Rapid, on-site quantitative determination of mycotoxins in grains using a multiple time-resolved fluorescent microsphere immunochromatographic test strip.

The label probe plays a crucial role in enhancing the sensitivity of lateral flow immunoassays. However, conventional fluorescent microspheres (FMs) have limitations due to their short fluorescence lifetime, susceptibility to background fluorescence interference, and inability to facilitate multi-component detection. In this study, carboxylate-modified Eu(III)-chelate-doped polystyrene nanobeads were employed as label probes to construct a multiple time-resolved fluorescent microsphere-based immunochromatographic test strip (TRFM-ICTS). This novel TRFM-ICTS facilitated rapid on-site quantitative detection of three mycotoxins in grains: Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), Zearalenone (ZEN), and Deoxynivalenol (DON). The limit of detection (LOD) for AFB1, ZEN, and DON were found to be 0.03 ng/g, 0.11 ng/g, and 0.81 ng/g, respectively. Furthermore, the TRFM-ICTS demonstrated a wide detection range for AFB1 (0.05-8.1 ng/g), ZEN (0.125-25 ng/g), and DON (1.0-234 ng/g), while maintaining excellent selectivity. Notably, the test strip exhibited remarkable stability, retaining its detection capability even after storage at 4 °C for over one year. Importantly, the detection of these mycotoxins relied solely on simple manual operations, and with a portable reader, on-site detection could be accomplished within 20 min. This TRFM-ICTS presents a promising solution for sensitive on-site mycotoxin detection, suitable for practical application in various settings due to its sensitivity, accuracy, simplicity, and portability.

Enhanced reproductive toxicity of photodegraded polylactic acid microplastics in zebrafish.

Microplastics are widely used due to their numerous advantages. However, they can have detrimental effects on marine ecosystems. When microplastics enter the ocean, they can be absorbed by marine organisms, leading to toxic effects. Additionally, the transformation of microplastics during natural degradation can alter their toxicity, necessitating further investigation. Polylactic acid (PLA) biodegradable plastics are commonly used, yet research on their toxicity, particularly their reproductive effects on aquatic organisms, remains limited. In this study, we conducted photodegradation of PLA using potassium persulfate as a catalyst to simulate natural degradation conditions. Our objective was to assess the reproductive toxicity of photodegraded PLA microplastics on zebrafish. The results revealed that photodegraded PLA exhibited elevated reproductive toxicity, resulting in abnormal oocyte differentiation, disruption of sexual hormone levels, and alterations in ovarian tissue metabolism. Metabolomics analysis indicated that both unphotodegraded PLA (UPLA) and photodegraded PLA (DPLA) disrupted oxidative stress homeostasis in zebrafish ovarian tissue by influencing pathways such as purine metabolism, phenylalanine metabolism, glutathione metabolism, and riboflavin metabolism. Furthermore, the DPLA treatment induced abnormal biosynthesis of taurocholic acid, which was not observed in the UPLA treatment group. Importantly, the DPLA treatment group exhibited more pronounced effects on offspring development compared to the UPLA treatment group, characterized by higher mortality rates, inhibition of embryo hatching, accelerated heart rates, and reduced larval body length. These findings underscore the varying levels of toxicity to zebrafish ovaries before and after PLA photodegradation, along with evidence of intergenerational toxicity.

Double-photoelectrode redox desalination of seawater.

High energy consumption and low salt removal rate are key barriers to realizing practical electrochemical seawater desalination processes. Here, we demonstrate a novel solar-driven redox flow desalination device with double photoelectrodes to achieve efficient desalination without electrical energy consumption. The device consists of three parts: one photoanode unit, one photocathode unit, and one redox flow desalination unit sandwiched between the two photoelectrode units. The photoelectrode units include a TiO2 photoanode and a NiO photocathode sensitized with N719 dye, triiodide/iodide redox electrolyte, and graphite paper integrated electrodes decorated with 3,4-ethylene-dioxythiophene. Two salt feeds are located between two ferro/ferricyanide redox flow chambers. Under light illumination, high-quality freshwater is obtained from brackish water containing different concentrations of NaCl from 1000 to 12,000 ppm with a high NaCl removal rate. The device can work in multiple desalination cycles without significant performance declines. Furthermore, natural seawater with an ionic conductivity of 53.45 mS cm-1 is desalinated to freshwater. This new design opens opportunities to realize efficient and practical solar-driven desalination processes.

