Photo Fenton RAFT Polymerization of (Meth)Acrylates in DMSO Sensitized by Methylene Blue.

A novel open-to-air photo RAFT polymerization of a series of acrylate and methacrylate monomers mediated by matching chain transfer agent irradiated by far-red light in DMSO is reported. Hydroxyl radical (•OH) generated from methylene blue (MB) sensitized decomposition of H2 O2 via photo-Fenton like-reaction is used for polymerization initiation. The "living/control" characteristic is evidenced by kinetic study, in which a pseudo first order curve and linearly increases of molecular weight with the increase of monomer conversion are observed. The living end-group fidelity is characterized by MALDI-TOF-MS and 1 H NMR results, and confirmed by successful chain extension. The temporary controllability is proved by light on/off switch experiment.

[The clinical analysis of plakophilin-2 gene mutation in patients with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy/dysplasia].

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to screen genetic variations in plakophilin-2 (PKP2) gene in patients with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy/dysplasia (ARVC/D) and investigate the differences in clinical features between mutation and no-mutation groups. METHODS: Thirty unrelated Chinese patients clinically diagnosed with ARVC/D and 50 healthy controls were included. Genomic DNA was isolated from peripheral blood samples. PCR and direct sequencing were used to detect variations in PKP2 gene. RESULTS: Eight PKP2 mutant variants were identified in 10 ARVC/D patients (8 men, 2 women). Among the eight mutation, three (c.2194C>T, c. 1170+ 1G>A and c. 810_813delGGTC) were novel mutation. Clinical features of the PKP2 mutation group were similar to those of the non-mutation group. CONCLUSIONS: The rate of PKP2 mutation is 33.3% (10/30) in ARVC/D patients. The penetrance of PKP2 mutation for ARVC/D tends to be higher in man patients. No significant differences could be detected in phenotype characteristics between patients with and without PKP2 mutation.

Heterogeneous silver-polyaniline nanocomposites with tunable morphology and controllable catalytic properties.

This paper introduces not only a simple hydrothermal route to silver-polyaniline (Ag-PANI) nanocomposites with controllable morphology, but also a type of catalyst possessing tunable and switchable catalytic capability. Ag-PANI Janus nanoparticles (NPs) and Ag@PANI core-shell NPs have been constructed successfully at different hydrothermal temperatures. The diameter of both Ag and PANI hemispheres of Janus NPs, as well as the PANI shell thickness of core-shell NPs, was finely tuned via adjustment of the feed ratio. We also gained a deeper insight into the functionalities of PANI components in the catalytic capability of the heterogeneous catalysts, choosing catalytic reductions of nitrobenzene (NB) and 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) as model reactions. Our results showed that the catalytic capability of the nanocomposites was dependent on the PANI morphology and hydrophobicity. The PANI shell coating on Ag NPs can concentrate the lipophilic NB, thus leading to an enhanced catalytic capability of Ag@PANI core-shell NPs. However, this enhanced catalytic capability was not observed for Ag-PANI Janus NPs when catalytically reducing NB. More importantly, the catalytic capability of the core-shell NPs in the reduction of hydrophilic 4-NP is switchable by varying the PANI shell from an undoped to a doped state.

CuO based inorganic-organic hybrid nanowires: a new type of highly sensitive humidity sensor.

The organic surfactant template method has been widely used for the preparation of CuO nanorods, nanotubes and nanowires. However, the surfactants in this system have no effect on the properties of the final products because they are flushed away. In this work, we used this method to synthesize a novel type of inorganic-organic hybrid nanowire via the hybridization between CuO and amphiphilic oligomer octadecyl, polyethylene glycol di-butenetrioate (O-B-EG-B). Here O-B-EG-B, as a structure director, was not flushed away but remained in the prepared hybrid nanowires because it was bound around CuO or entrapped in interior CuO. The hybrid nanowires showed CuO cores and P(O-B-EG-B) shells when the concentration of O-B-EG-B was 0.4 mg ml(-1), but exhibited P(O-B-EG-B) cores and CuO shells when the concentration of O-B-EG-B was 4.0 mg ml(-1). We found that the hybrid nanowires with P(O-B-EG-B) cores and CuO shells could sense a slight change in the relative humidity (RH) and respond by rapidly changing their conductivity. The resistance changed by about two orders of magnitude within the humidity range from 5% to 83.8%. Moreover, a humidity sensor based on this type of nanowire not only showed long-term stability but also exhibited excellent reversibility to moisture changes in air.

