Semiconducting Polymer Dots with Dual-Enhanced NIR-IIa Fluorescence for Through-Skull Mouse-Brain Imaging

Fluorescence probes in the NIR-IIa region show drastically improved imaging owing to the reduced photon scattering and autofluorescence in biological tissues. Now, NIR-IIa polymer dots (Pdots) are developed with a dual fluorescence enhancement mechanism. First, the aggregation induced emission of phenothiazine was used to reduce the nonradiative decay pathways of the polymers in condensed states. Second, fluorescence quenching was minimized by different levels of steric hindrance to further boost the fluorescence. The resulting Pdots displayed a fluorescence QY of ca. 1.7 % in aqueous solution, suggesting an enhancement of ca. 21 times in comparison with the original polymer in tetrahydrofuran (THF) solution. Small-animal imaging by using the NIR-IIa Pdots exhibited a remarkable improvement in penetration depth and signal to background ratio, as confirmed by through-skull and through-scalp fluorescent imaging of the cerebral vasculature of live mice.     

Removal of iodate from aqueous solution using diatomite/nano titanium dioxide composite as adsorbent

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - Highly deficient strontium cobaltite (SrCoOx), as a new nanomaterial that is thermally treated at low temperature...     

Kinetics and isothermal adsorption of U(VI) in aqueous solution by nano-Ni0

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - The nanoscale zero-valent nickel (nano-Ni0) was prepared by liquid-phase reduction method and characterized by BET, XPS, FT-IR and XRD and be used...     

硫化镉反蛋白石光子晶体制备及光解水制氢

对硫化镉反蛋白石结构光子晶体薄膜进行了可控合成,用巯基乙酸修饰的纳米晶和P(St-MMA-SPMAP)高分子小球共组装,成功地构筑了反蛋白石结构并用于可见光光解水产氢。结果表明,在可见光(λ≥420 nm)照射下,Cd S-310反蛋白石结构薄膜的光解水产氢性能比硫化镉纳米颗粒提高了一倍。这主要是因为等级孔结构反蛋白石光子晶体特性对催化剂的光催化性能的提升:首先,反蛋白石的周期性结构增加了光子在材料中的传播,提高了催化剂对太阳光的利用率;同时,大孔孔壁是由纳米颗粒堆积而成的,在反应中提供了更多的反应活性位点;此外,孔结构有利于物质的传输和分子的吸附。     

基于NiCo2O4纳米片电极的非对称混合电容器

The looming global energy crisis and ever-increasing energy demands have catalyzed the development of renewable energy storage systems. In this regard, supercapacitors (SCs) have attracted widespread attention because of their advantageous attributes such as high power density, excellent cycle stability, and environmental friendliness. However, SCs exhibit low energy density and it is important to optimize electrode materials to improve the overall performance of these devices. Among the various electrode materials available, spinel nickel cobaltate (NiCo₂O₄) is particularly interesting because of its excellent theoretical capacitance. Based on the understanding that the performances of the electrode materials strongly depend on their morphologies and structures, in this study, we successfully synthesized NiCo₂O₄ nanosheets on Ni foam via a simple hydrothermal route followed by calcination. The structures and morphologies of the as-synthesized products were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area analysis, and the results showed that they were uniformly distributed on the Ni foam support. The surface chemical states of the elements in the samples were identified by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The as-synthesized NiCo₂O₄ products were then tested as cathode materials for supercapacitors in a traditional three-electrode system. The electrochemical performances of the NiCo₂O₄ electrode materials were studied and the area capacitance was found to be 1.26 C·cm^-2 at a current density of 1 mA·cm^-2. Furthermore, outstanding cycling stability with 97.6% retention of the initial discharge capacitance after 10000 cycles and excellent rate performance (67.5% capacitance retention with the current density from 1 to 14 mA·cm^-2) were achieved. It was found that the Ni foam supporting the NiCo₂O₄ nanosheets increased the conductivity of the electrode materials. However, it is worth noting that the contribution of nickel foam to the areal capacitance of the electrode materials was almost zero during the charge and discharge processes. To further investigate the practical application of the as-synthesized NiCo₂O₄ nanosheets-based electrode, a device was assembled with the as-prepared samples as the positive electrode and active carbon (AC) as the negative electrode. The assembled supercapacitor showed energy densities of 0.14 and 0.09 Wh·cm^-3 at 1.56 and 4.5 W·cm^-3, respectively. Furthermore, it was able to maintain 95% of its initial specific capacitance after 10000 cycles. The excellent electrochemical performance of the NiCo₂O₄ nanosheets could be ascribed to their unique spatial structure composed of interconnected ultrathin nanosheets, which facilitated electron transportation and ion penetration, suggesting their potential applications as electrode materials for high performance supercapacitors. The present synthetic route can be extended to other ternary transition metal oxides/sulfides for future energy storage devices and systems.     

