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•Supramolecular hydrogels formed using by different construction methods with cucurbitnurils are classified.•The excellent properties possessed by hydrogels, such as biocompatibility, ...self-healing, and stimulus responsiveness, are discussed.•The different hydrogels are classified according to their applications, with a focus on their biomedical use.
Due to their dynamic qualities and potential uses in fields such as biomedicine, tissue engineering, drug delivery, soft materials, and sensing, hydrogels have gained increased attention in recent years. Concurrently, the application of cucurbitnuril-based host-guest interactions has been crucial in advancing the field of supramolecular chemistry. Given this, there has been a growing number of reports in the literature regarding the formation of hydrogels that are mediated by host-guest interactions between various cucurbitnurils and their guests. This review aims to present comprehensive insights into the creation and advancement of supramolecular hydrogels utilizing cucurbitnuril-mediated design strategies. Firstly, supramolecular hydrogels formed via different construction methods with cucurbitnurils are classified, including (i) outer surface interaction construction and (ii) host-guest construction. Next, the excellent properties possessed by hydrogels, namely biocompatibility, stimulus responsiveness, and self-healing, are discussed. Finally, the different hydrogels are classified according to their applications, with a focus on their biomedical use. We believe that this review highlights the potential for further research based on host-guest interaction-mediated hydrogels.
Co(II)-catalyzed C–H C2 selective arylation of indoles with boronic acids through monodentate chelation assistance has been achieved for the first time. The unique features of this methodology ...include mild reaction conditions, highly C2 regioselectivity, and employment of a Grignard reagent-free catalytic system. A wide range of substrates, including unreactive arenes, are well tolerated, which enables the construction of the coupling products efficiently. This new strategy provides an alternative and versatile approach to construct biaryls using inexpensive cobalt catalyst.
•The novel molecularly imprinted polymers (MIP) can be used in methanol–water media.•The specific ionic liquid (IL) was used as the functional monomer to prepare MIP.•ILs are easily designable.•A ...larger quantity of ILs are facile to be designed as functional monomer for MIP.
A novel molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) using the specific ionic liquid (i.e. 1-vinyl-3-carboxymethylimidazolium bromide, 1-vinyl-3-carboxyethylimidazolium bromide, 1-viny-3-carboxybutylimidazolium bromide, or 1-vinyl-3-carboxypentylimidazolium bromide) as functional monomer was prepared via precipitation polymerization, which can be used to selectively separate synephrine (SYN) from methanol–water media. Ionic liquids are facile to be designed with varying the cation or anion, which enables the specific ionic liquid to be effectively designed to be a functional monomer for the preparation of MIP. The MIP showed a good selectivity and high adsorption capacity for SYN in methanol–water media. The adsorption process could be described by the pseudo-first-order model, which meant that the adsorption kinetics described a diffusion-controlled process. The equilibrium data fitted well to the Freundlich model, indicating multilayer adsorption. Finally, the MIP were successfully applied as sorbent to selectively enrich and separate SYN from the extracts of Aurantii Fructus Immaturus with a relatively high recovery (80–90%).
Picric acid (PA) is a lethal explosive substance that is easily soluble in water and harmful to the environment. Here, a supramolecular polymer material BTPY@Q8 with aggregation induced emission ...(AIE) was prepared by supramolecular self-assembly of cucurbit uril (Q8) and 1,3,5-tris4-(pyridin-4-yl) phenyl benzene derivative (BTPY), which exhibited aggregation-induced fluorescence enhancement. To this supramolecular self-assembly, the addition of a number of nitrophenols was found to have no obvious effect on the fluorescence, however on addition of PA, the fluorescence intensity underwent a dramatic quench. For PA, BTPY@Q8 had sensitive specificity and effective selectivity. Based on this, a quick and simple on-site visual PA fluorescence quantitative detection platform was developed using smart phones, and the platform was used to monitor temperature. Machine learning (ML) is a popular pattern recognition technology, which can accurately predict the results from data. Therefore, ML has much more potential for analyzing and improving sensing data than the widely used statistical pattern recognition method. In the field of analytical science, the sensing platform offers a reliable method for the quantitative detection of PA that can be applied to other analytes or micropollutant screening.
