Co?N graphene encapsulated cobalt catalyst for H2O2 decomposition under acidic conditions

Hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) has been listed as one of the 100 most important chemicals in the world. However, huge amount of residual H₂O₂ is hard to timely decomposed into O₂ and H₂O under acidic condition, easily resulting in explosion hazard. Here, we reported a core–shell structure catalyst, that is graphene with Co N structure encapsulated Co nanoparticles. Co N graphene shell serves as the active site for the H₂O₂ decomposition, and Co core further enhance this decomposition. Benefiting from it, the H₂O₂ decomposition were close to 100% after 6 cycles without pH adjustment, which increased 6 orders of magnitude compared with no catalyst. At the same time, the O₂ generation reached 99.67% in 2 h with little metal leaching, and ·OH has been greatly inhibited to only 0.08%. This work can cleanly remove H₂O₂ with little deep oxidation and protect the process of H₂O₂ utilization to achieve a safer world.     

A triptycene derived hypercrosslinked polymer for gas capture and separation applications

This work describes facile synthesis of a porous polymeric material ( T-HCP ) using readily available reagents. Specifically, T-HCP is a thermally stable and hypercrosslinked polymer (HCP) that is essentially microporous with a high BET specific surface area (940 m² g^?1). Triptycene based polymers are known to feature internal free volume. Thus, the incorporation of triptycene units and extensive crosslinking by an external cross-linker in T-HCP makes it a promising adsorbent for small gas capture applications. Experimental results show that T-HCP demonstrated good CO₂ capture capacity of 132 mg g^?1 (273 K, 1 bar). Molecular hydrogen storage capacity of T-HCP is estimated to be 17.7 mg g^?1 (77 K, 1 bar). T-HCP revealed high CO₂/N₂ selectivity (up to 63) as well as promising CO₂/CH₄ (up to 9.1) selectivity suggesting its potential applicability for CO₂ separation from flue and natural gases.     

Effects of sintering temperature and Bi2O3, Y2O3 and MgO co-doping on the dielectric properties of X8R BaTiO3-based ceramics

Bi₂O₃, Y₂O₃ and MgO co-doped BaTiO₃ (BT)-based X8R ceramics were synthesized successfully for the first time. The effects of the sintering temperature and Bi₂O₃, Y₂O₃ and MgO dopants on the dielectric properties were investigated systematically. Bi₂O₃ doping can increase the Curie temperature (T_c), but reduces the overall dielectric permittivity. On the other hand, Y₂O₃ doping is beneficial to the formation of core-shell microstructure and the increase of T_c, whereas MgO can prevent excessive Y₂O₃ from diffusing into grain core, and thereby further contributes to the generation of the core–shell microstructure. The generation of the typical core-shell microstructure was confirmed and investigated in detail by using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). It is argued that the synergistic effects of Bi₂O₃, Y₂O₃ and MgO co-doping in terms of the formation of the core-shell structure and the increase of T_c, can help improve the temperature stability of the dielectric permittivity effectively. Increasing the sintering temperature leads to an increase in the grain size, which in turn leads to an increase in the overall dielectric permittivity due to the grain size effect.     

Role of Polyinosinic:Polycytidylic Acid-Induced Maternal Immune Activation and Subsequent Immune Challenge in the Behaviour and Microglial Cell Trajectory in Adult Offspring: A Study of the Neurodevelopmental Model of Schizophrenia

