Enhancing photocatalytic antibiotics mineralization and water oxidation via constructing interfacial electric field in plate-on-plate BiOCl/WO3 photocatalysts.

Two-dimensional materials and related plate-on-plate interfacial heterostructures offer great flexibility for integrating different atomic layers, providing an attractive scheme for the construction of built-in electric fields in photocatalysts. Here, we developed an interfacial engineering strategy to construct well-interfaced plate-on-plate BiOCl/WO3 heterojunctions for general enhanced photocatalytic oxidation reactions. BiOCl/WO3 heterojunctions exhibited significant enhancements in oxygen evolution and antibiotic degradation, with a rate of 9.5 times and 14.7 times higher than that of WO3. This enhancement is attributed to the well lattice matching contact surface of WO3 {020} plane with BiOCl {001} plane, which integrates a strong built-in electric field induced by Bi-O chemically bonds, providing atomically fast transport channels for electrons. These findings offer new guidelines for designing interfacial structures for high-performance oxidative photocatalysts and provide insights into the underlying interfacial carrier transport mechanisms.

Green and controllable synthesis of kelp-like carbon nitride nanosheets via an ultrasound-mediated self-assembly strategy.

The application of graphite carbon nitride photocatalysts is hampered by their low specific surface areas, few active sites, and low photogenerated electron-hole transfer rates. Here, we report a green and controllable strategy for synthesizing kelp-like carbon nitride nanosheets through self-assembled materials prepared from melamine and trithiocyanuric acid using sonochemistry. The prepared carbon nitride nanosheets showed superior and long-lasting photocatalytic activity in hydrogen evolution and the degradation of tetracycline hydrochloride. The significantly enhanced photocatalytic performance of carbon nitride nanosheets is attributed to the curled porous nanosheet structure and the appropriate amount of O-doping. This work provides a new design strategy for preparing shape-controlled carbon nitride catalysts via a green, fast, sonochemically mediated self-assembly approach.

Recent advances of microneedles for biomedical applications: drug delivery and beyond.

The microneedle (MN), a highly efficient and versatile device, has attracted extensive scientific and industrial interests in the past decades due to prominent properties including painless penetration, low cost, excellent therapeutic efficacy, and relative safety. The robust microneedle enabling transdermal delivery has a paramount potential to create advanced functional devices with superior nature for biomedical applications. In this review, a great effort has been made to summarize the advance of microneedles including their materials and latest fabrication method, such as three-dimensional printing (3DP). Importantly, a variety of representative biomedical applications of microneedles such as disease treatment, immunobiological administration, disease diagnosis and cosmetic field, are highlighted in detail. At last, conclusions and future perspectives for development of advanced microneedles in biomedical fields have been discussed systematically. Taken together, as an emerging tool, microneedles have showed profound promise for biomedical applications.

trans-cis Configuration regulated supramolecular polymer gels and chirality transfer based on a bolaamphiphilic histidine and dicarboxylic acids.

Supramolecular polymer gels based on the co-assembly of bolaamphiphilic l-histidine(BolaHis) and dicarboxylic acids are dependent on the molar ratios, flexibility and cis-trans configuration of acid molecules. Thus, oligomerized rigid cis-maleic acid or flexible trans-cyclohexane dicarboxylic acid can form chiral supramolecular polymer gels with l-BolaHis.

The alloying effect and AgCl-directing growth for synthesizing a trimetallic nanoring with improved SERS.

We report the synthesis of high quality trimetallic Au/Ag/Pt nanorings (TAAPNs) by using Au/Ag alloy decahedra (AAAD) as templates. The alloying effect and AgCl-directing growth have been investigated in detail during the formation of TAAPN. It was found that the doping of Ag in AAAD changes the surrounding environment of Au atoms and decreases the oxidization reduction potential (ORP) of [AuCl(2)](-)/Au because of the alloying effect, resulting in the dissolved O(2) molecules that serve as an effective etchant for oxidizing Au to Au(I). Ascorbic acid (AA) and chloroplatinic acid (H(2)PtCl(6)) are weak acids which can accelerate the etching by increasing the concentration of H(+). The AgCl selectively absorbs on {100} of the decahedra and induces the preferential deposition of H(2)PtCl(6) here via their complexing interaction. AA reduces Pt(IV) and Ag(I) to atoms which grow on {100} facets. The formed Pt/Ag layer changes the etching direction from along [100] to [111] and generates the TAAPN. Besides, it has been noted that the TAAPNs exhibit good Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) performance.

Growth of nanobipyramid by using large sized Au decahedra as seeds.

Au nanobipyramids (NBPs) are important nanostructures which attract much attention due to their unique structure, optical, and catalytic properties. The controlled synthesis of Au NBPs and corresponding mechanistic study are highly desirable for both fundamental research and practical applications. Herein, we demonstrate a strategy that large sized Au decahedra with well-defined shape act as seeds for growing NBPs. Furthermore, through using different sized decahedra seeds with edge from 25 to 49 nm, various sized NBPs can be easily prepared (longitudinal length from 110 to 210 nm; transverse length from 36 to 70 nm). Our study provides hard evidence for the growth of NBPs that they surely stem from the overgrowth on penta-twinned decahedra. Because these used large size seeds have well-defined shape and structure, the growth of the NBPs can be easily determined. Results show that the formation of NBPs is primarily determined by the molar ratio of Au(3+) and Au seeds (MRAA). MRAA less than 4 only causes size enhancement and no significant shape change. In cases of MRAA higher than 4 and lower than 8, quasi-nanorods are produced. When MRAA range from 8 to 10, NBPs form and the yield is higher than 90%. The effect of reaction time and temperature also are vital to the growth of NBPs. These prepared NBPs are found to exhibit excellent surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) performance because of many present hotspots, edges, steps, and tips on their surfaces.