Cellulose-based thermoelectric composites: A review on mechanism, strategies and applications.

The ever-increasing demand for energy and environmental concerns have driven scientists to look for renewable and eco-friendly alternatives. Bio-based thermoelectric (TE) composite materials provide a promising solution to alleviate the global energy crisis due to their direct conversion of heat to electricity. Cellulose, the most abundant bio-polymer on earth with fascinating structure and desirable physicochemical properties, provides an excellent alternative matrix for TE materials.

Ionic Liquids in Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Applications: A Review.

The unique properties of ionic liquids (ILs), such as structural tunability, good solubility, chemical/thermal stability, favorable biocompatibility, and simplicity of preparation, have led to a wide range of applications in the pharmaceutical and biomedical fields. ILs can not only speed up the chemical reaction process, improve the yield, and reduce environmental pollution but also improve many problems in the field of medicine, such as the poor drug solubility, product crystal instability, poor biological activity, and low drug delivery efficiency. This paper presents a systematic and concise analysis of the recent advancements and further applications of ILs in the pharmaceutical field from the aspects of drug synthesis, drug analysis, drug solubilization, and drug crystal engineering.

Highly stretchable, fast self-healing nanocellulose hydrogel combining borate ester bonds and acylhydrazone bonds.

Self-healing hydrogels have received considerable attention as a promising material for flexible electronic devices given their mechanical durability and structurally tunable properties. In this study, a highly stretchable self-healing hydrogel with dual cross-linking network was developed via borate ester bonds generated by polyvinyl alcohol and borax, and acylhydrazone bonds formed by aldehyde nanocellulose with adipic acid dihydrazide-modified alginate. Compared with the single network hydrogel composed of polyvinyl alcohol and borax, the introduction of dynamic acylhydrazone bonds greatly increases the flexibility of the hydrogel.

Strong Bacterial Cellulose-Based Films with Natural Laminar Alignment for Highly Sensitive Humidity Sensors.

Humidity sensors have been widely used for humidity monitoring in industry and agriculture fields. However, the rigid structure, nondegradability, and large dimension of traditional humidity sensors significantly restrict their applications in wearable fields. In this study, a flexible, strong, and eco-friendly bacterial cellulose-based humidity sensor (BPS) was fabricated using a two-step method, involving solvent evaporation-induced self-assembly and electrolyte permeation.

An masking strategy enables radical monodecarboxylative C-C bond coupling of malonic acid derivatives.

The utilization of malonic acids in radical decarboxylative functionalization is still underexploited, and the few existing examples are primarily limited to bisdecarboxylative functionalization. While radical monodecarboxylative functionalization is highly desirable, it is challenging because of the difficulty in suppressing the second radical decarboxylation step. Herein, we report the successful radical monodecarboxylative C-C bond coupling of malonic acids with ethynylbenziodoxolone (EBX) reagents enabled by an masking strategy, affording synthetically useful 2(3)-furanones in satisfactory yields.

Oxygen-tuned nanozyme polymerization for the preparation of hydrogels with printable and antibacterial properties.

Nanozymes merge nanotechnology with biology and provide a lower cost and higher stability options, compared to that of natural enzymes. However, nanozyme catalyzed polymerization under physiological conditions is still a big challenge due to heavy oxygen inhibition. In this study, the simple glucose oxidase system can effectively adjust oxygen concentration and generate hydrogen peroxide, which assists in the realization of nanozyme-catalyzed polymerization.

Preparation, characterization and in vitro anticoagulant activity of corn stover xylan sulfates.

A new anticoagulant agent was prepared by introducing sulfate groups into corn stover xylan through homogeneous reactions. Three organic solvents, N, N-dimethylformamide (DMF), dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and formamide (FA), were adopted as reaction media, with the assistance of LiCl. Structural characterization by FT-IR and CNMR showed that xylan sulfate (XS) could be successfully synthesized with SO∙Pyridine (SO∙Py) complexes sulfation reagent in the three media.

High-capacity anion exchangers based on poly (glycidylmethacrylate-divinylbenzene) microspheres for ion chromatography.

Poly (glycidylmethacrylate-divinylbenzene) microspheres were prepared by the two-staged swelling and polymerization method and applied to prepare anion exchange stationary phases. Methylamine, dimethylamine, trimethylamine, diethylamine and triethylamine were selected to prepare the quaternary ammonium groups of anion exchangers, respectively. The diameters and surface characteristics of microspheres were measured by scanning electron microscope and nitrogen adsorption-desorption measurements.