A magnetic epitope-imprinted microsphere used for selective separation and rapid detection of SHV-type β-lactamases in bacteria: a novel strategy of antimicrobial resistance detection.

Background: The production of β-lactamases is the most prevalent resistance mechanism for β-lactam antibiotics in Gram-negative bacteria. Presently, over 4900 β-lactamases have been discovered, and they are categorized into hundreds of families. In each enzyme family, amino acid substitutions result in subtle changes to enzyme hydrolysis profiles; in contrast, certain conserved sequences retained by all of the family members can serve as important markers for enzyme family identification.

Origin of Friction in Superlubric Graphite Contacts.

More than thirty years ago, it was theoretically predicted that friction for incommensurate contacts between atomically smooth, infinite, crystalline materials (e.g., graphite, MoS_{2}) is vanishing in the low speed limit, and this corresponding state was called structural superlubricity (SSL).

Characterization of a Microscale Superlubric Graphite Interface.

Direct characterizations of the two component surfaces of a solid-solid interface are essential for understanding its various interfacial mechanical, physical, and electrical behaviors. Particularly, the fascinating phenomenon termed structural superlubricity, a state of nearly zero friction and wear, is sensitively dependent on the interface structure. Here we report a controllable pick-and-flip technique to separate a microscale contact pair for the characterization of its two component surfaces for van der Waals layered materials.

A Lactate/Oxygen Biofuel Cell: The Coupled Lactate Oxidase Anode and PGM-Free Fe-N-C Cathode.

The rapid development of both wearable and implantable biofuel cells has triggered more and more attention on the lactate biofuel cell. The novel lactate/oxygen biofuel cell (L/O-BFC) with the direct electron transfer (DET)-type lactate oxidase (LOx) anode and the platinum group metal (PGM)-free Fe-N-C cathode is designed and constructed in this paper. In such a reasonable design, the surface-controlled direct two-electron electrochemical reaction of the lactate oxidase was determined by cyclic voltammetry (CV) on the carbon nanotube (CNT) modified electrode with favorable high electrochemical active surface area and electronic conductivity.

Strain Engineering Modulates Graphene Interlayer Friction by Moiré Pattern Evolution.

The sliding friction of a graphene flake atop strained graphene substrates is studied using molecular dynamics simulation. We demonstrate that in this superlubric system, friction can be reduced nonmonotonically by applying strain, which differs from previously reported results on various 2D materials. The critical strain needed for significant reduction in friction decreases drastically when the flake size increases.

Robust superlubricity by strain engineering.

Structural superlubricity, a nearly frictionless state between two contact solid surfaces, has attracted rapidly increasing attention during the past few years. Yet a key problem that limits its promising applications is the high anisotropy of friction which always leads to its failure. Here we study the friction of a graphene flake sliding on top of a graphene substrate using molecular dynamics simulation.

Photoelectrochemical biofuel cell using porphyrin-sensitized nanocrystalline titanium dioxide mesoporous film as photoanode.

Electrical energy generated directly from sunlight and biomass solution with a Photoelectrochemical Biofuel Cell (PEBFC) was investigated. The PEBFC consisted of a meso-tetrakis(4-carboxyphenyl)porphyrin (TCPP)-sensitized nanocrystalline titanium dioxide (TiO(2)) mesoporous film (NTDMF) as the photoanode and platinum black as the cathode. The interaction between TCPP sensitizer and NTDMF was evaluated by X-ray photoelectron spectra and FT-IR absorption spectra, indicating that the TCPP sensitizer was adsorbed on the NTDMF by bridging or bidentate coordinate bonds.