Preparation of asymmetric Janus hollow silica microparticle and its application on oily wastewaters.

Janus nanoparticles have aroused the interest of scholars because of their highly efficient emulsification of spilled oils in wastewater. In this work, interfacially active Janus hollow glass microparticles (J-HGMPs) of asymmetric wettability were designed and synthesized in order to achieve more efficient separation of emulsified oil droplets from oily wastewater. Surface characteristic techniques such as FTIR, SEM, zeta potential and contact angle measurements had been employed to assess the amphiphilic surface properties of J-HGMPs. The oil removal/recovery performance of J-HGMPs in different oil-water systems and their interfacial activities were studied. As a particulate emulsifier, J-HGMPs could remove/recover > 96% oil from oil-water mixed phase. The results showed that J-HGMPs had strong interfacial activities and anchored firmly at oil/water interfaces. This high adsorption energy was also evaluated and verified via the calculation of Gibbs free energy. Overall, this study provided a novel and low-cost oil recovery method via a convenient buoyancy force that could be effectively applied in the treatment of oil spills while achieving the goal of benign and green environmental protection.

A sustainable natural clam shell derived photocatalyst for the effective adsorption and photodegradation of organic dyes.

In response to an increasing desire for modern industries to be both green and sustainable, there has been increasing research focus on the reutilization of natural waste materials to effectively remove and degrade toxic wastewater effluents. One interesting food industry waste product is clam shell. Here a new photocatalytic nanomaterial derived from marine clam shells was successfully prepared and characterized. Thereafter the material was applied for the removal of two target dyes from aqueous solution, where the effect of both catalyst dose and initial dye concentration on adsorption and photocatalysis was investigated. The maximum adsorption capacities of methylene blue (100 mg/L) and Congo red (500 mg/L) were 123.45 mg/g and 679.91 mg/g, respectively, where adsorption followed pseudo second order kinetics predominantly via a chemical adsorption process. The photodegradation removal efficiencies of the two dye solutions under visible light irradiation were 99.6% and 83.3% for MB and CR, respectively. The excellent degradation performance in a mixed dye solution, with strong degradation capability and low cost, demonstrated that the clam shell catalyst material was a good candidate for practical field remediation of dye contaminated wastewater.

Characterization of genomic clones by targeted deep sequencing of ctDNA to monitor liver cancer.

BACKGROUND: In recent years, the morbidity and mortality of cancer patients have continued to increase in China, and there is an urgent need to develop an effective method to monitor tumor dynamics and measure tumor burden. Derived from the cell-free fraction of blood in cancer patients, circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) has been regarded as a promising surrogate for tumor tissue biopsies. With the development of sequencing technology, ctDNA has been recognized as a specific and highly sensitive biomarker, and it has become a hot research spot in recent years. METHODS: In this paper, we investigated clonal changes before and after surgery in liver cancer patients using ctDNA. RESULTS: First, we evaluated the accuracy and stability of the method in ctDNA detection using virtual tumor samples with known mutations. The results showed that our method detected variants with an allelic frequency of at least 0.5%. We then applied this method to 34 liver cancer patients. A total of 266 clinically relevant mutations were identified in the pretreatment plasma samples. Through the analysis of plasma DNA samples at different treatment time points, we also investigated the possibility of using ctDNA as a prognostic factor to reflect tumor dynamics and to evaluate clinical responses. CONCLUSIONS: The results demonstrated that targeted high-depth next-generation sequencing can be used in ctDNA detection. Compared to traditional biopsy, the detection of ctDNA provides more information for human liver cancer, which is essential to guide the selection of therapy and predict prognosis.