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With the development of laser technology, the research of novel laser protection materials is of great significance. In this work, dispersible siloxene nanosheets (SiNSs) with a thickness of about 1.5 nm are prepared by the top-down topological reaction method. Based on the Z-scan and optical limiting testing under the visible-near IR ranges nanosecond laser, the broad-band nonlinear optical properties of the SiNSs and their hybrid gel glasses are investigated. The results show that the SiNSs have outstanding nonlinear optical properties. Meanwhile, the SiNSs hybrid gel glasses also exhibit high transmittance and excellent optical limiting capabilities. It demonstrates that SiNSs are promising materials for broad-band nonlinear optical limiting and even have potential applications in optoelectronics.

The water sensitivity of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as a common and crucial issue has greatly hindered their practical applications. Here, we present a facile and general approach to improve the water resistance of a typical MOF, i.e., CuBTC [Cu3(BTC)2(H2O)3]n (BTC = benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxylate) using a post-modification reaction with aminopropyltriethoxylsilane (APTES) at room temperature. The afforded material is denoted as CuBTC@APTES. Various spectroscopic methods reveal that the organosilicon linkers have been successfully grafted onto CuBTC by electrostatic attraction between acid and base groups and without affecting the original coordination mode and basic structure. Compared with CuBTC, the water stability of CuBTC@APTES was significantly improved. The pristine CuBTC almost lost all its crystallinity, morphology and pore structure after 3-day treatment in water, while CuBTC@APTES is able to retain its main crystal structure and basic porosity after the same treatment. This finding can be explained by the successful introduction of the organosilicon molecular overlayer on the periphery of CuBTC to slow down the destruction of weak metal coordination bonds by water molecules, thus improving the water stability of CuBTC. The solution of water sensitivity provides more opportunities for the practical applications of CuBTC, such as aqueous phase catalysis and gas separation in humid environments. This simple approach can certainly be expanded to improve the water resistance of other carboxylate-containing ligand-based MOFs.

Herein, we present two novel ferrocene-containing porous organic polymers, FPOP-1 and FPOP-2, by the Heck reactions of 1,1′-divinylferrocene with two tetrahedral silicon-centered units, i.e., tetrakis(4-bromophenyl)silane and tetrakis(4′-bromo-[1,1′-biphenyl]-4-yl)silane. The resulting materials possess high thermal stability and moderate porosity with the Brunauer–Emmer–Teller (BET) surface areas of 499 m2 g−1 (FPOP-1) and 354 m2 g−1 (FPOP-2) and total pore volumes of 0.43 cm3 g−1 (FPOP-1) and 0.49 cm3 g−1 (FPOP-2). The porosity is comparable to previously reported ferrocene-containing porous polymers. These materials possess comparable CO2 capacities of 1.16 mmol g−1 (5.10 wt%) at 273 K and 1.0 bar, and 0.54 mmol g−1 (2.38 wt%) at 298 K and 1.0 bar (FPOP-1). The found capacities are comparable to, or higher than many porous polymers having similar or higher surface areas. They have high isosteric heats of up to 32.9 kJ mol−1, proving that the affinity between the polymer network and CO2 is high, which can be explained by the presence of ferrocene units in the porous networks. These results indicate that these materials can be promisingly utilized as candidates for the storage or capture of CO2. More ferrocene-containing porous polymers can be designed and synthesized by combining ferrocene units with various aromatic monomers under this strategy and their applications could be explored.

Silicon-containing hyperbranched polymers (Si-HBPs) have drawn much attention due to their promising applications. However, the construction of Si-HBPs, especially those containing functional aromatic units in the branched backbones by the simple and efficient Piers-Rubinsztajn (P−R) reaction, has been rarely developed. Herein, a series of novel hyperbranched polycarbosiloxanes were prepared by the P−R reactions of methyl-, or phenyl-triethoxylsilane and three Si−H containing aromatic monomers, including 1,4-bis(dimethylsilyl)benzene, 4,4′-bis(dimethylsilyl)-1,1′-biphenyl and 1,1′-bis(dimethylsilyl)ferrocene, using B(C6F5)3 as the catalyst for 0.5 h at room temperature. Their structures were fully characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, and 29Si NMR. The molecular weights were determined by gel permeation chromatography. The degrees of branching of these polymers were 0.69−0.89, which were calculated based on the quantitative 29Si NMR spectroscopy. For applications, the ferrocene-linked Si-HBP can be used as precursors to produce functional ceramics with good magnetizability after pyrolysis at elevated temperature.

Silk fibroin (SF) is a protein polymer derived from insects, which has unique mechanical properties and tunable biodegradation rate due to its variable structures. Here, the variability of structural, thermal, and mechanical properties of two domesticated silk films (Chinese and Thailand B. Mori) regenerated from formic acid solution, as well as their original fibers, were compared and investigated using dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR). Four relaxation events appeared clearly during the temperature region of 25 °C to 280 °C in DMA curves, and their disorder degree (fdis) and glass transition temperature (Tg) were predicted using Group Interaction Modeling (GIM). Compared with Thai (Thailand) regenerated silks, Chin (Chinese) silks possess a lower Tg, higher fdis, and better elasticity and mechanical strength. As the calcium chloride content in the initial processing solvent increases (1%⁻6%), the Tg of the final SF samples gradually decrease, while their fdis increase. Besides, SF with more non-crystalline structures shows high plasticity. Two α- relaxations in the glass transition region of tan δ curve were identified due to the structural transition of silk protein. These findings provide a new perspective for the design of advanced protein biomaterials with different secondary structures, and facilitate a comprehensive understanding of the structure-property relationship of various biopolymers in the future.

