Determination of Synthetic Phenolic Antioxidants in Vegetable Oil and Oil-Enriched Foods by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography with Electrochemical Detection

Three synthetic phenolic antioxidants, tertiary butyl hydroquinone, butylated hydroxytoluene, and butylated hydroxyanisole, were determined in vegetable oil and oil-enriched food by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with electrochemical detection. The separation was achieved using a reverse-phase column and gradient elution with methanol and 1% acetic acid. The limits of detection and quantification of the analytes were 2–120 lower, higher than those obtained by diode-array detection. The recoveries were 103.3% for tertiary butyl hydroquinone, 97.3% for butylated hydroxyanisole, and 95.2% for butylated hydroxytoluene. The results showed that HPLC with electrochemical detection is suitable for the quantification of low concentrations of phenolic antioxidants in vegetable oil and oil-enriched food with high sensitivity and accuracy.     

Bienzyme-based visual and spectrophotometric aptamer assay for quantitation of nanomolar levels of mercury(II)

The article describes a bienzyme visual system for aptamer-based assay of Hg(II) at nanomolar levels. The detection scheme is based on the finding that Hg(II) ions captured by aptamer-functionalized magnetic beads are capable of inhibiting the enzymatic activity of uricase and thus affect the formation of H₂O₂ and the blue product, i.e., oxidized tetramethylbenzidine. This strategy allows for a visual detection of Hg(II) at nanomolar levels without additional amplification procedure. Measuring the absorbance at 650 nm, the logarithmic calibration plot is linear in the concentration range of 0.5–50 nM and the limit of detection (LOD) is 0.15 nM. This is as low as the LOD obtained by atomic fluorescence spectrometry (AFS). The ions K⁺, Mg²⁺, Na⁺, Ca²⁺, Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺, Fe³⁺, Al³⁺, Co²⁺, AsO₂ ^?, Ni²⁺, Cd²⁺ and Pb²⁺ do not have a significant effect on color formation. The method was applied to the analysis of (spiked) river water, lake water, mineral water, tap water and certified reference water samples, and the results agreed well with those obtained by AFS or certified values, with recoveries ranging from 97% to 109%. The relative standard deviation for five parallel detections at a 10 nM Hg(II) level is 5.2%.

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Graphical abstract A bienzyme-based visual aptasensor was fabricated for label-free detection of nanomolar Hg²⁺ in water samples without any amplification or enrichment procedure.

     

Carbon dots doped with heteroatoms for fluorescent bioimaging: a review

Carbon dots (CDs) possess superior fluorescent properties in that they do not blink, are biocompatible, chemically inert, have small size and well tunable photoluminescence (PL), can be easily functionalized with biomolecules, and can be multi-photon excited to give up-converted PL. This review (with 141 refs.) summarizes recent progress in the field of imaging using carbon dots doped with heteroatoms (X-CDs). Following an introduction, we discuss top-down and bottom-up strategies for synthesis and methods for surface modification. We also compare the differences in synthesis for undoped CDs and X-CDs. Specifically, CDs doped with heteroelemets nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, selenium, boron and silicium are treated. We then discuss method for determination of the properties (particle size, ZP), how doping affects fluorescence (spectra, quantum yields, decay times), and how dopants affect upconversion (UC, anti-Stokes luminescence). We finally review the progress made in fluorescent imaging of cells tissue, and other biomatter. This review also gives new hints on how to use synthetic methods for tuning the structure of X-CDs, how doping affects properties, and how to achieve new bioimaging applications.

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Graphical abstract Carbon dots doped with heteroatoms (X-CDs) are a kind of fluorescent nanomaterials that display bright fluorescence, high quantum yield, photostability, biocompatibility and low toxicity. Hence, they possess large potential for both in-vitro and in-vivo bioimaging.

     

Synthesis and effect on SMMC-7721 cells of new benzo[c,d]indole rhodanine complex merocyanines as PDT photosensitizers

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) represents a modern and noninvasive therapeutic approach, however, it relies on the development of photosensitizers. Here five new benzo[c,d]indole rhodamine complex merocyanines (BIRCM) D1-D5, displaying low dark toxicity and significant photo toxicity, were synthesized as PDT photosensitizers, and characterized by ¹H NMR, IR, UV–Vis and HRMS. The investigation of their absorption spectra in different solvents showed that the absorption maxima and molar extinction coefficient were in the region 507–679 nm and 0.21 × 10⁴–1.27 × 10⁵ L · mol^?1cm^?1, respectively. The evaluation of PDT activity showed that only irradiation could not kill SMMC-7721 cells, and the cell survival rate and inhibition rate at the application dose and duration was 92%–87% and 78%–49%, respectively. Especially, using D2, absorbed in the red zone, as photosensitizer for PDT analyzed its effect on SMMC-7721 cells survival, it could be found that the cell survival rate was 92% without irradiating and the cell inhibited rate was 78% under irradiating at concentrations of 2.5 × 10^?6 mol/L, displaying low dark toxicity and high photo toxicity, which was valuable for PDT of some microvascular diseases or other superficial diseases.     

