Biosorbent silver nanoparticles decorated coffee-ground waste composite for cleaning water and antimicrobial applications.

A sustainable biosorbent, silver nanoparticles-decorated coffee-ground waste (CWAg), was synthesized through a simple in-situ reduction method. CWAg is extensively characterized via SEM-EDX, PZC, FTIR, XRD, HR-TEM, and XPS analyses. The biosorbent was tested to remove chromium (Cr(VI)) and methylene blue (MB) from wastewater, and its antibacterial properties was evaluated.

Defects in lead halide perovskite light-emitting diodes under electric field: from behavior to passivation strategies.

Lead halide perovskites (LHPs) are emerging semiconductor materials for light-emitting diodes (LEDs) owing to their unique structure and superior optoelectronic properties. However, defects that initiate degradation of LHPs through external stimuli and prompt internal ion migration at the interfaces remain a significant challenge. The electric field (EF), which is a fundamental driving force in LED operation, complicates the role of these defects in the physical and chemical properties of LHPs.

Early and Sensitive Detection of Pathogens for Public Health and Biosafety: An Example of Surveillance and Genotyping of SARS-CoV-2 in Sewage Water by Cas12a-Facilitated Portable Plasmonic Biosensor.

Infectious diseases severely threaten public health and global biosafety. In addition to transmission through the air, pathogenic microorganisms have also been detected in environmental liquid samples, such as sewage water. Conventional biochemical detection methodologies are time-consuming and cost-ineffective, and their detection limits hinder early diagnosis.

Direct Observation of Photon Induced Giant Band Renormalization in 2D PdSe Dichalcogenide by Transient Absorption Spectroscopy.

Insight into fundamental light-matter interaction as well as underlying photo-physical processes is crucial for the development of novel optoelectronic devices. Palladium diselenide (PdSe ), an important representative of emerging 2D noble metal dichalcogenides, has gain considerable attention owing to its unique optical, physical, and chemical properties. In this study, 2D PdSe nanosheets (NSs) are prepared using the liquid-phase exfoliation method.

Chemiresistive gas sensor based on MoWS alloy nanoparticles with good selectivity and ppb-level limit of detection to ammonia.

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are promising materials for chemiresistive gas sensor, while TMD alloys (two chalcogenide or/and metal elements) with tunable electronic structures have drawn little attention in gas sensing. Herein, MoWS alloy nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared by a facile sonication exfoliation method and then tested for ammonia sensing. The crystal structure, geometric morphology, and elemental composition of MoWS NPs were investigated.

Ultrasensitive and Specific Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats Empowered a Plasmonic Fiber Tip System for Amplification-Free Monkeypox Virus Detection and Genotyping.

The urgent necessity for highly sensitive diagnostic tools has been accentuated by the ongoing mpox (monkeypox) virus pandemic due to the complexity in identifying asymptomatic and presymptomatic carriers. Traditional polymerase chain reaction-based tests, despite their effectiveness, are hampered by limited specificity, expensive and bulky equipment, labor-intensive operations, and time-consuming procedures. In this study, we present a clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas12a-based diagnostic platform with a surface plasmon resonance-based fiber tip (CRISPR-SPR-FT) biosensor.

CRISPR-Cas13a-powered electrochemical biosensor for the detection of the L452R mutation in clinical samples of SARS-CoV-2 variants.

Since the end of 2019, a highly contagious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has deprived numerous lives worldwide, called COVID-19. Up to date, omicron is the latest variant of concern, and BA.5 is replacing the BA.

Silica Nanoparticles with Virus-Mimetic Spikes Enable Efficient siRNA Delivery In Vitro and In Vivo.

Oligonucleotide-based therapy has experienced remarkable development in the past 2 decades, but its broad applications are severely hampered by delivery vectors. Widely used viral vectors and lipid nanovectors are suffering from immune clearance after repeating usage or requiring refrigerated transportation and storage, respectively. In this work, amino-modified virus-mimetic spike silica nanoparticles (NH-SSNs) were fabricated using a 1-pot surfactant-free approach with controlled spike lengths, which were demonstrated with excellent delivery performance and biosafety in nearly all cell types and mice.

Mesoporous biophotonic carbon spheres with tunable curvature for intelligent drug delivery.

Mesoporous carbon spheres (MCSs) are widely used in the field of pollutants adsorption, energy storage and various biomedicine applications such as targeted delivery vector, phototherapy sensitizers, bioimaging contrast agents, etc. Current synthetic strategies including soft templating and hard templating methods generally have the limits of using expensive surfactants or lack of control over the pore structures. Therefore, the complex and uncontrollable pore structures limit its further clinical application.

Modification of DSSC Based on Polymer Composite Gel Electrolyte with Copper Oxide Nanochain by Shape Effect.

Solvent evaporation and leakage of liquid electrolytes that restrict the practicality of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) motivate the quest for the development of stable and ionic conductive electrolyte. Gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) fits the criteria, but it still suffers from low efficiency due to insufficient segmental motion within the electrolytes. Therefore, incorporating metal oxide nanofiller is one of the approaches to enhance the performance of electrolytes due to the presence of cross-linking centers that can be coordinated with the polymer segments.

A CRISPR/Cas12a-empowered surface plasmon resonance platform for rapid and specific diagnosis of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic was partially due to the challenge of identifying asymptomatic and presymptomatic carriers of the virus, and thus highlights a strong motivation for diagnostics with high sensitivity that can be rapidly deployed. On the other hand, several concerning SARS-CoV-2 variants, including Omicron, are required to be identified as soon as the samples are identified as 'positive'. Unfortunately, a traditional PCR test does not allow their specific identification.

