Ordered nanoporosity in covalent organic framework (COF) offers excellent opportunity for property development. Loading nanoparticles (nPs) onto them is one approach to introducing tailor-made properties into a COF. Here, a COF-Co/Co(OH) composite containing about 16 wt% of <6 nm sized Co/Co(OH) nPs is prepared on a N-rich COF support that catalyzes the release of theoretical equivalence of H from readily available, safe, and cheap NaBH . Furthermore, the released H is utilized for the hydrogenation of nitrile and nitro compounds to amines under ambient conditions in a facile one-pot reaction. The COF "by choice" is built from "methoxy" functionalized dialdehydes which is crucial in enabling the complete retention of the COF structure under the conditions of the catalysis, where the regular Schiff bonds would have hydrolyzed. The N-rich binding pockets in the COF ensure strong nP-COF interactions, which provides stability and enables catalyst recycling. Modeling studies reveal the crucial role played by the COF in exposing the active facets and thereby in controlling the activation of the reducing agent. Additionally, via density functional theory, we provide a rational explanation for how these COFs can stabilize nanoparticles which grow beyond the limiting pore size of the COF and yet result in a truly stable heterogeneous catalyst - a ubiquitous observation. The study underscores the versatility of COF as a heterogeneous support for developing cheap and highly active nonnoble metal catalysts.

The present study reports one of the first attempts on the design and development of an enzymatic-biodegradable theranostic fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) probe constructed on l-amino acid polymer nanoassemblies and demonstrates the proof-of-concept in live cell bioimaging. l-Aspartic acid was converted into amide or carbamate pendants containing bis-carboxylic acid ester monomers, and they were subjected to melt polymerization along with commercial diols to produce amphiphilic aliphatic polyesters. Nanoparticles of size <200 nm were obtained because of self-assembly of these amphiphilic polyesters in an aqueous medium. These nanoparticles exhibited excellent encapsulation capability for green-fluorescent anti-inflammatory drug curcumin (CUR) and highly luminescent red-fluorophore Nile red (NR) to yield a CUR-NR theranostic FRET probe. Detailed photophysical studies were carried out to demonstrate photoexcitation energy transfer from CUR to NR for the occurrence of the FRET phenomena. The theranostic FRET probe was found to be very stable at extracellular environment and underwent biodegradation at the intracellular regions for delivery of the loaded cargoes. As a result, the theranostic FRET probe functioned as turn-on at the extracellular level and became turn-off at the intracellular level under lysosomal enzyme-responsiveness. The polymer nanoparticle was nontoxic to cells, whereas its CUR encapsulated nanoparticle showed relatively good cytotoxicity in breast cancer cell lines. Live cell confocal microscopy studies using lysotracker staining confirmed the colocalization of CUR as well as NR within the polymer nanoparticles in the lysosomes for enzymatic-biodegradation. Selective photoexcitation experiments in the confocal microscope were carried out to study the FRET probe action in cancer cells. Time-dependent FRET imaging directly supported the occurrence of FRET at the intracellular level and enabled the real-time drug release studies. The present approach opens natural resource-based biodegradable theranostic FRET probes for bioimaging application.

With the desire to develop a sustainable green method to store and release solar energy via a chemical reaction, we have examined the well-investigated norbornadienequadricyclane (NBD-QC) system in water. In this context, we have employed octa acid (OA) as the host that forms a capsule in water. According to 1 H NMR spectra and diffusion constants, OA forms a stable 2:2 complex with both NBD and QC and 1:1:2 mixed complex in the presence of equal amounts of both NBD and QC. The photoconversion of NBD to QC within the OA capsule is clean without side reactions. In this case, OA itself acts as a triplet sensitizer. Recognizing the disadvantage of this supramolecular approach, in the future we plan to look for visible light absorbing sensitizers to perform this conversion. The reverse reaction (QC to NBD) is achieved via electron transfer process with methylene blue as the sensitizer. This reverse reaction is also clean, and no side products were detected. The preliminary results reported here provide "proof of principle" for combining green, sustainable and supramolecular chemistries in the context of solar energy capture and release.

In article number https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.201801233, Ramanathan Vaidhyanathan and co‐workers show that ordered porosity with aligned functional groups in a covalent organic framework provide confinement for the growth of small‐sized ferromagnetic cobalt nanoparticles. This composite nanocatalyst shows exceptional activity for H2 evolution from cheap and readily available NaBH4. This heterogeneous catalyst offers chemoselective products in one pot reduction reactions under aqueous and harsh basic/acidic conditions, with an activity comparable to noble metal (Au, Pd, Pt) based catalysts.

A definite health determines the overall wellbeing of a person. The perfect proportion of food and nutrition starting from our early stages of life plays a major role in the late adulthood. The study was aimed to identify the effectiveness of structured teaching programme on knowledge regarding healthy dietary habits among adolescents in selected schools, Alappuzha District, Kerala. Objectives: - 1. To assess the pretest and posttest knowledge regarding healthy dietary habits among adolescents in selected schools, Alappuzha District. 2. To evaluate the effectiveness of structured teaching programme on knowledge regarding healthy dietary habits among adolescents. 3. To determine the association between mean pretest score on knowledge regarding healthy dietary habits with selected demographic variables. Methodology: An evaluation approach with one group pretest-post-test design was used for the study. The convenient sampling technique was used to draw sixty Higher Secondary School children as samples. Data was collected by administering structured questionnaire on healthy dietary habits. Lesson plan along with appropriate AV aids had been used for teaching. On the 7th day, post test was conducted using the same questionnaire. The collected data was analyzed by statistical method. Result:- The analysis of pre-test knowledge revealed that among 60 samples half of them have average knowledge (50%), 41.66% have poor knowledge and remaining 8.33% have excellent knowledge. The post test revealed that there is increase in percentage of excellent knowledge (75%) remaining 25% have average knowledge and none of them have poor knowledge. Paired‘t’ value of knowledge was 13.58 which is greater than the table value and found statistically significant. Conclusion: - The study proved that the structured teaching programme was effective in improving the knowledge of healthy dietary habits among adolescents as evidenced by the significant change between pretest and post test values.