Antifouling superhydrophilic porous glass membrane based on sulfobetaine prepared by thiol-ene click chemistry for high-efficiency oil/water separation

Compared to superhydrophobic/superoleophilic membranes for high-efficiency oil/water separation, superhydrophilic membranes displaying underwater superoleophobic properties show improved antifouling performance. Nevertheless, superhydrophilic/underwater superoleophobic surfaces reported so far, in general, are susceptible to oil contamination. In addition, the tricky fabrication methods towards the superhydrophilic membranes also severely limit practical applications of such materials. Herein, we prepared novel superhydrophilic/underwater superoleophobic porous glass membranes with excellent oil fouling resistance via one-step in situ growth of silicone nanofilament network layers on the surface of sand particle-based sintered glass filters using vinyltrichlorosilane (VTCS) as a precursor, followed by grafting of a thiol-functionalized of sulfobetaine by thiol-ene click chemistry. The sulfobetaine-modified porous glass membranes showed excellent underwater superoleophobicity even for viscous crude oil. Besides, such surface-modified glass membranes exhibited high efficiency for the separation of various oil-water mixtures (>99.992%) and oil-in-water emulsions (>99.968%), even for those involved with viscous crude oil (99.982%). Owing to its superior antifouling properties, the sulfobetaine-modified glass membranes display excellent reusability for the separation of oil-water mixtures and oil-in-water emulsions. The outstanding advantages with characteristics of easy-to-fabricate, low-cost, excellent antifouling properties, and high separation performance enable the sulfobetaine-modified porous glass membranes with great potential for oily sewage treatment

Integrating a Metal–Organic Framework into Natural Spruce Wood for Efficient Solar-Powered Water Evaporation

With the increase in water consumption and pollution resulting from the rising world population and industrial development, severe fresh water shortage has been regarded as one of the critical problems facing the world. Solar-driven water purification is an environment friendly and promising technology to address the problem. However, low photothermal conversion efficiency impedes its practical application. Herein, a natural spruce wood-based solar evaporator functionalized with zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-8) nanoparticles and polydopamine (PDA) layers is designed, which significantly reduces the equivalent evaporation enthalpy and substantially boosts solar evaporation efficiency. The evaporation rate of the optimized wood-based evaporator reached 2.28 kg m−2 h−1 with a high evaporation efficiency of 87.5% under 1.0 sun. Furthermore, the integrated spruce wood/ZIF-8/PDA hybrids can remove organic pollutants after solar evaporation. Notably, the constructed multifunctional solar evaporator takes advantage of sustainable solar energy, low-cost biomass, and ZIF-8/PDA nanostructures to acquire desirable performance in water evaporation and sewage purification.</p

Lnc-GULP1–2:1 affects granulosa cell proliferation by regulating COL3A1 expression and localization

Abstract Backgrounds Long non-coding RNA is a novel group of non-protein coding transcripts over 200 nt in length. Recent studies have found that they are widely involved in many pathological and physiological processes. In our previous study, we found that lnc-GULP1–2:1 was significantly down-regulated in the ovarian cortical tissue of patients with primary ovarian insufficiency and predicted that lnc-GULP1–2:1 has a regulatory effect on COL3A1. Results In this study, we found that lnc-GULP1–2:1 was mainly localized in the cytoplasm of luteinized granulosa cells. The expression of lnc-GULP1–2:1 was lower in patients with diminished ovarian reserve but substantially elevated in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome. Overexpression of lnc-GULP1–2:1 in KGN cells significantly inhibited cell proliferation, likely through cell cycle related genes CCND2 and p16. Moreover, lnc-GULP1–2:1 expression was positively correlated with the level of COL3A in luteinized granulosa cells from patients with different ovarian functions as well as in multiple cell lines. Overexpression of lnc-GULP1–2:1 in KGN cells promoted the expression of COL3A1 and its translocation into the nucleus. Consistently, silencing COL3A1 in KGN cells also significantly inhibited cell proliferation. Conclusions Lnc-GULP1–2:1 affects the proliferation of granulosa cells by regulating the expression and localization of COL3A1 protein, and may participate in the regulation of ovarian follicle development. This study will provide new insight into molecular mechanisms underlying ovarian follicular development, which will help generate novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for diseases related to ovarian follicular development disorders