Copper Tantalate by a Sodium-Driven Flux-Mediated Synthesis for Photoelectrochemical CO Reduction.

Copper-tantalate, CuTaO (CTO), shows significant promise as an efficient photocathode for multi-carbon compounds (C) production through photoelectrochemical (PEC) CO reduction, owing to its suitable energy bands and catalytic surface. However, synthesizing CTO poses a significant challenge due to its metastable nature and thermal instability. In this study, this challenge is addressed by employing a flux-mediated synthesis technique using a sodium-based flux to create sodium-doped CTO (Na-CTO) thin films, providing enhanced nucleation and stabilization for the CTO phase.

Cancer cell-specific photoactivity of pheophorbide a-glycol chitosan nanoparticles for photodynamic therapy in tumor-bearing mice.

We designed a cancer-cell specific photosensitizer nano-carrier by synthesizing pheophorbide a (PheoA) conjugated glycol chitosan (GC) with reducible disulfide bonds (PheoA-ss-GC). The amphiphilic PheoA-ss-GC conjugates self-assembled in aqueous condition to form core-shell structured nanoparticles (PheoA-ss-CNPs) with good colloidal stability and switchable photoactivity. The photoactivity of PheoA-ss-CNPs in an aqueous environment was greatly suppressed by the self-quenching effect, which enabled the PheoA-ss-CNPs to remain photo-inactive and in a quenched state.

Ternary biomolecular nanoparticles for targeting of cancer cells and anti-angiogenesis.

To develop a targeted drug delivery system for cancer therapy and anti-angiogenesis, amphiphilic heparin bioconjugates were synthesized by chemical conjugation of hydrophobic retinoic acid and a targeting ligand, folic acid, to the heparin backbone (HFR). The chemical structure of the HFR conjugates was confirmed by proton nuclear magnetic resonance ((1)H NMR). Various HFR conjugates with different retinoic acid coupling ratios were obtained by modulating the retinoic acid feed molar ratio.