A computational study on the potential application of carbon nitride nanosheets in Na-ion batteries.

In the current study, the C3N monolayer, as a two-dimensional material, was considered as a suitable anode material in sodium-ion (Na-ion) batteries (NIBs) by performing first-principles density functional theory (DFT) computations. It was shown that the metallic feature of the Na-ion is retained after its adsorption onto various sites on the surface of the C3N monolayer. The C3N monolayer has negative adsorption energy values for the Na-ion. Afterwards, the C3N monolayer was shown to have a greater maximum theoretical capacity of 543.89 mAh/g for the Na-ion in comparison with other materials based on our computations. Due to the low activation energy barrier of approximately 0.112 eV, migration of the Na-ion, which includes diffusion on the surface of the C3N monolayer, is rapid, demonstrating its great capability for fast charge-discharge processes. Ultimately, it was shown that, for the Na, the C3N monolayer possesses a low average open-circuit voltage, i.e., 0.83 V. These results show that it is possible to utilize the C3N monolayer in NIBs as an anode material.

Evolutionary Trend Analysis of Research on 5-ALA Delivery and Theranostic Applications Based on a Scientometrics Study.

5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) has been extensively studied for its sustainability and broad-spectrum applications in medical research and theranostics, as well as other areas. It's a precursor of protoporphyrin IX (PpIX), a sustainable endogenous and naturally-existing photosensitizer. However, to the best of our knowledge, a scientometrics study based on the scientific knowledge assay of the overall situation on 5-ALA research has not been reported so far, which would be of major importance to the relevant researchers. In this study, we collected all the research articles published in the last two decades from the Web of Science Core Collection database and employed bibliometric methods to comprehensively analyze the dataset from different perspectives using CiteSpace. A total of 1595 articles were identified. The analysis results showed that China published the largest number of articles, and SBI Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. was the most productive institution that sponsored several of the most productive authors. The cluster analysis and burst detections indicated that the improvement of photodynamic efficacy theranostics is the up-to-date key direction in 5-ALA research. Furthermore, we emphatically studied nanotechnology involvement in 5-ALA delivery and theranostics research. We envision that our results will be beneficial for researchers to have a panorama of and deep insights into this area, thus inspiring further exploitations, especially of the nanomaterial-based systems for 5-ALA delivery and theranostic applications.

In situ cross-linking carbodiimide-modified chitosan hydrogel for postoperative adhesion prevention in a rat model.

BACKGROUND: Postoperative intra-abdominal adhesion often causes many complications. Chitosan fluid has been used in clinic to prevent intra-abdominal adhesion. However, fluid can be easily diluted and cannot stay on the wound site. As hydrogel is able to form stable physical barrier to separate injured tissues, we developed a chitosan hydrogel for better prevention of intra-abdominal adhesion in this study. METHODS: We synthesized a carbodiimide-derivatized chitosan gelatin (cd-CS-gelatin) hydrogel and investigated its rheological properties. A rat model was used to compare the anti-adhesion effect of chitosan hydrogel and fluid. The wounds were created with damage of the underlying muscle of the abdominal wall and the serosal layer of the cecum. They were coated with chitosan fluid or cd-CS-gelatin hydrogel. At day 14 after surgery, the animals were euthanized and intra-abdominal adhesion was assessed. RESULTS: The cd-CS-gelatin hydrogel solidified within 3min after the mixing of the reagents. The cecum-abdomen adhesion occurred in all rats without anti-adhesion treatment. The application of cd-CS-gelatin significantly reduced the adhesion rate from 100% to 50%, compared the chitosan fluid only to 88%. The decrease of adhesion breaking strength also manifested that cd-CS-gelatin was more effective than chitosan fluid to reduce postsurgical intra-abdominal adhesion formation. CONCLUSIONS: Chitosan hydrogel is more effective than chitosan fluid to prevent postoperative cecum-abdomen adhesion. It indicates that hydrogel could be a more promising state than liquid to prevent postoperative intra-abdominal adhesion.