Multifunctional Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane (POSS) Based Hybrid Porous Materials for CO2 Uptake and Iodine Adsorption.

In this study, two different types of hybrid porous organic polymers (POPs), polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane tetraphenylpyrazine (POSS-TPP) and tetraphenylethene (POSS-TPE), were successfully synthesized through the Friedel-Crafts polymerization of tetraphenylpyrazine (TPP) and tetraphenylethene (TPE), respectively, with octavinylsilsesquioxane (OVS) as node building blocks, in the presence of anhydrous FeCl3 as a catalyst and 1,2-dichloroethane at 60 °C. Based on N2 adsorption and thermogravimetric analyses, the resulting hybrid porous materials displayed high surface areas (270 m2/g for POSS-TPP and 741 m2/g for POSS-TPE) and outstanding thermal stabilities. Furthermore, as-prepared POSS-TPP exhibited a high carbon dioxide capacity (1.63 mmol/g at 298 K and 2.88 mmol/g at 273 K) with an excellent high adsorption capacity for iodine, reaching up to 363 mg/g, compared with the POSS-TPE (309 mg/g).

Integron types, gene cassettes, antimicrobial resistance genes and plasmids of Shigella sonnei isolates from outbreaks and sporadic cases in Taiwan.

This study analysed the presence, location and transferability of integrons and antibiotic resistance genes in 103 Shigella sonnei outbreak isolates and in 32 sporadic isolates from Taiwan. Multiple antimicrobial resistance was common in both outbreak (95 %) and sporadic (97 %) isolates. Class 1 integrons were present in 34 outbreak isolates (33 %) and in six sporadic isolates (19 %). This study is the first, to our knowledge, to identify an atypical sul3-associated class 1 integron carrying the estX-psp-aadA2-cmlA-aadA1-qacH cassette array in Shigella. Class 2 integrons carrying the dfr1-sat2-aadA1 cassette array were predominant in outbreak isolates (90 %) but were not present in sporadic isolates. Other antimicrobial resistance genes not associated with integrons were found to encode resistance to ampicillin (bla(TEM)), chloramphenicol (cat1), sulfonamide (sul2) and tetracycline (tetA and tetB). The most common plasmid size was 130 kb (observed in 43 and 97 % of 1998 outbreak and sporadic isolates, respectively). In conclusion, the plasmid location of resistance genes and horizontal plasmid transfer promote the spread of multiple resistance genes in outbreak and sporadic isolates of S. sonnei.