Search

In nature, biological compartments such as cells rely on dynamically controlled permeability for matter exchange and complex cellular activities. Likewise, the ability to engineer compartment permeability is crucial for in vitro systems to gain sustainability, robustness, and complexity. However, rendering in vitro compartments such a capability is challenging. Here, a facile strategy is presented to build permeability-configurable compartments, and marked advantages of such compartmentalization are shown in reconstituting sustained synthetic biology systems in vitro. Through microfluidics, the strategy produces micrometer-sized layered microgels whose shell layer serves as a sieving structure for biomolecules and particles. In this configuration, the transport of DNAs, proteins, and bacteriophages across the compartments can be controlled an guided by a physical model. Through permeability engineering, a compartmentalized cell-free protein synthesis system sustains multicycle protein production; ≈100 000 compartments are repeatedly used in a five-cycle synthesis, featuring a yield of 2.2 mg mL-1 . Further, the engineered bacteria-enclosing compartments possess near-perfect phage resistance and enhanced environmental fitness. In a complex river silt environment, compartmentalized whole-cell biosensors show maintained activity throughout the 32 h pollutant monitoring. It is anticipated that permeability-engineered compartmentalization should pave the way for practical synthetic biology applications such as green bioproduction, environmental sensing, and bacteria-based therapeutics.

Self‐powered halide perovskite X‐ray detectors have evoked busting interests because they present outstanding properties such as low power consumption, high sensitivity, and integrability without external power source. Nevertheless, existing self‐powered X‐ray detectors exhibit low sensitivity due to the insufficient charge separation and transport. Herein, a self‐powered photodetector for sensitive X‐ray and photodetection based on single‐crystalline perovskite FAPbBr3/NiOx heterostructure is demonstrated. The built‐in field of FAPbBr3/NiOx heterojunction provides a driving force for separation and transport of photoexcited carriers. Without an external power supply, the photodetector presents excellent photoresponse performance under 450 nm light illumination, including high photoresponsivity (123.6 mA W−1), good detectivity (D = 7.1 × 1011 Jones), and ultrafast response/recovery time (10/200 ns). Simultaneously, the device achieves photovoltaic effect of 0.80 V and a large mobility–lifetime product of 1.1 × 10−3 cm2 V−1, which enable a superior X‐ray sensitivity of 402 µC Gyair−1 cm−2 at zero bias voltage. These results imply that the simple combination of perovskite single crystal and a hole transporting layer provides a flexible platform for the realization of energy‐saving self‐powered photodetector in visible light and X‐rays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to obtain high-efficiency red phosphors to improve the performance of white light-emitting diodes (WLEDs), we prepare a series of single doped and co-doped yttrium lithium molybdate (LiY(MoO4)2, LYMO) with Sm3+ or Sm3+ and Pr3+ ions red phosphors by solid-state reaction. Structure, chemical components, and morphology of well-crystallized samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The LYMO: Sm3+, Pr3+ can efficiently absorb the light from ultraviolet to blue light and has red emissions from 4f–4f transitions of Sm3+. With ultraviolet excitation wavelength 399 nm, white light was observed from individual Sm3+ ion-activated LYMO: Sm3+ phosphors and intensities of its reach a maximum at which concentration of Sm3+ is 3 mol%. More significantly, the low Pr3+ concentration about 0.1 mol% can improve the luminescence intensity of LYMO: 0.03Sm3+ phosphors and increase drastically the energy transfer efficiency of LYMO: 0.03Sm3+ phosphors to 16%. Additionally, based on luminescence spectra and decay curves, the energy transfers mechanism from Pr3+ to Sm3+ was discussed. luminescence lifetime The results show that LYMO: Sm3+, Pr3+ can be considered as a potential red-converting materials for WLEDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Persistent luminescence (PersL) was found in Mg2+ and Pr3+ co-doped lithium niobate perovskite-like single crystal. Bright red afterglow emission was observed at room temperature for LiNbO3 excited by a wide range of near ultraviolet light, wherein the defect states associated with Mg2+ ions are demonstrated to play an essential role. We propose a charge relaxation mechanism, based on the transition between mid-gap defect states, to describe the PersL phenomenon within the trap–detrap scenario. Given the outstanding ferroelectric, piezoelectric, electro-optical, mechanical, and acoustic-optical properties of the host material, the discovery of PersL in LiNbO3 opens an opportunity to couple various responses to external stimuli, and thus to develop novel applications based on multifunctional persistent luminescent phosphors (MFPLPs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]