Seed‐Mediated Synthesis of Gold Tetrahedra in High Purity and with Tunable,Well‐Controlled Sizes

We report a facile synthesis of Au tetrahedra in high purity and with tunable, well‐controlled sizes via seed‐mediated growth. The success of this synthesis relies on the use of single‐crystal, spherical Au nanocrystals as the seeds and manipulation of the reaction kinetics to induce an unsymmetrical growth pattern for the seeds. In particular, the dropwise addition of a precursor solution with a syringe pump, assisted by cetyltrimethylammonium chloride and bromide at appropriate concentrations, was found to be critical to the formation of Au tetrahedra in high purity. Their sizes could be readily tuned in the range of 30–60 nm by simply varying the amount of precursor added to the reaction solution. The current strategy not only enables the synthesis of Au tetrahedra with tunable and controlled sizes but also provides a facile and versatile approach to reducing the symmetry of nanocrystals made of a face‐centered cubic lattice.     

Maintenance of residual activity of Bt toxin by using natural and synthetic dyes: a novel approach for sustainable mosquito vector control

Mosquito control protein from Bacillus thuringiensis gets inactivated with exposure to sunlight. To address this issue, the potential of synthetic and natural dye was investigated as sunlight protectants. Bt SV2 in absence of dyes when exposed to sunlight showed reduced effectiveness against the fourth instars of mosquito larvae. Whereas acriflavin, congo red and violacein were able to maintain 86.4%, 91.6% and 82.2% mosquito larvicidal efficacy of Bt SV2 against IVth instars larvae of Anopheles stephensi Meigen after exposure to sunlight. Similarly, beetroot dye, acriflavin, congo red and violacein maintained 98.4%, 97.1%, 90.8% and 70.7% larvicidal activities against Aedes aegypti Linnaeus after sunlight exposure. Prodigiosin was found to be the best photo-protectant by simultaneously protecting and enhancing Bt activity by 6.16% and 22.16% against A. stephensi and A. aegypti, respectively. Combination of dyes with Bt formulations can be a good strategy for mosquito control programmes in tropical and sub-tropical regions.     

TiO_2光催化剂的形貌与晶面调控

二氧化钛(TiO2)具有化学稳定性高、无毒、价格低廉、来源广泛及光电性能优异等优点,被广泛应用于太阳能电池和光催化等领域,尤其是在污染物的光催化降解方面,可很好地解决当前的环境污染问题。但一方面受带隙宽度限制,使其对太阳光的利用率不足5%,不能充分利用太阳光中的可见光;另一方面由于光生电子-空穴容易结合,催化效率低,从而使TiO2的实际应用受到限制。因此必须采取合适的措施,一方面要增强TiO2对可见光的吸收,提高对太阳光的利用率;另一方面要抑制光生电子-空穴的复合,提高光催化效率。目前越来越多的科学家通过控制TiO2的形貌、晶型、特殊晶面暴露等手段来提高TiO2光生电子-空穴的传输速率和光电转换效率。本文主要综述了近年来在TiO2光催化剂的特殊形貌和特殊晶面暴露等方面的研究进展,对未来的研究和发展方向作了展望。     

Static headspace‐multicapillary column with gas chromatography coupled to ion mobility spectrometry as a simple approach for the discrimination of crude and processed traditional Chinese medicines

The processing procedure can alter the nature and chemical transformation of traditional Chinese medicine to accommodate different clinical dispensing and preparation requirements. In this study, static headspace‐multicapillary column with gas chromatography coupled to ion mobility spectrometry was developed for the rapid and sensitive discrimination of crude and processed traditional Chinese medicine. Using Radix Paeoniae Alba as a traditional Chinese medicine model, the combined power of this approach was illustrated by classifying the crude and processed Radix Paeoniae Alba samples into two main categories. The contents of the main components in Radix Paeoniae Alba varied significantly. The established method could promote the use of ion mobility spectrometry in intrinsic quality control and differentiation of herbal medicines from other processed products or preparations.     

