Carbon dioxide based copolymers utilize greenhouse gas CO₂ and can be applied in research and industry, which makes it become one of the emerging low cost biodegradable plastics. This paper summarizes our achievements in improvement of catalytic activity for propylene oxide (PO)-CO₂ copolymerization and enhancing molecular chain interaction of poly(propylene carbonate) (PPC). The supported strategy on rare-earth ternary catalyst showed 36% increase in catalytic activity. Three strategies including increasing molecular weight of PPC, crosslinking of PPC and preparation of regio-regular PPC were used to enhance molecular chain interaction of carbon dioxide based copolymers, which were effective in improving the thermal and mechanical performances of CO₂ copolymers.

Aggregation of classical fluorophores always quenches their light emission, which is notoriously known as aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ). The ACQ effect prevents many fluorophores from finding aggregation-state applications. In contrast, a group of fluorophores is weakly luminescent or even nonluminescent in isolated state but highly emissive in aggregate state. Aggregation-induced emission (AIE) was coined for this novel phenomenon. Because of their unique advantages, more and more new AIE systems with emission colors covering the entire visible spectral region were developed by numerous research groups. Their applications as solid-state emitters and chemo/bio-sensors were explored widely and deeply. Deciphering the working principle of the AIE phenomenon is of great value in terms of helping gain new photophysical insights and guide further efforts in the development of new AIE materials with high luminescence efficiencies. However, whilst the mature theories to explain the ACQ effect had been written into textbooks, the “abnormal” AIE phenomenon still poses a challenge to our current understanding of solid-state luminescence. In this review article, we summarize the accessible mechanisms for the AIE phenomenon, such as restricted intramolecular rotation (RIR), intramolecular coplanarization, inhibition of intramolecular photochemical or photophysical process, relatively loose molecular packing, J-aggregate formation, and special excimer formation. Particularly, we emphasize on the description of RIR mechanism, which is the most universal and best studied one among the proposed mechanisms. In addition, some new AIE systems based on these mechanisms are introduced briefly.

Click chemistry, a new molecular approach proposed by Sharpless and co-workers in 2001, is the most practical and reliable chemical reactions to connect a diversity of structures. The Cu (Ⅰ) catalyzed azide-alkyne 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition is one of the most common reactions in click chemistry, which has high yield, good efficiency, and high purity. In addition, this click reaction is essentially inert to most biological molecules, oxygen, water, and tolerant of a wide range of solvents, pH values and temperatures, and allows mild reaction conditions. This click reaction also has excellent selectivity in chemical synthesis. Owing to the fact that the azide and alkyne groups are facile introduced in the structure of molecules and form a stable 1,2,3-trizoles via click reaction, it has been widely applied in syntheses of functional polymers and biomacromolecules, surfaces modification, functionalization of DNAs and carbon nanotubes, and it has been also widely used for fabrication of biological or chemical sensors. In recent years, the cells and viruses have been modified by using click chemistry, while it doesn't damage the cells and viruses, and still keep their good biological activity. In this review, the basic principle, characteristics and advantages of click chemistry are described, the recent progress and some important research results in click chemistry are then introduced, and finally, the advances of click chemistry are prospected.

Wettability is an important property of a solid surface and is governed by both the chemical composition and the geometric structure. Non-sticky surface is a kind of surface with specific topographic structure and properties, being non-adhesive towards dirt, water, ice and other contaminants. Liquid marbles are non-wetting liquid droplets enclosed by highly hydrophobic powder, and can stably sit on the surface of a solid or a liquid. In this review, the methods to prepare liquid marbles and their structures are introduced, then static mechanical properties and responsive abilities of liquid marbles to electric and magnetic fields are briefly summarized. The advantages of controllable manipulation and transportation of small liquid droplets are also discussed. Future research interests and the application prospects of liquid marbles are proposed.

