NEK2 Phosphorylates RhoGDI1 to Promote Cell Proliferation, Migration and Invasion Through the Activation of RhoA and Rac1 in Colon Cancer Cells.

Rho guanine nucleotide dissociation inhibitor 1 (RhoGDI1) plays a critical role in regulating the activity of Rho guanosine triphosphatases (GTPases). Phosphorylation of RhoGDI1 dynamically modulates the activation of Rho GTPases, influencing cell proliferation and migration. This study explored the involvement of Never In Mitosis A (NIMA)-related serine/threonine protein kinase 2 (NEK2) in phosphorylating RhoGDI1 and its implications in cancer cell behavior associated with tumor progression.

Coupling photocatalytic CO reduction and CHOH oxidation for selective dimethoxymethane production.

Currently, conventional dimethoxymethane synthesis methods are environmentally unfriendly. Here, we report a photo-redox catalysis system to generate dimethoxymethane using a silver and tungsten co-modified blue titanium dioxide catalyst (Ag.W-BTO) by coupling CO reduction and CHOH oxidation under mild conditions.

Inductive Effect of Lewis Acidic Dopants on the Band Levels of Perovskite for a Photocatalytic Reaction.

Band-edge modulation of halide perovskites as photoabsorbers plays significant roles in the application of photovoltaic and photochemical systems. Here, Lewis acidity of dopants (M) as the new descriptor of engineering the band-edge position of the perovskite is investigated in the gradiently doped perovskite along the core-to-surface (CsPbBr-CsPbMBr). Reducing M-bromide bond strength with an increase in hardness of acidic M increases the electron ability of basic Br, thus strengthening the Pb-Br orbital coupling in M-Pb-Br, noted as the inductive effect of dopants.

Efficient Nitrate Conversion to Ammonia on f-Block Single-Atom/Metal Oxide Heterostructure Local Electron-Deficiency Modulation.

Exploring single-atom catalysts (SACs) for the nitrate reduction reaction (NO; NitRR) to value-added ammonia (NH) offers a sustainable alternative to both the Haber-Bosch process and NO-rich wastewater treatment. However, due to the insufficient electron deficiency and unfavorable electronic structure of SACs, resulting in poor NO-adsorption, sluggish proton (H*) transfer kinetics, and preferred hydrogen evolution, their NO-to-NH selectivity and yield rate are far from satisfactory. Herein, a systematic theoretical prediction reveals that the local electron deficiency of an -block Gd single atom (Gd) can be significantly regulated upon coordination with oxygen-defect-rich NiO (Gd-D-NiO) support.

Unraveling the Function of Metal-Amorphous Support Interactions in Single-Atom Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution.

Amorphization of the support in single-atom catalysts is a less researched concept for promoting catalytic kinetics through modulating the metal-support interaction (MSI). We modeled single-atom ruthenium (Ru ) supported on amorphous cobalt/nickel (oxy)hydroxide (Ru-a-CoNi) to explore the favorable MSI between Ru and the amorphous skeleton for the alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Differing from the usual crystal counterpart (Ru-c-CoNi), the electrons on Ru are facilitated to exchange among local configurations (Ru-O-Co/Ni) of Ru-a-CoNi since the flexibly amorphous configuration induces the possible d-d electron transfer and medium-to-long range p-π orbital coupling, further intensifying the MSI.

Moving beyond bimetallic-alloy to single-atom dimer atomic-interface for all-pH hydrogen evolution.

Single-atom-catalysts (SACs) afford a fascinating activity with respect to other nanomaterials for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), yet the simplicity of single-atom center limits its further modification and utilization. Obtaining bimetallic single-atom-dimer (SAD) structures can reform the electronic structure of SACs with added atomic-level synergistic effect, further improving HER kinetics beyond SACs. However, the synthesis and identification of such SAD structure remains conceptually challenging.

Phase-selective active sites on ordered/disordered titanium dioxide enable exceptional photocatalytic ammonia synthesis.

Photocatalytic N fixation to NH defect creation on TiO to activate ultra-stable N[triple bond, length as m-dash]N has drawn enormous scientific attention, but poor selectivity and low yield rate are the major bottlenecks. Additionally, whether N preferentially adsorbs on phase-selective defect sites on TiO in correlation with appropriate band alignment has yet to be explored. Herein, theoretical predictions reveal that the defect sites on disordered anatase (A) preferentially exhibit higher N adsorption ability with a reduced energy barrier for a potential-determining-step (*N to NNH*) than the disordered rutile (R) phase of TiO.

Binder-free TiO hydrophilic film covalently coated by microwave treatment.

A binder-free attachment method for TiO on a substrate has been sought to retain high active photocatalysis. Here, we report a binder-free covalent coating of phase-selectively disordered TiO on a hydroxylated silicon oxide (SiO) substrate through rapid microwave treatment. We found that Ti-O-Si and Ti-O-Ti bonds were formed through a condensation reaction between the hydroxyl groups of the disordered TiO and Si substrate, and the disordered TiO nanoparticles themselves, respectively.