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It is widely recognized that hybrid (organic/inorganic) light emitting diodes (LEDs) are of concern because they use an organic material instead of rare earth phosphors, but extending their lifetime remains challenging. To construct organic luminescent material with high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY), a compound named 1-(4-(tert-butyl)phenyl)-2-(4′-(1-phenyl-1H-benzo[d]imidazol-2-yl)-[1,1′-biphenyl]-4-yl)-1H-phenanthro[9,10-d]imidazole (TPBI-BPI) was synthesized by connect two imidazoles units. The PLQY of TPBI-BPI is 0.97 in acetonitrile. The white light emission (WLE) of TPBI-BPI in ethyl acetate solution containing acetic acid was observed, and a solvent-type organic/inorganic hybrid white LED device based on TPBI-BPI was prepared. The luminance efficiency, external quantum efficiency, correlated color temperature, K, and Ra (color rendering index) of the solvent-type WLED are 21.71 lm/W, 12.76%, 6329, and 83.2 at 39.90 mA, respectively. The Commission Internationale de l´Eclairage coordinate of the solvent-type WLED is (0.3135, 0.3507). In addition, the lifetime (T70) of the device can reach 130 h. This is due to the excited state intermolecular proton transfer between TPBI-BPI and acetic acid in ethyl acetate solution after UV illumination. This enables TPBI-BPI to obtain WLE and makes the WLED spectrally stable due to this process's dissipation of UV energy. This work provides a strategy to extend the lifetime of a hybrid LED.

Objective: Liver cancer (LC) is a frequently occurring lethal malignancy worldwide, yet the molecular mechanisms of carcinogenesis and their development remain uncharacterized. In this study, bioinformatics methods were used to find candidate hub genes for prognosis assessment and clinical treatment of LC. Methods: Differential analysis was carried out based on the evidence of gene expression profiling in LC on The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were constructed into co-expression networks and divided into modules by virtue of weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA). Based on the Gene Ontology (GO) and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), the module genes were subjected to functional enrichment analysis. The LC microarray (GSE105130) in the Gene Expression Omnibus was selected to verify the hub genes’ expression profiles. The validity of the hub genes was verified via survival analysis, as well as expression correlation with the clinicopathological features. Thereafter, gene set variation analysis (GSVA) and single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) were applied to investigate the possible biological functions of the hub genes. Results: In total, 3780 DEGs and 17 co-expression modules were obtained. The blue module had the strongest correlation with the tumour stage and the module genes were principally enriched in tumour-associated GO terms, as well as pathways such as Ras protein signal transduction, ERK1/2 cascade, Ras signal pathway, and ECM-receptor interaction. RASAL1, which is highly expressed in LC, was identified as a hub gene for LC progression. Its high expression suggested unfavorable patient prognosis and was correlated with T stage, gender and tumour stage. Further analysis identified that the overexpression of RASAL1 was substantially enriched in cancer-associated gene sets. Conclusion: RASAL1 is a hub gene that influences LC progression, constituting a novel biomarker and molecular target in the future diagnosis and therapy of LC.

Background The short-term and long-term effect of Helicobacter pylori (H pylori) eradication on the gut microbiota is controversial; hence, this study aimed to clarify changes in the gut microbiome and microbial diversity after H pylori eradication. Materials and methods Articles published in PubMed, MEDLINE, and EMBASE were searched up to March 20, 2020, with English-language restriction. The outcomes including gut microbiota and alpha diversity were extracted to analysis. And then, Review Manager 5.3 software was used to conduct the data analysis. Results At phylum level, next-generation sequencing was performed. Meta-analysis results showed that Actinobacteria decreased compared with baseline throughout the follow-up period. Proteobacteria increased during short-term follow-up and then returned to normal. In addition, Bacteroidetes decreased and Firmicutes increased only during long-term follow-up. At family or genus level, conventional microbiological culturing was performed. Enterobacteriaceae and Enterococcus both increased during the short-term and interim follow-up. In addition, Lactobacillus only showed a decreasing trend during short-term follow-up, but it appeared statistical decreasing during interim follow-up. Moreover, relatively sufficient evidence showed that alpha diversity decreased during short-term follow-up, and no reliable data were obtained to confirm the change of alpha diversity during interim and long-term follow-up. Conclusion In different follow-up periods after H pylori eradication, changes in gut microbiota were inconsistent. Microbial diversity decreased in the short-term follow-up, while there was no data to confirm subsequent alterations. The results provided a basis for the rational selection of probiotics in the eradication process. However, further studies are needed to obtain more clues.

