Macroscopic supramolecular assembly is a promising method for manufacturing macroscopic, ordered structures for tissue-engineering scaffolds. A flexible spacing coating is shown to overcome undesired surface and size effects and to enable assembly of macroscopic cubes with host/guest groups. The assembled pairs disassembled upon introduction of competitive guest molecules, thereby demonstrating a multivalent assembly mechanism.

The pentazolate anion, as a polynitrogen species, holds great promise as a high-energy density material for explosive or propulsion applications. Designing pentazole complexes that contain minimal non-energetic components is desirable in order to increase the material’s energy density. Here, we report a solvent-free pentazolate complex, AgN5, and a 3D energetic-framework, [Ag(NH3)2]+[Ag3(N5)4]ˉ, constructed from silver and cyclo-N5ˉ. The complexes are stable up to 90 °C and only Ag and N2 are observed as the final decomposition products. Efforts to isolate pure AgN5 were unsuccessful due to partial photolytical and/or thermal-decomposition to AgN3. Convincing evidence for the formation of AgN5 as the original reaction product is presented. The isolation of a cyclo-N5ˉ complex, devoid of stabilizing molecules and ions, such as H2O, H3O+, and NH4+, constitutes a major advance in pentazole chemistry.

No abstract

a b s t r a c tComposting is commonly used for the treatment and resource utilization of sewage sludge, and natural zeolite and nitrification inhibitors can be used for nitrogen conservation during sludge composting, while their impacts on ARGs control are still unclear. Therefore, three lab-scale composting reactors, A (the control), B (natural zeolite addition) and C (nitrification inhibitor addition of 3,4-dimethylpyrazole phosphate, DMPP), were established. The impacts of natural zeolite and DMPP on the levels of ARGs were investigated, as were the roles that heavy metals, mobile genetic elements (MGEs) and the bacterial community play in ARGs evolution. The results showed that total ARGs copies were enriched 2.04 and 1.95 times in reactors A and C, respectively, but were reduced by 1.5% in reactor B due to the reduction of conjugation and co-selection of heavy metals caused by natural zeolite. Although some ARGs (bla CTX-M , bla TEM , ermB, ereA and tetW) were reduced by 0.3e2 logs, others (ermF, sulI, sulII, tetG, tetX, mefA and aac(6 0 )-Ib-cr) increased by 0.3e1.3 logs after sludge composting. Although the contributors for the ARGs profiles in different stages were quite different, the results of a partial redundancy analysis, Mantel test and Procrustes analysis showed that the bacterial community was the main contributor to the changes in ARGs compared to MGEs and heavy metals. Network analysis determined the potential host bacteria for various ARGs and further confirmed our results.

Nitroaromatics are among the most important and commonly used chemicals but their production often suffers from multiple unsolved challenges. We have previously described the development of biocatalytic nitration processes driven by an engineered P450 TxtE fusion construct. Herein we report the creation of improved nitration biocatalysts through constructing and characterizing fusion proteins of TxtE with the reductase domain of CYP102A1 (P450BM3, BM3R). The majority of constructs contained variable linker length while one was rationally designed for optimizing protein-protein interactions. Detailed biochemical characterization identified multiple active chimeras that showed improved nitration activity, increased coupling efficiency and higher total turnover numbers compared with TxtE. Substrate promiscuity of the most active chimera was further assessed with a substrate library. Finally, a biocatalytic nitration process was developed to nitrate 4-Me-dl-Trp. The production of both 4-Me-5-NO2-l-Trp and 4-Me-7-NO2-l-Trp uncovered remarkable regio-promiscuity of nitration biocatalysts.

In this letter, we have developed a facile method to enhance the stability of polyelectrolyte multilayers. We fabricate conventional polyelectrolyte multilayers of PAH/PAA through electrostatic layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly and then postinfiltrate photosensitive cross-linking agent 4,4'-diazostilbene-2,2'-disulfonic acid disodium salt into the LbL films. After cross-linking by UV irradiation, the stability of the photo-cross-linked multilayer is highly improved as evidenced by the lack of dissolution under ultrasonication in saturated SDS aqueous solutions for 10 min. Moreover, by taking advantage of the different stability of the LbL film before and after UV irradiation, a patterned surface can be achieved.

The hydrothermal reactions of Zn(ClO 4 ) 2 ·6H 2 O and Cd(ClO 4 ) 2 ·6H 2 O with 1,3-bis(2H-tetrazol-5-yl)benzene in an aqueous ethanol and an aqueous methanol/pyridine medium, respectively, yielded a 3D and a 2D metal-organic coordination framework [Zn(1,3-BTB)] (1)

Pd-Catalyzed o-C-H functionalization of α-phenylglycine, 4-hydroxyphenylglycine and phenylalanine using picolinamide as a directing group is reported. We have developed different protocols for the arylation, alkylation, alkynylation, halogenation, alkoxylation, and acyloxylation of these amino acids. The reactions exhibit high selectivity, broad substrate scope, and compatibility with different functional groups in moderate to high yields. They provide a rapid and efficient access to a variety of phenyl based amino acid derivatives which can be further modified and have broad spectrum of applications in medicinal chemistry.