Multifunctional Hollow Porous Fe3O4@N-C Nanocomposites as Anodes of Lithium-Ion Battery, Adsorbents and Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Substrates.

At present, it is still a challenge to prepare multifunctional composite nanomaterials with simple composition and favorable structure. Here, multifunctional Fe3O4@nitrogen-doped carbon (N-C) nanocomposites with hollow porous core-shell structure and significant electrochemical, adsorption and sensing performances were successfully synthesized through the hydrothermal method, polymer coating, then thermal annealing process in nitrogen (N2) and lastly etching in hydrochloric acid (HCl). The morphologies and properties of the as-obtained Fe3O4@N-C nanocomposites were markedly affected by the etching time of HCl. When the Fe3O4@N-C nanocomposites after etching for 30 min (Fe3O4@N-C-3) were applied as the anodes for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), the invertible capacity could reach 1772 mA h g-1 after 100 cycles at the current density of 0.2 A g-1, which is much better than that of Fe3O4@N-C nanocomposites etched, respectively, for 15 min and 45 min (948 mA h g-1 and 1127 mA h g-1). Additionally, the hollow porous Fe3O4@N-C-3 nanocomposites also exhibited superior rate capacity (950 mA h g-1 at 0.6 A g-1). The excellent electrochemical properties of Fe3O4@N-C nanocomposites are attributed to their distinctive hollow porous core-shell structure and appropriate N-doped carbon coating, which could provide high-efficiency transmission channels for ions/electrons, improve the structural stability and accommodate the volume variation in the repeated Li insertion/extraction procedure. In addition, the Fe3O4@N-C nanocomposites etched by HCl for different lengths of time, especially Fe3O4@N-C-3 nanocomposites, also show good performance as adsorbents for the removal of the organic dye (methyl orange, MO) and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates for the determination of a pesticide (thiram). This work provides reference for the design and preparation of multifunctional materials with peculiar pore structure and uncomplicated composition.

Facile Synthesis of Fe3O4@Au/PPy-DOX Nanoplatform with Enhanced Glutathione Depletion and Controllable Drug Delivery for Enhanced Cancer Therapeutic Efficacy.

The complex physiological environment and inherent self-healing function of tumors make it difficult to eliminate malignant tumors by single therapy. In order to enhance the efficacy of antitumor therapy, it is significant and challenging to realize multi-mode combination therapy by utilizing/improving the adverse factors of the tumor microenvironment (TME). In this study, a novel Fe3O4@Au/PPy nanoplatform loaded with a chemotherapy drug (DOX) and responsive to TME, near-infrared (NIR) laser and magnetic field was designed for the combination enhancement of eliminating the tumor. The Fe2+ released at the low pH in TME can react with endogenous H2O2 to induce toxic hydroxyl radicals (·OH) for chemodynamic therapy (CDT). At the same time, the generated Fe3+ could deplete overexpressed glutathione (GSH) at the tumor site to prevent reactive oxygen species (ROS) from being restored while producing Fe2+ for CDT. The designed Fe3O4@Au/PPy nanoplatform had high photothermal (PT) conversion efficiency and photodynamic therapy (PDT) performance under NIR light excitation, which can promote CDT efficiency and produce more toxic ROS. To maximize the cancer-killing efficiency, the nanoplatform can be successfully loaded with the chemotherapeutic drug DOX, which can be efficiently released under NIR excitation and induction of slight acidity at the tumor site. In addition, the nanoplatform also possessed high saturation magnetization (20 emu/g), indicating a potential magnetic targeting function. In vivo and in vitro results identified that the Fe3O4@Au/PPy-DOX nanoplatform had good biocompatibility and magnetic-targeted synergetic CDT/PDT/PTT/chemotherapy antitumor effects, which were much better than those of the corresponding mono/bi/tri-therapies. This work provides a new approach for designing intelligent TME-mediated nanoplatforms for synergistically enhancing tumor therapy.

B, N Co-Doped Three-Dimensional Carbon Aerogels with Excellent Electrochemical Performance for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction.

