Soluble Hyperbranched Porous Organic Polymers.

Soluble porous organic polymers (SPOPs) are currently the subject of extensive investigation due to the enhanced processability compared to insoluble counterparts. Here, a new concept for the construction of SPOPs is presented, which combines the unique topological structure of hyperbranched polymers with rigid building blocks. By using this facile, one-step strategy, a class of novel SPOPs which possess surface areas up to 646 m2 g-1 have been synthesized. The extended π-conjugated backbone affords the polymers bright fluorescence under UV irradiation. Interestingly, after dissolution in a suitable solvent that was slowly evaporated, the polymers retain a large extent of porosity. The SPOPs are potential candidates for gas storage and separation, photovoltaic, and biological applications. In particular, due to the presence of an internal porous structure and open conformations, they show high drug loading efficiency (1.91 g of ibuprofen per gram), which is considerably higher than conventional porous organic polymers.

PVP-templated highly luminescent copper nanoclusters for sensing trinitrophenol and living cell imaging.

Copper nanoclusters (CuNCs) exhibit susceptibility to oxidation in the subnanometer size range. In this work, a facile and green protocol is reported for the successful synthesis of water soluble CuNCs, with poly(vinylpyrrolidone) as a template and ascorbic acid as a mild reducing agent. The as-prepared CuNCs exhibit a green fluorescence and high quantum yield (QY = 44.67%) in water, which is the highest among the reported water soluble CuNCs. The origin of their highly luminescent nature was also investigated. In addition, the obtained CuNCs show good tolerability to high ionic strength, superior antioxidation properties, good photostability, time-stability, a large Stokes shift and ultralow cytotoxicity, laying the foundation for living cell imaging in THP-1 macrophages. A bright green fluorescence can be observed from the cells, indicating the potential practicality of CuNCs as a fluorescence marker in bioapplications. Interestingly, the as-prepared CuNCs exhibit a good selective fluorescence quenching response towards trinitrophenol over other nitro compounds. Furthermore, CuNCs were employed for sensing trinitrophenol based on the inner filter effect. A good linear relationship was obtained in the low concentration range of trinitrophenol, with a limit of detection of 3.91 × 10-7 M in aqueous medium. This result suggests the potential application of CuNCs as a probe in sensing and monitoring toxic trinitrophenol in the field of environmental security.

[Studies on nano-particle sols of hydroxyaptite and titanium dioxide for haemo-compatibility].

A biological evaluation is conducted for two types of nano-particle sols, hydroxyaptite(HAP) and titanium dioxide(TiO2). The results show that HAP sol significnatly prolongs the bleeding time and coagulation time of mice as well as the prothrombin time(PT) and partial thromboplastin time(PTT) of rats while TiO2 sol exhibits no such effects. Neither HAP sol nor TiO2 sol instigated in-vitro hemolysis of rabbit erythrocyte. However, both of the materials caused in-vitro aggregation of rabbit erythrocytes. The reason underlying the different results as to the two types of material is their specific stabilizer, heparin for HAP sol and PVC for TiO2 sol. We came to the conclusion that a biologically inert stablizer has no less significance than the nano-particle's very own nature in a nano-material's application prospect.