Exploiting Aggregation To Achieve Phase Separation in Macrocyclization

The aggregation properties of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) can be exploited in organic synthesis to control dilution effects. Through the use of solvent mixtures containing PEG₄₀₀/MeOH, macrocyclization by Glaser–Hay coupling can be conducted at high concentrations. The origin of the selectivity has been studied by using surface tension measurements, UV spectroscopy, and chemical tagging and demonstrates the dependence of the yield and selectivity on the aggregation of PEG₄₀₀ and its ability to preferentially solubilize organic substrates, resulting in a phase separation from the catalyst system.     

Vapor deposition of ultrathin hydrophilic polymer coatings enabling candle soot composite for highly sensitive humidity sensors

Candle soot (CS) is a desirable carbon nanomaterial for sensors owing to its highly porous nanostructure and large specific surface area. CS is advantageous in its low-cost and facile preparation compared to graphene and carbon nanotubes, but its pristine nanostructure is susceptible to collapse, hampering its application in electronic devices. This article reports conformal coating of nanoscale crosslinked hydrophilic polymer on CS film using initiated chemical vapor deposition, which well preserved the CS nanostructure and obtained nanoporous CS@polymer composites. Tuning coating thickness enabled composites with different morphologies and specific surface areas. Surprisingly, the humidity sensor made from composite with the lowest filling degree, thus largest specific surface area, showed relatively low sensitivity, which is likely due to its discontinuous structure, thus insufficient conductive channels. Composite sensor with optimum filling degree shows excellent sensing response of more than 10³ with the linearity of R² = 0.9400 within a broad relative humidity range from 11% to 96%. The composite sensor also exhibits outstanding sensing performance compared to literature with low hysteresis (3.00%), a satisfactory response time (28.69 s), and a fast recovery time (0.19 s). The composite sensor is fairly stable and durable even after 24 h soaking in water. Furthermore, embedding a humidity sensor into a face mask realizes real-time monitoring of human breath and cough, suggesting promising applications in respiratory monitoring.     

Online hyphenation of size-exclusion chromatography and gas-phase electrophoresis facilitates the characterization of protein aggregates

Gas-phase electrophoresis yields size distributions of polydisperse, aerosolized analytes based on electrophoretic principles. Nanometer-sized, surface-dry, single-charged particles are separated in a high laminar sheath flow of particle-free air and an orthogonal tunable electric field. Additionally, nano Electrospray Gas-Phase Electrophoretic Mobility Molecular Analyzer (nES GEMMA) data are particle-number based. Therefore, small particles can be detected next to larger ones without a bias, for example, native proteins next to their aggregates. Analyte transition from the liquid to the gas phase is a method inherent prerequisite. In this context, nonvolatile sample buffers influence results. In the worst case, the (bio-)nanoparticle signal is lost due to an increased baseline and unspecific clustering of nonvolatile components. We present a novel online hyphenation of liquid chromatography and gas-phase electrophoresis, coupling a size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) column to an advanced nES GEMMA. Via this novel approach, it is possible to (i) separate analyte multimers already present in liquid phase from aggregates formed during the nES process, (ii) differentiate liquid phase and spray-induced multimers, and (iii) to remove nonvolatile buffer components online before SEC–nES GEMMA analysis. Due to these findings, SEC–nES GEMMA has the high potential to help to understand aggregation processes in biological buffers adding the benefit of actual size determination for noncovalent assemblies formed in solution. As detection and characterization of protein aggregation in large-scale pharmaceutical production or sizing of noncovalently bound proteins are findings directly related to technologically and biologically relevant situations, we proposed the presented method to be a valuable addition to LC-MS approaches.     

The Molecular Composition of Soot

Soot (sometimes referred to as black carbon) is produced when hydrocarbon fuels are burned. Our hypothesis is that polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules are the dominant component of soot, with individual PAH molecules forming ordered stacks that agglomerate into primary particles (PP). Here we show that the PAH composition of soot can be exactly determined and spatially resolved by low‐fluence laser desorption ionization, coupled with high‐resolution mass spectrometry imaging. This analysis revealed that PAHs of 239–838 Da, containing few oxygenated species, comprise the soot observed in an ethylene diffusion flame. As informed by chemical graph theory (CGT), the vast majority of species observed in the sampled particulate matter may be described as benzenoids, consisting of only fused 6‐membered rings. Within that limit, there is clear evidence for the presence of radical PAH in the particulate samples. Further, for benzenoid structures the observed empirical formulae limit the observed isomers to those which are nearly circular with high aromatic conjugation lengths for a given aromatic ring count. These results stand in contrast to recent reports that suggest higher aliphatic composition of primary particles.     

超微粒La-Co氧化物催化剂对柴油机尾气碳黑催化燃烧性能的研究

用有机酸络合法制备了Co3O4，NiCo2O4和LaCo2O43种催化剂。通过程序升温氧化反应(TPO)技术对这3种催化剂进行模拟柴油碳黑催化燃烧反应的活性评价。研究发现以Co3O4为活性成分的催化剂能显著降低碳黑燃烧的温度。以Ni和La部分取代Co3O4后形成的复合氧化物NiCo2O4和混合氧化物LaCo2O4能改进Co3O4的氧化活性。但是NiCo2O4不能改进碳黑在松散接触时的燃烧活性；而混合氧化物LaCo2O4由于形成了超微粒含缺陷的LaCoO3钙钛矿型结构，它具有良好的低温氧化活性和表面原子移动性，因而能显著改进碳黑在松散接触时的燃烧活性。     

Crosslinked penicillin acylase aggregates for synthesis of β-lactam antibiotics in organic medium

Crosslinked enzyme aggregates (CLEAs) of a partially purified penicillin acylase from a recombinant Escherichia coli strain have been produced as a novel type of biocatalysts well endowed to perform in organic media. Different protein precipitants were studied and glutaraldehyde was used as the crosslinking agent. Precipitation curves were obtained for all precipitants to determine the concentrations at which all the protein precipitated out of the solution. The effect of the glutaraldehyde-to-protein ratio was studied with respect to process recovery and the specific activity and stability of the biocatalyst. Recovery of penicillin acylase activity was moderately high, about 50%; major losses of enzyme activity were produced at the precipitation step. Specific activities of all CLEAs were very high, which is one of the advantages of using nonsupported biocatalysts. Ammonium sulfate and tert-butyl alcohol were the best precipitants at a glutaraldehyde-protein mass ratio of 2 and were selected to perform the kinetically controlled synthesis of ampicillin in 60% (v/v) ethylene glycol medium. At comparable conversion yields, volumetric and specific antibiotic productivity were much higher for CLEAs than for carrier-bound penicillin acylases.     

Co0.2/Ce1-xZrxO2催化剂的制备、表征及其催化碳烟燃烧反应性能

 采用微孔扩散-共沉淀法制备了不同 Ce/Zr 摩尔比的 Ce1-xZrxO2 (x = 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.5) 固溶体, 并以此为载体用超声波助分散等体积浸渍法制备了 Co0.2/Ce1-xZrxO2 催化剂, 考察了催化剂中 Ce/Zr 比对其催化柴油车尾气碳烟颗粒物燃烧反应性能的影响. 结果表明, 在催化剂与碳烟颗粒松散接触条件下, Co0.2/Ce1-xZrxO2 催化剂催化碳烟颗粒物燃烧的活性非常高. 其中 Co0.2/Ce0.8Zr0.2O2 催化剂活性最高, T10, T50, T90 和 SmCO2 分别为 316 oC, 385 oC, 413 oC 和 99.9%. 这与目前文献报道的松散接触条件下活性最高的担载 Pt 催化剂相近. 应用 X 射线衍射、透射电镜、扫描电镜、紫外-可见漫反射和傅里叶变换红外光谱技术对 Ce1-xZrxO2 固溶体及 Co0.2/Ce1-xZrxO2 催化剂进行了表征. 结果表明, Ce1-xZrxO2 固溶体由纳米级小颗粒组成 (平均粒径在 10 nm 左右). 适量的 Ce/Zr 比有利于改善立方尖晶石型 Co3O4 在 Ce1-xZrxO2 固溶体表面的分散, 从而提高催化剂活性. 程序升温还原结果表明, Co0.2/Ce0.8Zr0.2O2 催化剂具有最优的低温还原特性, 与它具有最高的催化活性相一致.     

