The large‐scale deployment of aqueous Zn‐ion batteries is hindered by Zn anode instability including surface corrosion, hydrogen gas evolution, and irregular Zn deposition. To tackle these ...challenges, a polyhydroxylated organic molecular additive, trehalose, is incorporated to refine the solvation structure and promote planar Zn deposition. Within solvation structure regions involving trehalose, the hydroxy groups participate in the reconstruction of hydrogen bond networks, which increases the overpotential for water decomposition reaction. Moreover, at the Zn metal–molecule interface, the chemisorption of trehalose onto the surface of the zinc anode enhances corrosion resistance and facilitates the deposition of zinc in a planar manner. The optimized electrolyte significantly improves Zn striping/plating reversibility and maintains stable potentials over 1600 h at 5 mA cm−2 with a cutoff capacity of 1 mA h cm−2 in symmetric cells. When combined with the MnO2 cathode, the assembled coin cell retains ≈89% of its capacity after 1000 cycles. This organic molecule additive, emphasizing the role of polyhydroxylated organic molecules in fine‐tuning solvation structures and anode/electrolyte interfaces, holds promise for enhancing various aqueous metal batteries.
Trehalose, a widely used moisturizer, preservative, and stabilizer in the food industry, is proven to be an effective electrolyte additive to the sulfite electrolyte for aqueous zinc ion battery. It optimizes the solvation structure by decreasing free water molecules and forming hydrogen bond networks. Trehalose also stabilizes the metal‐electrolyte interface through chemisorption, benefiting planar zinc deposition and suppressing dendrite growth.
Ink‐based processes, which enable scalable fabrication of flexible devices based on nanomaterials, are one of the practical approaches for the production of wearable electronics. However, carbon ...nanotubes (CNTs), which possess great potential for flexible electronics, are facing challenges for use in inks due to their low dispersity in most solvents and suspicious cytotoxicity. Here, a stable and biocompatible CNT ink, which is stabilized by sustainable silk sericin and free from any artificial chemicals, is reported. The ink shows stability up to months, which can be attributed to the formation of sericin–CNT (SSCNT) hybrid through non‐covalent interactions. It is demonstrated that the SSCNT ink can be used for fabricating versatile circuits on textile, paper, and plastic films through various techniques. As proofs of concept, electrocardiogram electrodes, breath sensors, and electrochemical sensors for monitoring human health and activity are fabricated, demonstrating the great potential of the SSCNT ink for smart wearables.
A highly stable and biocompatible conductive ink is developed based on carbon nanotubes and natural silk sericin. Owing to its high electrical conductivity, high colloidal stability, and good biocompatibility, this ink holds great potential in flexible and wearable electronics.
A microporous three-dimensional (3D) hydrogen-bonded organic framework (HOF-20) has been constructed from an aromatic-rich tetratopic carboxylic acid, ...5-(2,6-bis(4-carboxyphenyl)pyridin-4-yl)isophthalic acid (H4BCPIA). The activated HOF-20a has a moderately high Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area of 1323 m2 g–1 and excellent stability in water and HCl aqueous solution. HOF-20 exhibits highly efficient turn-up fluorescent sensing of aniline in water with a detection limit of 2.24 μM and is selective toward aniline in the presence of aromatic interferents, owing to the hydrogen bonding and edge-to-face π–π stacking interactions between the HOF-20 host and the guest aniline molecules, as demonstrated in the single-crystal X-ray structure of HOF-20⊃aniline. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations further demonstrate that the recognition of aniline molecules by HOF-20 could restrict the rotation of the aromatic rings in H4BCPIA linkers, reducing the nonradiative decay pathways upon photoexcitation and subsequently enhancing the fluorescence intensity.
