The effects of washing a collagen sample prior to TEM examination

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is an important analysis technique to visualize (bio)macromolecules and their assemblies, including collagen fibers. Many protocols for TEM sample preparation of collagen involve one or more washing steps to remove excess salts from the dispersion that could hamper analysis when dried on a TEM grid. Such protocols are not standardized and washing times as well as washing solvents vary from procedure to procedure, with each research group typically having their own protocol. Here, we investigate the influence of washing with water, ethanol, but also methanol and 2-propanol, for both mineralized and unmineralized collagen samples via a protocol based on centrifugation. Washing with water maintains the hydrated collagen structure and the characteristic banding pattern can be clearly observed. Conversely, washing with ethanol results in dehydration of the fibrils, often leading to aggregation of the fibers and a less obvious banding pattern, already within 1 min of ethanol exposure. As we show, this process is fully reversible. Similar observations were made for methanol and propanol. Based on these results, a standardized washing protocol for collagenous samples is proposed.     

Estimation of gradient size of interfacial strain and its optimization for effective magnetoelectric coupling in (CoFe2O4) – (0.93Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3 – 0.07BaTiO3), 2-2 nano-composites

Strain-mediated coupling between the magnetic and electrically ordered phases plays a significant role in magnetoelectric (ME) nano-composites. This study explores a method to analyse and quantify interfacial strain using a grazing angle scan (α) in a ME composite optimised for a specific microstructure. The details of strain around the interface CoFe₂O₄ (CFO) – 0.93Na_0.5Bi_0.5TiO₃ – 0.07BaTiO₃ (NBT-BT) was determined by performing ‘α’ scan, in order to gather information at various depths of the NBT-BT layer around maximum intensity (110) reflection. The strain around the interface was observed to dominate over a spatial region of ～20–30 nm away from the interface. The Piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) studies performed near the interface reveal that the strain constrain experienced by the ferroelectric layer operates such that polarisation rotation and domain wall motion are constrained compared to the strain relaxed region of the film. For effective strain transfer, heterostructures grown with optimised thicknesses (～20–30 nm) exhibited a superior inverse piezomagnetic effect.     

Organic Semiconducting Luminophores for Near-Infrared Afterglow,Chemiluminescence, and Bioluminescence Imaging

Optical imaging has played a pivotal role in deciphering in vivo bioinformatics but is limited by shallow penetration depth and poor imaging performance owing to interfering tissue autofluorescence induced by concurrent photoexcitation. The emergence of near-infrared (NIR) self-luminescence imaging independent of real-time irradiation has timely addressed these problems. There are two main kinds of self-luminescent agents, namely inorganic and organic luminophores. Inorganic luminophores usually suffer from long-term biotoxicity concerns resulting from potential heavy-metal ions leakage and nonbiodegradability, which hinders their further translational application. In contrast, organic luminophores, especially organic semiconducting luminophores (OSLs) with good biodegradable potential, tunable design, and outstanding optical properties, are preferred in biological applications. This review summarizes the recent progress of OSLs used in NIR afterglow, chemiluminescence, and bioluminescence imaging. Molecular manipulation and nanoengineering approaches of OSLs are discussed, with emphasis on strategies that can extend the emission wavelength from visible to NIR range and amplify luminescence signals. This review concludes with a discussion of current challenges and possible solutions of OSLs in the self-luminescence field.     

A Bio-Conjugated Fullerene as a Subcellular-Targeted and Multifaceted Phototheranostic Agent

Fullerenes are candidates for theranostic applications because of their high photodynamic activity and intrinsic multimodal imaging contrast. However, fullerenes suffer from low solubility in aqueous media, poor biocompatibility, cell toxicity, and a tendency to aggregate. C₇₀@lysozyme is introduced herein as a novel bioconjugate that is harmless to a cellular environment, yet is also photoactive and has excellent optical and optoacoustic contrast for tracking cellular uptake and intracellular localization. The formation, water-solubility, photoactivity, and unperturbed structure of C₇₀@lysozyme are confirmed using UV-visible and 2D ¹H, ¹⁵N NMR spectroscopy. The excellent imaging contrast of C₇₀@lysozyme in optoacoustic and third harmonic generation microscopy is exploited to monitor its uptake in HeLa cells and lysosomal trafficking. Last, the photoactivity of C₇₀@lysozyme and its ability to initiate cell death by means of singlet oxygen (¹O₂) production upon exposure to low levels of white light irradiation is demonstrated. This study introduces C₇₀@lysozyme and other fullerene-protein conjugates as potential candidates for theranostic applications.     

Performance evaluation of basalt fiber-reinforced geopolymer composites with various contents of nano CaCO3

High carbon footprint of cement production is the major drawback of plain cement concrete resulting in environmental pollution. Geopolymer composites paste can be effectively used as an alternative to Portland cement in the construction industry for a sustainable environment. The demand for high-performance composites and sustainable construction is increasing day by day. Therefore, the present experimental program has endeavored to investigate the mechanical performance of basalt fiber-reinforced fly ash-based geopolymer pastes with various contents of nano CaCO₃. The content of basalt fibers was fixed at 2% by weight for all specimens while the studied contents of nano CaCO₃ were 0%, 1%, 2%, and 3%, respectively. The compressive strength, compressive stress-strain response, flexural strength, bending stress-strain response, elastic modulus, toughness modulus, toughness indices, fracture toughness, impact strength, hardness, and microstructural analysis of all four geopolymer composite pastes with varying contents of nano CaCO₃ using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were evaluated. The results revealed that the use of 3% nano CaCO₃ in basalt fiber-reinforced geopolymer paste presented the highest values of compressive strength and hardness while the use of 2% nano CaCO₃ showed the highest values of flexural strength, impact strength, and fracture toughness of composite paste. The SEM results indicated that the addition of nano CaCO₃ improved the microstructure and provided a denser geopolymer paste by refining the interfacial zones and accelerating the geopolymerization reaction.     

