Green Fluorescent Carbon Dots with Critically Controlled Surface States: Make Silk Shine via Feeding Silkworms.

Feeding silkworms with functional materials as additives to produce naturally modified silk is a facile, diverse, controllable, and environmentally friendly method with a low cost of time and investment. Among various additives, carbon dots (CDs) show unique advantages due to their excellent biocompatibility and fluorescence stability. Here, a new type of green fluorescent carbon dots (G-CDs) is synthesized with a high oil-water partition ratio of 147, a low isoelectric point of 5.16, an absolute quantum yield of 71%, and critically controlled surface states. After feeding with G-CDs, the silkworms weave light yellow cocoons whose green fluorescence is visible to the naked eye under UV light. The luminous silk is sewn onto the cloth to create striking patterns with beautiful fluorescence. Such G-CDs have no adverse effect on the survival rate and the life cycle of silkworms and enable their whole bodies to glow under UV light. Based on the strong fluorescence, chemical stability, and biological safety, G-CDs are found in the digestive tracts, silk glands, feces, cocoons, and even moth bodies. G-CDs accumulate in the posterior silk glands where fibroin protein is secreted, indicating its stronger combination with fibroin than sericin, which meets the requirements for practical applications.

Nitrogen-Doped and Sulfonated Carbon Dots as a Multifunctional Additive to Realize Highly Reversible Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries.

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) using the Zn metal anode have been considered as one of the next-generation commercial batteries with high security, robust capacity, and low price. However, parasitic reactions, notorious dendrites and limited lifespan still hamper their practical applications. Herein, an eco-friendly nitrogen-doped and sulfonated carbon dots (NSCDs) is designed as a multifunctional additive for the cheap aqueous ZnSO4 electrolyte, which can overcome the above difficulties effectively. The abundant polar groups (-COOH, -OH, -NH2 , and -SO3 H) on the CDs surfaces can regulate the solvation structure of Zn2+ through decreasing the coordinated active H2 O molecules, and thus redistribute Zn2+ deposition to avoid side reactions. Some of the negatively charged NSCDs are adsorbed on Zn anode surface to isolate the H2 O/SO4 2- corrosion through the electrostatic shielding effect. The synergistic effect of the doped nitrogen species and the surface sulfonic groups can induce a uniform electrolyte flux and a homogeneous Zn plating with a (002) texture. As a result, the excellent cycle life (4000 h) and Coulombic efficiency (99.5%) of the optimized ZIBs are realized in typical ZnSO4 electrolytes with only 0.1 mg mL-1 of NSCDs additive.

Complex Age- and Cancer-Related Changes in Human Blood Transcriptome-Implications for Pan-Cancer Diagnostics.

Early cancer detection is the key to a positive clinical outcome. While a number of early diagnostics methods exist in clinics today, they tend to be invasive and limited to a few cancer types. Thus, a clear need exists for non-invasive diagnostics methods that can be used to detect the presence of cancer of any type. Liquid biopsy based on analysis of molecular components of peripheral blood has shown significant promise in such pan-cancer diagnostics; however, existing methods based on this approach require improvements, especially in sensitivity of early-stage cancer detection. The improvement would likely require diagnostics assays based on multiple different types of biomarkers and, thus, calls for identification of novel types of cancer-related biomarkers that can be used in liquid biopsy. Whole-blood transcriptome, especially its non-coding component, represents an obvious yet under-explored biomarker for pan-cancer detection. In this study, we show that whole transcriptome analysis using RNA-seq could indeed serve as a viable biomarker for pan-cancer detection. Furthermore, a class of long non-coding (lnc) RNAs, very long intergenic non-coding (vlinc) RNAs, demonstrated superior performance compared with protein-coding mRNAs. Finally, we show that age and presence of non-blood cancers change transcriptome in similar, yet not identical, directions and explore implications of this observation for pan-cancer diagnostics.

Stability Dynamic Characteristic of Oil-in-Water Emulsion from Alkali-Surfactant-Polymer Flooding.

The relationship model between the droplet lifetime and interface properties is established to characterize the stability of oil droplets, and then, the influence of the alkali-surfactant-polymer (ASP) concentration on the lifetime is analyzed by theoretical calculations. The stability dynamic characteristics of oil-in-water (O/W) emulsions from ASP flooding were evaluated using the emulsion stability model (Civan model) based on two-phase separation. The effect of ASP on dynamic characteristics of the emulsion was explored by analyzing film strength qualitatively and measuring interfacial tension and ζ potential. The results showed that the Civan model was suitable to evaluate the stability of the O/W emulsion and to obtain the corresponding dynamic characteristics. The O/W emulsions became more stable with the increasing alkali concentration first at a low alkali concentration (c NaOH < 200 mg/L) and then became less stable with the increasing alkali concentration at a high alkali concentration (c NaOH > 200 mg/L). The stabilities of O/W emulsions were improved with the increasing concentrations of the surfactant and polymer. The mechanism of stabilization of the O/W emulsion by ASP is as follows. The surface-active substances formed by the reaction of alkali and acidic substances in the oil phase, together with surfactants, adsorb at the oil-water interface, reducing the interfacial tension and increasing the strength of the oil-water interface film. The polymer only increases the strength of the interface film by increasing the viscoelasticity of the oil-water interface film.

Photoactive metal-organic framework as a bifunctional material for 4-hydroxy-4'-nitrobiphenyl detection and photodegradation of methylene blue.

Environmental pollution resulting from organic pollutants is becoming an overwhelming problem throughout the world, and how to efficiently detect or eliminate these organic pollutants remains an important issue for environmental protection. Herein, a cadmium(ii)-based MOF, Cd-TCAA, was successfully prepared by the hydrothermal reaction of 4,4',4''-tricarboxyltriphenylamine (H3tca), (E)-1,2-di(pyridin-4-yl)diazene (abp) and cadmium nitrate. Because the H3tca moiety is a typically versatile functional material that exhibits good hole-transporting capabilities, efficient light harvesting, and excellent electron-donating properties, this novel photoactive metal-organic framework operates as a bifunctional material for the detection and degradation of organic pollutants. It exhibits excellent selectivity and sensitivity towards 4-hydroxy-4'-nitrobiphenyl (HNBP) with a detection limit of 50 nM in solution, and represents the first example of a MOF-based sensor for the detection of HNBP. The photocatalytic activity of Cd-TCAA was also determined by investigating the photo-induced degradation of methylene blue (MB). Cd-TCAA has the advantages of excellent catalytic activity, stability, and recyclability.