Aryl-substituted phenanthroimidazole (PI) and triphenylamine (TPA) derivatives have attracted tremendous attention in the field of opto-electronic devices because they possess excellent properties. In this work, we synthesized a novel organic emitting material ((E)-N,N-diphenyl-4-(4-(1-phenyl-1H-phenanthro [9,10-d]imidazole-2-yl)styryl)aniline (DPPyPA) with D–π–A chromophore. DPPyPA was synthesized without using precious metal catalysis. What's more, the reaction process was simple and easy to monitor. The photoelectric, physical properties and the organic/inorganic hybrid LED based on DPPyPA were investigated. The hybrid LED exhibits tunable electroluminescent spectra (EL) as the concentration of DPPyPA increases without losing device performance. In addition, the hybrid LED with low concentration of DPPyPA possesses luminance efficiency (LE) of 20 lm W−1 and greenish-blue emission. The hybrid WLEDs based on DPPyPA and Rubrene were also prepared. The device shows max Ra-color rendering index (Ra) of 73.5 and max LE of 32.64 lm W−1. It is a decent choice to establish organic/inorganic hybrid WLEDs by using greenish-blue emitting material and Rubrene.

Herein, the organic blue emitting material (E)-4-(4-(anthracen-9-yl)styryl)-N,N-diphenylaniline (AnStDPA) with D–π–A chromophore was synthesized. The thermal, optical, electrochemical properties and the device performance of the AnStDPA were investigated. The AnStDPA shows high thermal stability with decomposition temperature (Td, 5% weight loss) value of 319 °C, high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) with value of 0.92 and no thermal fluorescence quenching property. The HOMO and LUMO level of AnStDPA are −5.44 eV and −2.60 eV, respectively. When using AnStDPA to construct organic/inorganic hybrid LED, the LED exhibits blue emission, stable Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage (CIE) chromaticity coordinate of (0.1522,0.0895) and tranquil luminance efficiency of 10 lm W−1 (around) at various currents. In addition, the phosphor-free hybrid WLEDs based on AnStDPA and Rubrene (5,6,11,12-tetraphenylnaphthacene) were prepared. The device possesses luminance efficiency of 27.70 lm W−1 (at 19.90 mA), CCT of 4363 K, Ra of 65.2, and CIE chromaticity coordinate of (0.3471, 0.2750). Moreover, there is almost no ultraviolet (UV) residue in these hybrid LEDs based on the AnStDPA. We have simultaneously achieved organic/inorganic hybrid blue LED (based on near UV chip) with almost no UV residue and spectral stability.

