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Graphite carbons have been widely used as catalyst support due to their low‐cost, tunable porous structure, high electrical conductivity, and good resistance to harsh conditions. To date, various defect engineerings have been adopted to enhance the cohesion between graphite carbons and metallic nanocatalysts. Nevertheless, the modification of carbon basal plane has been less explored. In this work, a dual modification strategy is developed to achieve novel carbon support (denoted as NCf) incorporating both C60 units and trace N‐defects. Benefiting from the dual anchoring modes (Ru–C and Ru–N–C), ultrafine ruthenium (Ru) nanoclusters (average size: 2.26 ± 0.38 nm) can be well‐dispersed and robustly anchored on the NCf support. The optimal Ru0.013@NCf catalyst exhibits decent catalytic activities and long‐term stabilities toward both alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and aromatic nitroreduction (ANR), outperforming the individually modified counterparts. Computational studies suggest that introducing both C60 and N‐defects into carbon support leads to electron‐deficient Ru nanocluster, which is critical for not only HER but also ANR. This work thus provides a new guideline for rational design of advanced carbon supported nanocatalysts for multipurpose applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hypochlorous acid (HCIO) was synthesized from seawater by the Pt/WO3 photocatalyst under visible-light irradiation. The effect of WO3 morphology and Pt loading on the performance of the composite photocatalyst for the production of HCIO has been studied in detail. The study found that among the series of materials, hollow WO3 microspheres with a diameter of about 3 μm loaded with 1.0 wt% Pt have the best HCIO production performance. Over it, 14.52 μM of HClO (1.24 mg/L of free chlorine) was accumulated in 0.5 M NaCl solution after 2 h of visible-light photoirradiation. What is more, the concentration of HClO can reach 4.34 μM (0.354 mg/L free chlorine) in natural seawater for 1 h using this Pt/WO3 photocatalyst. Under visible-light irradiation, the Pt/WO3 photocatalyst has a good broad-spectrum antibacterial activity and the activity of inhibiting marine fouling algae. The Pt/WO3 photocatalyst has high stability and reusability. All these characteristics are conducive to the application in the field of marine antifouling. Moreover, the photocatalytic reaction mechanism was evaluated by studying the photoelectrochemical properties of Pt/WO3/FTO. This research provides a new strategy for replacing the traditional electrolytic marine antifouling system with the visible-light-catalyzed HClO production system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adsorption is a common method to treat organic dye pollution in industrial wastewater. Selective adsorption and reuse can greatly reduce the waste of adsorbents. Among the adsorbents of many different materials, the porous polymer microspheres as adsorbents have the characteristics of good adsorption effect, wide application range and large modification space, showing the unique advantages different from the traditional carbon materials. As a new kind of porous polymer material, polyionic liquid porous microspheres have great potential in the field of organic dye adsorption. In this paper, the selective adsorption of anionic organic dyes by a novel monodisperse pyridine polyionic liquid microsphere as an organic dye adsorbent was studied and the adsorption mechanism was studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Near-infrared (NIR) emission materials can be widely applied in various fields, such as food detection, imaging, treatment, electronic products. With the trend of miniaturization of equipment, smaller materials are needed. In this work, we successfully synthesized a series of M2Ga2GeO7:N3+ (M = Ca, Ba, Sr; N = Cr, Nd, Er) samples and then focused on the study of Nd3+ doped Sr2Ga2GeO7 (SGGO). A series of SGGO:xNd3+ sub-micron phosphors were prepared via a microwave-assisted sol–gel process combined with subsequent calcination at 750 ℃, and the structural information and luminescent properties were systematically studied. SGGO is a representative tetragonal crystal and belonging to the space group of P 21m (113). The Nd3+ ions occupy eight-coordinated Sr2+ sites in the crystal lattice. From SEM analysis, the average particle size distribution is 219.7 ± 41.4 nm. The sub-micron phosphors have rich excitation spectra ranging from 350 nm to 850 nm and can produce multiband NIR emissions of 1331, 1056, and 905 nm when excited by ultraviolet and NIR light. The maximum emission intensity was obtained by optimizing the doping ratio of Nd3+ ions. A commercial chip was then utilized to fabricate light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to verify its application potential in NIR-II mini-LEDs. Compared with blue light LEDs, the as-prepared LEDs had good imaging penetration depth and could be clearly observed under 10 mm of chicken breast coverage. The maximum imaging penetration depth can be 33 mm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disulfide (DSF) has been proved good anti-tumor effect and even better with coadministration of Cu2+. In this work, we report the use of hyaluronic acid (HA) based materials to construct vectors for the delivery of both DSF and Cu2+. HA was firstly modified with polyethylene glycol monomethyl ether (mPEG) and polycaprolactone (PCL) to synthesize an amphiphilic polymer (HA-PEG-PCL). DSF could be loaded in the hydrophobic core and Cu2+ could be cooperated to the negative hydrophilic segment. The Cu2+ also played a role as crosslinking agent, which prevented DSF leakage prematurely, avoiding the bad side effects to normal tissues. The interaction between HA and CD44 improved the distribution of nanodrugs in tumor cells. When the nanodrugs were delivered to the cancer cell, the acidic micro-environment would separate the Cu2+ from the surface, leading to the disintegration of the micelles, promoting the release of DSF from the micelle core. The results of in vitro and in vivo experiments showed that the DSF and Cu2+ co-delivery vector constructed in this work could enhance the antitumor effect and have low biological toxicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infectious diseases, such as the coronavirus disease-19, SARS virus, Ebola virus, and AIDS, threaten the health of human beings globally. New viruses, drug-resistant bacteria, and fungi continue to challenge the human efficacious drug bank. Researchers have developed a variety of new antiviral and antibacterial drugs in response to the infectious disease crisis. Meanwhile, the development of functional materials has also improved therapeutic outcomes. As a natural material, chitosan possesses good biocompatibility, bioactivity, and biosafety. It has been proven that the cooperation between chitosan and traditional medicine greatly improves the ability of anti-infection. This review summarized the application and design considerations of chitosan-composed systems for the treatment of infectious diseases, looking forward to providing the idea of infectious disease therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]