Magnetic recyclable CoFe2O4@PPy prepared by in situ Fenton oxidization polymerization with advanced photo-Fenton performance.

Here we present a magnetic recyclable photo-Fenton catalyst CoFe2O4@PPy with uniform morphology and excellent dispersibility prepared via simple in situ Fenton oxidization polymerization. The CoFe2O4 core provides good magnetic recyclability for the catalysts as well as the ion source for catalyzed decomposition of H2O2 in PPy coating. The optimal catalytic effect can be obtained by adjusting the ratio of CoFe2O4 and PPy. Methylene blue, Methyl orange and Rhodamine B (RhB) employed as model pollutants certificated that the catalyst exhibits a wide range of photodegradability. The decoloration rates reach nearly 100% in the photodegradation of 10 mg L-1 RhB after 2 h visible-light irradiation and only low toxicity small molecules are detected by LC-MS. Moreover, the catalytic activity remains after 5 cycles with decoloration rates up to 90%. The degradation measurement in the presence of scavengers of reactive species reveals that the positive holes (h+) and hydroxyl radical (·OH) are the main reactive oxygen species in the CoFe2O4@PPy system. The performance enhancement may be attributed to the combination of improved Fenton activity by coordinated Fe2+ and PPy redox pairs and photo-catalytic activity by broaden adsorption and photo-generated charge separation.

One pot preparation of silver nanoparticles decorated TiO2 mesoporous microspheres with enhanced antibacterial activity.

We report a simple "one-pot" solvothermal preparation of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) decorated mesoporous titania (TiO2) microspheres as an effective antibacterial agent. TBOT as Ti source was hydrolyzed and crystallized in media composed of acetic acid and ethanol, in which esterification catalyzed by TBOT occurred for in-situ "controlled water release". AgNO3 as Ag source was reduced by ethanol to form Ag NPs embedded in the TiO2 microspheres. The effect of AgNO3 and HAc on the morphology of Ag/TiO2 was investigated. The Ag/TiO2 with various Ag content showed excellent antibacterial activities with extremely low minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus when compared with colloidal Ag NPs.

In-situ reduction of monodisperse nanosilver on hierarchical wrinkled mesoporous silica with radial pore channels and its antibacterial performance.

Monodisperse silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) were facilely loaded on the inner and outer surface of hierarchical wrinkled mesoporous silica (WMSs) via an in situ chemical reduction, and the antibacterial capacity of the obtained nanocomposite was investigated in detail. Typical sulfydryl-functionalized wrinkled mesoporous silica nanoparticle with radical pore channels was firstly prepared through sol-gel technique with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as the templating surfactant. After sulfonation of the as-prepared WMSs, Ag(+) ions were then densely locked up on the inner and outer surface of WMSs via electrostatic interactions. Well distributed Ag NPs (ca. 3-5nm) on WMSs without any agglomeration were finally obtained via a simple in situ reduction reaction with sodium borohydride. Minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC) test indicated that the obtained products can achieve durable and much better antibacterial performance both against Gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Gram-positive bacterium Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) comparing to pure colloidal silver nanoparticles, which rendered them as favorable candidate for the development of effective antibacterial agents.

Silver nanoparticles well-dispersed in amine-functionalized, one-pot made vesicles as an effective antibacterial agent.

We report a simple route to prepare silver nanoparticle (Ag NP) loaded amine functionalized poly-oligomeric (ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate block poly-glycidyl methacrylate (POEGMA-b-PGMA) vesicles as an effective antibacterial agent. Self-assemblies of POEGMA-b-PGMA were prepared from reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) dispersion polymerization mediated by a POEGMA macro-chain transfer agent (macro-CTA) in ethanol. Amine-functionalized self-assemblies were applied for Ag NP loading by using amine and hydroxyl groups as both the coordination agent and reductant under hydrothermal condition in high-pressure steam sterilization. 12.7 wt.% content of fine Ag NP well-dispersed in vesicles showed excellent antibacterial activities with the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) below 5.0 and 10.0 mg/L against Escherichia coli and 2.5 and 80 mg/L against Staphylococcus aureus respectively.

