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The sugar moieties of natural flavonoids determine their absorption, bioavailability, and bioactivity in humans. To explore structure-dependent bioactivities of quercetin, isoquercetin, and rutin, which have the same basic skeleton linking different sugar moieties, we systemically investigated the ameliorative effects of dietary these flavonoids on high-fat diet (HFD)-induced nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) of mice. Our results revealed that isoquercetin exhibits the strongest capability in improving NAFLD phenotypes of mice, including body and liver weight gain, glucose intolerance, and systemic inflammation in comparison with quercetin and rutin. At the molecular level, dietary isoquercetin markedly ameliorated liver dysfunction and host metabolic disorders in mice with NAFLD. At the microbial level, the three flavonoids compounds, especially isoquercetin, can effectively regulate the gut microbiota composition, such as genera

Hesperetin-7-O-glucoside (Hes-7-G) is a naturally occurring flavonoid monoglucoside in Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium and exhibits relatively high biological activities. To explore the anti-inflammatory capacity of dietary Hes-7-G, lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages and dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced colitis mice were used here as in vitro and in vivo inflammation models. The results showed that Hes-7-G (5 μM) significantly restored cellular metabolic disorders and inflammation in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages. In the in vivo study, dietary Hes-7-G (1 mg/kg body weight) markedly alleviated the inflammatory status in DSS-induced colitis mice, manifested by the recovered colon length from 5.91 ± 0.66 to 6.45 ± 0.17 cm, histopathological changes, and mRNA levels of colonic inflammatory factors including Tnf-α and Il-22. Furthermore, dietary Hes-7-G not only profoundly regulated the gut microbiota composition including phyla Bacteroidetes, Cyanobacteria, Desulfobacterota, and Deferribacteres and genus Enterorhabdus, Prevotellaceae, Gastranaerophilales, Enterococcus, Intestinimonas, Ruminococcaceae, and Eubacterium in the cecal contents but also especially adjusted the co-metabolites such as short chain fatty acids and indole metabolites (indole-3-propionic, indole acetic acid), which were markedly altered by DSS treatment in mice. These findings demonstrated that Hes-7-G has strong anti-inflammatory activity in vitro and in vivo and potential preventive or therapeutic effects for chronic inflammation diseases.

Electrochemical catalysis offers great potential in energy and mass conversion in academy and industry. However, bubble dynamics and its influence on gas-evolving electrode systems remain ambiguous. Detailed information on the local transport process between different phases and the underlying mechanism are required for the full understanding of two-phase flow evolution and distribution. Here, we construct a three-electrode water splitting reaction system to study the bubble dynamics and system efficiency of titanium electrodes with different morphologies. The dynamics of a gas bubble at an electrode with a plate and 100-mesh, 150-mesh, and 300-mesh structures is systematically investigated with respect to applied voltage conditions. Parameters and underlying mechanisms that influence the two-phase flow evolution and electrochemical reaction performance are carefully discussed. Finally, the underlying dynamic force balance on the gas bubble is analyzed to illustrate the mechanism and experimental observations. Our study provides insights in gas-evolving electrocatalysis and offers opportunities for the design and fabrication of high-performance electrocatalytic reactors.

Diatoms are unicellular organisms, and their cell walls (diatom frustules) composed of hydrated amorphous silica have the characteristic of a delicate porous structure. Herein, we explore the appli...

Nobel metal Pt composites show high catalytic activity for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) but limited in application by high Pt contents and therefore the cost. Herein, a series of Pt nanopartic...

Lithium–sulfur batteries are among the most promising candidates for energy storage because of their overwhelming advantage in energy density and cost savings, but some issues such as the low elect...

The ultrasonication-triggered interfacial assembly approach was developed to synthesize magnetic Janus amphiphilic nanoparticles (MJANPs) for cancer theranostic applications, where the biocompatible octadecylamine is used as a molecular linker to mediate the interactions between hydrophobic and hydrophilic nanoparticles across the oil-water interface. The obtained Co cluster-embedded Fe3O4 nanoparticles-graphene oxide (CCIO-GO) MJANPs exhibited superior magnetic heating efficiency and transverse relaxivity, 64 and 4 times higher than that of commercial superparamagnetic iron oxides, respectively. The methodology has been applicable to nanoparticles of various dimensions (5-100 nm), morphologies (sphere, ring, disk, and rod), and composition (metal oxides, noble metal and semiconductor compounds, etc.), thereby greatly enriching the array of MJANPs. In vivo theranostic applications using the tumor-bearing mice model further demonstrated the effectiveness of these MJANPs in high-resolution multimodality imaging and high-efficiency cancer therapeutics. The ubiquitous assembly approach developed in the current study pave the way for on-demand design of high-performance Janus amphiphilic nanoparticles for various clinical diagnoses and therapeutic applications.

