Latest ArticlesPillar[n]arene-based amphiphiles, mainly including amphiphilic pillar[n]arenes and supra-amphiphilic pillar[n]arenes, have obtained considerable interests in recent years due to their fascinating chemical structures, various self-assembly behaviors, and widely applications. Thanks to the pillar-like frameworks and the rich host-guest recognitions of the cavities, these amphiphiles can be easily controlled to form dimensional and morphologic assemblies for multiple applications. Compared with traditional linear covalent amphiphiles, the introduction of host-guest recognitions facilitated the preparation and controllability of these supramolecular amphiphilic systems. Moreover, the host-guest recognitions endow the assemblies from pillar[n]arene-based amphiphiles with stimuli-responsive functions. In this mini-review, we summarized the chemical structures, self-assembly features, and the applications of pillar[n]arene-based amphiphiles. However, several research topics of pillar[n]arene-based amphiphiles can be further developed in the future, such as larger cavity amphiphilic pillar[n]arenes, co-assembly with 2D materials and utilization of the host-guest interactions.
Organosilicon compounds play an important role in the fields of materials science, pharmacy, and organic synthesis. The development of effective approaches for the preparation of these compounds have also become a research focus in organic synthesis. In recent years, free radical synthesis of organosilicons has been vigorously developed, which generally has the advantages of milder synthesis conditions, higher yields and selectivity, and free of precious metal catalysts compared with traditional strategies. This article reviews research progresses in the synthesis of organosilicon compounds by free radical pathways since 2016. In most cases, the radical silylation is achieved based on the reaction of silyl radicals, which are triggered by four routes including peroxide, transition-metal-induced peroxide decomposition, alkali, photocatalysis. The alkyl radicals can also initiate the radical silylation for the generation of C(sp3)Si bonds.
The utilization of thermal energy from different sources is an important development direction for conserving energy. With the development of technology, refined and rapid utilization of thermal energy is required. Traditional thermal conductive materials cannot meet the growing needs of human beings. Therefore, people pay attention to two-dimensional graphene film materials for their thermal conductivity. This review collects current modeling group of thermal transport on graphene, including non-equilibrium Green function (NEGF) theory, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations modeling and Boltzmann transport equation method. These models can well explain several phenomena of phonon transport in graphene. Further, structural defects were discussed and expounded the effect for graphene thermal conductivity, including doping, grain boundary and defects. Deeply understanding of defects on graphene, we can better grasp the thermal conductivity of graphene from the microscopic point of view.
Potassium-ion batteries (PIBs) have attracted enormous attention due to the abundance of potassium resources, low cost, fast ionic conductivity of electrolyte and relatively high operating voltage. Despite great efforts and progress, researches on PIBs are still at the initial stage, especially in the emerging field of flexible and wearable PIBs. The inevitable challenges for PIBs include low reversible capacity, unsatisfactory cycling stability and insufficient energy density, the solution to which mostly relies on designing advanced electrodes. Binder-free electrodes have emerged as promising electrode architecture for PIBs. Such electrodes avoid the use of insulating binders, which can be designed with various synergistic functional materials to address the aforementioned PIB issues and be endowed with flexibility/wearability. In this review, we mainly summarize the recent progress on binder-free electrodes for PIBs, with the focus on the methodologies, detailed strategies and functional materials for electrode construction. One strategy for binder-free electrodes is to assemble free-standing architecture with the help of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphitic fibers, and other carbon or mechanically robust materials, either alone or in combination. The other effective strategy is current collector substrate-assisted direct growth, including the use of carbon cloth, metal, MXenes and other conductive substrates. Additionally, challenges and research opportunities are put forward at the end as the guidance for future development of binder-free PIB devices.
Further enhancement in the energy density of rechargeable lithium batteries calls for high-voltage cathode materials and stable anodes, as well as matched high-voltage electrolytes without compromising the overall property of batteries. Sulfone-based electrolytes have aroused great interest in recent years owing to their wide electrochemical window and high safety. However, significant challenges such as the complexity of synthesis, high melting point (typically above room temperature), high viscosity, and their poor compatibility with graphite-based anodes have drastically impeded their practical applications. In this review, recent progress of sulfone solvents in high energy density rechargeable lithium batteries is summarized theoretically and experimentally. More importantly, general improvement methods of sulfone-based electrolytes, such as adding additives and cosolvents, structural modifications of sulfone, superconcentrated salt strategy are briefly discussed. We expect that this review provides inspiration for the future developments of sulfone-based high-voltage electrolytes (SHVEs) and their widespread applications in high specific energy lithium batteries.