The combined toxic effects of polystyrene microplastics and different forms of arsenic on the zebrafish embryos (Danio rerio).

Microplastics have been widely studied for their ability to adsorb heavy metals. In the natural environment, arsenic exists in different forms and its toxicity depends mainly on its form and concentration. However, different forms of arsenic combined with microplastics have yet to be explored for their biological hazards. This study was conducted to reveal the adsorption mechanism of different forms of arsenic onto PSMP and to study the effects of PSMP on the tissue accumulation and developmental toxicity of different forms of arsenic in zebrafish larvae. As a result, the absorbing ability of PSMP for As(III) was 35 times higher than that of DMAs, in which hydrogen bonding plays an important role in the adsorption process. In addition, the adsorption kinetics of As(III) and DMAs on PSMP were in good agreement with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Furthermore, PSMP reduced the accumulation of As(III) early in zebrafish larvae development, thereby increasing hatching rates compared with the As(III)-treated group, whereas PSMP had no significant effect on DMAs accumulation in zebrafish larvae, but decreased hatching rates compared with the DMAs-treated group. In addition, except for the microplastic exposure group, the other treatment groups could lead to a decrease in the heart rate of zebrafish larvae. Both PSMP+As(III) and PSMP+DMAs exhibited aggravated oxidative stress compared with PSMP-treated group, but PSMP+As(III) caused more severe oxidative stress at later stages of zebrafish larvae development. Moreover, specific metabolic differences (e.g., AMP, IMP, and guanosine) were produced in the PSMP+As(III) exposure group, which would mainly affect purine metabolism and promoted specific metabolic disturbances. However, PSMP+DMAs exposure shared metabolic pathways altered by PSMP and DMAs, indicating an independent effect of these two chemicals. Taken together, our findings emphasized that the combined toxicity of PSMP and different forms of arsenic posed a health risk that cannot be ignored.

Recent Progress in Biosensors for Detection of Tumor Biomarkers.

Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, with an increasing mortality rate over the past years. The early detection of cancer contributes to early diagnosis and subsequent treatment. How to detect early cancer has become one of the hot research directions of cancer. Tumor biomarkers, biochemical parameters for reflecting cancer occurrence and progression have caused much attention in cancer early detection. Due to high sensitivity, convenience and low cost, biosensors have been largely developed to detect tumor biomarkers. This review describes the application of various biosensors in detecting tumor markers. Firstly, several typical tumor makers, such as neuron-specific enolase (NSE), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), prostate-specific antigen (PSA), squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCCA), carbohydrate, antigen19-9 (CA19-9) and tumor suppressor p53 (TP53), which may be helpful for early cancer detection in the clinic, are briefly described. Then, various biosensors, mainly focusing on electrochemical biosensors, optical biosensors, photoelectrochemical biosensors, piezoelectric biosensors and aptamer sensors, are discussed. Specifically, the operation principles of biosensors, nanomaterials used in biosensors and the application of biosensors in tumor marker detection have been comprehensively reviewed and provided. Lastly, the challenges and prospects for developing effective biosensors for early cancer diagnosis are discussed.

Carboxylated fluorescent microsphere based immunochromatographic test strip enabled sensitive and quantitative on-site detection for florfenicol in eggs.

Florfenicol (FF), used popularly in prevention and treatment of virus infections in livestock and poultry, has widely been found in eggs and harmful to human health. In this work, a sensitive and quantitative on-site detecting solution, monoclonal antibody-based carboxylated fluorescent microsphere immunochromatographic test strip assay (FM-ICTS), is design and applied for FF detection. The proposed method can sensitively detect FF in low detection limit of 0.030 ng/g and quantitatively measure its concentration from 0.1 ng/mL to 8.1 ng/mL (R2 = 0.9991) with high repeatability (CV<8.0 %). In addition, the established FM-ICTS method exhibited high measurement accuracy in FF samples as compared with HPLC-MS analysis and demonstrated satisfied recoveries (99.1-101.3 %). More importantly, the quantitative FF test strip demonstrate ultra-high stability, which presents approximately equivalent detection ability to the fresh one after stored at 4 °C for more than one year or stored at 37 °C for 60 days. Therefore, the proposed method is a promising solution for rapidly and sensitively quantitative determination of FF in eggs.

