Copper acetate-catalyzed C–H bond functionalization amination of quinoline N-oxides was achieved using O-benzoyl hydroxylamine as an electrophilic amination reagent, thereby affording the desired products in moderate to excellent yields. Electrophilic amination can also be performed in good yield on a gram scale.

A new strategy for preparing amphibious ZnO quantum dots (QDs) with blue fluorescence within hyper-branched poly(ethylenimine)s (HPEI) was proposed in this paper. By changing [Zn²⁺]/[OH⁻] molar ratio and heating time, ZnO QDs with a quantum yields (QY) of 30% in ethanol were obtained. Benefiting from the amphibious property of HPEI, the ZnO/HPEI nanocomposites in ethanol could be dissolved in chloroform and water, acquiring a QY of 53%, chloroform and 11% in water. By this strategy, the ZnO/HPEI nano-composites could be applied in not only in optoelectronics, but also biomedical fields (such as bio-imaging and gene transfection). The bio-imaging application of water-soluble ZnO/HPEI nanocomposites was investigated and it was found that they could easily be endocytosed by the COS-7 cells, without transfection reagent, and they exhibited excellent biological imaging behavior.

Leojaponin (2), a labdane diterpene, was isolated from the EtOH extract of the herb of Leonurus japonicus together with a new halimane diterpene named isoleojaponin (1). Isoleojaponin has a new diterpene skeleton with a unique cross-conjugated α,β-unsaturated ketone system, Their structures were elucidated by physical and spectroscopic analysis, and the relative configuration of the chiral C-9 carbon was determined by a computational method, and analysis of its possible biogenesis pathways.

A new strategy for preparing highly luminescent and pH responsive CdTe quantum dots (QDs) based on dynamic covalent hyperbranched polymer is proposed in this paper. Hyperbranched poly(amidoamine) (HPAMAM) was grafted with poly(ethylene glycol) monomethyl ether (MPEG) arms by pH-sensitive acylhydrazone bonds, resulting in a dynamic covalent hyperbranched polymer (HPAMAM-g-MPEG). Then, HPAMAM-g-MPEG was used as nanoreactor and stabilizer to synthesize CdTe QDs. By preparing CdTe QDs within HPAMAM-g-MPEG, the environment sensitivity and biocompatibility properties of HPAMAM-g-MPEG and the optical, electrical properties of CdTe QDs can be combined, endowing the CdTe QDs with intelligence and biocompatibility. The potential application of the CdTe/HPAMAM-g-MPEG nanocomposites as novel fluorescence probe in acidic lysosomes of COS-7 cells was also investigated. The photoluminescence (PL) intensity of CdTe/HPAMAM-g-MPEG in COS-7 cells enhanced greatly as time passed up to 18 h. The acylhydrazone bonds, which can quench the PL of CdTe QDs, were broken by the acidic lysosomes of COS-7 cells, resulting in a large increase of PL intensity of CdTe QDs. In other words, the acidic lysosomes of COS-7 cells induced the pH response of HPAMAM-g-MPEG and then the pH response of HPAMAM-g-MPEG was consequently transmitted to the PL intensity of CdTe QDs.