Evaluating the link between DIO3-FA27 promoter methylation, biochemical indices, and heart failure progression.

BACKGROUND: Heart failure (HF) is a disease that poses a serious threat to individual health, and DNA methylation is an important mechanism in epigenetics, and its role in the occurrence and development of the disease has attracted more and more attention. The aim of this study was to evaluate the link between iodothyronine deiodinase 3 promoter region fragment FA27 (DIO3-FA27) methylation levels, biochemical indices, and HF. RESULTS: The methylation levels of DIO3-FA27_CpG_11.12 and DIO3-FA27_CpG_23.24 significantly differed in HF patients with different degrees. Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that the relative HF risk in the third and fourth quartiles of activated partial thromboplastin time and fibrin degradation products. The results of the restricted cubic spline model showed that the methylation levels of DIO3-FA 27_CpG_11.12 and DIO3-FA 27_CpG_23.24 were associated with coagulation indicators, liver function, renal function, and blood routine. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the differential analysis of CpG methylation levels based on DIO3-FA27, it was found that biochemical indicators combined with DIO3-FA27 promoter DNA methylation levels could increase the risk of worsening the severity classification of HF patients, which provided a solid foundation and new insights for the study of epigenetic regulation mechanisms in patients with HF.

Defects-Induced Single-Atom Anchoring on Metal-Organic Frameworks for High-Efficiency Photocatalytic Nitrogen Reduction.

Aiming to improve the photocatalytic activity in N2 fixation to produce ammonia, herein, we proposed a photochemical strategy to fabricate defects, and further deposition of Ru single atoms onto UiO-66 (Zr) framework. Electron-metal-support interactions (EMSI) were built between Ru single atoms and the support via a covalently bonding. EMSI were capable of accelerating charge transfer between Ru SAs and UiO-66, which was favorable for highly-efficiently photocatalytic activity. The photocatalytic production rate of ammonia improved from 4.57 µmol g-1 h-1 to 16.28 µmol g-1 h-1 with the fabrication of defects onto UiO-66, and further to 53.28 µmol g-1 h-1 with Ru-single atoms loading. From the DFT results, it was found that d-orbital electrons of Ru were donated to N2 π✶-antibonding orbital, facilitating the activation of the N≡N triple bond. A distal reaction pathway was probably occurred for the photocatalytic N2 reduction to ammonia on Ru1 /d-UiO-66 (single Ru sites decorated onto the nodes of defective UiO-66), and the first step of hydrogenation of N2 was the reaction determination step. This work shed a light on improving the photocatalytic activity via feasibly anchoring single atoms on MOF, and provided more evidences to understand the reaction mechanism in photocatalytic reduction of N2 .

Rapid carbothermal shocking fabrication of iron-incorporated molybdenum oxide with heterogeneous spin states for enhanced overall water/seawater splitting.

Molybdenum dioxide (MoO2) has been considered as a promising hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalyst. However, the active sites are mainly located at the edges, resulting in few active sites and poor activity in the HER. Herein, we first reported on an efficient strategy to incorporate Fe into MoO2 nanosheets on Ni foam (Fe-MoO2/NF) using a rapid carbothermal shocking method (820 °C for 127 s). Notably, the different spin states between Fe and Mo atoms could lead to rich lattice dislocations in Fe-MoO2/NF, exposing abundant oxygen vacancies and the low-oxidation-state of Mo sites during the rapid Joule heating process. As tested, the catalyst exhibited superior activity with ultralow overpotentials (HER: 17 mV@10 mA cm-2; oxygen evolution reaction (OER): 310 mV@50 mA cm-2) and high OER selectivity in alkaline seawater splitting. Meanwhile, this catalyst was equipped in a home-made anion exchange membrane (AEM) seawater electrolyzer, which achieved a low energy consumption (5.5 kW h m-3). More importantly, Fe-MoO2/NF also coupled very well with a solar-driven electrolytic system and turned out a solar-to-hydrogen (STH) efficiency of 13.5%. Theoretical results also demonstrated that Fe incorporated and abundant oxygen vacancies in MoO2 can distort the distance of the Mo-O bonds and regulate the electronic structure, thus optimizing the binding energy of H*/OOH* adsorption. This method can be extended to other heterogeneous spin states in MoO2-based catalysts (e.g. Ni-MoO2/NF, Co-MoO2/NF) for seawater splitting, and provide a simple, efficient and universal strategy to prepare highly-efficient MoO2-based electrocatalysts.

