Nanosensor-based monitoring of autophagy-associated lysosomal acidification in vivo.

Autophagy is a cellular process with important functions that drive neurodegenerative diseases and cancers. Lysosomal hyperacidification is a hallmark of autophagy. Lysosomal pH is currently measured by fluorescent probes in cell culture, but existing methods do not allow for quantitative, transient or in vivo measurements. In the present study, we developed near-infrared optical nanosensors using organic color centers (covalent sp3 defects on carbon nanotubes) to measure autophagy-mediated endolysosomal hyperacidification in live cells and in vivo. The nanosensors localize to the lysosomes, where the emission band shifts in response to local pH, enabling spatial, dynamic and quantitative mapping of subtle changes in lysosomal pH. Using the sensor, we observed cellular and intratumoral hyperacidification on administration of mTORC1 and V-ATPase modulators, revealing that lysosomal acidification mirrors the dynamics of S6K dephosphorylation and LC3B lipidation while diverging from p62 degradation. This sensor enables the transient and in vivo monitoring of the autophagy-lysosomal pathway.

Fluids and Electrolytes under Confinement in Single-Digit Nanopores.

Confined fluids and electrolyte solutions in nanopores exhibit rich and surprising physics and chemistry that impact the mass transport and energy efficiency in many important natural systems and industrial applications. Existing theories often fail to predict the exotic effects observed in the narrowest of such pores, called single-digit nanopores (SDNs), which have diameters or conduit widths of less than 10 nm, and have only recently become accessible for experimental measurements. What SDNs reveal has been surprising, including a rapidly increasing number of examples such as extraordinarily fast water transport, distorted fluid-phase boundaries, strong ion-correlation and quantum effects, and dielectric anomalies that are not observed in larger pores. Exploiting these effects presents myriad opportunities in both basic and applied research that stand to impact a host of new technologies at the water-energy nexus, from new membranes for precise separations and water purification to new gas permeable materials for water electrolyzers and energy-storage devices. SDNs also present unique opportunities to achieve ultrasensitive and selective chemical sensing at the single-ion and single-molecule limit. In this review article, we summarize the progress on nanofluidics of SDNs, with a focus on the confinement effects that arise in these extremely narrow nanopores. The recent development of precision model systems, transformative experimental tools, and multiscale theories that have played enabling roles in advancing this frontier are reviewed. We also identify new knowledge gaps in our understanding of nanofluidic transport and provide an outlook for the future challenges and opportunities at this rapidly advancing frontier.

Programming sp3 Quantum Defects along Carbon Nanotubes with Halogenated DNA.

Atomic defect color centers in solid-state systems hold immense potential to advance various quantum technologies. However, the fabrication of high-quality, densely packed defects presents a significant challenge. Herein we introduce a DNA-programmable photochemical approach for creating organic color-center quantum defects on semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). Key to this precision defect chemistry is the strategic substitution of thymine with halogenated uracil in DNA strands that are orderly wrapped around the nanotube. Photochemical activation of the reactive uracil initiates the formation of sp3 defects along the nanotube as deep exciton traps, with a pronounced photoluminescence shift from the nanotube band gap emission (by 191 meV for (6,5)-SWCNTs). Furthermore, by altering the DNA spacers, we achieve systematic control over the defect placements along the nanotube. This method, bridging advanced molecular chemistry with quantum materials science, marks a crucial step in crafting quantum defects for critical applications in quantum information science, imaging, and sensing.

Quantum Defect Sensitization via Phase-Changing Supercharged Antibody Fragments.

