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A chloroform-assisted method has been developed to prepare Au–Fe alloy catalysts under mild conditions, and they exhibit an excellent activity in the photothermal hydrogenation of acetylene.

Environmental remediation via semiconductor (SC) photocatalysis has attracted great attention over the past three decades. However, prospect for large scale application is still under debate, basically due to the bottleneck of fast charge recombination and/or slow surface reaction. Herein we report a universal solution of speeding up organic degradation simply via co-deposited Pt and nickel phosphate (NiP). Several representative SCs have been examined, including TiO2 (anatase, rutile, and brookite) under a 320 nm light, and Bi-based SC (BiVO4, Bi2WO6, and Bi2MoO6) under a 420 nm light. In all cases, the rates of phenol degradation in aqueous solution always varied not only in the order of NiP/Pt/SC > Pt/SC > NiP/SC > SC, but also NiP/Pt/SC > (Pt/SC + NiP/SC + SC). Meanwhile, hydroquinone and benzoquinone were produced as the main intermediates, but their concentration was much lower than that of phenol decreased, especially for NiP-containing sample. The solid was characterized with several techniques, including photoluminescence and (photo)electrochemical measurement. It is proposed that Pt and NiP act as co-catalysts for O2 reduction and phenol oxidation, respectively. Such electron and hole transfer promote each other, additionally improving the efficiency of charge separation, and further increasing the rates of surface reactions. This work highlights the necessity of a versatile co-catalyst in SC photocatalysis.

Nickel (hydr)oxide (NiOH) is known to be good co-catalyst for the photoelectrochemical oxidation of water, and for the photocatalytic oxidation of organics on different semiconductors. Herein we report a greatly improved activity of Bi

Monoclinic BiVO4 (BiV) is a good photoanode for water oxidation but a poor photocatalyst for organic oxidation because of slow O2 reduction. In this work, a well-crystallized BiV microdecahedron (1–2 μm) has been deposited with a poorly crystallized cubic CuFe2O4 (CF) nanosphere (100 nm). For phenol oxidation and O2 reduction to H2O2 in aqueous suspension under visible light, 1 wt % CF/BiV was more active than BiV by approximately factors of 14 and 7, respectively, while CF was almost not active. A (photo)electrochemical measurement showed that CF/BiV was more active than BiV not only for phenol and water oxidation under visible light but also for O2 reduction and water oxidation in the dark. Moreover, as compared to BiV, CF/BiV was more efficient in the charge transfer to a solution species but less efficient either in the light-on electron generation or in the light-off electron disappearance. Based on the solid band edge potentials measured by ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy, a possible Z scheme...

BackgroundGastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common cancer types, especially in Asian countries. Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) has been shown to improve the progression-free survival among gastric cancer patients with peritoneal metastases; however, not all patients demonstrate response to HIPEC.MethodsBiomarkers are needed to select patients for effective treatment of HIPEC. Here, we performed whole-exome sequencing on tumor samples from 18 gastric cancer patients who received HIPEC treatment and assessed the association between genomic mutation features and progression-free survival. Exome sequencing was further conducted on tumor samples from additional 15 gastric cancer patients as a replication study.ResultsThe tumor mutational burden (TMB) was significantly higher in the group of patients with a better response to HIPEC treatment than that of the others. Kaplan–Meier survival curve showed that patients with high TMB had a significantly longer survival time than that in patients with low TMB. This discovery was validated in the replication cohort. Genes bearing mutations recurrently and selectively in patients with better response to HIPEC were found in the two cohorts.ConclusionWe found that higher TMB is significantly associated with better response to HIPEC. Our results provide useful hints for prognostic stratification of HIPEC treatment.

