Phosphate Ion-Selective Electrode Based on Electrochemically Modified Iron.

The significance of the detection of phosphate ions is immense in the realms of chemistry, biology, medicine, environment, and industry. The detection of phosphate ions is currently mainly reliant on blue molybdenum colorimetry, which is accurate but requires sample pretreatment, intricate operation, and a high price tag. Consequently, it is essential to create a sensor with superior efficiency, precision, straightforward functioning, and instantaneous online detection. This study has designed and created an electrochemical modification based on an iron metal electrode for this purpose. Cyclic voltammetry was used to initially ascertain the potential (-0.57 V) necessary for constant potential electrolysis. Employing a constant potential electrolysis method, the iron oxide and its phosphate were modified onto the surface of the iron electrode to enable reaction with phosphate ions. Scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy were used to characterize and analyze the morphology and elemental composition of Fe-PME, elucidating how it responds to phosphate ionation. The two-electrode system was then utilized for the evaluation of the phosphate ion response of Fe-PME at pH 4. Fe-PME's response to phosphate ions is demonstrated by the results, ranging from 10-5 to 0.1 M and with a slope of -52.8 mV dec-1. Fe-PME exhibited satisfactory results when compared to the conventional blue colorimetry of molybdenum.

Three-Dimensional View Relationship-Based Context-Aware Emotion Recognition.

Context-aware emotion recognition (CAER) leverages comprehensive scene information, including facial expressions, body postures, and contextual background. However, current studies predominantly rely on facial expressions, body postures, and global contextual features; the interaction between the agents (target individuals) and other objects in the scene is usually absent or incomplete. In this article, a three-dimensional view relationship-based CAER (TDRCer) method is proposed, which comprises two branches: the personal emotional branch (PEB) and the contextual emotional branch (CEB). First, PEB is designed for the extraction of facial expression features and body posture features from the agent. A vision transformer (ViT), pretrained by contrastive learning with a novel loss function combining Euclidean distance and cosine similarity, is applied to enhance the robustness of facial expression features. Meanwhile, the human body contour images extracted by semantic segmentation are fed into another ViT to extract body posture features. Second, CEB is constructed for the extraction of global contextual features and interactive relationships among objects in the scene. The images masked by the agents' bodies are fed into a ViT to extract global contextual features. By leveraging both the gaze angle and depth map, a three-dimensional view graph (3DVG) is constructed to represent the interactive relationships between agents and objects in the scene. Then, a graph convolutional network is employed to extract interactive relationship features from the 3DVG. Finally, the multiplicative fusion strategy is applied to fuse the features of two branches, and the fused features are utilized to classify the emotions. TDRCer achieves an accuracy of 89.90% on the CAER-S dataset and a mean average precision (mAP) of 36.02% on the EMOTIons in context (EMOTIC) dataset. The code can be accessed at https://github.com/mengTender/TDRCer.

Co-freezing localized CRISPR-Cas12a system enables rapid and sensitive nucleic acid analysis.

Rapid and sensitive nucleic acid detection is vital in disease diagnosis and therapeutic assessment. Herein, we propose a co-freezing localized CRISPR-Cas12a (CL-Cas12a) strategy for sensitive nucleic acid detection. The CL-Cas12a was obtained through a 15-minute co-freezing process, allowing the Cas12a/crRNA complex and hairpin reporter confined on the AuNPs surface with high load efficiency, for rapid sensing of nucleic acid with superior performance to other localized Cas12a strategies. This CL-Cas12a based platform could quantitatively detect targets down to 98 aM in 30 min with excellent specificity. Furthermore, the CL-Cas12a successful applied to detect human papillomavirus infection and human lung cancer-associated single-nucleotide mutations. We also achieved powerful signal amplification for imaging Survivin mRNA in living cells. These findings highlight the potential of CL-Cas12a as an effective tool for nucleic acid diagnostics and disease monitoring.

Ti4Fe2C0.82O0.18.

The phase with composition Ti4Fe2C0.82O0.18, tetra-titanium diiron carbide oxide, was unexpectedly synthesized by high-pressure sinter-ing (HPS) of a stoichiometric mixture with nominal composition Ti2Fe. The Ti4Fe2C0.82O0.18 phase crystallizes in the Fd m space group and can be considered as the Ti2Fe structure filled with C and O atoms co-occupying the same octa-hedral void [occupancy ratio 0.82 (7):0.18 (7)]. The Ti4Fe2C0.82O0.18 phase is isotypic with Ti4Ni2C and Ti4Fe2O0.407, and is the first example where C and O atoms co-occupy the same site in filled Ti2Fe structures.