Quantum defects in single-walled carbon nanotubes promote exciton localization, which enables potential applications in biodevices and quantum light sources. However, the effects of local electric fields on the emissive energy states of quantum defects and how they can be controlled are unexplored. Here, we investigate quantum defect sensitization by engineering an intrinsically disordered protein to undergo a phase change at a quantum defect site. We designed a supercharged single-chain antibody fragment (scFv) to enable a full ligand-induced folding transition from an intrinsically disordered state to a compact folded state in the presence of a cytokine. The supercharged scFv was conjugated to a quantum defect to induce a substantial local electric change upon ligand binding. Employing the detection of a proinflammatory biomarker, interleukin-6, as a representative model system, supercharged scFv-coupled quantum defects exhibited robust fluorescence wavelength shifts concomitant with the protein folding transition. Quantum chemical simulations suggest that the quantum defects amplify the optical response to the localization of charges produced upon the antigen-induced folding of the proteins, which is difficult to achieve in unmodified nanotubes. These findings portend new approaches to modulate quantum defect emission for biomarker sensing and protein biophysics and to engineer proteins to modulate binding signal transduction.

Surfactant-Aided Stabilization of Individual Carbon Nanotubes in Water around the Critical Micelle Concentration.

Surfactants are widely used to disperse single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and other nanomaterials for liquid-phase processing and characterization. Traditional techniques, however, demand high surfactant concentrations, often in the range of 1-2 wt/v% of the solution. Here, we show that optimal dispersion efficiency can be attained at substantially lower surfactant concentrations of approximately 0.08 wt/v%, near the critical micelle concentration. This unexpected observation is achieved by introducing "bare" nanotubes into water containing the anionic surfactant sodium deoxycholate (DOC) through a superacid-surfactant exchange process that eliminates the need for ultrasonication. Among the diverse ionic surfactants and charged biopolymers explored, DOC exhibits the highest dispersion efficiency, outperforming sodium cholate, a structurally similar bile salt surfactant containing just one additional oxygen atom compared to DOC. Employing all-atomistic molecular dynamics simulations, we unravel that the greater stabilization by DOC arises from its higher binding affinity to nanotubes and a substantially larger free energy barrier that resists nanotube rebundling. Further, we find that this barrier is nonelectrostatic in nature and does not obey the classical Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) theory of colloidal stability, underscoring the important role of nonelectrostatic dispersion and hydration interactions at the nanoscale, even in the case of ionic surfactants like DOC. These molecular insights advance our understanding of surfactant chemistry at the bare nanotube limit and suggest low-energy, surfactant-efficient solution processing of SWCNTs and potentially other nanomaterials.

Localized Photoactuation of Polymer Pens for Nanolithography.

Localized actuation is an important goal of nanotechnology broadly impacting applications such as programmable materials, soft robotics, and nanolithography. Despite significant recent advances, actuation with high temporal and spatial resolution remains challenging to achieve. Herein, we demonstrate strongly localized photoactuation of polymer pens made of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and surface-functionalized short carbon nanotubes based on a fundamental understanding of the nanocomposite chemistry and device innovations in directing intense light with digital micromirrors to microscale domains. We show that local illumination can drive a small group of pens (3 × 3 over 170 µm × 170 µm) within a massively two-dimensional array to attain an out-of-plane motion by more than 7 µm for active molecular printing. The observed effect marks a striking three-order-of-magnitude improvement over the state of the art and suggests new opportunities for active actuation.

Quantum Defects: What Pairs with the Aryl Group When Bonding to the sp2 Carbon Lattice of Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes?

Aryl diazonium reactions are widely used to covalently modify graphitic electrodes and low-dimensional carbon materials, including the recent creation of organic color centers (OCCs) on single-wall carbon nanotube semiconductors. However, due to the experimental difficulties in resolving small functional groups over extensive carbon lattices, a basic question until now remains unanswered: what group, if any, is pairing with the aryl sp3 defect when breaking a C═C bond on the sp2 carbon lattice? Here, we show that water plays an unexpected role in completing the diazonium reaction with carbon nanotubes involving chlorosulfonic acid, acting as a nucleophilic agent that contributes -OH as the pairing group. By simply replacing water with other nucleophilic solvents, we find it is possible to create OCCs that feature an entirely new series of pairing groups, including -OCH3, -OC2H5, -OC3H7, -i-OC3H7, and -NH2, which allows us to systematically tailor the defect pairs and the optical properties of the resulting color centers. Enabled by these pairing groups, we further achieved the synthesis of OCCs with sterically bulky pairs that exhibit high purity defect photoluminescence effectively covering both the second near-infrared window and the telecom wavelengths. Our studies further suggest that these diazonium reactions proceed through the formation of carbocations in chlorosulfonic acid, rather than a radical mechanism that typically occurs in aqueous solutions. These findings uncover the unknown half of the sp3 defect pairs and provide a synthetic approach to control these defect color centers for quantum information, imaging, and sensing.