Herein, an ordinary and mass-production approach is reported to synthesize boron (B) and nitrogen (N) co-doped three-dimensional (3D) carbon aerogels (CA) by using glucose and borax as the raw materials by a simple hydrothermal method and then carbonization in NH3 atmosphere. The porous material (BN-CA-900) possesses a large specific surface area (1032 m2 g-1 ) and high contents of doped pyridinic N and graphitic N. The onset potential (0.91 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode, RHE), half-wave potential (0.77 V vs. RHE), and current density (5.70 mA cm-2 at 0.2 V vs. RHE) of BN-CA-900 for ORR are similar to those of commercial Pt/C, indicating that BN-CA-900 has a comparable catalytic activity with Pt/C in alkaline media. The number of electron transfer is 3.86-3.99 and the yield of hydrogen peroxide is less than 6.8 %. BN-CA-900 also presents decent catalytic performance in acidic medium. Moreover, the stability and methanol tolerance of BN-CA-900 are superior to commercial Pt/C in both alkaline and acidic media. The prepared BN-CA-900 is a promising candidate that may be applied in other areas, such as the adsorption of pollution, porous conductive electrodes, and lithium-ion batteries.

Bifunctional reduced graphene oxide/V2O5 composite hydrogel: fabrication, high performance as electromagnetic wave absorbent and supercapacitor.

Multifunctional graphene hydrogels have attracted great attention aimed at practical applications. Herein, the novel and bifunctional composite hydrogel containing reduced graphene-oxide nanosheets (RGO) and V2O5 nanobelts (RGO/V2O5) is successfully prepared for the first time. Surprisingly, tridimensional (3D) RGO/V2O5 composite hydrogels cannot only be used as high-performance electromagnetic (EM) wave absorbents; they also exhibit excellent properties suitable for supercapacitor electrodes. The composites exhibit a maximum absorption of up to -21.5 dB. In particular, a composite hydrogel showed a bandwidth of 6.63 GHz, corresponding to a reflection loss at -10 dB, which opens the possibility for the use of 3D graphene with other functional nanomaterials as lightweight and high-performance EM wave absorption materials. Remarkably, the composite hydrogel is capable of delivering a high specific capacitance of about 320 F g(-1) at a current density of 1.0 A g(-1) .

Fabrication of porous ZnO/Co3O4 nanohybrids for the application of surface enhanced Raman scattering.

With the growing use of various pesticides, it is important to develop facile and sensitive method to detect pesticides residues in food. Here, a semiconductor/magnetic hybrid material was used as surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate to detect simulated residues. The representative sample of porous ZnO/Co3O4 nano-cube was fabricated by pyrolysis and calcination of Zn-Co ZIF, successively. The obtained hybrid of ZnO/Co3O4 was employed as substrate to detect of crystal violet (CV) and Rhodamine B (Rh B), and showed remarkable SERS performance. The detection limit of Rh B was 1 × 10-10 M as well as CV of 1 × 10-9 M. The results indicated that it was an ideal choice to improve the SERS property of transition metal oxide substrates by doping semiconductor. The semiconductor/magnetic hybrid material highlighted the obvious characteristics of low cost, facile preparation and ultra-low detection limit in the SERS measurements. The hybrids with the combination of semiconductor/magnetic properties showed a further widely application and development in SERS detection of pesticides residues.

In-situ fabrication of novel Au nanoclusters-Cu2+@sodium alginate/hyaluronic acid nanohybrid gels for cuproptosis enhanced photothermal/photodynamic/chemodynamic therapy via tumor microenvironment regulation.

Multimodal combined therapy (MCT) is an emerging avenue to eliminate tumor cells by the synergistic effect of various therapeutic methods. However, the complex tumor microenvironment (TME) is becoming the key barrier to the therapeutic effect of MCT due to the excessive existence of H+ ions, H2O2, and glutathione (GSH), the lack of O2, and the relaxation of ferroptosis. To overcome these limitations, smart nanohybrid gels with excellent biocompatibility, stability and targeting function were prepared by using gold nanoclusters as cores and an in situ cross-linking composite gel of sodium alginate (SA)/hyaluronic acid (HA) as the shell. The obtained Au NCs-Cu2+@SA-HA core-shell nanohybrid gels possessed near-infrared light response synergistically benefitting photothermal imaging guided photothermal therapy (PTT) and photodynamic therapy (PDT). Meanwhile, the H+-triggered release of Cu2+ ions from the nanohybrid gels not only induces cuproptosis to avoid the relaxation of ferroptosis, but also catalyzes H2O2 in the TME to generate O2 to simultaneously improve the hypoxic microenvironment and PDT effect. Furthermore, the released Cu2+ ions could consume the excessive GSH to form Cu+ ions effectively, which caused the formation of hydroxyl free radicals (·OH) to kill tumor cells, synergistically realizing GSH consumption-enhanced PDT and chemodynamic therapy (CDT). Hence, the novel design in our work provides another research avenue for cuproptosis-enhanced PTT/PDT/CDT via TME modulation.

