Chemical Dealloying Synthesis of CuS Nanowire-on-Nanoplate Network as Anode Materials for Li-Ion Batteries

CuS is a metal sulfide anode material used in constructing lithium ion batteries (LIBs) with great promise. However, its practical application is limited by rapid capacity decline, poor cycling, and rate performance. In this work, the CuS nanowire-on-nanoplate network is synthesized through an improved dealloying method under two contrasting reaction temperatures. When used as an LIB anode, the as-obtained CuS network exhibits superior cycling performance (420 mAh·g −1 retained after 100 cycles at 0.2 C). When at 3 C, it still delivers a capacity of around 350 mAh·g −1 . The improved electrochemical performances of the CuS anode should be attributed to the well-designed nanowire-on-nanoplate network structure in which the introduction of nanowires improves Li storage sites, shortens Li-ion diffusion distance, enhances the conductivity of active materials, and offers multiscale spaces for buffering the volume variation. The fabrication route adopted in this paper has an important significance for developing the dealloying technique and designing more suitable anode structures for LIBs

Glass Formation, Chemical Properties and Surface Analysis of Cu-Based Bulk Metallic Glasses

This paper reviews the influence of alloying elements Mo, Nb, Ta and Ni on glass formation and corrosion resistance of Cu-based bulk metallic glasses (BMGs). In order to obtain basic knowledge for application to the industry, corrosion resistance of the Cu–Hf–Ti–(Mo, Nb, Ta, Ni) and Cu–Zr–Ag–Al–(Nb) bulk glassy alloy systems in various solutions are reported in this work. Moreover, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis is performed to clarify the surface-related chemical characteristics of the alloy before and after immersion in the solutions; this has lead to a better understanding of the correlation between the surface composition and the corrosion resistance

Colorimetric/ratio fluorescence determination of glucose using bifunctional carbon dots

Based on biomass (taro leaf). Iron was prepared by hydrothermal method with ammonium ferric sulfate dodecahydrate and urea as raw materials. Nitrogen Co doped carbon dots (Fe, N-CDs) were characterized by transmission electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The Fe, N-CDs not only has peroxidase like activity, but also can produce strong fluorescence emission at 450 nm. Using Fe, N-CDs and o-phenylenediamine (OPD) as probes, a dual signal colorimetric/ratio fluorescence method for the determination of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) was established. In the presence of H2O2, Fe, N-CDs catalyze the oxidation of OPD to yellow 2, 3-diaminophenazine (DAP), which has a characteristic absorption peak at 420 nm. Under the excitation of 360 nm wavelength light, DAP has strong fluorescence emission at 550 nm; DAP can quench the fluorescence of Fe and N-CDs at 450 nm due to the fluorescence internal filtering effect. Based on this, the absorbance of DAP at 420 nm (A420) and the fluorescence intensity ratio of DAP to Fe, N-CDs (I550/I450) can be used for the quantitative analysis of H2O2. Considering that glucose oxidase can catalyze the oxidation of glucose to H2O2, a colorimetric/ratio fluorescence dual signal glucose determination method was further developed. Under the conditions of pH=5.4, temperature 40℃, 1.75 mmol/L OPD and reaction time 25 min, when the glucose concentration is in the range of 1.0~100μmol/L, the values of A420 and I550/I450 have a good linear relationship with the concentration, and the detection limits of the method are respectively 0.8 (colorimetry) and 0.6 μmol/L (ratio fluorescence). The method was successfully applied to the determination of glucose in human serum

Dietary supplementation of selenium yeast enhances the antioxidant capacity and immune response of juvenile Eriocheir Sinensis under nitrite stress

© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This author accepted manuscript is made available following 12 month embargo from date of publication (December 2018) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving policyThis study elucidates the response to nitrite stress and the effect of dietary selenium supplements on the growth, antioxidant activity, immunity and transcriptome of juvenile Chinese mitten crab Eriocheir sinensis. In the control group, the crabs were fed the diet without selenium supplementation and there was no nitrite addition to the water. In the test group, the crabs were fed diets with three levels of selenium 0 (N1), 0.5 (N2) and 1.0 (N3) mg/kg in the water containing 2 mg/L NO2N as a stress factor for eight weeks. Feed conversion ratio (FCR) was improved by adding dietary selenium. There was no significant difference in specific growth rate and weight gain between N1 and the control groups, or among different selenium levels in the test group. The superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity was significantly lower, but malondialdehyde (MDA) was higher in the N1 group than those in the serum and hepatopancreas of the control group. The activities of SOD, glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and acid phosphatase increased at the medium level of selenium but decreased as the level of dietary selenium increased to 1.0 mg/kg. The serum lysozyme (LZM) activity increased but the MDA content in both serum and hepatopancreas decreased with the increase of selenium levels. The total clean reads of the crabs in the control group, N1 and N3 groups reached 390.7M and were assembled into 106 471 transcripts. Compared with the control group, 1196 gene were significantly expressed (588-up and 608-down) in the N1 group under nitrite stress. Between the N1 and N3 groups, the expression of 1537 genes (751-up and 786-down) were significantly different. KEGG pathway analysis reveals that 11 and 19 pathways were significantly different between N1 and control and between N3 and N1 groups, respectively. Transcriptome results demonstrate that nutrient metabolism is much more active in crabs fed additional selenium under nitrite stress. This study indicates that dietary selenium can improve both antioxidant capacity and immune response and alter the protein and carbohydrate metabolism of E. sinensis under nitrite stress