A circular RNA derived from PLXNB2 as a valuable predictor of the prognosis of patients with acute myeloid leukaemia.

BACKGROUND: As a common haematological malignancy, acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), particularly with extramedullary infiltration (EMI), often results in a high mortality rate and poor prognosis. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) regulate biological and pathogenic processes, suggesting a potential role in AML. We have previously described the overall alterations in circRNAs and their regulatory networks between patients with AML presenting with and without EMI. This study aims to find new prognostic and therapeutic targets potentially associated with AML. METHODS: qRT-PCR was performed on samples from 40 patients with AML and 15 healthy controls. The possibility of using circPLXNB2 (circRNA derived from PLXNB2) as a diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for AML was analysed with multiple statistical methods. In vitro, the function of circPLXNB2 was studied by lentivirus transfection, CCK-8 assays, flow cytometry, and Transwell experiments. Western blotting and qRT-PCR were performed to detect the expression of related proteins and genes. The distribution of circPLXNB2 in cells was observed using RNA fluorescence in situ hybridization (RNA-FISH). We also investigated the role of circPLXNB2 by establishing AML xenograft models in NOD/SCID mice. RESULTS: By analysing the results of qRT-PCR detection of clinical samples, the expression of the circPLXNB2 and PLXNB2 mRNAs were significantly increased in patients with AML, more specifically in patients with AML presenting with EMI. High circPLXNB2 expression was associated with an obviously shorter overall survival and leukaemia-free survival of patients with AML. The circPLXNB2 expression was positively correlated with PLXNB2 mRNA expression, as evidenced by Pearson's correlation analysis. RNA-FISH revealed that circPLXNB2 is mainly located in the nucleus. In vitro and in vivo, circPLXNB2 promoted cell proliferation and migration and inhibited apoptosis. Notably, circPLXNB2 also increased the expression of PLXNB2, BCL2 and cyclin D1, and reduced the expression of BAX. CONCLUSION: In summary, we validated the high expression of circPLXNB2 and PLXNB2 in patients with AML. Elevated circPLXNB2 levels were associated with poor clinical outcomes in patients with AML. Importantly, circPLXNB2 accelerated tumour growth and progression, possibly by regulating PLXNB2 expression. Our study highlights the potential of circPLXNB2 as a new prognostic predictor and therapeutic target for AML in the future.

Histone deacetylase inhibitor chidamide regulates the Wnt/ß-catenin pathway by MYCN/DKK3 in B-ALL.

Our previous studies revealed that MYCN downregulates the expression of DKK3, activates the Wnt/ß-catenin signalling pathway at the transcriptional level, and thereby promotes the development of B cell acute lymphocytic leukaemia (B-ALL) but does not affect the methylation of the DKK3 promoter. Some studies have shown that MYCN is associated with histone acetylation. We speculate that histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACis) can inhibit the Wnt/ß-catenin signalling pathway by inhibiting MYCN and increasing the expression of DKK3. Based on previous experiments, we tested this hypothesis by analysing the changes in MYCN, DKK3 and the Wnt/ß-catenin signalling pathways in B-ALL cells after treatment with the selective HDACi chidamide. The in vitro and in vivo experiments confirmed that chidamide inhibited the expression of MYCN and increased the expression of DKK3 by inhibiting the activity of histone deacetylase, and these effects resulted in inhibition of the Wnt/ß-catenin signalling pathway and the proliferation of B-ALL cells. These findings indicate that chidamide might be used alone or in combination with other chemotherapy regimens for patients with B-ALL and thus provide a new approach to the treatment of B-ALL.

