Assessment of human exposure to cadmium and its nephrotoxicity in the Chinese population.

BACKGROUND: Cadmium (Cd) is a toxic heavy metal that widely detected in environment and accumulated in kidney, posing a great threat to human health. However, there is a lack of systematic investigation of exposure profile and association of Cd exposure with renal function in the Chinese population. METHODS: Related articles were searched from PubMed, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Internet, and Wanfang to construct an aggregate exposure pathway (AEP) framework for Cd and to explore the correlation between Cd and renal function using random effects models. RESULTS: A total of 220 articles were included in this study, among which 215 investigated human exposure and 12 investigated the association of Cd with renal outcomes. The AEP framework showed that 96.5 % and 62.5 % of total Cd intake were attributed to dietary intake in nonsmokers and smokers, respectively. And 35.2 % originated from cigarette smoke inhalation in smokers. In human body, Cd was detected in blood, urine, placenta, etc. Although the concentrations of Cd in blood and urine from subjects living in polluted areas showed a sharp downward trend since the early 21st century, higher concentration of Cd in the environment and human body in polluted areas was found. Kidney was the target organ. The level of blood Cd was positively associated with urinary ß2-microglobulin [ß2-MG, r (95 % CI) = 0.12 (0.05, 0.19)], albumin [0.13 (0.06, 0.20)], and retinol-binding protein [RBP, 0.14 (0.03, 0.24)]. Elevated urinary Cd was correlated with increases in ß2-MG [0.22 (0.15, 0.29)], albumin [0.23 (0.16, 0.29)], N-acetyl-ß-d-glucosaminidase [NAG, 0.33 (0.22, 0.44)], and RBP [0.22 (0.14, 0.30)]. CONCLUSIONS: Foods and cigarette smoke were two major ways for Cd intake, and Cd induced renal injury in the Chinese population. This study enhanced the understanding of human exposure and nephrotoxicity of Cd, and emphasized the need for controlling Cd level in polluted areas.

1T-Phase molybdenum sulfide/cobalt oxide nanopillars hybrid nanostructure coupled with nitrogen-doped carbon thin-film as high efficiency electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution.

High efficient and durable catalysts are always needed to lower the kinetic barriers as well as prolong the service life associated with oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Herein, a sequential synthetic strategy is considered to prepare a hierarchical nanostructure, in which each component can be configured to achieve their full potential so that endows the resulting nanocatalyst a good overall performance. In order to realize this, well-organized cobalt oxide (Co3O4) nanopillars are firstly grown onto ultrathin 1T-molybdenum sulfide (1T-MoS2) to obtain high surface area electrocatalyst, providing electron transfer pathways and structural stability. After that, zeolitic imidazolate framework-67 (ZIF-67) derived carbonization film is further in situ deposited on the surface of nanopillars to generate plentiful active sites, thereby accelerating OER kinetics. Based on the combination of different components, the electron transfer capability, catalytic activity and durability are optimized and fully implemented. The obtained nanocatalyst (defined as 1T-MoS2/Co3O4/CN) exhibits the superior OER catalytic ability with the overpotential of 202 mV and Tafel slope of 57 mV·dec-1 at 10 mA·cm-2 in 0.1 M KOH, and good durability with a minor chronoamperometric decay of 9.15 % after 60,000 s of polarization.

All-Inorganic Perovskite Nanorod Arrays with Spatially Randomly Distributed Lasing Modes for All-Photonic Cryptographic Primitives.

The level of hardware or information security can be increased by applying physical unclonable functions (PUFs), which have a high complexity and unique nonreplicability and are based on random physical patterns generated by nature, to anticounterfeiting and encryption technologies. The preparation of PUFs should be as simple and convenient as possible, while maintaining the high complexity and stability of PUFs to ensure high reliability in use. In this study, an all-inorganic perovskite single-crystal array with a controllable morphology and a random size was prepared by a one-step recrystallization method in a solvent atmosphere to generate all-photonic cryptographic primitives. The nondeterministic size of the perovskite nanorods mainly arises from crystal growth in an indeterminate direction, producing a high entropy for the system. The cavity-size-dependent lasing emission behavior of perovskite single crystals was investigated as a preliminary exploration of the generation of all-photonic cryptographic primitives. The lasing-mode number was positively correlated with the length of the perovskite nanorods. Therefore, the prepared perovskite nanorod array with random sizes can be transformed into a quaternary cryptographic key array following encoding rules based on the lasing-mode number. Superior lasing stability was observed for the all-inorganic perovskite under continuous excitation, demonstrating the high reliability of this system.

Enhanced Surface Chemical and Structural Stability of Ni-Rich Cathode Materials by Synchronous Lithium-Ion Conductor Coating for Lithium-Ion Batteries.

Ni-rich cathode materials LiNixCoyMn1-x-yO2 (x ≥ 0.6) have attracted much attention due to their high capacity and low cost. However, they usually suffer from rapid capacity decay and short cycle life due to their surface/interface instability, accompanied by the high Ni content. In this work, with the Ni0.9Co0.05Mn0.05(OH)2 precursor serving as a coating target, a Li-ion conductor Li2SiO3 layer was uniformly coated on Ni-rich cathode material LiNi0.9Co0.05Mn0.05O2 by a precoating and syn-lithiation method. The uniform Li2SiO3 coating layer not only improves the Li-ion diffusion kinetics of the electrode but also reduces mechanical microstrain and stabilizes the surface chemistry and structure with a strong Si-O covalent bond. These results will provide further in-depth understanding on the surface chemistry and structure stabilization mechanisms of Ni-rich cathode materials and help to develop high-capacity cathode materials for next-generation high-energy-density Li-ion batteries.

Hard carbon micro-nano tubes derived from kapok fiber as anode materials for sodium-ion batteries and the sodium-ion storage mechanism.

Hard carbon materials are considered as the most promising anode for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs). However, the high cost and poor rate performance hinder their application in SIBs. Moreover, the controversial mechanism of Na-ion storage restricts the improvement of hard carbon anodes. Herein, hard carbon micro-nano tubes (HCMNTs) from low-cost biomass kapok fibers are prepared as a promising anode for SIBs. Benefitting from the micro-nano structure, which offers low surface area and short Na+ diffusion path, 1400HCMNT possesses a good initial Coulombic efficiency of 80%, a high reversible capacity of 290 mA h g-1, and an excellent rate capacity. Furthermore, electron paramagnetic resonance and thermogravimetric analysis were applied to investigate the Na-ion storage mechanism in the HCMNTs. Sodium is stored in the hard carbon in an ionic state in the slope region and as quasi-liquid metallic sodium clusters in the low-voltage plateau.