Controllable enzymatic hydrolysis in reverse Janus emulsion microreactors.

HYPOTHESIS: The key feature of living cells is multicompartmentalization for enzymatic reactions. Artificial cell-like multicompartments with micro domains are appealing to mimic the biological counterparts. In addition, establishing a sustainable, efficient, and controllable reaction system for enzymatic hydrolysis is imperative for the production of natural fatty acids from animal and plant-based fats. EXPERIMENTS: Reverse Janus emulsion microreactors, i.e. (W1 + W2)/O, is constructed through directly using natural fats as continuous phase and aqueous two-phase solutions (ATPS) as inner phases. Enzyme is confined in the compartmented aqueous droplets dominated by the salt of Na2SO4 and polyethylene glycol (PEG). Enzyme catalyzed ester hydrolysis employed as a model reaction is performed under the conditions of agitation-free and mild temperature. Regulation of reaction kinetics is investigated by diverse droplet topology, composition of inner ATPS, and on-demand emulsification. FINDINGS: Excellent enzymatic activity toward hydrolysis of plant and animal oils achieves 88.5 % conversion after 3 h. Compartmented micro domains contribute to condense and organize the enzymes spatially. Timely removal of the products away from reaction sites of oil/water interface "pushed" the reaction forward. Distribution and transfer of enzyme in two aqueous lobes provide extra freedom in the regulation of hydrolysis kinetics, with equilibrium conversion controlled freely from 14.5 % to 88.5 %. Reversible "open" and "shut" of hydrolysis is acheived by on-demand emulsification and spontaneous demulsification. This paper paves the way to advancing progress in compartmentalized emulsion as a sustainable and high-efficiency platform for biocatalytic applications.

A novel olfactory biosensor based on ZIF-8@SWCNT integrated with nanosome-AuNPs/Prussian blue for sensitive detection of hexanal.

Hexanal is considered as an important volatile compound indicator for the assessment of freshness and maturity of foods. Therefore, sensitive and stable monitoring of hexanal is highly desired. Herein, an efficient receptor immobilization strategy based on ZIF-8@ Single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) and nanosomes-AuNPs/Prussian blue (PB) was proposed for the development of olfactory biosensors. ZIF-8@SWCNT as dual support materials provided a high density of active sites for nanosomes loading. Moreover, the co-electrodeposition of nanosomes-AuNPs and PB on the sensor interface effectively amplified the electrochemical signal and maintained the activity of the receptor. The combination of ZIF-8@SWCNT with AuNPs/PB imparts excellent sensing performance of the biosensor with a wide detection range of 10-16-10-9 M, a low detection limit of 10-16 M for hexanal, and a long storage stability of 15 days. These results indicate that our biosensor can be a powerful tool for versatile applications in food and other related industries.

Can digital finance reduce carbon emission intensity? A perspective based on factor allocation distortions: evidence from Chinese cities.

The world is facing the challenges of climate change and energy structure adjustments. The role of digital finance, a new branch of business that combines digital technology and traditional financial products, in reducing global carbon emissions needs to be studied. This paper uses panel data on 280 cities in China from 2011 to 2019 to empirically examine the efficacy of digital finance for governing carbon emission reductions and the mechanism by which it does so. The results show that (1) digital finance can facilitate carbon emission reductions and help reduce carbon emission intensity within regions; (2) digital finance helps promote the rational allocation of resources and alleviates factor distortions by encouraging firms to rationally use their own factor endowments so as to reduce carbon emission intensity, which holds robustly after considering the endogenous issues such as possibly omitting variables and collinearity; and (3) differences in geographical location, the vitality of regional innovation and entrepreneurship, regional willingness to protect the environment, and environmental protection levels lead to heterogeneity in the effect of digital finance on carbon emission intensity. Therefore, it is necessary to vigorously develop digital finance as a long-term tool for carbon governance.

Anticorrosion behaviour and tribological properties of AZ31 magnesium alloy coated with Nb2O5/Nb2O5-Mg/Mg layer by magnetron sputtering.

Magnesium alloys are attracting increasing attention for the fabrication of temporary implants because of their superior biodegradability and biocompatibility. However, their high degradation rate under physiological conditions limits their clinical applications. In this work, a Nb2O5/Nb2O5-Mg/Mg multilayer coating was prepared on the surface of AZ31 magnesium alloy by magnetron sputtering in order to improve its corrosion resistance. The microstructure and performance of the layers were studied by SEM, AFM, EDS, and XPS, and a scratch tester, nanoindenter, friction tester, and electrochemical workstation, using Nb2O5 monolayer coating as a control. The results show that these two coatings significantly improved the mechanical, tribological, and anticorrosion performance of AZ31 magnesium alloy. Compared with a Nb2O5 monolayer coating, the multilayer coating exhibits an increased adhesion by about 10.6 times, and a decreased wear rate and corrosion current density by one order of magnitude, meaning higher damage resistance. This study provides a feasible strategy for enhancing the properties of ceramic layers on magnesium alloys for medical applications.