Mitochondria-targeting nanotherapy receives great attention these days for its capacity in disrupting mitochondria function and inducing tumor cell apoptosis through external magnetic and optical stimulations. However, the effect is significantly diminished when applied to animal models. The key factors include environmental complexity in vivo and intrinsic protective features of tumor tissues. To address these obstacles and reduce expenses on drug screening, we herein introduce a methodology for producing millimeter-sized spheroids with structural and functional characteristics of tumor tissues in vivo. The necessity of spheroid as a liver tumor model is demonstrated by comparing the effect of TPP-SPIONs (triphenylphosphonium cation-superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles) on monolayer-cultured HepG2 cells and spheroids. Our study reveals that large-scale spheroid, in contrast to monolayer cells, reflects more in vivo tumor characters and is less responsive to TPP-SPIONs during magnetic hyperthermia treatment.

Lithium-ion sulfur batteries with a [graphite|solvate ionic liquid electrolyte|lithium sulfide (Li2S)] structure are developed to realize high performance batteries without the issue of lithium anode. Li2S has recently emerged as a promising cathode material, due to its high theoretical specific capacity of 1166 mAh/g and its great potential in the development of lithium-ion sulfur batteries with a lithium-free anode such as graphite. Unfortunately, the electrochemical Li(+) intercalation/deintercalation in graphite is highly electrolyte-selective: whereas the process works well in the carbonate electrolytes inherited from Li-ion batteries, it cannot take place in the ether electrolytes commonly used for Li-S batteries, because the cointercalation of the solvent destroys the crystalline structure of graphite. Thus, only very few studies have focused on graphite-based Li-S full cells. In this work, simple graphite-based Li-S full cells were fabricated employing electrolytes beyond the conventional carbonates, in combination with highly loaded Li2S/graphene composite cathodes (Li2S loading: 2.2 mg/cm(2)). In particular, solvate ionic liquids can act as a single-phase electrolyte simultaneously compatible with both the Li2S cathode and the graphite anode and can further improve the battery performance by suppressing the shuttle effect. Consequently, these lithium-ion sulfur batteries show a stable and reversible charge-discharge behavior, along with a very high Coulombic efficiency.

Siloxane-based hybrid lamellar materials with ordered nanostructure units paralleling to the substrate have been widely used for water vapor barrier. However, it is very difficult to control the orientation of the lamellar units at molecular level. In this Research Article, a new lamellar bridged polysilsesquioxane (BPSQ) film, whose voids between lamellae were filled by pendant alkyl chains in the organic bridge, was prepared via the stoichiometric reaction between 3-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane and aliphatic monoamine at 60 °C without catalyst. Experimental evidence obtained from FT-IR, MS, NMR, and GIXRD techniques suggested that the as-prepared BPSQ films were constructed by lamellar units with disordered orientation. Nonetheless, they possessed satisfactory water vapor barrier performance for potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) and deuterated potassium dihydrogen phosphate (DKDP) optical crystals, and the water vapor transmission rate through BPSQ film with thickness of 25 μm was as low as 20.3 g·m(-2)·d(-1). Those results proved that filling the voids between molecular lamellae with alkyl chains greatly weakened the effect of lamellar unit orientation on the vapor barrier property of BPSQ film.

An efficient strategy is developed for chemical recycling of cured epoxy resin (CEP) from its carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites (CFREP) using AlCl3/CH3COOH as the degradation system. Acetic acid swells the dense structures of CEP, facilitating the penetration of the aluminum ion catalyst into the polymer matrix. The weakly coordinating aluminum ions in CH3COOH solution selectively cleave the C–N bond while leaving the C–C, C–O (aryl alkyl ether) bonds intact. This process recovers valuable oligomers and carbon fibers from CFREP.