Multiple lines of evidence support the pathogenic role of maternal immune activation (MIA) in the occurrence of the schizophrenia-like disturbances in offspring. While in the brain the homeostatic role of neuron-microglia protein systems is well documented, the participation of the CX3CL1-CX3CR1 and CD200-CD200R dyads in the adverse impact of MIA often goes under-recognized. Therefore, in the present study, we examined the effect of MIA induced by polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid (Poly I:C) on the CX3CL1-CX3CR1 and CD200-CD200R axes, microglial trajectory (MhcII, Cd40, iNos, Il-1β, Tnf-α, Il-6, Arg1, Igf-1, Tgf-β and Il-4), and schizophrenia-like behaviour in adult male offspring of Sprague-Dawley rats. Additionally, according to the “two-hit” hypothesis of schizophrenia, we evaluated the influence of acute challenge with Poly I:C in adult prenatally MIA-exposed animals on the above parameters. In the present study, MIA evoked by Poly I:C injection in the late period of gestation led to the appearance of schizophrenia-like disturbances in adult offspring. Our results revealed the deficits manifested as a diminished number of aggressive interactions, presence of depressive-like episodes, and increase of exploratory activity, as well as a dichotomy in the sensorimotor gating in the prepulse inhibition (PPI) test expressed as two behavioural phenotypes (MIA_PPI-low and MIA_PPI-high). Furthermore, in the offspring rats subjected to a prenatal challenge (i.e., MIA) we noticed the lack of modulation of behavioural changes after the additional acute immune stimulus (Poly I:C) in adulthood. The important finding reported in this article is that MIA affects the expression and levels of the neuron-microglia proteins in the frontal cortex and hippocampus of adult offspring. We found that the changes in the CX3CL1-CX3CR1 axis could affect microglial trajectory, including decreased hippocampal mRNA level of MhcII and elevated cortical expression of Igf-1 in the MIA_PPI-high animals and/or could cause the up-regulation of an inflammatory response (Il-6, Tnf-α, iNos) after the “second hit” in both examined brain regions and, at least in part, might differentiate behavioural disturbances in adult offspring. Consequently, the future effort to identify the biological background of these interactions in the Poly I:C-induced MIA model in Sprague-Dawley rats is desirable to unequivocally clarify this issue.     

Use of Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) for Monitoring Experimental Helicobacter pylori Infection and Related Inflammatory Response in Guinea Pig Model

Infections due to Gram-negative bacteria Helicobacter pylori may result in humans having gastritis, gastric or duodenal ulcer, and even gastric cancer. Investigation of quantitative changes of soluble biomarkers, correlating with H. pylori infection, is a promising tool for monitoring the course of infection and inflammatory response. The aim of this study was to determine, using an experimental model of H. pylori infection in guinea pigs, the specific characteristics of infrared spectra (IR) of sera from H. pylori infected (40) vs. uninfected (20) guinea pigs. The H. pylori status was confirmed by histological, molecular, and serological examination. The IR spectra were measured using a Fourier-transform (FT)-IR spectrometer Spectrum 400 (PerkinElmer) within the range of wavenumbers 3000–750 cm⁻¹ and converted to first derivative spectra. Ten wavenumbers correlated with H. pylori infection, based on the chi-square test, were selected for a K-nearest neighbors (k-NN) algorithm. The wavenumbers correlating with infection were identified in the W2 and W3 windows associated mainly with proteins and in the W4 window related to nucleic acids and hydrocarbons. The k-NN for detection of H. pylori infection has been developed based on chemometric data. Using this model, animals were classified as infected with H. pylori with 100% specificity and 97% sensitivity. To summarize, the IR spectroscopy and k-NN algorithm are useful for monitoring experimental H. pylori infection and related inflammatory response in guinea pig model and may be considered for application in humans.     

High-Performance All-Solid-State Supercapacitor Electrode Materials Using Freestanding Electrospun Carbon Nanofiber Mats of Polyacrylonitrile and Novolac Blends

Herein, this paper reports a facile method to prepare electrospun carbon nanofiber mats (ECNFMs) with high specific surface area and interconnected structure using polyacrylonitrile (PAN) as a precursor and novolac resin (NOC) as a polymer sacrificial pore-making agent. Without additional treatment, the prepared ECNFMs have a highly porous structure because NOC decomposes in a wider temperature range than most polymer activators. The NOC content in the PAN nanofibers shows important effects on porosity. The BET specific surface area of ECNFMs reaches a maximum of 1468 m² g⁻¹ when the precursor nanofibers contained 30 wt% NOC (ECNFM-3) after carbonization at 1000 °C. The supercapacitor device from ECNFM-3 electrode and all-solid-state electrolyte shows excellent cycling durability and high specific capacitance: ≈99.72% capacitance retention after 10 000 charge/discharge cycles and ≈320 mF cm⁻² at 0.25 mA cm⁻². Furthermore, it shows a large energy density of ≈11.1 $\mu$Wh cm⁻² under the power density of 500 mW m⁻². Activation of carbon nanofibers simply by the addition of NOC into precursor nanofibers can offer a handy way to prepare ECNFMs for high-performance all-solid-state supercapacitors and other potential applications.     

