Mesoporous NiO-samaria doped ceria for low-temperature solid oxide fuel cells.

In order to prepare anode material for low-temperature solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), the mesoporous NiO-SDC was synthesized using a cationic surfactant (cetyltrimethyl-ammonium bromide; CTAB) for obtaining wide triple-phase boundary (TPB). In addition, Ni-SDC anode-supported SOFC single cells with YSZ electrolyte and LSM cathode were fabricated and the performance of single cells was evaluated at 600 °C. The microstructure of NiO-SDC was characterized by XRD, EDX, SEM, and BET, and the results showed that the mesoporous NiO-SDC with 10 nm pores could be obtained.

Quantum dot-based screening system for discovery of g protein-coupled receptor agonists.

Cellular imaging has emerged as an important tool to unravel biological complexity and to accelerate the drug-discovery process, including cell-based screening, target identification, and mechanism of action studies. Recently, semiconductor nanoparticles known as quantum dots (QDs) have attracted great interest in cellular imaging applications due to their unique photophysical properties such as size, tunable optical property, multiplexing capability, and photostability. Herein, we show that QDs can also be applied to assay development and eventually to high-throughput/content screening (HTS/HCS) for drug discovery.