1-(9-Anthryl)-2-phenylethene (t-APE) is a blue-green material with high fluorescence quantum yield (Фf 0.44). However, it is easily crystallized. Herein, Two asymmetric blue-green emitting materials based on t-APE, (E)-9-(4-(2-(anthracen-9-yl)vinyl)phenyl)-10-(naphthalen-1-yl)anthracene (6) and (E)-9-(4-(2-(anthracen-9-yl)vinyl)phenyl)-10-(naphthalen-2-yl)anthracene (7) were firstly designed and synthesized. The two compounds possess high thermal stability, morphological durability, and bipolar characteristics. The non-doped blue-green organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) using 6 and 7 as emitting layers showed emission at 495 nm, full width at half maximum of 80 nm, maximum brightness of 13,814, 10,579 cd m−2, maximum current efficiency of 3.62, 7.16 cd A−1, and Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage (CIE) coordinate of (0.20, 0.43), respectively. Furthermore, when employing 6 and 7 as blue-green emitting layers and rubrene doped in tris-(8-hydroxyquinolinato)aluminum (Alq3) as the orange emitting layers to fabricate white OLEDs (WOLEDs), the WOLEDs exhibit a maximum brightness of 10,984, 14,652 cd m−2, maximum current efficiency of 2.04, 2.70 cd A−1, and CIE coordinate of (0.30, 0.40), (0.37, 0.47), Color Rendering Index (CRI) of 65, 60, stable EL spectra, respectively. This study demonstrates that the t-APE-type derivatives have the excellent properties for the emitting materials of OLEDs.

Complex micro-architectures of cobalt phthalocyanine (CoPc) and cobalt hexadecafluorophthalocyanine (F16CoPc) were grown via physical vapour deposition (PVD) method. For CoPc, the formation of “broom” architectures depends mainly on imposed pressure. While for F16CoPc, the emergence of intricate cluster or “flower” is mostly determined by furnace temperature. We show organic materials with π-conjugated structure could be purposefully sculpted into various morphologies through programmed modulations of environmental conditions. The morphological evolution of simple nanostructure to complex architecture was proposed. Further, the CoPc and F16CoPc crystals were applied to organic field-effect transistors (OFET) with hole and electron mobility of 0.56 and 0.23 cm2 V−1 s−1 respectively.

The deep-blue emitting material 2-(8-(benzyloxy)quinolin-2-yl)-1-phenyl-1H-phenanthro[9,10-d]imidazole (QL-PPI) which contains 8-(Benzyloxy)quinoline core and phenanthroimidazole moiety, has been designed and synthesized. The non-doped OLED using QL-PPI as the emitting layer shows emission at 455 nm, full width at half maximum of 100 nm, maximum brightness of 250 cd m−2, maximum current efficiency of 0.47 cd A−1, and Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage (CIE) coordinate of (0.20, 0.22). Furthermore, the QL-PPI with a slight mass concentration in the silica gel is coated on the near ultraviolet (NUV) chip (380 nm) to prepare the hybrid deep-blue LED device HB1 with a y coordinate = 0.0541. The hybrid WLED device HW1 based on QL-PPI mixed with green phosphor [(Ba, Sr)2SiO4: Eu2+] and red phosphor [(Sr, Ca)2AlSiN3: Eu2+] is prepared. The hybrid WLED exhibits luminance efficiency of 18.05 lm W−1 (at 19.90 mA), Correlated Color Temperature (CCT) of 4580 K, Color Rendering Index (CRI) of 80, and CIE chromaticity coordinate of (0.3571, 0.3562). These results reveal that the QL-PPI can apply both in OLED and the hybrid LED simultaneously. The QL-PPI which used in the hybrid WLED has the potential to reduce reliance on rare-earth metals and improve the CRI of the hybrid WLED.

The organic light-emitting materials have made certain development in organic/inorganic hybrid white light-emitting diodes (WLED) devices, which can reduce the reliance on rare earth metal materials to some extent. However, there is an urgent need to improve the color rendering index (CRI) of the hybrid WLED. Herein, the organic blue-green emitting materials mixed with green and red phosphors are used to construct the hybrid WLED. The device W19 is prepared by using the blue-green emitting material (E)-9-(4-(2-(anthracen-9-yl)vinyl)phenyl)-10-(naphthalen-1-yl)anthracene (APEAn1N) mixed with green (BaSi2N2O2: Eu2+) and red (Sr, Ca)2AlSiN3: Eu2+ phosphors coated on near ultraviolet (NUV) LED chips (380 nm). The device W19 exhibits luminance efficiency of 17.78 lm W−1 (at 19.90 mA), CCT of 4658 K, CRI of 86.7, and CIE chromaticity coordinate of (0.3633, 0.4125), respectively. The CRI of device W22 based on tri-primary color phosphors and blue-green phosphor is 79.4 which is inferior to W19. The WLED device based on organic blue-green emitting materials blended with green and red phosphors has evident advantages for reducing of the reliance on rare earth metals and improving the CRI of hybrid device, which will greatly inspire us to design and synthesize new blue-green materials and facilitate the development of hybrid WLEDs in future.

