Analysis and Testing Centre

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs), which are constructed from organic linkers, are a new class of crystalline porous materials comprising periodically extended and covalently bound network structures. The intrinsic structures and the tailorable organic linkers endow COFs with a low density, large surface area, tunable pore size and structure, and facilely-tailored functionality, attracting increasing interests in different fields including membrane separations. Exciting research activities ranging from fabrication strategies to separation applications of COF-based membranes have appeared. This review analyzes the synthesis and applications of diverse continuous/discontinuous COF membranes, such as COF-based mixed matrix membranes (MMMs), COF-based thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes, and free-standing COF films. Special attention was given to pore size, stability, hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity and surface charge of COFs in view of determining proper COFs for membrane fabrication, along with the approaches to fabricate COF-based membranes, such as blending, in situ growth, layer-by-layer stacking and interfacial polymerization (IP). Moreover, applications of COF-based membranes in gas separation, water treatment (deaslination and dye removal), organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN), pervaporation and fuel cell are disscussed. Finally, we illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of COF-based membranes through a comparison with MOF-based membranes, and the remaining challenges and future opportunities in this field.

Abstract Highly conductive polymer nanocomposites are greatly desired for electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding applications. Although transition metal carbide/carbonitride (MXene) has shown its huge potential for producing highly conductive films and bulk materials, it still remains a great challenge to fabricate extremely conductive polymer nanocomposites with outstanding EMI shielding performance at minimal amounts of MXenes. Herein, an electrostatic assembly approach for fabricating highly conductive MXene@polystyrene nanocomposites by electrostatic assembling of negative MXene nanosheets on positive polystyrene microspheres is demonstrated, followed by compression molding. Thanks to the high conductivity of MXenes and their highly efficient conducting network within polystyrene matrix, the resultant nanocomposites exhibit not only a low percolation threshold of 0.26 vol% but also a superb conductivity of 1081 S m −1 and an outstanding EMI shielding performance of >54 dB over the whole X‐band with a maximum of 62 dB at the low MXene loading of 1.90 vol%, which are among the best performances for electrically conductive polymer nanocomposites by far. Moreover, the same nanocomposite has a highly enhanced storage modulus, 54% and 56% higher than those of neat polystyrene and conventional MXene@polystyrene nanocomposite, respectively. This work provides a novel methodology to produce highly conductive polymer nanocomposites for highly efficient EMI shielding applications.

Quantum dots (QDs) have received great interest for diverse applications due to their distinct advantages, such as narrow and symmetric emission with tunable colors, broad and strong absorption, reasonable stability, and solution processibility. Doped QDs not only potentially retain almost all of the above advantages, but also avoid the self-quenching problem due to their substantial ensemble Stokes shift. Two obvious advantages of doped QDs, especially doped ZnS QDs, over typical CdSe@ZnS and CdTe QDs are longer dopant emission lifetime and potentially lower cytotoxicity. The lifetime of dopant emission from transition-metal ion or lanthanide ion-doped QDs is generally longer than that of the bandgap or defect-related emission of host, and that of biological background fluorescence, providing great opportunities to eliminate background fluorescence for biosensing and bioimaging. For bioimaging applications, fluorescent dopants may mitigate toxicity problems by producing visible or infrared emission in nanocrystals made from less-harmful elements than those currently used. In this review, recent advances in utilizing doped QDs for chemo/biosensing and bioimaging are discussed, and the synthetic routes and optical properties of doped QDs that make them excellent probes for various strategies in chemo/biosensing and bioimaging are highlighted. Moreover, perspectives on future exploration of doped QDs for chemo/biosensing and bioimaging are also given.

MoC–Mo₂C heteronanowires accomplished <italic>via</italic> controlled carbonization are efficient in the hydrogen evolution reaction due to a synergistic enhancement.

Inorganic nanomaterials that mimic enzymes are fascinating as they potentially have improved properties relative to native enzymes, such as greater resistance to extremes of pH and temperature and lower sensitivity to proteases. Although many artificial enzymes have been investigated, searching for highly-efficient and stable catalysts is still of great interest. In this paper, we first demonstrated that bovine serum albumin (BSA)-stabilized MnO(2) nanoparticles (NPs) exhibited highly peroxidase-, oxidase-, and catalase-like activities. The activities of the BSA-MnO(2) NPs were evaluated using the typical horseradish peroxidase (HRP) substrates o-phenylenediamine (OPD) and 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) in the presence of either hydrogen peroxide or dissolved oxygen. These small-sized BSA-MnO(2) NPs with good dispersion, solubility and biocompatibility exhibited typical Michaelis-Menten kinetics and high affinity for H(2)O(2), OPD and TMB, indicating that BSA-MnO(2) NPs can be used as satisfactory enzyme mimics. Based on these findings, BSA-MnO(2) NPs were used as colorimetric immunoassay tags for the detection of goat anti-human IgG in place of HRP. The colorimetric immunoassay using BSA-MnO(2) NPs has the advantages of being fast, robust, inexpensive, easily prepared and with no HRP and H(2)O(2) being needed. These water-soluble BSA-MnO(2) NPs may have promising potential applications in biotechnology, bioassays, and biomedicine.