Layer-by-layer inkjet printing of fabricating reduced graphene-polyoxometalate composite film for chemical sensors.

Graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets and polyoxometalate such as H(3)PW(12)O(40) (PTA) are prepared into a multilayer film via a layer-by-layer inkjet printing method. The GO/PTA composite thin film shows linear, uniform and regular layer-by-layer growth. Under UV-irradiation, a photoreduction reaction takes place in the film which converts GO to reduced GO (rGO) due to the photoreduction activity of polyoxometalate clusters. According to the cyclic voltammograms measurement, the rGO/PTA composite film displays good electrocatalytic activity for the oxidation of dopamine (DA). The oxidation peak current (I(pa)) increases gradually with increasing the dopamine concentration, which may be used in electrochemical biosensors.

Self-assembled 3D flowerlike hierarchical Fe3O4@Bi2O3 core-shell architectures and their enhanced photocatalytic activity under visible light.

Three-dimensional (3D) flowerlike hierarchical Fe(3)O(4)@Bi(2)O(3) core-shell architectures were synthesized by a simple and direct solvothermal route without any linker shell. The results indicated that the size of the 3D flowerlike hierarchical microspheres was about 420 nm and the shell was composed of several nanosheets with a thickness of 4-10 nm and a width of 100-140 nm. The saturation magnetization of the superparamagnetic composite microspheres was about 41 emu g(-1) at room temperature. Moreover, the Fe(3)O(4)@Bi(2)O(3) composite microspheres showed much higher (7-10 times) photocatalytic activity than commercial Bi(2)O(3) particles under visible-light irradiation. The possible formation mechanism was proposed for Ostwald ripening and the self-assembled process. This novel composite material may have potential applications in water treatment, degradation of dye pollutants, and environmental cleaning, for example.

4-in-1 Fe3O4/g-C3N4@PPy-DOX nanocomposites: Magnetic targeting guided trimode combinatorial chemotherapy/PDT/PTT for cancer.

At present, cancer has become a major disease threatening human health worldwide. Therefore, developing targeting guided multimode synergetic therapy has become one of the hot spots in current antitumor research and is also a great challenge. Herein, a new Fe3O4/g-C3N4@PPy-DOX nanocomposite containing magnetic iron oxide (Fe3O4) nanoparticles (NPs), lamellar structure of graphite-like carbon nitride (g-C3N4) and polypyrrole (PPy) shell with the loaded anti-tumor drug doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) was designed and prepared. The monodisperse Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) with the diameter of 20 nm endowed the nanocomposite with the magnetic targeting ability, reducing damage to normal tissues. It is very interesting that the Fe3O4 NPs also possessed photosensitizer function for photodynamic therapy (PDT). The g-C3N4 sheets as the photocatalysis towards the degradation of water for generating O2 could effectively improve the hypoxia of solid tumors and increase the efficiency of PDT. In addition, PPy has high light-to-heat conversion efficiency, so was chosen for the cancer photothermal therapy (PTT). Finally, an anticancer drug (DOX) was loaded on the nanocomposite because the presence of mesoporous structure. Thus, the prepared Fe3O4/g-C3N4@PPy-DOX nanocomposites exhibit synergetic chemotherapy/PTT/enhanced PDT antitumor effect. This study provides an inspiration for combining targeting and multimodality to improve the anticancer efficiency.

Self-assembled Au4Cu4/Au25 NCs@liposome tumor nanotheranostics with PT/fluorescence imaging-guided synergetic PTT/PDT.

