Interfacial Strain Release from the WS2/CsPbBr3 van der Waals Heterostructure for 1.7 V Voltage All-Inorganic Perovskite Solar Cells

Perovskite lattice distortion induced by residual tensile strain from the thermal expansion mismatch between the electron-transporting layer (ETL) and perovskite film causes a sluggish charge extraction and transfer dynamics in all-inorganic CsPbBr₃ perovskite solar cells (PSCs) because of their higher crystallization temperatures and thermal expansion coefficients. Herein, the interfacial strain is released by fabricating a WS₂/CsPbBr₃ van der Waals heterostructure owing to their matched crystal lattice structure and the atomically smooth dangling bond-free surface to act as a lubricant between ETL and CsPbBr₃ perovskite. Arising from the strain-released interface and condensed perovskite lattice, the best device achieves an efficiency of 10.65 % with an ultrahigh open-circuit voltage of 1.70 V and significantly improved stability under persistent light irradiation and humidity (80 %) attack over 120 days.     

3D printed polylactic acid nanocomposite scaffolds for tissue engineering applications

In this study, biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA) and PLA nanocomposite scaffolds reinforced with magnetic and conductive fillers, were processed via fused filament fabrication additive manufacturing and their bioactivity and biodegradation characteristics were examined. Porous 3D architectures with 50% bulk porosity were 3D printed, and their physicochemical properties were evaluated. Thermal analysis confirmed the presence of ~18 wt% of carbon nanostructures (CNF and GNP; nowonwards CNF) and ~37 wt% of magnetic iron oxide (Fe₂O₃) particles in the filaments. The in vitro degradation tests of scaffolds showed porous and fractured struts after 2 and 4 weeks of immersion in DMEM respectively, although a negligible weight loss is observed. Greater extent of degradation is observed in PLA with magnetic fillers followed by PLA with conductive fillers and neat PLA. In vitro bioactivity study of scaffolds indicate enhancement from ~2.9% (PLA) to ~5.32% (PLA/CNF) and ~ 3.12% (PLA/Fe₂O₃). Stiffness calculated from the compression tests showed decrease from ~680 MPa (PLA) to 533 MPa and 425 MPa for PLA/CNF and PLA/Fe₂O₃ respectively. Enhanced bioactivity and faster biodegradation response of PLA nanocomposites with conductive fillers make them a potential candidate for tissue engineering applications such as scaffold bone replacement and regeneration.     

Dimensional considerations on the mechanical properties of 3D printed polymer parts

Additive manufacturing offers a useful and accessible tool for prototyping and manufacturing small volume functional parts. Polylactic acid (PLA) and thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) are amongst the most commonly used materials. Characterising 3D printed PLA and TPU is potentially important for both designing and finite element modelling of functional parts. This work explores the mechanical properties of additively manufactured PLA/TPU specimens with consideration to design parameters including size, and infill percentage. PLA/TPU specimens are 3D-printed in selected ISO standard geometries with 20%, 60%, 100% infill percentage. Tensile and compression test results suggest that traditional ISO testing standards might be insufficient in characterising 3D printed materials for finite element modelling or application purposes. Infill percentage in combination to design size, may significantly affect the mechanical performance of 3D printed parts. Dimensional variation may cause inhomogeneity in mechanical properties between large and small cross section areas of the same part. The effect was reduced in small cross section parts where reducing the nominal infill had less effect on the resulting specimens. The results suggest that for 3D printed functional parts with significant dimensional differences between sections, the material properties are not necessarily homogeneous. This consideration may be significant for designers using 3D printing for applications, which include mechanical loading.     

Quick stabilization of capillary for rapid determination of potassium ions in the blood of epilepsy patients by capillary electrophoresis without sample pretreatment

Mutations in the potassium channel genes may be linked to the development of epilepsy and affect the blood potassium levels. Therefore, accurate determination of potassium in the blood will be critical to diagnose the cause of epilepsy. CE is a competent technique for the fast detection of multiple ions, but complicated matrices of a blood sample may cause significant variation of migration times and the peak shape. In this work, a procedure for rapid stabilization of the capillary inner surface through preflushing of a blood sample was employed. The process takes only 40 min for a capillary and then it can be used for more than 2 weeks. No pretreatment of the blood sample or other surface modification of the capillary is needed for the analysis. The RSDs of the migration time and peak area were reduced to 1.5 and 5.1% from 12.6 and 14.5%, respectively. The proposed method has been successfully applied to the determination of the potassium contents in the blood sample of patients with epilepsy at different stages. The recoveries of potassium ions in these blood samples are in a range from 86.5 to 104.5%.     

