Biotemplated Fabrication of ZnO Microstructures with Enhanced Photocatalytic Properties from Rape Pollen

Crystallography Reports - Sodium dodecyl sulfonate and rape pollen were selected as soft and hard templates to induce ZnO formation under hydrothermal conditions, respectively. In the preparation...     

Graphene Saturable Absorber Mirror for Mode-Locked Orange Pulse Laser

Journal of Russian Laser Research - We demonstrate a passively-mode-locked Pr3+: LuLiF4 laser operated at the 604 nm orange wave-length, using monolayer graphene as a saturable absorber. The...     

Simultaneous Removal of Antibiotics and Heavy Metals with Poly(Aspartic Acid)-Based Fenton Micromotors

The discharge of diverse pollutants has led to a complex water environment and posed a huge health threat to humans and animals. Self-propelled micromotors have recently attracted considerable attention for efficient water remediation due to their strong localized mass transfer effect. However, a single functionalized component is difficult to tackle with multiple contaminants and requires to combine different decontamination effects together. Here, we introduced a multifunctional micromotor to implement the adsorption and degradation roles simultaneously by integrating the poly(aspartic acid) (PASP) adsorbent with a MnO₂-based catalyst. The as-prepared micromotors are well propelled in contaminated waters by MnO₂ catalyzing hydrogen peroxide. In addition, the catalytic ramsdellite MnO₂(R-MnO₂) inner layer is decorated with Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles to improve their catalytic performance, contributing to an excellent degradation ability with 90% tetracycline (TC) removal in 50 minutes by enhanced Fenton-like reactions. Combining the attractive adsorption capability of poly (aspartic acid) (PASP), the composite micromotors offer an efficient removal of heavy metal ions in short time. Moreover, the designed micromotors are able to simultaneously remove antibiotic and heavy metals in mixed contaminants circumstance just in single treatment. This multifunctional micromotor with distinctive decontamination ability exhibits a promising prospective in treating multiple pollutants in the future.     

Synthesis and Design of Aggregation‐Induced Emission Surfactants: Direct Observation of Micelle Transitions and Microemulsion Droplets

The direct visualization of micelle transitions is a long‐standing challenge owing to the intractable aggregation‐caused quenching of light emission in the micelle solution. Herein, we report the synthesis of a surfactant with a tetraphenylethene (TPE) core and aggregation‐induced emission (AIE) characteristics. The transition processes of surfactant micelles and the microemulsion droplets (MEDs) formed by the surfactant with a TPE core were clearly visualized by a high‐contrast fluorescence imaging method. The fluorescence intensity of the MEDs decreased as the size of MEDs increased as a result of weakening of the restriction of intramolecular rotation (RIR). The results of this study deepen our understanding of micelle‐transition processes and provide solid evidence in favor of the hypothesis that the AIE phenomenon has its origin in the RIR of fluorophores in the aggregate state.     

Minimal two-spheres in <Emphasis Type="Italic">G</Emphasis>(2, 4; (<Emphasis Type="Italic">C</Emphasis>)) with parallel second fundamental form

In this paper, we give a classification theorem of minimal two-spheres in G(2, 4; (C)) with parallel second fundamental form. Moreover, we also consider some special holomorphic two-spheres in G(2, n; (C)) and give the corresponding conditions of the parallel second fundamental form.     

电感耦合等离子体质谱(ICP-MS)法测定地质样品中的金

建立了王水溶解-聚氨酯泡沫塑料吸附-电感耦合等离子体质谱(ICP-MS)法测定地质样品中的金。探讨了振荡时间对回收率的影响,最终确定振荡时间为1h。在优化条件下,方法的相对标准偏差(RSD,n=12)在4.2%~9.0%,加标回收率在92.00%~114.6%,方法检出限为0.11ng/g。方法操作简单,测定精密度高,检出限低,满足大批量地质样品的分析需要。     

Single-Molecule Photoactivation FRET: A General and Easy-To-Implement Approach To Break the Concentration Barrier

Single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer (sm-FRET) has become a widely used tool to reveal dynamic processes and molecule mechanisms hidden under ensemble measurements. However, the upper limit of fluorescent species used in sm-FRET is still orders of magnitude lower than the association affinity of many biological processes under physiological conditions. Herein, we introduce single-molecule photoactivation FRET (sm-PAFRET), a general approach to break the concentration barrier by using photoactivatable fluorophores as donors. We demonstrate sm-PAFRET by capturing transient FRET states and revealing new reaction pathways during translation using μm fluorophore labeled species, which is 2–3 orders of magnitude higher than commonly used in sm-FRET measurements. sm-PAFRET serves as an easy-to-implement tool to lift the concentration barrier and discover new molecular dynamic processes and mechanisms under physiological concentrations.     