Because of their unique one-dimensional geometric structure, large surface area, high electrical conductivity, elevated mechanical strength and strong chemical inertness, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) provide new features as supports for semiconductor photocatalysts with enhanced catalytic properties. The CNTs not only provide large surface for the dispersion of active semiconductors, but also improve the adsorption of the photocatalysts, enhance their photocatalytic activities, extend the light responding region and make them more easily recycled. The synergistic effect of the carbon nanotubes and semiconductors endows the nanocomposites with superb properties and excellent performance. In this review, based on the analysis and comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of semiconductors and carbon nanotubes, the enhancement mechanisms of the CNTs/semiconductor catalysts are introduced. Afterwards, the relevant literature and advances in photocatalysis of the CNTs/semiconductors are summarized according to (1) the preparation methods of composite materials, for example, direct deposition, sol-gel method, hydrothermal/solvothermal process, chemical vapor deposition and so forth; (2) the type of semiconductors, such as oxides, sulfides, nitrides and complex oxides, and (3) their typical applications, including the degradation of pollutants in water and air, photocatalytic splitting of water for hydrogen generation, used as antibacterial materials and as catalysts for the synthesis of organic compounds. Finally, the prospects and challenge for these composite materials are also discussed.

Chiral nano-silica has been becoming one of the most important development trends of mesoporous nano-silica because of the potential applications in the fields of chiral recognition, chiral separation and chiral catalysis. In this paper the synthesis and applications of chiral nano-silica templated with gelators, surfactants, block polymers and biomacromolecules are reviewed.

Metal cations play very important roles in life and environmental sciences. The qualitative detection and quantitative determination of these metal cations are of great importance in biology and environmental monitoring. Phosphorescent heavy-metal complexes applied in chemosensors for metal cations have attracted increasing interest because they have some advantageous photophysical properties, such as evident Stokes shifts for easy separation of excitation and emission, significant single-photon excitation in the visible range and relatively long lifetimes, which makes their luminescence be easily identified from fluorescent backgrounds. The research progress in phosphorescent chemosensors for metal cations based on heavy-metal complexes is summarized, with focusing on the design principles and recent development of phosphorescent chemosensors for metal cations based on some heavy-metal complexes, such as Pt(Ⅱ)-, Ru(Ⅱ)-, Re(Ⅰ)-, Ir(Ⅲ)- and Au(Ⅰ)-based complexes.

Hydroxyapatite (HAP) is one of the weak alkaline calicium phosphate which slightly soluble in water. As catalyst or catalyst carrier, it is widely used in catalysis because of its strong adsorption ability, surface acidity or basicity and ion-exchange ability. In this article, we summarized the application of hydroxyapatite as catalyst and catalyst carrier in catalysis with emphases on the application of hydroxyapatite in oxidation reaction, reduction reaction and the formation of C-C bond. The application of hydroxyapatite in oxidation reaction mainly includes oxidation of alcohol and dehydrogenation of hydrocarbons. The formation of C-C bond mainly includes Claisen-Schmidt condensation reaction, Michael addition reaction, Knoevenagel condensation reaction, Friedel-Crafts reaction, Heck reaction, Diels-Alder and adol reaction. The reduction reaction includes hydrogenolysis and hydrogenation.

In this paper,research progresses of organic alkane phase change materials(PCMs) and potential applications of their microencapsulation are introduced systematically.The pure alkane has ideal phase change properties,but its fixed phase change point limits its applications.Practical needs are usually met by mixing different components of alkanes for adjusting their phase change properties.Generally speaking,homogeneous mixing is required to obtain a narrow temperature range of phase transition without phase separation.Because of the high cost of pure alkanes, applied researches were focused on paraffin systems.On the other hand, most of organic alkane PCMs undergo solid-liquid phase change,which can lead to inconvenience by swelling.Microencapsulation is an effective way to solve the problem of liquid PCMs.By means of chemical methods, such as in situ polymerization,interface polymerization and suspension polymerization,liquid PCMs can be enwrapped into microcapsules and turned into solid powders.Additionally,spray drying,phase separation and sol-gel methods are also available to encapsulate PCMs.The microencapsulation of organic alkanes PCMs can also solve the poor heat transfer problem by increasing thermal conductivity and specific surface area of PCMs.Microencapsulated PCMs has a wide range of great potential applications in heat transfer,energy storage and temperature control.

