Microwave assisted heterogeneous catalysis: effects of varying oxygen concentrations on the oxidative coupling of methane

The oxidative coupling of methane was investigated over alumina supported La2O3/CeO2 catalysts under microwave dielectric heating conditions at different oxygen concentrations. It was observed that, at a given temperature using microwave heating, selectivities for both ethane and ethylene were notably higher when oxygen was absent than that in oxygen/methane mixtures. The differences were attributed to the localised heating of microwave radiation resulting in temperature inhomogeneity in the catalyst bed. A simplified model was used to estimate the temperature inhomogeneity; the temperature at the centre of the catalyst bed was 85 °C greater than that at the periphery when the catalyst was heated by microwaves in a gas mixture with an oxygen concentration of 12.5% (v/v), and the temperature difference was estimated to be 168 °C in the absence of oxygen

Monochromatic “Photoinitibitor”‐Mediated Holographic Photopolymer Electrolytes for Lithium‐Ion Batteries

Abstract A new polymer electrolyte based on holographic photopolymer is designed and fabricated. Ethylene carbonate (EC) and propylene carbonate (PC) are introduced as the photoinert substances. Upon laser‐interference‐pattern illumination, photopolymerization occurs within the constructive regions which subsequently results in a phase separation between the photogenerated polymer and unreacted EC–PC, affording holographic photopolymer electrolytes (HPEs) with a pitch of ≈740 nm. Interestingly, both diffraction efficiency and ionic conductivity increase with an augmentation of the EC–PC content. With 50 wt% of EC–PC, the diffraction efficiency and ionic conductivity are ≈60% and 2.13 × 10−4 S cm−1 at 30 °C, respectively, which are 60 times and 5 orders of magnitude larger than the electrolyte without EC–PC. Notably, the HPEs afford better anisotropy and more stable electrochemical properties when incorporating N,N‐dimethylacrylamide. The HPEs exhibit good toughness under bending, excellent optical transparency under ambient conditions, and astonishing capabilities of reconstructing colored images. The HPEs here open a door to design flexible and transparent electronics with good mechanical, electrical, and optical functions

Discovery, synthesis of novel fusidic acid derivatives possessed amino-terminal groups at the 3-hydroxyl position with anticancer activity

A series of novel fusidic acid (FA) derivatives were synthesized and screened for their in vitro cytotoxicity against the Hela, U87, KBV and MKN45 cancer cell lines. Selected FA derivatives with anti-tumor activity were firstly identified including compound 4, which exhibited good anti-proliferative activity with IC50 values in the range of 1.26–3.57 μM. Further research revealed that compound 4 induced Hela cells to undergo apoptosis by increasing the ratio of the cells in the Sub-G0/G1 phase via decreasing the neo-synthesized proteins in a dose-dependent manner from 1 to 10 μM. Compound 4 also showed good in vivo anti-tumor activity against the xenograft tumor of Hela cells and had no apparent toxicity. This study highlights the advantage of introducing the medium-length amino-terminal groups at the 3-OH position of FA to enhance its anti-tumor activity and suggests that compound 4 provides a starting point for designing more potent derivatives in the future. [Display omitted] •Fusidic acid (FA) derivatives with anti-tumor activity were first discovered.•A preliminary structure-activity relationship of the anti-tumor activity was described.•One novel derivative 4 exhibited good anti-tumor activity both in vitro and in vivo.•The mechanism that compound 4 induced Hela cells to undergo apoptosis was first proved