The inhibition mechanism of two homoisoflavonoids from

Monoclinic BiVO

It is known that Bi2WO6 (BiW), Bi2MoO6 (BiMo), and BiVO4 (BiV) under visible light are able to initiate organic oxidation by O2. Herein we report a profound effect of Fe3+ ions on phenol oxidation in aqueous suspensions at an initial pH value of 3. Three solids were made via a hydrothermal method followed by calcination at 350 °C for 3 h. In the absence of Fe3+, phenol degradation followed pseudo-first-order kinetics. The normalized rate constant with respect to the solid surface area was BiV > BiMo > BiW, a trend similar to those of solid crystallite size and spectral absorption. In the presence of Fe3+, phenol degradation was fast initially and then became slow. Meanwhile, H2O2 formation was enhanced by Fe3+, while Fe2+ was produced with a yield of up to 100%. As the Fe3+ concentration increased, the initial rate of phenol degradation (R0) changed. The maximum R0 values of BiV, BiMo, and BiW were 4, 17, and 86 times larger than those measured without Fe3+, respectively. But the normalized R0 to the initial amount of Fe3+ adsorption was in the order BiMo > BiW > BiV, a trend matching that of the Fe3+ adsorption constant. In the slow stage, interestingly, the first-order kinetics of phenol degradation resumed, with a rate constant much larger than that obtained without Fe3+. A study of electrochemistry showed that Fe2+ was oxidizable by O2 to regenerate Fe3+. A possible mechanism is proposed involving Fe3+ reduction on different sites of bismuth photocatalysts.

A novel water-soluble mannogalactan (SSPS1) with an average molecular weight of 2.04 × 10

Environmental remediation via semiconductor (SC) photocatalysis has attracted great attention over the past three decades. However, prospect for large scale application is still under debate, basically due to the bottleneck of fast charge recombination and/or slow surface reaction. Herein we report a universal solution of speeding up organic degradation simply via co-deposited Pt and nickel phosphate (NiP). Several representative SCs have been examined, including TiO

Skeletal muscle is the most abundant type of tissue in human body, being involved in diverse activities and maintaining a finely tuned metabolic balance. Autophagy, characterized by the autophagosome–lysosome system with the involvement of evolutionarily conserved autophagy-related genes, is an important catabolic process and plays an essential role in energy generation and consumption, as well as substance turnover processes in skeletal muscles. Autophagy in skeletal muscles is finely tuned under the tight regulation of diverse signaling pathways, and the autophagy pathway has cross-talk with other pathways to form feedback loops under physiological conditions and metabolic stress. Altered autophagy activity characterized by either increased formation of autophagosomes or inhibition of lysosome-autophagosome fusion can lead to pathological cascades, and mutations in autophagy genes and deregulation of autophagy pathways have been identified as one of the major causes for a variety of skeleton muscle disorders. The advancement of multi-omics techniques enables further understanding of the molecular and biochemical mechanisms underlying the role of autophagy in skeletal muscle disorders, which may yield novel therapeutic targets for these disorders.

Monoclinic BiVO

Nanoporous golds (NPG) exhibit excellent performance on CO oxidation due to unique pore structures with huge surface areas. However, it is a challenge for the prediction-assessing of catalytic performance without any experimental data. Herein, deep-learning methods are used to establish the structure–property relationship on NPGs. By comparing different learning algorithms, the deep recursive neural network (DRNN) can be assessed as the best network up to more than 98% accuracy. With several structural parameters, our trained model can be employed as an accurate descriptor to predict the transformation capability of CO molecules on gold catalysts and further to estimate the optimal zone in this system combined with nonlinear programming map. These meaningful findings greatly expand a way to optimize catalysts combining interdisciplinary research means, exhibiting a great application potential in the design of future catalysts.

Monoclinic BiVO4 (BiV) has been widely used as a photoanode for water oxidation, but rarely as a photocatalyst for organic oxidation due to slow reaction of O2. In this work, BiV has been modified with poorly crystallized sFe and sNi, where sFe is FeOOH, and sNi is a mixture of Ni(OH)2 and polysulfide. Under light, sFe/BiV and sNi/BiV in aqueous solution were more active than BiV, respectively, not only for phenol oxidation but also for O2 reduction. Importantly, the rate of phenol oxidation obtained for sFe/sNi/BiV was larger than the sum of the rates measured for sFe/BiV and sNi/BiV, by a factor of approximately 1.5. Moreover, on a film electrode, O2 reduction had a current of sFe/sNi/BiV > sNi/BiV > sFe/BiV > BiV, while water (photo)oxidation had a current of sFe/sNi/BiV > sNi/BiV > sFe/BiV > BiV. A possible mechanism is proposed, involving formation of a reduced sulfur species for O2 reduction and an oxidized iron species for phenol oxidation. In sFe/sNi/BiV, there is a mutual promotion between the sNi-mediated electron transfer and the sFe-mediated hole transfer. This results in a further improved efficiency of charge separation for O2 reduction and phenol oxidation.

