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• A general method is developed to improve Sn foil for CO 2 electroreduction. • A renewable and flexible SL-NG@Sn foil is designed for boosting formate production. • An interesting transformation of reaction mechanism is observed at SL-NG@Sn foil. • The SL-NG@Sn foil outperforms other reported Sn nanoparticles-based catalysts. Herein, we develop a general method to stabilize and improve the electrochemical performances of commercial bulk Sn foil by coating single layer nitrogen-doped graphene (SL-NG@Sn foil) for electroreduction of CO 2 to formate. The maximum Faradaic Efficiency (FE) for formate attained by SL-NG@Sn foil is 92.0% at −1.0 V (vs. RHE) in 0.5 M KHCO 3 with high formate partial current density of 21.3 mA cm−2, outperforming other reported Sn nanoparticles-based catalysts. The SL-NG@Sn foil displays good flexibility, which achieve similar performance after folding. It also possesses good renewable ability that can be recycled used after simply washing with water for three usages with FE above 90%. An interesting transformation of reaction mechanism to higher kinetic activity is observed at SL-NG@Sn foil, demonstrating the synergistic effect exists between SL-NG and Sn foil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel and sensitive strategy for procalcitonin (PCT) determination was developed based on zinc nanoparticles-functionalized ordered mesoporous carbon-silica nano-composites (OMCSi-Zn). This strategy combined an effectively designed trace tag and a simple immunosensor. The large amount of OMCSi-Zn materials as label greatly amplified the detection signals for the electrochemical detection of proteins, while the good biocompatibility of graphene-chitosan as sensor matrix retained excellent stability and accelerated electron transfer for the sandwich-type immunoassay. Without metal preconcentration, the zinc nanoparticles loading on the ordered mesoporous carbon-silica nano-composites (OMCSi) could directly be detected through electrochemical voltammetries, while the immunoreaction had a close relationship with the distinct voltammetric peaks. The proposed method exhibited high sensitivity and good stability for PCT detection, possessing an improved linear response range from 0.05 pg/mL to 80 ng/mL, with a detection limit of 0.013 pg/mL (S/N = 3). Moreover, the serum samples from clinic were accurately detected with the proposed method, indicating that the developed immunoassay possessed excellent potential application in clinical diagnostics for PCT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]