Synthesis and characterization of chiral mesoporous silica

Chirality is widely expressed in organic materials, perhaps most notably in biological molecules such as DNA, and in proteins, owing to the homochirality of their components (d-sugars and l-amino acids). But the occurrence of large-scale chiral pores in inorganic materials is rare. Although some progress has been made in strategies to synthesize helical and chiral zeolite-like materials, the synthesis of enantiomerically pure mesoporous materials is a challenge that remains unsolved. Here we report the surfactant-templated synthesis of ordered chiral mesoporous silica, together with a general approach for the structural analysis of chiral mesoporous crystals by electron microscopy. The material that we have synthesized has a twisted hexagonal rod-like morphology, with diameter 130-180 nm and length 1-6 micro m. Transmission electron microscopy combined with computer simulations confirm the presence of hexagonally ordered chiral channels of 2.2 nm diameter winding around the central axis of the rods. Our findings could lead to new uses for mesoporous silica and other chiral pore materials in, for example, catalysis and separation media, where both shape selectivity and enantioselectivity can be applied to the manufacturing of enantiomerically pure chemicals and pharmaceuticals.     

锶胁迫条件下生菜光谱效应特征

锶（Sr）胁迫条件下生菜的反射光谱特征会发生明显改变。通过室内生菜水培试验，获取了36个不同生长期、6个不同锶浓度胁迫的生菜叶片400～950 nm波段区间的生化参数信息（叶绿素含量、细胞结构、叶片金属含量）和反射光谱信息，利用光谱技术并结合数学统计方法研究了生菜叶片7个光谱特征参数与实测叶片锶元素含量之间的相关性，优选了较敏感光谱特征参数，建立了其与生菜叶片锶含量的线性回归模型。结果表明，锶胁迫生菜叶片叶绿素含量呈先上升后下降的规律，细胞结构差异不明显。锶胁迫生菜叶片反射光谱直观上无规律，通过采用光谱技术方法分析得出锶胁迫生菜叶片的红边波段位置先“红移”再“蓝移”，红谷波段位置则“红移”，植被指数B4/B3比值先升高后降低，红边归一化植被指数（NDVI）值随着锶浓度的升高而降低。相关性及线性回归模型分析表明红边波段位置与叶片锶含量显著相关。本文为下一步基于光谱特征的叶片重金属含量反演模型的构建提供了较好的数据源和基础理论。