Latest ArticlesDonor-acceptor (D-A) conjugated polymers are widely used in photovoltaic applications and heterogeneous catalysis due to their tunable building block and pre-designable structures. Here, a series of adjustable Donor-acceptor (D-A) benzothiodiazole-based conjugated polymers were designed and synthesized. The photocatalytic performance could be improved by fine-tuning the chemical structure by halogen substitution (F or Cl). The polymers exhibited excellent optoelectronic properties and were effective photocatalysts for the degradation of RhB and MO dyes, as well as promoting the oxidative coupling of benzylamines. Complete degradation of RhB and MO occurred in 30 min under visible light radiation, while the yield of benzylamine coupling mediated by superoxide anion was as high as 82%. Systematic characterization methods were used to gain insights on the unique photocatalytic performance of the polymers. Our findings provide further insights into the design and synthesis of benzothiadiazole-based conjugated polymers as promising organic photocatalysts for solar energy conversion.
Due to the massive discharge of antibiotics in water, it is an urgent matter to remove antibiotics from waste water. The photocatalysts with high stability and activity have attracted extensive attention from researchers. By an in-situ polymerization method, polypyrrole (PPy) was modified on the surface of TiO2 (named as TiO2/PPy). By one-step reduction method, NiCoP was grafted on the surface of TiO2/PPy (named as TiO2/PPy/NiCoP) to synthesize the photocatalyst of TiO2/PPy/NiCoP for degradation of tetracycline (TC) antibiotic. The characterization results revealed that NiCoP was deposited on the surface of TiO2/PPy successfully. The photocatalytic experiment results illustrated that 83.2% of TC could be degraded at natural pH with 20 mg of TiO2/PPy/NiCoP in 50 mL of TC solution (10 mg/L) under visible light irradiation. The high catalytic activity is attributed to the attachment of NiCoP on the surface of TiO2/PPy which can enlarge the light response range of TiO2 effectively. Scavenger studies revealed that the degradation of TC was dominated by ·O2- and h+. The photodegradation efficiency of TC with TiO2/PPy/NiCoP still reached over 74% after 5 consecutive cycles, indicating the potential applications in practical wastewater.
Catalytic potential of carbon nanomaterials in peroxydisulfate (PDS) advanced oxidation systems for degradation of antibiotics remains poorly understood. This study revealed ordered mesoporous carbon (type CMK) acted as a superior catalyst for heterogeneous degradation of sulfadiazine (SDZ) in PDS system, with a first-order reaction kinetic constant (k) and total organic carbon (TOC) mineralization efficiency of 0.06 min-1 and 59.67% ± 3.4% within 60 min, respectively. CMK catalyzed PDS system exhibited high degradation efficiencies of five other sulfonamides and three other types of antibiotics, verifying the broad-degradation capacity of antibiotics. Under neutral pH conditions, the optimal catalytic parameters were an initial SDZ concentration of 44.0 mg/L, CMK dosage of 0.07 g/L, and PDS dosage of 5.44 mmol/L, respectively. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman spectrum analysis confirmed that the defect structure at edge of CMK and oxygen-containing functional groups on surface of CMK were major active sites, contributing to the high catalytic activity. Free radical quenching analysis revealed that both SO4·- and ·OH were generated and participated in catalytic reaction. In addition, direct electron transfer by CMK to activate PDS also occurred, further promoting catalytic performance. Configuration of SDZ molecule was optimized using density functional theory, and the possible reaction sites in SDZ molecule were calculated using Fukui function. Combining ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC)–mass spectrometry (MS)/MS analysis, three potential degradation pathways were proposed, including the direct removal of SO2 molecules, the 14S-17 N fracture, and the 19C-20 N and 19C-27 N cleavage of the SDZ molecule. The study demonstrated that ordered mesoporous carbon could work as a feasible catalytic material for PDS advanced oxidation during removal of antibiotics from wastewater.
Monitoring of ambient volatile organic compounds (VOCs) was conducted within typical residential-commercial area in the city of Xi'an in northwest China during typical ozone (O3) episodes, to investigate the major contributors to the characteristic of ambient VOCs and their impact on O3 production. In the residential-commercial area, diurnal variation of VOCs was highly impacted by vehicle exhaust, fuel evaporation, and local solvent use. Relative higher contributions (up to 60%) of VOCs from solvent use to the ozone formation potential were found. The present findings highlight the urgent need for restrictions on the emission of VOCs from solvent use and non-vehicle-traffic-related sources, such as oil storage.
