Porphyrin‐containing Polyimide with Enhanced Light Absorption and Photocatalysis Activity

A series of porphyrin‐containing polyimide (PI) photocatalysts were synthesized by a one‐step solvothermal method. Characterization results revealed that porphyrin was uniformly coupled into the PI framework through covalent bonding and the visible‐light absorption was greatly improved. The photodegradation activity of porphyrin‐containing PIs for methyl orange (MO) under visible light was enhanced significantly, with the highest pseudo‐first‐order rate constant 35 times higher than that of neat porphyrin and 10 times higher than that of porphyrin‐free PI. The enhancement is mainly attributed to an increased light harvesting accompanied by a varied HOMO level, which was clarified by control experiments, characterizations and theoretical calculations. This work provides an insight into multiple effects of dye molecules in dye‐containing heterogeneous photocatalysts.     

Collective sustained oscillations in excitable small-world networks: the moderate fundamental loop or the minimum Winfree loop?

Nonlinear Dynamics - The problem of self-sustained oscillations in excitable complex networks is the central issue under investigation, among which the exploration of the key factors in determining...     

Strain glass behaviour of Ni–Co–Mn–Sn ferromagnetic shape memory alloys

We report the direct experimental observations of the glassy behaviour in Ni–Co–Mn–Sn ferromagnetic shape memory alloys by doping sufficient substitutional point defect Co into the Ni sites (9 at%). The results showed that high level of Co doping had caused the complete suppression of the martensitic transformation and introduction of a strain glass transition in Ni–Co–Mn–Sn alloys. The strain glass transition was definitively characterized by the dynamic mechanical anomalies following the Vogel–Fulcher relationship and the signature nonergodicity of the frozen glass using a zero‐field‐cooled/field‐cooled heating measurement of static strain. The findings clarified the cause of vanishing of the martensitic transformation in Ni–Co–Mn–Sn alloy with high Co doping levels and the generality of glassy state in Ni–Mn based ferromagnetic shape memory alloys with high level of foreign elements doping. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

低渗透储层流体非线性渗流机理及特征分析

基于微尺度渗流效应,分析了低渗透油藏非线性渗流机理,根据力学平衡方程和压汞实验数据,建立了低渗透储层流体非线性渗流数学模型,分析了非线性渗流特征,并引入动态阻力梯度概念,实现对低渗储层非线性渗流的动态表征。结果表明,边界层、流体屈服应力、边界流体体相流体间的表面力对低渗透渗流形成的附加阻力,是非线性渗流的主要原因;非线性渗流特征在不同的驱替压力梯度下一直存在,在低驱替压力梯度下明显,高驱替压力梯度下弱化;采用动态阻力梯度代替启动压力梯度对非线性渗流进行表征更加合理;随着驱替压力梯度的增加,动态驱替梯度曲线特征为先从一个比较高初始值瞬间降落,之后逐渐增大;动态阻力梯度与驱替压力梯度的比值先增大后减小。     

Semiconductor SERS on Colourful Substrates with Fabry-Pérot Cavities

Non-metallic materials have emerged as a new family of active substrates for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), with unique advantages over their metal counterparts. However, owing to their inefficient interaction with the incident wavelength, the Raman enhancement achieved with non-metallic materials is considerably lower with respect to the metallic ones. Herein, we propose colourful semiconductor-based SERS substrates for the first time by utilizing a Fabry-Pérot cavity, which realize a large freedom in manipulating light. Owing to the delicate adjustment of the absorption in terms of both frequency and intensity, resonant absorption can be achieved with a variety of non-metal SERS substrates, with the sensitivity further enhanced by ≈100 times. As a typical example, by introducing a Fabry-Pérot-type substrate fabricated with SiO₂/Si, a rather low detection limit of 10⁻¹⁶ M for the SARS-CoV-2S protein is achieved on SnS₂. This study provides a realistic strategy for increasing SERS sensitivity when semiconductors are employed as SERS substrates.     

Design,Synthesis, and Cytotoxic Activity of Novel Natural Arylsulfonamide-Inspired Molecules

Primary arylsulfonamide functional groups feature prominently in diverse pharmaceuticals. However, natural arylsulfonamides are relatively infrequent. In this work, two novel arylsulfonamide natural products were first synthesized, and then a series of novel molecules derived from natural arylsulfonamides were designed and synthesized, and their in vitro cytotoxic activities against A875, HepG2, and MARC145 cell lines were systematically evaluated. The results indicate that some of these arylsulfonamide derivatives exhibit significantly good cytotoxic activity against the tested cell lines compared with the control 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), such as compounds 10l, 10p, 10q, and 10r. In particular, the potential molecule 10q, containing a carbazole moiety, exhibited the highest inhibitory activity against all tested cell lines, with IC₅₀ values of 4.19 ± 0.78, 3.55 ± 0.63, and 2.95 ± 0.78 μg/mL, respectively. This will offer the potential to discover novel drug-like compounds from the sparsely populated area of natural products that can lead to effective anticancer agents.     

Total synthesis of crisamicin A

Stereoselective total synthesis of natural product crisamicin A (1) was accomplished for the first time via the Pd/TMTU-catalyzed alkoxycarbonylative annulation to generate a unique cis-pyran-fused lactone, an intermolecular Diels-Alder reaction to construct the pyranonaphthoquinone unit, and a novel Pd-thiourea pincer complex-catalyzed homocoupling of functionalized naphthoquinones.     

A new Li-Al-N-H system for reversible hydrogen storage

Complex metal hydrides are considered as a class of candidate materials for hydrogen storage. Lithium-based complex hydrides including lithium alanates (LiAlH(4) and Li(3)AlH(6)) are among the most promising materials owing to its high hydrogen content. In the present work, we investigated dehydrogenation/rehydrogenation reactions of a combined system of Li(3)AlH(6) and LiNH(2). Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) of Li(3)AlH(6)/3LiNH(2)/4 wt % TiCl(3)-(1)/(3)AlCl(3) mixtures indicated that a large amount of hydrogen (approximately 7.1 wt %) can be released between 150 degrees C and 300 degrees C under a heating rate of 5 degrees C/min in two dehydrogenation reaction steps. The results also show that the dehydrogenation reaction of the new material system is nearly 100% reversible under 2000 psi pressure hydrogen at 300 degrees C. Further, a short-cycle experiment has demonstrated that the new combined material system of alanates and amides can maintain its hydrogen storage capacity upon cycling of the dehydrogenation/rehydrogenation reactions.     

Understanding the structural properties of a dendrimeric material directly from powder X-ray diffraction data

Complete structure determination of an early-generation dendrimeric material has been carried out directly from powder X-ray diffraction data, using the direct-space genetic algorithm technique for structure solution followed by Rietveld refinement. This work represents the first application of modern direct-space techniques for structure determination from powder X-ray diffraction data in the case of a dendrimeric material and paves the way for the future application of this approach to enable complete structure determination of other dendrimeric materials that cannot be prepared as single crystal samples suitable for single crystal X-ray diffraction studies.