Alantolactone-Loaded Pegylated Prodrug Nanocarriers for Synergistic Treatment of Cisplatin-Resistant Ovarian Cancer via Reactivating Mitochondrial Apoptotic Pathway.

Ovarian cancer (OV) seriously damages women's health because of refractory OV and the development of platinum (Pt) resistance. New treatment strategies are urgently needed to deal with the treatment of cisplatin-resistant OV. Here, a reduction-sensitive pegylated Pt(IV) prodrug was synthesized by amidation of methoxy polyethylene glycol amine (PEG750-NH2) with monocarboxylic Pt(IV) prodrug (Pt(IV)-COOH). Then alantolactone (AL) loaded PEG-Pt(IV) nanocarriers (NP(Pt)@AL) were prepared. In the cisplatin-resistant model of OV, cancer cells actively ingest NP(Pt)@AL through endocytosis, and AL and Pt(II) were disintegrated and released under high intracellular reductant condition. The activity of thioredoxin reductase 1 (TrxR1) inhibited by AL and the adducts of Pt(II) with mitochondrial DNA (mDNA) can costimulate reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactivate the mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis. Meanwhile, Pt(II) binds with nuclear DNA (nDNA) to jointly promote cell apoptosis. Both in vitro and in vivo results demonstrated that NP(Pt)@AL could effectively reverse the drug resistance and displayed excellent synergistic therapeutic efficacy on platinum-resistant OV with high safety. Therefore, reactivation of the mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis would be a potential strategy to improve the therapeutic effect of Pt-based chemotherapy and even reverse drug resistance.

Self-anti-angiogenesis nanoparticles enhance anti-metastatic-tumor efficacy of chemotherapeutics.

Beyond traditional endothelium-dependent vessel (EDV), vascular mimicry (VM) is another critical tumor angiogenesis that further forms in many malignant metastatic tumors. However, the existing anti-angiogenesis combined chemotherapeutics strategies are only efficient for the treatment of EDV-based subcutaneous tumors, but remain a great challenge for the treatment of in situ malignant metastatic tumor associated with EDV and VM. Here, we demonstrate a self-assembled nanoparticle (VE-DDP-Pro) featuring self-anti-EDV and -VM capacity enables to significantly enhance the treatment efficacy of cisplatin (DDP) against the growth and metastasis of ovarian cancer. The VE-DDP-Pro is constructed by patching DDP loaded cRGD-folate-heparin nanoparticles (VE) onto the surface of protamine (Pro) nanoparticle. We demonstrated the self-anti-angiogenesis capacity of VE-DDP-Pro was attributed to VE, which could significantly inhibit the formation of EDV and VM by regulating signaling pathway of MMP-2/VEGF, AKT/mTOR/MMP-2/Laminin and AKT/mTOR/EMT, facilitating chemotherapeutics to effectively suppress the development and metastasis of ovarian cancer. Thus, combing with the chemotherapeutics effectiveness of DDP, the VE-DDP-Pro can significantly enhance treatment efficacy and prolong median survival of mice with metastatic ovarian cancer. We believe our self-assembled nanoparticles integrating the anti-EDV and anti-VM capacity provide a new preclinical sight to enhance the efficacy of chemotherapeutics for the treatment malignant metastasis tumor.

A Review of Detection of Antibiotic Residues in Food by Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy.

Antibiotics, as veterinary drugs, have made extremely important contributions to disease prevention and treatment in the animal breeding industry. However, the accumulation of antibiotics in animal food due to their overuse during animal feeding is a frequent occurrence, which in turn would cause serious harm to public health when they are consumed by humans. Antibiotic residues in food have become one of the central issues in global food safety. As a safety measure, rapid and effective analytical approaches for detecting these residues must be implemented to prevent contaminated products from reaching the consumers. Traditional analytical methods, such as liquid chromatography, liquid chromatography mass spectrometry, and capillary electrophoresis, involve time-consuming sample preparation and complicated operation and require expensive instrumentation. By comparison, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has excellent sensitivity and remarkably enhanced target recognition. Thus, SERS has become a promising alternative analytical method for detecting antibiotic residues, as it can provide an ultrasensitive fingerprint spectrum for the rapid and noninvasive detection of trace analytes. In this study, we comprehensively review the recent progress and advances that have been achieved in the use of SERS in antibiotic residue detection. We introduce and discuss the basic principles of SERS. We then present the prospects and challenges in the use of SERS in the detection of antibiotics in food. Finally, we summarize and discuss the current problems and future trends in the detection of antibiotics in food.