Hydrothermal preparation of C3N4 on carbonized wood for photothermal-photocatalytic water splitting to efficiently evolve hydrogen.

Hydrogen generation by photocatalysis is one of the most effective approaches to rationally utilize solar energy. In this work, we designed a biphasic photothermal-photocatalytic system. Spherical g-C3N4 (HCN) was grown on the carbonized wood (CW) by a one-step hydrothermal method. The carbonization layer in carbonized wood/spherical g-C3N4 (CW-HCN) system was able to further enhance the photothermal conversion of water steam production by improving the absorption of solar radiation. In addition, the temperature was increased due to photothermal effect, which was beneficial for H2 evolution reaction. Moreover, the carbonized layer could act as a reservoir for photogenerated electrons on g-C3N4, which could accelerate the charge separation. Benefiting from all above-mentioned merits, the H2 evolution rate of CW-HCN system under simulated sunlight reached 2700.18 µmol/m2/h, which was 42.23 times higher than that of pristine g-C3N4 powder directly dispersed in water. In addition, the CW-HCN system exhibited broad applicability, maintaining the H2 evolution activity of 2013.29 µmol/m2/h with seawater as water resource. This work provided a new strategy for highly efficient H2 evolution.

Highly Efficient Solar-Driven Dry Reforming of Methane on a Rh/LaNiO3 Catalyst through a Light-induced Metal-To-Metal Charge Transfer Process.

As an energy-saving and green method, solar-driven dry reforming of methane (DRM) is expected to introduce new activation processes and prevent sintering and coking of the catalysts. However, it still lacks an efficient way to coordinate the regulation of activation of reactants and lattice oxygen migration. In this study, Rh/LaNiO3 is designed as a highly efficient photothermal catalyst for solar-driven DRM, which performs production rates of 452.3 mmol h-1  gRh -1 for H2 and 527.6 mmol h-1  gRh -1 for CO2 under a light intensity of 1.5 W cm-2 , with an excellent stability. Moreover, a remarkable light-to-chemical energy efficiency (LTCEE) of 10.72% is achieved under a light intensity of 3.5 W cm-2 . The characterizations of surface electronic and chemical properties and theoretical analysis demonstrate that strong adsorption for CH4 and CO2 , light-induced metal-to-metal charge transfer (MMCT) process and high oxygen mobility together bring Rh/LaNiO3 excellent performance for solar-driven DRM.

Collaborative Learning and Style-Adaptive Pooling Network for Perceptual Evaluation of Arbitrary Style Transfer.

Although the research of arbitrary style transfer (AST) has achieved great progress in recent years, few studies pay special attention to the perceptual evaluation of AST images that are usually influenced by complicated factors, such as structure-preserving, style similarity, and overall vision (OV). Existing methods rely on elaborately designed hand-crafted features to obtain quality factors and apply a rough pooling strategy to evaluate the final quality. However, the importance weights between the factors and the final quality will lead to unsatisfactory performances by simple quality pooling. In this article, we propose a learnable network, named collaborative learning and style-adaptive pooling network (CLSAP-Net) to better address this issue. The CLSAP-Net contains three parts, i.e., content preservation estimation network (CPE-Net), style resemblance estimation network (SRE-Net), and OV target network (OVT-Net). Specifically, CPE-Net and SRE-Net use the self-attention mechanism and a joint regression strategy to generate reliable quality factors for fusion and weighting vectors for manipulating the importance weights. Then, grounded on the observation that style type can influence human judgment of the importance of different factors, our OVT-Net utilizes a novel style-adaptive pooling strategy guiding the importance weights of factors to collaboratively learn the final quality based on the trained CPE-Net and SRE-Net parameters. In our model, the quality pooling process can be conducted in a self-adaptive manner because the weights are generated after understanding the style type. The effectiveness and robustness of the proposed CLSAP-Net are well validated by extensive experiments on the existing AST image quality assessment (IQA) databases. Our code will be released at https://github.com/Hangwei-Chen/CLSAP-Net.

Bismuth-based semiconductors applied in photocatalytic reduction processes: fundamentals, advances and future perspectives.

