铁基分子筛活性位点的制备控制及对NH3-SCR活性的影响

采用离子交换法,通过不同制备条件制备Fe-beta分子筛,并探讨不同制备条件对催化剂活性位点和NH3-SCR活性的影响。通过UV-Vis分析,将不同位置的吸收峰归属于不同的铁活性位点,300nm以下的高能谱区可以归属于孤立的Fe3+位点,300nm-400nm间归属于低聚的FexOy簇,而400nm以上为Fe2O3大颗粒聚合物。对比不同催化剂的SCR活性发现,孤立的Fe3+和低聚态的Fe3+是主要的活性位点,这两种物种的所占比例高低直接影响了催化剂的活性。而大尺度的Fe2O3为非活性位点,因尽量控制并降低其所占比例。另外低聚态的Fe3+所占比例越高,N2O的生成量越高,N2的选择性越差。因此,在制备过程中,除了控制大尺度的Fe2O3的含量,同时要尽量降低低聚态的Fe3+的含量,以增加N2的选择性。采用离子交换法制备Fe-beta催化剂,pH、交换温度、前驱体种类、硅铝比、煅烧条件等制备条件会对Fe-beta的活性位点造成影响,从而导致活性差异。根据实际应用需求,调控制备条件,可有效控制活性物种的分布,制备具有高效NH3-SCR活性的铁基分子筛催化剂。     

基础理论纵贯化学学科:吉林大学“统计力学与分子模拟”课程建设*

化学的基础理论的演进不断重塑着化学学科。传统的教学体系所依据的理论范式落后于现代化学理论的发展。吉林大学化学学院面向本科学生开设了“统计力学与分子模拟”课程。针对吉林大学本科学生的特点,精心安排了教学内容,通盘考虑知识体系的衔接,优化了教学方法。同时,淬炼了课程中的思政元素,从而在思想、道德、知识等3个方面进一步提升学生的综合素质。     

Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor curcumin upregulates mitochondrial uncoupling protein1 (UCP1) and mitochondrial function in brown adipocytes,in-silico study and screening natural drug library

Mitochondrial dysfunction has been associated with diverse pathological conditions globally. Specifically, in adipose tissues, mitochondrial dysfunction is the primary cause of obesity and obesity-related illnesses. An existing drugs such as atorvastatin and other lipid-lowering drugs demonstrated adverse effects and initiated other diseases. Thus, we need to explore new methods to prevent and treat obesity. In this study, we used the cell screening method to identify several natural compounds that increase adipocyte UCP1 gene expression. The identified drug Curcumin was evaluated in cell models and the In-silico model. We found curcumin is an active compound of turmeric belonging to Zingiberaceae (ginger family), which activates the Nrf2 mechanism. Curcumin potentially endorses the expression of UCP1 in the brown adipocyte in vitro cellular model. Curcumin plays an important role that modulating mitochondrial function and improving mitochondrial DNA quantification, ATP production, and cell viability. We have established an efficient in vitro cell experiment system to study the metabolic regulation of UCP1. The in-silico model revealed curcumin-UCP1 interaction. Curcumin, via enhancing mitochondrial activity, could be a helpful therapeutic molecule against metabolic disorders or obesity-related diseases. Curcumin will be the subject of more research in both human and murine models, which will provide novel therapeutic pathways for the treatment of metabolic illnesses by modulating the control of mitochondrial function.     

吸电子和亲水性Co-卟啉促进电催化氧还原反应的研究

研究影响电催化氧还原反应活性的因素对于合理设计高效的氧还原反应催化剂至关重要。调节催化剂电子结构通常被用于精确调控电催化氧还原反应活性。然而, 该反应发生在液/气/固界面, 很少有报道调控分子催化剂的亲疏水性来提高其催化活性。在此, 我们报道了两种钴卟啉NO₂-CoP（5,10,15,20-四（4-硝基苯基）钴卟啉）和5F-CoP（5,10,15,20-四（五氟苯基）钴卟啉）并研究了其电催化氧还原反应性能。通过同时调控meso-位取代基的电子结构和亲水性能, NO₂-CoP显示出比5F-CoP更高的电催化氧还原反应活性, 其半波电位向阳极方向移动近60 mV。NO₂-CoP比5F-CoP具有更好的亲水性。理论计算表明, NO₂-CoP比5F-CoP更容易有效地与O₂分子结合形成Co^III-O₂^·-。这项工作提供了一个简单而有效的策略, 通过使用吸电子和亲水取代基来提高钴卟啉的氧还原反应活性。该策略对于设计和开发其他用于电催化的分子催化剂体系也具有重要的启发意义。     

Dynamic Simulation on Surface Hydration and Dehydration of Monoclinic Zirconia

The commonly used oxide-supported metal catalysts are usually prepared in aqueous phase, which then often need to undergo calcination before usage. Therefore, the surface hydration and dehydration of oxide supports are critical for the realistic modeling of supported metal catalysts. In this work, by ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations, the initial anhydrous monoclinic ZrO\begin{document}$_2$\end{document}(111) surfaces are evaluated within explicit solvents in aqueous phase at mild temperatures. During the simulations, all the two-fold-coordinated O sites will soon be protonated to form the acidic hydroxyls (HO\begin{document}$_{\rm{L}}$\end{document}), remaining the basic hydroxyls (HO^*) on Zr. The basic hydroxyls (HO^*) can easily diffuse on surfaces via the active proton exchange with the undissociated adsorption water (H\begin{document}$_2$\end{document}O^*). Within the temperatures ranging from 273 K to 373 K, in aqueous phase a certain representative equilibrium hydrated m-ZrO\begin{document}$_2$\end{document}(111) surface is obtained with the coverage (\begin{document}$\theta$\end{document}) of 0.75 on surface Zr atoms. Later, free energies on the stepwise surface water desorption are calculated by density functional theory to mimic the surface dehydration under the mild calcination temperatures lower than 800 K. By obtaining the phase diagrams of surface dehydration, the representative partially hydrated m-ZrO\begin{document}$_2$\end{document}(111) surfaces (0.25\begin{document}$\leq$\end{document}\begin{document}$\theta$\end{document} < 0.75) at various calcination temperatures are illustrated. These hydrated m-ZrO\begin{document}$_2$\end{document}(111) surfaces can be crucial and readily applied for more realistic modeling of ZrO\begin{document}$_2$\end{document} catalysts and ZrO\begin{document}$_2$\end{document}-supported metal catalysts.     

