Construction of hyperbranched imprinted nanomaterials for selective adsorption of cadmium (II).

A hyperbranched ion-imprinted polymer (IIP) material containing multiple selective adsorption sites was synthesized using halloysite nanotubes, methyl acrylate, and ethylenediamine in the presence of a template ion [i.e. Cd (II) heavy metal]. The successful preparation of the Cd-IIP composition was confirmed by FT-IR, XRD, TEM, TGA, and elemental analysis. The polymers exhibited good adsorption of Cd (II) with a maximum adsorption capacity of 64.37 mg·g-1. The imprinting factor (α) for Cd (II) was 2.62 and the selection factor (ß) was 1.78, indicating a specific adsorption of Cd (II) ion. The selection coefficients of Cd-IIP for Cd (II)/Pb (II), Cd (II)/Cu (II), Cd (II)/Ni (II), Cd (II)/Cr (III), and Cd (II)/Na (I) also indicated an excellent selectivity of the hyperbranched polymers for Cd (II) in the presence of competitive ions. The removal efficiency remained more than 75% after five cycles of desorption/adsorption. We envision that the HNTs based Cd-IIP has promising applications in the removal of Cd (II) from wastewater.

Ampere-level current density ammonia electrochemical synthesis using CuCo nanosheets simulating nitrite reductase bifunctional nature.

The development of electrocatalysts capable of efficient reduction of nitrate (NO3-) to ammonia (NH3) is drawing increasing interest for the sake of low carbon emission and environmental protection. Herein, we present a CuCo bimetallic catalyst able to imitate the bifunctional nature of copper-type nitrite reductase, which could easily remove NO2- via the collaboration of two active centers. Indeed, Co acts as an electron/proton donating center, while Cu facilitates NOx- adsorption/association. The bio-inspired CuCo nanosheet electrocatalyst delivers a 100 ± 1% Faradaic efficiency at an ampere-level current density of 1035 mA cm-2 at -0.2 V vs. Reversible Hydrogen Electrode. The NH3 production rate reaches a high activity of 4.8 mmol cm-2 h-1 (960 mmol gcat-1 h-1). A mechanistic study, using electrochemical in situ Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and shell-isolated nanoparticle enhanced Raman spectroscopy, reveals a strong synergy between Cu and Co, with Co sites promoting the hydrogenation of NO3- to NH3 via adsorbed *H species. The well-modulated coverage of adsorbed *H and *NO3 led simultaneously to high NH3 selectivity and yield.

Splice blocking of zygotic sox31 leads to developmental arrest shortly after Mid-Blastula Transition and induces apoptosis in zebrafish.

Here we report that splice blocking morpholinos (Sb MO) against zebrafish sox31 elicit developmental arrest, likely through creating a series of dominant negative splicing variants. Embryos injected with the Sb MO develop normally before the Mid-Blastula Transition (MBT); however, they do not initiate epiboly. Microarray analysis of mRNAs collected at the dome stage revealed that the Sb MO impairs activation of a large set of zygotic genes and reduces degradation of maternal mRNA during MBT. Furthermore, an apoptotic response occurs in Sb morphants at about 6hpf. SoxB1 family genes including sox31 thus play an essential role for early embryos traversing the transitional stage.