Benzothiadiazole-based Conjugated Polymers for Organic Solar Cells

Benzothiadiazole(BT) is an electron-deficient unit with fused aromatic core, which can be used to construct conjugated polymers for application in organic solar cells(OSCs). In the past twenty years, huge numbers of conjugated polymers based on BT unit have been developed,focusing on the backbone engineering(such as by using different copolymerized building blocks), side chain engineering(such as by using linear or branch side units), using heteroatoms(such as F, O and S atoms, and CN group), etc. These modifications enable BT-polymers to exhibit distinct absorption spectra(with onset varied from 600 nm to 1000 nm), different frontier energy levels and crystallinities. As a consequence, BT-polymers have gained much attention in recent years, and can be simultaneously used as electron donor and electron acceptor in OSCs, providing the power conversion efficiencies(PCEs) over 18% and 14% in non-fullerene and all-polymer OSCs. In this article, we provide an overview of BTpolymers for OSCs, from donor to acceptor, via selecting some typical BT-polymers in different periods. We hope that the summary in this article can invoke the interest to study the BT-polymers toward high performance OSCs, especially with thick active layers that can be potentially used in large-area devices.     

Recent advances in electrochemical sensors for antibiotics and their applications

The abuse of antibiotics will cause an increase of drug-resistant strains and environmental pollution,which in turn will affect human health.Therefore,it is important to develop effective detection techniques to determine the level of antibiotics contamination in various fields.Compared with traditional detection methods,electrochemical sensors have received extensive attention due to their advantages such as high sensitivity,low detection limit,and good selectivity.In this mini review,we summarized the latest developments and new trends in electrochemical sensors for antibiotics.Here,modification methods and materials of electrode are discussed.We also pay more attention to the practical applications of antibiotics electrochemical sensors in different fields.In addition,the existing problems and the future challenges ahead have been proposed.We hope that this review can provide new ideas for the development of electrochemical sensors for antibiotics in the future.     

Surface-assembled highly flexible Na_3(VOPO_4)_2F nanocube cathode for high-rate binder-free Na-ion batteries

Flexible Na-ion storage cathodes are still very few due to the challenge in achieving both reliable mechanical flexibility and excellent electrochemical performances.Herein,a new type of flexible Na_3(VOPO_4)_2F cathode with nanocubes tightly assembled on carbon cloth is fabricated by a facile solvothe rmal method for the first time.The cathode is able to exhibit superior rate capability and stable cycling performa nce up to 1000 cycles,due to the surface-assembling of crystalline nanocubes on carbon fibers.In addition,it shows good mechanical flexibility,nearly no capacity decay is observed after continuous bending of 500 times.With this novel cathode and a directly-grown Na_2Ti_2O_5 anode,a fully binde r-free Na-ion battery is assembled.It can deliver a high wo rking voltage and increased gravimetric energy/power densities(maximum values:220.2 Wh/kg;5674,7 W/kg),and can power a LED indicator at bending angles fro m 0° to 180°.     

Contradictory effect of gold nanoparticle-decorated molybdenum sulfide nanocomposites on amyloid-β-40 aggregation

The effect of gold nanoparticle-decorated molybdenum sulfide (AuNP-MoS₂) nanocomposites on amyloid-β-40 (Aβ₄₀) aggregation was investigated. The interesting discovery was that the effect of AuNP-MoS₂ nanocomposites on Aβ₄₀ aggregation was contradictory. Low concentration of AuNP-MoS₂ nanocomposites could enhance the nucleus formation of Aβ₄₀ peptides and accelerate Aβ₄₀ fibrils aggregation. However, although high concentration of AuNP-MoS₂ nanocomposites could enhance the nucleus formation of Aβ₄₀ peptides, it eventually inhibited Aβ₄₀ aggregation process. It might be attributed to the interaction between AuNP-MoS₂ nanocomposites and Aβ₄₀ peptides. For low concentration of AuNP-MoS₂ nanocomposites, it was acted as nuclei, resulting in the acceleration of the nucleation process. However, the structural flexibility of Aβ₄₀ peptides was limited as the concentration of AuNP-MoS₂ nanocomposites was increased, resulting in the inhibition of Aβ₄₀ aggregation. These findings suggested that AuNP-MoS₂ nanocomposites might have a great potential to design new multifunctional material for future treatment of amyloid-related diseases.     

Na-K liquid alloy:A review on wettability enhancement and ionic carrier selection mechanism

The intrinsic liquid interface of Na-K alloy allays concerns about dendrite growth on metal anodes that are thermodynamically within the room temperature(20-22℃).Nevertheless,it hinders the formation of a stable electrode structure due to the inferior wettability induced by considerable liquid tension.In addition,the dominant ionic carrier in the Na-K alloy is subject to multiple factors,which is not conducive to customized battery design.This review,based on recently reported frontier achievements on Na-K liquid anodes,summarizes practical strategies for promoting the wettability by hightemperature induction,capillary effect,vacuum infiltration,and solid interface protection.Furthermo re,four selection mechanisms of the dominant ionic carrier are presented:(1) ion property dominated,(2)cathode dominated,(3) separator dominated,and(4) solid electrolyte interface dominated.Notably,initial electrolytes in energy storage systems have been unable to play a decisive role in ionic selection.Utilizing a superior wettability strategy and simultaneously identifying the dominant ionic carrier can facilitate the tailored application of dendrite-free Na-K liquid anodes.     

