Plasticizers in PVC plastic films were extracted by homogeneous-ultrasonics using n-hexane, the extracted multiple phthalate plasticizers (PAEs) were simultaneously determined by GC-MS assisted with continuous wavelet transform (CWT), and then a novel method for simultaneous determination of multiple plasticizers in PVC packaging materials was established. While using the traditional GC-MS analysis to determine nine plasticizers in PVC packaging materials, the total ion current (TIC) chromatogram of diisononyl ortho-phthalate (DINP) and diisodecyl ortho-phthalate (DIDP) were seriously overlapped. For resolution of the overlapped and lower signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) TIC peaks of DINP and DIDP, twice CWT with symlet 2 (sym2) and scale parameter a = 30 was adopted. The results show that the overlapped noisy peaks of DINP and DIDP were successfully resolved with the SNR increasing more than 10 times, and the extraction efficiencies of PAEs increasing 18–29% compared to that of using ultrasonic extraction procedure. The proposed homogeneous-ultrasonic extraction GC-MS-CWT procedure provides an alternative novel way for simultaneous determination of multiple phthalate plasticizers in PVC packaging materials.

An easy and scalable synthetic route was proposed for synthesis of a high-energy stable anode material composed of carbon-coated Si nanoparticles (NPs, 80 nm) confined in a three-dimensional (3D) network-structured conductive carbon nanotube (CNT) matrix (Si/CNT@C). The Si/CNT@C composite was fabricated via in situ polymerization of resorcinol formaldehyde (RF) resin in the co-existence of Si NPs and CNTs, followed by carbonization at 700 °C. The RF resin-derived carbon shell (~10 nm) was wrapped on the Si NPs and CNTs surface, welding the Si NPs to the sidewall of the interconnected CNTs matrix to avoid Si NP agglomeration. The unique 3D architecture provides a highway for Li⁺ ion diffusion and electron transportation to allow the fast lithiation/delithiation of the Si NPs; buffers the volume fluctuation of Si NPs; and stabilizes solid–electrolyte interphase film. As expected, the obtained Si/CNT@C hybrid exhibited excellent lithium storage performances. An initial discharge capacity of 1925 mAh g⁻¹ was achieved at 0.1 A g⁻¹ and retained as 1106 mAh g⁻¹ after 200 cycles at 0.1 A g⁻¹. The reversible capacity was retained at 827 mAh g⁻¹ when the current density was increased to 1 A g⁻¹. The Si/CNT@C possessed a high Si content of 62.8 wt%, facilitating its commercial application. Accordingly, this work provides a promising exploration of Si-based anode materials for high-energy stable lithium-ion batteries.

Catalpol, a natural product mainly existed in plenty of Chinese traditional medicines, is an iridoid compound with the comprehensive effects on neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory, choleretic, hypoglycemic and anticancer. However, there are some disadvantages for catalpol such as a short half-life in vivo, low druggability, stingy binding efficiency to target proteins and so on. It is necessary to make structural modification and optimization which enhance its performance on disease treatments and clinic applications. Pyrazole compounds have been reported to have excellent anticancer activities. Based on the previous research foundation of our research group on iridoids and the anticancer activities of catalpol and pyrazole, a series of pyrazole modified catalpol compounds were synthesized by principle of drug combination for serving as potential cancer inhibitors. These derivatives are characterized by ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR and HRMS. The efficacy of anti-esophageal cancer and anti-pancreatic cancer activities were evaluated by the MTT assay on two esophageal cancer cells Eca-109 and EC-9706, and two pancreatic cancer cells PANC-1, BxPC-3 and normal pancreatic cell line HPDE6-C7, which showed that the compound 3e had strong inhibitory activity against esophageal cancer cells, this providing a theoretical basis for the discovery of catalpol-containing drugs.