Search

Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) are attractive for the easy operation and high compatibility with building integrated photovoltaics due to their low cost, large-scale and applicability. However, underutilized sunlight in visible wavelengths often impedes the advance of LSCs. Here, we demonstrate an orange-emitting carbon nanodots-based LSC (O-CDs) with excitation concentrated in the visible wavelengths. The orange-emitting carbon nanodots (O-CDs) with highly localized excitonic emission are prepared via atomic condensation of doped pyrrolic nitrogen, delivering a high photoluminescence quantum yield of 80 % and a suitable Stokes shift with absorption spectrum situated in the visible region. The O-CDs are embedded in polyvinylpyrrolidone to obtain a highly transparent, stable and environmentally friendly O-CDs-based LSC. Thanks to efficient utilization of solar radiation in visible areas and well match between the emission of O-CDs and the response bands of photovoltaic cells, the O-CDs-based LSC reveals an optical conversion efficiency of 5.17 %, superior to that of most carbon nanodots-based LSCs. These results provide an effective strategy to develop carbon-based luminescent concentrated materials for architectural integrated photovoltaic technology.

As one promising carbon‐based material, sp3‐hybrid carbon nitride has been predicted with various novel physicochemical properties. However, the synthesis of sp3‐hybrid carbon nitride is still limited by the nanaoscale, low crystallinity, complex source, and expensive instruments. Herein, we have presented a facile approach to the sp3‐hybrid carbon nitride nano/micro‐crystals with microwave‐assisted confining growth and liquid exfoliation. Actually, the carbon nitride nano/micro‐crystals can spontaneously emerge and grow in the microwave‐assisted polymerization of citric acid and urea, and the liquid exfoliation can break the bulk disorder polymer to retrieve the highly crystalline carbon nitride nano/micro‐crystals. The obtained carbon nitride nano/micro‐crystals present superior blue light absorption strength and surprising photoluminescence quantum yields of 57.96% in ethanol and 18.05% in solid state. The experimental characterizations and density functional theory calculations reveal that the interface‐trapped localized exciton may contribute to the excellent intrinsic light emission capability of carbon nitride nano/micro‐crystals and the interparticle staggered stacking will prevent the aggregation‐caused‐quenching partially. Finally, the carbon nitride nano/micro‐crystals are demonstrated to be potentially useful as the phosphor medium in light‐emitting‐diode for interrupting blue light‐induced eye damage. This work paves new light on the synthesis strategy of sp3‐hybrid carbon nitride materials and thus may push forward the development of multiple carbon nitride research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon dots (CDs) have attracted much attention because of their unique structures and fascinating optical properties. In recent years, multicolor CDs have been realized through the efforts of researchers. However, it remains a challenge to obtain CDs with photoluminescence (PL)-afterglow dual-mode white emission, which limits the application of CDs in the field of light emitting diodes (LEDs). Herein, an effective strategy is designed to prepare both white PL and afterglow CDs (w-CDs), which is to combine (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES) and orange fluorescence CDs (o-CDs) as precursors through a hydrothermal reaction. During the synthesis of w-CDs, blue room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) CDs (b-CDs) formed using APTES were used as donors and o-CDs as acceptors. Depending on triplet-to-singlet Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET), dual-mode white light CDs with Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage (CIE) coordinates of (0.37, 0.37) for PL and (0.33, 0.37) for afterglow, and a PL quantum yield (PLQY) of 32.44% were successfully prepared. Importantly, by changing the ratio of o-CDs to b-CDs, the color temperature of the white afterglow can be easily adjusted from cold white to warm white. In addition, w-CDs have been successfully used in the fabrication of white LEDs (WLEDs) and dynamic displays, and can be applied to time-delay illumination and afterglow display. