This review describes recent developments in the chemistry of both first and second generation 99m-technetium-based imaging agents. The material is presented according to the biological target for the agent, and where possible actual images are presented to indicate the type of information available to the clinician. Beta emitting isotopes of rhenium offer a possible method for the in situ treatment of cancerous tissue using analogous targeting strategies to those for technetium. Recent developments in the relevant coordination chemistry of rhenium and their extension to in vitro and in vivo studies are presented.

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The ubiquitous challenge of plastic waste has led to the modern descriptor 'plastisphere' to represent the human-made plastic environment and ecosystem.Here we report a straightforward, rapid method for the deconstruction of various plastic feedstocks into hydrogen and high-value carbons. We use microwaves together with abundant and inexpensive iron-based catalysts as microwavesusceptors to initiate the catalytic deconstruction process. The one-step process typically takes some 30-90 seconds to transform a sample of mechanically-pulverised commercial plastic into hydrogen and (predominantly) multi-walled carbon nanotubes. A high hydrogen yield of 55.6 mmol• − is achieved, with over 97 % of the theoretical mass of hydrogen being extracted from the deconstructed plastic. The approach is demonstrated on widely used, real-world plastic waste. This proof-of-concept advance highlights the potential of plastics waste itself as valuable energy feedstocks for the production of hydrogen and high-value carbon materials.

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Copper diacetyl-bis(N4-methylthiosemicarbazone), Cu(II)ATSM, is a promising agent for imaging hypoxic tissue. Here we present results that provide insight into the chemical and electronic properties underlying previously observed structure-activity relationships. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations on the electronic structures and molecular orbitals of a series of 13 Cu(II)bis(thiosemicarbazone) analogues with different alkylation patterns and with fixed geometries based on the known structure of Cu(II)PTSM showed that the LUMO and the next lowest orbital were very close in energy, and their energy order was strikingly dependent on the ligand alkylation pattern in a way that correlated with hypoxia-selectivity and redox potentials. The LUMOs of Cu(II)ATSM and other hypoxia-selective analogues were predominantly metal-based (leading to a singlet reduced species) while the LUMOs of Cu(II)PTSM and other nonselective analogues were predominantly ligand-based (leading to a triplet reduced species). Upon relaxation of the geometric constraint and full optimization in both Cu(II)ATSM and Cu(II)GTS, the metal-based orbital became the LUMO, and the singlet was the thermodynamically preferred form of the reduced species. Chemical and electrochemical investigation showed that all Cu(II) complexes were reducible, but Cu(I)PTSM and other nonselective analogues dissociated immediately upon reduction with release of ligand (detected by UV-vis) while Cu(I)ATSM and other hypoxia-selective analogues did not. Instead they were rapidly re-oxidized to the Cu(II) complex by molecular oxygen. The reversible electrochemical reduction of nonselective complexes Cu(II)PTSM and Cu(II)GTS became irreversible in the presence of weak acid, whereas that of Cu(II)ATSM was unaffected. In light of these results we present a model to explain the structure-activity relationships on the basis of electronic structure and molecular vibrations.

Detailed chemical, spectroelectrochemical and computational studies have been used to investigate the mechanism of hypoxia selectivity of a range of copper radiopharmaceuticals. A revised mechanism involving a delicate balance between cellular uptake, intracellular reduction, reoxidation, protonation and ligand dissociation is proposed. This mechanism accounts for observed differences in the reported cellular uptake and washout of related copper bis(thiosemicarbazonato) complexes. Three copper and zinc complexes have been characterised by X-ray crystallography and the redox chemistry of a series of copper complexes has been investigated by using electronic absorption and EPR spectroelectrochemistry. Time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) calculations have also been used to probe the electronic structures of intermediate species and assign the electronic absorption spectra. DFT calculations also show that one-electron oxidation is ligand-based, leading to the formation of cationic triplet species. In the absence of protons, metal-centred one-electron reduction gives the reduced anionic copper(I) species, [CuIATSM](-), and for the first time it is shown that molecular oxygen can reoxidise this anion to give the neutral, lipophilic parent complexes, which can wash out of cells. The electrochemistry is pH dependent and in the presence of stronger acids both chemical and electrochemical reduction leads to quantitative and rapid dissociation of copper(I) ions from the mono- or diprotonated complexes, [CuIATSMH] and [Cu(I)ATSMH2]+. In addition, a range of protonated intermediate species have been identified at lower acid concentrations. The one-electron reduction potential, rate of reoxidation of the copper(I) anionic species and ease of protonation are dependent on the structure of the ligand, which also governs their observed behaviour in vivo.

Double electron-electron resonance (DEER) spectroscopy can determine, from measurement of the dipolar interaction, the distance and orientation between two paramagnetic centres in systems lacking long-range order such as powders or frozen solution samples. In spin systems with considerable anisotropy, the microwave pulses excite only a fraction of the electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectrum and the resulting orientation selection needs to be explicitly taken into account if a meaningful distance and orientation is to be determined. Here, a general method is presented to analyze the dipolar interaction between two paramagnetic spin centres from a series of DEER traces recorded so that different orientations of the spin-spin vector are sampled. Delocalised spin density distributions and spin projection factors (as for example in iron-sulfur clusters), are explicitly included. Application of the analysis to a spin-labelled flavoprotein reductase/reduced iron-sulfur ferredoxin protein complex and a bi-radical with two Cu(ii) ions provides distance and orientation information between the radical centres. In the protein complex this enables the protein-protein binding geometry to be defined. Experimentally, orientationally selective DEER measurements are possible on paramagnetic systems where the resonator bandwidth allows the frequencies of pump and detection pulses to be separated sufficiently to excite enough orientations to define adequately the spin-spin vector.

Density functional theory (DFT) calculations have been performed using the uB3LYP/6-31++G(d,p) model to calculate the solution phase one-electron reduction potentials (E(calc)) and absolute pKa values of a series of copper bis(thiosemicarbazonato) complexes. The effects of solvation in water and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) are incorporated as a self-consistent reaction field (SCRF) using the integral equation formalism polarisable continuum model (IEFPCM) and are found to be essential for quantitative agreement with an average error in E(calc) of -0.02 V compared to experiment. The bonding and spin densities are examined through the use of Natural Bond Order analysis and the results used to rationalise the calculated and observed reduction potentials. Calculated estimates of pKa values of several copper(II) species are presented and their implications for the mechanisms of transport and trapping within hypoxic cells are considered. Reduction is found to be a prerequisite for protonation of the complexes which suggests their transport in the blood stream as neutral species, and the mechanistic sequence is identified as a sequential electrochemical-chemical (EC) process. The complex equilibria of protonation, reoxidation and dissociation are discussed and the copper(I) diprotonated, cationic complex of diacetyl bis(4-methyl-3-thiosemicarbazonato)copper(II), Cu(I)ATSMH2(+), is identified as a possible candidate for the initial species trapped in hypoxic cells.