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Usually, the octet rule determines whether an elemental 2D material can only be set by one of the elements in groups IIIA–VA, whose outmost electrons can form hybridized orbits from an s-wave and a p-wave. The hybridized orbits can accommodate all of the outermost electrons and form robust σ bonds. As for the elements in VIA–VIIA, the outermost electrons seem too abundant to be accommodated in hybridized orbits. Here, we show a spd2 hybridization rule, accommodating all of the outermost electrons of halogen elements. Each atom can be connected to a contiguous atom by a robust σ bond and carries one dangling unpaired electron, implying that the formation of a π bond is possible. One iodine atomic layer can be robustly locked by the σ bond, forming an iodiene sheet by spd2 hybridized orbits. With application of compression strain, the π bond forms, and further compression drives the band inversion successively at the valence band and the conduction band. The appearance of Dirac points (arc or hoop) suggests that the transformation of a normal semimetal into a Dirac semimetal occurs.

Nanosheets with mesopores on the surface have been prepared using molybdenum trioxide (α-MoO3). The effect of mesopores on the performance of the electrode remains elusive. The MoO3 nanosheets obtained in this study exhibited great battery performance, including good capacity, prolonged recycling life cycles, and excellent rate performance; e.g., 780 mAh/g when charged under a super high current-density of 1000 mA/g. These nanosheets demonstrated excellent stability, maintaining a capacity of 1189 mAh/g after 20 cycles, and 1075 mAh/g after 50 cycles; thus preventing the capacity to decrease to values under the scanning rate of 100 mA/g. These high-purity MoO3 nanosheets are well-ordered and have dense mesopores on the surface; these micropores contribute to the excellent electrode performance of the host electrode materials; the performance parameters include prolonged battery life and capacity. Setting mesopores or active sites on the electrode surface can be an alternative way to obtain stable electrodes in the future.

As a respiratory disease with high morbidity and mortality, pulmonary fibrosis (PF) has been a serious threat to people’s health. Hederagenin (HDG) is a pentacyclic triterpenoid saponin widely distributed in various plants. This study explored the role of HDG in Bleomycin (BLM)-induced PF and the molecular mechanism. The results showed that HDG reduced BLM-induced pulmonary dysfunction, pathological damage in a dose-dependent manner. Besides, HDG reduced BLM-induced collagen deposition by decreasing the levels of α-SMA, Collagen I and hydroxproline. Furthermore, HDG reduced the levels of inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α and IL-6), TGF-β1 and connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) or serum. Further mechanism analysis indicated that HDG inhibited the expression of Ras and phosphorylation of JNK and NFAT4 in a dose-dependent manner. However, the JNK pathway activator Anisomycin reversed this inhibitory effect. In conclusion, these findings suggest that HDG may be a potential target drug for PF therapy.

Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies worldwide, while the luminal types (ERα positive) accounts for two third of all breast cancer cases. Although ERα positive breast cancer could be effective controlled by endocrine therapy, most of the patients will develop endocrine resistance, which becomes a headache clinical issue for breast cancer field. Endocrine resistance could be caused by multiple pathway disorders, the dys-regulation of ERα signaling might be a critical factor, which makes it urgent and important to reveal the potential molecular mechanism of ERα signaling. In our current study, we identified a new deubiquitination enzyme USP1 through screening the whole DUB (Deubiquitinases) siRNA library. The expression of USP1 is elevated in human breast cancer compared with normal mammary tissues. Importantly, USP1 expression levels are specially correlated with poor survival in ERα positive patients. USP1 depletion inhibited breast cancer cell progression and ERα signaling activity. Immuno-precipitation assays indicate that USP1 associates with ERα and promotes its stability possibly via inhibiting ERα K48-linked poly-ubiquitination. In conclusion, our data implicate a non-genomic mechanism by USP1 via stabilizing ERα protein controls ERα target gene expression linked to breast cancer progression.