Bismuth-based semiconductors (BBSs) with their typical layered structures and unique electronic properties are considered an attractive visible light-responsive photocatalysts. Recently, BBS exhibited promising properties and was rapidly developed in photoreduction reactions. In this review, we firstly focus on the photoreduction reactions of BBS with a description of the basic principles. Specifically, the restrictive factors of the photoreduction reactions and the design directions of the catalysts are addressed. BBS photocatalysts, such as bismuth oxide, bismuth halide oxide and bismuth-based oxygenates, are presented in terms of the catalyst material design, crystal structure and other features. Furthermore, the primary applications of BBS in photoreduction reactions are described, including CO2 reduction, N2 reduction, H2 evolution, and nitrate reduction. Additionally, the advances and shortages of BBS applied in these processes are summarized and comprehensively discussed. Future works for BBS applied in photoreduction processes are also proposed.

Experimental analysis of a slant perforated mesh-plate photoreactor for water detoxification.

A novel slant perforated mesh-plate photoreactor (SPPR) was designed and fabricated. The central assembly of SPPR was an array of slant perforated mesh-plate coated with TiO2 (P25). The performance of SPPR in water detoxification was evaluated with regard to the degradation of phenol as the target pollutant. The effects of slant plate tilt angle (α) and perforated plate opening aperture diameter on SPPR performance were investigated and analyzed. The photocatalytic performance of SPPR increased with decreasing α. The SPPR with an α of 15° and a pore size of 1 mm showed the best performance with 9.17 h required to reach 80% of phenol degradation (4-L, initial concentration: 15 mg/L). The mass transfer was introduced into the kinetic reaction model, and mass transfer coefficients were calculated for SPPRs with different structures. Flow rate and initial pollutant concentration were investigated for their effects on degradation efficiency. In addition, the activity of SPPR under natural sunlight has also been tested to explore its potential to be applied in practice.

Ti3C2 MXene supporting platinum nanoparticles as rapid electrons transfer channel and active sites for boosted photocatalytic water splitting over g-C3N4.

Two-dimension (2D) MXene materials have increasingly attracted attentions in improving the photocatalytic conversion of solar-to-chemical energy over graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4). In this work, Pt nanoparticles modified few-layer Ti3C2 MXene sheet (MXene@Pt) was successfully prepared by chemical reduction, which was used as efficient co-catalysts to enhance the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution over porous g-C3N4 (PCN). The high work function of MXene@Pt and the tight 2D/2D interfacial contact between MXene@Pt and PCN significantly promoted the transfer and separation of photogenerated electron-hole. Besides, the MXene@Pt could enhance the light-harvesting of PCN and provide plentiful active sites for hydrogen evolution reaction. The hydrogen evolution activity of optimum 2D/2D MXene@Pt modified PCN (PCN/MPt-5) composite was dramatically enhanced, even higher than that of equal Pt mass modified PCN. Besides, overall water splitting was realized via a two-electron pathway with H2O2 and H2 generation. This work may provide the fabrication strategy for developing MXene-based co-catalyst in photocatalysis.

Detection of marine oil spills from radar satellite images for the coastal ecological risk assessment.

Coastal ecosystems offer substantial support and space for the sustainable development of human society, and hence the ecological risk evaluation of coastal ecosystems is of great significance. In this article, we propose an innovative framework for evaluating coastal ecological risk by considering oil spill risk information and environmental vulnerability information. Specifically, a deep learning based marine oil spill monitoring method is presented to obtain the oil spill risk information from Sentinel-1 polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) images. The environmental vulnerability information is then obtained from biological sample data and habitat information. Finally, a weighted probability model is introduced to utilize the oil spill risk and environmental vulnerability information, to evaluate the coastal ecological risk. In the experimental part, the proposed oil spill monitoring method shows its reliability in global ocean areas, and the proposed model is adopted to evaluate the ecological risk in Jiaozhou Bay, China. The results show that the ecological situation of more than half of the areas in Jiaozhou Bay is unstable, and the areas with high risk are mainly concentrated in the ports, shipping channels, and those areas with high biodiversity. This study provides some new perspectives on ecological risk assessment for coastal ecosystems, facilitating the planning process and the actions to be taken in response to the accidents that occur in the ocean, especially oil spill accidents.

Correlation Analysis of Pathological Features and Axillary Lymph Node Metastasis in Patients with Invasive Breast Cancer.

