Synthesizing carbonyl furan derivatives by a dehydrogenative coupling reaction.

Herein, we report the development of an efficient green procedure for synthesizing carbonyl furan derivatives by dehydrogenative coupling of furfuryl alcohol with carbonyl compounds. The reaction is performed under mild reaction conditions in the presence of iPrPNP-Mn as the catalyst and a weak base (Cs2CO3). A range of ketones and aldehydes were efficiently diversified with furfuryl alcohol to afford furyl-substituted saturated ketones, and α,ß-unsaturated ketones and aldehydes in good isolated yields.

Terbinafine Hydrochloride Combined With Itraconazole for Fungal Skin Diseases: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND: Terbinafine and itraconazole are the common antifungal drugs in clinic. In vitro experiments proved that terbinafine combined with itraconazole achieves better antifungal effects. However, clinical study addressing this issue was still scarce. STUDY QUESTION: Terbinafine combined with itraconazole achieves better therapeutic effects in fungal skin diseases. STUDY DESIGN: Approximately 178 patients with fungal skin diseases from Meizhou People's Hospital, China, between October 2016 and October 2017 were admitted to this study. Patients were randomly distributed to 3 groups by randomly selecting random numbers and were treated with terbinafine, itraconazole, monotherapy, or combined therapy. Both patients and study investigators were unaware of grouping situations during experiments. Fifteen patients were excluded due to poor compliance, and 11 patients were excluded due to incomplete data. Finally, 152 patients were analyzed for this study. MEASURES AND OUTCOMES: The therapeutic effects were evaluated by clinic symptom scores, mycology examination, the cure rate, and the cure time. Adverse events, relapse of disease, and patient's satisfaction level were recorded during follow-up. RESULTS: In the terbinafine + itraconazole group, at 14 days after treatment, the symptom scores were significantly decreased, compared with the terbinafine or itraconazole group (P1 < 0.05, P2 < 0.05). At 28 days after treatment, the fungal infection of 37 patients was eradicated, which were significantly more than 26 patients in the terbinafine group and 19 patients in the itraconazole group (P1 < 0.05, P2 < 0.05). The terbinafine + itraconazole group also exhibited 100% cure rate of patients with fungal skin diseases, shorter cure time, and increased number of cured patients during the same treatment period, which was better than terbinafine or itraconazole monotherapy (P1 < 0.05, P2 < 0.05). In addition, no adverse events and no relapse of fungal disease were reported in the terbinafine + itraconazole group during follow-up. Ninety-eight percent patients were satisfied with the therapeutic effects of combined treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with terbinafine or itraconazole monotherapy, terbinafine + itraconazole combined treatment achieves better therapeutic effects in fungal skin diseases.

Organic-Salt-Assisted Crystal Growth and Orientation of Quasi-2D Ruddlesden-Popper Perovskites for Solar Cells with Efficiency over 19.

Quasi-2D Ruddlesden-Popper (RP) perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have drawn significant attention due to their appealing environmental stability compared to their 3D counterparts. However, the relatively low power conversion efficiency (PCE) greatly limits their applications. Here, high photovoltaic performance is demonstrated for quasi-2D RP PSCs using 2-thiophenemethylammonium as spacer with nominal n-value of 5, which is based on the stoichiometry of the precursors. The incorporation of formamidinium (FA) in quasi-2D RP perovskites reduces the bandgap and improves the light absorption ability, resulting in enlarged photocurrent and an increased PCE of 16.18%, which is higher than that of reported analogous methylammonium (MA)-based quasi-2D PSC (≈15%). A record high PCE of 19.06% is further demonstrated by using an organic salt, namely, 4-(trifluoromethyl)benzylammonium iodide, assisted crystal growth (OACG) technique, which can induce the crystal growth and orientation, tune the surface energy levels, and suppress the charge recombination losses. More importantly, the devices based on OACG-processed quasi-2D RP perovskites show remarkable environmental stability and thermal stability, for example, the PCE retaining ≈96% of its initial value after storage at 80 °C for 576 h, while only ≈37% of the original efficiency left for FAPbI3 -based 3D PSCs.

Phase Distribution and Carrier Dynamics in Multiple-Ring Aromatic Spacer-Based Two-Dimensional Ruddlesden-Popper Perovskite Solar Cells.

