Publications by authors named "ZhiTao Hu"

Petroleum-derived polyolefins exhibit diverse properties and are the most important and largest volume class of plastics. However, polyolefins are difficult to efficiently recycle or break down and are now a persistent global contaminant. Broadly replacing polyolefins with bio-derived and degradable polyethylene-like materials is an important yet challenging endeavour towards sustainable plastics.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A piezoelectric nanozyme is a novel biomaterial with the integration of piezoelectricity and nanozyme activity that has the capability of killing bacteria and promoting cell responses under a mechanical stimulus and exhibits great prospects in tissue regeneration. Herein, a piezoelectric nanozyme of bismuth sulfide (BS) with cationic vacancies (VBS) was synthesized, which exhibits enhanced piezoelectricity and nanozyme activities compared with BS. Moreover, a piezoelectric hydrogel of VBS and phenylboronic acid grafted sodium alginate-arginine (VBS-PSA) was prepared.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Synthetic polymers have found widespread use, but their ineffective end-of-life treatment is causing a significant environmental and human health crisis. Here, we demonstrate the upcycling of polynorbornene derivatives (pNBEs) through their deconstruction into distinct oligomeric buildings blocks that can be repolymerized into chemically recyclable pNBEs-like multiblock polymers via dehydrogenative polymerization. The resulting materials exhibit diverse mechanical properties, while integrating high melting temperatures (T as high as 133 °C).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The development of chemically circular, bio-based polymers is an urgently needed solution to combat the plastic waste crisis. However, the most prominent, commercially implemented bio-based aliphatic polyester, poly(lactic acid) (PLA), is brittle, therefore largely limiting its broad applications. Herein, we introduce a class of aliphatic polyesters produced through the ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of (1,5S)-8,8-dimethyl-3-oxabicyclo[3.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Herein, we report a selective photooxidation of commodity postconsumer polyolefins to produce polymers with in-chain ketones. The reaction does not involve the use of catalyst, metals, or expensive oxidants, and selectively introduces ketone functional groups. Under mild and operationally simple conditions, yields up to 1.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Porous piezoelectric ceramics and composites offer benefits for ultrasonic transducers, including better decoupling of vibration modes and improved voltage sensitivity.
  • Researchers created porous lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramics using a freeze-cast technique, discovering that aligned pores enhance electromechanical properties while reducing acoustic impedance.
  • The study demonstrated a functioning piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer with a -6 dB bandwidth of 52% and a theoretical axial resolution of 520 μm, indicating its potential for nondestructive testing and imaging.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Developing plastics that fill the need of polyolefins yet are more easily recyclable is a critical need to address the plastic waste crisis. However, most efforts in this vein have focused on high-density polyethylene (PE), while many different types of PE exist. To create broadly sustainable PE with modular properties, we present the synthesis, characterization, and demonstration of materials applications for chemically recyclable PE-like multiblock polymers prepared from distinct hard and soft blocks using ruthenium-catalyzed dehydrogenative polymerization.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The development of an artificial ligament with a multifunction of promoting bone formation, inhibiting bone resorption, and preventing infection to obtain ligament-bone healing for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction still faces enormous challenges. Herein, a novel artificial ligament based on a PI fiber woven fabric (PIF) was fabricated, which was coated with a phytic acid-gallium (PA-Ga) network via a layer-by-layer assembly method (PFPG). Compared with PIF, PFPG with PA-Ga coating significantly suppressed osteoclastic differentiation, while it boosted osteoblastic differentiation .

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Phasic (fast) and tonic (sustained) inhibition of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) are fundamental for regulating day-to-day activities, neuronal excitability, and plasticity. However, the mechanisms and physiological functions of glial GABA transductions remain poorly understood. Here, we report that the AMsh glia in Caenorhabditis elegans exhibit both phasic and tonic GABAergic signaling, which distinctively regulate olfactory adaptation and neuronal aging.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Polyolefins are the most important and largest volume plastics produced. Unfortunately, the enormous use of plastics and lack of effective disposal or recycling options have created a plastic waste catastrophe. In this work, we report an approach to create chemically recyclable polyolefin-like materials with diverse mechanical properties through the construction of multiblock polymers from hard and soft oligomeric building blocks synthesized with ruthenium-mediated ring-opening metathesis polymerization of cyclooctenes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Sexually dimorphic behaviors, which differ between sexes, are common in animals, and this study focuses on the role of specific neurons related to these behaviors in the model organism C. elegans.
  • Researchers found that male C. elegans have a higher frequency of synaptic transmission and more synaptic vesicles at neuromuscular junctions compared to hermaphrodites, which affects their locomotion.