Objective: To investigate the risk factors of axillary lymph node metastasis in patients with invasive breast cancer. Methods: This study retrospectively included 122 cases of invasive breast cancer patients admitted to the First Medical Center of PLA General Hospital from January 2019 to September 2020. According to postoperative pathological results, axillary lymph node metastasis was divided into axillary lymph node metastasis (ALNM) group (n =40) and non-axillary lymph node metastasis (NALNM) group (n =82). General demographic information was collected and compared between the two groups. Collected pathological results included lymphovascular invasion (LVI) and the expression of estrogen receptor (ER), progestogen receptor (PR), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2), and Ki-67 detected by immunohistochemistry. Imaging parameters of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) including apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), early enhanced rate, and time-intensity curve (TIC) were also included into univariate analysis. The variables with differences between the two groups were compared by univariate analysis, and the related factors of axillary lymph node metastasis were analyzed by logistic regression model. Results: There was no significant difference in general demographic information between the two groups. No significant differences were found in the positive rates of HER-2, ER, PR, Ki-67, pathological types, and clavicular lymph node metastasis and skin chest wall invasion between the two groups (P > 0.05). The proportion of LVI in ALNM group was significantly higher than that in NALNM group (37.50% vs. 6.10%, P < 0.001). The proportion of breast cancer on the left side in the ALNM group was higher than that in the NALNM group, and the difference was statistically significant (70.00% vs. 47.56%, P = 0.019). There were no significant differences in the imaging parameters obtained by DCE-MRI between the two groups. Binary logistics regression analysis showed that LVI (OR =12.258, 95% CI =3.681-40.812, P < 0.001) and left breast cancer (OR =3.598, 95% CI =1.404-9.219, P = 0.008) were risk factors for axillary lymph node metastasis in patients with invasive breast cancer. Conclusion: The formation of vascular tumor thrombi in breast cancer tissue and left breast cancer are risk factors for axillary lymph node metastasis in invasive breast cancer and might be helpful for preoperative detailed assessment of the patient's condition.

Surgical treatment of secondary hyperparathyroidism combined with Sagliker syndrome caused by chronic renal failure: a case report.

Background: Sagliker syndrome is caused by severe secondary hyperparathyroidism in hemodialysis patients with chronic renal failure. It is mainly manifested by disturbances of calcium and phosphorus metabolism and bone changes, which eventually lead to abnormal changes in facial appearance and morphology, seriously affecting the quality of life of patients. With the improvement of management mode and technology for hemodialysis in chronic renal failure, the incidence of severe secondary hyperparathyroidism related to hemodialysis is relatively reduced. Therefore, Sagliker syndrome is more rare. How to early identify and choose the appropriate treatment for Sagliker syndrome is particularly important. Case Description: A 34-year-old female patient with uremia, who underwent regular hemodialysis at the Blood Purification Center of Tianjin Third Central Hospital, developed Sagliker syndrome. The general data, clinical symptoms, height changes, biochemical indicators (serum calcium, phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase, parathyroid hormone, hemoglobin, and hematocrit), and parathyroid emission computerized tomography (ECT) were collected and analyzed. The patient had a history of hemodialysis with chronic renal failure for 6 years, and presented with bone pain for 2 years. Laboratory tests showed parathyroid hormone was 2,269 pg/mL and ECT showed 3 parathyroid hyperplasia. Finally, total parathyroidectomy and forearm transplantation were performed. The level of parathyroid hormone was significantly lower than that before the operation. On the first postoperative day, the level of parathyroid hormone decreased to 28.3 pg/mL. Four months later, the bone pain symptoms of the patient were significantly improved compared with those before the operation. Conclusions: Sagliker syndrome is a special syndrome in maintenance hemodialysis patients with refractory secondary hyperparathyroidism. Early monitoring and standardized treatment of secondary hyperparathyroidism may prevent the occurrence of Sagliker syndrome. Early identification and diagnosis of Sagliker syndrome and the choice of appropriate treatment will have an important impact for the prognosis.

3D printing polylactic acid polymer-bioactive glass loaded with bone cement for bone defect in weight-bearing area.

The treatment of bone defects in weight-bearing areas is mainly to transplant filling materials into the defect area, to provide immediate and strong support for weight-bearing. At present, the commonly used filling material is bone cement, which can only provide physical support without bone regeneration effect. The long-term stress at the interface may cause the loosening of bone cement. The ideal filling material should provide not only strong mechanical support but also promote bone regeneration. We introduce a 3D printing frame-filling structure in this study. The structure was printed with polylactic acid/bioactive glass as the frame, and bone cement as the filler. In this system, bone cement was used to provide immediate fixation, and the frame provided long-term fixation by promoting osteogenic induction and conduction between the interface. The results showed that the degradation of bioactive glass in the frame promoted osteogenic metabolism, induced M2 polarization of macrophages, and inhibited local inflammatory response. The in vivo study revealed that implantation of the frame-filling structure significantly promoted bone regeneration in the femoral bone defect area of New Zealand white rabbits. For a bone defect in a weight-bearing area, long-term stability could be obtained by bone integration through this frame-filling structure.