Two-dimensional (2D) perovskites with natural multi-quantum-well structure have been reported to offer better stability compared to 3D perovskites. However, the understanding of the exciton separation and transport mechanism in 2D perovskites and developing more efficient organic spacers remain considerable challenges, as the 2D perovskites exhibit large exciton binding energy due to quantum confinement. Here, a class of multiple-ring aromatic ammoniums, 1-naphthalenemethylammonium (NpMA) and 9-anthracenemethylammonium (AnMA), was developed as spacers for 2D Ruddlesden-Popper (RP) perovskite solar cells (PSCs). In addition to significantly enhanced stability, the device based on (NpMA)2(MA)n-1PbnI3n+1 (average n = 4) exhibits a champion efficiency of 17.25% and a high open-circuit voltage of 1.24 V. The outstanding photovoltaic performance could be ascribed to the ultrafast exciton migration (within 7 ps) from 2D phases to 3D-like phases, which were confirmed by charge carrier dynamics results, leading to efficient exciton separation, charge transportation, and collection. This work facilitates understanding the working mechanism of 2D PSCs in-depth and offers an efficient way to further boost their efficiency and stability by developing multiple-ring aromatic spacers.

Highly Efficient and Stable Solar Cells Based on Crystalline Oriented 2D/3D Hybrid Perovskite.

Highly efficient and stable 2D/3D hybrid perovskite solar cells using 2-thiophenemethylammonium (ThMA) as the spacer cation are successfully demonstrated. It is found that the incorporation of ThMA spacer cation into 3D perovskite, which forms a 2D/3D hybrid structure, can effectively induce the crystalline growth and orientation, passivate the trap states, and hinder the ion motion, resulting in improved carrier lifetime and reduced recombination losses. The optimized device exhibits a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 21.49%, combined with a high VOC of 1.16 V and a notable fill factor (FF) of 81%. More importantly, an encapsulated 2D/3D hybrid perovskite device sustains ≈99% of its initial PCE after 1680 h in the ambient atmosphere, whereas the control 3D perovskite device drops to ≈80% of the original performance. Importantly, the device stability under continuous light soaking (100 mW cm-2 ) is enhanced significantly for 2D/3D perovskite device in comparison with that of the control device. These results reveal excellent photovoltaic properties and intrinsic stabilities of the 2D/3D hybrid perovskites using ThMA as the spacer cation.

Two-Dimensional Ruddlesden-Popper Perovskite with Nanorod-like Morphology for Solar Cells with Efficiency Exceeding 15.

Two-dimensional (2D) Ruddlesden-Popper perovskites have shown great potential for application in perovskite solar cells due to their appealing environmental stability. However, 2D perovskites generally show poor photovoltaic performance. Here, a new type of 2D perovskite using 2-thiophenemethylammonium (ThMA+) as a spacer cation was developed and high photovoltaic performance as well as enhanced stability in comparison with its 3D counterpart was demonstrated. The use of the 2D perovskite (ThMA)2(MA) n-1Pb nI3 n+1 ( n = 3) in deposited highly oriented thin films from N, N-dimethylformamide using a methylammonium chloride (MACl) assisted film-forming technique dramatically improves the efficiency of 2D perovskite photovoltaic devices from 1.74% to over 15%, which is the highest efficiency for 2D perovskite ( n < 6) solar cells so far. The enhanced performance of the 2D perovskite devices using MACl as additive is ascribed to the growth of a dense web of nanorod-like film with near-single-crystalline quality, in which the crystallographic planes of the 2D MA n-1Pb nI3 n+12- slabs preferentially aligned perpendicular to the substrate, thus facilitating efficient charge transport. This work provides a new insight into exploration of the formation mechanism of 2D perovskites with increased crystallinity and crystal orientation suitable for high-performance solar cells.

Effects of Vietnamese Sophora Root on growth, adhesion, invasion and motility of melanoma cells.

BACKGROUND: Vietnamese Sophora Root mainly contains active constituents such as alkaloids, and it has anti-tumour, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory effects. The objective of the paper was to study the effects of Vietnamese Sophora Root on growth, adhesion, invasion and motility of mouse melanoma B16BL6 cells, and to preliminarily explore its mechanism of action. MATERIALS AND METHODS: MTT assay was used to detect the effect of Vietnamese Sophora Root aqueous extract on B16BL6 cell proliferation. Cell adhesion assay, reconstituted basement membrane invasion assay and chemotactic motility assay were used to observe the effects of Vietnamese Sophora Root aqueous extract on adhesion, invasion and motility of B16BL6 cells. RESULTS: Different concentrations of Vietnamese Sophora Root aqueous extracts had different degrees of inhibitory effects on B16BL6 proliferation. With the decrease of concentration, the proliferation inhibitory effect decreased and even turned to promoting effect. The extract significantly inhibited the adhesion of B16BL6 cells to the basement membrane component LN, and had a significant effect on both the invasive and migratory capacities of B16BL6 cells through the basement membrane. CONCLUSION: We concluded that the aqueous extract of Vietnamese Sophora Root can inhibit the proliferation of melanoma cells, as well as their adhesion and movement.