Citrate-based mussel-inspired magnesium whitlockite composite adhesives augmented bone-to-tendon healing.

Citrate-based mussel-inspired whitlockite composite adhesives (CMWAs) were developed and administered to the bone-tendon interface in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. CMWAs could improve the initial bone-tendon bonding strength, promote the bony inward growth from the bone tunnel and enhance the chondrogenesis and osteogenesis of the bone-tendon interface, thus augmenting bone-to-tendon healing.

MnO2-Based Nanomotors with Active Fenton-like Mn2+ Delivery for Enhanced Chemodynamic Therapy.

Chemodynamic therapy (CDT) is an emerging strategy for cancer treatment based on Fenton chemistry, which can convert endogenous H2O2 into toxic ·OH. However, the limited endocytosis of passive CDT nanoagents with low penetrating capability resulted in unsatisfactory anticancer efficacy. Herein, we propose the successful fabrication of a self-propelled biodegradable nanomotor system based on hollow MnO2 nanoparticles with catalytic activity for active Fenton-like Mn2+ delivery and enhanced CDT. Compared with the passive counterparts, the significantly improved penetration of nanomotors with enhanced diffusion is demonstrated in both the 2D cell culture system and 3D tumor multicellular spheroids. After the intracellular uptake of nanomotors, toxic Fenton-like Mn2+ is massively produced by consuming overexpressed intracellular glutathione (GSH), which has a strong scavenging effect on ·OH, thereby leading to enhanced cancer CDT. The as-developed MnO2-based nanomotor system with enhanced penetration and endogenous GSH scavenging capability shows much promise as a potential platform for cancer treatment in the near future.

Fatal poisoning by accidental ingestion of the "heartbreak grass" (Gelsemium elegans) verified by toxicological and medico-legal analyses.

We present a case of fatal poisoning from accidental ingestion of Gelsemium elegans (G. elegans), a rarely toxic plant. A 41-year-old man was found dead, at his home, 6 h after drinking homemade herbal liqueur during lunch. Autopsy and routine toxicological analyses identified neither significant pathological findings nor routine poisons. However, a local botanist revealed that the homemade herbal liqueur contained G. elegans, a poisonous plant specific to Asia. To ascertain whether the decedent had ingested G. elegans, we performed liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and found two alkaloids (gelsemine and koumine) in his blood, gastric contents, as well as the suspected herbal liqueur. The cause of death was therefore confirmed to be G. elegans poisoning. Case reports of fatal poisoning due to ingestion of G. elegans are quite rare in English. Therefore, the present case broadens the scope on the possibility of death due to ingestion of G. elegans for forensic pathologists and toxicologists.

Chronological Age Prediction: Developmental Evaluation of DNA Methylation-Based Machine Learning Models.

Epigenetic clock, a highly accurate age estimator based on DNA methylation (DNAm) level, is the basis for predicting mortality/morbidity and elucidating the molecular mechanism of aging, which is of great significance in forensics, justice, and social life. Herein, we integrated machine learning (ML) algorithms to construct blood epigenetic clock in Southern Han Chinese (CHS) for chronological age prediction. The correlation coefficient (r) meta-analyses of 7,084 individuals were firstly implemented to select five genes (ELOVL2, C1orf132, TRIM59, FHL2, and KLF14) from a candidate set of nine age-associated DNAm biomarkers. The DNAm-based profiles of the CHS cohort (240 blood samples differing in age from 1 to 81 years) were generated by the bisulfite targeted amplicon pyrosequencing (BTA-pseq) from 34 cytosine-phosphate-guanine sites (CpGs) of five selected genes, revealing that the methylation levels at different CpGs exhibit population specificity. Furthermore, we established and evaluated four chronological age prediction models using distinct ML algorithms: stepwise regression (SR), support vector regression (SVR-eps and SVR-nu), and random forest regression (RFR). The median absolute deviation (MAD) values increased with chronological age, especially in the 61-81 age category. No apparent gender effect was found in different ML models of the CHS cohort (all p > 0.05). The MAD values were 2.97, 2.22, 2.19, and 1.29 years for SR, SVR-eps, SVR-nu, and RFR in the CHS cohort, respectively. Eventually, compared to the MAD range of the meta cohort (2.53-5.07 years), a promising RFR model (ntree = 500 and mtry = 8) was optimized with an MAD of 1.15 years in the 1-60 age categories of the CHS cohort, which could be regarded as a robust epigenetic clock in blood for age-related issues.

