Bandgap‐Tunable Preparation of Smooth and Large Two‐Dimensional Antimonene

As a highly stable band gap semiconductor, antimonene is an intriguing two‐dimensional (2D) material in optoelectronics. However, its short layer distance and strong binding energy make it challenging to prepare high‐quality large 2D antimonene; therefore, its predicted tunable band gap has not been experimentally confirmed. Now, an approach to prepare smooth and large 2D antimonene with uniform layers that uses a pregrinding and subsequent sonication‐assisted liquid‐phase exfoliation process has been established. Mortar pregrinding provides a shear force along the layer surfaces, forming large, thin antimony plates, which can then easily be exfoliated into smooth, large antimonene, avoiding long sonication times and antimonene destruction. The resulting antimonene also enabled verification of the tunable band gap from 0.8 eV to 1.44 eV. Hole extraction and current enhancement by about 30 % occurred when the antimonene was used as a hole transport layer in perovskite solar cells.     

Chemical biology of salinomycin

Cancer stem cells (CSC) have been shown to be refractory to conventional therapeutic agents, can promote metastasis, and have been linked to cancer relapse. The natural product Salinomycin has been identified by means of high throughput phenotypic screening as a selective killer of CSC in vitro and in vivo. In this article we comprehensively review the chemistry of Salinomycin, documenting early total syntheses, along with strategies that have been developed over the years to effectively modify this natural product at key positions with the view to establish a robust structure-activity-relationship and to delineate the complex mechanism of action of this fascinating molecule in the context of cancer research. Then, we document the biology of Salinomycin, putting forward phenotypic alterations that have been observed in the relevant biological models and highlighting how chemistry has been instrumental in discovering unprecedented physiological features of cancer stem cells that can be exploited for therapeutic benefits.     

Copper-facilitated Suzuki-Miyaura coupling for the preparation of 1,3-dioxolane-protected 5-arylthiophene-2-carboxaldehydes

5-Formyl-2-thiopheneboronic acid is a widely used building block for the synthesis of diverse structures, however, due to a significant instability its transformation to 5-arylthiophene-2-carboxaldehydes by CC couplings could be performed only in low yields. Herein, as a solution, a convenient technique is described for the preparation of 1,3-dioxolane-protected 5-arylthiophene-2-carboxaldehydes via a one-pot borylation–copper(I) chloride co-catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura coupling reaction. The utilization of the in situ prepared 2-thiopheneboronic ester derivative is allowed by the method developed. Elimination of the crucial, acidic liberation step of boronic acid species resulted in improved yields and purities. In addition, comparison of various aryl bromides is shown to demonstrate the high tolerance of the transformation to functional groups.     

Imaging of Colorectal Cancers Using Activatable Nanoprobes with Second Near‐Infrared Window Emission

Fluorescent probes in the second near‐infrared window (NIR‐II) allow high‐resolution bioimaging with deep‐tissue penetration. However, existing NIR‐II materials often have poor signal‐to‐background ratios because of the lack of target specificity. Herein, an activatable NIR‐II nanoprobe for visualizing colorectal cancers was devised. This designed probe displays H₂S‐activated ratiometric fluorescence and light‐up NIR‐II emission at 900–1300 nm. By using this activatable and target specific probe for deep‐tissue imaging of H₂S‐rich colon cancer cells, accurate identification of colorectal tumors in animal models were performed. It is anticipated that the development of activatable NIR‐II probes will find widespread applications in biological and clinical systems.     

Reprogramming the chemical reactivity of iron in cancer stem cells

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been shown to be refractory to conventional therapeutic agents, can promote metastasis, and have been linked to cancer relapse. Salinomycin can selectively kill CSCs. We have shown that salinomycin derivatives accumulate in lysosomes and sequester iron in this organelle. As a result, accumulation of iron leads to the production of reactive oxygen species and lysosomal membrane permeabilization, which in turn promotes cell death by ferroptosis. These findings have revealed the prevalence of iron homeostasis in CSCs and paved the way toward the development of next-generation therapeutics.     

Three‐phase solvent bar liquid‐phase microextraction combined with high‐performance liquid chromatography to determine sarcosine in human urine

Sarcosine is a potential prostate cancer marker. In this study, we developed a method of three‐phase solvent bar liquid‐phase microextraction combined with high‐performance liquid chromatography to determine sarcosine after derivatization with 4‐dimethylarminoazobenzene‐4‐sulfonyl chloride from human urine. The effects of different extraction conditions on extraction efficiency were investigated and optimized. Under optimum experimental conditions, a calibration graph exhibited linearity over the range of 0.05–25 μmol/L with a correlation coefficient (r²) of 0.9990. The enrichment factor was 168, and the detection limit was 0.02 μmol/L. The method was successfully used to analyze sarcosine in human urine and non‐invasive detection, and good spiked recoveries ranging from 90.5 to 93.6% were obtained. The proposed method exhibited high sensitivity, high enrichment factor, good precision, and a simple setup. It may contribute to the early accurate diagnosis and the progression monitoring of prostatic carcinoma.     

优化沉积参数对微晶硅薄膜太阳电池性能的影响

本文主要采用甚高频等离子体增强化学气相沉积技术制备了不同硅烷浓度、辉光功率和反应气体流量的单结微晶硅薄膜太阳电池。电池的I-V测试结果表明:电池的开路电压随功率的降低、硅烷浓度和气体流量的增加而增加,而对应的短路电流密度在一定的硅烷浓度条件下达到最大,填充因子也在逐渐的增加。文中对具体内容进行了详细的分析。