Exploring and developing a new type of nanoplatform with diagnosis and treatment to effectively cure tumors and reduce side effects has become a hot spot for researchers and is of great significance. Herein, a cancer theranostic nanoplatform with dual-imaging, dual-phototherapy and laser-responsiveness to tumor microenvironment was successfully assembled by liposome (Lip) co-loaded with oil-soluble Au4Cu4 nanoclusters (NCs) and water-soluble Au25 NCs via a simple film hydration method and subsequent extraction process. The prepared Au4Cu4/Au25@Lip nanoplatform with core-shell structure and about 50 nm of uniform sphere shape presented highly biocompatible, stability and passive targeting due to the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect. Furthermore, the Lip composed of lecithin and cholesterol has good affinity with the cell membrane, which can realize the effective accumulation of photosensitizers at the tumor site, so that improving phototherapy effect and reducing the damage to normal tissue. The loaded oil-soluble Au4Cu4 NCs were firstly and pleasantly surprised to find possessed not only ideal photodynamic effect, but also preferable catalysis towards endogenous hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) decomposition to produce oxygen (O2) for improving the tumor hypoxic environment besides the excellent photoluminescence ability while the water-soluble Au25 NCs own outstanding photothermogenesis effect and also photoluminescence performance. The in vitro and in vivo experiment results proved that in the Au4Cu4/Au25@Lip nanoplatform, the performances of both NCs were complementary, which presenting considerable photothermal/fluorescence imaging (PTI/FI)-guided synergistic photothermal therapy (PTT)/O2-enhanced photodynamic therapy (PDT) effect for the tumor under the irradiation of near infrared (NIR) laser. This work provides a useful inspiration and paves a new way for the assembly of NCs or namomaterials with different properties into an integrated anti-tumor theranostic nanoplatform.

An effective NIR laser/tumor-microenvironment co-responsive cancer theranostic nanoplatform with multi-modal imaging and therapies.

Cancer is still a major threat to human health at present. Developing new types of integrated nanoplatforms for the accurate diagnosis and effective treatment of cancer is very significant. Herein, an intelligent dual-stage core-shell cancer theranostic nanoplatform (Fe3+@Au1Ag24@PbP) with NIR laser/tumor-microenvironment (TME) co-responsiveness and multi-modal imaging-therapy was successfully prepared, which was composed of the precisely structured oil-soluble Au1Ag24 nanoclusters (NCs) and Fe3+ ions easily assembled within the oil and aqueous phases of the polyethylene glycol (PEG) block grafted polyketal (PK) copolymer (PK-b-PEG, PbP) vesicles, respectively. In this system, we were delighted to find that the prepared Au1Ag24 NCs possess multi-photoresponsive properties, endowing the nanoplatform with photoacoustic (PA)/photothermal (PT) imaging and synergetic photothermal therapy (PTT)/photodynamic therapy (PDT) for cancer under near-infrared (NIR) laser irradiation. On the other hand, Fe3+ ions exhibit multi-TME response and regulation behaviors, including as catalysts for the decomposition of endogenous hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in the solid tumor to produce O2 and as the oxidizing agent for the consumption of the intracellular GSH to avoid the reduction of the generated 1O2; therefore, the synchronously formed Fe2+ ions from the redox of Fe3+ with GSH could further react with H2O2 to produce hydroxyl radical (˙OH), which induced ferroptosis-based cancer treatment. The PbP shell possesses TME/pH sensitivity for controlled drug release and passive targeting, causing a large increase in Au1Ag24/Fe3+ accumulation within the weakly acidic tumor region and reducing the side effects on normal tissues. Both in vitro and in vivo experiments demonstrate that the Fe3+@Au1Ag24@PbP nanoplatform presented excellent PA/PT imaging-guided synergetic PTT/PDT/ferroptosis effects toward tumor cells and tumors. This integrating multi-responsive and multi-modal theranostic nanoplatform paves a new way for effective cancer therapy.

Structurally accurate lipophilic Pt1Ag28 nanoclusters based cancer theranostic micelles for dual-targeting/aggregation enhanced fluorescence imaging and photothermal/photodynamic therapies.

