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Anapole modes supported by the well-designed dielectric nanostructure have attracted extensive concerns in the field of nanophotonic applications owing to its unique strong near-field enhancement and nonradiative far-field scattering characteristics, yet it is still difficult to achieve high Q-factor resonance features with narrow linewidth. In this work, a periodic slotted silicon nanodisk array is theoretically proposed to realize narrow linewidth and high Q-factor resonance in the near-infrared wavelength range. Through introducing the coupling between the anapole modes in the single dielectric nanostructure and the diffractive wave mode arisen from the periodic array, the as-designed dielectric nanostructure synchronously manifests excellent spectral features with a bandwidth as narrow as about 2.0 nm, a large Q-factor of 599, perfect transmission amplitude attaining 96% and relatively high electric field intensity (> 2809 times) in the middle of the slotted silicon nanodisk. The as-designed nanostructure possessing these outstanding optical features can work as a high-efficiency refractive-index sensor, whose sensitivity can reach 161.5 nm/RIU with its figure of merit attaining 80.8 RIU−1, efficiently distinguishing an index change of less than 0.01. The proposed slotted silicon nanodisk array exhibits tremendous potential for expanding the application such as label-free biochemical sensing, plasmonic refractive index sensing and surface enhancement spectroscopy.

The emerging of superbugs has led to an urgent need for novel antibiotics. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) characterized with broad-spectrum antibacterial activity, reduced resistance, and immune stimulation, show application prospects in combating drug-resistant microorganisms. In this study, computational techniques were used to design BamA targeted AMPs. Designed AMPs were then synthesized and investigated for their antibacterial activities, mechanisms, and stability. Molecular docking and dynamics simulations revealed that both the designed AMPs of 11pep and D-11pep could polymerize the β1, β9, β15, and β16 chains of BamA, leading to faulty folding of outer membrane proteins and resulting in antibacterial effects. Further antibacterial studies showed that 11pep and D-11pep have broad-spectrum activity, and D-11pep exhibiting more potent antibacterial action against resistant Gram-negative bacteria with MICs of 16 μg/mL, 8 μg/mL and 32 μg/mL against carbapenem-resistant Escherichia coli, carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and multi-drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, respectively, and lower resistance induction. Mechanism investigation of 11pep and D-11pep showed that, both peptides could disrupt the bacterial outer membrane, which was consistent with the molecular dynamics simulations, and D-11pep is more stable and less toxic than 11pep. Results in this study indicate that rational design of AMPs targeted BamA, and the D-amino acid replacement strategy are useful tactics to develop drug-resistant bacteria AMPs.

By manipulating the Zn2+ coordination environment, electrolytes with diverse Zn2+–En configurations effectively inhibit zinc dendrite growth and side reactions.

By using ethylenediamine (En) as a complexing agent, the impact of various Zn

Rechargeable aqueous Zn-ion battery has been considered as a key complement to the existing battery technologies due to its intrinsic merits such as operational safety and cost saving. However, issues of dendrite growth and accompanied water consumption hinder its further development. In this work, we utilize a chelating agent, 2-Bis(2-hydroxyethyl) amino-2-(hydroxymethyl)-1,3-propanediol (BIS-TRIS), to regulate the solvation sheath structure of Zn2+. Benefiting from such zinc-chelating coordination, Zn2+ 2D diffusion can be restricted and the altered deposition kinetic has contributed to the inhibition of the dendrite growth. In addition, partial substitution of water in solvation shell with chelator can also greatly suppress the competitive hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Consequently, a stable symmetric Zn cell with lifetime more than 1000 h at a current density of 1 mA cm−2 is achieved. Moreover, the aqueous Zn/MnO2 battery with BIS-TRIS as electrolyte additive delivers an 86% capacity retention after 600 cycles at 500 mA g−1. This zinc-chelating coordination based facile strategy opens a new window for the future development in dendrite-free Zn anode.

Abstarct An ultra-narrow-band perfect absorber based on collective resonances in an Ag nanoring period array is theoretically proposed for the absorption enhancement of monolayer graphene, where the absorptivity can reach as high as 99.4% with the full-width-half-maximum as narrow as 3.6 nm in the visible band. This outstanding absorptive characteristic can be attributed to the excitation of surface lattice resonance modes by Ag nanoring periodic array. The as-designed structure possesses high refractive-index sensitivity, reaching 557.9 nm RIU−1 with its figure of merit attaining 155 RIU−1. This work provides promising guidance for developing high-performance graphene-based photonic devices.