Robot-assisted resection of renal tumor in children and comparison with laparoscopic surgery.

BACKGROUND: Robot-assisted surgery (RAS) is being performed with increasing frequency in pediatric oncology. We report our experience with RAS for renal tumors in children and compare the outcomes between RAS and laparoscopic surgery (LAS). METHODS: A total of 23 patients with renal tumor who underwent minimally invasive surgery (MIS) between January 2020 and December 2023 were included in the study. The inclusion criteria enrolled in this study was unilateral tumors with maximum tumor diameter less than 10 cm. Patients who had enlarged lymph node, venous thrombosis, preoperative tumor rupture, bilateral renal tumor, or extrarenal extension on imaging were deemed contraindications and excluded. Patient demographics, operative details, postoperative outcomes and follow-up were recorded. RESULTS: Among these patients, 17 underwent RAS and 6 underwent LAS. In the RAS group, the median age was 64 months (range, 9-156) with a median weight of 19.48 kg (range, 8.4-46.5); the maximum tumor diameter at operation was 55.65 mm (range, 22-88); the operation time was 188.8 min (range, 120-210), the intraoperative blood loss was 20 ml (range, 5-50), and the length of postoperative hospital stay was 4 days (range 1-9). There was no significant difference in patients' age, weight, location, tumor size, histological pattern and operation time between the two groups (P > 0.05). The RAS group had a significantly less intraoperative blood loss (P = 0.026) and less length of postoperative stay (P = 0.01) than the LAS group. CONCLUSION: Our initial experience suggested that RAS in pediatric renal tumor was feasible and safe, and it reduced surgical trauma and accelerate postoperative recovery for the patients. Due to the limitations of sample size and study quality, the clinical importance of these findings still needs to be further verified.

Surface coating engineering of titanate anodes based on tannic acid-formaldehyde polymer chelating bismuth ions for advanced sodium-ion capacitors.

As a battery-type anode material for sodium ion capacitors (SICs), titanate (H2Ti2O5·H2O, HTO) exhibits good rate capability due to its layered structure, easy to insert Na+ ions and low potential during sodium-ion storage. However, the structure is unstable due to the lattice distortion resulting from the irreversible embedment of Na+ in the process of sodium storage. So there is a significant mismatch between the dynamic reaction of the HTO anode and the capacitive cathode. Surface coating engineering is a useful strategy for stabilizing the HTO structure, which is critical for improving the kinetic response. In this work, a surface coating technique is designed to enhance the surface of HTO nanoarrays on titanium foil by using the oligomers of tannic acid formaldehyde polymer (TAF) chelated Bi3+ ions (Bi-TAF). As a binder-free anode, HTO coated with Bi-TAF (HTO@Bi-TAF) exhibits more excellent capacity (335.2 mA h g-1, 0.1 A g-1), rate capability (212.3 mA h g-1, 2.0 A g-1), and cycle stability (97 % capacity maintenance following 2000 cycles at 1.0 A g-1) than HTO and HTO coated with TAF (HTO@TAF). At the sweep rate of 1.0 mV s-1, the kinetic investigation reveals that the capacitance contribution of HTO@Bi-TAF is 86 %. The SICs exhibit a significant energy/power density (89.4 Wh kg-1/250 W kg-1). This work shows that the Bi-TAF polymer coating has a dual effect of rate capability improvement and structural protection on the prepared HTO. This results in a reasonable and effective surface coating strategy that provides outstanding rate capability and extended cycle performance of titanium-based anode materials for SICs.

The association between the non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in US adults: a cross-sectional study.