High-Performance Solution-Processed Nondoped Circularly Polarized OLEDs with Chiral Triptycene Scaffold-Based TADF Emitters Realizing Over 20% External Quantum Efficiency

Recently, circularly polarized organic light-emitting diodes (CP-OLEDs) fabricated with thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters are developed rapidly. However, most devices are fabricated by vacuum deposition technology, and developing efficient solution-processed CP-OLEDs, especially nondoped devices, is still a challenge. Herein, a pair of triptycene-based enantiomers, (S,S)-/(R,R)-TpAc-TRZ, are synthesized. The novel chiral triptycene scaffold of enantiomers avoids their intermolecular π–π stacking, which is conducive to their aggregation-induced emission characteristics and high photoluminescence quantum yield of 85% in the solid state. Moreover, the triptycene-based enantiomers exhibit efficient TADF activities with a small singlet-triplet energy gap (ΔE_ST) of 0.03 eV and delayed fluorescence lifetime of 1.1 µs, as well as intense circularly polarized luminescence with dissymmetry factors (|g_PL|) of about 1.9 × 10⁻³. The solution-processed nondoped CP-OLEDs based on (S,S)-/(R,R)-TpAc-TRZ not only display obvious circularly polarized electroluminescence signals with g_EL values of +1.5 × 10⁻³ and −2.0 × 10⁻³, respectively, but also achieve high efficiencies with external quantum, current, and power efficiency up to 25.5%, 88.6 cd A⁻¹, and 95.9 lm W⁻¹, respectively.     

Maskless Preparation of Spatially-Resolved Plasmonic Nanoparticles on Polydimethylsiloxane via In Situ Fluoride-Assisted Synthesis

Here, a fluoride-assisted route for the controlled in-situ synthesis of metal nanoparticles (NPs) (i.e., AgNPs, AuNPs) on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is reported. The size and coverage of the NPs on the PDMS surface are modulated with time and over space during the synthetic process, leveraging the improved yield (10×) and faster kinetics (100×) of NP formation in the presence of F⁻ ions, compared to fluoride-free approaches. This enables the maskless preparation of both linear and step gradients and patterns of NPs in 1D and 2D on the PDMS surface. As an application in flexible plasmonics/photonics, continuous and step-wise spatial modulations of the plasmonic features of PDMS slabs with 1D and 2D AgNP gradients on the surface are demonstrated. An excellent spatially resolved tuning of key optical parameters, namely, optical density from zero to 5 and extinction ratio up to 100 dB, is achieved with AgNP gradients prepared in AgF solution for 12 minutes; the performance are comparable to those of commercial dielectric/interference filters. When used as a rejection filter in optical fluorescence microscopy, the AgNP-PDMS slabs are able to reject the excitation laser at 405 nm and retain the green fluorescence of microbeads (100 µm) used as test cases.     

一种家用手持式红外偏振光治疗仪的设计与实现

红外偏振光治疗仪是一种将红外技术与电子技术应用到医学领域的康复理疗设备,主要用于软组织损伤和慢性疼痛的康复治疗,已在医院得到了推广使用。然而,现有医院使用的台式治疗仪由于体积大、售价高等特点,不方便居家使用。为了开发体积小、售价低、家庭可用的红外偏振光治疗仪,满足家用市场的潜在需求,本文提出了一种新的便携手持式红外偏振光治疗仪,并开发了该智能控制系统。本文首先介绍了一种新的家用手持式治疗仪应具备的特点和关键技术指标,在此基础上设计了手持式治疗仪的硬件总体方案和软件架构,简要介绍了该治疗仪的一些关键技术,最终实现了治疗仪样机的研制。为了验证该样机的性能,本文通过大量的测试,结果表明,研制的手持式红外偏振光治疗仪在关键参数指标上达到了医院同类产品的水平,能够很好地满足家用的需求,具有良好的市场前景。     

High-resolution FIB-TEM-STEM structural characterization of grain boundaries in the high dielectric constant perovskite CaCu3Ti4O12

In this work, the grain boundaries composition of the polycrystalline CaCu₃Ti₄O₁₂ (CCTO) was investigated. A Focused Ion Beam (FIB)/lift-out technique was used to prepare site-specific thin samples of the grain boundaries interface of CCTO ceramics. Scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDXS) and Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (EELS) systems were used to characterize the composition and nanostructure of the grain and grain boundaries region. It is known that during conventional sintering, discontinuous grain growth occurs and a Cu-rich phase appears at grain boundaries. This Cu-rich phase may affect the final dielectric properties of CCTO but its structure and chemical composition remained unknown. For the first time, this high-resolution FIB-TEM-STEM study of CCTO interfacial region highlights the composition of the phases segregated at grain boundaries namely CuO, Cu₂O and the metastable phase Cu₃TiO_4.     

Dynamic probe of ZnTe(110) surface by scanning tunneling microscopy

The reconstructed surface structure of the II–VI semiconductor ZnTe (110), which is a promising material in the research field of semiconductor spintronics, was studied by scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS). First, the surface states formed by reconstruction by the charge transfer of dangling bond electrons from cationic Zn to anionic Te atoms, which are similar to those of IV and III–V semiconductors, were confirmed in real space. Secondly, oscillation in tunneling current between binary states, which is considered to reflect a conformational change in the topmost Zn–Te structure between the reconstructed and bulk-like ideal structures, was directly observed by STM. Third, using the technique of charge injection, a surface atomic structure was successfully fabricated, suggesting the possibility of atomic-scale manipulation of this widely applicable surface of ZnTe.