Highly Porous Metal-Organic Framework Entrapped by Cobalt Telluride-Manganese Telluride as an Efficient Bifunctional Electrocatalyst.

The electrochemical conversion of oxygen holds great promise in the development of sustainable energy for various applications, such as water electrolysis, regenerative fuel cells, and rechargeable metal-air batteries. Oxygen electrocatalysts are needed that are both highly efficient and affordable, since they can serve as alternatives to costly precious-metal-based catalysts. This aspect is particularly significant for their practical implementation on a large scale in the future. Herein, highly porous polyhedron-entrapped metal-organic framework (MOF)-assisted CoTe2/MnTe2 heterostructure one-dimensional nanorods were initially synthesized using a simple hydrothermal strategy and then transformed into ZIF-67 followed by tellurization which was used as a bifunctional electrocatalyst for both the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The designed MOF CoTe2/MnTe2 nanorod electrocatalyst exhibited superior activity for both OER (η = 220 mV@ 10 mA cm-2) and ORR (E1/2 = 0.81 V vs RHE) and outstanding stability. The exceptional achievement could be primarily credited to the porous structure, interconnected designs, and deliberately created deficiencies that enhanced the electrocatalytic activity for the OER/ORR. This improvement was predominantly due to the enhanced electrochemical surface area and charge transfer inherent in the materials. Therefore, this simple and cost-effective method can be used to produce highly active bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts.

Homogeneous Elongation of N-Doped CNTs over Nano-Fibrillated Hollow-Carbon-Nanofiber: Mass and Charge Balance in Asymmetric Supercapacitors Is No Longer Problematic.

The hurdle of fabricating asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) devices using a faradic cathode and a double layer anode is challenging due to the required large amount of active mass of anodic material compared to that of the cathodic material during mass balancing due to the large difference in capacitance values of the two electrodes. Here, the problem is addressed by engineering a negative electrode that furnishes an ultrahigh capacitance. An in situ developed metal-organic framework (MOF)-based thermal treatment is adopted to grow highly porous N-doped carbon nanotubes (CNTs) containing submerged Co nanoparticles over nano-fibrillated electrospun hollow carbon nanofibers (HCNFs). The optimized CNT@HCNF-1.5 furnishes an ultrahigh capacitance approaching 712 F g-1 with excellent rate capability. The capacitance reported from this work is the highest for any carbonaceous material reported to date. The CNT@HCNF-1.5 is further used to fabricate symmetric supercapacitors (SSCs), as well as ASC devices. Remarkably, both the SSC and ASC devices furnish incredible performances in all aspects of SCs, such as a high energy density, long cycle life, and high rate capability, displaying decent practical applicability. The energy density of the SSC device reaches as high as 20.13 W h kg-1 , whereas that of ASC approaches 87.5 W h kg-1 .

Pharmacologic activities of phytosteroids in inflammatory diseases: Mechanism of action and therapeutic potentials.

Natural products and their derivatives are known to be useful for treating numerous diseases since ancient times. Because of their high therapeutic potentials, the use of different medicinal plants is possible to treat varied inflammation-mediated chronic diseases. Among natural products, phytosteroids have emerged as promising compounds mostly because they have diverse pharmacological activities. Currently, available medications exert numerous systemic toxicities, including hypertension, immune suppression, osteoporosis, and metabolic abnormalities. Thus, further research on phytosteroids to subside these complications is of significant importance. In this study, the information on phytosteroids, their types, and actions against inflammation, and allergic complications was collected by a systematic survey of literature on several scientific search engines. The literature review suggested that phytosteroids exhibit antiinflammatory action via different modes through transrepression or selective COX-2 enzymes. Also, in silico ADMET analysis was carried out on available phytosteroids to uncover their pharmacokinetic properties. Our analysis has shown that eight compounds: withaferin A, stigmasterol, ß-sitosterol, guggulsterone, diosgenin, sarsasapogenin, physalin A, and dioscin, -isolated from medicinal plants show similar pharmacokinetic properties as compared to dexamethasone, commercially available glucocorticoid. These phytosteroids could be useful for the treatment of inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel diseases, multiple sclerosis, asthma, and cardiovascular diseases. Thus, systematic research is required to explore potent phytosteroids with lesser side effects, which might substitute the current medications.