Toward High-Performance Electrochromic Conjugated Polymers: Influence of Local Chemical Environment and Side-Chain Engineering.

Three homologous electrochromic conjugated polymers, each containing an asymmetric building block but decorated with distinct alkyl chains, were designed and synthesized using electrochemical polymerization in this study. The corresponding monomers, namely T610FBTT810, DT6FBT, and DT48FBT, comprise the same backbone structure, i.e., an asymmetric 5-fluorobenzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole unit substituted by two thiophene terminals, but were decorated with different types of alkyl chain (hexyl, 2-butyloctyl, 2-hexyldecyl, or 2-octyldecyl). The effects of the side-chain structure and asymmetric repeating unit on the optical absorption, electrochemistry, morphology, and electrochromic properties were investigated comparatively. It was found that the electrochromism conjugated polymer, originating from DT6FBT with the shortest and linear alkyl chain, exhibits the best electrochromic performance with a 25% optical contrast ratio and a 0.3 s response time. The flexible electrochromic device of PDT6FBT achieved reversible colors of navy and cyan between the neutral and oxidized states, consistent with the non-device phenomenon. These results demonstrate that subtle modification of the side chain is able to change the electrochromic properties of conjugated polymers.

Characterization of Extended-Spectrum ß-Lactamase-Carrying Plasmids in Clinical Isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae from Taiwan.

We analyzed the replicon types, sizes, and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) typing of plasmids carrying extended-spectrum ß-lactamase (ESBL) genes in Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates from Taiwan. Fifty-one Escherichia coli transconjugant strains with plasmids from ESBL-producing K. pneumoniae from the Taiwan Surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance III Program in 2002 were included. All the 51 plasmids carried a blaCTX-M gene, the majority of which were blaCTX-M-3 (28/51 [54.9%]). Plasmids ranged in size from 126 to 241 kb by S1 nuclease digestion and subsequent pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, and the most common plasmid size (37.3%) was 161-170 kb. The most common replicon type of plasmids was incompatibility group (Inc)A/C (60.8%). The IncA/C plasmids all carried blaCTX-M (blaCTX-M-3, -14, -15), and some also carried blaSHV (blaSHV-5, -12) genes. All 51 plasmids could be typed with PstI, and 27 (52.9%) belonged to 10 clusters. Thirty-eight of the 51 plasmids were typable with BamHI, and 21 plasmids (55.3%) fell into 7 clusters. Plasmids in the same cluster belonged to the same incompatibility group, with the exception of cluster C6. In conclusion, IncA/C plasmids are the main plasmid type responsible for the dissemination of ESBL genes of K. pneumoniae from Taiwan. RFLP with PstI possessed better discriminatory power than that with BamHI and PCR-based replicon typing for ESBL-carrying plasmids in K. pneumoniae in this study. Greater than 50% of plasmids fell into clusters, and >60% of cluster-classified plasmids were present in clonally unrelated isolates, indicating that horizontal transfer of plasmids plays an important role in the spread of ESBL genes.