Controlling the spacing of the linked graphene oxide system with dithiol linkers under confinement.

2D nanoscale confined systems exhibit behavior that is markedly different from that observed at the macroscale. Confinement can be tuned by controlling the interlayer spacing between confining layers using organic dithiol linkers. Adjusting spacing and selective intercalation have important impacts for catalysis, superconductivity, spin engineering, sodium ion batteries, 2D magnets, optoelectronics, and many other applications.

Strategic preparation of porous magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers via a simple and green method for high-performance adsorption and removal of meropenem.

In this study, a facile method has been developed to synthesize a novel type of porous magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers (FeO-MER-MMIPs) for the selective adsorption and removal of meropenem. The FeO-MER-MMIPs, with abundant functional groups and sufficient magnetism for easy separation, are prepared in aqueous solutions. The porous carriers reduce the overall mass of the MMIPs, greatly improving their adsorption capacity per unit mass and optimizing the overall value of the adsorbents.

Spatially-directed magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers with good anti-interference for simultaneous enrichment and detection of dual disease-related bio-indicators.

As the changes of biomarkers directly reflect the occurrence of degenerative diseases, accurate detection of biomarkers is of great significance for disease diagnosis and control. However, single index detection has high uncertainties to accurately reflect the pathological characteristics because of the complexity of the human internal environment and the extremely trace concentration of indicators. To this end, a method for simultaneous detection of dual-biomarkers based on anti-interference magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers (D-mag-MIPs) is thereby proposed, and successfully applied in human urine analysis for the detection of Parkinson's disease bio-indicators 4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) and dopamine (DA).

In situ temperature measurements in sooting methane/air flames using synchrotron x-ray fluorescence of seeded krypton atoms.

Synchrotron x-ray fluorescence has been used to measure temperatures in optically dense gases where traditional methods would fail. These data provide a benchmark for stringent tests of computational fluid dynamics models for complex systems where physical and chemical processes are intimately linked. The experiments measured krypton number densities in a sooting, atmospheric pressure, nonpremixed coflow flame that is widely used in combustion research.

Novel bayberry-and-honeycomb-like magnetic surface molecularly imprinted polymers for the selective enrichment of rutin from Sophora japonica.

Rutin (RT), a widely distributed natural flavonoid compound, has been generally utilized as an important active ingredient owing to its considerable biomedical and economic value. Inspired by the structure features of densely-packed bayberry and well-orientated honeycomb, a novel type of magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers (HB-TI-MMIPs) with abundant high-affinity and uniformly-distributed binding sites was rationally constructed for the selective enrichment of RT from Sophora japonica. The polymerization conditions, physicochemical properties, and adsorption performance of the imprinted nanomaterials were systematically investigated.

Nano-structural effects on Hematite (α-FeO) nanoparticle radiofrequency heating.

Nano-sized hematite (α-FeO) is not well suited for magnetic heating via an alternating magnetic field (AMF) because it is not superparamagnetic-at its best, it is weakly ferromagnetic. However, manipulating the magnetic properties of nano-sized hematite (i.e.

Identification of Reaction Intermediates and Mechanistic Understandings of Methane Oxidation over Hematite: A Combined Experimental and Theoretical Study.

Effective methane utilization for either clean power generation or value-added chemical production has been a subject of growing attention worldwide for decades, yet challenges persist mostly in relation to methane activation under mild conditions. Here, we report hematite, an earth-abundant material, to be highly effective and thermally stable to catalyze methane combustion at low temperatures (<500 °C) with a low light-off temperature of 230 °C and 100% selectivity to CO. The reported performance is impressive and comparable to those of precious-metal-based catalysts, with a low apparent activation energy of 17.

Semiconductor-to-conductor transition in 2D copper(ii) oxide nanosheets through surface sulfur-functionalization.

Functionalization is a widely-used strategy to modulate and optimize the properties of materials towards various applications, including sensing, catalysis, and energy generation. While the influence of sulfur-functionalization of carbon materials and oxides like ZnO and TiO has been studied, far less research has been devoted to analyzing sulfur-functionalization of CuO and other transition metal oxide nanomaterials. Here, we report sulfur-functionalization of copper(ii) oxide nanosheets synthesized by using a soft-templating procedure, with sulfur-addition based on hydrogen sulfide gas as a source.

