Thermoresponsive Platinum(II) 2,6-Di(pyrid-2-yl)pyrazine Complexes with Unusual Aggregation Behavior upon Heating.

A series of alkynylplatinum(II) complexes with 2,6-di(pyrid-2-yl)pyrazine ligand has been synthesized and characterized. Interestingly, the complexes have been found to exhibit unprecedented thermochromic behavior with absorption maxima shifting to the longer-wavelength region upon increasing temperature. This phenomenon is significantly different from that in conventional platinum(II) systems, where an elevated temperature typically promotes the dissociation of aggregates and diminishes MMLCT absorptions.

Serum syndecan-1 is related to severity and prognosis of COVID-19 patients: a perspective cohort study.

Introduction: Syndecan-1 is one of cell surface proteoglycans that mediates the connection between cytoskeleton and interstitial matrix. The previous studies have demonstrated that syndecan-1 exerts an essential role in several pulmonary diseases. However, there are few researches about the relation of serum syndecan-1 with corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Leveraging the Aminothiol-Specific Phosphorogenic Response of Iridium(III) Thioester Complexes for the Development of Intracellular Sensors and Cancer Phototherapeutics.

Site-specific bioconjugation techniques are extensively utilized in biological and biomedical fields to precisely label biomolecules with luminescent tags for direct visualization of their intracellular dynamics or with cytotoxic agents for the development of novel anticancer therapeutics. In this work, a series of cyclometalated iridium-(III) polypyridine complexes featuring a thioester moiety was designed as novel phosphorogenic probes for labeling N-terminal cysteine (N-Cys)-containing biomolecules. These thioester complexes were weakly emissive in solutions due to the presence of a low-lying nonradiative distorted triplet intraligand (IL) state localized on the thioester unit, as elucidated by computational analyses.

Self-Assembly of Alkynylplatinum(II) Complexes for Sialic Acid Detection and Differentiation of Cancer Cells from Normal Cells.

A series of platinum(II) complexes incorporating a histidine moiety and/or positively charged group has been designed and synthesized to explore the specific binding between platinum(II) complexes and the analyte and their sensing ability. The specific hydrogen bonding between the histidine moiety and sialic acids, and the electrostatic interaction between the positively charged trimethylammonium group of the platinum(II) complexes and negatively charged carboxylate groups of sialic acids have been found to enhance the binding affinity. The supramolecular assembly of platinum(II) complexes upon binding to sialic acids induces remarkable luminescence changes due to noncovalent Pt(II)Pt(II) and π-π stacking interactions, achieving sensing and visualization of sialic acids.

Gui-zhi-fu-ling-wan alleviates bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis through inhibiting epithelial-mesenchymal transition and ferroptosis.

Background: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) has a higher morbidity and poor prognosis. Gui-Zhi-Fu-Ling-Wan (GFW) is a traditional Chinese herbal formula which exerts anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative effects. The goal was to determine the protective effect of GFW on bleomycin (BLM)-induced pulmonary fibrosis.

Motivation on Intramolecular Through-Space Charge Transfer for the Realization of Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence (TADF)-Thermally Stimulated Delayed Phosphorescence (TSDP) in C^C^N Gold(III) Complexes and Their Applications in Organic Light-Emitting Devices.

Thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) and the very recently established thermally stimulated delayed phosphorescence (TSDP) are two promising approaches for enhancing the performance of organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs). Here, we have developed a new class of through-space charge transfer (TSCT) carbazolylgold(III) C^C^N complexes with unique TADF-TSDP properties by introducing a rigid arylamine on the carbazolyl auxiliary ligand. The highly twisted conformation between the C^C^N and carbazolyl ligands induces strong through-bond ligand-to-ligand charge transfer (TB-LLCT) character in their lowest singlet and triplet excited states, with small singlet-triplet energy gaps for efficient TADF.

Associations of Serum Legumain with Severity and Prognosis Among Acute Exacerbation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Patients.

Background: A number of studies have demonstrated that legumain is engaged in the pulmonary diseases. Nevertheless, the role of legumain is indistinct in patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD). The aim is to identify the correlation of serum legumain with AECOPD patients through a prospective cohort study.

Synergistic Enhancement of Ferroptosis via Mitochondrial Accumulation and Photodynamic-Controlled Release of an Organogold(I) Cluster Prodrug.