  • The protein UNC-43/CaMKII was identified as key in regulating synaptic transmission and vesicle abundance, and even transforming hermaphrodite neurons to male-like neurons produced similar male locomotion behaviors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Neurotransmitters are released from synaptic and secretory vesicles following calcium-triggered fusion with the plasma membrane. These exocytotic events are driven by assembly of a ternary SNARE complex between the vesicle SNARE synaptobrevin and the plasma membrane-associated SNAREs syntaxin and SNAP-25. Proteins that affect SNARE complex assembly are therefore important regulators of synaptic strength.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Corrosion is one of the major issues for sustainable manufacturing globally. The annual global cost of corrosion is US$2.5 trillion (approximately 3.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Disturbed inhibitory synaptic transmission has functional impacts on neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders. An essential mechanism for modulating inhibitory synaptic transmission is alteration of the postsynaptic abundance of GABARs, which are stabilized by postsynaptic scaffold proteins and recruited by presynaptic signals. However, how GABAergic neurons trigger signals to transsynaptically recruit GABARs remains elusive.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Ca-dependent activator proteins for secretion (CAPSs) are required for Ca-regulated exocytosis in neurons and neuroendocrine cells. CAPSs contain a pleckstrin homology (PH) domain that binds PI(4,5)P2-membrane. There is also a C domain residing adjacent to the PH domain, but its function remains unclear.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Insulin, a main medication to control glycemia of type 1 and advanced type 2 diabetes, faces problems of a short half-life and poor stability during its clinical use. Zwitterionic polymer shows unique properties of antifouling and low immunogenicity. Here, we have synthesized a new insulin-zwitterionic polymer conjugate (INS-PMPC) through grafting-from strategy by controlled radical polymerization.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Changes in neurotransmitter receptors at post-synaptic sites are crucial for regulating synaptic strength, prompting research into the proteins that help position these receptors.
  • This study focuses on the role of two scaffolding proteins, LIN-2/CASK and FRM-3/FARP, in the cholinergic neuromuscular junctions of C. elegans.
  • Knocking out or disabling these proteins greatly reduces both spontaneous and triggered postsynaptic currents by lowering the levels of specific acetylcholine receptors, indicating that LIN-2 and FRM-3 are essential for effective cholinergic signaling.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) has been extensively used in diverse applications. However, it is not biodegradable and shows abnormal immune responses. Herein, a fast, controlled, ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of 2-oxo-15-crown-5 (O-15C5) is reported to prepare well-defined PEG-like polyesters, poly(O-15C5).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Mechanochromic mechanophores have promising applications in stress sensing and damage detection. Here we report a simple mechanofluorochromic mechanophore based on aminothiomaleimide (ATM). Poly(methyl acrylate) containing this mechanophore (ATM-PMA) was synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) using an ATM-derived difunctional initiator.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In modern electronic and power systems, it is essential to develop advanced dielectric materials with high energy density. One-dimensional ferroelectric ceramic nanofibers were proved to be a feasible strategy for improving the permittivity and energy density of nanocomposites. In this paper, to overcome the high loss issue of NaBiTiO (NBT), a kind of novel nanofibers 0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Vaccination with subunit nanovaccines is a promising strategy to combat virus infection and tumor development. However, immunogenicity of present nanovaccines is still unsatisfied for clinical translation. Here, we developed a nanovaccine loading a STING agonist, 2'3'-cGAMP and, a model subunit antigen, OVA, by using a well-defined self-degradable poly(β-amino ester)s to treat B16F10-OVA melanoma tumors.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Release of neurotransmitters by synaptic vesicle exocytosis at presynaptic terminals is critical for neuronal communication within the nervous system. Electrophysiology and electron microscopy are powerful and complementary approaches used to evaluate the function of synaptic proteins in synaptic transmission. Here, we provide a protocol detailing the use of these two approaches at neuromuscular junctions, including steps for worm picking and dissection, electrophysiological recording, and sample preparation for electron microscopy, followed by imaging and analysis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Exocytosis is regulated by calcium (Ca) and involves Ca-binding proteins called sensors, specifically calmodulin and synaptotagmin.
  • In the final stage of exocytosis, synaptotagmin (especially types 1 and 2) is the primary Ca sensor, while calmodulin functions earlier in the process due to its high affinity for Ca.
  • Calmodulin interacts with various proteins and kinases to regulate exocytosis, showing that both calmodulin and synaptotagmin play distinct but complementary roles in the process.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Neurotransmitter release during synaptic transmission comprises a tightly orchestrated sequence of molecular events, and Munc13-1 is a cornerstone of the fusion machinery. A forward genetic screen for defects in neurotransmitter release in identified a mutation in the Munc13-1 ortholog UNC-13 that eliminated its unique and deeply conserved C-terminal module (referred to as HC2M) containing a Ca-insensitive C2 domain flanked by membrane-binding helices. The HC2M module could be functionally replaced in vivo by protein domains that localize to synaptic vesicles but not to the plasma membrane.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF