Latest ArticlesEpoxy resin-reinforced graphite composites have found extensive application as bipolar plates in fuel cells for stationary power supplies, valued for their lightweight nature and exceptional durability. To enhance the interfacial properties between graphite and epoxy resin (EP), surface oxidation of graphite was carried out using diverse functional groups. Experimental assessments illustrated that the composites with graphite oxide resulted in heightened mechanical strength and toughness compared to pristine graphite, which could be attributed to the excellent interface connection. Moreover, these composites displayed remarkable conductivity while simultaneously retaining their mechanical attributes. Furthermore, molecular dynamics simulations outcomes unveiled that the inclusion of oxygen-containing functional groups on the graphite surface augmented the interfacial energy with EP, and the interface morphology between graphite and resin exhibited heightened stability throughout the stretching process. This simple and effective technique presents opportunities for improving composites interfaces, enabling high load transfer efficiency, and opens up a potential path for developing strong and tough composite bipolar plates for fuel cells.
Aliphatic C(sp3)–H moieties are ubiquitous in numerous organic compounds. Direct functionalization of inert C(sp3)–H bonds is a powerful and straightforward approach for the efficient construction of diverse carbon–carbon or carbon–heteroatom bonds. Chelating group directed metal-catalyzed remote functionalization of readily available alkenes has emerged as an appealing strategy for rapidly accessing various value-added aliphatic molecules. With the aid of directing groups, various α-, β- and γ-functionalized alkanes could be synthesized smoothly with excellent regioselectivity. The preferred formation of a stable five- or six-membered metallacycle intermediate terminates the chain-walking at a specific methylene site, which serves as the driving force for excellent site-selective migratory functionalization. This review herein is aimed at summarizing the recent progress on the metal-catalyzed regiodivergent functionalization of unactivated alkenes by merging alkene isomerization and cross-coupling with the assistance of directing auxiliary. Last but not least, the current situations and future directions in this field are highlighted and discussed.
Silicon (Si) is considered as one of the most promising anode materials for advanced lithium-ion batteries due to its high theoretical capacity, environmental friendliness, and widespread availability. However, great challenges such as volumetric expansion, limited ionic/electronic conductivity properties and complex manufacturing processes hinder its practical applications. Herein, a novel plasma-enhanced reduced graphene oxide fibers/Si (PrGOFs/Si) composite anode is first proposed by using wet-spinning technology followed by plasma-enhanced reduction method. The PrGOFs provide large space to accommodate the volume expansion of Si nanoparticles (SiNPs) by forming a flexible 3D conductive network. Compared to the conventional thermally reduced graphene oxide fibers/Si (TrGOFs/Si) sample, the PrGOFs/Si anodes demonstrate higher conductivity, specific surface area, and superior fabrication efficiency. Accordingly, the PrGOFs/Si anodes exhibit a reversible capacity of 698.3 mAh/g, and maintain a specific capacity of 602.5 mAh/g at a current density of 200 mA/g after 100 cycles, superior to conventional TrGOFs/Si counterparts. This research presents a novel strategy for the preparation of high-performance Si/carbon anodes for energy storage applications.
Enhancing the active tumor targeting ability and decreasing the clearance of reticuloendothelial system (RES) are important issues for drug delivery systems (DDSs) in cancer therapy. In recent years, cell membrane camouflage, as one of the biomimetic modification strategies, has shown huge potential. Many natural properties of source cells can be inherited, allowing the DDSs to successfully avoid phagocytosis by macrophages, prolong circulation time, and achieve homologous targeting to lesion tissue. In this study, a cancer cell membrane camouflaged nanoplatform based on gelatin with a typical core-shell structure was developed for cancer chemotherapy. Doxorubicin (DOX) loaded gelatin nanogel (NG@DOX) acted as the inner core, and 4T1 (mouse breast carcinoma cell) membrane was set as the outer shell (M-NG@DOX). The M-NG platform enhanced the ability of homologous targeting due to the surface protein of cell membrane being completely retained, which could promote the cell uptake of homotypic cells, avoid phagocytosis by RAW264.7 macrophages, and therefore increase accumulation in tumor tissue. Meanwhile, due to the better controlled drug release capability of M-NG@DOX, premature release of DOX in circulation could be reduced, minimizing side effects in common chemotherapy. As a result, the biomimetic nanoplatform in this study, obtained by a cancer cell membrane camouflaged drug delivery system, efficiently reached desirable tumor elimination, providing a significant strategy for effective targeted therapy and specific carcinoma therapy.