Directed Evolution of a Cp*RhIII-Linked Biohybrid Catalyst Based on a Screening Platform with Affinity Purification

Directed evolution of Cp*Rh^III-linked nitrobindin (NB), a biohybrid catalyst, was performed based on an in vitro screening approach. A key aspect of this effort was the establishment of a high-throughput screening (HTS) platform that involves an affinity purification step employing a starch-agarose resin for a maltose binding protein (MBP) tag. The HTS platform enables efficient preparation of the purified MBP-tagged biohybrid catalysts in a 96-well format and eliminates background influence of the host E. coli cells. Three rounds of directed evolution and screening of more than 4000 clones yielded a Cp*Rh^III-linked NB(T98H/L100K/K127E) variant with a 4.9-fold enhanced activity for the cycloaddition of acetophenone oximes with alkynes. It is confirmed that this HTS platform for directed evolution provides an efficient strategy for generating highly active biohybrid catalysts incorporating a synthetic metal cofactor.     

Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance-Based Method for the Quantification of Epoxidized Methyl Oleate

Epoxidized methyl esters (EMO) with their high oxirane ring reactivity, acts as a raw material in the synthesis of various industrial chemicals including polymers, stabilizers, plasticizers, glycols, polyols, carbonyl compounds, biolubricants etc. EMO has been generally quantified by the gas chromatography (GC) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) techniques. Taking into the account of the limitations of these techniques, two qHNMR-based equations have been proposed for the quantification of EMO in the mixture of EMO and methylesters (MO). The validity of the proposed method was determined using standard mixtures of MO and EMO having different molar concentrations. The developed equations have been applied on the samples of EMO prepared from oleic acid in two-step process viz., esterification followed by epoxidation. The qHNMR-based EMO quantification showed acceptable agreement with the results obtained from HPLC analysis.     

Nido-Hydroborate-Based Electrolytes for All-Solid-State Lithium Batteries

Hydroborate-based solid electrolytes have recently been successfully employed in high voltage, room temperature all-solid-state sodium batteries. The transfer to analogous lithium systems has failed up to now due to the lower conductivity of the corresponding lithium compounds and their high cost. Here LiB₁₁H₁₄ nido-hydroborate as a cost-effective building block and its high-purity synthesis is introduced. The crystal structures of anhydrous LiB₁₁H₁₄ as well as of LiB₁₁H₁₄-based mixed-anion solid electrolytes are solved and high ionic conductivities of 1.1 × 10⁻⁴ S cm⁻¹ for Li₂(B₁₁H₁₄)(CB₁₁H₁₂) and 1.1 × 10⁻³ S cm⁻¹ for Li₃(B₁₁H₁₄)(CB₉H₁₀)₂ are obtained, respectively. LiB₁₁H₁₄ exhibits an oxidative stability limit of 2.6 V versus Li⁺/Li and the proposed decomposition products are discussed based on density functional theory calculations. Strategies are discussed to improve the stability of these compounds by modifying the chemical structure of the nido-hydroborate cage. Galvanostatic cycling in symmetric cells with two lithium metal electrodes shows a small overpotential increase from 22.5 to 30 mV after 620 h (up to 0.5 mAh cm⁻²), demonstrating that the electrolyte is compatible with metallic anodes. Finally, the Li₂(B₁₁H₁₄)(CB₁₁H₁₂)  electrolyte is employed in a proof-of-concept half cell with a TiS₂ cathode with a capacity retention of 82% after 150 cycles at C/5.