BackgroundBreast cancer is the most common women malignancy worldwide, while estrogen receptor alpha positive type accounts for two third of all breast cancers. Although ER alpha positive breast cancer could be effectively controlled by endocrine therapy, more than half of the cases could develop endocrine resistance, making it an important clinical issue in breast cancer treatment. Thus, decoding the detailed mechanism, which controls ER alpha signaling activation and ER alpha protein stability, is of great importance for the improvement of breast cancer therapy. Several zinc finger proteins were shown to mediate the ubiquitination process and modulate protein stability. Thus, we further explore the function of Zinc finger protein 213 on ER alpha protein stability and tamoxifen resistance.MethodsCCK8 and Edu assay was used to measure cell proliferation. RNA sequence was performed by Ingenuity pathway analysis. The ER alpha signaling activities were measured with luciferase assay, real-time quantitative PCR, and western blotting. Protein stability assay and ubiquitin assay were used to determine ER alpha protein degradation and ubiquitination. The immuno-precipitation was utilized to determine ER alpha and ZNF213 interaction. The ubiquitin-based immuno-precipitation assay was sued to detect specific ubiquitination manner on ER alpha.ResultsWe identified ZNF213 as a novel zinc finger protein, which modulated ER alpha protein. ZNF213 expression correlated with poor outcome in endocrine treated patients. ZNF213 depletion inhibited ER alpha signaling and proliferation in breast cancer cells. Further mechanistic studies showed ZNF213 located in cytosol and nuclear, which modulated ER alpha stability via inhibiting ER alpha K48-linked ubiquitination.ConclusionsOur study reveals an interesting post-translational mechanism between ER alpha and ZNF213 in breast cancer. Targeting ZNF213 could be an appealing strategy for ER alpha positive breast cancer.

It is essential to develop high-performance hydrogen evolution reaction catalysts. Reducing the amount of precious metals is an effective approach to replace Pt-based catalyst. Here, an electrocatalyst of metallic iridium anchored on mesoporous carbon nanofibers (Ir-mCNFs) is reported. After optimized the nanostructure (pore-forming agent content) of Ir-mCNFs, at the current density of 10 mA cm-2, the overpotential reaches 28 and 39 mV in alkaline and acid medium. Moreover, the content of Ir in this catalyst is just around 6 wt%. In conclusion, this paper reports an effective precious metal based HER catalysts with a lower amount of rare metals.

The crosstalk between the estrogen receptor (ER) and NF-κB signalling pathways has merged in vertebrates and plays a key role in the control of genes involved in inflammation, cell proliferation and apoptosis. However, such crosstalk between the endocrine and immune systems needs to be explored in lower invertebrates. In this study, we identified a 2856-bp homologue of the estrogen receptor from Hong Kong oyster (ChER), containing a 5' untranslated region (UTR) of 234 bp, a 3' UTR of 387 bp, and an open reading frame (ORF) of 2235 bp. We observed that overexpression of ChER suppressed ChRel-dependent NF-kappaB (NF-κB) activation in the HEK293T (human embryonic kidney 293T) cell line, and depletion of ChER in vivo resulted in upregulation of two NF-κB-responsive marker genes, namely, TNF-α and IL-17, which confirmed its potential role in controlling NF-κB signalling. Furthermore, an EMSA (electrophoretic mobility shift assay) showed that ChER could negatively regulate the binding of ChRel to NF-κB probe-responsive elements. Serial domain requirement analysis showed that both region C (DNA-binding domain) and region E (ligand-binding domain) of ChER were essential for mediating the crosstalk underlying ChER-dependent NF-κB suppression. In conclusion, we demonstrate for the first time the negative regulatory role of the ER in NF-κB signalling in oysters, strongly indicating the presence of complex crosstalk between the endocrine and immune systems in lower marine molluscs.

Objective. Physical activity plays a specific role in the fundamental aspect of diabetes care. It is necessary to develop exercise programs for these patients. The aim of this systematic review is to summarize current evidence regarding the effectiveness of meditative movement in patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods. The following databases were searched: PubMed, CENTRAL, Web of Science, Ovid LWW, and EMBASE. Two independent investigators searched and screened the studies by finding duplications, excluding irrelevant titles and abstracts, and then selecting eligible studies by reviewing full texts. 21 studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Meta-analyses were performed on glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), fasting blood glucose (FBG) and postprandial blood glucose (PPBG), total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and body mass index (BMI). Results. Meta-analyses showed that meditative movements significantly improved FBG, HbA1c, PPBG, TC, LDL-C, and HDL-C. No improvement was found in BMI. Conclusions. The results demonstrated a favorable effect or tendency of meditative movements to improve blood glucose and blood lipid levels in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. The special effects of meditative movements in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients need further research.