Rapid recognition and determination of tryptophan by carbon nanotubes and molecularly imprinted polymer-modified glassy carbon electrode.

A tryptophan (Trp) molecularly imprinted electrochemical sensor was fabricated by drop-coating an imprinted chitosan film on the surface of a glassy carbon electrode modified with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MIP-MWCNTs/GCE). The surface morphology and electrochemical properties of the MIP-MWCNTs/GCE were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and cyclic voltammetry (CV), respectively. The formation of hydrogen bonds between the functional polymer and the template molecule was confirmed by infrared spectroscopy. The electrochemical performance of the MIP-MWCNTs/GCE with Trp showed that the signal of the oxidation current of Trp obtained with MIP-MWCNTs/GCE was significantly enhanced relative to that of the uncovered GCE, indicating that the modified electrode can accelerate electron transfer and has strong selectivity for Trp. The experimental conditions were optimized in parallel, and under the optimal conditions, the MIP-MWCNTs/GCE showed a good linear relationship between the Trp oxidation peak current and Trp concentrations in the ranges of 2.0 nM-0.2 µM, 0.2 µM-10 µM and 10 µM-100 µM The limit of detection (LOD) was 1.0 nM (S/N = 3), and the modified electrode had good reproducibility and stability. Finally, the MIP-MWCNTs/GCE was successfully applied to the determination of Trp in the human serum samples.

The Preparation and Properties of Multilayer Cu-MTa2O5 Composite Coatings on Ti6Al4V for Biomedical Applications.

For the enhancement of the anticorrosion and antibacterial performance of the biomedical alloy Ti6Al4V, a novel Cu incorporated multilayer Ta2O5ceramic composite coating Cu-Ta2O5/Ta2O5/Ta2O5-TiO2/TiO2/Ti (coating codeCu-MTa2O5) was developed by radio frequency (RF) and direct current (DC) reactive magnetron sputtering. Meanwhile, to better display the multilayer Ta2O5 coating mentioned above, a monolayer Ta2O5 ceramic coating was deposited onto the surface of Ti6Al4V alloy as a reference. The surface morphology, microstructure, phase constituents, and elemental states of the coating were evaluated by atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, respectively. The adhesion strength, wettability, anticorrosion and antibacterial properties of the coating were examined by a scratch tester, contact angle measurement, electrochemical workstations, and plate counting method, respectively. The results showed that the deposited coatings were amorphous and hydrophobic. Cu doped into the Ta2O5 coating existed as CuO and Cu2O. A Ta2O5-TiO2/TiO2/Ti multi-interlayer massively enhanced the adhesion strength of the coating, which was 2.9 times stronger than that of the monolayer Ta2O5coating. The multilayer Cu-MTa2O5 coating revealed a higher corrosion potential and smaller corrosion current density as compared to the uncoated Ti6Al4V, indicating the better anticorrosion performance of Ti6Al4V. Moreover, a 99.8% antibacterial effect of Cu-MTa2O5 coated against Staphylococcus aureuswas obtained.

A Simple and Efficient Molecularly Imprinted Electrochemical Sensor for the Selective Determination of Tryptophan.

In this paper, a tryptophan (Trp) molecularly imprinted chitosan film was prepared on the surface of an acetylene black paste electrode using chitosan as the functional polymer, Trp as the template molecule and sulfuric acid as the crosslinking agent. The surface morphologies of non-imprinted and imprinted electrodes were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The formation of hydrogen bonds between the functional polymer and the template molecule was confirmed by infrared spectroscopy. Some factors affecting the performance of the imprinted electrode such as the concentration of chitosan, the mass ratio of chitosan to Trp, the dropping amount of the chitosan-Trp mixture, the solution pH, and the accumulation potential and time were discussed. The experimental results show that the imprinted electrode exhibit good affinity and selectivity for Trp. The dynamic linear ranges of 0.01-4 M, 4-20 M and 20-100 M were obtained by second derivative linear sweep voltammetry, and the detection limit was calculated to be 8.0 nM. The use of the imprinted electrode provides an effective method for eliminating the interference of potentially interfering substances. In addition, the sensor has high sensitivity, reproducibility and stability, and can be used for the determination of Trp in pharmaceutical preparations and human serum samples.

Fabrication and Performance of ZnO Doped Tantalum Oxide Multilayer Composite Coatings on Ti6Al4V for Orthopedic Application.