Oxygen-containing and amino groups functionalized polymeric carbon nitride atomically-thin porous nanosheets with hydrophilic surfaces and strong Lewis basicity are designed and synthesized for enhanced photocatalytic H₂evolution.

Ferromagnetic zinc ferrite nanocrystals at ambient temperature were synthesized via the thermal decomposition of metal−surfactant complexes. Characterization measurements including transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction were performed for as-synthesized ZnFe2O4 particles. The sample has a relatively narrow size distribution with an average particle size of 9.8 ± 0.2 nm and standard deviation of 30%. The as-synthesized zinc ferrite nanocrystals are superparamagnetic at room temperature with a blocking temperature TB = 68 ± 2 K and a saturation magnetization MS = 65.4 emu·g-1 at T = 10 K, which are caused by the change in the inversion degree of the spinel structure. A coercive field of HC = 102 ± 5 Oe in the blocked state indicates small particle anisotropy, although evidence of surface spin canting was inferred from magnetization data in the as-synthesized ZnFe2O4 nanocrystals. Our results demonstrate that magnetic properties of magnetic particles can be largely modified by just changing particle size, which might be a useful way to design novel magnetic materials.

Horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-based assays feature particular interests because of the simple colorimetric readout. In these assays, 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) is the most widely used chromogenic substrates for HRP. The later research in nanozyme and DNAzyme also used TMB (the chosen substrate) because they are both HRP-mimics. It should be noted that the substrate of HRP is not just limited to TMB but, in fact, a broad range of benzidine derivatives. However, except decreased carcinogenicity due to tetrasubstitution of benzidine, the rationale for the chosen substrate TMB is not clear yet. Here, we addressed such a fundamental issue from the chemistry point of view. Nine benzidine derivatives featuring varied properties (different substitution groups and varied number of substitutions) were selected and investigated with four typical TMB-involved chromogenic systems. Among the existing benzidine substrates that are used for peroxidase-based assays, TMB exhibited the highest sensitivity, better color purity of colored products, and reasonable stability of oxidation products. Moreover, two tetrasubstituted benzidine derivatives other than TMB (4OCH3 and 2OCH32CH3) were synthesized for comparison. It turned out that the performances (sensitivity, color purity, and stability of the colored products) of TMB are still superior, thus chemically confirming its status of “the chosen substrate” in colorimetric assays.

ADVERTISEMENT RETURN TO ISSUEPREVReviewNEXTElectrochemically Generated versus Photoexcited Luminescence from Semiconductor Nanomaterials: Bridging the Valley between Two WorldsPeng Wu†‡, Xiandeng Hou‡, Jing-Juan Xu*†, and Hong-Yuan Chen*†§View Author Information† State Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China‡ Analytical & Testing Center, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China§ Collaborative Innovation Center of Functionalized Probes for Chemical Imaging in Universities of Shandong, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250014, P.R. China* E-mail: [email protected]* E-mail: [email protected]Cite this: Chem. Rev. 2014, 114, 21, 11027–11059Publication Date (Web):October 9, 2014Publication History Received15 December 2013Published online9 October 2014Published inissue 12 November 2014https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/cr400710zhttps://doi.org/10.1021/cr400710zreview-articleACS PublicationsCopyright © 2014 American Chemical SocietyRequest reuse permissionsArticle Views7343Altmetric-Citations271LEARN ABOUT THESE METRICSArticle Views are the COUNTER-compliant sum of full text article downloads since November 2008 (both PDF and HTML) across all institutions and individuals. These metrics are regularly updated to reflect usage leading up to the last few days.Citations are the number of other articles citing this article, calculated by Crossref and updated daily. Find more information about Crossref citation counts.The Altmetric Attention Score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a research article has received online. Clicking on the donut icon will load a page at altmetric.com with additional details about the score and the social media presence for the given article. Find more information on the Altmetric Attention Score and how the score is calculated. Share Add toView InAdd Full Text with ReferenceAdd Description ExportRISCitationCitation and abstractCitation and referencesMore Options Share onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InRedditEmail Other access optionsGet e-Alertsclose SUBJECTS:Cadmium sulfide,Electrodes,Quantum dots,Quenching,Sensors Get e-Alerts

Low-temperature NH₃-SCR has attracted considerable attention owing to the vast demand in industrial furnaces and its energy-conserving feature. This review summarizes the recent advances in the application of ceria-based catalysts for low-temperature NH₃-SCR.