In this paper, fluorinated copper phthalocyanines (F x CuPc, x = 4, 8, 12, 16) were synthesized and their energy levels were tuned to function as single-component p-, ambipolar and n-type semiconductors for single-component organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs). The influence of number of fluorine atoms on molecule geometries, frontier molecular orbitals, thin film morphology and microstructure as well as molecular aggregation patterns is systematically investigated by quantum calculation, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). OTFTs were fabricated to evaluate the semiconducting and charge transport properties of F x CuPc. Perfluorinated copper phthalocyanines (F 16 CuPc) exhibited an electron mobility of 0.27 cm 2 V −1 s −1 . In particular, F 12 CuPc OTFT device were revealed to show an ambipolar performance with carrier mobilities of 0.005 cm 2 V −1 s −1 for holes and 0.006 cm 2 V −1 s −1 for electrons in air.

The π–π stacking ability of graphene sheets (GS), graphene oxide (GO), and single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) with phthalocyanine (Pc) molecules was studied by the UV–vis absorption, steady state and time-resolved fluorescence spectra. Absorption spectra revealed that strong π–π binding with the Pc ground state (S0) occurred for GS and GO but not for SWCNT, the binding ability is GS ≫ GO ≫ SWCNT. However, when a Pc molecule is photoexcited, fluorescence study shows that the π–π interaction capability is changed to GS ≫ SWCNT ≫ GO. Although SWCNT exhibits low ability to bind Pc S0 state, it strongly interacts with Pc S1 state. The data analysis shows that the dynamic quenching for the nanoscaled carbon quenchers still obeys linear Stern–Volmer relationship, but the static quenching is not linear. An exponential expression is needed to fit the data for GS and SWCNT, which indicates that an effective quenching sphere model is valid for the nanoscaled fluorescence quenchers.

The synthesis, characterization, calculation, photophysical and thermal properties of 2, 9, 16, 23-tetrakis (7-coumarinoxy-4-methyl)-phthalocyanine are reported in this paper. The ground state absorbance suggests that an intramolecular color matching is formed between phthalocyanine and coumarin components. The fluorescence quantum yield ( Φ F ) of H 2 Pc-Cou is lower than Std-ZnPc for the flexibile coumarin units quenching more excited singlet state. The photoluminescence decays of the complex in DMF solution, in poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and on TiO 2 films have been investigated with time-resolved emission. Density functional theory modeling of the structure and energy calculations is made at the same time. The thermal stability studies indicate that the complex is stable up to 376 °C. The photophysical properties and energy levels proved it can be employed as sensitizers for DSSC applications.

The aggregation (inter-layer π–π interaction) and self-rolling up (intra-layer π–π interaction) of chemically derived graphene (CDG) sheets in aqueous dispersion were evidenced by spectral and TEM methods. Their effects on optical properties were studied by UV–vis–NIR absorption spectra, fluorescence emission spectra and fluorescence lifetime measurements under various CDG concentrations. At pH 8.3, CDG sheets formed carbon nanoscrolls by self-rolling up when its concentration is lower than 10 μg/mL. When the concentration is higher than that, CDG sheets aggregated. Upon aggregation, CDG exhibited the decrease of absorptivity, the change of band shape and the deviation from Lambert–Beer law due to inter-layer π–π interaction. The aggregation effect on CDG fluorescence includes the decrease of emission efficiency, the shortening of fluorescence lifetime and the relative increase of the contribution from short-lived emitting species. On the other hand, CDG self-rolling up caused the occurrence of new absorptions (500 and 960 nm) and new emission (after 500 nm), the decrease of fluorescence quantum yield and shortening of fluorescence lifetime.

