COMPOSITES SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY · 2021 · IF 8.528
Panlei Liu,Na Sun,Yuanyuan Mi,Xiaohang Luo,Xiaoxiao Dong,Jiaye Cai,Xilai Jia,Melvin A. Ramos,Travis Shihao Hu,Quan Xu
Self-healing triboelectric nanogenerators (SH-TENGs) with fast self-healing, high output performance, and wearing comfort have wide and promising applications in wearable electronic devices. This work presents a high-performance hydrogel-based SH-TENG, which consists of a high dielectric triboelectric layer (HDTL), a self-healing hydrogel electrode layer (SHEL), and a physical cross-linking layer (PCLL). Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), obtained by a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method, were added into polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to produce the HDTL. Compared with pure PDMS, the short-circuit transferred charge (44 nC) and the open circuit voltage (132 V) are doubled for PDMS with 0.01 wt% CNTs. Glycerin, polydopamine particles (PDAP) and graphene were added to poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) to prepare the self-healing hydrogel electrode layer. SHEL can physically self-heal in ~1 min when exposed to air. The self-healing efficiency reaches up to 98%. The PCLL is made of poly(methylhydrosiloxane) (PMHS) and PDMS. It forms a good physical bond between the hydrophilic hydrogel and hydrophobic PDMS layers. The electric output performance of the SH-TENG can reach 94% of the undamaged one in 1 min. The SH-TENG (6 × 6 cm 2 ) exhibits good stability and superior electrical performance, enabling it to power 37 LEDs simultaneously.
Research fields: Materials Science · Wearable Electronics · Nanotechnology
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Analytical Methods · 2021 ·Vol. 13 ·Issue 14 ·1672-1680 · IF 2.896
Yalin Wu,Liping Lu,Zhihui Yu,Xiayan Wang
Based on the strategy of increasing the number of oxygen vacancies to improve the catalytic performance, we have developed a novel electrochemical sensor based on the multivalent metal oxides cerium dioxide and manganous oxide (Mn3O4/CeO2) for reliable determination of extracellular hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) released from living cells. The Mn3O4/CeO2 nanocomposite was characterized by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The electrochemical performance of the Mn3O4/CeO2 nanocomposite modified glassy carbon electrode (Mn3O4/CeO2/GCE) was investigated. Owing to the abundant oxygen vacancies and strong synergistic effect between the multivalent Ce and Mn, the sensor exhibited excellent catalytic activity and selectivity for the electrochemical detection of H2O2 with a low quantitation limit of 2 nM. Moreover, Mn3O4/CeO2/GCE exhibited excellent reproducibility, repeatability, and long-term storage stability. Because of these remarkable analytical advantages, the constructed sensor was able to determine H2O2 released from living cells with satisfactory results. The results showed that the Mn3O4/CeO2 sensor is a promising candidate for a nanoenzymatic H2O2 sensor with the possibility of applications in physiology and diagnosis.
Research fields: Biomedical Engineering · Analytical Chemistry
✓ Verified Product-linked DOI PubMed High Impact
CHIRALITY · 2021 ·Vol. 33 ·Issue 5 ·248-260 · IF 2.437
Xiaohui Niu,Xing Yang,Hongxia Li,Qiuyun Shi,Kunjie Wang
Due to the crucial role of amino acids in life sciences and pharmaceutics, identification of optical amino acid molecules is of great significance. In this study, the two materials (CNT and PANI) were combined together to obtain the magnification of electrochemical signal by substrate material (CNT/PANI). Then a self-assembled multiwalled carbon nanotubes/polyaniline/sodium alginate (CNT/PANI/SA) nanocomposite with chiral sites and conductive material was synthesized as the electrochemical sensing interface. Next, a novel electrochemical sensing interface was fabricated via modifying the as-prepared chiral material on a polished glassy carbon electrode (CNT/PANI/SA/GCE) for precisely, efficiently, and rapidly differentiation of tryptophan (Trp) enantiomers. It was observed that CNT/PANI/SA/GCE showed desirable stereoselective recognition effect in the variety of signal strength to peak current (Ip) to the different optical activity of Trp enantiomers. In the case of optimal conditions, the peak current ratio in the solution of l -Trp and d -Trp ( I D / I L ) was observed to be 2.1 at CNT/PANI/SA/GCE by differential pulse voltammogram (DPV). UV–visible spectroscopy further showed that CNT/PANI/SA had a greater binding energy to l -Trp. Also different factors affecting the enantioselectivity of CNT/PANI/SA/GCE, such as the incubation time, pH, and dropcoating volume of CNT/PANI/SA were optimized. Moreover, the proposed CNT/PANI/SA/GCE showed excellent specific stereoselectivity and anti-interference ability. Besides, the proposed chiral sensing platform can be effectively applied in real samples to detect Trp enantiomers sensitively. This work inspires us a new path for the preparation of substrate material with excellent electrical conductivity, as well as extend its application potential in chiral recognition.