Recent review of BixMOy (M=V, Mo, W) for photocatalytic CO2 reduction into solar fuels.

The utilization of solar energy for CO2 conversion not only enables a green and low-carbon recycling of CO2 with renewable energy, but also solves ecological problems. BixMOy (M = V, Mo, W) materials have typical layered structures and unique electronic properties that provide suitable band gaps and potential to meet the basic conditions for CO2 reduction. However, pristine BixMOy faces with problems such as small specific surface area, insufficient active sites, low charge carriers' separation and utilization efficiency. This review comprehensively described the basic principles and reaction pathways of photocatalytic CO2 reduction, and further presented the research progress of BixMOy catalysts in CO2 conversion reactions. In this perspective, we further focus on the design concepts and modification strategies to improve the photocatalytic CO2 reduction activity of BixMOy, such as morphology control, constructing surface vacancies and heterojunction fabrication. Finally, based on representative researches, the present review will be expected to provide updated information and insights for developing advanced BixMOy materials to further improve CO2 reduction activity and selectivity.

A novel bismuth hydroxide (Bi(OH)3) semiconductor with highly-efficient photocatalytic activity.

Herein, a novel Bi(OH)3 photocatalyst was successfully synthesized. Benefiting from the suitable band positions, abundant alkaline groups and oxygen vacancies, the as-prepared semiconductor exhibits efficient activity in both photocatalytic CO2 reduction with a CO production rate of 36 µmol g-1 h-1 and phenol decomposition with a 92.7% degradation rate in 180 min.

Photocatalytic Reduction of CO2 on a Bi2MoxW1-xO6 Solid Solution with Enhanced Activity.

This paper reports on a Bi2MoxW1-xO6 solid solution with excellent photocatalytic activity in CO2 reduction. Under simulated sunlight, the Bi2Mo0.25W0.75O6 solid solution achieved a CO generation yield of ≤298.2 µmol g-1 over 3 h, which was 2.1 and 1.5 times larger than those of pristine Bi2WO6 and Bi2MoO6, respectively. Via an in-depth study of the mechanism, this excellent photocatalytic activity was determinied to be probably due to two major contributions: (1) the formation of oxygen vacancies on the Bi2Mo0.25W0.75O6 solid solution, which provided more reactive sites for adsorption and activation of CO2, and (2) modulation of the electronic band structure, which facilitated charge separation. Mechanistic and reaction pathways have been deeply explored and proposed.

ZnO nanoparticles attenuate polymer-wear-particle induced inflammatory osteolysis by regulating the MEK-ERK-COX-2 axis.

Background/Objectives: Advanced thermoplastic materials, such as polyether-ether-ketone (PEEK) and highly cross-linked polyethylene (HXLPE), have been increasingly used as orthopaedic implant materials. Similar to other implants, PEEK-on-HXLPE prostheses produce debris from polymer wear that may activate the immune response, which can cause osteolysis, and ultimately implant failure. In this study, we examined whether the anti-inflammatory properties of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) could attenuate polymer wear particle-induced inflammation. Methods: RAW264.7 â€‹cells were cultured with PEEK or PE particles and gradient concentrations of ZnO NPs. Intracellular mRNA expression and protein levels of pro-inflammatory factors TNF-α, IL-1ß, and IL-6 were detected. An air pouch mouse model was constructed to examine the inflammatory response and expression of pro-inflammatory factors in vivo. Furthermore, an osteolysis rat model was used to evaluate the activation of osteoclasts and destruction of bone tissue induced by polymer particles with or without ZnO NPs. Protein expression of the MEK-ERK-COX-2 pathway was also examined by western blotting to elucidate the mechanism underlying particle-induced anti-inflammatory effects. Results: ZnO NPs (≤50 â€‹nm, 5 â€‹µg/mL) showed no obvious cytotoxicity and attenuated PEEK or PE particle-induced inflammation and inflammatory osteolysis by reducing MEK and ERK phosphorylation and decreasing COX-2 expression. Conclusion: ZnO NPs (≤50 â€‹nm, 5 â€‹µg/mL) attenuated polymer wear particle-induced inflammation via regulation of the MEK-ERK-COX-2 axis. Further, ZnO NPs reduced bone tissue damage caused by particle-induced inflammatory osteolysis. The translational potential of this article: Polymer wear particles can induce inflammation and osteolysis in the body after arthroplasty. ZnO NPs attenuated polymer particle-induced inflammation and inflammatory osteolysis. Topical use of ZnO NPs and blended ZnO NP/polymer composites may provide promising approaches for inhibiting polymer wear particle-induced inflammatory osteolysis, thus expanding the range of polymers used in joint prostheses.

