The development of novel fluorescent probes for monitoring the concentration of various biomolecules in living systems has great potential for eventual early diagnosis and disease intervention. Selective detection of competitive species in biological systems is a great challenge for the design and development of fluorescent probes. To improve on the design of fluorescent coumarin-based biothiol sensing technologies, we have developed herein an enhanced dual emission doubly activated system (DACP-1 and the closely related DACP-2) for the selective detection of glutathione (GSH) through the use of one optical channel and the detection of cysteine (Cys) by another channel. A phenylselenium group present at the 4-position completely quenches the fluorescence of the probe via photoinduced electron transfer to give a nonfluorescent species. Probes are selective for glutathione (GSH) in the red region and for cysteine/homocysteine (Cys/Hcy) in the green region. When they were treated with GSH, DACP-1 and DACP-2 showed strong fluorescence enhancement in comparison to that for closely related species such as amino acids, including Cys/Hcy. Fluorescence quantum yields (Φ) increased for the red channel (<0.001 to 0.52 (DACP-1) and 0.48 (DACP-2)) and green channel (Cys) (<0.001 to 0.030 (DACP-1) and 0.026 (DACP-2)), respectively. Competing fluorescent enhancements upon addition of closely related species were negligible. Fast responses, improved water solubility, and good cell membrane permeability were all properly established with the use of DACP-1 and DACP-2. Live human lung cancer cells and fibroblasts imaged by confocal microscopy, as well as live mice tumor model imaging, confirmed selective detection.
A three‐coordinate low‐spin cobalt(I) complex generated using a pincer ligand is presented. Since an empty dx2-y2
orbital is sterically exposed at the site trans to the N donor of an acridane moiety, the cobalt(I) center accepts the coordination of various donors such as H2 and PhSiH3 revealing σ‐complex formation. At this low‐spin cobalt(I) site, homolysis of H–H and Si−H bonds preferentially occurs via bimolecular hydrogen atom transfer instead of two‐electron oxidative addition. When the resulting CoII–H species was exposed to N2, H2 evolution readily occurs at ambient conditions. These results suggest single‐electron processes are favored at the structurally rigidified cobalt center.
A hydroxyapatite [HAp; Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2] coating layer was formed on a Ti-based alloy by the electron-beam deposition method. When pure HAp was used as a target for the deposition, an amorphous layer was formed on the metal substrate. By heat treatment in a vacuum at 630 °C, the layer was crystallized into tricalcium phosphate [Ca3(PO4)2]. The crystallization improved the dissolution rate of the layer remarkably; however, at the same time, it deteriorated the bond strength with the substrate. When extra CaO (up to 25 wt%) was added to the target and processed under the same conditions, a layer compositionally close to crystalline HAp was deposited. Before the heat treatment, even though the layer was in amorphous state, the dissolution rate in the physiological solution was extremely low. Furthermore, the bond strength increased remarkably compared to the layer formed by the pure HAp target. Compositional and structural resemblance of the layer with the crystalline HAp was attributed to these improvements in properties.
Redox‐active organometallic molecules offer a promising avenue for increasing the energy density and cycling stability of redox flow batteries. The molecular properties change dramatically as the ligands are functionalized and these variations allow for improving the solubility and controlling the redox potentials to optimize their performance when used as electrolytes. Unfortunately, it has been difficult to predict and design the stability of redox‐active molecules to enhance cyclability in a rational manner, in part because the relationship between electronic structure and redox behavior has been neither fully understood nor systematically explored. In this work, rational strategies for exploiting two common principles in organometallic chemistry for enhancing the robustness of pseudo‐octahedral cobalt–polypyridyl complexes are developed. Namely, the spin‐crossover between low and high‐spin states and the chelation effect emerging from replacing three bidentate ligands with two tridentate analogues. Quantum chemical models are used to conceptualize the approach and make predictions that are tested against experiments by preparing prototype Co‐complexes and profiling them as catholytes and anolytes. In good agreement with the conceptual predictions, very stable cycling performance over 600 cycles is found.
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