Salt tolerance is an important economic trait for crops growing in both irrigated fields and marginal lands. The plant kingdom contains plant species that possess highly distinctive capacities for ...salt tolerance as a result of evolutionary adaptation to their environments. Yet, the cellular mechanisms contributing to salt tolerance seem to be conserved to some extent in plants although some highly salt-tolerant plants have unique structures that can actively excrete salts. In this review, we begin by summarizing the research in Arabidopsis with a focus on the findings of three membrane transporters that are important for salt tolerance: SOS1, AtHKT1, and AtNHX1. We then review the recent studies in salt tolerance in crops and halophytes. Molecular and physiological mechanisms of salt tolerance in plants revealed by the studies in the model plant, crops, and halophytes are emphasized. Utilization of the Na⁺ transporters to improve salt tolerance in plants is also summarized. Perspectives are provided at the end of this review.
The practical implementation of aqueous zinc‐iodine batteries (ZIBs) is hindered by the rampant Zn dendrites growth, parasite corrosion, and polyiodide shuttling. In this work, ionic liquid EMIMOAc ...is employed as an all‐round solution to mitigate challenges on both the Zn anode and the iodine cathode side. First, the EMIM+ embedded lean‐water inner Helmholtz plane (IHP) and inert solvation sheath modulated by OAc− effectively repels H2O molecules away from the Zn anode surface. The preferential adsorption of EMIM+ on Zn metal facilitates uniform Zn nucleation via a steric hindrance effect. Second, EMIM+ can reduce the polyiodide shuttling by hindering the iodine dissolution and forming an EMIM+‐I3− dominated phase. These effects holistically enhance the cycle life, which is manifested by both Zn || Zn symmetric cells and Zn‐I2 full cells. ZIBs with EAc deliver a capacity decay rate of merely 0.01 ‰ per cycle after over 18,000 cycles at 4 A g−1, and lower self‐discharge and better calendar life than the ZIBs without ionic liquid EAc additive.
A versatile ionic liquid, EMIMOAc, is employed for synchronous optimization of Zn‐iodine batteries. The solvation structure involving OAc− and the EMIM+‐induced IHP can suppress Zn anode corrosion. And EMIM+ is effective in inhibiting iodine dissolution and capturing polyiodides, thereby significantly mitigating shuttle effects.
Adhesion of single cells is the foundation of manifold cellular behaviors and life processes. However, investigating the function of a specific cell is still challenging due to deficiency of adhesion ...or interference from surrounding cells. Herein, an open microfluidic system is reported for culturing adherent single cells, implemented by a micrometer‐scale droplet matrix on an inkjet‐printed polylysine template. The target cells are isolated from any cell from other droplets, and their adhesion strength is determined to be comparable to conventional petri dishes via an in‐situ investigation with a microfluidic extractor. On this proposed platform, isolated single cells are observed to display an entirely distinct spreading behavior featuring total absence of elongation, indicating drastic cell behavior change from their “singleness.” This system has high versatility and compatibility for various assaying methods, assuring a promising potential in detailed single cell behavior and cell heterogeneity studies.
Single cells are cultured on inkjet‐printed microculture dishes that support adhesion and spreading and assist restoration of their function. The openness of the system allows in situ analysis. Isolated single cells exhibit distinctness in morphology from previous studies where intercellular communication remains present, enticing future interest in isolated single cell behavior.
Difluoromethylation is a straightforward and widely applied strategy used to incorporate HCF2 into organic molecules. In contrast, cyanation reagents are typically volatile or highly toxic, or they ...require harsh reaction conditions. Incorporation of both CN and HCF2 into organic molecules, such as alkenes, is a worthwhile but challenging task. A method for photocatalyzed cyanodifluoromethylation of alkenes has been developed, which employs a Ph3P+CF2CO2−/NaNH2 (or NH3) reagent system. Ph3P+CF2CO2− functions as both the HCF2 and CN carbon source. A cyanide anion is generated in situ under mild conditions, thereby avoiding the use of toxic cyanation reagents. The photocatalytic method permits cyanodifluoromethylation of a range of alkenes under mild room temperature conditions. The CN group within the products may be further derivatized by standard methods.
Photocatalyzed cyanodifluoromethylation of alkenes with a Ph3P+CF2CO2−/NaNH2 (or NH3) system is described. The use of toxic cyanation reagents can be avoided because Ph3P+CF2CO2− functions as both the HCF2 and CN carbon source to generate a range of HCF2‐ and CN‐containing products under mild conditions, which may be further derivatized.