Photon Correlation Spectroscopy of Luminescent Quantum Defects in Carbon Nanotubes.

Defect-decorated single-wall carbon nanotubes have shown rapid growing potential for imaging, sensing, and the development of room-temperature single-photon sources. The key to the highly nonclassical emission statistics is the discrete energy spectrum of defect-localized excitons. However, variations in defect configurations give rise to distinct spectral bands that may compromise single-photon efficiency and purity in practical devices, and experimentally it has been challenging to study the exciton population distribution among the various defect-specific states. Here, we performed photon correlation spectroscopy on hexyl-decorated single-wall carbon nanotubes to unravel the dynamics and competition between neutral and charged exciton populations. With autocorrelation measurements at the single-tube level, we prove the nonclassical photon emission statistics of defect-specific exciton and trion photoluminescence and identify their mutual exclusiveness in photoemissive events with cross-correlation spectroscopy. Moreover, our study reveals the presence of a dark state with population-shelving time scales between 10 and 100 ns. These new insights will guide further development of chemically tailored carbon nanotube states for quantum photonics applications.

Stretchable Transparent Conductive Films from Long Carbon Nanotube Metals.

Flexible transparent conductors are an enabling component for large-area flexible displays, wearable electronics, and implantable medical sensors that can wrap around and move with the body. However, conventional conductive materials decay quickly under tensile strain, posing a significant hurdle for functional flexible devices. Here, we show that high electrical conductivity, mechanical stretchability, and optical transparency can be simultaneously attained by compositing long metallic double-walled carbon nanotubes with a polydimethylsiloxane substrate. When stretched to 100% tensile strain, thin films incorporating these long nanotubes (≈3.2 µm on average) achieve a record high conductivity of 3316 S cm-1 at 100% tensile strain and 85% optical transmittance, which is 194 times higher than that of short nanotube controls (≈0.8 µm on average). Moreover, the high conductivity can withstand more than 1000 repeated stretch-release cycles (switching between 100% and 0% strain) with a retention approaching 96%, whereas the short nanotube controls exhibit only 10%. Mechanistic studies reveal that long tubes can bridge the microscale gaps generated during stretching, thereby maintaining high electrical conductivity. When mounted on human joints, this elastic transparent conductor can accommodate large motions to provide stable, high current output. These results point to transparent conductors capable of attaining high electrical conductivity and optical transmittance under mechanical strain to allow large shape changes that may take place in the operation and use of flexible electronics.

Photochemical Creation of Fluorescent Quantum Defects in Semiconducting Carbon Nanotube Hosts.

Quantum defects are an emerging class of synthetic single-photon emitters that hold vast potential for near-infrared imaging, chemical sensing, materials engineering, and quantum information processing. Herein, we show that it is possible to optically direct the synthetic creation of molecularly tunable fluorescent quantum defects in semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotube hosts through photochemical reactions. By exciting the host semiconductor with light that resonates with its electronic transition, we find that halide-containing aryl groups can covalently bond to the sp2 carbon lattice. The introduced quantum defects generate bright photoluminescence that allows tracking of the reaction progress in situ. We show that the reaction is independent of temperature but correlates strongly with the photon energy used to drive the reaction, suggesting a photochemical mechanism rather than photothermal effects. This type of photochemical reactions opens the possibility to control the synthesis of fluorescent quantum defects using light and may enable lithographic patterning of quantum emitters with electronic and molecular precision.

Chirality-Selective Functionalization of Semiconducting Carbon Nanotubes with a Reactivity-Switchable Molecule.