Recently, the moire superlattice structure (MSS) has garnered increasing attention thanks to its extensive research potential in condensed matter physics. However, how to create MSSs on non-van der Waals crystal plates is still elusive. In the present study, we propose a new method to prepare MSSs on the MoO2 (010) surface by soaking MoO2 in sulfur vapour at high temperature. MoO2 is 2D non-layered materials and is prepared by annealing MoO3 with sulfur vapour at 500 °C. The torsional modulation between two stacked monolayers is periodic, which provides additional freedom to change the material properties. Under sulfur vapour, the surface atoms of MoO2 first change from monoclinic to tetragonal crystals, and the interlayer covalent bonds are broken at the same time. Then, the top layer and buffer layer atoms of MoO2 form the original MSS, and the top layer continue to rotate into different twisted angles. Our work provides some inspiration and reference to the preparation of MSSs on the surface of the other 2D non-van der Waals crystals. In addition, we further compared the wettability of MSS@MoO2 and ordinary MoO2 powder. The results show that the surface of MSS@MoO2 is strongly hydrophobic (approximately 140°), while that of ordinary MoO2 is superhydrophilic (4.3°). Our results suggest that MSSs may be a potential application to change the surface wettability of materials.

Chloride channel-3 (ClC-3), a member of the ClC family of voltage-gated Cl- channels, is involved in the resistance of tumor cells to chemotherapeutic drugs. Here, we report a new mechanism for ClC-3 in mediating multidrug resistance (MDR). ClC-3 was highly expressed in the P-glycoprotein (P-gp)-dependent human lung adenocarcinoma cell line (A549)/paclitaxel (PTX) and the human breast carcinoma cell line (MCF-7)/doxorubicin (DOX) resistant cells. Changes in the ClC-3 expression resulted in the development of drug resistance in formerly drug-sensitive A549 or MCF-7 cells, and drug sensitivity in formerly drug-resistant A549/Taxol and MCF-7/DOX cells. Double transgenic MMTV-PyMT/CLCN3 mice with spontaneous mammary cancer and ClC-3 overexpression demonstrated drug resistance to PTX and DOX. ClC-3 expression upregulated the expression of MDR1 messenger RNA and P-gp by activating the nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB)-signaling pathway. These data suggest that ClC-3 expression in cancer cells induces MDR by upregulating NF-κB-signaling-dependent P-gp expression involving another new mechanism for ClC-3 in the development of drug resistance of cancers.

Whether mitochondrial remodeling and metabolic reprogramming occur during the differentiation of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) to definitive endoderm (DE) is unknown. We found that fragmented and punctate mitochondria in undifferentiated hESCs progressively fused into an extensive and branched network upon DE differentiation. Mitochondrial mass and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) content were significantly increased with the upregulated expression of mitochondrial biogenesis regulator PGC1-A upon DE differentiation, accompanied by the rise of the amount of ATP (2.5-fold) and its by-product reactive oxygen species (2.0-fold). We observed that in contrast to a shutoff of glycolysis, expressions of oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) genes were increased, indicating that a transition from glycolysis to OXPHOS was tightly coupled to DE differentiation. In the meantime, we discovered that inhibition of TGF-β signaling led to impaired mitochondrial biogenesis and disturbed metabolic switch upon DE differentiation. Our work, for the first time, reports that TGF-β signaling-dependent mitochondrial biogenesis and metabolic reprogramming occur during early endodermal differentiation.

A homogeneous better-dispersed ultrathin nanosheets (ca. 5 nm) of cobalt-nickel layered double hydroxides (LDH) supported on nickel foam scaffold was synthesized using controllable electrodeposition approach for high efficiency electrode materials of new supercapacitor. The morphology and electrochemical performances of the samples can be controlled by adjusting the precursor ratio, i.e., Ni(OAc)2/Co(NO3)2 molar ratio in the electrodeposition approach. With the increase of this molar ratio, the electrochemical performances give a volcano trend. When the optimized molar ratio is 0.64/0.36, the hybrid delivered a high specific capacitance of 1587.5 F g−1 at a current density of 0.5 A g−1, with good rate capability (1155 F g−1 was retained even at 10 A g−1) and a robust recycle stability (remaining 91.5% after 1000 cycles at 5 A g−1). The good performance could be attributed to the enlarged interlayer spacing, ultrathin nanosheets and synergistic effects between Co(OH)2 and Ni(OH)2. Furthermore, an asymmetric supercapacitor with a high energy density of 34.5 Wh kg−1 at 425 W kg−1 and excellent cycling stability of 85.4% after 5000 charge-discharge cycles at 2 A g−1 was fabricated. We believe that this fantabulous new electrode material would have encouraging applications in electrochemical energy storage and a wide readership.