Stepwise Engineering the Pore Aperture of a Cage-like MOF for the Efficient Separation of Isomeric C4 Paraffins under Humid Conditions

The separation of isomeric C4 paraffins is an important task in the petrochemical industry, while current adsorbents undergo a trade-off relationship between selectivity and adsorption capacity. In this work, the pore aperture of a cage-like Zn-bzc (bzc=pyrazole-4-carboxylic acid) is tuned by the stepwise installation methyl groups on its narrow aperture to achieve both molecular-sieving separation and high n-C₄H₁₀ uptake. Notably, the resulting Zn-bzc-2CH₃ (bzc-2CH₃=3,5-dimethylpyrazole-4-carboxylic acid) can sensitively capture n-C₄H₁₀ and exclude iso-C₄H₁₀, affording molecular-sieving for n-C₄H₁₀/iso-C₄H₁₀ separation and high n-C₄H₁₀ adsorption capacity (54.3 cm³ g⁻¹). Breakthrough tests prove n-C₄H₁₀/iso-C₄H₁₀ can be efficiently separated and high-purity iso-C₄H₁₀ (99.99 %) can be collected. Importantly, the hydrophobic microenvironment created by the introduced methyl groups greatly improves the stability of Zn-bzc and significantly eliminates the negative effect of water vapor on gas separation under humid conditions, indicating Zn-bzc-2CH₃ is a new benchmark adsorbent for n-C₄H₁₀/iso-C₄H₁₀ separation.     

Long-term super-resolution imaging of mitochondrial dynamics

Monitoring dynamics of mitochondria has become an essential approach to explore the function of mitochondria in living cells with the emergence of super-resolution fluorescence microscopy. However, long-term super-resolution imaging of mitochondria is still challenging due to the lack of photostable fluorescent probes and stable mitochondria-specific markers which are not affected by the changes of mitochondrial membrane potential. Here, we introduce a method for long-term imaging mitochondrial dynamic through the SNAP-tag fluorogenic probe based on 4-azetidinyl-naphthalimide derivatives. Using structured illumination microscopy (SIM), we observed the fusion and fission of mitochondria over a course of 16 min at 109 nm resolution. Furthermore, the interactions as well as fusion between mitochondria and lysosomes were studied during mitophagy at the nanoscale. Convincingly, the combination of SNAP-tag fluorogenic probes and super-resolution fluorescence microscopy will offer a new way to monitor dynamic mitochondria in living cells.     

多种超分辨荧光成像技术比较和进展评述

所见即所得是生命科学研究的中心哲学,贯穿在不断认识单个分子、分子复合体、分子动态行为和整个分子网络的历程中。活的动态的分子才是有功能的,这决定了荧光显微成像在生命科学研究中成为不可替代的工具。但是当荧光成像聚焦到分子水平的时候,所见并不能给出想要得到的。这个障碍是由于受光学衍射极限的限制,荧光显微镜无法在衍射受限的空间内分辨出目标物。超分辨荧光成像技术突破衍射极限的限制,在纳米尺度至单分子水平可视化生物分子,以前所未有的时空分辨率研究活细胞结构和动态过程,已成为生命科学研究的有力工具,并逐渐应用到材料科学、催化反应过程和光刻等领域。超分辨成像技术原理不同,其具有的技术性能各异,限制了各自特定的技术特色和应用范围。目前主流的超分辨成像技术包括3种:结构光照明显微镜技术(structured illumination microscopy, SIM)、受激发射损耗显微技术(stimulated emission depletion, STED)和单分子定位成像技术(single molecule localization microscopy, SMLM)。这些显微镜采用不同的复杂技术,但是策略却是相同和简单的,即通过牺牲时间分辨率来提升衍射受限的空间内相邻两个发光点的空间分辨。该文通过对这3种技术的原理比较和在生物研究中的应用进展介绍,明确了不同超分辨成像技术的技术优势和适用的应用方向,以方便研究者在未来研究中做合理的选择。