Identification and analysis of alkaloids in cortex Phellodendron amurense by high‐performance liquid chromatography with electrospray ionization mass spectrometry coupled with photodiode array detection

Alkaloids from Cortex Phellodendron amurense Rupr. were identified to determine the material basis for the bioactivity of this herb. HPLC–ESI‐MS with photodiode array detection coupled to XCharge C₁₈ column was applied to analyze the alkaloids qualitatively and quantitatively. A total of 37 alkaloids were identified and tentatively characterized from the ethanol extract by online ESI‐MSⁿ fragmentation and UV spectral analysis. A total of ten alkaloids, including four novel natural products, were tentatively identified for the first time in P. amurense. The fragmentation pathways for certain compounds were analyzed. The contents of a pair of isomers (columbamine and jatrorrhizine) and four main alkaloids (phellodendrine, magnoflorine, berberine, and palmatine) were simultaneously quantified using the aforementioned method. Results showed that the newly discovered and known components of P. amurense were helpful in determining the material basis for the bioactivity of the herb. The application of the XCharge C₁₈ column is a suitable and practical method for the isolation of alkaloids in plants.     

Retention behavior of a homologous series and positional isomers of aliphatic amino acids in hydrophilic interaction chromatography

The retention behavior of several series of free α‐ and ω‐amino acids and positional isomers of amino pentanoic acid in the hydrophilic interaction chromatography mode (HILIC) was studied. The study was carried out on three stationary phases followed by post‐column derivatization with fluorescence detection in order to describe the retention mechanism of the tested amino acids. The effect of chromatographic conditions including acetonitrile content in the mobile phase, mobile phase pH (ranging from 3.5 to 6.5) and concentration of buffer in the mobile phase was investigated. The effect of the number of carbon atoms (n_C) in aliphatic chains of the individual homologue of α‐ and ω‐amino acids and the logarithm of the partition coefficient (logD) on retention was also a part of the presented study. A good correlation (r > 0.98) between the logk and logD values of amino acids or n_C, respectively, was observed. The described linear relationships were subsequently applied to predict the retention behavior of individual members of the homologous series of amino acids and to optimize the mobile phase composition in HILIC. The obtained results confirmed that the retention mechanism of α‐amino acids, ω‐amino acids and positional isomers of amino acids was based on the logD values and the number of carbon atoms in the aliphatic chains of amino acids. The elution order of ω‐amino acids and positional isomers of amino pentanoic acid was strongly dependent on the mobile phase pH in the investigated range whereas the retention factors of all α‐amino acids remained essentially unchanged on all tested stationary phases.     

Ionic liquid-modified magnetic polymeric microspheres as dispersive solid phase extraction adsorbent: a separation strategy applied to the screening of sulfamonomethoxine and sulfachloropyrazine from urine

Ionic liquid-modified magnetic polymeric microspheres (ILMPM) were prepared based on Fe₃O₄ magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) and ionic liquids (ILs) incorporated into a polymer. The composites were characterized using scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared analysis, thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction, and vibrating magnetometer, which indicated that ILMPM had a regularly spherical shape and strong magnetic property. The obtained ILMPM were successfully applied as a special adsorbent of magnetic dispersive solid phase extraction (MDSPE) for the rapid extraction and isolation of sulfamonomethoxine sodium and sulfachloropyrazine sodium in urine. The factors that affected extraction efficiency, such as adsorption conditions, desorption conditions, washing and elution solvents, and pH of the sample solution, were optimized. Under the optimum condition, good linearity in the range of 0.005–2.0 μg g^?1 (r?≥?0.9996) was obtained for the two sulfonamides (SAs); the average recoveries at three spiked levels ranged from 86.9 to 102.1 %, with relative standard deviations of ≤4.3 %. The presented ILMPM-MDSPE method combined the advantages of ILs, MNPs, and MDSPE and therefore could be potentially applied for rapid screening of SAs in urine.     

On the molecular mechanism of ion specific Hofmeister series

Hofmeister series ranks the ability of salt ions in influencing a variety of properties and processes in aqueous solutions.In this review,we reexamine how these ions and some other small molecules affect water structure and thermodynamic properties,such as surface tension and protein backbone solvation.We illustrate the difficulties in interpreting the thermodynamic information based on structural and dynamic arguments.As an alternative,we show that the solvation properties of ions and proteins/small molecules can be used to explain the salt effects on the thermodynamic properties of the solutions.Our analysis shows that the often neglected cation-anion cooperativity plays a very important role in these effects.We also argue that the change of hydrogen donor/acceptor equilibrium by added cosolutes/cosolvents can be used to explain their effects on protein secondary structure denaturation/protection:those increase hydrogen donor concentrations such as urea and salts with strongly solvated cations/weakly hydrated anions tend to dissolve protein backbone acting as secondary structure denaturants,whereas those lack of hydrogen donors but rich in acceptors have the opposite effect.     

