Ti3C2Tx MXene sensor for rapid Hg2+ analysis in high salinity environment.

Mercury is one of the leading chemicals of concern and receives much attention in environmental safety. It is of great necessity to develop advanced Hg2+ analysis method for rapid detection and monitoring. Field-effect transistor (FET) sensor, an emerging electronic sensor, has received great attention in environmental analysis since it has unique advantages in achieving rapid analysis of chemicals. Herein, an FET sensor is constructed with Ti3C2Tx MXene as the channel material to detect Hg2+ in water. The sensor displays rapid and selective response to Hg2+. Moreover, the sensor achieves satisfactory performance in Hg2+ detection in high salinity environment (1 M NaCl), which benefits its applications in real water analysis. Based on the investigation of sensing mechanism, the strong response of Ti3C2Tx MXene FET sensor to Hg2+ is due to the adsorption and reduction of Hg2+ to Hg+ on the Ti3C2Tx surface. This reported label-free Ti3C2Tx MXene platform can detect Hg2+ in high salinity environment with high specificity, which has significant application potential for on-site monitoring and risk assessment of Hg2+ in aqueous systems.

Label-Free, Fast Response, and Simply Operated Silver Ion Detection with a Ti3C2Tx MXene Field-Effect Transistor.

Silver (Ag) is a widely used heavy metal, and its oxidation state (Ag+) causes serious harm to organisms after bioaccumulation and biomagnification, posing urgent demand for the rapid, efficient, and simply operated Ag+ detection techniques. In this work, a fast, portable, and label-free Ag+ detection sensor based on a Ti3C2Tx MXene field-effect transistor (FET) is reported. The Ti3C2Tx MXene works as the sensing element in the FET sensor, which shows excellent sensing performance, i.e., fast response (few seconds) and good sensitivity and selectivity to Ag+ without any detection label or probe. Utilizing the visual photograph, transmission electron microscopy image, and Ag elemental mapping analysis, the sensing mechanism of the label-free Ti3C2Tx MXene FET sensor is demonstrated to be the in situ reduction of Ag+ and the formation of Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs). Moreover, Ag+ detection in real samples shows that the proposed FET devices have satisfactory sensing capability for Ag+ in tap water and river water. This study puts forward a novel FET strategy for Ag+ detection in aqueous systems, which is of essential and inspiring meaning for motivating the potential applications of MXene-based sensor devices in analytical applications and the realization of on-site environmental monitoring.

High Anti-Interference Ti3C2Tx MXene Field-Effect-Transistor-Based Alkali Indicator.

MXenes, a group of emerging two-dimensional (2D) transition metal carbides or nitrides, have attracted wide interest due to their unique structures and properties. Their stability and applicability in different media especially in an alkaline environment are directly associated with their potential applications and are not yet explored. Herein, a field-effect transistor (FET) is fabricated with single/double-layer Ti3C2Tx MXene. The Ti3C2Tx FET indicator shows a fast (∼1 s), sensitive, and selective response to alkali. Moreover, the device can work even in a high-salinity (2 M NaCl) environment, suggesting its high anti-interference ability for alkali in a high-ionic-strength environment. Using an in situ morphological image evolution study, it is demonstrated that the response signal results from alkali-induced denaturation of Ti3C2Tx nanosheets. The Ti3C2Tx-based alkali FET indicator and systematic evaluation on alkali-induced structure evolution of Ti3C2Tx provide essential insights into MXene-based FETs and future applications of MXene in alkaline environments.

Aeration-assisted sulfite activation with ferrous for enhanced chloramphenicol degradation.

In this study, an Fe(Ⅱ)/S(IV) system was designed for the degradation of chloramphenicol (CAP). The pseudo-first-order rate constants for CAP degradation under typical conditions with and without air purging were investigated. The greatly enhanced rate of 0.0099 min-1 with air purging compared with 0.0006 min-1 with no air purging indicated that aeration was significant to the degradation of CAP in Fe(Ⅱ)/S(Ⅳ) system. Radical scavenging experiments revealed that SO4- was the primary oxidant generated from the activation of S(IV) with Fe(II), accounting for around 70% of degradation under weak acidic and neutral conditions. Increasing Fe(II) and S(IV) doses promoted the degradation of CAP, whereas the overdose of them led to a decreased degradation rate by scavenging radicals. Owing to the participation of oxygen in the formation of ferric sulfite complex and SO5-, the increase of dissolved oxygen improved the removal efficiency of CAP. The removal efficiency of CAP was also found to be pH dependent, decreasing from acid condition (initial pH = 4) to basic condition (initial pH = 8). The presence of coexisting anions and water matrix was found inhibiting CAP degradation in Fe(Ⅱ)/S(Ⅳ) system. This work provides an understanding on the working mechanism and possible applications of Fe(Ⅱ)/S(Ⅳ) system in organic compound degradation in wastewater.

Ultraselective antibiotic sensing with complementary strand DNA assisted aptamer/MoS2 field-effect transistors.

Although aptamer has been demonstrated as an important probe for antibiotic determination, the selective sensing of different antibiotics is still a challenge due to their structure similarities and wide folding degrees of aptamer. Herein, a field-effect transistor using MoS2 nanosheet as the channel and an aptamer DNA (APT) with its configuration shaped by a complementary strand DNA (CS) is employed for kanamycin (KAN) determination. This probe structure contributes to an enhanced selectivity and reliability with reduced device-to-device variations. This MoS2/APT/CS sensor shows time-dependent performance in antibiotic sensing. Prolonged detection time (20 s-300 s) leads to an enhanced sensitivity (1.85-4.43 M-1) and a lower limit of detection (1.06-0.66 nM), while a shorter detection time leads to a broader linear working range. A new sensing mechanism relying on charge release from probe is proposed, which is based on the "replacement reaction" between KAN and APT-CS. This sensor exhibits an extremely high selectivity (selectivity coefficient of 12.8) to kanamycin over other antibiotics including streptomycin, tobramycin, amoxicillin, ciprofloxacin and chloramphenicol. This work demonstrates the merits of probe engineering in label-free antibiotic detection with FET sensor, which presents significant promises in sensitive and selective chemical and biological sensing.

Synthesis of silver phosphate/graphene oxide composite and its enhanced visible light photocatalytic mechanism and degradation pathways of tetrabromobisphenol A.

In the present study, silver phosphate/graphene oxide (Ag3PO4/GO) composite was synthesized by ultrasound-precipitation processes. Afterwards, physicochemical properties of the resulting samples were studied through scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope, X-ray diffraction, N2 adsorption/desorption, UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, surface photovoltage spectroscopy and photoelectrochemical measurements. Results indicated that spherical Ag3PO4 displayed an average diameter of 150 nm and body-centered cubic crystal phase, which was integrated with GO. In addition, the visible light absorbance, charge separation efficiency and lifetime of Ag3PO4 were significantly improved by integration with GO. In addition, Ag3PO4/GO composite was applied to decompose tetrabromosphenol A (TBBPA) in water body. It was found that TBBPA could be completely decomposed within 60 min illumination. Furthermore, several scavenger experiments were conducted to distinguish the contribution of reactive species to the photoctalytic efficiency. Moreover, the enhanced visible light mechanism of Ag3PO4/GO was proposed and discussed. Eventually, several PC decomposition pathways of TBBPA were identified including directly debromination and oxidation, and subsequently further oxidation and hydroxylation processes.