜡油保护细胞以防止注入时的水份蒸发。注入处理完毕后收集细胞,采用傅里叶变换红外光谱法(FTIR)分析真空和低能N+束注入后细胞中大分子的相对含量、构型及其构象变化等方面的信息。结果表明：(1)不同处理后的样品在3 300 cm-1附近吸收谱带存在明显差异。对照样品的特征峰位为3 300 cm-1,而其他样品中除了注入5×1014 N+·cm-2外,红外吸收峰均向长波数方向移动,真空2×1015 N+·cm-2样品的频移尤为明显至3 420 cm-1处。(2)与对照样品相比较,各处理样品的1 378 cm-1处吸收峰峰位均向长波数方向频移。(3)处理样品相对于对照样品而言,2 360 cm-1处吸收峰均向长波数方向移动。该结果说明低能离子注入处理可以引起细胞中核酸、蛋白的含量和构象变化。     

Superhydrophobic surfaces fabricated by microstructuring of stainless steel using a femtosecond laser

Fabrication of superhydrophobic surfaces induced by femtosecond laser is a research hotspot of superhydrophobic surface studies nowadays. We present a simple and easily-controlled method for fabricating stainless steel-based superhydrophobic surfaces. The method consists of microstructuring stainless steel surfaces by irradiating samples with femtosecond laser pulses and silanizing the surfaces. By low laser fluence, we fabricated typical laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) on the submicron level. The apparent contact angle (CA) on the surface is 150.3°. With laser fluence increasing, we fabricated periodic ripples and periodic cone-shaped spikes on the micron scale, both covered with LIPSS. The stainless steel-based surfaces with micro- and submicron double-scale structure have higher apparent CAs. On the surface of double-scale structure, the maximal apparent CA is 166.3° and at the same time, the sliding angle (SA) is 4.2°.     

Kp,q-factorization of complete bipartite graphs

Let K_(m,n) be a complete bipartite graph with two partite sets having m and nvertices, respectively. A K_(p,q)-factorization of K_(m,n) is a set of edge-disjoint K_(p,q)-factorsof K_(m,n) which partition the set of edges of K_(m,n). When p=i and q is a prime number,Wang, in his paper "On K_(1,k)-factorizations of a complete bipartite graph" (Discrete Math,1994, 126; 359-364), investigated the K_(1,q)-factorization of K_(m,n) and gave a sufficientcondition for such a factorization to exist. In the paper "K_(1,k)-factorizations of completebipartite graphs" (Discrete Math, 2002, 259: 301-306), Du and Wang extended Wang'sresult to the case that q is any positive integer In this paper, we give a sufficient conditionfor K_(m,n) to have a K_(p,q)-factorization. As a special case, it is shown that the Martin's BACconjecture is true when p: q=k: (k+1) for any positive integer k.