A ternary photocatalyst of graphitic carbon nitride/cadmium sulfide/titania based on the electrostatic assembly using two-dimensional semiconductor nanosheets.

Herein, we employed the exfoliated two-dimensional (2D) graphitic carbon nitride nanosheets (CNNS) and titania nanosheets (TNS) as building blocks, and these negatively charged nanosheets were flocculated by Cd2+ ions with a followed sulfidation treatment to produce a ternary heterostructure photocatalyst of CNNS/CdS/TNS. This novel nanocomposite exhibited outstanding absorption in visible spectral region, and meanwhile its gradient band structure and the closed interface promoted the separation of photo-generated charge. The relative content of CNNS and TNS in the ternary nanocomposite was optimized, and the optimal photocatalyst with a CNNS/TNS mass ratio of 98:2 could rapidly remove 10mgL-1 rhodamine B (RhB) in 20min under visible light irradiation. The calculated rate constant of CNNS/CdS/TNS was 56.87, 12.18, and 6.67 times higher than those of the restacked CNNS and TNS and the individual CdS, as well as 8.31, 6.22 and 2.57 times higher than those of binary CNNS/TNS, CdS/TNS and CdS/CNNS photocatalysts, respectively. Moreover, this nanocomposite possessed a superior durability and universality for degradation of RhB in different concentration and other organic pollutants, including dyes and colorless compounds. Finally, the possible photocatalytic mechanism was proposed based on the theoretical calculation and the active species quenching experiment.

An alkali treating strategy for the colloidization of graphitic carbon nitride and its excellent photocatalytic performance.

The colloid of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) was of great importance for practical application. Herein we introduced an alkali treatment route to efficiently colloidize g-C3N4 under mild conditions by destroying the hydrogen bonds between linearly polymeric melon chains and hydrolyzing partial C−NH−C bonds linked two tri-s-triazine units. The obtained colloidal suspension was extremely stable due to its negative charges on surface, and the particle size of several hundred nanometers and the nanobelt-like morphology were revealed by electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering technologies. The structural, optical and functional group analysis demonstrated that the structure of CN heterocycles was preserved after the alkali treatment, and the produced colloidal g-C3N4 can be re-assembled by an electrostatic interaction. Moreover, contributing to the reduced electron-hole recombination, the photocatalytic performance of restacked carbon nitride colloids had more enhanced photocatalytic performance than bulk g-C3N4.

Titanate nanosheets as highly efficient non-light-driven catalysts for degradation of organic dyes.

A novel non-light-driven catalysis by the delaminated two dimensional titanate nanosheets (TNSs) has been explored for degradation of organic dyes with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). This catalyst can efficiently remove dyes at high concentration and over a wide pH range, as well as with a long cycle number and superior universality.

Artesunate induces apoptosis via a Bak-mediated caspase-independent intrinsic pathway in human lung adenocarcinoma cells.

This report is designed to explore the exact molecular mechanism by which artesunate (ART), a semisynthetic derivative of the herbal antimalaria drug artemisinin, induces apoptosis in human lung adenocarcinoma (ASTC-a-1 and A549) cell lines. ART treatment induced ROS-mediated apoptosis in a concentration- and time-dependent fashion accompanying the loss of mitochondrial potential and subsequent release of Smac and AIF indicative of intrinsic apoptosis pathway. Blockage of casapse-8 and -9 did not show any inhibitory effect on the ART-induced apoptosis, but which was remarkably prevented by silencing AIF. Of the utmost importance, ART treatment induced the activation of Bak but not Bax, and silencing Bak but not Bax remarkably inhibited ART-induced apoptosis and AIF release. Furthermore, although ART treatment did not induced a significant down-regulation of voltage-dependent anion channel 2 (VDAC2) expression and up-regulation of Bim expression, silencing VDAC2 potently enhanced the ART-induced Bak activation and apoptosis which were significantly prevented by silencing Bim. Collectively, our data firstly demonstrate that ART induces Bak-mediated caspase-independent intrinsic apoptosis in which Bim and VDAC2 as well as AIF play important roles in both ASTC-a-1 and A549 cell lines, indicating a potential therapeutic effect of ART for lung cancer.