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The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is the efficiency-determining half-reaction process of high-demand, electricity-driven water splitting due to its sluggish four-electron transfer reaction. Tremendous effects on developing OER catalysts with high activity and strong acid-tolerance at high oxidation potentials have been made for proton-conducting polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE), which is one of the most promising future hydrogen-fuel-generating technologies. This review presents recent progress in understanding OER mechanisms in PEMWE, including the adsorbate evolution mechanism (AEM) and the lattice-oxygen-mediated mechanism (LOM). We further summarize the latest strategies to improve catalytic performance, such as surface/interface modification, catalytic site coordination construction, and electronic structure regulation of catalytic centers. Finally, challenges and prospective solutions for improving OER performance are proposed.

The use of tetra-substituted ammo aluminum phthalocyanine (TAAIPc) as a new red-region fluorescent substrate for horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was investigated. TAAIPc displayed an excitation maximum at 610 nm and emission maximum at 678 nm in a strong acidic medium. In the presence of HRP, trace amounts of H2O2 could rapidly and significantly react with TAAIPc, thus quenching the fluorescence of TAAIPc. The Michaelis-Menten parameters Km and Vmax were measured to be 2.82 × 10−6 mol/L−1 and 6.0 × 10−9 mol·L−1, respectively. In this paper, TAAIPc was used in an HRP-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) of α-fetoprotein (AFP) in human serum with satisfactory results. AFP could be determined in the concentration range of 0.5–200 ng/mL with a detection limit of 0.2 ng/mL, which was close to that of radioimmunoassay. The advantage of proposed method was strongly minimizing the interference resulting from background fluorescence or scattering light and had a high analytical sensitivity.

A synthetic enzyme‐loading nanotube membrane was developed and used in flow‐injection analysis (FIA) for the first time. The membrane was based on an anodic alumina oxide (AAO) film that has cylindrical pores with monodisperse nanoscopic diameters, and silica nanotubes (SNTs) were chemically synthesized within the pores of this film through sol–gel chemistry. Horseradish peroxidase (HRP) was immobilized on the inner walls of the SNTs. The fabrication and initial testing of a flow‐through membrane reactor design for heterogeneous enzyme reactions were presented and applied to the determination of glucose in real samples. This novel immobilized enzyme membrane reactor possesses some advantages over both open‐tubular and packed‐bed reactors often used in FIA. The present work shows that the membrane containing SNTs offers considerable potential and new perspectives for the use of such nanomaterials.

The preparation and utilization of a novel particulate label based on fluorescent hybrid silica (FHS) nanoparticles are reported in this article. These nanoparticles have shown several unique advantages over existing dye molecules, quantum dots, and latex-based fluorescent particles in easy preparation, good photostability and high sensitivity. A high molar ratio of the fluorescent molecules present in the core to biomolecules on the particle surface was achieved by using the well-developed silica surface immobilization chemistry for biomolecular linking. A fluoroimmunoassay method for detecting trace level Hepatitis B Surface Antigen (HBsAg) was developed. The calibration graph for HBsAg was linear over the range 0.5–220 ng/ml with a detection limit of 0.1 ng/ml. The sensitivity is greatly increased when compared with the corresponding immunoassay performed with direct fluorophore labeling. The present work shows that these FHS nanoparticles are high-quality markers for biochemical assays.

Sol-gel-derived mesoporous biomaterials were used for the first time in the flow-injection fluorescence immunoassay system. Anti-gentamicin antibody was immobilized in a mesoporous sol-gel material using tetramethoxysilane as a precursor and poly(ethylene glycol) as a template. The sol-gel glass was used to develop an immunoaffinity column for the flow-injection immunoassay of gentamicin. Little unspecific adsorption of gentamicin on the sol-gel and no antibody leaching under harsh elution conditions were found. The immunoassay is based on the competition between gentamicin and fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled gentamicin for a limited number of encapsulated antibody binding sites. NaOH solution of 5×10 −3 mol / L is used for the regeneration of encapsulated antibody binding sites after each measurement, which allows the immunoreactor to be used for up to 20 times without any loss of reactivity. Sample preconcentration is not needed and a single assay can be performed within 10 min. The calibration for gentamicin has a working range of 250–5000 ng/mL with a detection limit of 200 ng/mL, which is close to that of the fluorescence immunoassay and fluorescence polarization immunoassay using the same reactants. Comparison of the results from this method with that obtained from HPLC showed an excellent correlation.

Nanometer-sized fluorescent hybrid silica (NFHS) particles were prepared for use as sensitive and photostable fluorescent probes in biological staining and diagnostics. The first step of the synthesis involves the covalent modification of 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane with an organic fluorophore, such as fluorescein isothiocyanate, under N2 atmosphere for getting a fluorescent silica precursor. Then the NFHS particles, with a diameter of well below 40 nm, were prepared by controlled hydrolysis of the fluorescent silica precursor with tetramethoxysilane (TMOS) using the reverse micelle technique. The fluorophores are dispersed homogeneously in the silica network of the NFHS particles and well protected from the environmental oxygen. Furthermore, since the fluorophores are covalently bound to the silica network, there is no migration, aggregation and leakage of the fluorophores. In comparison with common single organic fluorophores, these particle probes are brighter, more stable against photobleaching and do not suffer from intermittent on/off light emission (blinking). We have used these newly developed NFHS particles as a fluorescent marker to label antibodies, using silica immobilization method, for the immunoassay of human alpha-fetoprotein (AFP). The detection limit of this method was down to 0.05 ng mL(-1) under our current experimental conditions. We think this material would attract much attention and be applied widely in biotechnology.