Diminishing Self-Discharge of High-Loading Li-S Batteries with Oxygen-Rich Biomass Carbon Interlayers.

Lithium-sulfur batteries (Li-S) have possessed gratifying development in the past decade due to their high theoretical energy density. However, the severe polysulfide shuttling provokes undesirable self-discharge effect, leading to low energy efficiency in Li-S batteries. Herein, an interlayer composed of oxygen-rich carbon nanosheets (OCN) derived from bagasse is elaborated to suppress the shuttle effect and reduce the resultant self-discharge effect.

8-hydroxyquinoline-N-oxide copper(II)- and zinc(II)-phenanthroline and bipyridine coordination compounds: Design, synthesis, structures, and antitumor evaluation.

Fourteen novel tumor-targeting copper(II) and zinc(II) complexes, [Cu(ONQ)(QD1)(NO)]·CHOH (NQ3), [Cu(ONQ)(QD2)(NO)] (NQ2), [Cu(NQ)(QD2)Cl] (NQ3), [Cu(ONQ)(QD1)Cl] (NQ4), [Cu(ONQ)(QD3)](NO) (NQ5), [Cu(ONQ)(QD3)Cl] (NQ6), [Zn(ONQ)(QD4)Cl] (NQ7), [Zn(ONQ)(QD1)Cl] (NQ8), [Zn(ONQ)(QD5)Cl] (NQ9), [Zn(ONQ)(QD2)Cl] (NQ10), [Zn(ONQ)(QD6)Cl] (NQ11), [Zn(ONQ)(QD7)Cl] (NQ12), and [Zn(ONQ)(QD3)Cl] (NQ13) supported on 8-hydroxyquinoline-N-oxide (H-ONQ), 2,2'-dipyridyl (QD1), 5,5'-dimethyl-2,2'-bipyridyl (QD2), 1,10-phenanthroline (QD3), 4,4'-dimethoxy-2,2'-bipyridyl (QD4), 4,4'-dimethyl-2,2'-bipyridyl (QD5), 5-chloro-1,10-phenanthroline (QD6), and bathophenanthroline (QD7), were first synthesized and characterized using various spectroscopic techniques. Furthermore, NQ1-NQ13 exhibited higher antiproliferative activity and selectivity for cisplatin-resistant SK-OV-3/DDP tumor cells (CiSK3) compared to normal HL-7702 cells based on results obtained from the cell counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay. The complexation of copper(II) ion with QD2 and ONQ ligands resulted in an evident increase in the antiproliferation of NQ1-NQ6, with NQ6 exhibiting the highest antitumor potency against CiSK3 cells compared to NQ1-NQ5, H-ONQ, QD1-QD7, and NQ7-NQ13 as well as the reference cisplatin drug with an IC value of 0.

Carbon quantum dot with co-doped nitrogen and phosphorus for tazettine ratiometric fluorescent sensing.

An overdose of tazettine (TZ) has toxic side effects, which makes it extremely important to rapidly and subtly determine the TZ. In this study, double-emitting, nitrogen-phosphorus co-doped carbon quantum dots (N,P-CQDs) were prepared using cis-butenedioic acid, phosphoric acid, and p-phenylenediamine. An effective inner filter effect (IFE) can occur between TZ and N,P-CQDs, resulting in their fluorescence quench.

Comparative Toxicity, Biodistribution and Excretion of Ultra-Small Gold Nanoclusters with Different Emission Wavelengths.

The exponentially increased use of gold nanoclusters in diagnosis and treatment has raised serious concern about their potential threat to living organisms. However, the mechanisms of toxicity of gold nanoclusters and remain poorly understood. In this work, comparative toxicity studies, including biodistribution and excretion, were carried out with mildly and chemically synthesized ultra-small L-histidine-protected and bovine serum albumin (BSA)-protected gold nanoclusters in an all-aqueous process.

Powerful antibacterial activity of graphene/nanoflower-like nickelous hydroxide nanocomposites.

Aim: The development of new and efficient antibacterial agents is urgent to overcome emerging antimicrobial resistance.

Materials & Methods: Herein, we have presented a new type of 3D antibacterial system to prompt bacteria to contact with the any plane of nanocomposites.

Results: Comparing the antibacterial activity of graphene oxide, reduced graphene oxide and graphene-loaded nanoflower-like nickelous hydroxide (GN/Ni(OH)) nanocomposites; the GN/Ni(OH) showed stronger bactericidal capability toward Gram-negative/-positive bacteria.

Room temperature ionic liquids enhanced the speciation of Cr(VI) and Cr(III) by hollow fiber liquid phase microextraction combined with flame atomic absorption spectrometry.

A new method for the speciation of Cr(VI) and Cr(III) based on enhancement effect of room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) for hollow fiber liquid phase microextraction (HF-LPME) combined with flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS) was developed. Room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) and diethyldithiocarbamate (DDTC) were used enhancement reagents and chelating reagent, respectively. The addition of room temperature ionic liquids led to 3.

Synergistic enhancement effect of room temperature ionic liquids for cloud point extraction combined with UV-vis spectrophotometric determination nickel in environmental samples.

A new method based on enhancement effect of room temperature ionic liquids for cloud point extraction trace amounts of nickel combined with UV-vis spectrophotometric determination was developed. Room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) and diethyldithiocarbamate (DDTC) were used enhancement reagent and chelating reagent, respectively. The addition of room temperature ionic liquids leads to 3.

[Speciation of iron using capillary electrophoresis inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry].

The separation of iron species, e. g. Fe2+ -Fe3+, Fe2+ -Fe(phen)3(2+), and Fe2+ -Fe3+, by mixing with complexing reagents of o-phenanthroline and EDTA, and Fe2+ -Fe3+ with o-phenanthroline was developed by capillary electrophoresis inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectronetry (CE-ICP-AES).