The endophytic fungi colonize interior organs of plants, but do not have pathogenic effects on their host(s). They exist in almost all plants and have been recognized as potential sources of novel natural products for exploitation in pharmaceutical and agricultural industries. This review describes about 404 natural products isolated and characterized from over 74 plant-associated fungal strains since 2008, and among them 194 active compounds are elucidated in detail about their structures and biological activities.

Both biomass utilization and ionic liquids have attracted great attention due to the increased pressure from energy and environment. Recently, some works combining both of them have applied ionic liquids in biomass utilization and obtained interesting results. In this review, two aspects which are the exploitation of biomass-based ionic liquids and the biomass utilization with ionic liquids as media are briefly reviewed. It includes the synthesis and application of amino acid-, sugar-, or choline-based ionic liquids, and the dissolution and chemical/biological conversion of biomass in ionic liquids.

As a class of novel organic functional dye, squaraine dyes and their derivatives are gaining significant interest in the field of chemistry. Due to the unique D-A-D structure and the strong absorption and emission characters in the visible and near infrared region, squaraine has been used as the chemosensor in the ion recognition. This article covers the most recent studies in the development and application of squaraine dye-based chemosensors. The molecule design, recognition mechanism and application in both cation and anion recognition has been introduced. The recognizing process of heavy metal ions such as Hg²⁺、Cu²⁺ and Zn²⁺, as well as alkali metal ions and alkali earth metal ions, have been mainly reviewed. Moreover, the developing prospect for the further research has been expected.

Electrospinning provides a simple and versatile method for generating continuous ultra-thin fibers. The technique is not only a focus of intense academic investigation, but is also increasingly being applied in industry. Polyimide is a widely used polymer with high thermal stability, high toughness and comprehensive performances. In the last 10 years, reports on preparation of novel PI materials through electrospinning sprung out, including fabrication of carbon fibers by carbonizing the electrospun PI nano-fiber precursor, fabrication of electrospun PI fibrous nanocomposites, fabrication of light and tough electrospun PI fibrous materials, etc. This review summarizes the recent work in polyimide electrospinning. The research prospects and directions of this rapidly developing field are also briefly addressed.

Considerable attention has focused on the preparation of polymers with complicated structures via click chemistry due to high efficiency,reliable,high selectivity of click chemistry.On the other hand, living radical polymerization can control the polymerization and polymer structures effectively.This review highlights the development of the synthesis of well-defined polymers such as star-shaped,comb-shaped,brush-shaped,tadpole-shaped,figure-of-eight-shaped,H-shaped,and dendrimer-like polymers via a combination of click chemistry and living radical polymerization such as atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization (RAFT), nitroxide-mediated polymerization (NMP), and atom transfer nitroxide radical coupling (ATNRC).Moreover, based on the recent progress, it has a prospect for the combination of click chemistry and living radical polymerization.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an important technique of medical imaging for the tumor diagnosis, due to its high spatial and temporal resolutions and excellent soft tissue contrast, especially after the usage of various contrast agents.However,the currently contrast agents for MRI,such as Gd-DTPA-BMA,Gd-DOTA etc.,are all small molecules,which are associated with the intrinsic drawbacks such as nonspecificity for the interesting tissue,rapid excretion in vivo.To address the above questions,the novel specific MRI contrast agents with high efficiency and low toxicity,are thus becoming the hotspot research in both material and medical fields.In this review,particular attention is paid on the recent progress of gadolinium-based MRI contrast agents for tumor targeting imaging by summarizing the relevant research papers.Both passive and the active approach for tumor targeting imaging are involved in this review.The synthesis,principle and the determined factors of MRI contrast agents for tumor targeting imaging and their in vitro or in vivo effect on the interesting tissue are discussed.

