Publications

Showing 19 results for Author: Honghai Zhang

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  • Sep, 2026

    Journal

    Controlled Deuteration of Phosphatidylcholine Biosynthetically Produced from Engineered Escherichia coli for SANS Studies

    Deuterated phosphatidylcholine (PC) was produced from engineered Escherichia coli (E. coli) BL21 cells grown in deuterated media. The levels of deuteration could be controlled by growing cells in different combinations of deuterated and nondeuterated water, glycerol, and choline, which were analyzed by NMR, mass spectrometric analysis, and small-angle neutron scattering (S…

  • Aug, 2026

    Journal

    Tunable Nanostructures from Inverse Surfactants

    Hierarchical materials in the natural world are often made through the self-assembly of amphiphilic molecules. Achieving similar structural complexity in synthetic materials requires understanding how various molecular parameters affect assembly behavior. In recent years, inverse surfactants─molecules with hydrophobic head groups and hydrophilic macromolecular tails─have b…

  • May, 2026

    Journal

    Perturbation of nanoplastics on biomembranes: molecular insights from neutron scattering

    Plastic waste is now pervasive in the environment, breaking down into microplastics and nanoplastics under many environmental conditions. These particles have been found in various ecosystems and even in human tissues, raising significant environmental and health concerns. In this study, we investigated the interaction of polystyrene nanoplastics, with and without surface…

  • May, 2026

    Journal

    Circularity in Sequence-Controlled Copolyamides Enabled by Regioselective Enzymatic Hydrolysis

    Sequence-controlled polymers enable precise control over macromolecular structures and function, but both their synthesis and end-of-life management remain fundamental challenges. Achieving high sequence fidelity is synthetically demanding, and conventional depolymerization methods lack regioselectivity, leading to irreversible loss of encoded molecular information and lim…

  • Aug, 2025

    Journal

    Dielectric properties of zwitterionic liquids

    The dielectric properties of a series of zwitterionic liquids are thoroughly examined in both the solution and melt states. In dilute solutions, the molar dielectric increment and subsequently derived dipole moment of zwitterionic liquids correlate strongly with the number of linker atoms between the ion pair, following the same trend as previously extensively studied zwit…

  • Jul, 2025

    Journal

    Closed-Loop Recyclable Vitrimer Plastics from PET Waste: A Design for Circularity

    Plastics are essential to modern society, but their low recycling rates and inefficient end-of-life management pose a significant environmental challenge. Herein, the efficient strategy for upcycling postconsumer poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) waste into robust, closed-loop recyclable vitrimer plastics and composites is presented to address this issue. The catalyst-fre…

  • Aug, 2024

    Journal

    Evidence for Lignin–Carbohydrate Complexes from Studies of Transgenic Switchgrass and a Model Lignin–Pectin Composite

    Lignin–carbohydrate complexes (LCCs) form through interactions of lignin with plant cell wall polysaccharides and are thought to be a significant source of biomass recalcitrance. In this work, we investigated LCCs formed between lignin and pectin homogalacturonan (HG). The structural changes in HG deficient transgenic switchgrass (GAUT4-knockdown, GAUT4-KD) after hot water…

  • Aug, 2024

    Journal

    Synthesis of Perdeuterated Alkyl Amines/Amides with Pt/C as Catalyst under Mild Conditions

    A convenient method for the synthesis of perdeuterated alkyl amides/amines is disclosed. Perdeuterated acetyl amides can be achieved by a hydrogen–deuterium (H/D) exchange protocol with Pt/C as a catalyst and D2O as a deuterium source under mild conditions. After removal or reduction of the acetyl group, this protocol can provide perdeuterated primary, secondary, and terti…

  • Feb, 2024

    Journal

    Cu(II)-Catalyzed H/D exchange of indole derivatives

    Cu(OTf)2 was explored as an efficient catalyst for hydrogen deuterium (H/D) exchange of indole derivatives. The advantage of this reaction is that deuteration selectivity can be adjusted by changing reaction parameters. When the reaction was performed with 10 mol% of Cu(OTf)2 as a catalyst in dioxane at 80 °C, deuteration preferentially occurred at C3 position of indole wi…

  • Dec, 2023

    Journal

    Bromide as the Directing Group for β-Arylation of Thiophenes

    Direct β-arylation of thiophene derivatives with bromide as directing group is disclosed. The reaction is conducted with PdCl2/(p-tolyl)3P as catalyst, silver carbonate as additive, and aryl iodide as coupling partner, affording brominated biaryl compounds as product. Control experiments indicated that the presence of bromide group enhances the reactivity of the C–H bond,…

  • Nov, 2023

    Journal

    K 2 CO 3 /18-Crown-6-Catalyzed Selective H/D Exchange of Heteroarenes with Bromide as a Removable Directing Group

    The K2CO3/18-crown-6-catalyzed H/D exchange of heretoarenes in high atom % deuterium incorporation is disclosed. The use of a weak base as a catalyst leads to excellent site selectivity and broad functional group tolerance. Control experiments indicated that the use of bromide, which enhances the adjacent C–H bond reactivity, as a removable directing group is essential. Mo…

  • Nov, 2023

    Journal

    Synthesis of β-Deuterated Amino Acids via Palladium-Catalyzed H/D Exchange

    Despite several synthetic approaches that have been developed for α-deuterated amino acids, the synthesis of β-deuterated amino acids has remained a challenge. Herein, we disclose a palladium catalyzed H/D exchange protocol for a β-deuterated N-protected amino amide, which can be converted to a β-deuterated amino acid simply by removal of protecting groups. This protocol i…

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