Controlled Synthesis of Graphdiyne-Based Multiscale Catalysts for Energy Conversion.

Graphdiyne (GDY) science is a new and rapidly developing interdisciplinary field that touches on various areas of chemistry, physics, information science, material science, life science, environmental science, and so on. The rapid development of GDY science is part of the trend in development of carbon materials. GDY, with its unique structure and fascinating properties, has greatly promoted fundamental research toward practical applications of carbon materials.

Direct conversion of CO to CH on Pd/graphdiyne single-crystalline.

A major impediment to the development of the efficient use of artificial photosynthesis is the lack of highly selective and efficient photocatalysts toward the conversion of CO by sunlight energy at room temperature and ambient pressure. After many years of hard work, we finally completed the synthesis of graphdiyne-based palladium quantum dot catalysts containing high-density metal atom steps for selective artificial photosynthesis. The well-designed interface structure of the catalyst is composed of electron-donor and acceptor groups, resulting in the obvious incomplete charge-transfer phenomenon between graphdiyne and plasmonic metal nanostructures on the interface.

Confined Growth of Highly Ordered Metal Atomic Arrays for Seawater Oxidation.

Metal atom catalysts have been among the most important research objects due to their specific physical and chemical properties. However, precise control of the anchoring of metal atoms is still challenging to achieve. Cobalt and iridium atomic arrays formed sequentially ordered stable arrays in graphdiyne (GDY) triangular cavities depending on their intrinsic chemical properties and interactions.

Self-Organized Gradually Single-Atom-Layer of Metal Osmium for an Unprecedented Hydrogen Production from Seawater.

Atomic thick two-dimensional (2D) materials with exciting physical, chemical, and electronic properties are gaining increasing attention in next-generation science and technology, showing great promise in catalysis and energy science. However, the precise design and synthesis of efficient catalytic systems based on such materials still face many difficulties, especially in how to control the preparation of structurally determined, highly active, atomic-scale distribution of material systems. Here, we report that a highly active zerovalent osmium single-atom-layer with a thickness of single atom size has been successfully and controllably self-organized on the surface of 2D graphdiyne (GDY) material.

Controllable Assembly of Highly Oxidized Cobalt on Graphdiyne Surface for Efficient Conversion of Nitrogen into Nitric Acid.

The manufacture of nitric acid (HNO ) consumes large amounts of energy and causes serious environmental pollution. Electrochemical synthesis is regarded as a key way to eliminate carbon emissions from the chemicals industry. The selective electrosynthesis of HNO from nitrogen was achieved by controllable assembly of cobalt metal on graphdiyne surface using a powerful tool of electrochemistry at ambient conditions.

Highly Selective Electrocatalytic Olefin Hydrogenation in Aqueous Solution.

Selective hydrogenation of olefins with water as the hydrogen source at ambient conditions is still a big challenge in the field of catalysis. Herein, the electrocatalytic hydrogenation of purely aliphatic and functionalized olefins was achieved by using graphdiyne based copper oxide quantum dots (Cu O/GDY) as cathodic electrodes and water as the hydrogen source, with high activity and selectivity in aqueous solution at high current density under ambient temperature and pressure. In particular, the sp-/sp -hybridized graphdiyne catalyst allows the selective hydrogenation of cis-trans isomeric olefins.

Conversion of Interfacial Chemical Bonds for Inducing Efficient Photoelectrocatalytic Water Splitting.

Sp-C-hybridized alkyne bonds present the natural advantages of interacting with metal atoms and have the ability to generate a large number of new catalytic active sites on the surface and the interfaces, thus greatly promoting the efficient progress of various light/electrochemical reactions. In this work, we have successfully fabricated a novel type of interfacial structure containing sp-C-Mo/O bonds and mixed Mo valence states with outstanding catalytic activity and stability for photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) overall water splitting in a wide pH range (0-14), due to the presence of sp-carbon-rich graphdiyne. For example, in alkaline conditions (pH = 14), the overpotentials of oxygen and hydrogen evolution reactions at 10 mA cm are 165 and 8 mV.

Multi-heterointerfaces for selective and efficient urea production.

A major impediment to industrial urea synthesis is the lack of catalysts with high selectivity and activity, which inhibits the efficient industrial production of urea. Here, we report a new catalyst system suitable for the highly selective synthesis of industrial urea by growth of graphdiyne on the surface of cobalt-nickel mixed oxides. Such a catalyst is a multi-heterojunction interfacial structure resulting in the obvious incomplete charge-transfer phenomenon between a graphdiyne and metal oxide interface and multiple intermolecular interactions.

Rhodium nanocrystals on porous graphdiyne for electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution from saline water.

The realization of the efficient hydrogen conversion with large current densities at low overpotentials represents the development trend of this field. Here we report the atomic active sites tailoring through a facile synthetic method to yield well-defined Rhodium nanocrystals in aqueous solution using formic acid as the reducing agent and graphdiyne as the stabilizing support. High-resolution high-angle annular dark-field scanning-transmission electron microscopy images show the high-density atomic steps on the faces of hexahedral Rh nanocrystals.

Highly Dispersed Platinum Chlorine Atoms Anchored on Gold Quantum Dots for a Highly Efficient Electrocatalyst.

