Property Regulation of Conjugated Oligoelectrolytes with Polyisocyanide to Achieve Efficient Photodynamic Antibacterial Biomimetic Hydrogels.

Fabricating antibacterial hydrogels with antimicrobial drugs and synthetic biocompatible biomimetic hydrogels is a promising strategy for practical medical applications. Here, we report a bicomponent hydrogel composed of a biomimetic polyisocyanopetide (PIC) hydrogel and a photodynamic antibacterial membrane-intercalating conjugated oligoelectrolyte (COE). The aggregation behavior and aggregate size of the COEs in water can be regulated using the PIC hydrogel, which could induce COEs with higher reactive oxygen species (ROS) production efficiency and increased association of COEs toward bacteria, therefore enhancing the antibacterial efficiency. This strategy provides a facile method for developing biomimetic hydrogels with high antibacterial capability.

N,N'-bicarbazole-benzothiadiazole-based conjugated porous organic polymer for reactive oxygen species generation in live cells.

A π-conjugated porous organic polymer (BCzBz) was fabricated employing N,N'-bicarbazole and benzothiadiazole as molecular building units exhibiting broad visible light absorption. The photostable, water-dispersible, and cytocompatible BCzBz was demonstrated as an efficient probe for intracellular reactive oxygen species generation under photoirradiation.

Benzothiadiazole functionalized Co-doped MIL-53-NH2 with electron deficient units for enhanced photocatalytic degradation of bisphenol A and ofloxacin under visible light.

Nowadays, designing highly active photocatalysts for pollutant degradation under visible light still remains a challenging problem. Herein, a novel benzothiadiazole functionalized Co-doped MOF-based photocatalyst with electron deficient unit was first synthesized via a feasible step-by-step assembly strategy. Benzothiadiazole, as typical electron deficient group, could effectively promote the separation and transfer of photoinduced charge carriers. The implantation of Co ion could be served as an effective mediator to further facilitate the charge transfer through a Co3+/Co2+ redox pathway. Interestingly, the as-synthesized Co-MIL-53-NH-BT exhibited significantly enhanced photocatalytic degradation capacity for BPA and OFX under visible light irradiation, with removal efficiency as high as 99.9 % and 99.8 % within 120 min. TOC analysis suggested that majority of contaminants had been degraded into CO2 and H2O. The important parameters influencing the photocatalytic activity were investigated, and the kinetics study was also conducted. The possible degradation pathways and the possible photocatalytic mechanism were proposed. More importantly, the as-synthesized Co-MIL-53-NH-BT showed good reusability, stability as well as universal applicability. To sum up, current work not only developed an efficient and visible-light active photocatalyst for treating organic-contaminated wastewater, but also afforded some novel insight into the utilization of benzothiadiazole in MOF-based photocatalyst towards improving photocatalytic activity.

Donor-acceptor conjugated polymer-based nanoparticles for highly effective photoacoustic imaging and photothermal therapy in the NIR-II window.

We prepared novel conjugated polymer based NIR-II nanoparticles, which display extremely high photothermal conversion efficiency (65%). Both in vitro and in vivo investigations revealed that the as-prepared nanoparticles exhibit excellent theranostic properties including an extremely high cancer cell killing ability, admirable tumor elimination efficiency (100%) and a remarkable photoacoustic imaging contrast enhancing ability.

Non-Typical Fluorescence Effects and Biological Activity in Selected 1,3,4-thiadiazole Derivatives: Spectroscopic and Theoretical Studies on Substituent, Molecular Aggregation, and pH Effects.

The below article presents the results of spectroscopic research, theoretical (time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT)), microbiological, and antioxidative calculations for three compounds from the group of 1,3,4-thiadiazoles: 2-amino-5-phenyl-1,3,4-thiadiazole (TB), 2-amino-5-(2-hydroxyphenyl)-1,3,4-thiadiazole (TS), 2-amino-5-(2-hydroxy-5-sulfobenzoyl)-1,3,4-thiadiazole (TSF). In the fluorescence emission spectra (TS) of solutions with varying concentrations of hydrogen ions, a particularly interesting effect of dual fluorescence was observed. The aforementioned effect was observed even more clearly in the environment of butan-1-ol, relative to the compound's concentration. Depending on the modification of the resorcylic substituent (TS and TSF), we observed the emergence of two separate, partially overlapping, fluorescence emission spectra or a single emission spectrum. Interpretation of the obtained spectra using stationary and time-resolved spectroscopy allowed the correlation of the effect's emergence with the phenomenon of molecular aggregation (of a particular type) as well as, above all, the structure of the substituent system. The overlap of said effects most likely induces the processes related to the phenomenon of charge transfer (in TS) and is responsible for the observed fluorescence effects. Also, the position of the -OH group (in the resorcylic ring) is significant and can facilitate the charge transfer (CT). The determinations of the changes in the dipole moment and TD-DFT calculations further corroborate the above assumption. The following paper presents the analysis (the first for this particular group of analogues) of the fluorescence effects relative to the changes in the structure of the resorcylic group combined with pH effects. The results of biological studies also indicate the highest pharmacological potential of the analogue in the case where the effects of dual fluorescence emission are observed, which predisposes this particular group of fluorophores as effective fluorescence probes or potential pharmaceuticals with antimycotic properties.

A narrow-bandgap benzobisthiadiazole derivative with high near-infrared photothermal conversion efficiency and robust photostability for cancer therapy.

Photothermal therapy has emerged as a promising tool for treatment of diseases such as cancers. Previous photothermal agents have been largely limited to inorganic nanomaterials and conductive polymers that are barely biodegradable, thus raising issues of long-term toxicity for clinical applications. Here we report a new photothermal agent based on colloidal nanoparticles formed by a small-molecular dye, benzo[1,2-c;4,5-c']bis[1,2,5]thiadiazole-4,7-bis(5-(2-ethylhexyl)thiophene). These nanoparticles showed strong near-infrared absorption, robust photostability and high therapeutic efficiency for photothermal treatment of cancer cells.