Deep removal of trace CH and CO from CH by using customized potassium-exchange mordenite.

Adsorptive separation using porous materials is a promising approach for separating alkynes/olefins due to its energy efficiency, while the deep removal of trace amounts of CH and CO from CH is still very challenging for a commercial adsorbent. Herein, we report a low-cost inorganic metal cation-mediated mordenite (MOR) zeolite with the specific location and distribution of K cations acting as a goalkeeper for accurately controlling diffusion channels, as evidence of the experimental and simulation results. Deep purification of CH from ternary CO/CH/CH mixtures was first realized on K-MOR with exceptional results, achieving a remarkable polymer-grade CH productivity of 1742 L kg for the CO/CH/CH mixture.

A fine single Pd microwire H sensor fabricated by using a femtosecond laser for a wide detection range at room temperature.

We reported a fine H sensor based on single Pd microwires (SPMs) by femtosecond-laser-induced deposition of palladium nanoparticles (PdNPs), which exhibits excellent H sensing performance. The PdNPs with good dispersion were prepared by ultrasonic assisted one-step solution synthesis. The sensor has a wide detection range of 0.

Correction: Exploration of the cofactor specificity of wild-type phosphite dehydrogenase and its mutant using molecular dynamics simulations.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1039/D1RA00221J.].

Exploration of the cofactor specificity of wild-type phosphite dehydrogenase and its mutant using molecular dynamics simulations.

Phosphite dehydrogenase (Pdh) catalyzes the NAD-dependent oxidation of phosphite to phosphate with the formation of NADH. It can be used in several bioorthogonal systems for metabolic control and related applications, for example, bioelectricity. At present, NAD has poor stability at high concentrations and costs are expensive.

Bioinspired Soft Robots Based on the Moisture-Responsive Graphene Oxide.

Graphene oxide (GO), which has many oxygen functional groups, is a promising candidate for use in moisture-responsive sensors and actuators due to the strong water-GO interaction and the ultrafast transport of water molecules within the stacked GO sheets. In the last 5 years, moisture-responsive actuators based on GO have shown distinct advantages over other stimuli-responsive materials and devices. Particularly, inspired by nature organisms, various moisture-enabled soft robots have been successfully developed via rational assembly of the GO-based actuators.

Flexible and wearable strain sensor based on electrospun carbon sponge/polydimethylsiloxane composite for human motion detection.

Flexible and wearable strain sensors have attracted considerable attention due to their potential applications in human motion detection. In this work, the as-fabricated strain sensor was obtained by encapsulation of electrospun carbon sponge (CS) with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The formation mechanism of the self-assembled sponge has been explored.

Random acceleration and steered molecular dynamics simulations reveal the (un)binding tunnels in adenosine deaminase and critical residues in tunnels.

Adenosine deaminase (ADA) is an important enzyme related to purine nucleoside metabolism in human serum and various tissues. Abnormal ADA levels are related to a wide variety of diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, AIDS, anemia, lymphoma, and leukemia and ADA is considered as a useful target for various diseases. Currently, ADA can be divided into open conformation and closed conformation according to the inhibitors of binding.

Origami Metawall: Mechanically Controlled Absorption and Deflection of Light.

Metamaterials/metasurfaces, which have subwavelength resonating unit cells (i.e., meta-atoms), can enable unprecedented control over the flow of light.

Rhodamine B derivative-modified up-conversion nanoparticle probes based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) for the solid-based detection of copper ions.

Herein, a novel solid-based up-conversion fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) sensor was developed using rhodamine B hydrazide, which provided a selective fluorescence response and suitable affinity towards Cu ions over other biologically relevant metal ions because the Cu ion could promote the hydrolysis of α-amino acid esters of rhodamine B hydrazide and yield the Cu·α-amino acid chelate. This solid-based detection system is more convenient for the detection of Cu based on color change and emission spectra instead of the complicated and tedious measurements than other up-conversion sensors and up-conversion luminescent nanoparticles used as an excitation source; moreover, the proposed system shows high selectivity, minimum photo-damage to living organisms, and high chemical stability.

Robust Remote Sensing of Trace-Level Heavy-Metal Contaminants in Water Using Laser Filaments.

Water is the major natural resource that enables life on our planet. Rapid detection of water pollution that occurs due to both human activity and natural cataclysms is imperative for environmental protection. Analytical chemistry-based techniques are generally not suitable for rapid monitoring because they involve collection of water samples and analysis in a laboratory.

Silk-Enabled Conformal Multifunctional Bioelectronics for Investigation of Spatiotemporal Epileptiform Activities and Multimodal Neural Encoding/Decoding.

Flexible electronics can serve as powerful tools for biomedical diagnosis and therapies of neurological disorders, particularly for application cases with brain-machine interfaces (BMIs). Existing conformal soft bioelectrodes are applicable for basic electrocorticogram (ECoG) collecting/monitoring. Nevertheless, as an emerging and promising approach, further multidisciplinary efforts are still demanded for in-depth exploitations with these conformal soft electronics toward their practical neurophysiological applications in both scientific research and real-world clinical operation.

Influence of interlayer interactions on the relaxation dynamics of excitons in ultrathin MoS.

Interlayer interactions play a crucial role in modifying the optical and electronic properties of layered materials in a complex way, which is of key importance for the performance of the optoelectronic devices based on these novel materials. In this contribution, we performed an investigation into the underlying influence of interlayer interactions on the relaxation dynamics of excitons in ultrathin MoS using the femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy technique. The experimental results manifest that interlayer interactions in bilayer MoS can largely facilitate the exciton-phonon scattering process and inhibit the radiative recombination process, which consequently accelerates the relaxation rate of A excitons and results in the decrease of the relaxation lifetime of A excitons in bilayer MoS.

A supramolecular approach towards strong and tough polymer nanocomposite fibers.

Polymer nanocomposite fibers are important one-dimensional nanomaterials that hold promising potential in a broad range of technological applications. It is, however, challenging to organize advanced polymer nanocomposite fibers with sufficient mechanical properties and flexibility. Here, we demonstrate that strong, tough and flexible polymer nanocomposite fibers can be approached by electrospinning of a supramolecular ensemble of dissimilar and complementary components including flexible multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNT), and stiff cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) in an aqueous poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) system.