Developing Eco-Friendly and Cost-Effective Porous Adsorbent for Carbon Dioxide Capture

To address the issue of global warming and climate change issues, recent research efforts have highlighted opportunities for capturing and electrochemically converting carbon dioxide (CO₂). Despite metal doped polymers receiving widespread attention in this respect, the structures hitherto reported lack in ease of synthesis with scale up feasibility. In this study, a series of mesoporous metal-doped polymers (MRFs) with tunable metal functionality and hierarchical porosity were successfully synthesized using a one-step copolymerization of resorcinol and formaldehyde with Polyethyleneimine (PEI) under solvothermal conditions. The effect of PEI and metal doping concentrations were observed on physical properties and adsorption results. The results confirmed the role of PEI on the mesoporosity of the polymer networks and high surface area in addition to enhanced CO₂ capture capacity. The resulting Cobalt doped material shows excellent thermal stability and promising CO₂ capture performance, with equilibrium adsorption of 2.3 mmol CO₂/g at 0 °C and 1 bar for at a surface area 675.62 m²/g. This mesoporous polymer, with its ease of synthesis is a promising candidate for promising for CO₂ capture and possible subsequent electrochemical conversion.     

Ultrafast Primary Process of Photo-induced N-I Transition and Macroscopic Oscillation of Domain Boundary in TTF-CA

Initial dynamics of photo-induced ionic (I) to neutral (N) phase transition in tetrathiafulvalene- p -chloranil (TTF-CA) was investigated by femtosecond reflection spectroscopy with various excitation intensities. A charge transfer excitation in the I phase produces N donor (D 0 )-acceptor (A 0 ) strings within 2 ps. For a weak excitation intensity, these initial N states decay with a life time of 300 ps at 4 K, but rather multiply leading to macroscopic I-N conversion within 20 ps at 77 K just below the N-I transition temperature T NI . Near T NI , we also found the coherent motion of the macroscopic N-I domain boundary with a period of 85 ps.     

Novel cycloundecapeptides related to gramicidin S with both high antibiotic activity and low hemolytic activity

To find candidates with high antimicrobial and low hemolytic activities, many gramicidin S (GS) analogs of various ring sizes have been designed and synthesized. However, syntheses of antimicrobially active analogues of GS having a disordered symmetry structure from C(2) have almost never been reported, because the stable, amphiphilic β-sheet structure of GS with C(2) symmetry is considered essential for its strong antibacterial activity. In the present studies, novel thirteen cycloundecapeptides 1-13 related to GS were synthesized and examined. Among them, cyclo(-Va1(1)-Orn(2)-Leu(3)-D-Phe(4)-X(5)-Pro(6)-Val(7)-Orn(8)-Leu(9)-D-Phe(10)-Pro(11)-) (X=Lys (10), Orn (11), Arg (12) and Lys(Lys) (13)) resulted in high antibiotic activity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative microorganisms tested. In addition, 11 showed low toxicity against sheep blood cells compared with that of GS. Further, circular dichroism (CD) spectra of 10-13 had a curve similar to each other, suggesting that the conformations of these analogues in methanol are similar to each other. However, CD spectra of 10-13 were different from that of GS in the 190-210 nm region. These results suggest that the presences of one added amino acid residue at position 5 of 10-13 might be partially effective through a structural change in the biological activity of 10-13. In addition, the structural modifications at position 5 lower the undesirable hemolytic activity and enhance the desirable antibiotic activity.     

Synthesis of novel fatty-acyl gratisin derivatives

To find candidates with high antimicrobial and low hemolytic activities, many gratisin (GR) analogues have been designed and synthesized. In the present account, we synthesized novel derivatives of GR having both the polycationic and fatty acyl groups, cyclo{-Val(1)-Orn(2)-Leu(3)-D-Phe(4)-Pro(5)-D-Lys(6)(X)-Val(7)-Orn(8)-Leu(9)-D-Phe(10)-Pro(11)-D-Lys(12)-} {X=-CO(CH(2))(6)CH(3) (1), -Lys-CO(CH(2))(6)CH(3) (2), -(Lys)(2)-CO(CH(2))(6)CH(3) (3), and -(Lys)(3)-CO(CH(2))(6)CH(3) (4)}, and examined the biological activities. Among them, we found that 2-4 have differential ionic interaction against the prokaryotic membrane and eukaryotic membrane. In other words, the dissociation with high antimicrobial activity and low hemolytic activity is caused by the addition of D-Lys(6)-{(Lys)(n)-CO(CH(2))(6)CH(3)} residues at position 6 of [D-Lys(6,12)]-GR. Our findings should be helpful in finding drug candidates with high antimicrobial activity and low hemolytic activity that are capable of combating microbial resistance.     

Ultrafast optical switching from an ionic to a neutral state in tetrathiafulvalene-p-chloranil (TTF-CA) observed in femtosecond reflection spectroscopy

Ultrafast optical switching from an ionic ( I) to a neutral ( N) state in TTF-CA was observed in femtosecond reflection spectroscopy. Charge transfer excitation in the I phase produces N donor ( D0) acceptor ( A0) strings within 2 ps. These initial N states decay with a lifetime of 300 ps at 4 K, but rather multiply leading to macroscopic I-N conversion within 20 ps at 77 K just below the N-I transition temperature T(NI). Near T(NI), we also found the evidence for the coherent motion of the macroscopic N-I domain boundary with a period of 85 ps.     

Simultaneous determination of triclabendazole and its sulphoxide and sulphone metabolites in bovine milk by high-performance liquid chromatography

A simple method has been developed for the simultaneous determination of triclabendazole and its metabolites (sulphoxide and sulphone) in bovine milk by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). A milk sample was homogenized with sodium sulfate anhydrous and acetonitrile, and centrifuged. The supernatant was isolated, rinsed with n-hexane saturated with acetonitrile, and evaporated. The residue was dissolved with 0.1 M potassium dihydrogenphosphate, and 0.1 M sodium hydrogencarbonate, and then cleaned up on a Bond Elut C18 cartridge. The three compounds were separated on a Capcell Pak C18 UG 120 (5 microm, 150x4.6 mm I.D.) column and determined by UV detection at 295 nm. The mobile phase was acetonitrile-0.05 M ammonium acetate (50:50), and the flow-rate was 0.8 ml/min at 40 degrees C. The mean recoveries (n=4) were 89.1-95.0% with a relative standard deviation of 1.1-2.6%. The detection limits were 0.004-0.006 microg/g in milk. The proposed method was used to monitor raw milk samples for the market, and applied to the analysis of milk samples from 10 cows which had been administered with triclabendazole to control the liver fluke. The confirmation of the triclabendazole and its metabolites in the above milk sample has been achieved by electrospray LC-MS for the first time.     

Polycationic gramicidin s analogues with both high antibiotic activity and very low hemolytic activity

The substitution of each constituent amino acid residue of gramicidin S (GS), cyclo(-Val(1,1')-Orn(2,2')-Leu(3,3')-D-Phe(4,4')-Pro(5,5')-)(2) with Lys residue indicated that each side chain structure of the constituent amino acid residues affect largely the antibiotic activity and hemolytic activity of GS. Further, the substitution of D-Phe(4,4') and Pro(5,5') residues with basic amino acid residues as a Lys residue results the high antibiotic activity and the very low hemolytic activity. Thus, we have found novel positions on the scaffold of GS at D-Phe(4,4') and Pro(5,5') residues whose modification will significantly increase the therapeutic index.