Analysis on electrical characteristics of high-voltage GaN-based light-emitting diodes

<正>In order to investigate their electrical characteristics,high-voltage light-emitting-diodes(HV-LEDs) each containing four cells in series are fabricated.The electrical parameters including varying voltage and parasitic effect are studied. It is shown that the ideality factors(IFs) of the HV-LEDs with different numbers of cells are 1.6,3.4,4.7,and 6.4.IF increases linearly with the number of cells increasing.Moreover,the performance of the HV-LED with failure cells is examined.The analysis indicates that the failure cell has a parallel resistance which induces the leakage of the failure cell.The series resistance of the failure cell is 76.8Ω,while that of the normal cell is 21.3Ω.The scanning electron microscope(SEM) image indicates that different metal layers do not contact well.It is hard to deposit the metal layers in the deep isolation trenches.The fabrication process of HV-LEDs needs to be optimized.     

求解二维三温辐射热传导方程组的一种网格自适应方法

在求解二维三温辐射热传导方程组的过程中,设计了一类新的基于Hessian矩阵的网格自适应算法.数值实验结果表明,与现在流行的基于一阶导数或通量的网格自适应技术相比,该算法能够大幅改善系统的能量守恒误差,并具有较高的整体计算效率.     

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.     

Polyoxometalate/Cellulose Nanofibrils Aerogels for Highly Efficient Oxidative Desulfurization

Polyoxometalate (POM) presents great potential in oxidative desulfurization (ODS) reaction. However, the high dissolubility of POM in common solvents makes it difficult to recycle. Besides, the small specific surface area of POM also limits the interaction between them and the substrate. Depositing polyoxometalates onto three-dimensional (3D) network structured materials could largely expand the application of POM. Here, the surfaces of cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) were modified with very few (3-Aminopropyl) trimethoxysilane (APTS) to endow positive charges on the surfaces of CNFs, and then phosphotungstic acid (PTA) was loaded to obtain the aerogel A-CNF/PTA as the ODS catalyst. FT-IR indicated the successful deposition of PTA onto aminosilane modified CNF surfaces. UV-VIS further suggested the stability of PTA in the aerogels. BET and SEM results suggested the increased specific surface area and the relatively uniform 3D network structure of the prepared aerogels. TGA analysis indicated that the thermal stability of the aerogel A-CNF/PTA50% was a little higher than that of the pure CNF aerogel. Most importantly, the aerogel A-CNF/PTA50% showed good catalytic performance for ODS. Catalysis results showed that the substrate conversion rate of the aerogel A-CNF/PTA50% reached 100% within 120 min at room temperature. Even after five cycles, the substrate conversion rate of the aerogel A-CNF/PTA50% still reached 91.2% during the dynamic catalytic process. This work provides a scalable and facile way to stably deposit POM onto 3D structured materials.     

Construction of Enzyme-Responsive Micelles Based on Theranostic Zwitterionic Conjugated Bottlebrush Copolymers with Brush-on-Brush Architecture for Cell Imaging and Anticancer Drug Delivery

