Influence of Different Treatments on the Structure and Conversion of Silicon Species in Rice Straw to Tetraethyl Orthosilicate (TEOS).

The production of tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) from biomass provides a new way for TEOS production and biomass valorization. In this study, rice straw was treated using different fractionation methods, and the content, state, and reactivity of Si in the treated samples were investigated. It was found that acid treatment and ethanol extraction kept most Si in the biomass, while alkali treatment caused significant Si loss.

Simply Constructed and Highly Efficient Classified Cargo-Discharge DNA Robot: A DNA Walking Nanomachine Platform for Ultrasensitive Multiplexed Sensing.

In this work, a classified cargo-discharge DNA robot with only two DNA strands was designed and driven by an analogous proximity ligation assay (aPLA)-based enzyme cleaving for fast walk to construct a novel electrochemical biosensor for simultaneously ultrasensitive detection of microRNA-155 (miRNA-155) and miRNA-21. Compared with traditional DNA nanomachines, the multifunctional DNA robot possessed simple structure, high self-assembling efficiency and walking efficiency. Once it interacted with target miRNAs, this DNA robot could walk fast on the electrode surface and realize the classified cargoes discharging including beacons methylene blue (MB) and ferrocene (Fc), respectively labeled in the double-stranded DNA (A1-A2) for ultrasensitive detection of multiple miRNAs simultaneously.