Theranostics including imaging and therapy has become an advanced trend for cancer treatment. It is of great significance to develop new theranostics agent for precision medicine research. In this regard, structurally precise metal nanoclusters (NCs) with ultra-small diameter and potential theranostic functions are no doubt to be a priority. In this study, we firstly investigated the photothermal and photodynamic properties of structurally precise oil-soluble bimetallic NCs (Pt1Ag28) and tactfully solubilize them into the hydrophobic inner cavity of biodegradable amphiphilic chitosan derivative (ACD) micelles via hydrophobic interaction. Positively charged Pt1Ag28@ACD with suitable particle size (∼60 nm) could not only realize effectively passive targeted delivery, but also be easily uptaken by negatively charged cancer cells for increasing targeting effect. Further, the aggregation induced emission fluorescence imaging (AIE FI)-guided enhanced photothermal/photodynamic therapy (PTT/PDT) on tumor is finally nicely achieved by the micelle solubilization of ACD micelles to Pt1Ag28 NCs, which were demonstrated by in vitro and in vivo experimental results. This theranostic platform overcomes the difficulty of lipophilic NCs entering water-phase organisms, provides enlightenment for the universal study of the interaction mechanism between organisms and oil-soluble NCs at the atomic level in future precision medicine research.

A structurally precise AgxAu25-x nanocluster based cancer theranostic platform with tri-targeting/in situ O2-generation/aggregation enhanced fluorescence imaging/photothermal-photodynamic therapies.

The photothermal and photodynamic performances of structurally precise oil-soluble AgxAu25-x (x ≤ 13) nanoclusters were first explored and they were solubilized into new assemblies to form a versatile cancer theranostic platform with tri-targeting/in situ O2-generation/aggregation enhanced fluorescence imaging/photothermal-photodynamic therapy effects, which will provide an important reference for precision theranostics at the atomic level in future.

Effective photodynamic therapy of polymer hydrogel on tumor cells prepared using methylene blue sensitized mesoporous titania nanocrystal.

A novel hydrogel shell on cancer cells was prepared via in situ photopolymerization of polyethyleneglycol diacrylate (PEGDA) using methylene blue (MB) sensitized mesoporous titania nanocrystal for effective photodynamic therapy (PDT). TiO2 in this system served as an effective photosensitizer and initiator for the formation of hydrogel, also can protect the MB from being degraded into an inactive form. While MB was used as a significant photosensitive additive to improve the photochemistry effects of TiO2 and widen its optical response area to near infrared region (660-900 nm). The PEGDA hydrogel with peritumoral injectability shows competitive advantages, i.e. good biocompatibility and hydrophily, selective and minimally invasive delivery of TiO2@MB, maintaining a high PDT drug concentration for inducing tumor apoptosis, localized and sustainable release under 660 nm laser irradiation for reducing side effect. The hydrogel also could load chemo-therapy drugs, and serve as a versatile platform for multimode antitumor treatment.

Developing cysteamine-modified SERS substrate for detection of acidic pigment with weak surface affinity.

In this paper, we developed cysteamine-modified surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate for detecting detect trace amount of acidic pigment that shows weak affinity with gold nanoparticles (Au NPs). To realize sensitive and reproducible detection of pigment with weak affinity, the SERS substrate was prepared by attaching cysteamine (CA) to the Au NPs, the acidic pigment molecule could rapidly reached to the surface of Au NPs because of the formation of multi­hydrogen-bond and electrostatic interaction between the pigment and CA molecule. The proposed method allowed us to detect five kinds of acidic pigment with a limit of 1.0 ppm, which is below the strictest safety limit. Compared with the previous methods, the advantages of the present substrate were its simple substrate preparation, high reproducibility and good universality. Furthermore, the reliable and enough accurate results had been obtained by using of the proposed substrates in the assay of trace pigment in real samples.

Effect of Escherichia coliform on the biomineralization of calcium bilirubinate in mimic systems.

The influence of Escherichia coliform (E. coli), especially the proteins it secretes, on the nucleation, growth and aggregation processes of calcium bilirubinate (CaBR) in different mimic systems, such as NaCl aqueous solution and model bile, is studied in this paper. The results show that in NaCl aqueous solution the morphology of calcium bilirubinate (CaBR) changes from amorphous sheet structure to a highly self-organized and highly self-replicated fractal structure that is accumulated by rhombic microcrystals after the addition of E. coli. In model bile with the existence of E. coli, CaBR also forms a fractal structure, but the fractal structure is staghorn-like. Meanwhile, the composition of the prepared CaBRs is nonstoichiometric, and the crystallization is greatly improved with the existence of E. coli. Besides, formation mechanism of CaBRs affected by E. coli is explored, showing that the proteins secreted by E. coli interact with the Ca(2+) ions to provide nucleation sites for CaBRs, and the conformation of the proteins becomes more ordered, resulting in the improvement of the crystalline of CaBRs. On the other hand, the interaction of proteins and the Ca(2+) ions also promote the aggregation state of the CaBRs.