Hydrogen evolution assisted deposition of a three-dimensional porous nickel film for the electrocatalytic oxidation of histamine

Microchimica Acta - The authors describe an electrochemical sensor for ultrasensitive voltammetric of histamine (HA) by using a gold electrode that was modified with a film consisting of...     

Intermolecular H···O═C bonds induced 2D self‐assembly of thiophene based diketopyrrolopyrrole derivative

Compounds with diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) and thiophene moieties have attracted considerable attention because of their promising charge transport properties. The molecular conformation and self‐assembly of 2,5‐dihexadecyl‐3,6‐di(thiophen‐2‐yl)‐2,5‐dihydropyrrolo[3,4‐c]pyrrole‐1,4‐dione (TDPP‐C16) molecule have been investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy and density functional theory alculation. The TDPP‐C16 molecules adsorb with their optimized S‐shaped conformation and form a zipper‐like pattern on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite surface. R and S rotated structures are observed. The nanostructure is dominated by intermolecular double hydrogen bonds between C═O of the DPP units and hydrogen atom of thiophene rings in the neighboring molecules in each row. Atomic force microscopy and density functional theory calculation also display the existence of strong intermolecular hydrogen bonding. The results provide molecular evidence for the intermolecular interactions of the surface structure, which could benefit to the design of the organic semiconducting materials and understanding of underlying principle of charge transfer process. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

狭窄流道中Fahraeus效应研究进展

本文详细论述了毛细管和二维狭缝中流过血液时的Fahraeus效应研究历史及现状,给出了迄今为止得到的全部结论,并报道了笔者对狭缝缝隙中Fahraeus效应研究的最新进展。本文所涉及的内容对于微循环的理论与应用以至有关流变学仪器的设计优化都有重要意义。     

Density Functional Study of Two Seven-Membered Unconventional Fullerenes C58F17CF3 and C58F18

The density functional method is used to study the structure, electronic properties, static linear polarizabilities, and optical absorption spectra of two seven‐membered unconventional fullerene derivatives C₅₈F₁₇CF₃ and C₅₈F₁₈. It is calculated that three sites chosen to locate the CF₃ are isoenergetic. The energy gaps of C₅₈F₁₈ and C₅₈F₁₇CF₃ are much larger than that of C₅₈, indicating the fluorination and trifluoromethylation of C₅₈ can remarkably enhance the kinetic stability. The density of states explore that the influence of CF₃ to the energy levels is mainly distributed in the energy range from ?10 to ?2 eV. However, when the CF₃ substitutes for F in C₅₈F₁₈, the bond lengths, energy gaps, static linear polarizabilities, and optical absorption spectra all show small variety.     

Isolation of lignosulfonate with low polydispersity index

<正>Lignosulfonate with low polydispersity index of 1.178-1.210 was isolated by gel column chromatography of Sephacryl S-100 eluted with 0.2 mol/L of NaNO_3 aqueous solution,whereas nearly monodisperse ligosulfonate fraction with polydispersity of 1.0(57 can be obtained after chromatographic separation twice.This method provides an available approach to investigate the structure and characteristics of lignosulfonate.     

Determination of Intracellular Concentration of Acyl-Coenzyme A Esters for Metabolic Profiling Clostridium acetobutylicum

A method for determination of intracellular acyl‐coenzyme A esters in Clostridium acetobutylicum (CA) by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was developed and validated. In our experiment, two important intermediates acyl‐coenzyme A esters including acetyl‐CoA, butyryl‐CoA could be baseline separated on a Zobax‐C18 column with mobile phase composed of the acetonitrile and phosphate buffer (pH 5.0). Samples treated with freeze‐thaw and protein precipitated by addition of trichloroacetic acid could be directly injected for determination of acetyl‐CoA, butyryl‐CoA with a recovery higher than 73%. With this method, the metabolite profiling of the acyl‐coenzyme A esters of CA was obtained. The comparison of the metabolite profiling between the model strain ATCC 824 and a mutant strain EA 2018, which produces higher butanol than the former was performed. Some useful information was concluded for understanding the mechanism of CA for selectively producing the solvent.