Low-costsensors with high sensitivity and selectivity for chemical and biological detection are of high scientific and economic importance. Silica nanoparticles (NPs) have shown vast promise in sensor applications by virtue of their controllable surface modification, good chemical stability, and biocompatibility. This mini-review summarizes our recent development of silica NP-based assays for chemical and biological detection, where silica NPs serve as the substrate for probe immobilization, target recognition, and separation. The assay performance is further improved through the introduction of conjugated polyelectrolyte to amplify the detection signal. The assays have been demonstrated to be successful for the detection of DNA, small molecules, and proteins. They could be generalized for other targets based on specific interactions, such as DNA hybridization, antibody-antigen recognition, and target-aptamer binding.

Global optimization of clusters is a subject of intense interest in computational chemistry. Especially for large clusters, locating the global minima is a challenging problem. Two strategies are generally used for the problem, i.e., the stochastic optimization and the static modeling strategy. The former is known as unbiased global optimization method, while the latter is more efficient but biased. This review describes the development of a dynamic lattice searching (DLS) approach. In DLS, the lattices are constructed dynamically and optimization is achieved by searching these lattices. Therefore, DLS possesses the characteristics of both the stochastic and static methods. With the aim of improving the efficiency of DLS for optimization of large clusters, several variants of the method have been developed. The results show that DLS methods may be promising tools for fast modeling of large clusters. With this review, greater interests are expected for global optimization of atomic or molecular clusters.

Photocatalytic splitting of water into H₂ is one of the most promising ways for converting solar energy into chemical energy. In the present paper, the basic physical and chemical principles of photocatalysts for hydrogen generating from aqueous solutions are outlined. Strategies for designing visible-light-induced photocatalysts have been reviewed. Besides, ultraviolet-light-induced photocatalysts, dye sensitization, photoelectrochemical water splitting and Z-scheme systems to effectively increase the light harvest are also discussed. Finally, the existing problems, possible solutions and prospects are presented.

The measured results of thermal analysis depend on experimental conditions. The international and national organizations have constituted a series of methods to characterize the physical and chemical properties for substances. The applications to physical transition, chemical reaction, and characteristic parameters of substances are given in the article as examples.

Glycosylation plays a key role in controlling various cellular processes; in diseases modifications of the glycans also highlight its clinical importance. However, glycosylation analysis remains a difficult task. In recent years, advances in sample preparation and mass spectrometry have greatly facilitated the analysis of glycoproteins. This review mainly covers five aspects of the improvements and advances on the research of protein glycosylation in China: 1) identification of glycoproteins, 2) identification of glycosylation sites, 3) new methods developed for glycopeptides enrichment, 4) characterization of glycans, and 5) functional studies of protein glycosylation.

Reactions of a hexadentate ligand N,N,N’,N’-tetrakis(2-hydroxyethyl)ethylenediamine (H₄edte) with different iron(III) salts in different solvents yielded three new twisted-saddle Fe₁₂ clusters with adamantane-like [Fe₄O₆] inner core. Preliminary magnetic studies show that strong intracluster anti-ferromagnetic interaction exists in both 1 and 3, generating the S_T = 0 spin ground state.

Surface confined recrystallization of highly-oriented polyethylene (PE) thin films realized by carbon-coating was utilized to control the morphological structure of ultrathin PE films. Selective carbon-coating with the help of a mask and subsequent recrystallization of the pre-oriented PE thin film lead to a partially structural control of the PE thin film in the coated domains. A fully structural control of the PE film is then fulfilled through a combination of surface confinement and heteroepitaxy of PE on the oriented poly(tetrafluroethylene) (PTFE) thin film. The thus obtained structure can serve as a template to induce pattern structures of a variety of other polymers through epitaxial growth. The poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) and poly(butylenes adipate) (PBA) micropattern thin films are shown in this paper as examples. These thin films exhibit different birefringence in different regions depending on the molecular orientation and may find potential applications in the fields of polarization-dependent display or storage.

Poly(3-(p-methyl)benzyl-3,4-dihydro-6-methyl-2H-1,3-benzoxazine) (poly(pCpT)), which was obtained from electrochemical polymerization in acetonitrile/alkali aqueous solution, was characterized by FT-IR, UV-Vis and ¹H-NMR. The results indicate a ring-opening structure of the polymer. By using a rotating-ring disc electrode (RRDE), the electrochemical behaviors of polymerization were studied and the polymerization mechanism was proposed.

6-O-(2-hydroxybutyl)-β-CD, as a new β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) derivative, was successfully synthesized. It was used as a chiral selector to separate six chiral drugs, including propranolol, anisodamine, promethazine, ketoconazole, benzhexol, and fenfluramine in nonaqueous capillary electrophoresis (NACE). The effects of the organic solvent, the electrolytes, the concentrations of cyclodextrin derivatives, and the pH of the buffer on the chiral resolution (Rs) were investigated. The baseline separation of enantiomers, including propranolol (Rs＝2.26), anisodamine (Rs＝2.31), promethazine (Rs＝2.42), ketoconazole (Rs＝2.56), benzhexol (Rs＝3.38), and fenfluramine (Rs＝3.04), could be achieved using a buffer of 100 mmol·L^−1 citric acid and 50 mmol·L^−1 Tris (hydroxymethyl) aminomethane (Tris) at pH 4.6 containing 100 mmol·L^−1 6-O-(2-hydroxybutyl)-β-CD in formamide (FA).

Professor Robert S. H. Liu received both his college education (in Texas) and graduate training (California Institute of Technology) in US. However, he was able to incorporate his Chinese educational background into his conduct as an academician in US. In this article, he first described his respect for and detailed his close interactions with his Ph. D. mentor, the well-known physical organic chemist George S. Hammond, whose insight led to the Hammond postulate that has been quoted in every organic chemistry textbook. Their friendship of more than forty years is almost akin to the master-apprentice relationship in the old Chinese days. Then he proceeded to describe his way of interacting with the young students in his classrooms and in his research group. Sprinkled throughout the discussion were Chinese proverbs or simple phrases that became applicable in situation in US as well as in China.
Initially, the article was written for the benefit of Prof. Liu’s students, but later a few close friends of his also received copies of the paper. I was one of the early ones who received such a copy. I thought the paper contains useful instructional values to the Chinese students in general and encouraged Prof. Liu to modify the paper for its publication in a Chinese journal. The current article you see here is the final product. We are grateful to the editors for their willingness to consider simultaneous usage of both English and Chinese, which is an important part of this paper. I hope the readers will enjoy reading the article just as much as I did.
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