Rapid determination of nanotoxicity using luminous bacteria.

A new luminescence-based toxicity test using luminous bacteria as a reporting agent has been developed to determine EC(50) of different nanomaterials, such as gold nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes on living organisms. The whole assay takes only about 15 min and is as sensitive as other standard methods. Due to its technical simplicity, rapidity and sensitivity, this luminescent bacteria test has the potential to be developed as a general test of toxicity for a wide variety of nanomaterials.

A simple and effective catalytic system for epoxidation of aliphatic terminal alkenes with manganese(II) as the catalyst.

A simple catalytic system that uses commercially available manganese(II) perchlorate as the catalyst and peracetic acid as the oxidant is found to be very effective in the epoxidation of aliphatic terminal alkenes with high product selectivity at ambient temperature. Many terminal alkenes are epoxidised efficiently on a gram scale in less than an hour to give excellent yields of isolated product (>90 %) of epoxides in high purity. Kinetic studies with some C9-alkenes show that the catalytic system is more efficient in epoxidising terminal alkenes than internal alkenes, which is contrary to most commonly known epoxidation systems.

Self-assembly and molecular recognition of a luminescent gold rectangle.

A luminescent molecular rectangle [Au(4)(micro-PAnP)(2)(micro-bipy)(2)](OTf)(4) (1.(OTf)(4)) (PAnP = 9,10-bis(diphenylphosphino)anthracene, bipy = 4,4'-bipyridine, X = NO(3)(-) or OTf(-)), synthesized from the self-assembly of the molecular "clip" Au(2)(micro-PAnP)(OTf)(2) and bipy, shows a large rectangular cavity of 7.921(3) x 16.