Reactive Molecular Dynamics Simulations and Quantum Chemistry Calculations To Investigate Soot-Relevant Reaction Pathways for Hexylamine Isomers.

Sooting tendencies of a series of nitrogen-containing hydrocarbons (NHCs) have been recently characterized experimentally using the yield sooting index (YSI) methodology. This work aims to identify soot-relevant reaction pathways for three selected CHN amines, namely, dipropylamine (DPA), diisopropylamine (DIPA), and 3,3-dimethylbutylamine (DMBA) using ReaxFF molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and quantum mechanical (QM) calculations and to interpret the experimentally observed trends. ReaxFF MD simulations are performed to determine the important intermediate species and radicals involved in the fuel decomposition and soot formation processes.

Performance-advantaged ether diesel bioblendstock production by a priori design.

Lignocellulosic biomass offers a renewable carbon source which can be anaerobically digested to produce short-chain carboxylic acids. Here, we assess fuel properties of oxygenates accessible from catalytic upgrading of these acids a priori for their potential to serve as diesel bioblendstocks. Ethers derived from C and C carboxylic acids are identified as advantaged fuel candidates with significantly improved ignition quality (>56% cetane number increase) and reduced sooting (>86% yield sooting index reduction) when compared to commercial petrodiesel.

Shape-Dependent Interactions of Manganese Oxide Nanomaterials with Lipid Bilayer Vesicles.

Interactions of transition-metal-oxide nanomaterials with biological membranes have important environmental implications and applications in ecotoxicity and life-cycle assessment analysis. In this study, we quantitatively assess the impact of MnO nanomaterial morphology-one-dimensional (1D) nanowires, 2D nanosheets, and 3D nanoflowers-on their interaction with phospholipid vesicles as a model for biological membranes. Confocal microscopy suggests visual evidence for the interaction of undisrupted vesicles with dispersed MnO nanomaterials of different morphologies, and it further supports the observation that minimal dye leakage of the vesicle inner solution was detected during the interaction with MnO nanomaterials during the dye leakage assay.

Catalytic manganese oxide nanostructures for the reverse water gas shift reaction.

Understanding the fundamental structure-property relationships of nanomaterials is critical for many catalytic applications as they comprise of the catalyst designing principles. Here, we develop efficient synthetic methods to prepare various MnO structures and investigate their catalytic performance as applied to the reverse Water Gas Shift (rWGS) reaction. We show that the support-free MnO derived from MnO 1D, 2D and 3D nanostructures are highly selective (100% CO to CO), thermally stable catalysts (850 °C) and differently effective in the rWGS.

A Promising Carbon/g-C N Composite Negative Electrode for a Long-Life Sodium-Ion Battery.

2D graphitic carbon nitride (g-C N ) nanosheets are a promising negative electrode candidate for sodium-ion batteries (NIBs) owing to its easy scalability, low cost, chemical stability, and potentially high rate capability. However, intrinsic g-C N exhibits poor electronic conductivity, low reversible Na-storage capacity, and insufficient cyclability. DFT calculations suggest that this could be due to a large Na ion diffusion barrier in the innate g-C N nanosheet.

Highly conductive carbon-based aqueous inks toward electroluminescent devices, printed capacitive sensors and flexible wearable electronics.

Carbon-based conductive inks are one of the most important materials in the field of printing electronics. However, most carbon-based conductive inks with small electrical resistance are expensive, such as graphene. It limits the commercial use of carbon inks in the fields of flexible electronics and printed electronics.

Hydrophobic CuO Nanosheets Functionalized with Organic Adsorbates.

A new class of hydrophobic CuO nanosheets is introduced by functionalization of the cupric oxide surface with p-xylene, toluene, hexane, methylcyclohexane, and chlorobenzene. The resulting nanosheets exhibit a wide range of contact angles from 146° (p-xylene) to 27° (chlorobenzene) due to significant changes in surface composition induced by functionalization, as revealed by XPS and ATR-FTIR spectroscopies and computational modeling. Aromatic adsorbates are stable even up to 250-350 °C since they covalently bind to the surface as alkoxides, upon reaction with the surface as shown by DFT calculations and FTIR and H NMR spectroscopy.

Hard templating ultrathin polycrystalline hematite nanosheets: effect of nano-dimension on CO to CO conversion via the reverse water-gas shift reaction.