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•A cucurbit8uril-based supramolecular assembly BTPY@Q8 was fabricated.•Assembly can be used as a good fluorescence sensing material.•A quick and simple on-site visual Picric acid fluorescence quantitative detection platform was developed.
A new method of cobalt-catalyzed amination of arylamides with simple alkylamines is reported through C(sp2)–H bond functionalization. For the first time, inexpensive cobalt is exploited as the ...catalyst in the amination of C(sp2)–H bond using simple alkylamines.
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•A pomegranate-like core/shell superparamagnetic particle Fe3O4@SiO2@MIP was prepared.•The MIP shell preparation conditions were optimized by multi-objective RSM.•The particle was ...used to simultaneously enrich four taxoids in T.×media.
In this work, the superparamagnetic Fe3O4 particles prepared by the coprecipitation method were coated successively by SiO2, vinyl end groups and molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) shells to afford a pomegranate-like core/shell superparamagnetic particle (Fe3O4@SiO2@MIP), and the MIP shell preparation conditions were optimized by multi-objective response surface methodology. In order to simultaneously enrich and separate the four taxoids (10-DAB, baccatin III, cephalomannine and paclitaxel), cephalomannine was selected as the template because of its similar chemical structure to other three taxoids and relative inexpensiveness. Especially, to avoid template leaking which may influence the accuracy of identification and quantitation of the analytes, we selected paclitaxel as the target molecular during the investigation of the adsorption property of Fe3O4@SiO2@MIP particles. This strategy was similar to the dummy molecular imprinting technique in which the dummy molecularly imprinted polymer was prepared by using a dummy template, structural analog of the target analyte. The as-prepared Fe3O4@SiO2@MIP particles were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The adsorption kinetics, isotherms and reusability were also investigated. Finally, the Fe3O4@SiO2@MIP particles were successfully applied to simultaneously enrich and separate these four taxoids in the extract of Taxus×media (T.×media).
After incorporation of a few Carbon Dots (CDs), ZnO anodes process thin carbon shells, refined microstructures and special univalent zinc sites, which result in better reactivity, higher corrosion ...resistance, more effective electron paths to enhance electrochemical performance in high capacity, excellent rate capability and long cycling stability in the Ni-Zn alkaline battery.
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•1. CDs efficiently control morphology of ZnO for sufficient electrochemical reactions.•2. With the assistance of CDs, ZnO will process conformal carbon shells with few layers.•3. Univalent zinc sites constructed by CDs play a key role during charging process.
The development of high-performance nickel-zinc (Ni-Zn) alkaline batteries is mainly plagued by short life span and poor rate performance of ZnO anode materials. To improve the cycling stability and rate capability of Ni-Zn batteries, carbon dots (CDs) are employed to construct clustered ZnO-CDs nanocomposites, coating ZnO with protective shells of carbon layers and providing electron paths to enhance conductivity of the nanocomposites. Univalent zinc species are found at the interfaces between CDs derivatives and ZnO, which are embedded in the nanoclusters and protected well by carbon coating. Theoretical calculations show univalent zinc species change the electronic structures of ZnO surface, so as to accelerate the charging process of ZnO anode materials. Such ZnO-CDs derived nanocomposites exhibit excellent rate capability (95.3%, 84.7% and 75.0% of capacity retention rate at 2, 5 and 10 A g−1, respectively) and outstanding cycling stability with 92.0% of capacity retention rate after 5000 cycles, which is far better than ZnO based anodes without the protection of CDs (39.1% retention rate from 1 to 10 A g−1 and 71.6% of capacity retention rate after 500 cycles).
