Preparation and Evaluation of Hydrogel Film Containing Tramadol for Reduction of Peripheral Neuropathic Pain.

To develop and assess new dosage forms for the alternative to existing oral medication for peripheral neuropathy, a hydrogel film in the skin patch formation containing tramadol hydrochloride (TRA), a water-soluble drug used as an analgesic, was prepared and evaluated. A hydrogel film composed of 20%(w/w) hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) irradiated with electron beams had high transparency and elasticity similar to commercially available wound dressings and soft tissues, suggesting that it is a suitable substrate for TRA. The inclusion of TRA was enabled by immersing the HPMC hydrogel film in TRA aqueous solution. The release and skin permeation of TRA from TRA-containing hydrogel films differed depending on the electron beam dose. Moreover, the analgesic effects in mice were confirmed in a dose-dependent manner. This study demonstrated the usefulness of a hydrogel film containing TRA as a new dosage form alternative to the existing oral medication for peripheral neuropathy.

Valence tautomerism in a [2 × 2] Co4 grid complex containing a ditopic arylazo ligand.

We describe the structural and magnetic properties of a tetranuclear [2 × 2] Co4 grid complex containing a ditopic arylazo ligand. At low temperatures and in solution the complex is comprised of Co3+ and singly reduced trianion-radical ligands. In the solid state we demonstrate the presence of valence tautomerization via variable temperature magnetic susceptibility experiments and powder-pattern EPR spectroscopy. Valence tautomerism in polynuclear complexes is very rare and to our knowledge is unprecedented in [2 × 2] grid complexes.

Time-resolved EPR characterization of a folded conformation of photoinduced charge-separated state in porphyrin-fullerene dyad bridged by diphenyldisilane.

For development of the molecular solar-energy conversion systems, it is crucial to investigate how both the molecular geometry and electronic structure of electron donor-bridge-acceptor (D-B-A) molecules contribute to the electronic coupling for the charge-separation (CS) and charge-recombination (CR) processes. In a D-B-A system of a porphyrin-fullerene dyad (ZnP-C(60)) bridged by a diphenyldisilane spacer, we have characterized one specific folded molecular conformation in the CS state among several existing conformations using the time-resolved electron paramagnetic resonance (TREPR) method at low temperature. To determine the molecular conformation and spin-spin exchange coupling of the CS state, we have considered (1) the electron spin polarization transfer from the excited triplet state of the C(60) moiety to the CS state and (2) the sublevel-selective spin relaxations and CR in the CS state. In the CS state of this conformation, although the ZnP cation and C(60) anion radicals are in close proximity, direct overlap between their singly occupied molecular orbitals is small, resulting in detection of the long-lived CS state which has a totally different conformation from the optically detected, charge-transfer (CT) complex. It has been demonstrated that, among several folded and extended molecular conformations created by the flexibility of the -Si-Si- bridge, the EPR conformation can play a role on the prevention of the energy-wasting CR.

Oligosilane chain-length dependence of electron transfer of zinc porphyrin-oligosilane-fullerene molecules.

A new series of zinc porphyrin-fullerenes bridged by flexible oligosilane chains ZnP-[Sin]-C60 (n = 1-5) was synthesized, and the photophysical properties of these molecules were investigated using steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopic methods. The spectral observations can be well explained by assuming the coexistence of extended conformers and folded conformers, that is, the observed emissions are from the extended conformers while the folded conformers form very short lifetime nonfluorescent excited-state charge-transfer (CT) complexes. Time-resolved transient absorption spectra suggest the generation of intramolecular radical-ion pairs that have sub-microsecond lifetimes. With the number of silicon atoms of the bridged oligosilane, the lifetimes of the radical-ion pairs do not vary regularly, indicating that intramolecular collision of the radical-cation moiety with the radical-anion moiety controls the charge-recombination rate. The attenuation factor of the electron transfer of the silicon chain was evaluated by the bridge-length dependence of charge-separation rate to be 0.16 A-1 on the basis of the oligosilane chain-length dependence of fluorescence lifetimes. This is the first evaluation of the attenuation factor for the one-dimensional Si-Si chain to the best of our knowledge.

Electron-donating perylene tetracarboxylic acids for dye-sensitized solar cells.

Novel perylene imide derivatives with both electron-donating and bulky substituents have been synthesized for dye-sensitized solar cells. The power conversion efficiency reached 2.6%, which is the highest value among perylene-sensitized TiO2 solar cells.

Synthesis and photophysical properties of electron-rich perylenediimide-fullerene dyad.

An electron-rich perylenediimide-C60 dyad has been prepared to explore a new type of donor-acceptor system. Time-resolved absorption measurements in benzonitrile revealed unambiguous evidence for the formation of a charge-separated state consisting of perylene diimide radical cation and C60 radical anion via photoinduced electron transfer, showing a new class of artificial photosynthetic models in terms of charge separation.

A photoelectrochemical device with a nanostructured SnO2 electrode modified with composite clusters of porphyrin-modified silica nanoparticle and fullerene.

A silica nanoparticle has been successfully employed as a nanoscaffold to self-organize porphyrin and C60 molecules on a nanostructured SnO2 electrode. The quenching of the porphyrin excited singlet state on the silica nanoparticle is suppressed significantly, showing that silica nanoparticles are promising scaffolds for organizing photoactive molecules three-dimensionally in nanometer scale. Marked enhancement of the photocurrent generation was achieved in the present system compared with the reference system, where a gold core was employed as a scaffold of porphyrins instead of a silica nanoparticle. The rather small incident photon-to-current efficiency relative to a similar photoelectrochemical device using a silica microparticle may result from poor electron and hole mobility in the composite film due to poor connection between the composite clusters of a porphyrin-modified silica nanoparticle and C60 in micrometer scale.