Inhibitor Development against p7 Channel in Hepatitis C Virus

Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) is the key cause of chronic and severe liver diseases. The recent direct-acting antiviral agents have shown the clinical success on HCV-related diseases, but the rapid HCV mutations of the virus highlight the sustaining necessity to develop new drugs. p7, the viroporin protein from HCV, has been sought after as a potential anti-HCV drug target. Several classes of compounds, such as amantadine and rimantadine have been testified for p7 inhibition. However, the efficacies of these compounds are not high. Here, we screened some novel p7 inhibitors with amantadine scaffold for the inhibitor development. The dissociation constant (Kd) of 42 ARD-series compounds were determined by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) titrations. The efficacies of the two best inhibitors, ARD87 and ARD112, were further confirmed using viral production assay. The binding mode analysis and binding stability for the strongest inhibitor were deciphered by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. These ARD-series compounds together with 49 previously published compounds were further analyzed by molecular docking. Key pharmacophores were identified among the structure-similar compounds. Our studies suggest that different functional groups are highly correlated with the efficacy for inhibiting p7 of HCV, in which hydrophobic interactions are the dominant forces for the inhibition potency. Our findings provide guiding principles for designing higher affinity inhibitors of p7 as potential anti-HCV drug candidates.     

Facial Synthesis of Adsorbent from Hemicelluloses for Cr(VI) Adsorption

It is challenging work to develop a low-cost, efficient, and environmentally friendly Cr(VI) adsorbent for waste water treatment. In this paper, we used hemicelluloses from chemical fiber factory waste as the raw material, and prepared two kinds of carbon materials by the green hydrothermal method as adsorbent for Cr(VI). The results showed that hemicelluloses hydrothermally treated with citric acid (HTC) presented spherical shapes, and hemicelluloses hydrothermally treated with ammonia solution (HTC-NH₂) provided spongy structures. The adsorption capacity of the samples can be obtained by the Langmuir model, and the adsorption kinetics could be described by the pseudo-second-order model at pH 1.0. The maximum adsorption capacity of HTC-NH₂ in the Langmuir model is 74.60 mg/g, much higher than that of HTC (61.25 mg/g). The green hydrothermal treatment of biomass with ammonia solution will provide a simple and feasible way to prepare adsorbent for Cr(VI) in waste water treatment.     

Oxygen-vacancy-enhanced Catalytic Activity of Au@Co3O4/CeO2 Yolk-shell Nanocomposite to Electrochemically Detect Hydrogen Peroxide

Biomimetic electrochemical sensors are very promising not only due to their lower expense and longer stability than conventional enzymatic ones, but they also often suffer from simultaneously achieving high sensitivity and good selectivity. Here we present a well-defined Au@Co₃O₄/CeO₂ yolk-shell nanostructure (YSN) that is first synthesized and exploited as highly efficient electrocatalysts for hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) detection. The introduced CeO₂ in Co₃O₄ matrix greatly facilitates the migration of lattice oxygen, which increases the concentration of surface oxygen vacancies (O_a), remarkably enhancing the adsorption ability of H₂O₂ and promoting the decomposition of H₂O₂ for faster electron transfer than pristine Au@Co₃O₄ core-shell nanostructure (CSN). The abundant O_a of Au@Co₃O₄/CeO₂ YSN is confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR). The as-prepared biomimetic sensor delivers a wide dynamic range (5.0 nM to 5.4 μM), a low limit of detection (LOD) (2.74 nM), and a high sensitivity (35.67 μA μM⁻¹ cm⁻²), paving a new way to construct an ultrasensitive and selective enzyme-free biomimetic electrochemical sensor. Furthermore, the sensor is used to real-time monitor H₂O₂ released from human cervical cancer cells (HeLa) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC), demonstrating its great potential in practical applications.     

Urea Detection of Electrochemical Transistor Sensors based on Polyanline (PANI)/MWCNT/Cotton Yarns

A cotton yarn biosensor based on electrochemical transistor functionalized with MWCNT and PANI was developed for the detection of urea. The transistors based on PANI/MWCNT/cotton yarns under optimized MWCNT concentration has been obtained, which exhibited high on/off current ratio, fast response time, and good operational stability. A transistor-based urea sensor was prepared from PANI/MWCNT/cotton yarns, which could monitor urea in the 1 nM–1 mM linear range with the correlation coefficient of 0.9716. Furthermore, the sensor showed superior reproducibility and high specificity. The practical applications of the proposed sensor were also confirmed. These results indicate the flexible transistor can be used as an efficient platform for biological detection in body fluids.     

Conductive 2D Metal-organic Framework (Co,NiCo, Ni) Nanosheets for Enhanced Non-enzymatic Detection of Urea

2D metal-organic framework (MOF) has potential applications in electrocatalysis owing to fast mass transfer, charge transfer and large specific surface area. Here, we had prepared three conductive 2D MOF based on Ni, NiCo and Co in a simple and rapid way. The 2D nanostructure of MOF was confirmed by SEM and TEM. The chemical composition was studied by XRD, Raman and XPS spectrum. The electrochemical oxidation and detection was investigated through cyclic voltammetry and current-time method. Their sensing performance for urea was determined by varying oxidation potentials and metal sites. The non-enzymatic Ni-, NiCo- and Co-MOF sensors had good catalytic activity for urea. Compared with NiCo- and Co-MOF, Ni-MOF had a wider linear range (0.5–832.5 μM), high sensitivity (1960 μA mM⁻¹ cm⁻²), low detection limit (0.471 μM), and fast response time. The sensors had well repeatability, reproducibility, and selectivity to specific interfering species. Furthermore, Ni- and NiCo-MOF modified electrode was also applied to detection of milk samples. The results showed that the recovery was satisfactory, which further confirmed the effectiveness of non-enzyme sensor. In general, the highly-sensitive 2D Ni- and NiCo-MOF modified electrode has great potential as nonenzymatic urea sensors for real samples detection in hydrogen energy, clinical diagnostics, and environmental protection, et al.