Preliminary Study on the Clinical Significance and Methods of Using Carbon Nanoparticles in Endoscopic Papillary Thyroid Cancer Surgery.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to find the clinical significance and methods of using CN in endoscopic treatment for PTC. Materials and Methods: A total of 108 cases were randomly enrolled and divided into two groups, with 50 cases in the CN injection group who were injected with CN and 58 cases in the control group with no CN injection. All cases were analyzed with the size of carcinoma, the number of lymph node, and parathyroid gland injury. Results: All operations were successfully completed. The lymph node dissection number was 274 for the control group and 322 (the rate of black stained was 87%) for the CN injection group. The average number of lymph nodes in the CN injection group was 6.44 ± 2.08, which was significantly higher than that in the control group (4.72 ± 1.89). The control group had a relatively higher incidence of incidental parathyroidectomy, compared to the CN injection group (27.6% in the control group vs. 12% in the CN injection group, P=0.045). However, the incidence of hypoparathyroidism failed to show the significant difference between the two groups. Conclusion: Using CN in endoscopic PTC surgery could increase the detection rate of lymph nodes and reduce the injury of parathyroid glands to a certain extent.

PPyNT-Im-PtAu alloy nanoparticle hybrids with tunable electroactivity and enhanced durability for methanol electrooxidation and oxygen reduction reaction.

Polypyrrole nanotubes (PPyNTs)/PtAu alloy nanoparticle (NP) hybrids were synthesized in gram-scale by using covalently attached imidazolium moieties as a linker. The approach involves the surface functionalization of PPyNTs with pendant imidazolium moieties (PPyNT-Im), anion-exchange with Pt and Au precursors, and followed by the reduction of metal ions to produce the PtAu alloy NPs on the surface of PPyNTs. X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM), and elemental mapping showed that both Pt and Au were atomically distributed in the PtAu alloy NPs without phase segregation. The composition of the PtAu alloy NPs can be simply controlled by adjusting the feed ratio in the metal precursor solution. The electrocatalytic properties of prepared PPyNT-Im-PtxAuy (the suffixes x and y represent the relative molar ratio of Pt and Au in the feed, respectively) NP hybrids were determined by the composition of alloy NPs. The Pt-rich NP hybrids, PPyNT-Im-Pt8Au2, showed highly electrocatalytic activity and stability toward the methanol oxidation in both acidic and alkaline solutions, whereas the Au-rich NP hybrids, PPyNT-Im-Pt2Au8, showed an enhanced catalytic activity and durability upon oxygen reduction. The present study provided a simple and effective approach for the preparation of PtAu alloy catalysts with controllable composition for high-performance fuel cells and electrochemical sensors.