Effect of diesel detergent synergists on VOCs emissions from engine

In this study, the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emissions from engine fueled diesel with and without detergent synergist were measured by gas chromatography mass spectrometry(GC-MS). The test results show that compared with reference diesel fuel (without diesel detergent synergist), the use of different diesel detergent synergists has different effects on the VOCs emissions while without after-treatment device. Whether with or without after-treatment device, alkanes always account for the highest proportion of VOCs emissions while engine fuels with different diesel detergent synergists. After-treatment device diesel oxidation catalyst coupled with diesel particulate filter (DOC+DPF) has high catalytic efficiency for VOCs emissions from engine fueled with different fuels, and most of the catalytic efficiency could reach more than 95%. With the catalytic treatment of after-treatment device,the concentrations of carcinogens (detected in this study) in VOCs emissions from engine fueled with and without detergent synergist are far lower than that specified in reference standard GBZ 2.1-2007 “Occupational Exposure Limits for Hazardous Factors in the Workplace and Chemical Hazardous Factors”, respectively. The test results indicate that the use of diesel detergent synergist will not have an adverse impact on human health and it can be safely used

Preparation and electrochemical properties of pomegranate-shaped Fe₂O₃/C anodes for li-ion batteries

Due to the severe volume expansion and poor cycle stability, transition metal oxide anode is still not meeting the commercial utilization. We herein demonstrate the synthetic method of core-shell pomegranate-shaped Fe2O3/C nano-composite via one-step hydrothermal process for the first time. The electrochemical performances were measured as anode material for Li-ion batteries. It exhibits excellent cycling performance, which sustains 705 mAh g-1 reversible capacities after 100 cycles at 100 mA g-1. The anodes also showed good rate stability with discharge capacities of 480 mAh g-1 when cycling at a rate of 2000 mA g-1. The excellent Li storage properties can be attributed to the unique core-shell pomegranate structure, which can not only ensure good electrical conductivity for active Fe2O3, but also accommodate huge volume change during cycles as well as facilitate the fast diffusion of Li ion

Exploring Off-Targets and Off-Systems for Adverse Drug Reactions via Chemical-Protein Interactome — Clozapine-Induced Agranulocytosis as a Case Study

In the era of personalized medical practice, understanding the genetic basis of patient-specific adverse drug reaction (ADR) is a major challenge. Clozapine provides effective treatments for schizophrenia but its usage is limited because of life-threatening agranulocytosis. A recent high impact study showed the necessity of moving clozapine to a first line drug, thus identifying the biomarkers for drug-induced agranulocytosis has become important. Here we report a methodology termed as antithesis chemical-protein interactome (CPI), which utilizes the docking method to mimic the differences in the drug-protein interactions across a panel of human proteins. Using this method, we identified HSPA1A, a known susceptibility gene for CIA, to be the off-target of clozapine. Furthermore, the mRNA expression of HSPA1A-related genes (off-target associated systems) was also found to be differentially expressed in clozapine treated leukemia cell line. Apart from identifying the CIA causal genes we identified several novel candidate genes which could be responsible for agranulocytosis. Proteins related to reactive oxygen clearance system, such as oxidoreductases and glutathione metabolite enzymes, were significantly enriched in the antithesis CPI. This methodology conducted a multi-dimensional analysis of drugs' perturbation to the biological system, investigating both the off-targets and the associated off-systems to explore the molecular basis of an adverse event or the new uses for old drugs

The FANCM:p.Arg658* truncating variant is associated with risk of triple-negative breast cancer.

Breast cancer is a common disease partially caused by genetic risk factors. Germline pathogenic variants in DNA repair genes BRCA1, BRCA2, PALB2, ATM, and CHEK2 are associated with breast cancer risk. FANCM, which encodes for a DNA translocase, has been proposed as a breast cancer predisposition gene, with greater effects for the ER-negative and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) subtypes. We tested the three recurrent protein-truncating variants FANCM:p.Arg658*, p.Gln1701*, and p.Arg1931* for association with breast cancer risk in 67,112 cases, 53,766 controls, and 26,662 carriers of pathogenic variants of BRCA1 or BRCA2. These three variants were also studied functionally by measuring survival and chromosome fragility in FANCM -/- patient-derived immortalized fibroblasts treated with diepoxybutane or olaparib. We observed that FANCM:p.Arg658* was associated with increased risk of ER-negative disease and TNBC (OR = 2.44, P = 0.034 and OR = 3.79; P = 0.009, respectively). In a country-restricted analysis, we confirmed the associations detected for FANCM:p.Arg658* and found that also FANCM:p.Arg1931* was associated with ER-negative breast cancer risk (OR = 1.96; P = 0.006). The functional results indicated that all three variants were deleterious affecting cell survival and chromosome stability with FANCM:p.Arg658* causing more severe phenotypes. In conclusion, we confirmed that the two rare FANCM deleterious variants p.Arg658* and p.Arg1931* are risk factors for ER-negative and TNBC subtypes. Overall our data suggest that the effect of truncating variants on breast cancer risk may depend on their position in the gene. Cell sensitivity to olaparib exposure, identifies a possible therapeutic option to treat FANCM-associated tumors