Visible improvements : Owing to the plasmon resonance of silver nanoparticles deposited on the surface of AgBr, the newly‐prepared plasmonic photocatalyst Ag§AgBr has a strong absorption in the visible region (see picture) and shows high efficiency in the photodegradation of organic pollutants under visible light.
A labor of love : The synthesis of an active pure enzyme (RNase) glycoform by the native chemical ligation of a (glyco)peptide and peptide thioester fragments required numerous painstaking steps: the strategy was optimized, active inteins accessed, redox conditions fine‐tuned, and glycoamino acid building blocks synthesized.
Just subtract water : Amphiphilic π‐conjugated acyclic oligopyrroles form solvent‐assisted H‐aggregates that give rise to vesicular structures in aqueous solution (see figure). The H‐aggregates are sensitive to the conditions and are transformed into J‐aggregates by the removal of water.
Little hovercrafts: The mechanisms of floating and sliding of liquid marbles (see picture) are elucidated. It is demonstrated that floating and sliding liquid marbles are separated from their supporting media by an air layer, resembling Leidenfrost drops. An ESEM study of the marble surface shows a rugged surface facilitating the trapping of air.
Zeptomole detector: A highly sensitive giant‐magnetoresistive chip and FeCo nanoparticles can be used to linearly detect 600–4500 copies of streptavidin. Under unoptimized conditions, this system also detects human IL‐6 with a sensitivity 13‐times higher than that of standard ELISA techniques.
The fiveway junction : The synthesis of ligands with five symmetrically diverging binding sites is described and their assembly into large spherical structures (such as that shown here) investigated.
