A novel fluorescent probe based on naphthimide for H2S identification and application.

In view of the superior chemical activity of selenoether bond (-Se-) and the excellent optical properties of naphthimide, a novel fluorescent probe (NapSe) with near-rectangular structure, which contains double naphthimide fluorophores linked by selenoether bond, is designed for specific fluorescence detection of hydrogen sulfide (H2S). NapSe has excellent optical properties: super large Stokes Shift (190 nm) and good stability in a wide pH range. The selectivity of NapSe fluorescence detection of H2S is high, and displays excellent "turn-on" phenomenon and strong anti-interference. And the fluorescence intensity increased obviously, reaching 42 times. The time response of probe NapSe is very rapid (3 min) compared with other fluorescence probes that respond to H2S. It shows high sensitivity by calculating the detection limit (LOD) as low as 5.4 µM. Notably, the identification of H2S by probe NapSe has been successfully applied to the detection of test paper and the detection of exogenous and endogenous fluorescence imaging of MCF-7 breast cancer cells.

A Top-Down Templating Strategy toward Functional Porous Carbons.

Nanostructured carbon materials with high porosity and desired chemical functionalities are of immense interest because of their wide application potentials in catalysis, environment, and energy storage. Herein, a top-down templating strategy is presented for the facile synthesis of functional porous carbons, based on the direct carbonization of diverse organic precursors with commercially available metal oxide powders. During the carbonization, the metal oxide powders can evolve into nanoparticles that serve as in situ templates to introduce nanopores in carbons. The porosity and heteroatom doping of the prepared carbon materials can be engineered by varying the organic precursors and/or the metal oxides. It is further demonstrated that the top-down templating strategy is applicable to prepare carbon-based single-atom catalysts with iron-nitrogen sites, which exhibit a high power density of 545 mW cm-2 in a H2 -air proton exchange membrane fuel cell.

Hierarchically Porous Carbons Derived from Nonporous Coordination Polymers.

Hierarchically porous carbons (HPCs) with multimodal pore systems exhibit great technological potentials, especially in the fields of heterogeneous catalysis, energy storage, and conversion. Here, we establish a simple and general approach to HPCs by carbonization of nonporous coordination polymers that are produced by mixing metal salts with polytopic ligands in alkaline aqueous solutions at room temperature. The proposed approach is applicable to a wide scope of ligand molecules (18 examples), thus affording the synthesized HPCs with high diversity in porosity, morphology, and composition. In particular, the prepared HPCs exhibit high specific surface areas (up to 2647 m2 g-1) and large pore volumes (up to 2.39 cm3 g-1). The HPCs-supported atomically dispersed Fe-Nx catalysts show much-improved fuel cell cathode performance over the micropore-dominated carbon black-supported catalysts, demonstrating the structural superiority of the HPCs for enhancing the mass transport properties.

Synthesis of carbon-supported sub-2 nanometer bimetallic catalysts by strong metal-sulfur interaction.

Small-sized bimetallic nanoparticles that integrate the advantages of efficient exposure of the active metal surface and optimal geometric/electronic effects are of immense interest in the field of catalysis, yet there are few universal strategies for synthesizing such unique structures. Here, we report a novel method to synthesize sub-2 nm bimetallic nanoparticles (Pt-Co, Rh-Co, and Ir-Co) on mesoporous sulfur-doped carbon (S-C) supports. The approach is based on the strong chemical interaction between metals and sulfur atoms that are doped in the carbon matrix, which suppresses the metal aggregation at high temperature and thus ensures the formation of small-sized and well alloyed bimetallic nanoparticles. We also demonstrate the enhanced catalytic performance of the small-sized bimetallic Pt-Co nanoparticle catalysts for the selective hydrogenation of nitroarenes.

Temperature-Invariant Superelastic and Fatigue Resistant Carbon Nanofiber Aerogels.

