Tourmaline/pyrite dual mineral photocatalysis with a powerful surface electric field for efficient antibiotic removal.

Pyrite (FeS2) has garnered attention due to its narrow bandgap, high light absorption, and low cost. However, the rapid recombination of charge carriers hinders its practical application. Surface electric field is a unique characteristic of tourmaline, which can induce effective separation of photo generated electrons and holes. This study successfully combined two directly mined natural minerals, tourmaline and pyrite, to form TFS. Characterization and experiments show that the surface electric field of tourmaline can significantly enhance the photocatalytic activity of TFS. Tetracycline (TC, 50 ppm) was degraded by 95% with 60 min, and the TFS reaction rate constant reached 0.0439 min-1, which is 6.1 times and 17.3 times higher than that of tourmaline and FeS2. Additionally, it significantly improved light absorption and charge carrier separation capabilities. After simulating various natural environmental factors, TFS demonstrated practicality. Considered analysis of active substances and detection revealed that h+ and 1O2 radicals are significant contributors, and the photocatalytic mechanism was proposed. Furthermore, the transformation pathways and toxicity of metabolites were studied. This research offers further inspiration and insights for improving photocatalytic material performance and the green governance environment of natural resources.

[Inhibition of chitin oligosaccharide on dyslipidemia and the potential molecular mechanism exploration].

The inhibitory effect of NACOS on dyslipidemia and potential molecular mechanisms by in vitro and in vivo experiments were investigated. For in vitro study, four experimental groups were designed by using HepG2 cells, including the control group, palmitic acid (PA) treatment alone group, NACOS treatment alone group and NACOS + PA treatment group. For in vivo study, male C57BL/6 mice were divided into four groups (n=5) at random including the normal control group (NCD), high fat diet (HFD) group, NACOS treatment alone group, NACOS+HFD group, which were treated for 20 weeks. The used methods in this study were as follows: the observation of lipid droplet deposition in HepG2 cells by oil red O staining, the detection of mRNA levels of lipid metabolism-related regulators and inflammatory cytokine by RT-PCR method, the monitoring of MAPKs and PI3K/Akt pathway activation by Western blotting method. The in vitro study shows that, NACOS had no toxicity on the viability of HepG2 cells at 25-100 µg/mL and significantly reduced the deposition of lipid droplet. Also, based on both in vitro and in vivo investigation, NACOS evidently down-regulated the expression of lipid metabolism-related regulators (PGC1α, Cox5b, Mcad) and inflammatory cytokine (IL-1ß) at mRNA level (P<0.05 or 0.01), and suppressed the activation of p38, ERK1/2 and Akt in HepG2 cells and lever tissues from HFD-fed mice (P<0.05 or 0.01). Based on the above, NACOS may inhibit the oxidation of liver mitochondrial fatty acid and the lipid biosynthesis, block the inflammatory responses and prevent the HepG2 cells and C57BL/6 mice from lipidemia.