Monovalent cation perm-selective membrane (MCPMs) allow fast and selective transport of monovalent cations, and they are promisingly required for extraction of special ions, such as lithium extraction, acid recovery and sea salt production. Herein, we report a novel strategy to design the critical functional layers of MCPMs with both space charge repulsion and cross-linked dense screenability. The in-situ deposition polymerization of pyrrole was carried out on the surface of sulfonated polyphenyl sulfone (SPPSU) substrate membrane followed by cross-linking quaternization of the polypyrrole (PPy) layer with diiodinated functional molecules, thus, the membrane obtained more excellent selective permeability and stable transport properties of monovalent cations. It confirms that the designed PPy layers with charged surface and cross-linking structure improved the hydrophilicity, facilitated cation transport and increased ion flux. Meanwhile, for the dense PPy layer, the charged cross-linked structure endowed the functional layer with the synergistic characteristics of Donnan exclusion and pore size sieving for positively charged ions, which improved the monovalent cation perm-selectivity of the membranes. At a constant current density of 5.1 mA/cm2, the optimal membrane exhibited superior perm-selectivity (PMgNa) and monovalent cation flux (JNa+ = 2.80×10 -8 mol cm-2 s-1) during electrodialysis.
In 2020, the MOE Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Synthesis and Functionalization in Zhejiang University had made progresses in several aspects. First, a series of metal-free organoboron catalysts had been designed and synthesized facilely, exhibiting outstanding reactivity, thermalstability and productivity in different kinds of polymerization and cycloaddition reactions. Second, a variety of chalcogen (O, S, Se)-rich polymers had been synthesized via organocatalysis and fabricated to be the ionic conductive and photoluminescent materials. Third, diverse microenvironment-sensitive nanoparticles had been designed, and novel strategies had been realized, to enhance the therapeutic efficacy in cancer as well as biofilm-associated infections. Fourth, m6A modification on cellular transcriptome-wide messenger RNA had been successfully mapped at single base resolution using a metabolic labeling method. Fifth, a hydrogel-based robot had been developed, showing swift locomotion as a response to dynamic light stimulations. Sixth, the conformation-size scaling law and the conformation evolution map of 2D macromolecules in solution had been elucidated experimentally, in the single-layer graphene oxide model. Seventh, semitransparent polymer solar cells, promising as building-integrated photovoltaics, have been developed with the fine balance among power conversion efficiency, visible light transparency and infrared photon radiation rejection. Finally, long-range ordered bulk-heterojunctions of organic semiconductors had been achieved, and their superior optoelectronic properties and potential application in photoelectric conversion had been revealed. The related work progresses are reviewed in this paper.
As a new type of carbon-based fluorescent nanomaterials, carbon dots (CDs) are provided with the advantages of small size, excellent photoluminescence (PL) property, easy surface modification, robust stability, good water solubility and biocompatibility, which endow them with great potential in sensing. In this review, we first describe the preparation of CDs from different starting materials via various techniques, and pre-/post-modification strategies to modulate their PL properties. Second, we outline the optical properties of CDs, including UV-vis absorption and PL, especially the PL mechanisms of CDs are presented in detail from the size effect, molecular state, surface state and defect state. Third, we summarize the research progress of CDs in sensing environmental pollutants, bioactive substances, biological microenvironments, bacteria and viruses via different mechanisms. In addition, we envision the future development trends and prospects for CDs-based nanosensors. We believe that this type of small nanoparticles will bring about big prospect in the near future.
Nanoparticle-based disease detection, prevention and therapies have gained increased interests in biomedical applications, owing to their significant advantages in therapeutic efficacy and safety. Nonetheless, suffering from the challenges including fast recognition and clearance of foreign nanoparticles by innate immune system before arriving at diseased regions, clinical applications of nanoparticles are usually intercepted. Among various strategies for reducing non-specific phagocytosis and enhancing disease-targeting efficiency of nanoparticles, membrane coating nanotechnology exhibits great potential in the disease diagnosis and therapeutics due to both the structural and functional preservation of membrane proteins from source cells. Benefiting the inherited immune-regulation capacities, this review mainly summarized the latest development of such biomimetic nanoparticles for immunotherapy in treating immune-related diseases including microbial infections, inflammation, tumor and autoimmune diseases.
Cancer is one of the leading causes of human death around the world. Phototherapy, including photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photothermal therapy (PTT), is an emerging light-triggered cancer treatment and shows the advantages of non-invasiveness and low side effects. The design and preparation of efficient phototherapeutic agents are of great significance for phototherapy. Diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) is a small molecular organic dye featuring outstanding photophysical properties, facile tuning of structures and properties, and excellent photostability; thus, phototherapeutic agents based on organic small molecular DPP derivatives have attracted significant research attention for not only phototherapy but also photodiagnosis of fluorescence imaging (FLI) and photoacoustic imaging (PAI). This review summarizes the recent progress of various DPP-based organic small molecules on phototheranostics during the last five years. The molecular structure design and their phototheranostics performances are discussed in detail, as will be of great help for further creation of DPP-based phototheranostics.
No. 86 Xueyuan South Road, Haidian District, Beijing
010-62662699(Operation and Technical Support)
qkjq@cast.org.cn
Copyright © 2025 China Association for Science and Technology. All rights reserved. For all open access content, the relevant licensing terms apply.
Sponsored by the Office of the Leading Group for Cybersecurity and Informatization of CAST, and supported by Science and Technology Review Publishing House