Superelastic and fatigue-resistant materials that can work over a wide temperature range are highly desired for diverse applications. A morphology-retained and scalable carbonization method is reported to thermally convert a structural biological material (i.e., bacterial cellulose) into graphitic carbon nanofiber aerogel by engineering the pyrolysis chemistry. The prepared carbon aerogel perfectly inherits the hierarchical structures of bacterial cellulose from macroscopic to microscopic scales, resulting in remarkable thermomechanical properties. In particular, it maintains superelasticity without plastic deformation even after 2 × 106 compressive cycles and exhibits exceptional temperature-invariant superelasticity and fatigue resistance over a wide temperature range at least from -100 to 500 °C. This aerogel shows unique advantages over polymeric foams, metallic foams, and ceramic foams in terms of thermomechanical stability and fatigue resistance, with the realization of scalable synthesis and the economic advantage of biological materials.

Transition metal-assisted carbonization of small organic molecules toward functional carbon materials.

Nanostructured carbon materials with large surface area and desired chemical functionalities have been attracting considerable attention because of their extraordinary physicochemical properties and great application potentials in catalysis, environment, and energy storage. However, the traditional approaches to fabricating these materials rely greatly on complex procedures and specific precursors. We present a simple, effective, and scalable strategy for the synthesis of functional carbon materials by transition metal-assisted carbonization of conventional small organic molecules. We demonstrate that transition metals can promote the thermal stability of molecular precursors and assist the formation of thermally stable polymeric intermediates during the carbonization process, which guarantees the successful preparation of carbons with high yield. The versatility of this synthetic strategy allows easy control of the surface chemical functionality, porosity, and morphology of carbons at the molecular level. Furthermore, the prepared carbons exhibit promising performance in heterogeneous catalysis and electrocatalysis.

Wood-Derived Ultrathin Carbon Nanofiber Aerogels.

Carbon aerogels with 3D networks of interconnected nanometer-sized particles exhibit fascinating physical properties and show great application potential. Efficient and sustainable methods are required to produce high-performance carbon aerogels on a large scale to boost their practical applications. An economical and sustainable method is now developed for the synthesis of ultrathin carbon nanofiber (CNF) aerogels from the wood-based nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) aerogels via a catalytic pyrolysis process, which guarantees high carbon residual and well maintenance of the nanofibrous morphology during thermal decomposition of the NFC aerogels. The wood-derived CNF aerogels exhibit excellent electrical conductivity, a large surface area, and potential as a binder-free electrode material for supercapacitors. The results suggest great promise in developing new families of carbon aerogels based on the controlled pyrolysis of economical and sustainable nanostructured precursors.

A population-based study on health-related quality of life among urban community residents in Shenyang, Northeast of China.

BACKGROUND: Due to the rising standard of living environment and advances in public health and medical care in China, it has been a tendency in recent years that health-related quality of life (HRQoL) has been increasingly acknowledged in community health management. However, large-scale population-based study on evaluating HQRoL in northeast of China was not conducted. This article aims to investigate the HRQoL in community residents in Northeast China and explore the associated factors. METHODS: Stratified multiple-stage sampling method was used in the cross-sectional survey to investigate HRQoL of community residents in northeast of China. Univariate analysis and multiple linear regressions were used to analyze the factors associated to HRQoL of the community residents. RESULTS: The results were confirmed that HRQoL in general population was well performed for the first time in northeast of China in a large scale population. Community residents had better mental health than physical health. The factors influencing HRQoL included gender, age, educational level, marital status, ethnic group, chronic disease status, having breakfast frequency weekly and sleep quality. However, drinking and smoking habits did not affect residents' HRQoL. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, the result of the large-scale survey was satisfactory in northeast of China, providing HRQoL status of community residents. Policies on specific health management in community public health would emphasize on lifestyle behaviors especially eating habits in order to improving HRQoL.

Mesoporous carbon stabilized MgO nanoparticles synthesized by pyrolysis of MgCl2 preloaded waste biomass for highly efficient CO2 capture.

Anthropogenic CO2 emission makes significant contribution to global climate change and CO2 capture and storage is a currently a preferred technology to change the trajectory toward irreversible global warming. In this work, we reported a new strategy that the inexhaustible MgCl2 in seawater and the abundantly available biomass waste can be utilized to prepare mesoporous carbon stabilized MgO nanoparticles (mPC-MgO) for CO2 capture. The mPC-MgO showed excellent performance in the CO2 capture process with the maximum capacity of 5.45 mol kg(-1), much higher than many other MgO based CO2 trappers. The CO2 capture capacity of the mPC-MgO material kept almost unchanged in 19-run cyclic reuse, and can be regenerated at low temperature. The mechanism for the CO2 capture by the mPC-MgO was investigated by FTIR and XPS, and the results indicated that the high CO2 capture capacity and the favorable selectivity of the as-prepared materials were mainly attributed to their special structure (i.e., surface area, functional groups, and the MgO NPs). This work would open up a new pathway to slow down global warming as well as resolve the pollution of waste biomass.

Dibromido{2-morpholino-N-[1-(2-pyrid-yl)ethyl-idene]ethanamine-κN,N',N''}zinc(II).

In the title complex, [ZnBr(2)(C(13)H(19)N(3)O)], the Zn(II) atom is five-coordinated by the three N-donor atoms of the Schiff base ligand and by two Br atoms in a distorted square-pyramidal geometry. The morpholine ring adopts a chair conformation.

4-Dimethyl-amino-N'-(3-pyridyl-methyl-idene)benzohydrazide.

The title compound, C(15)H(16)N(4)O, was prepared by the reaction of pyridine-3-carbaldehyde with 4-dimethyl-amino-benzo-hydrazide in methanol. The dihedral angle between the pyridine and the benzene rings is 5.1 (3)°. In the crystal structure, the hydrazone mol-ecules are linked through inter-molecular N-H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming chains along the b axis.

Removal of Cu(II) in aqueous media by biosorption using water hyacinth roots as a biosorbent material.

Water hyacinth roots were employed as a biosorbent to remove Cu(II) in aqueous media. Nitrogen adsorption/desorption analysis revealed that the biosorbent was mesoporous with a relatively small surface area. Equilibrium biosorption isotherms showed that the water hyacinth roots possessed a high affinity and sorption capacity for Cu(II) with a monolayer sorption capacity of 22.7 mg g(-1) at initial pH 5.5. Kinetics study at different temperatures revealed that the sorption was a rapid and endothermic process. The activation energy for Cu(II) sorption was estimated to be 30.8 kJ mol(-1), which is typical of activated chemisorption processes. The sorption mechanism was investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, effect of pH and calcium release. These analyses suggested that the biosorption mainly involved the ion exchange of Cu(II) with cations and complex formation with functional groups on the surface of the roots. All the results showed that water hyacinth roots are an alternative low-cost biosorbent for the removal of Cu(II) from aqueous media.

Structural rearrangements and the unfolding mechanism of a Trigger Factor mutant studied by multiple structural probes.

Trigger Factor (TF) is a three-domain chaperone which catalyzes nascent peptide folding and harbors peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase activity. The multi-domain structure of TF makes it an interesting and challenging candidate for studies of the structural properties and functional behavior of individual domains or combined domain constructs. Here we constructed a TF mutant, NC, combining the N- and C-domains that are responsible for TF's chaperone function, and compared structural changes and unfolding characteristics of NC with wild-type TF by monitoring fluorescence spectra, far-UV CD, chemical crosslinking, DSC and binding with hydrophobic probes (ANS or bis-ANS). The results showed that the NC construct, like intact TF, could bind to hydrophobic probes, form dimers in solution, and showed a similar 3-state guanidine-induced unfolding profile. However, the NC fragment showed reduced stability towards both guanidine unfolding and thermal denaturation, suggesting that the presence of the M-domain of TF contributes to the stability of the intact TF structure.

Thermal unfolding of Escherichia coli trigger factor studied by ultra-sensitive differential scanning calorimetry.

Temperature-induced unfolding of Escherichia coli trigger factor (TF) and its domain truncation mutants, NM and MC, were studied by ultra-sensitive differential scanning calorimetry (UC-DSC). Detailed thermodynamic analysis showed that thermal induced unfolding of TF and MC involves population of dimeric intermediates. In contrast, the thermal unfolding of the NM mutant involves population of only monomeric states. Covalent cross-linking experiments confirmed the presence of dimeric intermediates during thermal unfolding of TF and MC. These data not only suggest that the dimeric form of TF is extremely resistant to thermal unfolding, but also provide further evidence that the C-terminal domain of TF plays a vital role in forming and stabilizing the dimeric structure of the TF molecule. Since TF is the first molecular chaperone that nascent polypeptides encounter in eubacteria, the stable dimeric intermediates of TF populated during thermal denaturation might be important in responding to stress damage to the cell, such as heat shock.