High-density liquid (HDL) silicon can be converted via annealing in hydrogen into low-density liquid (LDL), surviving due to hydrogen protection. Amorphous silicon (a-Si) spheres on a wafer scale were achieved via an underlying transition from LDL silicon. The amorphous spheres were protected from crystallization due to the presence of hydrogen gas.

A series of Pd/TiO2 catalysts were prepared by incipient wetness impregnation method followed by atmospheric discharge plasma treatment. In order to study the influences of plasma treatment on the catalysts, the samples were characterized by XRD, TPR, TPD, XPS and TEM technologies. It was found that the plasma treatment catalysts possessed a higher acetylene conversion and ethylene selectivity compared to those of the untreated sample. The enhanced performance of the plasma treated catalyst was mainly dependent on two main effects. On one hand, the treated catalyst possessed a higher metal Pd dispersion, which resulted in the easier activation of acetylene. On the other hand, the surface electron density of metal Pd on the treated catalyst got enhanced compared to that of untreated sample, because of the stronger interaction between TiO2 support and metallic Pd, helping the more desorption of ethylene species from the surface of catalyst.

The porous silicon carbide (β-SiC) carrier supported nickel-lanthanum based catalysts (NiLa/SiC) were synthesized via incipient-wetness impregnation by using two types of nickel salts as the precursor, for the selective hydrogenation of carbon dioxide (CO2+4H2→CH4+2H2O). The alumina supported catalysts were also prepared and tested for comparison. The samples were characterized using TEM, TPR, XRD, SEM, TG-DTG techniques. Compared to the Al2O3 supported catalysts, the SiC supported catalysts were more resistant to sintering and carbon deposition due to the high thermal conductivity of SiC support. The relative weak metal-support interaction on Ni nanoparticles supported on SiC carrier resulted in the easy reduction of active species during the activation process. Meanwhile, the performances of the catalysts prepared from nickel acetate were better than those of using nickel nitrate, while enhanced nickel dispersion and better reducibility of the catalyst from nickel acetate werr evidenced by TEM, TPR and XRD results. Catalytic performances exhibited that Ni−Ac-La/SiC catalyst possessed the higher activity with 89.4 % conversion of CO2 and almost 100 % selectivity to methane with slight deactivation after 3000 min test under reaction conditions.

High quality molybdenum dioxide plates are engineered as templates for epitaxial growth of well-defined MoS2 nanoribbons (MNRs). The obtained MNRs possess prominent ferromagnetism, suggesting edge zigzag topologies. Our findings have opened an alternative route to large-scale synthesis of well-defined 1D materials.

It is increasingly appreciated that neuroendocrine-immune interactions hold the key to understand the complex immune system. In this study, we explored the role of a reproductive regulation-related hormone, GnRH, in the regulation of immunity in Hong Kong oysters. We found that vibrio bacterial strains injection increased the expression of ChGnRH. Moreover, ChGnRH neuropeptide promotes the phagocytic ability and bacterial clearance effect of hemocytes which regarded to be the central immune organ. The content of cAMP after incubation with ChGnRH peptide was increased, which could be blocked by adenylyl cyclase inhibitor SQ 22,536. Furthermore, the stimulated effect of ChGnRH peptide on the phagocytosis and bacterial clearance was also blocked by SQ 22,536, H89 and enzastaurin, strongly demonstrating that cAMP dependent PKA and PKC signaling pathway was involved in ChGnRH mediated immune regulation. In conclusion, this study confirms the presence of neuroendocrine-immune regulatory system in marine invertebrates, which contributes to understand the complexity of oyster immune defense system.

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have wide applications towards electronic devices, energy storages, and catalysis, et al. So far, most of the pure element 2D materials are composed of group IIIA,IVA, and VA elements. Beyond the scope, the orbit hybrid configuration becomes a key fact to influence 2D structure stably. Here we show a sp2d3 hybridization in the outmost electrons with O-shell for Iodine and P-shell for astatine element, builds up triangle configuration (beta-type) to form 2D structures beta-iodiene and beta-astatiene. Each atom is connected by pi bonds, and surrounded by 6 atoms. The pi bonds become possible, and band gap approaches zero because of interaction of unpaired single electron to each atom, depending on reducing bond length. By applying compression strain or spin orbit coupling (SOC), the Dirac points or topological nontrivial points can be available in the beta-iodiene and beta-astatiene. Our discovery has paved a new way to construction of 2D materials., 21 pages,29 figures

