Discovery of Natural Potent HMG-CoA Reductase Degraders for Lowering Cholesterol.

Exploitation of key protected wild plant resources makes great sense, but their limited populations become the major barrier. A particular strategy for breaking this barrier was inspired by the exploration of a resource-saving fungal endophyte Penicillium sp. DG23, which inhabits the key protected wild plant Schisandra macrocarpa.

Chemical Constituents of Species in the Genus Pleione (Orchidaceae) and the Implications from Molecular Phylogeny.

Pleiones are popular ornamental orchids and different species of Pleione are long being used as traditional medicine in many Asian countries. However, previous chemical investigations of the genus Pleione are restricted to only a few species. In the present study, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) fingerprint of Pleione plants was established, which in particular, eight common peaks were confirmed in 16 species/hybrids.

Multifunctional Co₀.₈₅Se/graphene hybrid nanosheets: controlled synthesis and enhanced performances for the oxygen reduction reaction and decomposition of hydrazine hydrate.

Ultrathin nanosheets possess novel electronic structures and physical properties as compared with their corresponding bulk samples. However, the controlled synthesis of ultrathin monolayer nanosheets still remains a great challenge due to the lack of an intrinsic driving force for anisotropic growth of two-dimensional (2D) structures. Here we demonstrate, for the first time to our knowledge, the in situ synthesis of large-scale ultrathin single-crystalline Co₀.

Entropically driven formation of ultralong helical mesostructured organosilica nanofibers.

Ultralong helical organosilica nanofibers (length up to millimeter) with ordered helical mesoporous channels are synthesized using achiral cationic surfactant as single-structure-directing agent and anionic citrate as counterions. The surfactant molecules form micelles for silica condensation and the counterions reduce the polarity of the surfactant-silicate micelles via electrostatic balance, leading to the self-assembly and growth of the final product. The detailed mechanistic shape-shifting studies reveal that an entropy increase is the main driving force behind the plastic deformation of the solids.

Dodecahedral Au@Pd nanocrystals with high-index facets and excellent electrocatalytic activity and highly efficient surface-enhanced Raman scattering enhancement.

We synthesize the three-fold symmetric shield-like Au@Pd core-shell nanocrystals, enclosed predominantly by high-index {541} facets with kinks, through the simultaneous reduction of Au and Pd ions in the presence of triangular Au nanocrystal seeds in aqueous solution at room-temperature. The obtained shield-like Au@Pd core-shell nanocrystals exhibit superior electrocatalytic activity for the oxidation of ethanol and unique near-field enhancement property with a highly sensitive surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) response. These excellent properties can be ascribed to the presence of sharp corners and edges as well as high-index faceted Pd-rich shell in the shield-like Au@Pd core-shell structure.

Controlled growth of concave gold nanobars with high surface-enhanced Raman-scattering and excellent catalytic activities.

Highly monodispersed concave gold nanobars with 24 high-index {730} facets are synthesized through a seed-mediated growth in aqueous solution. The transformation from the truncated rectangular nanobars to rectangular nanobars, then transitional products, and final concave rectangular nanobars is observed with the fine control of silver nitrate in the growth solution, and their corresponding transverse surface plasmons can be well tuned, too. These concave gold nanobars exhibit good optical property, excellent catalytic activity, and high surface-enhanced Raman-scattering (SERS) response.

Highly branched concave Au/Pd bimetallic nanocrystals with superior electrocatalytic activity and highly efficient SERS enhancement.

Superstar: branched concave Au/Pd bimetallic nanocrystals were synthesized in high yield by seed-mediated co-reduction of Au and Pd metal precursors in an aqueous solution at room temperature. The branches are concave and have high-index facets on their surfaces. These nanocrystals show superior electrocatalytic activity for the oxidation of ethanol and highly efficient SERS enhancement.

Novel CeO2 yolk-shell structures loaded with tiny Au nanoparticles for superior catalytic reduction of p-nitrophenol.

Direct fabrication of core-shell or yolk-shell functional nanomaterials via a facile template-free method remains a challenge. In this work, we present a novel approach that involves straightforward chemical transformation and thermal treatment of the infinite coordination polymer particles to obtain composition-tunable CeO(2) yolk-shell structures. Uniform CeO(2) yolk-shell hollow spheres with a high surface area are promising support materials for tiny gold nanoparticles (ca.

Facile synthesis of concave decahedra enclosed by high-index facets and truncated decahedra with a large size.

Nanostructures with concave surfaces are not common, and their synthesis is still challenging. In this paper, we have successfully synthesized two kinds of five-fold-twinned Au decahedra and dodecagonal plates by changing the reaction conditions. 40 high-index {221} facets were observed in the concave decahedron.