[The structure and properties of metal-free 1, 8, 15, 22-tetrakis (3-pentyloxy) phthalocyanine complex and study of its IR spectra].

Density functional theory calculations were carried out to study the molecular structure, molecular orbital, atomic charge, and infrared spectra of metal-free 1, 8, 15, 22-tetrakis(3-pentyloxy) phthalocyanine using B3LYP method with the 6-31G (d) basis set. The optimized molecular geometry is in good agreement with the result from X-ray deterimination, and the differences between the bond lengths from calculation and X-ray crystallography structure for the framework of phthalocyanine are less than 0.002 nn. It was also found that there is a good consistency between the calculated and experimental IR data. The calculated structure and IR spectra were fairly compared with the X-ray crystallography structure and experimental IR spectra to verify the reliability of employed B3LYP method and 6-31G(d) basis set. It is worth noting that the 3-pentyloxy groups at the alpha position have significant influence on the structure and properties of metal-free pthalocyanine, for example, both the energies of HOMO and LUMO increase, however, the gap between HOMO and LUMO decreases, which results in the decrease of the 1, 8, 15,22-tetrakis(3- pentyloxy)phthalocyanine stability. The important peaks in the IR spectra were also assigned and analyzed in detail according to the calculations.

Improved fluorescence imaging and synergistic anticancer phototherapy of hydrosoluble gold nanoclusters assisted by a novel two-level mesoporous canal structured silica nanocarrier.

A novel integrated system composed of hydrosoluble gold nanoclusters (AuNCs), two-level mesoporous canal silica, gelatin and folic acid was for the first time designed and synthesized, which could conquer poor stability of AuNCs and shows aggregation-enhanced fluorescence imaging, cancer cell-specific targeting, and synergistic photothermal/photodynamic therapies for the goal of personalized nanotheranostics.

Construction and synergistic anticancer efficacy of magnetic targeting cabbage-like Fe3O4@MoS2@ZnO drug carriers.

A novel cabbage-like Fe3O4@MoS2@ZnO nanocomposite was successfully fabricated through a facile method. The as-prepared nanocomposite exhibited a saturation magnetization of 45 emu g-1 as well as possessed a massive pore structure and large surface area, leading to a high DOX loading capacity of 68.14 µg mg-1; it could effectively deliver drugs to tumor lesion sites under the action of magnetic targeting. The pH-dependent ZnO as a packaging component can block the pores to achieve controlled release of DOX under tumor stimulation conditions (pH 6.5), thereby reducing the side effects of DOX on normal cells and increasing its therapy effects on tumor cells. Moreover, the photothermal conversion efficiency contributed by MoS2 under 808 nm NIR laser irradiation was utilized to realize effective photothermal therapy (PTT) of cancer, which could be integrated with chemotherapy in a single system. Thus, the resulting Fe3O4@MoS2@ZnO nanocomposites provide hopeful prospects in biomedical applications based on pH sensitivity, magnetic targeting and chemo-photothermal synergistic therapy.

Controlled growth of calcium oxalate crystal in bicontinuous microemulsions containing amino acids.

The growth of calcium oxalate (CaC(2)O(4)) crystal in water channels of three kinds of bicontinuous microemulsions, consisted of P-octyl polyethylene glycol phenylether (OP)/n-amyl alcohol/cyclohexane/water and above microemulsions containing tryptophan (Trp) or aspartic acid (Asp) has been studied. The products were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results indicated that both surfactant and amino acids all could prompt the growth of calcium oxalate monohydrate (COM) crystal, but the crystal morphology varied with the different microemulsions, pH values of the aqueous solution in channels and concentrations of the reactants. Various crystal morphologies such as butterfly-like, hollow and spiny spherical could be observed easily. A model of molecular identification--organized assembly--pervasion-combination balance was proposed to explain the formation mechanism of CaC(2)O(4) crystals in the microemulsions containing Asp.