Michael J. Fehr

Design and synthesis of metal-carboxylate frameworks with permanent microporosity

Metal-carboxylate clusters are ideally suited as secondary building units (SBU) for the assembly of extended open frameworks. Examples extracted from the chemistry of the multidentate building block 1,4-benzenedicarboxylate (BDC) show that Zn(BDC) clusters lead to the formation of rigid, stable and truly microporous metal-carboxylate networks. Gas sorption isotherms measured for this class of materials show type (I) gas uptake that is analogous to those observed for zeolites and molecular sieves.

The role of oxygen in the photoinduced antiviral activity of hypericin

Abstract Hypericin displays photoinduced antiviral activity. We examine the photoinduced antiviral activity of hypericin under both oxygenated and hypoxic conditions and observe that hypericin is equally toxic under both conditions. These results indicate that while singlet oxygen may play a role in the antiviral activity of hypericin, it does not play a major role.