载体表面酸碱性质对无碱水溶液中Au催化的甘油氧化反应产物选择性的调控作用

甘油(GL)是一种重要的生物平台分子,通过催化选择氧化反应将其转化为具有高附加值化学品是可持续发展化学化工的重要课题之一.以Au为催化剂的GL水相选择氧化反应可以生成甘油酸(GLA)、二羟基丙酮(DHA)、羟基丙二酸(TTA)、羟基乙酸(GCA)和乳酸(LA)等多种产物.通常,该反应需要碱(NaOH)存在时才能进行,产物往往以GLA为主(选择性40%-70%),副产物主要有GCA, TTA和草酸(OA).一般认为,可溶性碱(OH-)是通过夺取GL分子中羟基上的质子而诱发反应的.尽管在Au催化的反应体系中从未检测到有甘油醛(GLD)生成, GLD和/或DHA被认为是该反应的中间物种.本课题组前期工作表明,氧化物(TiO2, Al2O3, ZrO2, CuO等)负载的纳米Au催化剂能够在无碱(无外加OH-)水溶液中选择性催化GL氧化生成DHA(而不是GLA).因此, OH-的存在与否很可能会改变水溶液中Au催化剂上GL氧化反应的途径.本文试图回答当GL的水溶液中不存在NaOH时, Au催化剂载体的表面酸碱性质是否也会对GL氧化反应的选择性产生调控作用.我们选用Mg/Al比(x)不同的MgO-Al2O3样品为Au催化剂的载体,以尿素为沉淀剂,采用沉积沉淀法制备了相应的Au/MgO-Al2O3(x)催化剂样品.采用X射线衍射、电感耦合等离子体-原子发射光谱仪、透射电镜以及N2吸附-脱附等温线等对MgO-Al2O3(x)和/或Au/MgO-Al2O3样品的物相、元素组成、Au颗粒大小以及比表面积等进行了表征分析;采用NH3和CO2程序升温脱附(TPD)分别对MgO-Al2O3(x)载体表面的酸、碱性进行了测定. NH3-TPD和CO2-TPD结果表明,随着Mg/Al比x从0增加至4.8, MgO-Al2O3(x)的表面酸量从0.94降到0.20μmol/m2,而其表面碱量却从0.05剧增至0.80μmol/m2.因此,载体中MgO含量越多或Mg/Al比越大,其酸性越弱而碱性越强.在无碱水溶液中的催化反应结果表明, Au/MgO-Al2O3(x)上GL氧化反应的主要产物为DHA, GLA以及GCA等.随着x值(催化剂表面碱性)不断增大,产物DHA的选择性从约80%下降到10%左右,而GLA的选择性却从约4%增加至约50%.当载体为酸性最强的Al2O3(x =0)时,产物DHA的选择性为最高(80%).由此可见,载体表面的酸碱性质决定了无碱水溶液中Au催化剂上的GL氧化产物的分布. 此外,当保持Au粒子的尺寸基本不变(如3.1或6.6 nm左右),而改变载体的酸碱性质时, Au/MgO-Al2O3催化GL氧化反应的活性(TOF)可相差8-9倍.本文还通过改变Au/MgO-Al2O3样品焙烧温度,制备了表面酸碱性质相同而颗粒大小不同的三个Au/MgO-Al2O3(0.2)催化剂,考察了Au粒径对GL氧化反应选择性的影响.在这三个催化剂上, Au颗粒的平均尺寸分别为2.8,3.2和6.6 nm, GL氧化反应的产物选择性近乎相同(DHA和GLA的选择性分别为65%和15%左右),但平均尺寸为6.6 nm Au粒子的催化活性(TOF)是3.2 nm Au粒子的1.6倍,2.8 nm Au粒子的2.7倍.因此,本文建立了载体表面酸碱性质与无碱水溶液中GL氧化产物选择性之间的关系,通过改变载体表面酸碱性质实现了对无碱水溶液中Au催化剂上GL氧化反应选择性的调控.尽管载体酸碱性质和Au粒子尺寸都对Au/MgO-Al2O3催化剂的本征活性有重要影响,但载体酸碱性质的影响更显著.     

Overloading control of gas chromatographic systems

Increasing the interlaboratory reproducibility of gas chromatographic retention indices requires avoiding measurements distorted by overloading effects. Several criteria of evaluating the limits of the mass overloading of gas chromatographic systems are compared and reconsidered. The criteria mostly appropriate for practical purposes are based on (i) the dependences of factors of peak broadening (ratio of peak height and its width) vs. amount of analyte injected into the chromatographic column and (ii) the dependence of parameters characterizing the peak distortion (asymmetry factor) vs. the amount of analyte. Both these criteria provide mutually comparable evaluations of the overloading limits for analytes of different polarity. At the same time, the dependence of retention indices vs. amounts of analyte injected in the chromatographic column cannot be recommended for overloading control, because the parameters of the corresponding linear regressions indicate temperature dependence. The interpretation of certain gas chromatographic anomalies requires the correct evaluation of overloading limits. For example, the unusual temperature dependence of retention indices of polar analytes on non‐polar stationary phases and the dependence of retention indices on ratio of amounts of target analytes and reference compounds.     

Development of a method using high‐performance liquid chromatographic fingerprint and multi‐ingredients quantitative analysis for the quality control of Yangxinshi Pian

A simple and reliable method of high‐performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection method was developed for fingerprint analysis and simultaneous determination of six compounds including puerarin, salvianolic acid B, berberine hydrochloride, palmatine chloride, dehydrocorydaline, and icariin in the Chinese medicine preparation Yangxinshi Pian. The separation was performed on an Agilent Eclipse XDB‐C₁₈ reserved‐phase column (250 mm × 4.6mm I.D., 5 μm) using gradient elution with 50 mmol/L monopotassium phosphate aqueous solution and methanol as mobile phase at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The column operating temperature was set at 30°C, and the detection wavelength was 280 nm. The method was validated by linearity, precision, accuracy, stability, and recovery. For fingerprint analysis, 25 peaks were selected as the common peaks, and four kinds of similarities including cosine similarity (S), ratio of similarity (S′), projection content similarity (C), and content similarity (P) were applied to evaluate the quality consistency of different batches of Yangxinshi Pian. The results showed that the developed method was an efficient tool for quality evaluation of Yangxinshi Pian.     

置换反应制备双金属纳米催化剂

双金属纳米颗粒具有比单金属纳米颗粒更加优异的催化、光学及电学等性能,常见的双金属纳米颗粒制备方法有共还原法、连续还原法、电沉积法、微乳液法及置换反应法等.其中,置换反应是一种重要的双金属纳米颗粒制备方法,具有反应条件温和、无需其他还原剂、所制备的纳米颗粒粒径分布均匀、结构可调可控等特点.采用该方法制备的合金结构、核壳结构以及空心结构的双金属纳米颗粒均表现出优异的催化性能,本文综述了近年来置换反应制备不同结构双金属纳米颗粒的研究现状,并且提出了置换反应制备双金属纳米颗粒研究中存在的问题和今后可能的发展方向.