Electrochemiluminescence has been developed as a robust analytical technique owing to its intrinsic advantages, such as near-zero background signal noise, wide dynamic ranges, high sensitivity and low cost and simple equipment. ECL luminophore as the critical component to generate light signals plays significant roles in this robust analytical system. Compared with traditional ECL luminophores, near infrared (NIR) ECL luminophores have attracted significant attentions recently due to their negligible autofluorescence, lower background interference and deep tissue penetration. Although substantial progresses have been achieved in exploring novel NIR ECL luminophores and elucidating their roles in addressing diverse challenges, there is still scarce of comprehensive reviews on the development of NIR ECL luminophores so far. In this review, the recent advancements on NIR ECL materials, including inorganic metal complexes, organic small molecules, metal nanoclusters, quantum dots and lanthanide-based materials, have been thoroughly summarized and discussed. In addition, we also provide a comprehensive overview of the challenges and prospects that lie ahead for the future development of NIR ECL luminophores in the future.
Adenosine triphosphate (ATP), known as a common metabolic product in organism, is not only importance to provide energy in various cellular activities but also is widely explored in the bio-inspired synthetic supramolecular area which becomes a fascinating topic with the rapid development of biology, chemistry and materials science. In this review, the recent advances about ATP interacted with functional small organic compounds and metal coordinated complexes are summarized. The design principles, its function as an active supramolecular matrix, the associated non-covalent binding modes and assembly induced properties including the optical properties, morphologies are presented in details. Besides, their applications for metal ion detecting, enzyme activity monitoring and drug delivery are described due to their excellently dynamic assembly properties, adjustability, and response to stimuli. Finally, an overview of the existing challenges and future prospects of ATP-induced supramolecular systems are also discussed.
Skin wound healing is an important aspect of regenerative medicine. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have attracted considerable attention as promising nanomaterials for skin wound healing due to their remarkable versatility, tunable pore size, surface area, targeted delivery of various therapeutic agents, and controlled release properties. The combination of these materials with biocompatible and synthetic polymers can help improve their performance in wound regeneration. This review examines the potential of MOF-polymer composites in skin wound healing. Physical and biological chemical properties and methods of making MOFs and their composites have been investigated. In the final section of this review, challenges and future prospects for the development of MOF-polymer composites are stated.
The development of enantioselective C-H macrocyclizations to efficiently access structurally diversified macrocycles is highly desirable, but remain a big challenge. Herein, we reported the first rhodium(Ⅲ)-catalyzed asymmetric intramolecular C-H macrocyclization, enabling the efficient synthesis of structurally diverse enantioenriched macrocycles. This robust enantioselective C-H macrocyclization has a broad functional group tolerance, excellent enantioselectivities (up to 98.5:1.5 e.r.) and a mild reaction condition, releasing CO2 as the single by-product. More significantly, the resulting unique enantioenriched 19-membered macrocycle 2f was found to demonstrate a potent in vitro anti-Zika virus (ZIKV) activity without obvious cytotoxicity. Further investigation revealed that the anti-ZIKV activity is presumably attributed to an autophagy inhibition in the early stage of viral infection by down-regulating the expression of autophagy related gene Atg12.
This article reviews the latest research advances of tetrahedral framework nucleic acid (tFNA)-based systems in their fabrication, modification, and the potential applications in biomedicine. TFNA arises from the synthesis of four single-stranded DNA chains. Each chain contains brief sequences that complement those found in the other three, culminating in the creation of a pyramid-shaped nanostructure of approximately 10 nanometers in size. The first generation of tFNA demonstrates inherent compatibility with biological systems and the ability to permeate cell membrane effectively. These attributes translate into remarkable capabilities for regulating various cellular biological processes, fostering tissue regeneration, and modulating immune responses. The subsequent evolution of tFNA introduces enhanced adaptability and a relatively higher degree of biological stability. This advancement encompasses structural modifications, such as the addition of functional domains at the vertices or side arms, integration of low molecular weight pharmaceuticals, and the implementation of diverse strategies aimed at reversing multi-drug resistance in tumor cells or microorganisms. These augmentations empower tFNA-based systems to be utilized in different scenarios, thus broadening their potential applications in various biomedical fields.
The low drug bioavailability of eye drops challenges the therapy of ocular disorders with high efficacy. One of solutions is to extend the corneal retention and enhance the penetration of drug into cornea. Here we synthesize two fluorophore-conjugated peptide based analogs rich in positive charges (i.e., NBD-FFKK) and with a specific ligand (i.e., NBD-FFRGD), respectively, to visualize their performances in vitro and in vivo. The peptides both can self-assemble into supramolecular hydrogels with the microstructure of nanofibers. The in vitro experiments exhibit that two peptides are both uniformly distributed in cytoplasm, and the intracellular amount of peptide rich in positive charges is significantly larger than that of peptide with a specific ligand. The living corneal fluorescence shows that two peptides enter the corneal stroma within 15 min, and the peptide rich in positive charges is accumulated more extensively throughout the entire cornea, revealing that the supramolecular hydrogel eye drops penetrate the cornea more efficiently via electrostatic interaction than that via ligand-receptor interaction. This work, as a comparative study of supramolecular hydrogel eye drops on penetrating efficiency, indicates a possible direction for the design of eye drops with efficient corneal penetration.
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