Quantitative proteome and lysine succinylome characterization of zinc chloride smoke-induced lung injury in mice.

The inhalation of zinc chloride (ZnCl2) smoke is one of common resources of lung injury, potentially resulting in severe pulmonary complications and even mortality. The influence of ZnCl2 smoke on lysine succinylation (Ksucc) in the lungs remains uncertain. In this study, we used a ZnCl2 smoke inhalation mouse model to perform global proteomic and lysine succinylome analyses. A total of 6781 Ksucc sites were identified in the lungs, with injured lungs demonstrating a reduction to approximately 2000 Ksucc sites, and 91 proteins exhibiting at least five differences in the number of Ksucc sites. Quantitative analysis revealed variations in expression of 384 proteins and 749 Ksucc sites. The analysis of protein-protein interactions was conducted for proteins displaying differential expression and differentially expressed lysine succinylation. Notably, proteins with altered Ksucc exhibited increased connectivity compared with that in differentially expressed proteins. Beyond metabolic pathways, these highly connected proteins were also involved in lung injury-associated pathological reactions, including processes such as focal adhesion, adherens junction, and complement and coagulation cascades. Collectively, our findings contribute to the understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlaying ZnCl2 smoke-induced lung injury with a specific emphasis on lysine succinylation. These findings could pave the way for targeted interventions and therapeutic strategies to mitigate severe pulmonary complications and mortality associated with such injuries in humans.

Magnetic deep eutectic solvents: formation and properties.

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) are well-known as novel solvents due to their unique properties, which are indispensable for the development of green chemistry in the future. CoCl2·6H2O and NiCl2·6H2O-based DESs, which could be called magnetic DESs (MDESs) for short in view of their responsive behavior to an external magnetic field, have been widely used in many industrial applications, such as biomass treatment, electrolytes, and material preparation. For better application and full-scale development of these MDESs in various fields, eleven MDESs were prepared in this work by using CoCl2·6H2O and NiCl2·6H2O as hydrogen bond acceptors (HBAs) with alcohols, carboxylic acids and amides as hydrogen bond donors (HBDs), respectively. The intermolecular interactions between the components of MDESs were characterized via FTIR, 1H NMR and DSC analysis. In addition, physicochemical properties including density, viscosity, conductivity, ionicity, pH values, surface tension, thermostability and solvatochromic parameters were investigated. All MDESs exhibit acid characteristics and have good conductivity comparable with ionic liquids (ILs) and other DESs used for electrolytes. The results show that stronger H-bonding networks in Ni-based MDESs make them have higher density, viscosity, polarity and surface tension values than Co-based MDESs. Moreover, all prepared MDESs possess a good conductivity behavior which could be comparable to that of common organic solvents and ILs. According to this work, we could better comprehend the behavior of Co/Ni-based MDESs and choose the appropriate one for particular applications.

Deep Eutectic Solvent-Induced In Situ Etching and Phosphorization to Form Nickel Phosphides for Electrooxidation of 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural.

The development of catalysts with relatively high current densities at low potentials for the electrooxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) is still challenging. In this study, an in situ deep eutectic solvent (DES) etching phosphorization strategy is developed to prepare nickel phosphides encapsulated in P,O-codoped carbon nanosheets (Ni-P@POC). The DES serves not only as an etchant to extract Ni2+ from the nickel foam, but also as a phosphorus source to form nickel phosphides in situ uniformly embedded in the carbon films to produce a sheet structure. The electrooxidation performance is further greatly improved by implementing an electrochemical activation step to transform Ni-P@POC into NiOOH/Ni-P@POC (t-Ni-P@POC). t-Ni-P@POC exhibits a low onset potential of 1.20 V vs. RHE and a high current density of 200 mA cm-2 at 1.33 V vs. RHE for HMF electrooxidation, outperforming most reported catalysts. The as-developed DES etching phosphorization strategy offers a facile, flexible, and universal route for the design of high-performance catalysts with specific nanostructures.

A Weak Acidic and Strong Coordinated Deep Eutectic Solvent for Recycling of Cathode from Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries.

The leaching and recycling of valuable metals via environmentally benign solvents is important because of the ever-increasing waste lithium-ion batteries, but it remains a challenge. Herein, a multi-functional deep eutectic solvent (DES) based on lactic acid (LA) and guanidine hydrochloride (GHC) was used to extract cobalt and lithium ions from LiCoO2 . Due to the strong acidity (protons) and abundant chlorine coordinating ions of LA/GHC, the solubility of LiCoO2 in LA/GHC could reach as high as 19.9 mg g-1 (stirred at 80 °C for 24 h), and a little LiCoO2 powder even could be dissolved at room temperature without stirring. Oxalic acid was used to strip and separate the oxalates of cobalt and lithium. Furthermore, LA/GHC could be recycled with a similar dissolving performance. This work avoided using corrosive acids and could be realized at low temperature (80 °C), making it energy-saving and cost-effective. It shows DESs have great potential in extracting strategically important metals from LiCoO2 cathodes and provides an efficient and green alternative for sustainable recycling of spent lithium-ion batteries.

Adsorption characteristics of organics in the effluent of ultra-short SRT wastewater treatment by single-walled, multi-walled, and graphitized multi-walled carbon nanotubes.

With a conceptual shift in sewage treatment from 'waste pollution' to 'vehicle of resource and energy recovery' and the further intensification of the energy crisis, the separation and recovery of carbon resources from discharged sewage has gained increasing recent attention in the field of water treatment. The ultra-short Solids Retention Time (SRT) activated sludge process (SRT ≤ 4 d) is highly efficient for separating organic matter and improving the energy recovery rate in wastewater treatment plants, but the effluent quality is relatively poor. If organics in the ultra-short SRT effluent can be reduced further to separate and recover carbon resources, the process may soon replace the traditional activated sludge process. We conducted physical adsorption carbon recovery experiments in an ultra-short SRT (SRT = 2 d) activated sludge system using three carbon nanotubes. Considering that Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) arises from a mixture of organic compounds, and because humic acid (HA) makes up a large fraction of the effluent and can cause great environmental harm, further experiments were conducted on the adsorption of HA in the effluent COD to three nanotubes. This study proposes a novel method to completely remove organics from the effluent from ultra-short SRT activated sludge processes and reveals nanotube adsorption properties and mechanisms.