A new kind of two-dimensional (2-D) hybrid material (RGO-PMS@AuNPs), fabricated by the immobilization of ultrasmall gold nanoparticles (AuNPs, ∼3 nm) onto sandwich-like periodic mesopourous silica (PMS) coated reduced graphene oxide (RGO), was employed for both electrocatalytic application and cancer cell detection. The hybrid-based electrode sensor showed attractive electrochemical performance for sensitive and selective nonenzymatic detection of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in 0.1 M phosphate buffered saline, with wide linear detection range (0.5 μM to 50 mM), low detection limit (60 nM), and good sensitivity (39.2 μA mM(-1) cm(-2)), and without any interference by common interfering agents. In addition, the sensor exhibited a high capability for glucose sensing and H2O2 detection in human urine. More interestingly, the hybrid was found to be nontoxic, and the electrode sensor could sensitively detect a trace amount of H2O2 in a nanomolar level released from living tumor cells (HeLa and HepG2). Because the hybrid presents significant properties for the detection of bioactive species and certain cancerous cells by the synergistic effect from RGO, PMS, and AuNPs, it could be able to serve as a versatile platform for biosensing, bioanalysis, and biomedical applications.

Development of efficient artificial enzymes is an emerging field in nanobiotechnology, since these artificial enzymes could overcome serious disadvantages of natural enzymes. In this work, a new nanostructured hybrid was developed as a mimetic enzyme for in vitro detection and therapeutic treatment of cancer cells. The hybrid (GSF@AuNPs) was prepared by the immobilization of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) on mesoporous silica-coated nanosized reduced graphene oxide conjugated with folic acid, a cancer cell-targeting ligand. The GSF@AuNPs hybrid showed unprecedented peroxidase-like activity, monitored by catalytic oxidation of a typical peroxidase substrate, 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB), in the presence of H2O2. On basis of this peroxidase activity, the hybrid was utilized as a selective, quantitative, and fast colorimetric detection probe for cancer cells. Finally, the hybrid as a mimetic enzyme was employed for H2O2- and ascorbic acid (AA)-mediated therapeutics of cancer cells. In vitro experiments using human cervical cancer cells (HeLa cells) exhibited the formation of reactive oxygen species (OH(•) radical) in the presence of peroxidase-mimic GSF@AuNPs with either exogenous H2O2 or endogenous H2O2 generated from AA, leading to an enhanced cytotoxicity to HeLa cells. In the case of normal cells (human embryonic kidney HEK 293 cells), the treatment with the hybrid and H2O2 or AA showed no obvious damage, proving selective killing effect of the hybrid to cancer cells.

Synthetic polymers with branched macromolecules and outstanding functional-group tolerance exhibit diverse and useful properties that influence most aspects of modern life. Extending polymerization strategies to two dimensions (2D) allows precise integration of buildingu nits into extended structures with periodic skeletons and ordered nanopores. The construction principle of these frameworks is to direct the topological evolution in ap redictable manner with controlled geometry,d imensions and structural periodicity.Thisunique designable feature of 2D covalent organic frameworks (2D-COFs) with versatile properties makes them an emergingm aterial platform,w ith great interest for areas such as gas storage, separation, catalysis and optoelectronics.I nt his Focus Review,w ed iscuss the recent progress in 2D-COFsa so ptoelectronic materials with an emphasis on their semiconducting, energy-conversion and energy-storage properties.

Resonance energy transfer from dansyl to the rhodamine moiety in a newly synthesized chemosensor L(2) has been utilized successfully for detection of Hg(2+) in aqueous solution and living cells such as Pseudomonas putida.

A new dibenzo[24]crown-8 derivative (1) was synthesized and functionalized with aromatic moieties such as naphthalene and coumarin units. These two fluorophores are known to form an effective FRET (Forster resonance energy transfer) pair, and this formed the basis for the design of this host crown ether derivative. Results of the steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence studies confirmed the resonance energy transfer between the donor naphthalene moiety and acceptor coumarin fragment, while NMR spectra and computational studies support a folded conformation for the uncomplexed crown ether 1. This was found to form an inclusion complex, a [2]pseudorotaxane type with imidazolium ion derivatives as the guest molecules with varying alkyl chain lengths ([C(4)mim](+) or [C(10)mim](+)). The host crown ether (1) tends to adopt an open conformation on formation of the interwoven inclusion complex (1·[C(4)mim](+) or 1·[C(10)mim](+)). This change in conformation, from the folded to a open one, was predicted by computational as well as (1)H NMR studies and was confirmed by single crystal X-ray structure for one (1·[C(4)mim](+)) of the two inclusion complexes. The increase in the effective distance between the naphthalene and coumarin moieties in the open conformation of these inclusion complexes was also supported by the decrease in the effective FRET process that was operational between naphthalene and coumarin moieties in the free molecule (1). Importantly, this inclusion complex formation was found to be reversible, and in the presence of a stronger base/polar solvent, such as triethyl amine/DMSO, the deprotonation/effective solvation of the cationic imidizolium ions ([C(4)mim](+) or [C(10)mim](+)) resulted in decomplexation or dethreading with restoration of the original emission spectra for 1, which signifies the subsequent increase in the FRET process. Thus we could demonstrate that a molecular folding-unfolding type of movement in the crown ether derivative could be induced by chemical input as an imidazolium ion.