The ratio of non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (non-HDL-C) to HDL-C (NHHR) is a novel lipid parameter used to assess the risk of cardiovascular disease. Previous studies have demonstrated an association between the NHHR and risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Owing to the lack of research exploring this relationship in specific populations, this study aimed to determine the potential link between the NHHR and risk of NAFLD among American adults in the United States. Data were retrieved from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) spanning 2017-2020. After excluding individuals with other liver diseases, alcohol abuse, and missing lipid data, a total of 6809 eligible adults were included for analysis. The NHHR was calculated as the ratio of (non-HDL-C) to HDL-C, while NAFLD was identified by liver steatosis detected by transient elastography. Multivariable weighted logistic regression models and restricted cubic spline (RCS) models were employed to investigate the relationship between the NHHR and risk of NAFLD. Subgroup and sensitivity analyses were also conducted to test the robustness of the results. As the NHHR increased, the prevalence of NAFLD rose progressively (5.88% vs. 8.75% vs. 12.24% vs. 15.77%, p < 0.001). In the overall population, after adjusting for confounding factors, each unit increase in the NHHR was associated with a 25% increase in NAFLD risk (OR = 1.25, 95% CI: 1.03-1.53, p = 0.0372). When the NHHR was analyzed as a categorical variable (quartiles), participants in the highest quartile had a significantly higher risk of NAFLD than those in the lowest quartile (OR = 2.6, 95% CI: 1.75-3.85, p = 0.009). RCS analysis further indicated a nonlinear dose-response relationship between the NHHR and risk of NAFLD (p non-linearity < 0.0001). This association remained significant in both subgroup and sensitivity analyses. This study confirmed that the NHHR, particularly at higher levels, was an independent risk factor for NAFLD. As a comprehensive lipid indicator, the NHHR had the potential to predict NAFLD risk. These findings provided new insights for the prevention and clinical management of NAFLD.

Experimental investigation of dynamic drying in single pharmaceutical granules containing acetaminophen or carbamazepine using synchrotron X-ray micro computed tomography.

Drying time, velocity, and temperature are important aspects of the drying process for pharmaceutical granules observed during tablet manufacturing. However, the drying mechanism of single granules is often limited to modelling and simulation, with the internal and physical changes difficult to quantify at an experimental level. In this study, in-situ synchrotron-based X-ray imaging techniques were used for the first time to investigate the dynamic drying of single pharmaceutical granules, quantifying internal changes occurring over the drying time. Two commonly used excipients (lactose monohydrate (LMH) and microcrystalline cellulose (MCC)) were used as pure components and binary mixtures with one of either two active pharmaceutical ingredients of differing hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity (acetaminophen (APAP) and carbamazepine (CBZ)). Water was used as a liquid binder to generate single granules of 25 % to 30 % moisture content. Results showed that for most samples, the drying time and composition significantly influences the pore volume evolution and the moisture ratio, with the velocity and temperature of the drying air possessing mixed significance on increasing the rate of pore connectivity and moisture removal depending on the sample composition. Effects of active ingredient loading resulted in minimal influence on the drying of CBZ and generated binary mixtures, with APAP and its respective mixtures' drying behaviour dominated by the material's hydrophilic nature.

Transient Phase-Mediated Li+ Transportation in the Lithium Lanthanum Titanate Solid-State Electrolyte.

The lithium lanthanum titanium oxide (LLTO) perovskite is one type of superior lithium (Li)-ion conductor that is of great interest as a solid-state electrolyte for all-solid-state lithium batteries. Structural defects and impurity phases formed during the synthesis of LLTO largely affect its Li-ion conductivity, yet the underlying Li+ diffusion mechanism at the atomic scale is still under scrutiny. Herein, we use aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy to perform a thorough structural characterization of the LLTO ceramic pellet. We reveal a prevalent transient phase transition of (La, Ti)2O3 existing at the antiphase boundaries between single-crystalline LLTO domains. This transient phase exhibits a specific crystal orientation with the LLTO phase and shows a gradual structural transition to a tetragonal LLTO structure, which enables detailed crystallographic analysis to correlate their formation to the sintering process of LLTO powders into ceramic pellets. We also find that Li diffusion is retarded by this phase and correlated with the excess amount of La, which is corroborated by the theoretical evaluation of the atomistic mechanisms of Li diffusion across this phase.

An Adaptive and Automatic Power Supply Distribution System with Active Landmarks for Autonomous Mobile Robots.