Clickable SBA‐15 to Screen Functional Groups for Adsorption of Antibiotics

Pharmaceutical antibiotics, as emerging contaminants, are usually composed of several functional groups that endow them with the ability to interact with adsorbents through different interactions. This makes the preparation of adsorbents tedious and time‐consuming to screen appropriate functionalized materials. Herein, we describe the synthesis of clickable SBA‐15 and demonstrate its feasibility as a screening material for the adsorption of antibiotics based on similar adsorption trends on materials with similar functional groups obtained by a click reaction and cocondensation/grafting methods.     

Asymmetric Michael Addition/Intramolecular Cyclization Catalyzed by Bifunctional Tertiary Amine–Squaramides: Construction of Chiral 2‐Amino‐4H‐chromene‐3‐Carbonitrile Derivatives

The efficient asymmetric Michael addition/intramolecular cyclization of malononitrile with dienones catalyzed by a chiral bifunctional tertiary amine–squaramide catalyst for the synthesis of chiral 2‐amino‐4H‐chromene‐3‐carbonitrile derivatives was developed. The corresponding products were obtained in good to excellent yields (up to 99 %) with excellent enantioselectivities (up to 98 % ee) for most of the bisarylidenecyclopentanones.     

Comparison of Loading Efficiency between Hyperbranched Polymers and Cross‐Linked Nanogels at Various Branching Densities

The effect of branching point structures and densities is studied between azido‐containing hyperbranched polymers and cross‐linked nanogels on their loading efficiency of alkynyl‐containing dendron molecules. Hyperbranched polymers that contained “T”‐shaped branching linkage from which three chains radiated out and cross‐linked nanogels that contained “X”‐shaped branching linkage with four radiating chains are synthesized in microemulsion using either atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) or conventional radical polymerization (RP) technique. Both polymers have similar density of azido groups in the structure and exhibit similar hydrodynamic diameter in latexes before purification. Subsequent copper‐catalyzed azide–alkyne cycloaddition reactions between these polymers and alkynyl‐containing dendrons in various sizes (G1–G3) demonstrate an order of dendron loading efficiencies (i.e., final conversion of alkynyl‐containing dendron) as hyperbranched polymers > nanogels synthesized by ATRP > nanogels synthesized by RP. Decreasing the branching density or using smaller dendron molecules increases the click efficiency of both polymers. When G2 dendrons with a molecular weight of 627 Da are used to click with the hyperbranched polymers composed of 100% inimer, a maximum loading efficiency of G2 in the loaded hyperbranched polymer is 58% of G2 by weight. These results represent the first comparison between hyperbranched polymers and cross‐linked nanogels to explore the effect of branching structures on their loading efficiencies.

     

Well‐Defined High Molecular Weight Polystyrene with High Rates and High Livingness Synthesized via Two‐Stage RAFT Emulsion Polymerization

A highly living polymer with over 100 kg mol⁻¹ molecular weight is very difficult to achieve by controlled radical polymerization since the unavoidable side reactions of irreversible radical termination and radical chain transfer to monomer reaction become significant. It is reported that over 500 kg mol⁻¹ polystyrene with high livingness and low dispersity could be synthesized by a facile two‐stage reversible addition–fragmentation transfer emulsion polymerization. The monomer conversion reaches 90% within 10 h. High livingness of the product is ascribed to the extremely low initiator concentration and the chain transfer constant for monomer unexpectedly much lower than the well‐accepted values in the conventional radical polymerization. The two‐stage monomer feeding policy much decreases the dispersity of the product.

     

Ultrabroadband superoscillatory lens composed by plasmonic metasurfaces for subdiffraction light focusing

Conventional optics is diffraction limited due to the cutoff of spatial frequency components, and evanescent waves allow subdiffraction optics at the cost of complex near‐field manipulation. Recently, optical superoscillatory phenomena were employed to realize superresolution lenses in the far field, but suffering from very narrow working wavelength band due to the fragility of the superoscillatory light field. Here, an ultrabroadband superoscillatory lens (UBSOL) is proposed and realized by utilizing the metasurface‐assisted law of refraction and reflection in arrayed nanorectangular apertures with variant orientations. The ultrabroadband feature mainly arises from the nearly dispersionless phase profile of transmitted light through the UBSOL for opposite circulation polarization with respect to the incident light. It is demonstrated in experiments that subdiffraction light focusing behavior holds well with nearly unchanged focal patterns for wavelengths spanning across visible and near‐infrared light. This method is believed to find promising applications in superresolution microscopes or telescopes, high‐density optical data storage, etc.

     

Unveiling the correlation between non‐diffracting tractor beam and its singularity in Poynting vector

This paper investigates the singular optics of nonparaxial light beams in the near field when the light behaves as a tractor beam. New insights into the optical pulling force, which is usually represented by integrating the stress tensor at a black box enclosing the object, are interpreted by the optical singularity of the Poynting vector. The negative nonconservative pulling force originates from the transfer of the azimuthal Poynting vector to the longitudinal component partly owing to the presence of a scatterer. The separatrice pattern and singularity shifts of the Poynting vector unanimously exhibit a differentiable near‐field distribution in the presence of optical pulling force. A new method is established to calculate the near‐field optical force using the differential Poynting vector in the far field. The results obtained provide a clear physical interpretation of the light–matter interaction and manifest the significance of singular optics in manipulating objects.