Phosphatase plays a vital important role in many biological functions due to the dephosphorylation serves varied roles in cellular regulation and signaling. Among the family of phosphatase, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) could act as crucial prognostic indicators for many diseases such as bone diseases and cancer. However, the detection of ALP is mainly limited to in vitro colorimetric method in clinic. Therefore, huge efforts have been paid on the fluorescence imaging that provides a reliable method to detect the real-time and in vivo changes of the level of ALP. In this review, we summarize recent advances in fluorescence imaging of phosphatase, mainly focused on ALP. The imaging probes of phosphatase are mainly classified according to their luminescence mechanisms. In the end, we assessed the challenges and future prospects of phosphatase probes.
Diseases caused by microbial bacteria such as Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), Streptococcus pneumoniae and Neisseria meningitidis are still very serious disease, which has brought a lot of burden to many countries. Development of vaccine has brought hope for the prevention of such diseases. Polysaccharide conjugate vaccines have been shown to have very good effects in preventing such diseases. The polysaccharide conjugate vaccine adds the positive characteristics of protein antigens to the polysaccharide antigen, thereby improving the immunogenicity of the polysaccharide antigen, solving the problem that the polysaccharide vaccine cannot be effectively applicated in toddler or children, which greatly promoting the development of this vaccine. This review introduces the progress of polysaccharide conjugate vaccines. We introduce the typical polysaccharide conjugate vaccines currently on the market firstly, and then elucidate the protein carriers, the coupling chemistry methods and quality control that required in the preparation of polysaccharide conjugate vaccines. We can see that polysaccharide conjugate vaccine is a kind of vaccine with great development potential, which can be a sharp edge for us to prevent diseases.
Tumor penetration is important for effectively tumor targeting drug delivery. Recently, many researches are published to overcome the barriers that restrict tumor penetration and improve drug delivery efficiency. In the mini review, we first analyzed the barriers influence the tumor penetration, including tumor microenvironment barriers, nanoparticle properties, and interaction barriers between tumor and nanoparticles. To overcome the barrier, several strategies are developed, including modulating tumor microenvironment, changing particle size, transcytosis enabled tumor penetration, cell penetrating peptide modification and overcoming binding site barrier, which could effectively improve tumor penetration, and finally enhance tumor treatment outcome.
Direct alcohol fuel cells (DAFCs) have received wide attention as a new type of clean energy device because of their high energy conversion efficiency, portability, non-toxicity and pollution-free. Anode catalysts are the key factors affecting the performance of DAFCs. Recently studies show that using the optical activity of semiconductor materials as the carriers of traditional precious metal electrocatalysts, under the illumination of light sources, can greatly improve the electrocatalytic activity and stability of electrodes. In this review, the research progress of photo-responsive metal/semiconductor hybrids as the electrocatalysts for DAFCs in recent years is summarized, including: (1) Mechanism and advantages of photo-assistant electrochemical alcohol oxidation reaction, (2) metal/semiconductor electrocatalyst for the different type of fuel cell reactions, (3) different kind of metals in photo-responsive metal/semiconductor hybrid nanostructure, (4) the personal prospects of the photo-responsive metal/semiconductor electrode for future application in DAFCs.
The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of OFQx-T: PC71BM blend films reaches 7.59%. On this basis, ternary organic solar cells (OSCs) were fabricated with ITIC or PTB7-Th as the third component. The ternary OSCs with 50 wt% ITIC in acceptors exhibits an enhanced efficiency, from 7.59% to 8.17%. Also, the PCE of ternary OSCs with 50 wt% PTB7-Th in donors achieves 8.72%, which is 13% higher than that of binary OSCs. The PCE improvement of two ternary OSCs is mainly due to the increase of short-circuit current density (Jsc), which can be attributed to the complementary absorption spectra and improved film morphology. This work suggests that the selection of an appropriate third component plays a critical role in improving the PCE of ternary OSCs.
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