Research fields: Analytical Chemistry · Biomedical Sciences · Materials Science
✓ Verified Product-linked DOI PubMed High Impact
JOURNAL OF ALLOYS AND COMPOUNDS · 2021 · IF 5.316
Na Wu,Ruihong Guo,Xue Zhang,Na Gao,Xiaoyu Chi,Duanlin Cao,Tuoping Hu
The key problem to be solved for the large-scale commercial application of direct urea fuel cells (DUFCs) is to develop a highly efficient catalyst for urea oxidation reaction (UOR). Some drawbacks such as scarcity and poor catalytic performance limit the application of noble metal-based catalysts in the oxidation of urea, it is particularly necessary to design and synthesize non-noble metal-based catalysts with good catalytic performance. In this work, we have fabricated Ni-based composites (Ni/NiO-N-C) through the pyrolysis of the precursor Ni(OH) 2 @PPH (polyaniline-polyvinyl alcohol hydrogels). The optimal Ni/NiO-N-C-500 catalyst displays an excellent activity of 182 mA cm −2 at 0.6 V vs SCE for UOR in alkaline media. Meanwhile, Ni/NiO-N-C-500 also indicates excellent stability after 1000 cycling CV tests (81% capacitance retention), which is attributed to the synergy between Ni/NiO nanocrystalline active centers and nitrogen-doped carbon substrate, that is, N-doped carbon layers improve the surface electron density and the electrical conductivity of the composite catalyst, thus leading to the improvement of the catalytic activity of catalyst. On account of its easy synthesis, high activity and good durability, the Ni/NiO-N-C-500 catalyst has the potential to act as a good alternative material for precious metal-based catalysts in DUFCs.
Research fields: Materials Science · Energy Chemistry · Electrocatalysis
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POLYMER DEGRADATION AND STABILITY · 2021 · IF 5.03
Jianfan Cao,Huajun Duan,Jiahao Zou,Junjun Zhang,Huiru Ma
To cater for the requirement of environmental protection, flame retardance and mechanical properties in some special fields for epoxy resin, a bio-based reactive flame retardant (VFD) derived from vanillin, furfurylamine and 9,10-dihydro-9-oxa-10-phosphaphenanthrene-10-oxide (DOPO) was successfully synthesized via one-pot method, and served as co-curing agent of DDM to prepare the flame-retardant EP. The structure of VFD was characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The addition of VFD accelerated the crosslinking reaction of epoxy system and improved the flame retardance of EP. With VFD content was 7.5 wt% (only 0.52 wt% phosphorus was loaded), EP/VFD-7.5 achieved vertical burning (UL-94) V-0 rating and its limited oxygen index (LOI) value increased to 34.5%. Besides, compared with EP, the peak heat release rate (PHRR) of EP/VFD-7.5 decreased by 28% in cone calorimeter (CC) test. The analysis of char residue and pyrolysis behavior confirmed that VFD exerted bi-phase flame-retardant effect. In spite of the decrease of flame-retardant EPs’ T g , the tensile and flexural strengths of EP/VFD-10 increased by 45% and 29%, respectively. All the results indicated the great potential of VFD for practical application in future.
Research fields: Materials Science · Chemical Engineering
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JOURNAL OF CHROMATOGRAPHY A · 2021 · IF 4.759
Qingkun Ma,Xiaoxi Man,Chun-Yan Xu,Jian Huo,Chao Qi,Qing Shi,Jun Nan,Jun Zhe Min
Measurement of chiral thiol compounds such as glutathione (GSH), cysteine (Cys), and homocysteine (Hcy) in human serum plays an important role in the early diagnosis and warning of cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative disease, and cancer. We developed a novel chiral mass spectrometry derivatization reagent, (R)-(5-(3-isothiocyanatopyrrolidin-1-yl)-5-oxopentyl) triphenylphosphonium (NCS-OTPP), with triphenylphosphine (TPP) as a basic structure carrying a permanent positive charge for the diastereomeric separation of chiral thiol compounds by ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography coupled to quadrupole-Orbitrap high resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap HRMS). A novel method was developed for simultaneous determination of three kinds of chiral thiol compounds based on the NCS-OTPP derivatization method. Three kinds of chiral thiol compounds on a YMC Triart C18 (2.0 × 150 mm, 1.9 μm) column with Rs were 1.56–1.68. The protonated precursor to product ion transitions monitored for GSH was m/z 780.16→747.24/473.18, Cys was m/z 594.20→561.18/473.18, and Hcy was m/z 608.21→575.19/473.18. An excellent linearity for all the analytes with correlation coefficients ≥ 0.9995 and suitable precision with inter-day and intra-day coefficients of variation RSDs was 0.83–4.06% and 0.95–3.11%. Satisfactory accuracy with recoveries between 83.73 and 103.35% was observed. The limit of detection (S/N = 3) was 2.4–7.2 fmol. Furthermore, the method was successfully applied to the simultaneous determination of three kinds of free and total thiol compounds in serum from 10 healthy volunteers at normal and stress states.