Live‐imaging of signaling molecules released from living cells is a fundamental challenge in life sciences. Herein, we synthesized liquid crystal elastomer microspheres functionalized with ...horse‐radish peroxidase (LCEM‐HRP), which can be immobilized directly on the cell membrane to monitor real‐time release of H2O2 at the single‐cell level. LCEM‐HRP could report H2O2 through a concentric‐to‐radial (C‐R) transfiguration, which is due to the deprotonation of LCEM‐HRP and the break of inter or intra‐chain hydrogen bonding in LCEM‐HRP caused by HRP‐catalyzed reduction of H2O2. The level of transfiguration of LCEM‐HRP revealed the different amounts of H2O2 released from cells. The estimated detection sensitivity was ≈2.2×10−7 μm for 10 min of detection time. The cell lines and cell–cell heterogeneity was explored from different configurations. LCEM‐HRP presents a new approach for in situ real‐time imaging of H2O2 release from living cells and can be the basis for seeking more advanced chemical probes for imaging of various signaling molecules in the cellular microenvironment.
Liquid‐crystal elastomer microspheres functionalized with horse‐radish peroxidase (LCEM‐HRP) were directly immobilized on the cell membrane for real‐time imaging of H2O2 released from single living cells. Each LCEM‐HRP could report H2O2 through a concentric‐to‐radial transfiguration. The level of the transfiguration of LCEM‐HRP revealed different amounts of released H2O2 and mapped the cell lines and cell–cell heterogeneity.
Video stabilization techniques are essential for most hand-held captured videos due to high-frequency shakes. Several 2D-, 2.5D-, and 3D-based stabilization techniques have been presented previously, ...but to the best of our knowledge, no solutions based on deep neural networks had been proposed to date. The main reason for this omission is shortage in training data as well as the challenge of modeling the problem using neural networks. In this paper, we present a video stabilization technique using a convolutional neural network. Previous works usually propose an off-line algorithm that smoothes a holistic camera path based on feature matching. Instead, we focus on low-latency, real-time camera path smoothing that does not explicitly represent the camera path and does not use future frames. Our neural network model, called StabNet, learns a set of mesh-grid transformations progressively for each input frame from the previous set of stabilized camera frames and creates stable corresponding latent camera paths implicitly. To train the network, we collect a dataset of synchronized steady and unsteady video pairs via a specially designed hand-held hardware. Experimental results show that our proposed online method performs comparatively to the traditional off-line video stabilization methods without using future frames while running about 10 times faster. More importantly, our proposed StabNet is able to handle low-quality videos, such as night-scene videos, watermarked videos, blurry videos, and noisy videos, where the existing methods fail in feature extraction or matching.
Cellular membranes are composed of a variety of lipids in different amounts and proportions, and alterations of them are usually closely related to various diseases. To reveal the intercellular ...heterogeneity of the lipid variation, an integrated microfluidic system is designed, which consists of droplet‐based inkjet printing, dielectrophoretic electrodes, and de‐emulsification interface to achieve on‐line single‐cell encapsulation, manipulation, and mass spectrometry (MS) detection. This integrated system effectively improves the single‐cell encapsulation rate, and meanwhile reduces the matrix interference and continuous oil phase interference to the MS detection. Using this system, the heterogeneities between the normal and cancer cells are compared, and the heterogeneity of the same cells before and after the drug treatment changed obviously, indicating that this system can be used as a promising tool for studying the link between the alterations of lipid homeostasis and various diseases.
A single cell analysis system is fabricated by combining inkjet printing, dielectrophoresis channel, asymmetrically bifurcate structure, and de‐emulsification interface coupled to nano‐electron spray ionization (ESI)‐mass spectrometry (MS) to achieve on‐line lipid profiling with a throughput of 10 droplets per minute. This integrated system effectively improves the single‐cell encapsulation rate, and meanwhile reduces the matrix interference and continuous oil phase interference to the MS detection.
