Although effective against epimastigotes (proliferative form) and of low cytotoxicity in mammals, the aryl-4-oxothiazolylhydrazones (ATZ) display only limited activity against trypomastigotes (bloodstream form) of Trypanosoma cruzi. Considering the metal complexation approach with bioactive ligands as one possible strategy for improving the biological efficacy of ATZ, a set of eight new ruthenium-ATZ complexes (RuCl(2)ATZCOD, COD is 1,5-cyclooctadiene) were prepared, chemically and biologically characterized, including in vitro assays against epimastigotes and trypomastigote forms of the parasite and also assessment of cytotoxicity in mammals. Two of these complexes presented antitrypanosomal activity at non-cytotoxic concentrations on mammalian cells and of higher potency than its metal-free ligands, while the metallic precursor [RuCl(2)COD(MeCN)(2)] showed only moderate antitrypanosomal activity. Comparative analysis between the ruthenium complexes and metal-free ligands demonstrated the usefulness of this approach, with the establishment of new SAR data. Additional pharmacological tests, including a DNA bond assay, gave rise to the proposal of a single preliminary explanation for the molecular origin of the bioactivity.
Monoclinic BiVO 4 is recognized as a promising photoanode for water oxidation, but its relatively wide bandgap energy (E g %2.5 eV) and poor charge transport limit the light absorption (η abs ) and charge separation (η sep ) efficiencies, thus resulting in low photocurrents. To solve these drawbacks, here the η abs  η sep product has been decoupled by combining W-doped BiVO 4 and V 2 O 5 rods (E g %2.1 eV) for simultaneously increasing the light harvesting and the charge separation in photoanodes under back-side illumination. In this strategy, V 2 O 5 rods maximize the light absorption and hole transport throughout the W-BiVO 4 film, making more holes to achieve the V 2 O 5 /W-BiVO 4 /H 2 O interface to trigger the water oxidation reaction with photocurrents as high as 6.6 mA cm À2 at 1.23 V RHE after 2 h reaction. Notably, under back-side illumination, the W-BiVO 4 /V 2 O 5 photoanode exhibited η abs  η sep of 74.5 and 93.0% at 0.5 and 1.23 V RHE , respectively, the highest values reported up to date for BiVO 4 -based photoelectrodes. This simple strategy brings us closer to develop efficient photoanodes for photoelectrochemical water splitting devices.
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