Effective delivery and controlled release of metallo-prodrugs with sustained activation and rapid response feed the needs of precise medicine in metal chemotherapeutics. However, gold-based anticancer drugs often suffer from detoxification binding and extracellular transfer by sulfur-containing peptides. To address this challenge, we integrate a thiol-activated prodrug strategy of newly prepared hypercoordinated carbon-centered gold(I) clusters (HCGCs) with their photosensitization character to augment the mitochondrial release of Au(I) in tumors.

Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Associations of Serum LRG1 with Severity and Prognosis Among Adult Community-Acquired Pneumonia Patients.

Background: Leucine-rich α-2 glycoprotein 1 (LRG1) is associated with various inflammatory lung diseases. Nevertheless, the connection between LRG1 and adult community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) individuals was still not well understood. Through a prospective cohort study, the correlations of serum LRG1 with severity and prognosis were evaluated in CAP patients.

Molecular Design and Synthetic Approaches for the Realization of Multichannel Radiative Decay Pathways in Gold(III) Complexes and Their Applications in Organic Light-Emitting Devices.

A unique class of tridentate diaryltriazine ligand-containing gold(III) complexes with thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) and/or thermally stimulated delayed phosphorescence (TSDP) properties has been designed and synthesized. With a simple structural modification on the coordination of carbazole moiety in the monodentate ligand, a large spectral shift of ∼160 nm (ca. 4900 cm) spanning from sky blue to red emissions has been demonstrated in solid-state thin films.

Exploiting the Potential of Iridium(III) -Nitrone Complexes as Phosphorogenic Bifunctional Reagents for Phototheranostics.

Cross-linking strategies have found wide applications in chemical biology, enabling the labeling of biomolecules and monitoring of protein-protein interactions. Nitrone exhibits remarkable versatility and applicability in bioorthogonal labeling due to its high reactivity with strained alkynes via the strain-promoted alkyne-nitrone cycloaddition (SPANC) reaction. In this work, four cyclometalated iridium(III) polypyridine complexes functionalized with two nitrone units were designed as novel phosphorogenic bioorthogonal reagents for bioimaging and phototherapeutics.

Achieving efficient and stable blue thermally activated delayed fluorescence organic light-emitting diodes based on four-coordinate fluoroboron emitters by simple substitution molecular engineering.

Achieving both high efficiency and high stability in blue thermally activated delayed fluorescence organic light-emitting diodes (TADF-OLEDs) is challenging for practical displays and lighting. Here, we have successfully developed a series of sky-blue to pure-blue emitting donor-acceptor (D-A) type TADF materials featuring a four-coordinated boron with 2,2'-(pyridine-2,6-diyl)diphenolate (dppy) ligands, 1-8. Synergistic engineering of substituents on the phenyl bridge as well as the electronic properties and the attached positions of heteroatom N-donors not only enables fine-tuning of the emission colors, but also modulates the nature and energies of their triplet excited states that are important for the reverse intersystem crossing (RISC).

Supramolecular assembly of amphiphilic platinum(ii) Schiff base complexes: diverse spectroscopic changes and nanostructures through rational molecular design and solvent control.

A new class of amphiphilic tetradentate platinum(ii) Schiff base complexes has been designed and synthesized. The self-assembly properties by exploiting the potential Pt⋯Pt interactions of amphiphilic platinum(ii) Schiff base complexes in the solution state have been systematically investigated. The presence of Pt⋯Pt interactions has further been supported by computational studies and non-covalent interaction (NCI) analysis of the dimer of the complex.

Synthesis, Characterization, and Resistive Memory Behaviors of Highly Strained Cyclometalated Platinum(II) Nanohoops.

Strained carbon nanohoops exhibit attractive photophysical properties due to their unique π-conjugated structure. However, incorporation of such nanohoops into the pincer ligand of metal complexes has rarely been explored. Herein, a new family of highly strained cyclometalated platinum(II) nanohoops has been synthesized and characterized.

Hot Deformation Behavior and Microstructural Evolution of a TiB/Al-Zn-Mg-Cu-Zr Composite.

In the present work, the hot deformation behavior and microstructural evolution of a TiB/Al-Zn-Mg-Cu-Zr composite were studied. Hot compression tests were conducted within a temperature range of 370 °C to 490 °C and a strain rate of 0.001 s to 10 s.

Assembly of Luminescent Chiral Gold(I)-Sulfido Clusters via Chiral Self-Sorting.