Ti6Al4V titanium alloy has been widely used as medical implant material in orthopedic surgery, and one of the obstacles preventing it from wide use is toxic metal ions release and bacterial implant infection. In this paper, in order to improve corrosion resistance and antibacterial performance of Ti6Al4V titanium alloy, ZnO doped tantalum oxide (TaxOy) multilayer composite coating ZnO-TaxOy/TaxOy/TaxOy-TiO2/TiO2/Ti (ZnO-TaxOy) was deposited by magnetron sputtering at room temperature. As a comparison, monolayer TaxOy coating was prepared on the surface of Ti6Al4V alloy. The morphology and phase composition of the coatings were investigated by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), the elemental chemical states of coating surfaces were investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscope (XPS). The adhesion strength and corrosion resistance of the coatings were examined by micro-scratch tester and electrochemical workstations, respectively. The results show that the adhesion strength of multilayer ZnO-TaxOy coating is 16.37 times higher than that of single-layer TaxOy coating. The ZnO-TaxOy composite coating has higher corrosion potential and lower corrosion current density than that of TaxOy coating, showing better corrosion inhibition. Furthermore, antibacterial test revealed that multilayer ZnO-TaxOy coating has a much better antibacterial performance by contrast.

A Novel Modified Electrode for Detection of the Food Colorant Sunset Yellow Based on Nanohybrid of MnO2 Nanorods-Decorated Electrochemically Reduced Graphene Oxide.

The nanohybrid of electrochemically-reduced graphene oxide (ERGO) nanosheets decorated with MnO2 nanorods (MnO2 NRs) was modified on the surface of a glassy carbon electrode (GCE). Controlled potential reduction was applied for the reduction of graphene oxide (GO). The characterization was performed by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and cyclic voltammetry. Compared with the poor electrochemical response at bare GCE, a well-defined oxidation peak of sunset yellow (SY) was observed at the MnO2 NRs-ERGO/GCE, which was attributed to the high accumulation efficiency as well as considerable electrocatalytic activity of ERGO and MnO2 NRs on the electrode surface. The experimental parameters for SY detection were optimized in detail. Under the optimized experiment conditions, the MnO2 NRs-ERGO/GCE showed good linear response to SY in concentration range of 0.01⁻2.0 µM, 2.0⁻10.0 µM and 10.0⁻100.0 µM with a detection limit of 2.0 nM. This developed method was applied for SY detection in soft drinks with satisfied detected results.

Microstructure, Wettability, Corrosion Resistance and Antibacterial Property of Cu-MTa2O5 Multilayer Composite Coatings with Different Cu Incorporation Contents.

Bacterial infection and toxic metal ions releasing are the challenges in the clinical application of Ti6Al4V alloy implant materials. Copper is a kind of long-acting, broad-spectrum and safe antibacterial element, and Ta2O5 has good corrosion resistance, wear-resistance and biocompatibility, they are considered and chosen as a potential coating candidate for implant surface modification. In this paper, magnetron sputtering technology was used to prepare copper doped Ta2O5 multilayer composite coating Cu-Ta2O5/Ta2O5/Ta2O5-TiO2/TiO2/Ti (Cu-MTa2O5 for short) on Ti6Al4V alloy surface, for studying the effect of copper incorporation on the microstructure, wettability, anticorrosion and antibacterial activities of the composite coating. The results showed that Cu-MTa2O5 coating obviously improves the hydrophobicity, corrosion resistance and antibacterial property of Ti6Al4V alloy. In the coating, both copper and Ta2O5 exhibit an amorphous structure and copper mainly presents as an oxidation state (Cu2O and CuO). With the increase of the doping amount of copper, the grain size, roughness, and hydrophobicity of the modified surface of Ti6Al4V alloy are increased. Electrochemical experiment results demonstrated that the corrosion resistance of Cu-MTa2O5 coated Ti6Al4V alloy slightly decreased with the increase of copper concentration, but this coating still acts strong anticorrosion protection for Ti6Al4V alloy. Moreover, the Cu-MTa2O5 coating can kill more than 97% of Staphylococcus aureus in 24 h, and the antibacterial rate increases with the increase of copper content. Therefore, Cu-MTa2O5 composite coating is a good candidate for improving anticorrosion and antibacterial properties of Ti6Al4V alloy implant medical devices.

Towards Improvements for Penetrating the Blood-Brain Barrier-Recent Progress from a Material and Pharmaceutical Perspective.

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a critical biological structure that prevents damage to the brain and maintains its bathing microenvironment. However, this barrier is also the obstacle to deliver beneficial drugs to treat CNS (central nervous system) diseases. Many efforts have been made for improvement of delivering drugs across the BBB in recent years to treat CNS diseases. In this review, the anatomical and functional structure of the BBB is comprehensively discussed. The mechanisms of BBB penetration are summarized, and the methods and effects on increasing BBB permeability are investigated in detail. It also elaborates on the physical, chemical, biological and nanocarrier aspects to improve drug delivery penetration to the brain and introduces some specific drug delivery effects on BBB permeability.