The defects in perovskite crystals and the penetration of moisture/oxygen into the perovskite layer are major problems for perovskite solar cells (PSCs) to achieve long-term stability and high power conversion efficiency (PCE). However, there is still a lack of multifunctional passivation materials to solve these problems. Herein, for the first time, we report oleyl amine-coated PbSO4(PbO)4 quantum-dots (QDs), as a passivation material with dual functions to simultaneously passivate the surface defects and block the penetration of moisture/oxygen into the perovskite layer for stable and efficient PSCs. The PbSO4(PbO)4 QDs significantly reduce the defect density of the as-prepared CH3NH3PbI3 films by passivating under-coordinated Pb ions and I anions and effectively enhance charge extraction efficiency at the TiO2/CH3NH3PbI3 and CH3NH3PbI3/spiro-OMeTAD interfaces. Moreover, the hydrogen bond between H atoms of the OA and I atoms of the perovskite and the interface electric field at CH3NH3PbI3/OA interface also contribute to the improvement of efficiency and stability of PSCs. Finally, higher PCE (20.02%) is achieved by the PSCs with OA-coated PbSO4(PbO)4 QDs compared to that (16.86%) of the PSCs without OA-coated PbSO4(PbO)4, corresponding to a 18.7% enhancement. Moreover, the PSCs with OA-coated PbSO4(PbO)4 QDs maintain 90% of initial efficiency after operation for 280 h, indicating better stability than the PSCs without PbSO4(PbO)4 QDs.

Rocksalt CoO nanoparticles (CNPs) have been prepared with a facile solvothermal method. To control the magnetism of CNPs, the reduced graphene oxide (RGO) is adopted to engineer the CNPs. Enwrapped by the atomic-layered carbon sheets, the CNPs can be reduced locally. The CoO/RGO composites were prepared by one-pot and two-pot synthetic methods, respectively. Compared with the CoO/RGO raw composite that have no magnetization hysteresis loop, the weak and the strong hysteresis loops emerged successively via heating the particles at different temperatures and maintaining their nanoscales. The magnetism can be adjusted by controlling the temperature via two routes. By the one-pot synthetic route, the CNPs can be reduced sharply, and an obvious hysteresis is available around 400 °C, which is ascribed to the appearance of Co nanoclusters decorated in the corners of CNPs. By the two-pot synthetic route, a weak and gradually enhanced hysteresis can be observed, and its magnetic properties should be ascribed to th...

An induction levitation melting (ILM) refining process is performed to remove most microsized inclusions in ultra-low carbon steel (UCS). Nanosized, spheroid shaped sulfide precipitates remain dispersed in the UCS. During the ILM process, the UCS is molten and is rotated under an upward magnetic field. With the addition of Ti additives, the spinning molten steel under the upward magnetic field ejects particles because of resultant centrifugal, floating, and magnetic forces. Magnetic force plays a key role in removing sub-micrometer-sized particles, composed of porous aluminum titanate enwrapping alumina nuclei. Consequently, sulfide precipitates with sizes less than 50 nm remain dispersed in the steel matrix. These findings open a path to the fabrication of clean steel or steel bearing only a nanosized strengthening phase.

Graphene is usually adopted as an assistant additive for catalysts in photocatalytic processes, because of its ability to accelerate the separation of photogenerated charge carriers. To elucidate the mechanism, hydrogen peroxide is adopted to convert the O2(-)˙ active species into OH˙ for degradation of an organic dye. If the pH value is less than 7, the concentration of the OH˙ species can be reduced more quickly with the addition of graphene than without, because negatively charged electrons can be transported quickly on graphene. If the pH value is larger than 7, the concentration of OH˙ can be promoted by the catalyst SiC with photogenerated h(+) release and reaction with OH(-), however the concentration is reduced if the SiC catalyst is covered by a graphene sheet, as it retards h(+) release from the SiC substrate. Our findings have provided a certification for the role of graphene in photo-catalytic processes.

A novel approach to fabricate hierarchical porous carbonaceous microparticles (HPCMs) by electron irradiation of polystyrene (PS) colloidal crystals followed by annealing is presented. Electron irradiation transforms PS spheres into hydrogenated amorphous carbon and post-annealing further graphitizes the irradiated PS. Colloidal crystals consist of regularly ordered mesopores and electron irradiation and post-annealing create new micropores on the surfaces of PS spheres. Consequently, PS colloidal crystals were transformed into carbonaceous materials comprising mesopores and micropores. Through mechanically grinding the colloidal crystals, HPCMs are fabricated. Due to comparatively high surface areas and graphitic structures, the HPCMs exhibit moderate adsorption properties for methyl orange in an aqueous solution.