Complex three-dimensional microparticles from microfluidic lithography

Complex 3D microparticle, as an emerging and attractive field, has attracted more and more attention due to its versatile morphologies and broad range of applications. In this review, we provide an overall recent progress in 3D microparticles fabricated by microfluidic lithography. This review will focus on the synthesis mechanisms, synthesis process, the resultant 3D microparticles, and their applications. Finally, we will look into the future trends in complex 3D microparticles. This review will be beneficial for researchers in numerous fields, including functional materials, sensors, encryption, and biomedical engineering.     

Distributed and multicore QuBiLS-MIDAS software v2.0: Computing chiral,fuzzy, weighted and truncated geometrical molecular descriptors based on tensor algebra

Advances to the distributed, multi-core and fully cross-platform QuBiLS-MIDAS software v2.0 ( http://tomocomd.com/qubils-midas ) are reported in this article since the v1.0 release. The QuBiLS-MIDAS software is the only one that computes atom-pair and alignment-free geometrical MDs (3D-MDs) from several distance metrics other than the Euclidean distance, as well as alignment-free 3D-MDs that codify structural information regarding the relations among three and four atoms of a molecule. The most recent features added to the QuBiLS-MIDAS software v2.0 are related (a) to the calculation of atomic weightings from indices based on the vertex-degree invariant (e.g., Alikhanidi index); (b) to consider central chirality during the molecular encoding; (c) to use measures based on clustering methods and statistical functions to codify structural information among more than two atoms; (d) to the use of a novel method based on fuzzy membership functions to spherically truncate inter-atomic relations; and (e) to the use of weighted and fuzzy aggregation operators to compute global 3D-MDs according to the importance and/or interrelation of the atoms of a molecule during the molecular encoding. Moreover, a novel module to compute QuBiLS-MIDAS 3D-MDs from their headings was also developed. This module can be used either by the graphical user interface or by means of the software library. By using the library, both the predictive models built with the QuBiLS-MIDAS 3D-MDs and the QuBiLS-MIDAS 3D-MDs calculation can be embedded in other tools. A set of predefined QuBiLS-MIDAS 3D-MDs with high information content and low redundancy on a set comprised of 20,469 compounds is also provided to be employed in further cheminformatics tasks. This set of predefined 3D-MDs evidenced better performance than all the universe of Dragon (v5.5) and PaDEL 0D-to-3D MDs in variability studies, whereas a linear independence study proved that these QuBiLS-MIDAS 3D-MDs codify chemical information orthogonal to the Dragon 0D-to-3D MDs. This set of predefined 3D-MDs would be periodically updated as long as new results be achieved. In general, this report highlights our continued efforts to provide a better tool for a most suitable characterization of compounds, and in this way, to contribute to obtaining better outcomes in future applications.     

Comprehensive 1H and 13C NMR assignment of 13 protobassic acid saponins

This study aimed to carry out complete ¹H and ¹³C NMR assignment of 13 protobassic acid saponins, including arganins A–C ( 1 – 3 ) and F ( 4 ), butyrosides B–D ( 5 – 7 ), tieghemelin ( 8 ), 3′-O-glucosyl-arganin C ( 9 ), Mi-saponins A–C ( 10 – 12 ), and mimusopsin ( 13 ), recorded in methanol-d₄. This was accomplished by the analysis of high-resolution one-dimensional (1D) NMR (¹H and ¹³C), two-dimensional (2D) NMR (¹H–¹H COSY, HSQC, and HMBC), and selectively excited 1D TOCSY spectra. Before this study, ¹H and ¹³C NMR data of arganins A–C ( 1 – 3 ) and F ( 4 ) were partially assigned. Our effort leads to their complete assignment, especially the glycon residue, and revises some reported data. Some revisions of the ¹H and ¹³C NMR data in the glycon part of butyroside C ( 6 ), tieghemelin ( 8 ), Mi-saponin A ( 10 ), and mimusopsin ( 13 ) were made. Those data of butyrosides B and D ( 5 & 7 ) and Mi-saponin B ( 11 ), which had not been recorded in methanol-d₄, are provided. In addition, the ¹H and ¹³C NMR data of Mi-saponin C ( 12 ) are reported for the first time. These data, being recorded in methanol-d₄, should be more friendly for use as a reference for identifying the related triterpenoid saponins.     