Research fields: Analytical Chemistry · Medical Diagnostics · Biochemistry
✓ Verified Product-linked DOI PubMed High Impact
CATALYSIS SURVEYS FROM ASIA · 2021 ·Vol. 25 ·Issue 2 ·148-158 · IF 3.106
Bao Er-Peng,Dong Ruichen,Zhang Shuoqing,Li Huan,Zhang Weiguo,Zou Jijun,Xu Qiang
The photocatalysis of graphtic carbon nitride (g-C 3 N 4 ) material has been widely used for the photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants. However, g-C 3 N 4 still has some drawbacks, such as the high recombination of photo-induced electron–hole pairs and weak absorption of light irradiation. To further improve the photodegradation performance of g-C 3 N 4 , a novel composite photocatalyst (CoO/ PT-C 3 N 4 ) has been prepared by using a one-pot calcination method, in which cobalt oxide (CoO) as a cocatalyst are introduced on the rectangular hollow substrate of g-C 3 N 4 (PT-C 3 N 4 ), The CoO/PT-C 3 N 4 composite photocatalyst delivers an excellent photodegradation performance for diesel oil under a simulated sunlight. It exhibits a high degradation efficiency of 95.92% after light irradiation for 2 h, which is much higher than that of pristine PT-C 3 N 4 . Free radical capture experiments manifest that the free radical of ·O 2− plays a major role for the photodegradation and main active radicals abide by the sequence: ·O 2− > ·OH > h + . Moreover, the CoO/PT-C 3 N 4 composite photocatalyst delivers an excellent cyclic stability, which only degrades 8.71% photodegradation efficiency after 10 cycles. The improvement of CoO/PT-C 3 N 4 composite photocatalyst is ascribed to the formation of a heterojunction between CoO and PT-C 3 N 4 , which promotes the separation of photo-induced carriers. This work paves a new way for the exploration of photocatalyst for the organic pollutant degradation.
Research fields: Environmental Science · Materials Science
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JOURNAL OF CONTROLLED RELEASE · 2021 · IF 9.776
Hui Xiong,Cheng Wang,Zihan Wang,Haipeng Lu,Jing Yao
Ferroptosis had shown huge potential for antitumor treatment due to its capacity of improving the limited efficiency of traditional antitumor strategies. On the other hand, low confidence in clinical application prospects impeded their development as a result of use of toxic-dose iron. Herein, we prepared a nano-activator (DAR) which was assembled by doxorubicin (DOX), tannic-acid (TA) and IR820 as a photosensitizer to make full use of endogenous iron stored in endo -lysosome, realizing ferroptosis and its related oxidative stress through artificially intracellular positive feedback loop. Interestingly, this process could also promote immunogenic cell death (ICD)-associated immunotherapy through endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. After DAR + laser treatment, the intracellular oxidative stress response was intensified. The produced ROS could be effectively distributed in intracellular lysosomes and ERs to facilitate ferroptosis and immunotherapy respectively. The pharmacodynamics study revealed that DAR + laser had excellent antitumor combination therapy efficiency even under the adverse combined drug ratio of DOX and IR820 due to the unique synergism activation effect of DAR mediated ferroptosis-immunotherapy. In summary, our study provided an innovative solution for the development of antitumor treatment based on ferroptosis-immunotherapy.
Research fields: Cancer Research · Nanotechnology · Pharmacy · Immunology
✓ Verified Product-linked DOI PubMed High Impact
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL THERMODYNAMICS · 2021 · IF 3.178
Tao Zhang,Lan Yang,Dan Li,Lingzong Meng,Yafei Guo,Tianlong Deng
The pH values, solubilities and water activities in the system LiB(OH) 4 –NaB(OH) 4 –H 2 O at 323.15 K were investigated. The mole fractions of boron species were calculated in the aqueous borate solutions, and the distribution and relevant mechanism were also discussed. The solubility diagrams in the ternary system were drawn at 323.15 K. The phase diagram consists of two single salt regions for LiB(OH) 4 and NaB(OH) 4 ·2H 2 O, one invariant point co-saturated with the above salts. On the basis of the Pitzer model, the Pitzer binary parameters and mixing parameters were fitted with the water activities, saturated vapour pressure and solubilities in the ternary system. The dissolution equilibrium constants ( K sp) of LiB(OH) 4 and NaB(OH) 4 ·2H 2 O were calculated using the experimental solubility data. The calculated solubilities with the parameters and K sp agree well with the experimental data.