The schizophrenic micellization of block copolymers who can self-assembled into well-defined structures in aqueous solution in response to specific stimuli such as temperature,pH,ionic strength and light has draw much attention due to the attractive protential applications.A typical case in this new sub-field involved environmental-sensitive AB diblock copolymer synthesized by group transfer polymerization (GTP) or living radical polymerisation (ATRP or RAFT),allowing the formation of two distinct types of micelle structures (A-core / B-corona and B-core / A-corona structures) in response to external stimuli and the two structures can be reversibly converted into each other.This remarkable property was introduced by Armes and coworkers for 'smart’ pH-dependent micelles of poly [2- (diethylamino) ethyl methacrylate] -block- poly[2- (N-morpholino) ethyl meth-acrylate].Recent progress in synthesis and environmental-induced schizophrenic micellization of block copolymers,the morphology of aggregations self-assembled from schizophrenic block copolymers and fixed structure of micelles by crosslinker have been reviewed.Technical problems in synthesis and characterization of schizophrenic micellization are also discussed,including ¹H-NMR spectra,zeta potential,light scattering,transmittance of the solution and stopped-flow spectrophotometric techniques.Furthermore,the problems in schizophrenic micellization those still should be resolved are pointed out,and the direction of this research field is discussed.

Living/controlled radical polymerization (L/CRP) and soap-free emulsion polymerization have attracted much interest in recent years due to their great significance both in academics and in industry.Polymers with topological architectures and controlled molecular weight as well as controlled molecular weight distribution can be prepared by L/CRP method.As an environmentally friendly polymerization approach,soap-free emulsion polymerization can overcome the drawbacks of conventional small molecular surfactants that have negative effects on the properties of polymer products.Soap-free living radical emulsion polymerization combines the advantages of both L/CRP and soap-free emulsion polymerization.The soap-free living radical emulsion polymerization can be usually implemented via two methods.The first one is that a water soluble or amphiphilic polymer with an initiating group is synthesized firstly by living radical polymerization,then the polymer is dissolved or dispersed in water,followed by emulsion polymerization of a hydrophobic monomer to form an amphiphilic polymer product.Thus,the amphiphilic polymer product can solely stabilize the latex as a macro-emulsifier without adding any other small emulsifiers.This is the major approach used in literature.The second is to utilize directly a surface-active small molecular initiator in a soap-free emulsion polymerization of a hydrophobic monomer,and a macro-emulsifier as the final polymer product can be formed after polymerization.The paper has summarized recent progress of soap-free living radical emulsion polymerization,mainly including atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) and radical addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization (RAFT) soap-free emulsion polymerizations.However,there are still some problems in soap-free living radical emulsion polymerization such as complex reaction systems,unknown reaction process or phenomena,and loss of latex stability under harsh conditions.

Based on the control of electrode potentials,individual molecules can be driving pass through nano-sized pores and give recognizable current pulse (or resistive pulse) signals for molecular counting and thus the lower detection limit of one molecule is well achieved.However,the selectivity besides molecular sizes is the key factor for molecular recognition in the field of single molecule detection.Up to now,in the modeling of nature protein pores,varies artificial nanopores have been prepared from different materials and by different techniques.The solid-state nanopores have shown superior advantages in artificially designable pore geometry and shape,versatility in surface chemical modification of the pore.The application of this technique in DNA and RNA detection is most fascinating,aiming at resolving of the composition and the internal structures of single molecules,such as the length,the number and the order of base pairs.It has been shown that the nanopore-based devices can provide not only the signals for single molecule sensing but rather a platform for individual molecule handling,on which a wide variety of analytical purposes could be achieved.This article firstly introduces the principle and classification of the nanopore analysis,then introduces the preparation and applications of varies nanopores,especially the artificial solid-state nanopores,surveying 130 references.

Bio-ethanol reforming is a type of promising technology for hydrogen production,which is focused on current low-carbon energy research.The key of ethanol reforming is to develop novel reforming catalysts with high activity and high selectivity at low temperature,and new efficient catalytic reactors.The effects of reactors on ethanol reforming process are focused in this paper,and ethanol reforming reactors at home and abroad are reviewed,such as fixed-bed reactors,microchannel reactors and membrane reactors.Based on the extensive discussion of the advantages and weaknesses of various catalytic reactors,the trends in the manufacture and application of bio-ethanol reforming reactors are also prospected.In our opinions,the following aspects need to be studied systematically: (1) strengthening basic theoretical researches,especially the reaction mechanisms of bio-ethanol reforming and the principles of mass/heat transfer; (2) developing novel low-temperature reforming catalysts with high activity,high stability,and low cost; (3) designing highly integrated catalytic reactors for bio-ethanol reforming.