Chirality-selective functionalization of semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) has been a difficult synthetic goal for more than a decade. Here we describe an on-demand covalent chemistry to address this intriguing challenge. Our approach involves the synthesis and isolation of a chemically inert diazoether isomer that can be switched to its reactive form in situ by modulation of the thermodynamic barrier to isomerization with pH and visible light that resonates with the optical frequency of the nanotube. We found that it is possible to completely inhibit the reaction in the absence of light, as determined by the limit of sensitive defect photoluminescence (less than 0.01% of the carbon atoms are bonded to a functional group). This optically driven diazoether chemistry makes it possible to selectively functionalize a specific SWCNT chirality within a mixture. Even for two chiralities that are nearly identical in diameter and electronic structure, (6,5)- and (7,3)-SWCNTs, we are able to activate the diazoether compound to functionalize the less reactive (7,3)-SWCNTs, driving the chemical reaction to near exclusion of the (6,5)-SWCNTs. This work opens opportunities to chemically tailor SWCNTs at the single chirality level for nanotube sorting, on-chip passivation, and nanoscale lithography.

Chemical Gating of a Synthetic Tube-in-a-Tube Semiconductor.

A critical challenge to translating field effect transistors into biochemical sensor platforms is the requirement of a gate electrode, which imposes restrictions on sensor device architectures and results in added expense, poorer scalability, and electrical noise. Here we show that it is possible to eliminate the need of the physical gate electrode and dielectrics altogether using a synthetic tube-in-a-tube (Tube∧2) semiconductor. Composed of a semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotube nested in a charged, impermeable covalent functional shell, Tube∧2 allows the semiconducting conduction pathway to be modulated solely by surface functional groups in a chemically gated-all-around configuration. The removal of physical gates significantly simplifies the device architecture and enables photolithography-free, highly scalable fabrication of transistor sensors in nonconventional configurations that are otherwise impossible. We show that concomitant FET sensitivity and single-mismatch selectivity can be achieved with Tube∧2 even in a two-terminal, thin film transistor device configuration that is as simple as a chemiresistor. Miniaturized two-terminal field effect point sensors can also be fabricated, using a straightforward dice-and-dip procedure, for the detection of tuberculosis biomarkers.

Capillary electrophoresis of covalently functionalized single-chirality carbon nanotubes.

We demonstrate the separation of chirality-enriched single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) by degree of surface functionalization using high-performance CE. Controlled amounts of negatively charged and positively charged functional groups were attached to the sidewall of chirality-enriched SWCNTs through covalent functionalization using 4-carboxybenzenediazonium tetrafluoroborate or 4-diazo-N,N-diethylaniline tetrafluoroborate, respectively. Surfactant- and pH-dependent studies confirmed that under conditions that minimized ionic screening effects, separation of these functionalized SWCNTs was strongly dependent on the surface charge density introduced through covalent surface chemistry. For both heterogeneous mixtures and single-chirality-enriched samples, covalently functionalized SWCNTs showed substantially increased peak width in electropherogram spectra compared to nonfunctionalized SWCNTs, which can be attributed to a distribution of surface charges along the functionalized nanotubes. Successful separation of functionalized single-chirality SWCNTs by functional density was confirmed with UV-Vis-NIR absorption and Raman scattering spectroscopies of fraction collected samples. These results suggest a high degree of structural heterogeneity in covalently functionalized SWCNTs, even for chirality-enriched samples, and show the feasibility of applying CE for high-performance separation of nanomaterials based on differences in surface functional density.

Graphene as a functional layer for semiconducting carbon nanotube transistor sensors.

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) hold vast potential for future electronic devices due to their outstanding properties, however covalent functionalization often destroys the intrinsic properties of SWCNTs, thus limiting their full potential. Here, we demonstrate the fabrication of a functionalized graphene/semiconducting SWCNT (T@fG) heterostructured thin film transistor as a chemical sensor. In this structural configuration, graphene acts as an atom-thick, impermeable layer that can be covalently functionalized via facile diazonium chemistry to afford a high density of surface functional groups while protecting the underlying SWCNT network from chemical modification, even during a covalent chemical reaction. As a result, the highly functionalized carbon-based hybrid structure exhibits excellent transistor properties with a carrier mobility and ON/OFF ratio as high as 64 cm2/Vs and 5400, respectively. To demonstrate its use in potential applications, T@fG thin films were fabricated as aqueous ammonium sensors exhibiting a detection limit of 0.25 µM in a millimolar ionic strength solution, which is comparable with state-of-the-art aqueous ammonium nanosensors.