The host–guest interaction between hexamethyl cucurbit5uril (HmeQ5) and 1,4-diaminobenzene (DB) was investigated, and a new low-molecular-weight supramolecular gel was prepared by a simple ...heating/mixing cooling method. The structure and properties of the supramolecular gel were characterized. Results revealed that DB molecules did not enter the cavity of HmeQ5 and that hydrogen bonding between the carbonyl group at the HmeQ5 port and the DB amino groups, together with dipole–dipole interactions and outer wall interactions, were the main driving forces for the formation of the supramolecular gel. The HmeQ5/DB gel system exhibits temperature sensitivity. The phosphor 6-bromo-2-naphthol (BrNp) was embedded in the gel to give the gel fluorescent phosphorescence double emission. The double emission ability at room temperature can be attributed to the ordered microstructure of the supramolecular gel, which effectively avoids the nonradiative transition of BrNp. Meanwhile, HmeQ5/DB-BrNp has good biocompatibility and low biotoxicity, which is compatible with HeLa cells to achieve cytoplasmic staining of HeLa in the red channel. The supramolecular gels constructed by this supramolecular assembly strategy not only have good temperature sensitivity but also extend the application of Qns in biomedical fields.
A simple luminescence sensor, based on polyethyleneimine protected silver nanoclusters (AgNCs@PEI) is successfully fabricated via one-pot reduction method. The obtained AgNCs@PEI are characterized by ...high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), Dynamic light scattering (DLS), transient and steady-state fluorescence, and UV–vis spectroscopy. The NCs show large Stocks-shift (∼130nm), high tolerability to extreme pH and high ionic strengths, and excellent photo-stability under UV irradiation, laying the basement for the practical applications. In addition, the sensor is used to detect the Co2+ basing on the luminescence quenching, which is interfered by pH conditions (from pH4.0 to pH7.4). As a luminescence probe for Co2+ ions, the detection limit of AgNCs@PEI is as low as 0.25nM, which is much lower than that of many other reports. Additionally, the AgNCs@PEI possess the advantages of good selectivity, fast response and abroad linear detection. A linear response range in 0.5nM–50μM is achieved for Co2+ when using 20μM AgNCs@PEI in BR buffer solution (neutral condition pH7.4). Incubation time of AgNCs@PEI toward Co2+ is only 2min and it can distinguish Co2+ from other 13 metal ions. Furthermore, the probe (AgNCs@PEI) is applied to sensing and imaging of HeLa cells, showing low cytotoxicity and good sensitivity.
•This paper provides AgNCs@PEI as luminescence probe for sensitively detecting Co2+ and the LOD is 0.25nM.•The probe can be used to selectively detect Co2+ among other 13 normal metal ions.•Cell imaging of Co2+ has been applied by using AgNCs@PEI.
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•The study focuses on the development of a new type of RTP material.•The film demonstrates remarkable RTP with an extended afterglow time of up to 12 s.•This characteristic opens up ...potential applications in four fields.
Stimuli-responsive room temperature phosphorescent materials have been the subject of considerable research activity in recent years. In this study, the tetraphenylethylene group was selected in combination with arylboronic acid (TIPE-BOH) and used to dope a rigid polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) matrix to generate a film material (TIPE-BOH-PVA) that exhibited an aggregation-induced emission (AIE) effect. The prepared film exhibits excellent room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) performance, with an enhanced emission wavelength and an afterglow time of up to 12 s. The triplet-to-singlet Förster resonance energy transfer (TS-FRET) has been utilized to modify the afterglow color by adding butyl rhodamine B (BRhB) and rhodamine 6G (R6G), employing a water phase without the use of organic solvents. The resultant material exhibits stimulus responsiveness; the RTP properties disappear when the material is exposed to water vapor, but are restored following thermal treatment. The material has potential applications in information encryption and erasure, double anti-counterfeiting ink, and fingerprint acquisition systems. This work offers a new strategy for the design of stimuli-responsive ultra-long RTP materials with far-ranging end applications.
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