Preparation of thermo-responsive graft copolymer by using a novel macro-RAFT agent and its application for drug delivery.

A methodology to prepare thermo-responsive graft copolymer by using a novel macro-RAFT agent was proposed. The macro-RAFT agent with pendant dithioester (ZC(S)SR) was facilely prepared via the combination of RAFT polymerization and esterification reaction. By means of ZC(S)SR-initiated RAFT polymerization, the thermo-responsive graft copolymer consisting of poly(methyl methacrylate-co-hydroxylethyl methacrylate) (P(MMA-co-HEMA)) backbone and hydrophilic poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) side chains was constructed through the "grafting from" approach. The chemical compositions and molecular weight distributions of the synthesized polymers were respectively characterized by (1)H nuclear magnetic resonance ((1)H NMR) and gel permeation chromatography (GPC). Self-assembly behavior of the amphiphilic graft copolymers (P(MMA-co-HEMA)-g-PNIPAAm) was studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS) and spectrofluorimeter. The critical micelle concentration (CMC) value was 0.052 mg mL(-1). These micelles have thermo-responsibility and a low critical solution temperature (LCST) of 33.5°C. Further investigation indicated that the guest molecule release property of these micelles, which can be well described by a first-order kinetic model, was significantly affected by temperature. Besides, the micelles exhibited excellent biocompatibility and cellular uptake property. Hence, these micelles are considered to have potential application in controlled drug delivery.

[The study of the behavior of exciton and photon within semiconductor microcavity under hydrostatic pressure].

We studied, for the first time, the strong coupling between exciton and cavity mode within semiconductor microcavity under hydrostatic pressure, and measured the Rabi splitting. The strong coupling between exciton and cavity mode, and so Rabi splitting appear clearly as the applied pressure reaches 0.37-0.41 GPa. The experiment result shows that hydrostatic pressure not only can tune the coupling between exciton and cavity mode effectively, but also can keep exciton property almost unchanged during the whole tuning procedure in contrast to other tuning method (temperature field et al). Our result agrees with the related theory very well. The Rabi splitting, extracted from fitting the measured mode-energy vs pressure curves with correspending theoretical model, is equal to 6 meV.

Mutations of plakophilin-2 in Chinese with arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy.

Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy (ARVD/C) is an inherited heart muscle disease associated with increased risks of sudden death, particularly in young, otherwise healthy, patients. The pathologic features are progressive myocardial atrophy and fibrofatty replacement. Plakophilin-2 (PKP2) is reported as the most common ARVD/C-causing gene in Western countries. In this study we aimed to determine the prevalence of PKP2 mutations in Chinese patients with ARVD/C and their phenotype characteristics. Genotype and phenotype were investigated in a cohort of 18 unrelated Chinese patients with a clinical diagnosis of ARVD/C. Direct sequencing of PKP2 led to the identification of 5 novel heterozygous mutations (R158K, Q211X, L419S, A793D, and N852fsX930) in 39% of patients (7 of 18) with ARVD/C. Among them, N852fsX930 was found in 3 unrelated young patients who presented with symptomatic ventricular tachyarrhythmia. Nevertheless, no significant difference could be detected between patients with ARVD/C with (n = 7) and without (n = 11) PKP2 mutations with regard to the phenotype characteristics and clinical outcomes. Decreased penetrance was prominent in family members. In conclusion, 5 novel PKP2 mutations were identified in a cohort of symptomatic Chinese patients with ARVD/C. N852fsX930 appeared to be a hot-spot mutation in which patients presented with a severe ARVD/C phenotype, and 2/3 had early onset of arrhythmic events. No significant difference was found in phenotype characteristics between patients with ARVD/C with and without PKP2 mutations. The decreased penetrance indicated that an ARVD/C diagnosis cannot solely rely on genotyping results.