Due to the ubiquity of chirality in nature, chiral self-assembly involving self-sorting behaviors has remained as one of the most important research topics of interests. Herein, starting from a racemic mixture of SEG-based (SEG=SEGPHOS) chlorogold(I) precursors, a unique chiral butterfly-shape hexadecanuclear gold(I) cluster (Au ) with different ratios of R and S ligands is obtained via homoleptic and heterochiral self-sorting. More interestingly, by employing different chlorogold(I) precursors of opposite chirality (such as R -Au and S -Au (BIN=BINAP)), an unprecedented heteroleptic and heterochiral self-sorting strategy has been developed to give a series of heteroleptic chiral decanuclear gold(I) clusters (Au ) with propellor-shape structures.

Sterically Hindered Tetradentate [Pt(O^N^C^N)] Emitters with Radiative Decay Rates up to 5.3 × 10 s for Phosphorescent Organic Light-Emitting Diodes with LT Lifetime over 9200 h at 1000 cd m.

Described here are sterically hindered tetradentate [Pt(O^N^C^N)] emitters (Pt-1, Pt-2, and Pt-3) developed for stable and high-performance green phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). These Pt(II) emitters exhibit strong saturated green phosphorescence (λ = 517-531 nm) in toluene and mCP thin films with emission quantum yields as high as 0.97, radiative rate constants (k) as high as 4.

Encoding Hole-Particle Information in the Multi-Channel MolOrbImage for Machine-Learned Excited-State Energies of Large Photofunctional Materials.

We present a novel class of one-electron multi-channel molecular orbital images (MolOrbImages) designed for the prediction of excited-state energetics in conjunction with the state-of-the-art VGG-type machine-learning architecture. By representing hole and particle states in the excitation process as channels of MolOrbImages, the revised VGG model achieves excellent prediction accuracy for both low-lying singlet and triplet states, with mean absolute errors (MAEs) of <0.08 and <0.

Microstructures and Mechanical Properties of a Nanostructured Al-Zn-Mg-Cu-Zr-Sc Alloy under Natural Aging.

Nanocrystalline (NC) structure can lead to the considerable strengthening of metals and alloys. Obtaining appropriate comprehensive mechanical properties is always the goal of metallic materials. Here, a nanostructured Al-Zn-Mg-Cu-Zr-Sc alloy was successfully processed by high-pressure torsion (HPT) followed by natural aging.

Machine-Learned Electronically Excited States with the MolOrbImage Generated from the Molecular Ground State.

We present a general machine learning framework for probing the electronic state properties using the novel quantum descriptor MolOrbImage. Each pixel of the MolOrbImage records the quantum information generated by the integration of the physical operator with a pair of bra and ket molecular orbital (MO) states. Inspired by the success of deep convolutional neural networks (NNs) in computer vision, we have implemented the convolutional-layer-dominated MO-NN model.

Bonding properties of molecular cerium oxides tuned by the 4f-block from ab initio perspective.

Probing chemical bonding in molecules containing lanthanide elements is of theoretical interest, yet it is computationally challenging because of the large valence space, relativistic effects, and considerable electron correlation. We report a high-level ab initio study that quantifies the many-body nature of Ce-O bonding with the coordination environment of the Ce center and particularly the roles of the 4f orbitals. The growing significance of the overlap between Ce 4f and O 2p orbitals with the increasing coordination of Ce atoms enhances Ce-O bond covalency and in return directs the molecular geometry.

Femtosecond laser auto-positioning direct writing of a multicore fiber Bragg grating array for shape sensing.

A multicore fiber Bragg grating (MC-FBG) array shape sensor is a powerful tool for a variety of applications. However, the efficient fabrication of high-quality MC-FBG arrays remains a problem. Here, we report for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, a new method of directly writing FBG arrays in a seven-core fiber (SCF) through the protective coating using femtosecond laser auto-positioning point-by-point technology, which is accomplished by image recognition and micro-displacement compensation.

Femtosecond laser line-by-line inscription of apodized fiber Bragg gratings.

The reflection spectra of conventional fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) with uniform index modulation profiles typically have strong sidelobes, which hamper the performance of FBG-based optical filters, fiber lasers, and sensors. Here, we propose and demonstrate a femtosecond laser line-by-line (LbL) scanning technique for fabricating apodized FBGs with suppressed sidelobes. This approach can flexibly achieve various apodized modulation profiles via precise control over the length and/or transverse position of each laser-inscribed index modification track.