Electrophoretic Deposition Polymerization of Diacetylenes with Tunable Structure

Synthesis of amino acid derivatives of 5-alkoxy-3,4-dihalo-2(5H)-furanones and their preliminary bioactivity investigation as linkers

A series of amino acid derivatives are successfully synthesized via a metal-free C-N coupling reaction of 5-alkoxy-3,4-dihalo-2(5H)-furanones and amino acids. Their structures are well characterized with ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, ESI-MS and elemental analysis. As potential linkers of the 2(5H)-furanone unit with other drug moieties containing a hydroxyl or amino group, the effect of amino acids is investigated by comparison with other 2(5H)-furanone compounds by constructing C-O/C-S bonds. The preliminary results of the biological activity assay by the MTT method on a series of cancer cell lines in vitro reveal that the introduction of amino acids basically has no toxic effect. This can lead to these 2(5H)-furanone derivatives being further well-linked with other bioactive moieties with amino or hydroxy groups as expected. Thus, the biological activity assay gives a direction for the design of bioactive 2(5H)-furanones based on these amino acid linkers.

Visualization and Quantitative Detection of Friction Force by Self-Organized Organic Layered Composites

Visualization and quantitative detection of external stimuli are significant challenges in materials science. Quantitative detection of friction force, a mechanical stress, is not easily achieved using conventional stimuli-responsive materials. Here, the quantitative detection of friction force is reported, such as the strength and accumulated ammount, from the visible color of organic layered composites consisting of polydiacetylene (PDA) and organic amines without an excitation light source. The composites of the layered diacetylene monomer crystal and interlayer organic amine are synthesized through self-organization from the precursor solution. After topochemical polymerization, the layered composites based on PDA show tunable temperature-responsive and mechanoresponsive color-change properties depending on the types of interlayer amines. The layered composites are homogeneously coated on a filter paper. The change in color of the paper is quantitatively used to visualize the strength and accumulated amount of the applied friction force. Furthermore, writing pressure is measured by friction force using the paper device.

Preparation and Characterization of Poly-1,2,3-triazole with Chiral 2(5H)-Furanone Moiety as Potential Optical Brightening Agents

A series of novel heterocyclic polymers with fluorescent brightening properties are synthesized via Click polymerization. Fast synthesis of poly-1,2,3-triazoles (M n ≥ 9.31 kDa) is described herein, with a high yield of up to 95%. The Click polymerization approach has a number of advantages, including facile operation and outstanding isolation yield. The resultant polymers have a high thermal stability, excellent UV resistance, as well as acid and light fastness. On embedding with optical brightening agents, the polymers display strong fluorescent brightening properties in the tetrahydrofuran solution. Moreover, these products have a strong solution emission intensity and extraordinary photostability under UV light.

A Combined Experimental and Theoretical Study on the Reaction Mechanism and Molecular Structure of 4-(Diphenylamino)-3-iodo-2(5H)-furanone

The simultaneous α-iodination and Nβ-arylation mechanism of 5-alkyloxy-4-phenylamino-2(5H)-furanone by (diacetoxyiodo)benzene was investigated by means of density functional theory (DFT) with B3LYP/6-31G*//LANL2DZ, selecting 4-(diphenylamino)-5-methyloxy-3-iodo-2(5H)-furanone as the calculation model. In addition, the effect of solvent on the reaction pathway was investigated using the Polarisable Continuum Model (PCM). Good agreement was found between the computational and the experimental results. Furthermore, single crystals of 4-(diphenylamino)-5-ethoxy-3-iodo-2(5H)-furanone were grown by slow evaporation technique. The molecular structure analysis was performed by single crystal X-ray analysis and theoretical calculations using a semi-empirical quantum chemical method and DFT/B3LYP methods with a LANL2DZ as basis set.

Advances in polydiacetylene development for the design of side chain groups in smart material applications – a mini review

This review focuses on various side chain groups based on PDAs published over the last 3 years, covering urea, melamine, ferriferous oxide and coumarin. Perspectives on the remaining challenges and future developments are also proposed.

A radical coupling reaction of DMSO with sodium arylsulfinates in air : mild utilization of DMSO as C1 resource for the synthesis of arylsulfonyl dibromomethane

A radical coupling reaction of DMSO with ArSO₂Na without the needs of anaerobic atmosphere to afford ArSO₂CHBr₂ is described.

Shifting from hydrogen bond network to π-π stacking: a key mechanism for reversible thermochromic sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone)

Sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) (SPEEK) thin film performs reversible thermochromic property by developing the color to be yellowish at the temperature above 190 °C. The detailed analyses based on temperature-dependent techniques suggest the thermal treatment inducing the shifting of the hydrogen bond network between the sulfonated group and the hydrated water molecules to the π-π stacking among aromatic rings in SPEEK chains. Although it is general that the polymer chain packing is unfavorable at high temperature, the present work shows a good example that when the polymer chains can form specific molecular interaction, such as π-π stacking, even in harsh thermal treatment, a rearrangement will effectively occur, which leads to an external stimuli-responsive property.