The development in the field MOF materials is moving from the discovery of new structures toward applications of the most promising materials. In most cases, specialized applications require incorporation of functional chemical groups. This work is a systematic investigation of the effect that simple substituents attached to the aromatic linker have on the stability and property to the parent MOF. A family of isoreticular MOFs, based on the UiO-66 structure was obtained from the three different linker ligands H2N−H2BDC, O2N−H2BDC, and Br−H2BDC. The physicochemical and chemical investigation of these materials demonstrate that this class of MOFs retains high thermal and chemical stabilities, even with functional groups present at the linker units. The results demonstrate the possibility of incorporating active functional groups into the UiO-66 structure almost without losing its exceptionally high thermal and chemical stability. It has been established that the functional groups, at least in the amino functionalized UiO-66 sample, are chemically available as evidenced by the H/D exchange experiment, making the tagged UiO series MOFs very interesting for further studies within the field of catalysis.

Post-synthetic modification is a viable route for the introduction of surface sites with new chemical properties in metal-organic framework compounds. Herein we demonstrate that it is possible to perform covalent post-synthetic modifications of the UiO-66-NH 2 MOF with four different acid anhydrides. FT-IR is employed to monitor the reactions and the extent of reaction depends on the bulkiness of the anhydrides. For the smallest one, acetic anhydride, 100% conversion to UiO-66-NHCOCH 3 was observed.

Reduction of [(triphos)NiCl2] (1) with an excess of NaBH4 in THF produces the paramagnetic Ni(I) complex [(triphos)Ni(eta2-BH4)] (2). X-ray crystallography shows 1 to be a square-planar Ni(II) species in which the phosphine ligand is bidentate, whereas 2 has pseudotetrahedral geometry at the Ni(I) center, with a tridentate phosphine and the borohydride ligand occupying a single coordination site. Density functional theory calculations show the unpaired electron in 2 to reside in an orbital located mainly on the Ni atom.

Ultrasensitive mass spectrometric analysis of organic molecules is important for various branches of chemistry, and other fields including physics, earth and environmental sciences, archaeology, biomedicine, and materials science. It finds applications--as an enabling tool--in systems biology, biological imaging, clinical analysis, and forensics. Although there are a number of technical obstacles associated with the analysis of samples by mass spectrometry at ultratrace level (for example analyte losses during sample preparation, insufficient sensitivity, ion suppression), several noteworthy developments have been made over the years. They include: sensitive ion sources, loss-free interfaces, ion optics components, efficient mass analyzers and detectors, as well as "smart" sample preparation strategies. Some of the mass spectrometric methods published to date can achieve sensitivity which is by several orders of magnitude higher than that of alternative approaches. Femto- and attomole level limits of detection are nowadays common, while zepto- and yoctomole level limits of detection have also been reported. We envision that the ultrasensitive mass spectrometric assays will soon contribute to new discoveries in bioscience and other areas.

The present study describes the antioxidant, antimicrobial, and photocatalytic activity of silver nanoparticles (AGNPs) synthesized using six varieties of Catharanthus roseus flower extracts for the first time. Initially, the synthesized AgNPs were visually confirmed by color change. Further, the formation, size, and shape of the synthesized AgNPs were characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The SEM image of purple flower AgNPs and the calculated bandgap energies of the synthesized AgNPs showed that the synthesized AgNPs were in the range of 0–30 nm. Qualitative phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of the phytocompounds that were responsible for the capping, formation, bioreduction, and stabilization of AgNPs. The antioxidant ability of the AgNPs and their respective flower extracts were analyzed using TFC, TPC, TAC, DPPH, FRAP, and IC50 assays. The results of the antioxidant assays indicated that the AgNPs showed higher antioxidant activity compared to their respective flower extracts. The synthesized AgNPs showed significant antimicrobial activity against Gram-negative Escherichia coli compared to Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus assayed using the agar well diffusion method. Furthermore, the photocatalytic activity of the synthesized purple flower AgNPs at two different concentrations 5000 ppm and 333 ppm was analyzed by the removal of methyl orange dye from an aqueous solution under sunlight irradiation in the presence of NaBH4 catalyst. Results indicated that 333 ppm purple flower AgNPs exhibited an efficient photocatalytic activity in the degradation of methyl orange compared to 5000 ppm purple flower AgNPs in 20 minutes. Thus, the results obtained indicated that Catharanthus roseus is an ecofriendly source for the green synthesis of AgNPs which can be used as a novel antioxidant, antimicrobial, and photocatalytic agent; thereby, it can be used in a variety of applications to improve the quality of human life.