Li3PO4 Matrix Enables a Long Cycle Life and High Energy Efficiency Bismuth-Based Battery.

Bismuth is a lithium-ion battery anode material that can operate at an equilibrium potential higher than graphite and provide a capacity twice as high as that of Li4Ti5O12, making it intrinsically free from lithium plating that may cause catastrophic battery failure. However, the potential of bismuth is hampered by its inferior cyclability (limited to tens of cycles). Here, we propose an "ion conductive solid-state matrix" approach to address this issue. By homogeneously confining bismuth nanoparticles in a solid-state γ-Li3PO4 matrix that is electrochemically formed in situ, the resulting composite anode exhibits a reversible capacity of 280 mA hours per gram (mA h/g) at a rate of 100 mA/g and a record cyclability among bismuth-based anodes up to 500 cycles with a capacity decay rate of merely 0.071% per cycle. We further show that full-cell batteries fabricated from this composite anode and commercial LiFePO4 cathode deliver a stable cell voltage of ∼2.5 V and remarkable energy efficiency up to 86.3%, on par with practical batteries (80-90%). This work paves a way for harnessing bismuth-based battery chemistry for the design of high capacity, safer lithium-ion batteries to meet demanding applications such as electric vehicles.

Optically Triggered Melting of DNA on Individual Semiconducting Carbon Nanotubes.

Optical excitation of nanostructures is known to induce local heating, a phenomenon that has been intensely exploited for drug release, gene delivery, cancer thermotherapy, and energy harvesting. However, the effect is typically small requiring collective heating of a large concentration or aggregates of particles. Herein, we show that optical excitation of individual semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes triggers strongly localized heating adequate to melt non-covalently attached double-stranded oligonucleotides in solution. In contrast to conventional thermal dehybridization, this optically triggered DNA melting occurs at a solution temperature that is 22 °C lower than the DNA melting temperature. This unexpectedly large localized optical heating effect provides important new insights to design selective optical nanoheaters at the single particle level.

Polyhalides as Efficient and Mild Oxidants for Oxidative Carbene Organocatalysis by Radical Processes.

Simple and inexpensive polyhalides (CCl4 and C2 Cl6 ) have been found to be effective and versatile oxidants in removing electrons from Breslow intermediates under N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) catalysis. This oxidative reaction involves multiple single-electron-transfer (SET) processes and several radical intermediates. The α, ß, and γ-carbon atoms of aldehydes and enals could be readily functionalized. Given the low cost of the oxidants and the broad applicability of the reactions, this study is expected to greatly enhance the feasibility of oxidative NHC catalysis for large-scale applications. Also this new SET radical process with polyhalides as single-electron oxidants will open a new avenue in the development of NHC-catalyzed radical reactions.

Molecularly Tunable Fluorescent Quantum Defects.

We describe the chemical creation of molecularly tunable fluorescent quantum defects in semiconducting carbon nanotubes through covalently bonded surface functional groups that are themselves nonemitting. By variation of the surface functional groups, the same carbon nanotube crystal is chemically converted to create more than 30 distinct fluorescent nanostructures with unique near-infrared photoluminescence that is molecularly specific, systematically tunable, and significantly brighter than that of the parent semiconductor. This novel exciton-tailoring chemistry readily occurs in aqueous solution and creates functional defects on the sp(2) carbon lattice with highly predictable C-C bonding from virtually any iodine-containing hydrocarbon precursor. Our new ability to control nanostructure excitons through a single surface functional group opens up exciting possibilities for postsynthesis chemical engineering of carbon nanomaterials and suggests that the rational design and creation of a large variety of molecularly tunable quantum emitters-for applications ranging from in vivo bioimaging and chemical sensing to room-temperature single-photon sources-can now be anticipated.