Bottlebrush copolymers with different chemical structures and compositions as well as diverse architectures represent an important kind of material for various applications, such as biomedical devices. To our knowledge, zwitterionic conjugated bottlebrush copolymers integrating fluorescence imaging and tumor microenvironment-specific responsiveness for efficient intracellular drug release have been rarely reported, likely because of the lack of an efficient synthetic approach. For this purpose, in this study, we reported the successful preparation of well-defined theranostic zwitterionic bottlebrush copolymers with unique brush-on-brush architecture. Specifically, the bottlebrush copolymers were composed of a fluorescent backbone of polyfluorene derivate (PFONPN) possessing the fluorescence resonance energy transfer with doxorubicin (DOX), primary brushes of poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA), and secondary graft brushes of an enzyme-degradable polytyrosine (PTyr) block as well as a zwitterionic poly(oligo (ethylene glycol) monomethyl ether methacrylate-co-sulfobetaine methacrylate) (P(OEGMA-co-SBMA)) chain with super hydrophilicity and highly antifouling ability via elegant integration of Suzuki coupling, NCA ROP and ATRP techniques. Notably, the resulting bottlebrush copolymer, PFONPN₉-g-(PHEMA₁₅-g-(PTyr₁₆-b-P(OEGMA₆-co-SBMA₆)₂)) (P₂) with a lower MW ratio of the hydrophobic side chains of PTyr and hydrophilic side chains of P(OEGMA-co-SBMA) could self-assemble into stabilized unimolecular micelles in an aqueous phase. The resulting unimolecular micelles showed a fluorescence quantum yield of 3.9% that is mainly affected by the pendant phenol groups of PTyr side chains and a drug-loading content (DLC) of approximately 15.4% and entrapment efficiency (EE) of 90.6% for DOX, higher than the other micelle analogs, because of the efficient supramolecular interactions of π–π stacking between the PTyr blocks and drug molecules, as well as the moderate hydrophilic chain length. The fluorescence of the PFONPN backbone enables fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) with DOX and visualization of intracellular trafficking of the theranostic micelles. Most importantly, the drug-loaded micelles showed accelerated drug release in the presence of proteinase K because of the enzyme-triggered degradation of PTyr blocks and subsequent deshielding of P(OEGMA-co-SBMA) corona for micelle destruction. Taken together, we developed an efficient approach for the synthesis of enzyme-responsive theranostic zwitterionic conjugated bottlebrush copolymers with a brush-on-brush architecture, and the resulting theranostic micelles with high DLC and tumor microenvironment-specific responsiveness represent a novel nanoplatform for simultaneous cell image and drug delivery.     

Cations Modulated Assembly of Triol-Ligand Modified Cu-Centered Anderson-Evans Polyanions

Counter-cations are essential components of polyoxometalates (POMs), which have a distinct influence on the solubility, stabilization, self-assembly, and functionality of POMs. To investigate the roles of cations in the packing of POMs, as a systematic investigation, herein, a series of triol-ligand covalently modified Cu-centered Anderson-Evans POMs with different counter ions were prepared in an aqueous solution and characterized by various techniques including single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Using the strategy of controlling Mo sources, in the presence of triol ligand, NH₄⁺, Cu²⁺ and Na⁺ were introduced successfully into POMs. When (NH₄)₆Mo₇O₂₄ was selected, the counter cations of the produced POMs were ammonium ions, which resulted in the existence of clusters in the discrete state. Additionally, with the modulation of the pH of the solutions, the modified sites of triol ligands on the cluster can be controlled to form δ- or χ-isomers. By applying MoO₃ in the same reaction, Cu²⁺ ions served as linkers to connect triol-ligand modified polyanions into chains. When Na₄Mo₈O₂₆ was employed as the Mo source to react with triol ligands in the presence of CuCl₂, two 2-D networks were obtained with {Na₄(H₂O)₁₄} or {{Na₂(H₂O)₄} sub-clusters as linkers, where the building blocks were δ/δ- and χ/χ-isomers, respectively. The present investigation reveals that the charges, sizes and coordination manners of the counter cations have an obvious influence on the assembled structure of polyanions.     

A Docosahexaenoic Acid Derivative (N-Benzyl Docosahexaenamide) as a Potential Therapeutic Candidate for Treatment of Ovarian Injury in the Mouse Model

Commonly used clinical chemotherapy drugs, such as cyclophosphamide (CTX), may cause injury to the ovaries. Hormone therapies can reduce the ovarian injury risk; however, they do not achieve the desired effect and have obvious side effects. Therefore, it is necessary to find a potential therapeutic candidate for ovarian injury after chemotherapy. N-Benzyl docosahexaenamide (NB-DHA) is a docosahexaenoic acid derivative. It was recently identified as the specific macamide with a high degree of unsaturation in maca (Lepidium meyenii). In this study, the purified NB-DHA was administered intragastrically to the mice with CTX-induced ovarian injury at three dose levels. Blood and tissue samples were collected to assess the regulation of NB-DHA on ovarian function. The results indicated that NB-DHA was effective in improving the disorder of estrous cycle, and the CTX+NB-H group can be recovered to normal levels. NB-DHA also significantly increased the number of primordial follicles, especially in the CTX+NB-M and CTX+NB-H groups. Follicle-stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone levels in all treatment groups and estradiol levels in the CTX+NB-H group returned to normal. mRNA expression of ovarian development-related genes was positive regulated. The proportion of granulosa cell apoptosis decreased significantly, especially in the CTX+NB-H group. The expression of anti-Müllerian hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone receptor significantly increased in ovarian tissues after NB-DHA treatment. NB-DHA may be a promising agent for treating ovarian injury.     

