Solar-assisted high-efficient cleanup of viscous crude oil spill using an ink-modified plant fiber sponge.

Rapid and efficient clean-up of viscous crude oil spills is still a global challenge due to its high viscous and poor flowability at room temperature. The hydrophobic/oleophilic absorbents with three-dimensional porous structure have been considered as a promising candidate to handle oil spills. However, they still have limited application in recovering the high viscous oil. Inspired by the viscosity of crude oil depended on the temperature, a solar-heated ink modified plant fiber sponge (PFS@GC) is fabricated via a simple and environmentally friendly physical foaming strategy combined with in-situ ink coating treatment. After wrapping by the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), the modified PFS@GC (PFS@GC@PDMS) exhibits excellent compressibility, high hydrophobic (141° in water contact angle), solar absorption (> 96.0%), and oil absorptive capacity (12.0-27.8 g/g). Benefiting from the favorable mechanical property and photothermal conversion capacity, PFS@GC@PDMS is demonstrated as a high-performance absorbent for crude oil clean-up and recovery. In addition, PFS@GC@PDMS can also be applied in a continuous absorption system for uninterrupted recovering of oil spills on the water surface. The proposed solar-heated absorbent design provides a new opportunity for exploring biomass in addressing large-scale oil spill disasters.

Comprehensive Analysis of Competing Endogenous RNA Network Focusing on Long Noncoding RNA Involved in Cirrhotic Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

The role of long noncoding RNAs- (lncRNAs-) associated competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) in the field of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) biology is well established, but the involvement of lncRNAs competing interactions in the progression of liver cirrhosis to HCC is still unclear. We aimed to explore the differential expression profiles of lncRNAs, microRNAs (miRNA), and messenger RNAs (mRNAs) to construct a functional ceRNA network in cirrhotic HCC. The lncRNA, miRNA, and mRNA expression datasets were obtained from Gene Expression Omnibus and The Cancer Genome Atlas. Based on miRanda and TargetScan, the HCC-specific ceRNA network was constructed to illustrate the coexpression regulatory relationship of lncRNAs, miRNAs, and mRNAs. The potential prognostic indicators in the network were confirmed by survival analysis and validated by qRT-PCR. A total of 74 lncRNAs, 36 intersection miRNAs, and 949 mRNAs were differentially expressed in cirrhotic HCC samples compared with cirrhosis samples. We constructed a ceRNA network, including 47 lncRNAs, 35 miRNAs, and 168 mRNAs. Survival analysis demonstrated that 2 lncRNAs (EGOT and SERHL), 4 miRNAs, and 40 mRNAs were significantly associated with the overall survival of HCC patients. Two novel regulatory pathways, EGOT-miR-32-5p-XYLT2 axis and SERHL-miR-1269a/miR-193b-3p-BCL2L1/SYK/ARNT/CHST3/LPCAT1 axis, were built up and contribute to the underlying mechanism of HCC pathogenesis. The higher-expressed SERHL was associated with a higher risk of all-cause death. The expressions of SERHL-miR-1269a-BCL2L1 were significantly different using qRT-PCR in vitro studies. lncRNAs EGOT and SERHL might serve as effective prognostic biomarkers and potential therapeutic targets in cirrhotic HCC treatment.

Two Tb-metal organic frameworks with different metal cluster nodes for C2H2/CO2 separation.

Through regulating the reaction solvent and temperature, two Tb-based metal-organic frameworks, ((CH3)2NH2)2[Tb9(µ3-OH)8(µ2-OH)3(PTB)6]·(DMF)14·(H2O)19 (1) and ((CH3)2NH2)3{[Tb9(µ3-O)2(µ3-OH)12(H2O)6][Tb3(µ3-O)(HCO2)3 (PTB)6]}·(DMF)12·(H2O)7 (2) (H3PTB = pyridine-2,4,6-tribenzoic acid), have been synthesized. Structural analysis showed that the cluster node of 1 is a Tb9 cluster, while 2 contains two different nodes of a Tb3 cluster and a Tb9 cluster, which leads to their different pore structures and may potentially separate C2H2/CO2. Gas adsorption demonstrates that both MOFs can separate C2H2 and CO2, but 2 has a more optimized pore environment than 1 and can exhibit better selective separation of C2H2/CO2.

A Microporous Metal-Organic Framework with Channels Constructed from Nonpolar Aromatic Rings for the Selective Separation of Ethane/Ethylene Mixtures.

The separation of ethane and ethylene is an important segment in the purification of chemical raw materials in industrial production. However, due to their similar physical and chemical properties, the separation of C2 H6 /C2 H4 is challenging. Herein, we report the selective adsorption of ethane over ethylene by a microporous metal-organic framework with nonpolar aromatic rings constructed channels, [Co1.5 (TATB)(H2 O)0.5 ] ⋅ 5DMA ⋅ 3H2 O (Co-TATB, H3 TATB=4,4',4''-(s-triazine-2,4,6-triyl) tribenzoic acid). This compound showed a higher ethane capacity than that of ethylene, and a low adsorption enthalpy of ethane only of 19.4 kJ mol-1 . Further, the dynamic breakthrough experimental confirmed that Co-TATB can selectively adsorb ethane from ethane/ethylene separation.