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Apicomplexan parasites possess several specialized structures to invade their host cells and replicate successfully. One of these is the inner membrane complex (IMC), a peripheral membrane-cytoskeletal system underneath the plasma membrane. It is composed of a series of flattened, membrane-bound vesicles and a cytoskeletal subpellicular network (SPN) comprised of intermediate filament-like proteins called alveolins. While the alveolin proteins are conserved throughout the Apicomplexa and the broader Alveolata, their precise functions and interactions remain poorly understood. Here, we describe the function of one of these alveolin proteins in Toxoplasma, IMC6. Disruption of IMC6 resulted in striking morphological defects that led to aberrant invasion and replication but surprisingly minor effects on motility. Deletion analyses revealed that the alveolin domain alone is largely sufficient to restore localization and partially sufficient for function. As this highlights the importance of the IMC6 alveolin domain, we implemented unnatural amino acid photoreactive crosslinking to the alveolin domain and identified multiple binding interfaces between IMC6 and 2 other cytoskeletal IMC proteins—IMC3 and ILP1. This provides direct evidence of protein–protein interactions in the alveolin domain and supports the long-held hypothesis that the alveolin domain is responsible for filament formation. Collectively, our study features the conserved alveolin proteins as critical components that maintain the parasite's structural integrity and highlights the alveolin domain as a key mediator of SPN architecture. Picomplexan parasites require specialized structures like the inner membrane complex to invade host cells and replicate. This study shows that the alveolin protein IMC6 is crucial for maintaining cellular morphology, invasion and successful replication in Toxoplasma gondii. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Methods Results Conclusion Identifying the origin of nonpulmonary vein atrial fibrillation (AF) triggers (NPVTs) after pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) can be challenging. We aimed to determine if noninvasive electrocardiographic imaging (ECGi) could localize pacing from common NPVT sites. ECGi combines measured body surface potentials with heart‐torso geometry acquired from computed tomography (CT) to generate an activation map.In 12 patients with AF undergoing first time ablation, the ECGi vest was fitted for preprocedural CT scan and worn during the procedure. After PVI, we performed steady‐state pacing from 15 typical anatomic NPVT sites at a cycle length of 700–800 ms. We co‐registered the invasive anatomic map with the CT‐based ECGi epicardial activation map to compare ECGi predicted to true pacing origin.In the study cohort (67% male, 58% persistent AF, and 67% with left atrial dilation), 148 (82%) pacing sites had both capture and adequate anatomy acquired from the three‐dimensional mapping system to co‐register with ECGi activation map. Median distance between true pacing sites and point of earliest epicardial activation derived from the ECGi maps for all sites was 17 mm (interquartile range, 10–22 mm). Assuming paced sites treated as regions with a radius of 2.5 cm, the earliest activation site on ECGi map falls within the region with 94% accuracy.ECGi can approximate the origin of paced beats from common NPVT sites to within a median distance of 17 mm. A rapidly identified region may then be the focus of more detailed catheter‐based mapping techniques to facilitate successful localization and ablation of NPVTs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is an important product generated in the body and related to many pathophysiological processes and glucose metabolism disorder can cause many fatal diseases in living bodies. Therefore, the sensing of H2O2 and glucose is of great significance in disease diagnostics and treatment. Fluorescent carbon dots (CDs) are one new class of nanoprobes for H2O2 and glucose. Nevertheless, the CD-based sensor is always based on its fluorescence response, which is influenced by the auto-fluorescent interference. Herein, efficient fluorescent CDs were synthesized by one-pot solvothermal method, and the CDs exhibit bright and persistent deep-red (DR) chemiluminescence (CL) in bis(2,4,6-trichlorophenyl) oxalate and H2O2 solution with a CL quantum yield of (8.22 ± 0.30) × 10−3, which is amongst the highest values in ever reported nanomaterials for chemical analysis. Employing the CDs as CL nanoprobes, sensitive sensing for H2O2 has been achieved with a detection limit of 11.7 μM, and further for glucose detection with a detection limit of 12.6 μM. The DR CL CDs is promising to be applied in blood glucose analysis or in vivo biosensor.