Capture of carbon dioxide by amine-impregnated as-synthesized MCM-41

The novel carbon dioxide （CO2） adsorbents with a high capture efficiency were prepared through impregnating the as-synthesized MCM-41 with three kinds of amines, namely diethylenetriamine （DETA）, triethylenetetramine （TETA） and 2-amino-2-methyl-1- propanol （AMP）. The resultant samples were characterized by small angle X-ray diff action and low temperature N2 adsorption. The synthesis way not only saves the energy or extractor to remove the template but also is environmentally friendly due to the absence of the potential pollutants such as toluene. CO2 capture was investigated in a dynamic packed column. The sample impregnated by TETA showed the highest adsorption capacity, approximately 2.22 mmol/g at 60℃ due to its highest amino-groups content among the three amines. The CO2 adsorption behavior was also investigated with the deactivation model, which showed an excellent prediction for the breakthrough curves.

Biomimetic Recognition-Based Bioorthogonal Host-Guest Pairs for Cell Targeting and Tissue Imaging in Living Animals

Bioconjugation methods offer very important tools in studying biological systems.Synthetic host-guest pairs provide an alternative and complementary conjugation method to bioorthogonal reactions and biological association pairs.Nevertheless,macrocyclic hosts that can be used for in situ capture are limited and often rely on extremely high binding affinities.Herein,we report an alternative bioorthogonal host-guest pair that relies on highly selective molecular recognition in water.The host,namely amide naphthotube,possesses a biomimetic cavity with inward-directing hydrogen bonding sites and shows selective and strong binding to the guest(2-phenyl pyrimidine)even in biological media.Through anchoring the tetraphenyl ethylene-modi fied hosts to cell surfaces,the bioorthogonal host-guest pair can be applied in cell surface recognition,cell-cell interactions,and tissue imaging in mice.The bioorthogonality is originated from the high binding selectivity of the biomimetic macrocyclic host,which is different from other known host-guest pairs that have been applied in biological systems.This research provides a new noncovalent bioconjugation tool and a new concept for designing bioorthogonal host-guest pairs for biological applications.

Supramolecular Vesicles Based on Gold Nanorods for Precise Control of Gene Therapy and Deferred Photothermal Therapy

In spite of being a promising therapeutic modality,gene therapy has limited clinical applications,mostly due to the lack of spatiotemporal resolution and inadequate efficacy.Herein,we present a facile strategy to remotely control intracellular gene expression by using gold nanorod-(Au NR)derived,host-guest interaction-mediated supramolecular vesicles as a gene carrier and photothermal transducer.Upon pulsed laser irradiation,mild photothermal conditions dissociate supramolecular vesicles to release gene and simultaneously activate heat shock protein-70 promoter(Hsp70)for spatiotemporally initiating gene expression inside cancer cells.Subsequently,upon introducing a polymeric guest species specifically into cancer cells,the dissociated Au NRs functionalized with macrocyclic host molecules could re-aggregate rapidly in cells to retard exocytosis of these NRs,thereby allowing deferred photothermal therapy to enhance the overall therapeutic outcome.