Monoclinic BiVO

Production of H2 from water splitting is challenging. Herein, we report an increased production of H2 on Zn0.5Cd0.5S (ZnCdS) in aqueous solution under a 420 nm LED lamp, via 4 wt % MCo2O4 (M = Mg, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, and Zn). Without addition of sacrifices, the rate of H2 evolution (RH, in a unit of mmol g―1 h―1) was 0.0154 for ZnCdS, and 0.057―0.551 for MCo2O4/ZnCdS. On addition of Na2S/Na2SO3, the corresponding RH increased to 18.5 and 31.5―78.2, respectively. In both cases, no H2 was observed for MCo2O4. However, the RH obtained in presence of Na2S/Na2SO3 had a negative correlation with Ms and R2, respectively, where Ms was the magnetization degree of MCo2O4, and R2 was the charge transfer resistance for MCo2O4/ZnCdS at solid-liquid interface. Electrochemical measurement showed that MCo2O4/ZnCdS was more active than ZnCdS for proton reduction, water oxidation, and water(sulfide/sulfite) photo-oxidation, respectively. According to the solid photoluminescence, band parameters, and open circuit potentials, formation of a p-n junction is proposed, which facilitates the photoelectron transfer to ZnCdS for proton reduction, and the photohole transfer to MCo2O4 for water (sulfide/sulfite) oxidation. It is also proposed that the magnetic field of MCo2O4 inhibits the charge transfer between MCo2O4 and ZnCdS. This work suggests that MCo2O4 spinels are good co-catalysts, but their magnetization need to be minimized.

Monoclinic BiVO4 (BiV) is an excellent photoanode for water oxidation, but it is a poor photocatalyst for organic oxidation due to slow O2 reduction. Herein we report a 94-fold increased photocatalytic activity of BiV through a surface deposited CuCoOx. The model reaction was phenol degradation in aqueous solution under visible light. CuCoOx, CuOx, and CoOx were prepared in butanol, separately, while CuCo2O4 was prepared in aqueous solution. Solid characterization showed that CuCo2O4 was Cu0.92Co2.08O4, but CuCoOx was a mixture of Cu0.92Co2.08O4, CuOx, and CoOx. Notably, the rate of phenol oxidation on CuCoOx/BiV was not only larger than those on Pt/BiV, CuCo2O4/BiV, CuOx/BiV, and CoOx/BiV, but also larger than the sum of the rates obtained for the latter three. Photoluminescence study revealed that all co-catalysts improved the efficiency of charge separation of BiV, with the trend similar to that for phenol photo-oxidation. Electrochemical study with a BiV film electrode showed that among four co-catalysts, CuOx was the most active for O2 reduction, CoOx for water oxidation, and CuCo2O4 for water photo-oxidation. According to the measured band edge potentials for semiconductors, a possible charge transfer from BiV to co-catalyst is proposed, including the electron transfer for CuOx/BiV, the hole transfer for CoOx/BiV and CuCo2O4/BiV, and the sequential electron transfer for CuCoOx/BiV.

Production of H2O2 via a more economic, green and safe way is challenging. In this work, we report an efficient production of H2O2 from oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in aqueous solution over a modified WO3 with Au nanoparticles. Under visible light at wavelengths longer than 420 nm for 5 h, H2O2 measured from WO3 and Au/WO3 were 1.07, and 177 μM, respectively. On addition of methanol, H2O2 obtained from WO3, Au/WO3, and Au/SiO2 were 8.55, 544, and 0.36 μM, respectively. Photoluminescence and electrochemical measurement revealed that there was an interfacial electron transfer from the excited WO3 to Au, followed by two-electron reduction of O2 on Au sites. Under visible light at wavelengths longer than 535 nm, interestingly, H2O2 was also produced from Au/WO3 (39 μM at 5 h), while the photocurrent of water oxidation on Au/WO3 was much larger than those on Au/SiO2 and WO3. Clearly, there is also an interfacial electron transfer from the plasmonic Au to WO3, followed by ORR to H2O2, but such a process fails when WO3 is excited. However, the production of H2O2 on Au/WO3 was determined by several factors, including Au content, light absorption, and particle size. A maximum H2O2 was observed at an initial pH 3.0 from 0.35 wt% Au/WO3, prepared at 400 °C. Moreover, at the same loading on WO3, Au was more efficient than Pd, Ag, Pt, Ni, Cu, and Co, while at the same Au loading, WO3 was more efficient than BiVO4 and Bi2WO6. The superior performance of Au/WO3 is mainly due to its ability to undergo selective ORR to H2O2, and to release protons into aqueous solution protecting H2O2 from decomposition.