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether urinary kidney injury molecule‑1 (KIM‑1) presents a suitable early diagnostic biomarker of obstructive nephropathy‑induced acute kidney injury (AKI), and to develop a rapid detection method for urinary KIM‑1. Obstructive AKI was induced in an experimental rat model by a unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) operation. Macro‑ and micromorphological kidney alterations were determined by visual observation and hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining, respectively. Kidney functions were evaluated by detecting urea nitrogen and creatinine levels in rat urine and blood. Urinary KIM‑1 levels were measured using an enzyme‑linked immunosorbent assay, and the protein expression levels of KIM‑1, α‑smooth muscle actin (α‑SMA) and vimentin in kidney tissues were detected using immunohistochemical assays. In order to measure KIM‑1 levels, colloidal gold immunochromatographic strips were developed based on the colloidal gold immunochromatographic assay. The results indicated that KIM‑1 levels were significantly higher in the UUO group when compared with the Sham group. KIM‑1 levels in the urine and kidney tissues exhibited a time‑dependent increase, together with increasing obstructive AKI in the UUO group. In addition, KIM‑1 levels were demonstrated to be a more sensitive biomarker of early obstructive AKI, when compared with α‑SMA and vimentin. A colloidal gold‑based immunochromatographic strip was developed, whereby the detection of urinary KIM‑1 could be completed within 5‑10 min. In conclusion, results of the present study demonstrated that urinary KIM‑1 may be a valuable biomarker for the early diagnosis of obstructive AKI, and the use of a colloidal gold immunochromatographic strip may be a promising method for the rapid detection of urinary KIM‑1.

The fluorescence and absorption properties of several xanthene and phthalocyanine dyes were measured in the presence and absence of chemically derived graphene (CDG) sheets. The interaction of pyronine Y (PYY) with graphene sheets was compared with that of rhodamine 6G (R6G) to reveal the effect of the molecular structure. Although the presence of the perpendicular benzene moiety in a R6G or phthalocyanine molecule does cause the difficulty for forming dye–CDG complex and make CDG less efficient in quenching the fluorescence intensity and shortening the fluorescence lifetime, it does not affect the band position of charge transfer absorption, suggesting that no molecular shape change occurred in a dye molecule caused by the interaction with CDG sheets. The spectroscopic and thermodynamic data indicated that the dye–CDG binding is of charge transfer nature, while the dynamic fluorescence quenching is due to photoinduced energy and electron transfer.

The fluorescence properties of graphene oxide (GO) was studied by recording the fluorescence lifetime, fluorescence emission, and excitation spectra, as well as UV-visible and near-IR absorption spectra. For the first time, we showed that a blue band (ca. 440 nm) and a long wavelength (LW) band (ca. 700 nm) are coexistent, which can be recorded simultaneously by controlling concentration, excitation wavelength, and pH values. Two bands are closely related by the protonation or deprotonation of GO. The blue band is favored by low GO concentration, short excitation wavelength, and high pH value, while the LW band is favored by low pH and long excitation wavelength. To reveal the nature of the dual emission of GO, the fluorescence lifetimes under various conditions were also measured. The blue band contains three emitting components; one of them has a lifetime as long as 10 ns, and its emitting intensity is fairly sensitive to pH, showing the potential for applications in sensing H(+) and fluorescence lifetime imaging. Combining the results under various conditions, we conclude that the electronic transition for this component is very likely due to n-π* transition. The LW band contains two main emitting components (0.2 and 2.1 ns) that also appear in the blue band as minor contributors; the related emission is assigned to π-π* transition. In summary, GO emission is of broadband (300-1250 nm), long-lived, pH sensitive, and excitation wavelength dependent. This makes it easily tailored for versatile applications.