Research fields: Physical Chemistry · Thermodynamics
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ECOTOXICOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY · 2021 · IF 6.291
Chuanxi Li,Yingying Ma,Xiao Liu,Renliang Huang,Rongxin Su,Wei Qi,Jinjing Che,Zhimin He
Nanoplastics (NPs) are becoming an emerging pollutant of global concern. A potential risk of NPs is that they can serve as carriers and synergistically function with other contaminants to cause diseases. A variety of diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease are related to the generation of amyloid fibrils, and insulin is typically used as a model to study the fibrillation process. In this study, we examined the fibrillation of insulin promoted by polystyrene nanoplastics (PSNPs) alone and synergistically with organic contaminants (denoted as X, X = pyrene, bisphenol A, 2,2′,4,4′-tetrabromodiphenyl ether, 4,4′-dihydroxydiphenylmethane, or 4-nonylphenol) having different polarities using thioflavin T fluorescence assays, dynamic light scattering, and circular dichroism spectroscopy. The presence of PSNPs and small organic contaminants decreased the lag phase time ( t lag ) for insulin fibrillation from 54.6 h to 35-51 h and their combination (PS-X) enhanced this process ( t lag = 21-30 h). Notably, the lag phase time for insulin fibrillation with PS-nonpolar contaminants, PS-weakly polar contaminants, and PS-polar contaminants is around 20.8, 26.7, and 30.1 h, respectively, indicating the synergistic effect of PS-nonpolar contaminants or PS-weakly polar contaminants was more obvious than that of PS-polar contaminants. Moreover, molecular dynamic simulation reveal the interactions between insulin and PSs or small organic contaminants are primarily driven by van der Waals forces and hydrophobic interactions. Overall, the findings of this study underscore the potentially significant environmental impact of small organic contaminants assisting NPs in promoting insulin fibrillation.
Research fields: Environmental Science · Biochemistry
✓ Verified DOI PubMed High Impact
Colloid and Interface Science Communications · 2021 · IF 4.914
Bin Wu,Wei-Qiang Huang,Xuan Nie,Ze Zhang,Guang Chen,Hai-Li Wang,Fei Wang,Shen-Gang Ding,Zong-Yao Hao,Ye-Zi You
Polymeric micelles are promising vehicles for drug delivery these years. The stability of micelles in blood system is very important for the encapsulated therapeutic agents reaching the targeting area. However, generally, micelles are not stable in the presence of proteins and ions after being injected intravenously. The topology of polymer chain on the surface of micelles plays a key role on the stability of micelles. Here we have prepared flower micelles and the traditional micelles via self-assembly of triblock and diblock copolymer of polyethylene glycol (PEG) and poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) in water. The special PEG shell of flower micelles prevents micelles from ions and proteins, which endows the micelles with the ability to resist aggregation. The experiment results show that flower micelles are much more stable in the presence of serum and salt than traditional micelles, which indicates these micelles would be promising in drug delivery in the future.
Research fields: Pharmacy · Biomedical Engineering
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BIOFOULING · 2021 · IF 3.209
Huai-Zhi Luo,Jin-Wei Zhou,Bing Sun,Huan Jiang,Shi Tang,Ai-Qun Jia
Serratia marcescens NJ01, a Gram-negative bacterium, can infect tomato leaves and cause chlorosis and wilting. The present study evaluated the quorum sensing (QS) and biofilm inhibitory effects of seven carboline compounds against S. marcescens NJ01 at 20 μg ml−1, and subsequently focused the study on norharmane as this had the best inhibitory activity. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis confirmed the down-regulation of QS and biofilm related genes bsmA, bsmB, fimA, fimC, flhD, pigA, pigC and shlA on exposure to norharmane. Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis showed a reduction in the major components of the exopolysaccharide (EPS) matrix such as nucleic acids, proteins and fatty acids, which are involved in forming the tertiary structure of biofilms. Norharmane exposure also enhanced the susceptibility of the biofilm to ofloxacin. Hence, norharmane has the potential for use as an antibiotic adjuvant to enhance the efficacy of conventional antibiotics to reduce pathogenic bacterial infections.
Research fields: Microbiology · Pharmacology · Plant Pathology
✓ Verified Product-linked DOI PubMed High Impact