Post-Assembly Photomasking of Potassium Acyltrifluoroborates (KATs) for Two-Photon 3D Patterning of PEG-Hydrogels

Chemical ligation reactions of functional groups that can be masked with two-photon labile protecting groups provide a powerful technology for the three-dimensional patterning of molecules – including proteins – onto hydrogel scaffolds. In order to utilize readily prepared hydrogels constructed by the potassium acyltrifluoroborate (KAT)-hydroxylamine amide formation ligation for two-photon patterning, we have developed a unique post-polymerization protecting group strategy through the reaction of KATs and dithiols in water and deprotection by two-photon excitation. After precise 3D spatially confined light irradiation, the unprotected KATs undergo ligations with hydroxylamine-functionalized superfolder GFP and sulforhodamine B for the composition of three-dimensional patterns.     

两种形貌纳米Fe2O3对TKX-50热分解的催化性能研究

Energy components used in solid rocket propellants are beneficial for improving the energy performance, and their thermal decomposition characteristics significantly affect the combustion properties of the propellants. As a kind of energetic material with both high energy and low sensitivity (impact and friction), 5, 5'-bistetrazole-1, 1'-diolate (TKX-50) can effectively improve the energy and safety characteristics of solid propellants. Burning catalyst is another important component of solid propellants, which can significantly improve the burning rate of the propellant and reduce the pressure exponent. Among various burning catalysts, nanoscale transition metal oxides can promote the thermal decomposition of the energetic component, thus enhancing the combustion properties of the solid propellant. However, the catalytic effects of nanoscale transition metal oxides with different morphologies on the thermal decomposition of TKX-50 have rarely been studied. Based on the excellent catalytic activity of Fe₂O₃ for TKX-50 thermal decomposition, nano-Fe₂O₃ particles with spherical and tubular microstructures were used for TKX-50 thermal decomposition. The Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles were successfully fabricated via the solvothermal method and characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses. The XRD, FT-IR, and XPS results confirmed the successful fabrication of spherical and tubular Fe₂O₃ samples. The SEM and TEM images showed that the spherical Fe₂O₃ samples are composed of agglomerated Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles with an average particle size of 110 nm. In addition, the average diameter and length of hollow tubular Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles are 120 nm and 200 nm, respectively. The catalytic activities of spherical and tubular Fe₂O₃ for TKX-50 decomposition were studied by thermogravimetric analysis (TG) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) methods. The DSC and TG-DTG curves showed that both tubular and spherical Fe₂O₃ could effectively promote TKX-50 thermal decomposition. The first thermal decomposition peak temperature (T_FDP) of TKX-50 was reduced by 36.5 K and 26.3 K in the presence of tubular and spherical Fe₂O₃, respectively, at 10 K·min⁻¹. The activation energy (E_a) of TKX-50, determined by the iso-conversional method, was significantly reduced in the presence of both tubular and spherical Fe₂O₃. The results indicated that the microstructure of the catalyst has a significant effect on its catalytic performance for TKX-50 thermal decomposition, and that tubular Fe₂O₃ with hollow microstructure possesses better catalytic activity than spherical Fe₂O₃. The excellent catalytic activity of tubular Fe₂O₃ can be attributed to the hollow microstructure, which has more active sites for TKX-50 thermal decomposition.     

液液萃取-场放大进样-毛细管电泳非接触式电导分离检测酱油中的安赛蜜

采用场放大进样（FASI）-毛细管电泳非接触式电导检测法（CE-C⁴D）,结合液液萃取（LLE）的样品净化预处理技术,分离检测了酱油中人工合成甜味剂安赛蜜。酱油样品经酸化后,用乙酸乙酯作为萃取剂,成功地消除了酱油中含有的大量无机盐等复杂基体对微量安赛蜜的干扰。实验对影响LLE萃取效率和FASI-CE-C⁴D分离检测的关键因素进行了讨论,特别是对样品净化前处理过程中萃取剂及用量、样品酸化pH值、萃取时间、萃取温度等条件进行了优化。结果表明,酱油中的安赛蜜可获得良好分离和灵敏检测,检出限和定量限分别为0.15 mg/kg和0.48 mg/kg。对市售酱油样品进行安赛蜜的加标回收测定,得到加标回收率为92.3%~108.1%,相对标准偏差＜8.0%。该法具有简单快速、灵敏高效、分析成本低的优点,能满足酱油中安赛蜜的分析检测要求。