No abstract

Various zinc dicarboxylate catalysts were synthesized by the reaction of zinc oxide with eleven different glutaric acid derivatives, and their coordination characteristics were investigated by infrared spectroscopy. The electronic nature and steric hinderance of substituents influenced the coordination of the carboxylate and the zinc metal ion. The coordination characteristics were classified into three categories: i) compounds exhibiting bridging bidentate coordinating bonding modes, such as syn-anti and syn-syn bridging: ii) compounds with only unidentate coordination: and iii) compounds with mixed coordinations of unidentate and

Simultaneous capture of carbon dioxide (CO2) and its utilization with subsequent work-up would significantly enhance the competitiveness of CO2-based sustainable chemistry over petroleum-based chemistry. Here we report an interfacial catalytic reaction platform for an integrated autonomous process of simultaneously capturing/fixing CO2 in gas–liquid laminar flow with subsequently providing a work-up step. The continuous-flow microreactor has built-in silicon nanowires (SiNWs) with immobilized ionic liquid catalysts on tips of cone-shaped nanowire bundles. Because of the superamphiphobic SiNWs, a stable gas–liquid interface maintains between liquid flow of organoamines in upper part and gas flow of CO2 in bottom part of channel. The intimate and direct contact of the binary reagents leads to enhanced mass transfer and facilitating reactions. The autonomous integrated platform produces and isolates 2-oxazolidinones and quinazolines-2,4(1H,3H)-diones with 81–97% yields under mild conditions. The platform would enable direct CO2 utilization to produce high-valued specialty chemicals from flue gases without pre-separation and work-up steps.

Intracellular temperature has a fundamental effect on cellular events. Herein, a novel fluorescent polymer ratiometric nanothermometer has been developed based on transferrin protein-stabilized gold nanoclusters as the targeting and fluorescent ratiometric unit and the thermosensitve polymer as the temperature sensing unit. The resultant nanothermometer could feature a high and spontaneous uptake into the HeLa cells and the ratiometric temperature sensing over the physiological temperature range. Moreover, the precise temperature sensing for intracellular heat generation in HeLa cells following calcium ions stress has been achieved. This practical intracellular thermometry could eliminate the interference of the intracellular surrounding environment in cancer cells without a microinjection procedure, which is user-friendly. The prepared new nanothermometer can provide tools for unveiling the intrinsic relationship between the intracellular temperature and ion channel function.

The relationship between calcium ion (Ca2+) concentration and temperature variation during the oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) process has become an essential focus for exploration of signaling pathways and neurodegenerative disease. However, there have been limited reports of fluorescent probes for simultaneous Ca2+ detection and temperature sensing. Herein, a new water-soluble fluorescent probe that combines a thermoresponsive polymer, curcumin and Fluo-4 AM for intracelllar temperature and Ca2+ sensing is described. Furthermore, this fluorescent polymer was successfully applied for intracelluar temperature and Ca2+ gradient monitoring generated by exogenous heating in HeLa cells. It was discovered that within 10 min after the OXPHOS process was induced by an inhibitor, the temperature increased 0.5–1.0 °C and the Ca2+ level decreased by about 5.7 μM. These results confirmed that the fluorescent polymer enabled investigation of the relationship between intracelluar temperature and Ca2+–induced neurotransmitter release.

A new strategy that utilizes temperature‐responsive wax‐based Janus particles as microsurfactants to simultaneously achieve enhanced emulsion stability, as well as, on‐demand coalescence of emulsion droplets is presented. The dumbbell structure with different surface wetting properties on each side of the Janus particle enables the particles to strongly adsorb at the liquid–liquid interface, leading to excellent stability against coalescence for both water‐in‐oil (W/O) and oil‐in‐water (O/W) emulsions. Moreover, these Janus microparticles are composed of a hydrophilic acrylate resin and a hydrophobic wax compartment which transitions from a frozen to an oil‐soluble molten state above the melting point. This allows the particle‐adsorbed droplets to coalesce above a designated temperature, depending on the type of wax material used. It is envisioned that the excellent emulsion stability and the tunable and rapid response to local temperature enabled by the wax‐based Janus particle offers new and exciting opportunities in the advancing technologies including micro‐reactors and drug delivery systems to name a few.

A SiCN ceramic microreactor with high temperature tolerance and chemical resistance has been fabricated by a 3D printing method.

No abstract