The heterobimetallic complexes CpRu(PPh3)(μ-Cl)(μ-dppm)PdCl2 (1) [dppm = bis(diphenylphosphino)methane], CpRu(PPh3)Cl(μ-dppm)AuCl (2), and CpRu(PPh3)(μ-Cl)(μ-dppm)PtCl2 (3) were synthesized by the reaction of CpRu(PPh3)Cl(η1-dppm) (4) with Pd(COD)Cl2, AuPPh3Cl, and Pt(COD)Cl2, respectively. Compounds 1 and 2 were characterized by X-ray crystallography. Electrochemical oxidation of CH3OH in the presence of 1, 2, or 3 leads to considerable enhancement of the oxidative currents and formation of the organic products CH2(OCH3)2 and HCOOCH3. Addition of water increases both the current and the proportion of the more highly oxidized product, HCOOCH3. Current efficiencies obtained with heterobinuclear complexes 1−3 were significantly higher than those obtained using the model compound CpRuCl(η2-dppm) (5) as catalyst.

Steering the cluster configuration inside a fullerene cage has been one of most interesting topics in the field of fullerenes, since the physical property of a cluster fullerene may be modified accordingly. It has been well-recognized that the cluster configuration can be tuned via altering the cage size. Typically, the carbide cluster and the oxide cluster are experimentally seen to be curled up within a small fullerene cage whereas they are expanded in a large cage. In this work, a new oxide cluster fullerene Ho2O@C 2(13333)-C74 is prepared and isolated. The single-crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD) study reveals that the Ho2O cluster, however, expands within the small non-IPR cage of C 2(13333)-C74 with a Ho–O–Ho angle of >170°, indicating that cluster configuration is highly related to the cage shape and cage structure as well. The DFT computation demonstrates that the cluster-to-cage electron-transfer obviously enhances the aromaticity of the motif containing the fused-pentagon pair and hence stabilizes the non-IPR cage of C 2(13333)-C74. In addition, the electrochemical and magnetic properties of Ho2O@C 2(13333)-C74 are studied to further investigate the effect of endohedral Ho2O cluster.

X-ray-responsive nanocarriers for anticancer drug delivery have shown great promise for enhancing the efficacy of chemoradiotherapy. A critical challenge remains for development of such radiation-controlled drug delivery systems (DDSs), which is to minimize the required X-ray dose for triggering the cargo release. Herein, we design and fabricate an effective DDS based on diselenide block copolymers (as nanocarrier), which can be triggered to release their cargo with a reduced radiation dose of 2 Gy due to their sensitivity to both Xray and the high level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the microenvironment of cancer cells. The underlying molecular mechanism is further illustrated by proton nuclear magnetic resonance ( 1 H NMR) experiments and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. In vivo experiments on tumor-bearing mice validated that the loaded drugs are effectively delivered to the tumor site and exert remarkable antitumor effects (minimum tumor volume/weight) along with X-ray. Furthermore, the diselenide nanocarriers exhibit no noticeable cytotoxicity. These findings provide new insights for the de novo design of radiation-controlled DDSs for cancer chemoradiotherapy.

respectively. The structures of compounds 4, 5, 10 and 12 were determined by X-ray crystallography. Cyclic voltammetry of the halide-bridged complexes revealed shifts in the redox potentials of the metals, as compared to mononuclear model compounds. The shifts are consistent with electron donation between the metals through the halide bridge. Ru/Au complexes 8-11, which are bridged only by the bidentate phosphine, exhibited minimal electronic effects between the metal centers. This limited interaction between the metal centers in 8-11 is corroborated by UV/vis spectroscopy.

The electrochemical oxidation of methanol was carried out using a series of dppm-bridged Ru/Pd, Ru/Pt and Ru/Au heterobimetallic complexes as catalysts. The major oxidation products were formaldehyde dimethyl acetal (dimethoxymethane, DMM) and methyl formate (MF). The Ru/Pd and Ru/Pt bimetallic catalysts generally afforded lower product ratios of DMM/MF and higher current efficiencies than the Ru/Au catalysts. The Ru/Au bimetallics exhibited product ratios and current efficiencies similar to those obtained from the Ru mononuclear compound CpRu(PPh(3))(2)Cl. Increasing the methanol concentration afforded higher current efficiencies, while the addition of water to the samples shifted the product distribution toward the more highly oxidized product, MF.

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Radiotherapy is one of the general approaches to deal with malignant solid tumors in clinical treatment. To improve therapeutic efficacy, chemotherapy is frequently adopted as the adjuvant treatment in combination with radiotherapy. In this work, a reactive oxygen species (ROS)-responsive nanoparticle (NP) drug delivery system was developed to synergistically enhance the antitumor efficacy of radiotherapy by local ROS-activated chemotherapy, taking advantages of the enhanced concentration of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in tumor during X-ray irradiation and/or reoxygenation after X-ray irradiation. The ROS-responsive polymers, poly(thiodiethylene adipate) (PSDEA) and PEG-PSDEA-PEG, were synthesized and employed as the major components assembling in aqueous phase into polymer NPs in which an anticancer camptothecin analogue, SN38, was encapsulated. The drug-loaded NPs underwent structural change including swelling and partial dissociation in response to the ROS activation by virtue of the oxidation of the nonpolar sulfide residues in NPs into the polar sulfoxide units, thus leading to significant drug unloading. The in vitro performance of the chemotherapy from the X-ray irradiation preactivated NPs against BNL 1MEA.7R.1 murine carcinoma cells showed comparable cytotoxicity to free drug and appreciably enhanced effect on killing cancer cells while the X-ray irradiation being incorporated into the treatment. The in vivo tumor growth was fully inhibited with the mice receiving the local dual modality treatment of X-ray irradiation together with SN38-loaded NPs administered by intratumoral injection. The comparable efficacy of the local combinational treatment of X-ray irradiation with SN38-loaded NPs to free SN38/irradiation dual treatment corroborated the effectiveness of ROS-mediated drug release from the irradiated NPs at tumor site. The IHC examination of tumor tissues confirmed the significant reduction of VEGFA and CD31 expression with the tumor receiving the local dual treatment developed in this work, thus accounting for the absence of tumor regrowth compared to other single modality treatment.