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Herein two unprecedented octanuclear Co8 clusters are presented, [Cl@Co8 (TEOA)4(CH3CN)Cl3] (1) and [S@Co8(DEOA)6(NCS)2] (2) (H3TEOA = triethanolamine, H2DEOA = diethanolamine), in which tetrahedral μ4-chloride and in situ generated octahedral μ6-sulfide are used as templates. In spite of them being derivatives of cubes, eight Co atoms in 1 consist of two co-centered tetrahedra of different sizes, whereas in 2 they appear as a rhombohedron formed via elongating a cube along the C3-axis direction. Strong intra-cluster antiferromagnetic interactions were found.

Silver doped TiO2 (Ag-TiO2) materials show high activity and good stability in photocatalysis, but the mechanism could not be illustrated clearly due to their imprecise and inhomogeneous characteristics. Ag-doped titanium-oxo clusters (Ag-TOCs) with an exact crystal structure, which are rarely reported, are beneficial for further understanding structure-property relationships. Herein, six new Ag-TOCs with a butterfly-like Ti8Ag2 core have been synthesized through facile solvothermal reactions, in which two Ag ions are successfully linked to the surface of the Ti8 core. Of interest, the Ti6 unit of the Ti8Ag2 core is similar to that found in the anatase structure and may be a promising model for Ag-TiO2 materials. The band gaps of these Ag-TOCs show different values mainly affected by different ligands. DFT calculations revealed that the lowest energy bands of Ag-TOCs are attributed to the Ag-to-TiO core charge transfer bands. Additionally, all Ag-TOCs exhibit good photoelectric response and high photodegradation activity towards organic dyes.

Studies showed that the intravascular pH of neutrophils fell to 4.5–5.0 with stimulation for a few minutes. Under this condition, myeloperoxidase was activated to catalyze H2O2 and Cl− to form hypochlorous acid (HOCl). Therefore, it is of significance to develop fluorescence probes for sensing HOCl in acid conditions. In this work, we reported a ratiometric probe CRSH based on a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) platform for detecting HOCl under acid conditions. Probe CRSH exhibited excellent sensitivity, high selectivity and a rapid response toward HOCl and is suitable for imaging endogenous HOCl in living cells.

The development of novel methods to obtain biofuels and chemicals from biomass has been an immediate issue in both academic and industrial communities. The present work introduces a new route to synthesize 5-hydroxymethyl furfural (5-HMF) in a one-vessel system through a tandem pathway involving decrystallization, depolymerization and conversion of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) in a molten hydrate solution. A 71.62 wt% ZnCl2 aqueous solution was employed as the reaction media and methylisobutylketone (MIBK) as the extracting solvent in the reaction system. A yield of 80.6 mol% of 5-HMF was obtained at 150 °C with a HCl concentration of 0.2 mol L−1 in the solution for 40 min. The aqueous phase can be reused without significant loss of catalytic activity.

We developed a ratiometric fluorescent probe for sensing HOCl based on coumarin and rhodamine acid that is directly used as a detection moiety. The probe shows high selectivity and sensitivity toward HOCl under best working conditions of myeloperoxidase by which HOCl can be generated from hydrogen peroxide and chloride.