Analysis of the biodegradation performance and biofouling in a halophilic MBBR-MBR to improve the treatment of disinfected saline wastewater.

Disinfectant-containing wastewaters have been generated from many places, including marine industries. The synthetic NaClO-containing wastewaters have been effectively treated in a saline MBBR-MBR (moving bed biofilm reactor & membrane bioreactor) system containing marine microorganisms. A low concentration of NaCl (below 100 mg/L) is not enough to kill the microorganisms, but can affect their bioactivity and induce membrane biofouling. A linear relationship has been obtained for the half-life of membrane biofouling as a function of the NaClO concentration (10-100 mg/L): [half-life] = 25-0.12 × [NaClO concentration]. The COD and NH3-N removals are the highest at a salinity of 30 g/L for the marine bioreactors. The behaviour of the typical biofoulants, measured real-timely by fluorescence spectroscopy, can indicate the levels of membrane biofouling and microbial activity, responding to the NaClO and NaCl influences. Based on the behaviour of biofoulants, this work has also proposed a novel strategy of biofoulants monitoring for membrane antifouling, where antifouling responses can be carried out when the concentration of biofoulants significantly increases.

Recent Advances in Materials and Design of Electrochemically Rechargeable Zinc-Air Batteries.

The century-old zinc-air (Zn-air) battery concept has been revived in the last decade due to its high theoretical energy density, environmental-friendliness, affordability, and safety. Particularly, electrically rechargeable Zn-air battery technologies are of great importance for bulk applications like electric vehicles, grid management, and portable electronic devices. Nevertheless, Zn-air batteries are still not competitive enough to realize widespread practical adoption because of issues in efficiency, durability, and cycle life. Here, following an introduction to the fundamentals and performance testing techniques, the latest research progress related to electrically rechargeable Zn-air batteries is compiled, particularly new key findings in the last five years (2013-2018). The strategies concerning the development of Zn and air electrodes are in focus. The design of other battery components, namely electrolytes and separators are also discussed. Poor performance of O2 electrocatalysts and the lack of the long-term stability of Zn electrodes and electrolytes remain major challenges. Finally, recommendations regarding the testing routines and materials design are provided. It is hoped that this up-to-date account will help to shape the future research activities toward the development of practical electrically rechargeable Zn-air batteries with extended lifetime and superior performance.

Nano-RuO2 -Decorated Holey Graphene Composite Fibers for Micro-Supercapacitors with Ultrahigh Energy Density.

Compactness and versatility of fiber-based micro-supercapacitors (FMSCs) make them promising for emerging wearable electronic devices as energy storage solutions. But, increasing the energy storage capacity of microscale fiber electrodes, while retaining their high power density, remains a significant challenge. Here, this issue is addressed by incorporating ultrahigh mass loading of ruthenium oxide (RuO2 ) nanoparticles (up to 42.5 wt%) uniformly on nanocarbon-based microfibers composed largely of holey reduced graphene oxide (HrGO) with a lower amount of single-walled carbon nanotubes as nanospacers. This facile approach involes (1) space-confined hydrothermal assembly of highly porous but 3D interconnected carbon structure, (2) impregnating wet carbon structures with aqueous Ru3+ ions, and (3) anchoring RuO2 nanoparticles on HrGO surfaces. Solid-state FMSCs assembled using those fibers demonstrate a specific volumetric capacitance of 199 F cm-3 at 2 mV s-1 . Fabricated FMSCs also deliver an ultrahigh energy density of 27.3 mWh cm-3 , the highest among those reported for FMSCs to date. Furthermore, integrating 20 pieces of FMSCs with two commercial flexible solar cells as a self-powering energy system, a light-emitting diode panel can be lit up stably. The current work highlights the excellent potential of nano-RuO2 -decorated HrGO composite fibers for constructing micro-supercapacitors with high energy density for wearable electronic devices.

Preparation of a molecularly imprinted sensor based on quartz crystal microbalance for specific recognition of sialic acid in human urine.