Background: The apelin-APJ system has been considered to play a crucial role in HPA axis function, and how the traditional Chinese compound prescription Xiaoyaosan regulates the apelin-APJ system as a supplement to treat depressive disorders. Objective: To investigate the depression-like behaviors and expression of apelin and APJ in hypothalamus of chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) mice and study whether these changes related to the regulation of Xiaoyaosan. Methods: 60 adult C57BL/6J mice were randomly divided into four groups, including control group, CUMS group, Xiaoyaosan treatment group and fluoxetine treatment group. Mice in the control group and CUMS group received 0.5 mL physiological saline once a day by intragastric administration. Mice in two treatment groups received Xiaoyaosan (0.25 g/kg/d) and fluoxetine (2.6 mg/kg/d), respectively. After 21 days of modeling with CUMS, the expression of apelin and APJ in hypothalamus were measured by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR, western blot and immunohistochemical staining. The physical condition, body weight, food intake and behavior tests such as open field test, sucrose preference test and force swimming test were measured to evaluate depressive-like behaviors. Results: In this study, significant behavioral changes were found in CUMS-induced mice, meanwhile the expressions of apelin and APJ in the hypothalamus were changed after modeling. The body weight, food-intake and depressive-like behaviors in CUMS-induced mice could be improved by Xiaoyaosan treatment which is similar with the efficacy of fluoxetine, while the expressions of apelin and APJ in hypothalamus were modified by Xiaoyaosan. Conclusions: The data suggest that apelin-APJ system changes in the hypothalamus may be a target of depressive disorders, and the beneficial effects of Chinese compound prescription Xiaoyaosan on depressive-like behaviors may be mediated by the apelin-APJ system.

A previous study has shown that tilapia fish skin gelatin hydrolysates inhibited photoaging in vivo, and that, Leu-Ser-Gly-Tyr-Gly-Pro (LSGYGP) identified in the hydrolysate had a high hydroxyl radical scavenging activity. In this study, activities of LSGYGP were further evaluated using ultraviolet B (UVB)-induced mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs). UVB irradiation significantly increased the intercellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) activities and decreased the content of collagen in MEFs. LSGYGP reduced the intercellular ROS generation in UVB-induced MEFs. Meanwhile, the decrease of superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and the increase of malondiaidehyde (MDA) content were inhibited by LSGYGP. LSGYGP reduced MMP-1 and MMP-9 activities in a dose-dependent manner. Molecular docking simulation indicated that LSGYGP inhibited MMPs activities by docking the active sites of MMP-1 and MMP-9. Furthermore, LSGYGP also affected the intercellular phosphorylation of UVB-induced the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway. LSGYGP could protect collagen synthesis in MEFs under UVB irradiation by inhibiting oxidative stress and regulating MMPs activities.

Recent studies have shown that rambutan peel phenolic (RPP) extract demonstrate high antioxidant and antiglycation activities in vitro and in vivo. This study further evaluated the anti-diabetic activity of RPP in a mouse model of Type II diabetes induced by streptozotocin combined with high-fat diet. Results showed that RPP increased the body weight and reduced the fasting blood glucose level of the diabetic mice. RPP significantly reduced the serum levels of total cholesterol, triglyceride, creatinine, and glycated serum protein in diabetic mice in a dose-dependent manner. Glycogen content in mice liver was recovered by RPP, which further increased the activity of superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase and reduced lipid peroxidation in diabetic mice. Histological analysis showed that RPP effectively protected the tissue structure of the liver, kidney, and pancreas. In addition, RPP decreased the mesangial index and inhibited the expression of TGF-β in the kidney of diabetic mice.

In this study, the stable collagen hydrolysate was prepared by alcalase hydrolysis and twice simulated gastrointestinal digestion from Alaska pollock skin. The characteristics of hydrolysates and antioxidant activities in vitro, including 2,2′-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) radical (ABTS•+) scavenging activity, ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and hydroxyl radical (OH·) scavenging activity, were determined. After twice simulated gastrointestinal digestion of skin collagen (SGI-2), the degree of hydrolysis (DH) reached 26.17%. The main molecular weight fractions of SGI-2 were 1026.26 and 640.53 Da, accounting for 59.49% and 18.34%, respectively. Amino acid composition analysis showed that SGI-2 had high content of total hydrophobic amino acid (307.98/1000). With the simulated gastrointestinal digestion progressing, the antioxidant activities increased significantly (p < 0.05). SGI-2 was further purified by gel filtration chromatography, ion exchange chromatography and high performance liquid chromatography, and the A1a3c–p fraction with high hydroxyl radical scavenging activity (IC50 = 7.63 μg/mL) was obtained. The molecular weights and amino acid sequences of key peptides of A1a3c–p were analyzed using high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-LTQ-Orbitrap-MS) combined with de novo software and UniProt of MaxQuant software. Four peptides were identified from A1a3c–p, including YGCC (444.1137 Da) and DSSCSG (554.1642 Da) identified by de novo software and NNAEYYK (900.3978 Da) and PAGNVR (612.3344 Da) identified by UniProt of MaxQuant software. The molecular weights and amino acid sequences of four peptides were in accordance with the features of antioxidant peptides. The results indicated that different peptides were identified by different data analysis software according to spectrometry mass data. Considering the complexity of LC-ESI-LTQ-Orbitrap-MS, it was necessary to use the different methods to identify the key peptides from protein hydrolysates.