Understanding how nano-dimensionality impacts iron oxide based catalysis is central to a wide range of applications. Here, we focus on hematite nanosheets, nanowires and nanoparticles as applied to catalyze the reverse water gas shift (RWGS) probe reaction. We introduce a novel approach to synthesize ultrathin (4-7 nm) hematite nanosheets using copper oxide nanosheets as a hard template and propose a reaction mechanism based on density functional theory (DFT) calculations.

Fundamental Role of Oxygen Stoichiometry in Controlling the Band Gap and Reactivity of Cupric Oxide Nanosheets.

CuO is a nonhazardous, earth-abundant material that has exciting potential for use in solar cells, photocatalysis, and other optoelectronic applications. While progress has been made on the characterization of properties and reactivity of CuO, there remains significant controversy on how to control the precise band gap by tuning conditions of synthetic methods. Here, we combine experimental and theoretical methods to address the origin of the wide distribution of reported band gaps for CuO nanosheets.

Shape-Dependent Surface Reactivity and Antimicrobial Activity of Nano-Cupric Oxide.

Shape of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) can be used as a design handle to achieve controlled manipulation of physicochemical properties. This tailored material property approach necessitates the establishment of relationships between specific ENM properties that result from such manipulations (e.g.

Highly conductive single-walled carbon nanotube thin film preparation by direct alignment on substrates from water dispersions.

A safe, scalable method for producing highly conductive aligned films of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) from water suspensions is presented. While microfluidic assembly of SWNTs has received significant attention, achieving desirable SWNT dispersion and morphology in fluids without an insulating surfactant or toxic superacid is challenging. We present a method that uniquely produces a noncorrosive ink that can be directly applied to a device in situ, which is different from previous fabrication techniques.

A carbon nanotube-polymer composite for T-cell therapy.

Clinical translation of cell therapies requires strategies that can manufacture cells efficiently and economically. One promising way to reproducibly expand T cells for cancer therapy is by attaching the stimuli for T cells onto artificial substrates with high surface area. Here, we show that a carbon nanotube-polymer composite can act as an artificial antigen-presenting cell to efficiently expand the number of T cells isolated from mice.

Realizing comparable oxidative and cytotoxic potential of single- and multiwalled carbon nanotubes through annealing.

The potential applications as well as the environmental and human health implications of carbon nanomaterials are well represented in the literature. There has been a recent focus on how specific physicochemical properties influence carbon nanotube (CNT) function as well as cytotoxicity. The ultimate goal is a better understanding of the causal relationship between fundamental physiochemical properties and cytotoxic mechanism in order to both advance functional design and to minimize unintended consequences of CNTs.

Mechanism for strong binding of CdSe quantum dots to multiwall carbon nanotubes for solar energy harvesting.

As hybrid nanomaterials have myriad of applications in modern technology, different functionalization strategies are being intensely sought for preparing nanocomposites with tunable properties and structures. Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube (MWNT)/CdSe Quantum Dot (QD) heterostructures serve as an important example for an active component of solar cells. The attachment mechanism of CdSe QDs and MWNTs is known to affect the charge transfer between them and consequently to alter the efficiency of solar cell devices.

Chiral-selective CoSO4/SiO2 catalyst for (9,8) single-walled carbon nanotube growth.

Electronic and optical properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) correlate with their chiral structures. Many applications need chirally pure SWCNTs that current synthesis methods cannot produce. Here, we show a sulfate-promoted CoSO(4)/SiO(2) catalyst, which selectively grows large-diameter (9,8) nanotubes at 1.

Adsorption of multimeric T cell antigens on carbon nanotubes: effect on protein structure and antigen-specific T cell stimulation.

Antigen-specific activation of cytotoxic T cells can be enhanced up to three-fold more than soluble controls when using functionalized bundled carbon nanotube substrates ((b) CNTs). To overcome the denaturing effects of direct adsorption on (b) CNTs, a simple but robust method is demonstrated to stabilize the T cell stimulus on carbon nanotube substrates through non-covalent attachment of the linker neutravidin.

Carbon nanotube-based antimicrobial biomaterials formed via layer-by-layer assembly with polypeptides.

Biomaterials capable of suppressing microbial infection are of clear importance in various health care applications, e.g. implantable devices.