A novel molecularly imprinted quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) sensor was successfully prepared for selective determination of sialic acid (SA) in human urine samples. To obtain the QCM sensor, we first modified the gold surface of the QCM chip by self-assembling of allylmercaptane to introduce polymerizable double bonds on the chip surface. Then, SA molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) nanofilm was attached to the modified QCM chip surface. For comparison, we have also characterized the nonmodified and improved surfaces of the QCM sensor by using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. We then tested the selectivity and detection limit of the imprinted QCM sensor via a series of adsorption experiments. The results show a linear response in the range of 0.025-0.50 µmol L-1 for sialic acid. Moreover, the limit of detection (LOD) of the prepared imprinted QCM sensor was found to be 1.0 nmol L-1 for sialic acid, and high recovery values range from 87.6 to 108.5% with RSD < 8.7 (n = 5) for the spiked urine sample obtained. Overall, this work presents how a novel QCM sensor was developed and used to detect sialic acid in human urine samples. Graphical abstract Specific recognition of sialic acid by the MIP-QCM sensor system.

Amorphous Bimetallic Oxide-Graphene Hybrids as Bifunctional Oxygen Electrocatalysts for Rechargeable Zn-Air Batteries.

Metal oxides of earth-abundant elements are promising electrocatalysts to overcome the sluggish oxygen evolution and oxygen reduction reaction (OER/ORR) in many electrochemical energy-conversion devices. However, it is difficult to control their catalytic activity precisely. Here, a general three-stage synthesis strategy is described to produce a family of hybrid materials comprising amorphous bimetallic oxide nanoparticles anchored on N-doped reduced graphene oxide with simultaneous control of nanoparticle elemental composition, size, and crystallinity. Amorphous Fe0.5 Co0.5 Ox is obtained from Prussian blue analog nanocrystals, showing excellent OER activity with a Tafel slope of 30.1 mV dec-1 and an overpotential of 257 mV for 10 mA cm-2 and superior ORR activity with a large limiting current density of -5.25 mA cm-2 at 0.6 V. A fabricated Zn-air battery delivers a specific capacity of 756 mA h gZn-1 (corresponding to an energy density of 904 W h kgZn-1 ), a peak power density of 86 mW cm-2 and can be cycled over 120 h at 10 mA cm-2 . Other two amorphous bimetallic, Ni0.4 Fe0.6 Ox and Ni0.33 Co0.67 Ox , are also produced to demonstrate the general applicability of this method for synthesizing binary metal oxides with controllable structures as electrocatalysts for energy conversion.

A hierarchically porous nickel-copper phosphide nano-foam for efficient electrochemical splitting of water.

Electrochemical splitting of water to produce oxygen (O2) and hydrogen (H2) through a cathodic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and an anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a promising green approach for sustainable energy supply. Here we demonstrated a porous nickel-copper phosphide (NiCuP) nano-foam as a bifunctional electrocatalyst for highly efficient total water splitting. Prepared from a bubble-templated electrodeposition method and subsequent low-temperature phosphidization, NiCuP has a hierarchical pore structure with a large electrochemical active surface area. To reach a high current density of 50 mA cm-2, it requires merely 146 and 300 mV with small Tafel slopes of 47 and 49 mV dec-1 for HER and OER, respectively. The total water splitting test using NiCuP as both the anode and cathode showed nearly 100% Faradic efficiency and surpassed the performances of electrode pairs using commercial Pt/C and IrO2 catalysts under our test conditions. The high activity of NiCuP can be attributed to (1) the conductive NiCu substrates, (2) a large electrochemically active surface area together with a combination of pores of different sizes, and (3) the formation of active Ni/Cu oxides/hydroxides while keeping a portion of more conductive Ni/Cu phosphides in the nano-foam. We expect the current catalyst to enable the manufacturing of affordable water splitting systems.

Effect of bioflocculation on fouling-related biofoulants in a membrane bioreactor during saline wastewater treatments.

A membrane bioreactor (MBR) was operated in two modes; with and without the inoculation of marine Arthrobacter cells, to investigate the effect of bioflocculation on membrane biofouling during saline wastewater treatments. The MBR-Arthrobacter system showed a higher resistance to membrane fouling than the normal MBR system. Lower concentrations of the fouling-related components and higher removal efficiencies of COD and NH3-N were observed in the MBR-Arthrobacter system. The bioflocculation of Arthrobacter preferred to settle down the humic acid-like, fulvic acid-like and aromatic proteins components (larger biomolecules) rather than the soluble microbial by-product-like components (smaller biomolecules).