With the development of automation and intelligent technologies, the demand for autonomous mobile robots in the industry has surged to alleviate labor-intensive tasks and mitigate labor shortages. However, conventional industrial mobile robots' route-tracking algorithms typically rely on passive markers, leading to issues such as inflexibility in changing routes and high deployment costs. To address these challenges, this study proposes a novel approach utilizing active landmarks-battery-powered luminous landmarks that enable robots to recognize and adapt to flexible navigation requirements. However, the reliance on batteries necessitates frequent recharging, prompting the development of an automatic power supply system. This system integrates omnidirectional contact electrodes on mobile robots, allowing to recharge active landmarks without precise positional alignment. Despite these advancements, challenges such as the large size of electrodes and non-adaptive battery charging across landmarks persist, affecting system efficiency. To mitigate these issues, this research focuses on miniaturizing active landmarks and optimizing power distribution among landmarks. The experimental results of this study demonstrated the effectiveness of our automatic power supply method and the high accuracy of landmark detection. Our power distribution calculation method can adaptively manage energy distribution, improving the system's persistence by nearly three times. This study aims to enhance the practicality and efficiency of mobile robot remote control systems utilizing active landmarks by simplifying installation processes and extending operational durations with adaptive and automatic power supply distribution.

Preparation of sulfated arabinogalactan-loaded hydrogel for wound healing in mouse burn model.

Sulfation of polysaccharides can affect their biological activity by introducing sulfate groups. Skin burns occur regularly and have a great impact on normal survival. In this study, sulfated arabinogalactan (SAG) was prepared by sulfation, and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) was used to prepare hydrogels for the treatment of scalded skin in mouse. The results show that the main chain of SAG consists of →3-ß-D-Galactose (Gal)-(1, →3, 6)-ß-D-Gal-(1 and →4)-ß-d-Glucose (Glc)-(1. The chain is a neutral polysaccharide composed of T-ß-L-Arabinose (Araf)-(1→, with a molecular weight of 17.9 kDa. At the same time, PVA + SAG hydrogel can promote the scald repair of mouse skin by promoting collagen deposition and angiogenesis, and regulating the TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB signaling pathway. Interestingly, the effect of SAG on promoting the repair of scald wounds is enhanced after AG is derivatized by sulfation. Therefore, the preparation of SAG by sulfation can promote scald repair, and has great application potential in the field of food and medicine.

Application of polysaccharide-based crosslinking agents based on schiff base linkages for biomedical scaffolds.

Chemical crosslinking is a method widely used to enhance the mechanical strength of biopolymer-based scaffolds. Polysaccharides are natural and biodegradable carbohydrate polymers that can act as crosslinking agents to promote the formation of scaffolds. Compared to synthetic crosslinking agents, Polysaccharide-based crosslinking agents have better biocompatibility for cell adhesion and growth. Traditional Chinese medicine has special therapeutic effects on various diseases and is rich in various bioactive ingredients. Among them, polysaccharides have immune regulatory, antioxidant, and anti-inflammation effects, which allow them to not only act as crosslinking agents but endow the scaffold with greater bioactivity. This article focuses on the latest developments of polysaccharide-based crosslinking agents for biomedical scaffolds, including hyaluronic acid, chondroitin sulfate, dextran, alginate, cellulose, gum polysaccharides, and traditional Chinese medicine polysaccharides. Also, we provide a summary and prospects on the research of polysaccharide-based crosslinking agents.

Dihydromyricetin-loaded oxidized polysaccharide/L-arginine chitosan adhesive hydrogel promotes bone regeneration by regulating PI3K/AKT signaling pathway and MAPK signaling pathway.

Bone defects caused by trauma, infection and congenital diseases still face great challenges. Dihydromyricetin (DHM) is a kind of flavone extracted from Ampelopsis grossedentata, a traditional Chinese medicine. DHM can enhance the osteogenic differentiation of human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells with the potential to promote bone regeneration. Hydrogel can be used as a carrier of DHM to promote bone regeneration due to its unique biochemical characteristics and three-dimensional structure. In this study, oxidized phellinus igniarius polysaccharides (OP) and L-arginine chitosan (CA) are used to develop hydrogel. The pore size and gel strength of the hydrogel can be changed by adjusting the oxidation degree of oxidized phellinus igniarius polysaccharides. The addition of DHM further reduce the pore size of the hydrogel (213 µm), increase the mechanical properties of the hydrogel, and increase the antioxidant and antibacterial activities of the hydrogel. The scavenging rate of DPPH are 72.30 ± 0.33 %, and the inhibition rate of E.coli and S.aureus are 93.12 ± 0.38 % and 94.49 ± 1.57 %, respectively. In addition, PCAD has good adhesion and biocompatibility, and its extract can effectively promote the osteogenic differentiation of MC3T3-E1 cells. Network pharmacology and molecular docking show that the promoting effect of DHM on osteogenesis may be achieved by activating the PI3K/AKT and MAPK signaling pathways. This is confirmed through in vitro cell experiments and in vivo animal experiments.

Amperometric Highly Sensitive Phosphate Ion Sensor Based on the Electrochemically Modified Ni Electrode.

We present a study of high-performance electrochemical phosphate sensors, which are exquisitely designed and easy to operate. We innovatively utilized the insolubility of nickel phosphate and developed a new type of sensor through electrochemical methods. The experiment first used cyclic voltammetry to determine -0.4 V as the optimal electrochemical modification potential and used constant potential electrodeposition technology to form a nickel oxide layer on the surface of the nickel electrode, which serves as the active layer in response to phosphate ions. The changes in the surface structure and chemical composition of the electrode before and after modification were thoroughly characterized by scanning electron microscopy and energy scattering spectroscopy analysis. The performance evaluation of the sensor shows that the modified nickel electrode has excellent responsiveness to phosphate ions in the concentration range of 10-7 to 10-10 mol/L, with a detection lower limit of 10-10 mol/L. As the concentration decreases, a shoulder peak appears at ∼0.63 V and the current change shows a regular increase. Compared with traditional detection methods, this sensor exhibits higher stability and practicality and is suitable for the rapid identification of phosphates in real samples. In summary, this study successfully developed a fast, sensitive, and wide response range current type electrochemical phosphate sensor, which has broad application prospects in environmental monitoring, water quality analysis, and biomedical fields.

Localized Cas12a-based cascade amplification for sensitive and robust detection of APE1.

APE1, an essential enzyme for DNA repair, is overexpressed in various cancers and has been identified as a potential biomarker for cancer diagnosis. However, detecting APE1 at low expression levels in the early stage of cancer presents a significant obstacle. Here, we introduced a novel localized Cas12a-based cascade amplification (LCas12a-CA) method. This method confined both the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase and the crRNA/Cas12a complex onto the surfaces of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). This confinement not only boosts the stability of the multiple enzymes but also induces a substrate channeling effect. As a result, it significantly accelerates the reaction rate and enhances the sensitivity of APE1 detection. Upon the addition of APE1, the AP sites within the APE1 primer can be recognized and cleaved by APE1, exposing the 3'-OH ends. In the presence of LCas12a-CA, polyA sequences are generated at 3'-OH ends with the help of TdT and dATP. The sequences directly enter the Cas12a system, activating the trans-cleavage activity of Cas12a, thereby cutting the reporters on the surface of AuNPs and releasing fluorescence. Our platform demonstrates a detection limit (LOD) as low as 2.51 × 10-6 U/mL, which is more than 60 times lower than that of free Cas12a-CA. Furthermore, the LCas12a-CA exhibits enhanced resistance ability in extreme environments and has been proven effective for the detection of APE1 in clinical samples. Overall, this work offers a promising platform for robust biosensing in cancer diagnosis and prognosis.

An attribution graph-based interpretable method for CNNs.

Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have demonstrated outstanding performance in various domains, such as face recognition, object detection, and image segmentation. However, the lack of transparency and limited interpretability inherent in CNNs pose challenges in fields such as medical diagnosis, autonomous driving, finance, and military applications. Several studies have explored the interpretability of CNNs and proposed various post-hoc interpretable methods. The majority of these methods are feature-based, focusing on the influence of input variables on outputs. Few methods undertake the analysis of parameters in CNNs and their overall structure. To explore the structure of CNNs and intuitively comprehend the role of their internal parameters, we propose an Attribution Graph-based Interpretable method for CNNs (AGIC) which models the overall structure of CNNs as graphs and provides interpretability from global and local perspectives. The runtime parameters of CNNs and feature maps of each image sample are applied to construct attribution graphs (At-GCs), where the convolutional kernels are represented as nodes and the SHAP values between kernel outputs are assigned as edges. These At-GCs are then employed to pretrain a newly designed heterogeneous graph encoder based on Deep Graph Infomax (DGI). To comprehensively delve into the overall structure of CNNs, the pretrained encoder is used for two types of interpretable tasks: (1) a classifier is attached to the pretrained encoder for the classification of At-GCs, revealing the dependency of At-GC's topological characteristics on the image sample categories, and (2) a scoring aggregation (SA) network is constructed to assess the importance of each node in At-GCs, thus reflecting the relative importance of kernels in CNNs. The experimental results indicate that the topological characteristics of At-GC exhibit a dependency on the sample category used in its construction, which reveals that kernels in CNNs show distinct combined activation patterns for processing different image categories, meanwhile, the kernels that receive high scores from SA network are crucial for feature extraction, whereas low-scoring kernels can be pruned without affecting model performance, thereby enhancing the interpretability of CNNs.