Ratiometric fluorescent sensors, which can provide built-in self-calibration for correction of a variety of analyte-independent factors, have attracted particular attention for analytical sensing and optical imaging with the potential to provide a precise and quantitative analysis. A wide variety of ratiometric sensing probes using small fluorescent molecules have been developed. Compared with organic dyes, exploiting semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) in ratiometric fluorescence sensing is even more intriguing, owing to their unique optical and photophysical properties that offer significant advantages over organic dyes. In this review, the main photophysical mechanism for generating dual-emission from QDs for ratiometry is discussed and categorized in detail. Typically, dual-emission can be obtained either with energy transfer from QDs to dyes or with independent dual fluorophores of QDs and dye/QDs. The recent discovery of intrinsic dual-emission from Mn-doped QDs offers new opportunities for ratiometric sensing. Particularly, the signal transduction of QDs is not restricted to fluorescence, and electrochemiluminescence and photoelectrochemistry from QDs are also promising for sensing, which can be made ratiometric for correction of interferences typically encountered in electrochemistry. All these unique photophysical properties of QDs lead to a new avenue of ratiometry, and the recent progress in this area is addressed and summarized here. Several interesting applications of QD-based ratiometry are presented for the determination of metal ions, temperature, and biomolecules, with specific emphasis on the design principles and photophysical mechanisms of these probes.

MoO₃ nanosheets act as an efficient electrocatalyst for N₂ fixation to NH₃ with excellent selectivity at ambient conditions. In 0.1 M HCl, they show high activity with an NH₃ yield of 4.80 × 10⁻¹⁰ mol s⁻¹ cm⁻² (29.43 μg h⁻¹ mg_cat.⁻¹) and a faradaic efficiency of 1.9%.

High efficiency overall water splitting enabled by a hierarchical Ni–C structure derived from 2D MOF sheets without heteroatom doping.

Nanoframes of cobalt–iron bimetal phosphide enhance both HER and OER activities towards efficient overall water splitting.

Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) exhibit unique optical and photophysical properties that offer significant advantages over organic dyes as optical labels for chemo/bio-sensing. This review addresses the methods for metal ion detection with QDs, including photoluminescent, electrochemiluminescent, photoelectrochemical, and electrochemical approaches. The main mechanisms of direct interaction between QDs and metal ions which lead to photoluminescence being either off or on, are discussed in detail. These direct interactions provide great opportunities for developing simple yet effect metal ion probes. Different methods to design the chemically-modified QD hybrid structures through anchoring metal ion-specific groups onto the surface of QDs are summarized. Due to the spatial separation of the luminescence center and analyte recognition sites, these chemically-modified QDs offer greatly improved sensitivity and selectivity for metal ions. Several interesting applications of QD-based metal ion probes are presented, with specific emphasis on cellular probes, coding probes and sensing with logic gate operations.

Abstract Purpose The COVID-19 death-rate in Italy continues to climb, surpassing that in every other country. We implement one of the first nationally representative surveys about this unprecedented public health crisis and use it to evaluate the Italian government’ public health efforts and citizen responses. Findings (1) Public health messaging is being heard. Except for slightly lower compliance among young adults, all subgroups we studied understand how to keep themselves and others safe from the SARS-Cov-2 virus. Remarkably, even those who do not trust the government , or think the government has been untruthful about the crisis believe the messaging and claim to be acting in accordance. (2) The quarantine is beginning to have serious negative effects on the population’s mental health. Policy Recommendations Communications should move from explaining to citizens that they should stay at home to what they can do there. We need interventions that make staying following public health protocols more desirable, such as virtual social interactions, online social reading activities, classes, exercise routines, etc. — all designed to reduce the boredom of long term social isolation and to increase the attractiveness of following public health recommendations. Interventions like these will grow in importance as the crisis wears on around the world, and staying inside wears on people.

Abstract NR/GE composites were prepared by an ultrasonically‐assisted latex mixing and in situ reduction process. Graphene oxide was dispersed in NRL using an ultrasonic field and was then reduced in situ, followed by latex coagulation to obtain the NR/GE masterbatch. The results show that the process produces a much better dispersion and exfoliation of GE in the matrix and contributes to an increase in the tensile strength compared to conventional direct mixing. Compared to pure rubber, the tensile strength and tear strength for NR/(2 wt.‐%)GE composites were increased by ≈47 and 50%, respectively. With increasing GE content, the maximum torque, crosslink density, elastic modulus, and thermal conductivity of NR/GE composites were found to increase. magnified image

phosphors as color converters. The luminous efficiency of the WLEDs remained at 90% after working under a relative humidity (RH) of 60% for 15 h, thereby showing promise for use as backlight devices in LCDs.

A robust three-dimensional sandwich-like Co₃S₄ porous nanosheet/graphene sheet composite exhibits improved rate performance and cycling stability for both lithium and sodium storage.

Materials for photosensitized oxygen activation are extremely important for a suite of photodynamic applications in biomedical, analytical, and energy sectors. Carbon-based photosensitizers are attractive for their low cost and high stability, but most of them such as fullerene and graphene quantum dots suffer from low efficiency, and the rational design of carbon-based photosensitizers remains a challenge. Given the similar chemical origin of phosphorescence and photosensitization, we herein synthesized a series of nitrogen-doped carbon dots (C-dots) and confirmed that their photo-oxidation activity correlated with their phosphorescence quantum yields, providing a direction for the rational designing of such materials. Compared to other carbon nanomaterials and molecular photosensitizers, these C-dots have the highest activity, and they can finish oxidation reactions in a few seconds. The excellent photosensitized oxygen activation makes these water-soluble C-dots a promising oxidase-mimicking nanozyme for photodynamic antimicrobial chemotherapy and other applications.