The development of efficient and durable electrocatalysts is the only way to achieve commercial fuel cells. A new, efficient method was utilized for epitaxial growth of gold quantum dots using atomically platinum chlorine species with porous graphdiyne as a support (PtClAu(111)/GDY), for obtaining successful multicomponent quantum dots with a size of 2.37 nm.

Acidity/Alkalinity of Japanese Encephalitis Virus E Protein Residue 138 Alters Neurovirulence in Mice.

The Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) envelope (E) protein, as one of mediators of virus entry into host cells, plays a critical role in determining virulence. The Glu-to-Lys mutation of residue 138 in E protein (E138) plays an important role in attenuating JEV vaccine strain SA14-14-2. However, it is not clear how E138 attenuates JEV.

A simple method for developing an infectious cDNA clone of Japanese encephalitis virus.

Flavivirus cDNA clones frequently demonstrate genetic instability in transformed bacteria, which hampers the construction and manipulation of cDNAs for infectious flaviviruses. In this study, we developed a stable, full-length cDNA clone, pJEHEN, of a GI JEV strain HEN0701 using a medium-copy-number pBR322 vector and propagating cDNA clones at room temperature. The virus vJEHEN recovered from the infectious clone was indistinguishable from the parent virus HEN0701 with respect to plaque morphology, growth kinetics, and virulence characteristics.

Interferon regulatory factor 3 is a key regulation factor for inducing the expression of SAMHD1 in antiviral innate immunity.

SAMHD1 is a type I interferon (IFN) inducible host innate immunity restriction factor that inhibits an early step of the viral life cycle. The underlying mechanisms of SAMHD1 transcriptional regulation remains elusive. Here, we report that inducing SAMHD1 upregulation is part of an early intrinsic immune response via TLR3 and RIG-I/MDA5 agonists that ultimately induce the nuclear translocation of the interferon regulation factor 3 (IRF3) protein.

Identification and Analysis of Novel Viral and Host Dysregulated MicroRNAs in Variant Pseudorabies Virus-Infected PK15 Cells.

Pseudorabies (PR) is one of the most devastating diseases in the pig industry. To identify changes in microRNA (miRNA) expression and post-transcriptional regulatory responses to PRV infection in porcine kidney epithelial (PK15) cells, we sequenced a small RNA (sRNA) library prepared from infected PK15 cells and compared it to a library prepared from uninfected cells using Illumina deep sequencing. Here we found 25 novel viral miRNAs by high-throughput sequencing and 20 of these miRNAs were confirmed through stem-loop RT-qPCR.

A live, attenuated pseudorabies virus strain JS-2012 deleted for gE/gI protects against both classical and emerging strains.

Emerging pseudorabies virus (PRV) variant have led to pseudorabies outbreaks in Chinese pig farms. The commercially available PRV vaccine provides poor protection against the PRV variant. In this study, a gE/gI deleted PRV strain JS-2012-△gE/gI was generated from a PRV variant strain using homologous DNA recombination.

Genetic instability of Japanese encephalitis virus cDNA clones propagated in Escherichia coli.

The genetic instability of Flavivirus cDNA clones in transformed bacteria is a common phenomenon. Herein, a cDNA fragment of the nucleotide (nt) 1-2913 of the genome of a flavivirus, Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), was used to investigate factors that caused the instability of cDNA clones. Several cDNA fragments with different 5'- or 3'-termini of the 2913-nt cDNA were obtained by PCR amplification or restriction enzyme digestion and cloned into a pCR-Blunt II-TOPO vector.

Systematic qualitative and quantitative assessment of fatty acids in the seeds of 60 tree peony (Paeonia section Moutan DC.) cultivars by GC-MS.

Seeds from Paeonia ostii and Paeoniarockii have been recently identified as novel resources of α-linolenic acid (ALA) in China. To assess whether tree peony cultivars can be used as oil resource, fatty acids (FAs) in 60 cultivars were monitored and evaluated in this study. The results indicated that the composition and content of FAs varied dramatically among different cultivars, in which ALA, linoleic acid, oleic acid, palmitic acid, and stearic acid were the dominant.

Biogenesis of C-glycosyl flavones and profiling of flavonoid glycosides in lotus (Nelumbo nucifera).

Flavonoids in nine tissues of Nelumbo nucifera Gaertner were identified and quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detector (HPLC-DAD) and HPLC-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MSn). Thirty-eight flavonoids were identified; eleven C-glycosides and five O-glycosides were discovered for the first time in N. nucifera.

Genomic characterization of a bovine viral diarrhea virus 1 isolate from swine.

The SD0803 strain of the bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) was isolated from a piglet in China in 2008 and has been classified as a novel subgenotype of BVDV-1. To describe the molecular features of this novel subgenotype, we sequenced and characterized the complete genome of the SD0803 virus. The genome is 12,271 bp in length and contains 5' and 3' untranslated regions (UTRs) that flank an open reading frame (ORF) encoding a 3,898-amino-acid polypeptide.

Relationship between the composition of flavonoids and flower colors variation in tropical water lily (Nymphaea) cultivars.

Water lily, the member of the Nymphaeaceae family, is the symbol of Buddhism and Brahmanism in India. Despite its limited researches on flower color variations and formation mechanism, water lily has background of blue flowers and displays an exceptionally wide diversity of flower colors from purple, red, blue to yellow, in nature. In this study, 34 flavonoids were identified among 35 tropical cultivars by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with photodiode array detection (DAD) and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS).