New insight into the photoinduced wavelength dependent decay mechanisms of the ferulic acid system on the excited states.

The ferulic acid (FA) is a kind of phenolic acid widely exists in nature plants. Apart from its medicinal values, the FA is also widely applied in cosmetic industry. Recently, it was found to have potential applications in commercial sunscreens for its strong photostability and photoprotection property from harmful UV rays. Such excellent property lies in the ultrafast decay process of the FA system when exposure to the UV light, but the underlying detailed relaxation pathway is still less clear-cut. In the current work, high-level ab initio electronic structure calculations and on-the-fly surface hopping dynamics simulations were employed to explore the photoinduced decay mechanism of the FA system both on the S1 and S3 states in the gas phase. The results provide a reasonable explanation for the wavelength dependent decay patterns of FA system. The S1 state decay pathway is driven by a re-emission process to dissipate excess energy. While for the S3 state deactivation process, the pathway is dominated by a non-adiabatic process driven by the internal conversion process through the conical intersection regions. A S3-S1-S0 two step decay pattern is proposed, and the pathways are mainly driven by a puckering distortion motion of the aromatic ring and a twisting motion around the bridging double bond. The calculation results contribute to a better understanding of detailed dynamics behavior of the FA deactivation process, and provide theoretical guidance for further design of efficient and environmentally friendly sunscreens.

Synthesis and structure-activity relationship of theasapogenol galactosides against Magnaporthe oryzae.

Camellia oleifera is expected to provide alternative aglycone to synthesize some saponins similar to that from Schima superba with inhibitory activity against Magnaporthe oryzae. Eight theasapogenol galactosides were synthesized via protection of adjacent hydroxyl groups by a benzylidene for regioselective glycosylation in the multi-hydroxyl sapogenin. Water soluble galactose chain connected far from liposoluble end was a key group in inhibiting the growth of M. oryzea unless theasapogenol was modified by two galactosyl groups or by one galactosyl group and one benzylidene group. The amphoteric characteristics of saponin such as saccharide group number, distance between bipolar groups play an important role in inhibiting mycelium growth of M. oryzae.

Effect of functional groups on sludge for biosorption of reactive dyes.

The sludge, which was collected from a biological coke wastewater treatment plant, was used as a low-cost adsorbent in the removal of reactive dyes (Methylene Blue (MB) and Reactive Red 4 (RR4)) from aqueous solution. The pH of dye solution played an important role on the dye uptake. With the solution pH increase, the MB uptake increased; whereas the RR4 uptake decreased. The maximum uptake of RR4 by protonated sludge was 73.7 mg/g at pH 1, and the maximum uptake of MB by sludge was 235.3 mg/g at pH 9. Three functional groups, including carboxyl, phosphonate, and amine group, were identified by potentiometric titration, fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrometry, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The anionic functional groups, phosphonate and carboxyl group, were identified as the binding sites for the cationic MB. Amine groups were identified to bind RR4. The main mechanism of the reactive dyestuffs adsorption is electrostatic interaction.

Adsorption performance and mechanism in binding of Reactive Red 4 by coke waste.

The protonated coke waste was used as a new type of adsorbent for the removal of Reactive Red 4. To identify the binding sites in the protonated coke waste, the waste was potentiometrically titrated. As a result, four types of functional groups were present in the waste, which was confirmed by FT-IR analysis. Among functional groups, primary amine groups (-NH2) were likely the binding sites for anionic Reactive Red 4. It was also found that sulfonate, carboxyl and phosphonate groups played a role in electrostatic interference with the binding of dye molecules. The maximum adsorption capacities of the coke waste were 70.3+/-11.1 and 24.9+/-1.8 mg/g at pH 1 and 2, respectively. Kinetic study showed a pseudo-first-order rate of adsorption with respect to the solution. The uptake of Reactive Red 4 was not significantly affected by the high concentration of salts. These results of adsorption performance indicate the coke waste as a potentially economical adsorbent for dye removal.