Covered stent combined with embolization treatment for complex congenital lower limb arteriovenous malformations: case report and literature review.

BACKGROUND: Currently, the treatment outcomes for complex congenital arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) remain unsatisfactory. This article reports on the utilization of an abdominal aortic stent graft, in conjunction with embolization techniques, for managing acute heart failure triggered by complex congenital arteriovenous malformations in the lower limb. CASE PRESENTATION: We present a case involving a patient with congenital AVMs in the lower limb, who had suffered from prolonged swelling in the left lower limb and recently developed symptoms of heart failure. At the age of 67, the patient was definitively diagnosed with a complex congenital AVMs in the lower limb. This article delves into the practical experiences and limitations encountered in employing an abdominal aortic stent graft, coupled with embolization, to address acute heart failure caused by complex congenital AVMs in the lower limb. CONCLUSIONS: Our article presents the initial report on the challenges and limitations encountered in treating acute heart failure triggered by complex congenital AVMs in the lower limb, utilizing a combination of abdominal aortic stent graft placement and embolization techniques.

Safety and efficacy of endovenous microwave ablation for treatment of varicose veins of the lower limbs in China: A prospective registered clinical trial.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the safety and efficacy of a new Chinese device using microwave ablation for treating symptomatic great saphenous vein (GSV) varicose veins (VVs). METHODS: This prospective, single-arm, single-center, cohort study investigated the safety and efficacy of endovenous microwave ablation for the treatment of symptomatic VVs. A total of 50 patients with lower limb varicose veins were enrolled from the Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The clinical outcomes and complications were assessed at 1, 6, and 12 months after the procedure. The primary outcome was the occlusion rate of GSV immediately and at 1, 6, and 12 months after the treatment. The secondary outcomes included the venous clinical severity score (VCSS), the chronic venous insufficiency questionnaire 14 items (CIVIQ-14) score, the Aberdeen varicose vein questionnaire (AVVQ) score, and the pain visual analog scale (VAS) score. This study protocol was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (ID: NCT04645771). RESULTS: In total, 50 limbs from 50 patients (26 female; mean age: 53.45 ± 9.78 years) were treated. A technical success rate of 100% was achieved and no serious adverse events were recorded. During the follow-up period, the occlusion rate of the major/minor saphenous vein trunk remained 100% at 1, 6, and 12 months after surgery except one patient fell off. The median 24-h VAS value was 2 (2,3). The VCSS score, CIVIQ-14 score, and AVVQ score (p < .05) at 1, 6, and 12 months improved significantly compared with the value preoperative (p < .05). CONCLUSION: EMA was safe and effective for treating varicose veins in the lower limbs, with a high rate of venous trunk occlusion and few complications, thus improving patients' postoperative quality of life.

Injecting Sustainability into Epoxy-Based Composite Materials by Using Bio-Binder from Hydrothermal Liquefaction Processing of Microalgae.

We report a transformative epoxy system with a microalgae-derived bio-binder from hydrothermal liquefaction processing (HTL). The obtained bio-binder not only served as a curing agent for conventional epoxy resin (e.g., EPON 862), but also acted as a modifying agent to enhance the thermal and mechanical properties of the conventional epoxy resin. This game-changing epoxy/bio-binder system outperformed the conventional epoxy/hardener system in thermal stability and mechanical properties. Compared to the commercial EPON 862/EPIKURE W epoxy product, our epoxy/bio-binder system (35 wt.% bio-binder addition with respect to the epoxy) increased the temperature of 60% weight loss from 394 °C to 428 °C and the temperature of maximum decomposition rate from 382 °C to 413 °C, while the tensile, flexural, and impact performance of the cured epoxy improved in all cases by up to 64%. Our research could significantly impact the USD 38.2 billion global market of the epoxy-related industry by not only providing better thermal and mechanical performance of epoxy-based composite materials, but also simultaneously reducing the carbon footprint from the epoxy industry and relieving waste epoxy pollution.