Growth of epitaxial graphene (EG) on silicon carbide (SiC) is regarded as one of the most effective routes to high-quality graphene towards practical applicability. We try to build up a model to illuminate the nucleation process of EG on SiC by thermal decomposition. The model is derived from some experimental results and discloses that surface diffusion plays an important role in the nucleation. For the chemical vapor deposition process used, the organic gas as carbon precursor enables carbon deposition quickly for supporting the growth of high-quality graphene via vapor transformation, so that the nucleated and final graphene becomes almost stress-free and mimics the free-standing graphene. Our findings have a potential in preparing high-quality graphene by controlling the nucleation conditions.

Recently, controlled growth of branched hierarchical crystals has been the focus of intensive research for their novel properties and potential applications. The key to synthesizing the branched nanostructures is to induce and control secondary nucleation on primary crystals. The metal catalysts and organic structure-directing agents are mainly utilized to induce the secondary nucleation and branch growth, however, nucleation sites are usually random because the metal catalysts and capping agents have been not controlled to deposit or etch on the expected facets of primary crystals. In this paper, we report that varying the ratio of oxygen to tin vapor in reaction can tune the growth rate of SnO2 along different directions in a vapor-solid (VS) process to alter the growth habit. By this new shape-controlled way, we can first control the synthesis of quasi-hexagonal primary microrods like SnO2 and then facet-selectively grow secondary nanobranches on them without use of any catalyst or surface modification...

Hollow and porous nanostructures have attracted a great deal of attention because of their widespread potential applications, and nanostructures with tunable size are desirable to optimize their properties. Therefore, simple and high yield methods for preparation of nanostructures with tunable sizes have been regarded as pursuing objects. Herein, we report a novel simple method for large scale synthesis of porous ZnO hollow structures with tunable diameters and shell thicknesses. The novel synthesis strategy involves oxidizing Zn spheres and polyhedrons in solid state to form a thin ZnO layer on the surface under low temperature, followed by removal of the Zn cores upon heating. Noticeably, not only can the diameter and shell thickness be respectively tuned, but also the shell thickness can be also easily controlled because of its slow oxidation rate in a solid-phase diffusion process under low temperature. It is obvious that this novel simple method involved here can readily be extended to other metal oxide systems.

A novel one-step sonochemical approach to synthesize a plasmonic photocatalyst of AgCl nanocubes (ca. 115 nm in edge length) with a small amount of Ag metal species is presented. The nanoscale Ag/AgCl hybrid photocatalysts with cubic morphology are readily formed under ambient ultrasonic conditions and neither external heat treatment nor reducing agents are required. The size of the Ag/AgCl photocatalysts could be controlled by changing the concentrations of Ag(+) ions and polyvinylpyrrolidone molecules in precursor solutions. The compositions, microstructures, influencing factors, and possible growth mechanism of the Ag/AgCl hybrid nanocubes were systematically investigated. The Ag/AgCl photocatalysts show excellent photocatalytic performance for degradation of various dye molecules under visible light.

In this work, we demonstrate a simple gas-phase process to synthesize ZnO with exposed reactive {0001} facets without the use of any capping agent. The method is based on controlling the ZnO growth direction, causing it to switch from the typical [0001] to [100], resulting in [100] grown nanowhiskers with exposed reactive {0001} facets. Moreover, these nanowhiskers self-assemble on ZnO hollow spheres to form a three-dimensional hierarchical nanostructure, which stabilizes these nanowhiskers against agglomeration. Such a designed ZnO nanostructure endows the ZnO sensing material with both small crystal sizes and exposed reactive {0001} facets, which leads to greatly enhanced gas sensitivities compared to typical [0001] grown ZnO nanowires. Such reactive-facet-enhanced gas sensitivity is also shown by our calculation of the chemisorption energy of oxygen, based on density functional theory.

Controlled sublimation of silicon on a SiC surface based on pulsed electron irradiation (PEI) is presented as an effective route to quality graphene. The PEI allows us to obtain graphene in millimetre-scale within three monolayers, and is a potential candidate for preparing high quality large graphene with controlled layers.