3D printed porous sulfonated polyetheretherketone scaffold for cartilage repair: Potential and limitation.

Objective: The treatment of cartilage lesions has always been a difficult problem. Although cartilage tissue engineering provides alternative treatment options for cartilage lesions, biodegradable tissue engineering scaffolds have limitations. Methods: In this study, we constructed a porous PEEK scaffold via 3D printing, surface-engineered with concentrated sulfuric acid for 15 s (SPK-15), 30 s (SPK-30), and 60 s (SPK-60). We systematically evaluated the physical and chemical characteristics and biofunctionalities of the scaffolds, and then evaluated the macrophage polarization modulating ability and anti-inflammatory effects of the sulfonated PEEK, and observed the cartilage-protective effect of SPK using a co-culture study. We further evaluated the repair effect of PEEK and SPK by implanting the prosthetic scaffold into a cartilage defect in a rabbit model. Results: Compared to the PEEK, SPK-15 and SPK-60 scaffolds, SPK-30 has a good micro/nanostructure, appropriate biomechanical properties (compressive modulus, 43 ± 5 MPa; Shaw hardness, 20.6 ± 1.3 HD; close to native cartilage, 30 ± 8 MPa, 17.8 ± 0.8 HD), and superior biofunctionalities. Compared to PEEK, sulfonated PEEK can favor macrophage polarization to the M2 phenotype, which increases anti-inflammatory cytokine secretion. Furthermore, SPK can also prevent macrophage-induced cartilage degeneration. The in-vivo animal experiment demonstrates that SPK can favor new tissue ingrowth and integration, prevent peri-scaffold cartilage degeneration and patellar cartilage degeneration, inhibit inflammatory cytokine secretion, and promote cartilage function restoration. Conclusion: The present study confirmed that the 3D printed porous sulfonated PEEK scaffold could promote cartilage functional repair, and suggests a new promising strategy for treating cartilage defects with a functional prosthesis that spontaneously inhibits nearby cartilage degeneration. Translational potential of this article: In the present study, we propose a new cartilage repair strategy based on a porous, non-biodegradable polyetheretherketone (PEEK) scaffold, which may bring up a new treatment route for elderly patients with cartilage lesions in the future.

Bismuth chromate (Cr2Bi3O11): a new bismuth-based semiconductor with excellent photocatalytic activity.

A novel bismuth chromate material (Cr2Bi3O11) was synthesized by a direct mixing method with higher photocatalytic activity in both organic pollutant detoxification and oxygen evolution. Cr2Bi3O11 with a band gap of 2.20 eV could be activated by photons with a wavelength below 561 nm. This work not only provides an approach for the controllable synthesis of Cr2Bi3O11, but also experimentally and theoretically shows its excellence and potential when applied in photocatalysis.

Selective reduction of nitrate into N2 by novel Z-scheme NH2-MIL-101(Fe)/BiVO4 heterojunction with enhanced photocatalytic activity.

Nitrate and its metabolites as common pollutants in water had attracted widespread attentions. Converting nitrate to nontoxic and harmless nitrogen via photocatalysis was a promising approach. In this study, a novel Z-scheme NH2-MIL-101(Fe)/BiVO4 heterojunction was successfully prepared. As-prepared Z-scheme heterojunction along with built-in electric field facilitated the charge separation and enhanced the photocatalytic activity in nitrate reduction. The results showed that 0.10-MBiVO photocatalyst exhibited the highest nitrate removal rate of 94.8% (initial concentration 100 mgN/L) and final selectivity to N2 of 93.4% in 50 min under ultraviolet irradiation. Moreover, formic acid was proved as better hole scavenger compared with methanol and oxalic acid. And the concentration of formic acid had significant influence on the process of nitrate photocatalytic reduction. 0.10-MBiVO photocatalyst exhibited excellent reusability in the recycling tests, indicating its great potential in practical application of nitrate photocatalytic removal. The mechanism of the enhancement as well as reaction pathways for nitrate photocatalytic reduction on NH2-MIL-101(Fe)/BiVO4 were comprehensively explored and described at the end.