IR, MS studies on (+/-)-1-[3-(2-methoxyphenoxy)-2-hydroxypropyl]-4-[(2,6-dimethylphenyl)aminocarbonylmethyl]piperazine dihydrochloride salt

The vibration spectrum and FAB mass spectrum of (+/-)-1-[3-(2-methoxyphenoxy)-2-hydroxypropyl]-4-[(2,6-dimethylphenyl)aminocarbonylmethyl]piperazine dihydrochloride salt was studied. By comparing with the spectra of free base, different bands of IR were found in the NH+ stretching, the NH+ deformation motion, the CH2 of NCH2 group symmetric stretching, the CH2 of N-CH2 group twisting and the CN stretching. FAB shows the basic peak is M + H. Other m/e peaks are consistent with the structure.     

Oscillatory stability of quantum droplets in PT-symmetric optical lattice

We study stability and collisions of quantum droplets(QDs) forming in a binary bosonic condensate trapped in parity-time (PT)-symmetric optical lattices. It is found that the stability of QDs in the PT-symmetric system depends strongly on the values of the imaginary part W_0 of the PT-symmetric optical lattices, self-repulsion strength g, and the condensate norm N. As expected,the PT-symmetric QDs are entirely unstable in the broken PT-symmetric phase. However, the PT-symmetric QDs exhibit oscillatory stability with the increase of N and g in the unbroken PT-symmetric phase. Finally, collisions between PT-symmetric QDs are considered. The collisions of droplets with unequal norms are completely different from that in free space. Besides, a stable PT-symmetric QDs collides with an unstable ones tend to merge into breathers after the collision.     

Electrochemical Determination of Tyrosine Using Graphene and Gold Nanoparticle Composite Modified Glassy Carbon Electrode

Russian Journal of Electrochemistry - A electrochemical sensor based on graphene and gold nanoparticles modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) was developed for the determination of tyrosine (Tyr)....     

TiN/SiC纳米多层膜的生长结构与力学性能

研究了TiN/SiC纳米多层膜中立方SiC（B1cubic SiC）的形成及其对TiN/SiC多层膜力学性能的影响.结果表明：在TiN/SiC多层膜中，非晶态的SiC层在厚度小于0.6nm时形成立方结构并与TiN形成共格外延生长的超晶格柱状晶，使多层膜产生硬度和弹性模量显著升高的超硬效应，最高硬度超过60GPa.SiC随着层厚的增加转变为非晶相，从而阻止了多层膜的共格外延生长，使薄膜呈现TiN纳米晶和SiC非晶组成的层状结构特征，同时多层膜的硬度和弹性模量下降.TiN/SiC纳米多层膜产生的超硬效应与立方 关键词： 立方碳化硅 TiN/SiC纳米多层膜 外延生长 超硬效应     

High-performance liquid chromatographic separation of imidazolinone herbicide enantiomers and their methyl derivatives on polysaccharide-coated chiral stationary phases

Many chiral pesticides exhibit enantioselectivity in biotransformation and ecotoxicity in the environment. A significant class of chiral pesticides is imidazolinone herbicides, of which enantioselectivity has not been well studied. Development of efficient chiral separation methods is the first step for allowing characterization of enantioselectivity in environmental processes. In this study, we attempted to resolve enantiomers of imidazolinone herbicides using reversed-phase and normal-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with polysaccharide-type chiral columns. Enantiomers of imazethapyr, imazaquin, and imazamox were separated on a Chiralcel OD-R column using 50mM phosphate buffer-acetonitrile as mobile phase. Enantiomers of imazapyr, imazapic, imazethapyr, imazamox and imazaquin were resolved on a Chiralcel OJ column using n-hexane (0.1% trifluoroacetic acid)-alcohol as mobile phase. The enantiomers of five methyl derivatives of imidazolinone herbicides were also resolved on the Chiralcel OJ column. The Deltak' values revealed a structure-enantioselectivity relationship for the separation behaviors of the enantiomers on the OJ column. The described method was successfully applied for chiral analysis of two imidazolinone herbicides (imazapyr and imazaquin) in spiked soil samples.     

