Dalton Transactions

doi: 10.1039/d3dt90083epmid: N/A

doi: 10.1039/d3dt90084cpmid: N/A

doi: 10.1039/d3dt90085apmid: N/A

Trangwachirachai, Korawich; Lin, Yu-Chuan

doi: 10.1039/d2dt03795epmid: 36883519

Nitriles, particularly acrylonitrile and acetonitrile, are versatile chemicals that are used in various fields, such as polymer synthesis and pharmaceutical production. For a long time, acrylonitrile has been produced via propylene ammoxidation with acetonitrile as a byproduct. The depletion of crude reservoirs and the production of unconventional hydrocarbon resources (e.g., shale gas) renders light alkanes (including propane, ethane, and methane) to be potential feedstocks in the syntheses of acrylonitrile and acetonitrile. In this review, the processes of transforming light hydrocarbons to nitriles are surveyed, the developments in nitrile synthesis from alkanes are discussed, and the existing challenges and plausible solutions are addressed.

Chen, Jinyi; Zhang, Zhixin; Ma, Jiaxin; Nezamzadeh-Ejhieh, Alireza; Lu, Chengyu; Pan, Ying; Liu, Jianqiang; Bai, Zhi

doi: 10.1039/d3dt00413apmid: 37070759

Cancer has become the second leading reason for death in the world. Still, cancer therapy development is exceptionally challenging because the tumor microenvironment is very complex, and individual tumors are very different. In recent years, researchers have found that platinum-based drugs in the form of metal complexes can effectively solve tumor resistance. In this regard, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) as suitable carriers with high porosity are also exceptional in the biomedical field. Therefore, this article reviews the application of platinum as an anticancer drug and the composite anticancer properties of platinum and MOF materials and prospects for its future development, which provides a new direction for further research in the biomedical field.

Xiao, Wang-Chuan; Nie, Qing-Bin; Luo, Geng-Geng

doi: 10.1039/d3dt00912bpmid: 37128862

We designed and synthesized a new tripyridine dipyrrolide pincer ligand, which could be doubly deprotonated to provide five-nitrogen-donor sites and then utilized to prepare a subnanometric chiral silver cluster. The cluster belongs to an S4 point group and shows a double-stranded helicate. DFT calculations were performed to analyze the electronic structure of the cluster. Interestingly, through hierarchical intercluster interactions, the cluster helicates evolve into complex secondary structures including a right-handed helix and a folded sheet, both of which are reminiscent of secondary structures of proteins, i.e., an α-helix and an antiparallel β-sheet.

Brotsman, Victor A.; Tamm, Nadezhda B.; Ioffe, Ilya N.; Eliseev, Andrei A.; Goryunkov, Alexey A.; Lyssenko, Konstantin A.; Troyanov, Sergey I.

doi: 10.1039/d3dt00887hpmid: 37114969

Low-chlorinated fullerenes, dimeric (C60Cl5)2 and one-dimensional, polymeric (C60Cl4)∞, were obtained by high-temperature (270 °C) chlorination of C60 with a SbCl5/SbCl3 mixture, as revealed by X-ray crystallography. The compounds were characterized by IR and Raman spectroscopy and theoretical calculations. This is the first observation of a fullerene polymer with single C−C bonding and neutral building blocks.

Zhang, Guike; Wan, Yuying; Zhao, Hongyan; Guo, Yali; Chu, Ke

doi: 10.1039/d3dt00994gpmid: 37133365

Metal-free boron phosphide (BP) is explored for the first time as an effective catalyst for electrocatalytic NO reduction to NH3, showing a high NH3-faradaic efficiency of 83.3% with an NH3 yield rate of 96.6 μmol h−1 cm−2, surpassing most metal-based catalysts. Theoretical results reveal that the B and P atoms of BP can serve as dual-active centers to synergistically activate NO, promote the NORR hydrogenation process and inhibit the competing hydrogen evolution reaction.

Li, Yanqiang; Wang, Huicheng; An, Hai; Liu, Xuan; Chen, Siru; Song, Xue-Zhi

doi: 10.1039/d3dt00632hpmid: 37157970

Nano bowl-like Co–Co6Mo6C2 coated by N,P co-doped carbon (Co–Co6Mo6C2@NPC) is reported as an electrocatalyst for Zn–air batteries. Co–Co6Mo6C2@NPC only needs an overpotential of 210 mV at 10 mA cm−2 for the OER, and the half-wave potential for the ORR is 0.81 V. In addition, the Co–Co6Mo6C2@NPC based battery shows a large open-circuit voltage of 1.335 V and a maximum power density of 160.5 mW cm−2, as well as good stability. The improved catalytic performance can be ascribed to the co-existence of Co6Mo6C2 and Co species to improve the intrinsic catalytic activity, and the bowl-like nanostructure to facilitate the mass transfer.

Malikidogo, Kyangwi P.; Pallier, Agnès; Szeremeta, Frédéric; Bonnet, Célia S.; Sénèque, Olivier

doi: 10.1039/d3dt00728fpmid: 37129192

Two zinc finger peptides, namely ZFQDLn and ZFQELn (Ln = Tb or Gd), with an appended Ln3+ chelate and a phosphoserine able to coordinate the Ln3+ ion are presented. The two peptides differ by the amino acid anchorage of the chelate, either aspartate (D) or glutamate (E). Both peptides are able to bind Zn2+ and adopt the ββα fold. Interestingly, ZFQETb shows a decrease in sensitized Tb3+ luminescence upon Zn2+ binding whereas ZFQDTb does not. The luminescence change upon Zn2+ binding is attributed to a change in hydration number (q) of the Tb3+ ion due to the decoordination of the phosphoserine from the Ln3+ ion upon Zn2+ binding and peptide folding. This process is highly sensitive to the length of the linker between the Ln chelate and the peptidic backbone. The magnetic properties of the gadolinium analogue ZFQEGd were studied. An impressive relaxivity increase of 140% is observed at 60 MHz and 25 °C upon Zn2+ binding. These changes can be attributed to a combined increase effect of the hydration number of Gd3+ and of the rigidity of the system upon Zn2+ binding. Phantom MR images at 9.4 T show a clear signal enhancement in the presence of Zn2+. These zinc finger peptides offer a unique platform to design such Zn-responsive probes.