PMADQUAT/PSt-PAA聚离子复合物聚集体增强卟啉和富勒烯类衍生物单重态氧产率

采用原子转移自由基聚合(ATRP)法合成了嵌段共聚物聚苯乙烯-聚丙烯酸叔丁酯(PSt-PtBuA), 在酸性条件下水解得到聚苯乙烯-聚丙烯酸(PSt-PAA), 利用核磁共振氢谱(¹HNMR)、凝胶渗透色谱(GPC)等对产物进行了表征. PSt-PAA在Tris-HCl缓冲溶液中(pH=7.0)形成临界聚集浓度(CAC)为0.015 g/L的聚集体. PSt-PAA与聚2-甲基丙烯酰氧基乙基三甲基氯化铵(PMADQUAT)可通过静电相互作用形成聚离子复合物(polyion complex, PIC), 当 m_(PMADQUAT)/m_(PSt-PAA)=3时, 形成的聚离子复合物的CAC为0.005 g/L. 动态光散射(DLS)和透射电镜(TEM)结果表明, 形成聚离子复合物后, 聚集体粒径变小. 聚合物形成聚集体可包载二乙二醇单甲醚修饰的C₇₀(MDG-C₇₀)、原卟啉(PPIX)、四苯基锌卟啉(ZnTPP)和四苯基卟啉(TPP)等光敏剂, 并增强光敏剂在缓冲溶液中的溶解度. 光照条件下, MDG-C₇₀、PPIX、ZnTPP和TPP在聚离子复合物聚集体m_(PMADQUAT)/m_(PSt-PAA)=3的溶液中的单重态氧量子产率分别是在PSt-PAA聚集体溶液中的1.64、2.63、2.60和2.20倍. 而在缓冲溶液中,由于光敏剂的聚集作用,未能检测到单重态氧的产生。研究结果表明,聚离子复合物聚集体能够包载光敏剂,是提高单重态氧产率的一个有效途径.     

Measurement and modeling of the sooting propensity of binary fuel mixtures

The sooting behaviour of binary fuel mixtures was evaluated both experimentally and through computer simulations. The soot volume fraction in laminar diffusion flames of mixtures of ethylene/propane, methane/ethylene, methane/propane, methane/ethane, methane/butane, ethane/propane and ethane/ethylene fuels was measured using 2-dimensional line of sight attenuation. A synergistic effect was observed for the ethylene/propane, methane/ethylene, methane/ethane and ethane/ethylene mixtures. The synergistic effect translated into a higher soot concentration for a mixture fraction than could be yielded by the added contribution of both pure fuels. Such an effect was not observed for the methane/propane, methane/butane and ethane/propane mixtures. Through experiments in which the flame temperature was kept constant, it was determined that the synergistic effect in the methane/ethylene mixture is very temperature dependent whereas, that in the ethylene/propane mixture is not. This phenomenon was further studied through the modeling of the ethylene/propane mixture. Numerical simulations were carried out using two different soot models. The simulations confirmed the presence of a synergistic effect. It was found that the effect could be directly correlated to a synergistic effect in the concentration of n-C₄H₅ and n-C₄H₃, which could be traced back to an interaction between ethylene and methyl radical species. These results yield further insight into the pathways to soot formation and highlight the importance of further analyzing binary fuel mixtures as a means of understanding soot formation in practical devices using industrial fuels.     

碳黑颗粒生长模型的初步研究

本文利用反应类(Reaction Class)概念和矩(Moment)方法,研究了层流预混甲烷火焰中碳黑颗粒的成核与长大过程。模型综合考虑了颗粒的成核、颗粒间由于碰撞的聚合、以及气态组分在颗粒表面的生长。通过数值计算预报了碳黑颗粒平均粒径、总表面积、体积分数和数密度,以及萘(A4)和乙炔(C2H2)在颗粒表面的增长速率。