Responses of Issatchenkia terricola WJL-G4 upon Citric Acid Stress

This study aimed to elucidate the responses of a novel characterized Issatchenkia terricola WJL-G4 against citric acid stress by performing physiological analysis, morphology observation, and structural and membrane fatty acid composition analysis. The results showed that under citric acid stress, the cell vitality of I. terricola WJL-G4 was reduced. The cell morphology changed with the unclear, uncompleted and thinner cell wall, and degraded the cell structure. When the citric acid concentration was 20 g/L, I. terricola WJL-G4 could tolerate citric acid and maintain the cell structure by increasing the intracellular pH, superoxide dismutase activity, and contents of unsaturated fatty acids. As the citric acid concentration was ≥80 g/L, the stress has exceeded the cellular anti-stress ability, causing substantial cell damage. The cell membrane permeability, the content of membrane lipids, malondialdehyde and superoxide anion increased, but the intracellular pH and superoxide dismutase activities decreased, accompanying the increase of citric acid concentrations. The findings of this work provided a theoretical basis for the responsive mechanism of I. terricola WJL-G4 under high concentrations of citric acid, and can serve as a reference for biological acid reduction in fruit processing.     

Bioactive Components and Anticancer Activities of Spray-Dried New Zealand Tamarillo Powder

Tamarillo fruit contains many phytochemicals that have beneficial therapeutic and nutritional properties. Spray-drying is widely used to preserve fruit puree in powder form. However, to obtain high-quality fruit powder, the optimisation of spray-drying conditions is necessary, as a high drying temperature can damage sensitive bioactive compounds. This study investigated the effects of spray-drying on the microstructure, polyphenolics, total flavonoids, total carotenoids, antioxidant activity, and anticancer capacity of tamarillo powder. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to optimise the spray-drying process to produce tamarillo powder. The independent variables were inlet drying temperature (120–160 °C), flow rate (1–5 g/mL), and maltodextrin concentration (0–10%). These variables influenced the microstructural attributes, bioactive components, and cytotoxicity of the spray-dried tamarillo powder. The increase in polyphenols and antioxidant activities were favoured under high-temperature spray drying conditions and a low carrier concentration. The optimised spray-drying conditions for producing tamarillo powder with high antioxidant and anticancer activities, high yield, and stable bioactive compounds were found to be at 146.8 °C inlet temperature, and a flow rate of 1.76 g/mL.     

Bioavailability Enhancement of Cepharanthine via Pulmonary Administration in Rats and Its Therapeutic Potential for Pulmonary Fibrosis Associated with COVID-19 Infection

Cepharanthine (CEP) has excellent anti-SARS-CoV-2 properties, indicating its favorable potential for COVID-19 treatment. However, its application is challenged by its poor dissolubility and oral bioavailability. The present study aimed to improve the bioavailability of CEP by optimizing its solubility and through a pulmonary delivery method, which improved its bioavailability by five times when compared to that through the oral delivery method (68.07% vs. 13.15%). An ultra-performance liquid chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method for quantification of CEP in rat plasma was developed and validated to support the bioavailability and pharmacokinetic studies. In addition, pulmonary fibrosis was recognized as a sequela of COVID-19 infection, warranting further evaluation of the therapeutic potential of CEP on a rat lung fibrosis model. The antifibrotic effect was assessed by analysis of lung index and histopathological examination, detection of transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1, interleukin-6 (IL-6), α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), and hydroxyproline level in serum or lung tissues. Our data demonstrated that CEP could significantly alleviate bleomycin (BLM)-induced collagen accumulation and inflammation, thereby exerting protective effects against pulmonary fibrosis. Our results provide evidence supporting the hypothesis that pulmonary delivery CEP may be a promising therapy for pulmonary fibrosis associated with COVID-19 infection.