The designing strategies of graphene-based peroxidase mimetic materials

Natural enzymes have been praised highly as ideal catalysts, presumably owing to their remarkable advantages of high efficiency, high selectivity, and mild reaction conditions. The reports of chemical simulation and systematic synthesis of natural enzymes such as peroxidase (POD) are rare because of their complex biological structures. POD represents a large family of oxidoreductases and offers a wide range of applications in many fields of science. Recent advance in the fusion of nanomaterial, catalysis, and biochemistry has inspired the development of artificial enzymes implemented with desired catalytic features of natural enzymes. Herein, we review the redox chemistry of POD and compare its catalytic performance to graphene-based nanomaterials (G-NMs) as POD mimetic nanoenzymes bases on catalytic center, binding site, and carrier function. Based on the viewpoints of stereo chemistry and molecular kinetic and dynamics in heterogeneous system, we evaluate and compare the suitability of different NMs as artificial enzyme constituent. We propose that reevaluates design strategies of graphene-based peroxidase (G-POD) mimetic materials and emphasizes on their selectivity (role as catalytic center, binding site, or carrier) is of uttermost.     

Identification of the Enzymes Mediating the Maturation of the Seryl-tRNA Synthetase Inhibitor SB-217452 during the Biosynthesis of Albomycins

Albomycin δ₂ is a sulfur-containing sideromycin natural product that shows potent antibacterial activity against clinically important pathogens. The l -serine-thioheptose dipeptide partial structure, known as SB-217452, has been found to be the active seryl-tRNA synthetase inhibitor component of albomycin δ₂. Herein, it is demonstrated that AbmF catalyzes condensation between the 6′-amino-4′-thionucleoside with the d -ribo configuration and seryl-adenylate supplied by the serine adenylation activity of AbmK. Formation of the dipeptide is followed by C3′-epimerization to produce SB-217452 with the d -xylo configuration, which is catalyzed by the radical S-adenosyl-l -methionine enzyme AbmJ. Gene deletion suggests that AbmC is involved in peptide assembly linking SB-217452 with the siderophore moiety. This study establishes how the albomycin biosynthetic machinery generates its antimicrobial component SB-217452.     

M-lump and interactive solutions to a (3 $${+}$$ + 1)-dimensional nonlinear system

Nonlinear Dynamics - This paper aims at computing M-lump solutions for the $$(3+1)$$ -dimensional nonlinear evolution equation. These solutions in all directions decline to an identical state...     

Sample preparation for mass spectrometry imaging of leaf tissues: a case study on analyte delocalization

Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry - Appropriate sample preparation is pivotally important to obtain high-quality mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) data. Unlike mammalian tissues, preparation of...     

Graph-Theoretical Method to the Existence of Stationary Distribution of Stochastic Coupled Systems

In this paper, by linking Fokker–Planck equations with stochastic coupled systems, a new method is provided to investigate the existence of a stationary distribution of stochastic coupled systems. Based on the graph theory and the Lyapunov method, an appropriate Lyapunov function associated with stationary Fokker–Planck equations is constructed. Moreover, a Lyapunov-type theorem and a coefficients-type criterion are obtained to guarantee the existence of a stationary distribution. Furthermore, theoretical results are applied to explore the existence of a stationary distribution of stochastic predator–prey models with dispersal and a sufficient criterion is presented correspondingly. Finally, a numerical example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of our results.