Azulene-A Bright Core for Sensing and Imaging

Azulene is a hydrocarbon isomer of naphthalene known for its unusual colour and fluorescence properties. Through the harnessing of these properties, the literature has been enriched with a series of chemical sensors and dosimeters with distinct colorimetric and fluorescence responses. This review focuses specifically on the latter of these phenomena. The review is subdivided into two sections. Section one discusses turn-on fluorescent sensors employing azulene, for which the literature is dominated by examples of the unusual phenomenon of azulene protonation-dependent fluorescence. Section two focuses on fluorescent azulenes that have been used in the context of biological sensing and imaging. To aid the reader, the azulene skeleton is highlighted in blue in each compound.</p

Lung cancer::a new frontier for microbiome research and clinical translation

The lung microbiome has been shown to reflect a range of pulmonary diseases—for example: asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cystic fibrosis. Studies have now begun to show microbiological changes in the lung that correlate with lung cancer (LC) which could provide new insights into lung carcinogenesis and new biomarkers for disease screening. Clinical studies have suggested that infections with tuberculosis or pneumonia increased the risk of LC possibly through inflammatory or immunological changes. These have now been superseded by genomic-based microbiome sequencing studies based on bronchoalveolar lavage, sputum or saliva samples. Although some discrepancies exist, many have suggested changes in particular bacterial genera in LC samples particularly, Granulicatella, Streptococcus and Veillonella. Granulicatella is of particular interest, as it appeared to show LC stage-specific increases in abundance. We propose that these microbial community changes are likely to reflect biochemical changes in the LC lung, linked to an increase in anaerobic environmental niches and altered pyridoxal/polyamine/nitrogenous metabolism to which Granulicatella could be particularly responsive. These are clearly preliminary observations and many more expansive studies are required to develop our understanding of the LC microbiome

A perspective on the ultrafast photochemistry of solution-phase sunscreen molecules

Sunscreens are one of the most common ways of providing on-demand additional photoprotection to the skin. Ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy has recently proven to be an invaluable tool in understanding how the components of commercial sunscreen products display efficient photoprotection. Important examples of how this technique has unravelled the photodynamics of common components are given in this Perspective, and some of the remaining unanswered questions are discussed

Cycloparaphenylenes and related nanohoops

Cyclic oligo-para-phenylenes (“CPPs”) possessing radial π systems have markedly different properties to the analogous linear oligo-para-phenylenes. Their synthesis is challenging due to the strain inherent in their structures, but several distinct strategies to access them have now been described. This review describes the synthesis, properties and applications of CPPs and related variants.</p

Synthetic methods: part (ii) oxidation and reduction methods

This Report highlights advances in some of the most commonly used oxidation and reduction reactions, focusing on the literature from 2009. The review is subdivided in a similar fashion to the author's previous review in this area.1 In the field of oxidation, salen complexes, oxaziridinium salts and carbohydrate-derived dioxiranes continue to attract much attention in the context of alkene epoxidation. Elsewhere, a significant disclosure from Que is the first system able to catalyse the dearomatising dihydroxylation of an arene and Katsuki has reported the use of a dimeric Fe salan (reduced salen) complex to catalyse oxidative dimerisation of naphthols, affording BINOLs that are themselves ligands for asymmetric synthesis. In the field of reduction, the development of novel chiral phosphine ligands remains a prominent subject of research for alkene hydrogenation. There is sustained interest in oxazaborolidines as catalysts for ketone reduction and several methods for direct asymmetric reductive alkylation are reported. A general trend seen is increased activity in the area of green chemistry and there have been many reports on the use of nanoparticles as catalysts

Applications of biocatalytic arene <em>ipso,ortho cis</em>-dihydroxylation in synthesis

The dearomatising dihydroxylation of aromatic molecules mediated by arene dioxygenase enzymes can provide cyclohexadiene-diols that are versatile starting materials for organic synthesis.</p

Design of LabVIEW®-based software for the control of sequential injection analysis instrumentation for the determination of morphine

LabVIEW®-based software for the automation of a sequential injection analysis instrument for the determination of morphine is presented. Detection was based on its chemiluminescence reaction with acidic potassium permanganate in the presence of sodium polyphosphate. The calibration function approximated linearity (range 5 × 10-10 to 5 × 10-6 M) with a line of best fit of y=1.05x+8.9164 (R2 =0.9959), where y is the log10 signal (mV) and x is the log10 morphine concentration (M). Precision, as measured by relative standard deviation, was 0.7% for five replicate analyses of morphine standard (5 × 10-8 M). The limit of detection (3σ) was determined as 5 × 10-11 M morphine