Mid-Infrared Optoelectronic Devices Based on Two-Dimensional Materials beyond Graphene: Status and Trends.

Since atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) graphene was successfully synthesized in 2004, it has garnered considerable interest due to its advanced properties. However, the weak optical absorption and zero bandgap strictly limit its further development in optoelectronic applications. In this regard, other 2D materials, including black phosphorus (BP), transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), 2D Te nanoflakes, and so forth, possess advantage properties, such as tunable bandgap, high carrier mobility, ultra-broadband optical absorption, and response, enable 2D materials to hold great potential for next-generation optoelectronic devices, in particular, mid-infrared (MIR) band, which has attracted much attention due to its intensive applications, such as target acquisition, remote sensing, optical communication, and night vision.

Dynamics of broadband photoinduced species and enabled photodetection in MXenes.

Dynamics of photoinduced species, as a key parameter for nanomaterials plays a significantly role in the performance of optoelectronic devices. In this work, the origin of broadband optical response for the emerging TiCT MXene is revealed by transient spectroscopic analysis. From ultraviolet to infrared, the steady-state and transient optical responses present wavelength-related features.

Density Functional Investigation on α-MoO (100): Amines Adsorption and Surface Chemistry.

The (100) surface of α-MoO should possess overwhelmingly more exposed Mo atoms than the (010), and the exposed Mo has been extensively considered as an active site for amine adsorption. However, α-MoO (100) has drawn little attention concerning the amine sensing mechanism. In this research, adsorption of ammonia (NH), monomethylamine (MMA), dimethylamine (DMA), and trimethylamine (TMA) is systematically investigated by density functional theory (DFT).

2D-ultrathin MXene/DOXjade platform for iron chelation chemo-photothermal therapy.

An increased demand for iron is a hallmark of cancer cells and is thought necessary to promote high cell proliferation, tumor progression and metastasis. This makes iron metabolism an attractive therapeutic target. Unfortunately, current iron-based therapeutic strategies often lack effectiveness and can elicit off-target toxicities.

The Improvement of the Performance of Sky-Blue OLEDs by Decreasing Interface Traps and Balancing Carriers with PSVA Treatment.

The mitigation of interfacial charge accumulation in solution-processed organic light-emitting diodes (s-OLEDs) is an effective method to improve device performance. In this study, the polar solvent vapor annealing (PSVA) method was used to treat two layers in s-OLED, PEDOT:PSS and mCP:DMAC-DPS emitting layers, separately, to optimize the carrier transmission and balance. After the double-layer PSVA treatment, the current efficiency increased, the lifetime of the device is improved, the efficiency roll-off alleviated from 33.

Optical Properties of Few-Layer TiCN MXene: From Experimental Observations to Theoretical Calculations.

Despite the emerging interest in research and development of TiCN MXene nanosheet (NS)-based optoelectronic devices, there is still a lack of in-depth studies of the underlying photophysical processes, like carrier relaxation dynamics and nonlinear photon absorption, operating in such devices, hindering their further and precise design. In this paper, we attempt to remedy the situation by fabricating few-layer TiCN NSs combining selective etching and molecular intercalation and by investigating the carrier relaxation possesses and broadband nonlinear optical responses transient absorption and Z-scan techniques. These results are complemented by first-principle theoretical analyses of the optical properties.

CdS@CdSe Core/Shell Quantum Dots for Highly Improved Self-Powered Photodetection Performance.

Uniform, well-defined cadmium sulfide@cadmium selenide core/shell quantum dots (CdS@CdSe QDs) were, for the first time, successfully synthesized by a solvothermal method and chemical bath growth for photoelectrochemical activities. The as-synthesized CdS@CdSe QDs not only exhibit superior self-powered photoresponse behavior and excellent stability under ambient conditions but also display significantly improved current densities and photoresponsivity compared to those of individual CdS QDs or CdSe QDs, mainly due to the built-in electric field, and thus have great potential in the fields of renewable energy and renewable energy consumption for carbon neutrality target achievement.

Tailoring the ultrafast and nonlinear photonics of MXenes through elemental replacement.

Due to the outstanding electronic properties, unique chemical surface termination units and rich elemental compositions, MXenes have become promising candidates for the development of new generation optoelectronic devices. However, there is still a gap between advanced photonics applications and fundamental understanding of ultrafast carrier photo-physics dynamics and a nonlinear optical response in layered MXenes. Here, we present insight into the excited state relaxation processes and nonlinear optical response of few-layer TiCN and TiC nanosheets (NSs) transient absorption spectroscopy and Z-scan measurements.

2D materials for bone therapy.

Due to their prominent physicochemical properties, 2D materials are broadly applied in biomedicine. Currently, 2D materials have achieved great success in treating many diseases such as cancer and tissue engineering as well as bone therapy. Based on their different characteristics, 2D materials could function in various ways in different bone diseases.

Modifying the Crystal Field of CsPbCl:Mn Nanocrystals by Co-doping to Enhance Its Red Emission by a Hundredfold.

CsPbCl:Mn is a practical solution for obtaining red-orange light inorganic perovskite nanocrystals since CsPbI is unstable. Increasing the concentration of Mn is an effective way to enhance the orange-red emission of CsPbCl:Mn. However, the relationship between emission intensity of the Mn dopant and the concentration of Mn is very chaotic in different studies.