Effect of selected dopants on conductivity and moisture stability of Li3PS4 sulfide solid electrolyte: a first-principles study

The first principle computational screening was performed to investigate the effect of selected dopants for Li₃PS₄ sulfide solid electrolyte on its ionic conductivity and stability toward moisture. The results suggest that substitution P⁵⁺ using isovalent cations whose electronegativity (EN) value is closer to the value of S has more significant effects on the ionic conductivity, whereby W⁵⁺ and Sb⁵⁺ can improve most. Similarly, aliovalent cation substitutions with compensating changes in the lithium-ion concentration, particularly those with a lower oxidation state and higher EN, such as Cu²⁺, effectively enhance the lithium-ion conductivity in this structure. For cation dopants, it is found that ionic conductivity improvement of Li₃PS₄ is the synergetic effect of EN and oxidation number of the dopant as well as the material's lattice parameter change. Oxides of the considered cation dopants can also improve the ionic conductivity of the material but have much lower lithium-ion conductivity than the cases of cation dopants. However, the metal oxide dopants, particularly those derived from soft Lewis' acid cations, show a marginal improvement in moisture stability of the Li₃PS₄ electrolyte. The effect of halides and metal halide dopants on the lithium-ion conductivity and moisture stability of Li₃PS₄ electrolyte are also studied. It is found that metal halides are more effective than any other dopants in improving the ionic conductivity of Li₃PS₄.     

Crowned Macrocycles Containing Two Pyrrolo[1,2-a] Indoles Created By Intramolecular Fusion

Heterocyclic fused-ring systems are of utmost importance because of their presence in many natural products with biological activity. Pyrroloindoles are tricyclic heterocycles that are present in various bioactive and medicinally valuable compounds. Herein, we report the synthesis of phenylene-bridged bis-pyrrolo[1,2-a]indole crowned macrocycles 1 – 3 in which the pyrrolo[1,2-a]indole moieties were formed via intramolecular fusion. The macrocycles were thoroughly characterized by 1D and 2D NMR, HRMS and X-ray crystallographic studies. The X-ray structure revealed that the two pyrrolo[1,2-a]indole moieties were parallel to each other, and one pyrrolo[1,2-a]indole unit was deviated by an angle of 9.54° while the other pyrrolo[1,2-a]indole unit was deviated by an angle of 12.0° from the mean plane defined by 28 core atoms. The macrocycles 1 – 3 absorb in the visible region and readily undergo oxidations because of their electron rich nature. The macrocycles 1 – 3 upon treatment with trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) generates the corresponding cation radicals 1 – 3 ^.+ which were stable in the open air for a week. The cation radicals 1 – 3 ^.+ absorb strongly in the NIR region and the experimental observations on crowned macrocycles 1 – 3 were corroborated by DFT and TD-DFT studies.     

Atomistic De-novo Inhibitor Generation-Guided Drug Repurposing for SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein with Free-Energy Validation by Well-Tempered Metadynamics

Computational drug design is increasingly becoming important with new and unforeseen diseases like COVID-19. In this study, we present a new computational de novo drug design and repurposing method and applied it to find plausible drug candidates for the receptor binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19). Our study comprises three steps: atom-by-atom generation of new molecules around a receptor, structural similarity mapping to existing approved and investigational drugs, and validation of their binding strengths to the viral spike proteins based on rigorous all-atom, explicit-water well-tempered metadynamics free energy calculations. By choosing the receptor binding domain of the viral spike protein, we showed that some of our new molecules and some of the repurposable drugs have stronger binding to RBD than hACE2. To validate our approach, we also calculated the free energy of hACE2 and RBD, and found it to be in an excellent agreement with experiments. These pool of drugs will allow strategic repurposing against COVID-19 for a particular prevailing conditions.     

Elucidating the Binding Mode between Heparin and Inflammatory Cytokines by Molecular Modeling

Heparan sulfate (HS) interacts with a broad spectrum of inflammatory cytokines, thereby modulating their biological activities. It is believed that there is a structural-functional correlation between each protein and sugar sequences in the HS polysaccharides, however, the information in this regard is limited. In this study, we compared the binding of four inflammatory cytokines (CCL8, IL-1beta, IL-2 and IL-6) to immobilized heparin by an SPR analysis. To define the molecular base of the binding, we used a heparin pentasaccharide as representative structure to dock into the 3D-molecular structure of the cytokines. The results show a discrepancy in K_D values obtained by SPR analysis and theoretical calculation, pointing to the importance to apply more than one method when describing affinity between proteins and HS. By cluster analysis of the complex formed between the pentasaccharide and cytokines, we have identified several groups in heparin forming strong hydrogen bonds with all four cytokines, which is a significant finding. This molecular and conformational information should be valuable for rational design of HS/heparin-mimetics to interfere cytokine-HS interactions.