Platinum/Nickel Bicarbonate Heterostructures towards Accelerated Hydrogen Evolution under Alkaline Conditions

Heterostructured nanomaterials, generally have physicochemical properties that differ from those of the individual components, and thus have potential in a wide range of applications. New platinum (Pt)/nickel bicarbonate (Ni(HCO₃)₂) heterostructures are designed for an efficient alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Notably, the specific and mass activity of Pt in Pt/Ni(HCO₃)₂ are substantially improved compared to the bare Pt nanoparticles (NPs). The Ni(HCO₃)₂ provides abundant water adsorption/dissociation sites and modulate the electronic structure of Pt, which determine the elementary reaction kinetics of alkaline HER. The Ni(HCO₃)₂ nanoplates offer a platform for the uniform dispersion of Pt NPs, ensuring the maximum exposure of active sites. The results demonstrate that, Ni(HCO₃)₂ is an effective catalyst promoter for alkaline HER.     

Rapid computation of intermolecular interactions in molecular and ionic clusters: self-consistent polarization plus symmetry-adapted perturbation theory

A method that we have recently introduced for rapid computation of intermolecular interaction energies is reformulated and subjected to further tests. The method employs monomer-based self-consistent field calculations with an electrostatic embedding designed to capture many-body polarization (the "XPol" procedure), augmented by pairwise symmetry-adapted perturbation theory (SAPT) to capture dispersion and exchange interactions along with any remaining induction effects. A rigorous derivation of the XPol+SAPT methodology is presented here, which demonstrates that the method is systematically improvable, and moreover introduces some additional intermolecular interactions as compared to the more heuristic derivation that was presented previously. Applications to various non-covalent complexes and clusters are presented, including geometry optimizations and one-dimensional potential energy scans. The performance of the XPol+SAPT methodology in its present form (based on second-order intermolecular perturbation theory and neglecting intramolecular electron correlation) is qualitatively acceptable across a wide variety of systems-and quantitatively quite good in certain cases-but the quality of the results is rather sensitive to the choice of one-particle basis set. Basis sets that work well for dispersion-bound systems offer less-than-optimal performance for clusters dominated by induction and electrostatic interactions, and vice versa. A compromise basis set is identified that affords good results for both induction and dispersion interactions, although this favorable performance ultimately relies on error cancellation, as in traditional low-order SAPT. Suggestions for future improvements to the methodology are discussed.     

Identification and quantification of 13 components in Angelica sinensis (Danggui) by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry coupled with pressurized liquid extraction

Angelica sinensis (Danggui in Chinese), a well-known traditional Chinese medicine, is also used as a health food product for women's care in Europe and America. Therefore, the demand for Danggui is enormous throughout the world. Due to the shortage of Angelica sinensis, Angelica acutiloba and Angelica gigas are commonly used as the substitutes of Danggui in the market of southeast Asia. However, the three common Angelica roots showed variation in their genetic and chemical composition. Up to date, it is thought that ferulic acid, ligustilide and other phthalides such as butylidenephthalide are the biologically active components of Danggui. In this paper, the contents of 13 compounds including ferulic acid, Z-ligustilide, E-ligustilide, Z-butylidenephthalide, E-butylidenephthalide, 3-butylphthalide, 3-butylidene-4-hydroxyphthalide, senkyunolide A, 6,7-epoxyligustilide, senkyunolide F, senkyunolide H, senkyunolide I, and 6,7-dihydroxyligustilide were determined or estimated by using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) coupled with pressurized liquid extraction (PLE). The results showed that GC-MS coupled with PLE offered a simple, rapid and high sensitive method to analysis of components in Angelica root. And the contents of investigated compounds in Angelica sinensis, Angelica acutiloba and Angelica gigas, which are used as Danggui in China, Japan and Korea, respectively, were highly variant. It is thought that interaction of multiple chemical compounds contributes to the therapeutic effects of Chinese medicines. However, the overall clinical efficacy of these different Danggui has not been determined. Therefore, comparison of chemical components and pharmacological activities of different Angelica root is helpful to elucidate the mechanism of therapeutic effects of Danggui.     

Elastin-calmodulin scaffold for protein microarray fabrication

In this work, we report a new method to reversibly immobilize proteins to a surface in a functionally active orientation directly from cell lysate by employing a fusion protein consisting of a thermal-responsive elastin (ELP) domain as the surface anchor and a calcium-responsive calmodulin (CalM) domain for protein capturing. Incorporation of an M13 tag into recombinant proteins enables not only easy surface immobilization but also direct purification from cell lysates. The feasibility of concept was demonstrated using the M13-tagged yellow fluorescent protein (M13-YFP). The ELP-CalM functionalized surfaces were shown to capture M13-YFP directly from cell lysate through the specific calmodulin-M13 association in a calcium-dependent manner. We also demonstrated that immobilization is reversible; the bound proteins were released from the surface in the presence of EDTA.