Highly concentrated, molten mixtures of lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)amide (Li[TFSA]) and ether solvents (tetrahydrofuran (THF), monoglyme (G1), diglyme (G2), and triglyme (G3)) were investigated as electrolytes for Li batteries. To compare the electrochemical reactions in the electrolytes with different solvents, the ratio of ether–oxygen atoms and Li+ ([O]/[Li]) in the electrolytes was fixed at four. The capacity of a Li–LiCoO2 cell with [Li(THF)4][TFSA] dramatically decreased upon charge/discharge cycling, whereas [Li(G3)1][TFSA] allowed the cell to have a stable charge–discharge cycles and a Coulombic efficiency of greater than 99% over 100 cycles. Corrosion of the Al current collector of the cathode was also affected by the composition of the electrolytes. Persistent Al corrosion took place in [Li(THF)4][TFSA] and [Li(G1)2][TFSA], which contain shorter ethers, but the corrosion was effectively suppressed in [Li(G3)1][TFSA]. Furthermore, lithium polysulfides, which are formed as discharge inte...

To develop a basic understanding of a new class of ionic liquids (ILs), "solvate" ILs, the transport properties of binary mixtures of lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)amide (Li[TFSA]) and oligoethers (tetraglyme (G4), triglyme (G3), diglyme (G2), and monoglyme (G1)) or tetrahydrofuran (THF) were studied. The self-diffusion coefficient ratio of the solvents and Li(+) ions (Dsol/DLi) was a good metric for evaluating the stability of the complex cations consisting of Li(+) and the solvent(s). When the molar ratio of Li(+) ions and solvent oxygen atoms ([O]/[Li(+)]) was adjusted to 4 or 5, Dsol/DLi always exceeded unity for THF and G1-based mixtures even at the high concentrations, indicating the presence of uncoordinating or highly exchangeable solvents. In contrast, long-lived complex cations were evidenced by a Dsol/DLi ∼ 1 for the longer G3 and G4. The binary mixtures studied were categorized into two different classes of liquids: concentrated solutions and solvate ILs, based on Dsol/DLi. Mixtures with G2 exhibited intermediate behavior and are likely the borderline dividing the two categories. The effect of chelation on the formation of solvate ILs also strongly correlated with electrolyte properties; the solvate ILs showed improved thermal and electrochemical stability. The ionicity (Λimp/ΛNMR) of [Li(glyme or THF)x][TFSA] exhibited a maximum at an [O]/[Li(+)] ratio of 4 or 5.

Understanding the O2 adsorption and oxidative activity on gold-based catalysts is of great significance for gold catalysis. According to the adsorption behaviors of O2 on Au(111)+, 3Au/Au(111)+, Au19+, and Au9/CeO2(111), the electronic nature of why O2 weakly interacts with free positively charged Au substrate while it strongly interacts with Au cluster supported on ceria is well-explained herein. The ceria support serves as an electronic repository, where it gains and stores electrons from the supported metal cluster and releases them when the metal cluster interacts with molecular O2. The possible oxygen species on gold-based catalysts have been systematically confirmed for the first time. On the Au9/CeO2 modeling catalyst, a peroxide species forms when O2 locates at the hollow site of Au9, while a superoxide forms for O2 at the top site of a Ce atom. It is very interesting to find that Ce3+ ion distributions in Aun/CeO2 catalysts have diverse possibilities. The superoxide close to Au9 has the highest o...

The effects of the like-charged proteins bovine serum albumin and hemoglobin on the conformation and compaction of single DNA molecules confined in rectangular nanochannels were investigated with fluorescence microscopy. The channels have lengths of 50 μm and cross-sectional diameters in the range of 80-300 nm. In the wider channels, the DNA molecules are compressed and eventually condense into a compact form with increasing concentration of protein. In the narrow channels, no condensation was observed. The threshold concentration for condensation depends on the channel cross-sectional diameter as well as the ionic strength of the supporting medium. The critical values for full compaction are typically less than one-tenth of a millimolar. In the bulk phase and in the same environmental conditions, no condensation was observed. Anisotropic nanoconfinement hence facilitates compaction of DNA by negatively charged protein. We tentatively interpret this behavior in terms of enhanced depletion interaction between segments of the DNA molecule due to orientation order imposed by the channel walls.