Dennisthisted7804

Constructing bioactive materials remains a big challenge through the aggregates of molecules. Herein, a boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY) derivative containing three nitro groups (BDP-(NO2)3) was synthesized, which displays the characteristic of J-aggregate with pronounced red-shifted absorption in nonpolar solvent and aqueous media. The bathochromic shift from 635 to 765 nm facilitates photothermal transition upon the irradiation of near-infrared (NIR) light. Interestingly, BDP-(NO2)3 nanoparticles (NPs) fabricated from BDP-(NO2)3 and poly(oxyethylene)-poly(oxypropylene) copolymer (F-127), still exhibit obvious J-aggregate, which possess the merits of hydrophilicity, NIR absorption, high photothermal conversion efficiency, excellent biosafety, and can behave as unique candidates for photothermal therapy. In vitro and in vivo experiments validate that BDP-(NO2)3 NPs can effectively suppress the proliferation of cancer cells and lead to tumor ablation. This assembly method would be a generic and efficient mode for reasonable design of functional nanomaterials, and could inspire more study on aggregates of organic molecules.In aqueous zinc-ion batteries, metallic zinc is widely used as an anode because of its non-toxicity, environmental benignity, low cost, high abundance and theoretical capacity. However, growth of zinc dendrites, corrosion of zinc anode, passivation, and occurrence of side reactions during continuous charge-discharge cycling hinder development of zinc-ion batteries. In this study, a simple strategy involving application of a HfO2 coating was used to guide uniform deposition of Zn2+ to suppress formation of zinc dendrites. The HfO2-coated zinc anode improves electrochemical performance compared with bare Zn anode. Therefore, for zinc-zinc symmetric cells, zinc anode with HfO2 coating (48 mV) shows lower voltage hysteresis than that of bare Zn anode (63 mV) at a current density of 0.4 mA cm-2. Moreover, cell with HfO2 coating also shows good cycling performance in Zn-MnO2 full cells. At a constant current density of 1.0 A g-1, discharge capacity of bare Zn-MnO2 full cell is only 37.9 mAh g-1 after 500 cycles, while that of Zn@HfO2-MnO2 full cell is up to 78.3 mAh g-1. This good electrochemical performance may be the result of confinement effect and reduction of side reactions. Overall, a simple and beneficial strategy for future development of rechargeable aqueous zinc-ion batteries is provided.During the past few decades, photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting has attracted significant attention because of the reduced production cost of hydrogen obtained by utilizing solar energy. Significant efforts have been invested by the scientific community to produce stable ternary metal oxide semiconductors, which can enhance the stability and increase the overall production of oxygen. Herein, we present the ternary metal oxide deposition of ZnCo2O4 as a route to obtain a novel photocatalyst layer on BiVO4 to form BiVO4/ZnCo2O4 a novel composite photoanode for PEC water splitting. The structural, topographical, and optical analyses were performed using field emission scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, and UV-Vis spectroscopy to confirm the structure of the ZnCo2O4 grafted over BiVO4. A remarkable 4.4-fold enhancement of the photocurrent was observed for the BiVO4/ZnCo2O4 composite compared with bare BiVO4 under visible illumination. The optimum loading of ZnCo2O4 over BiVO4 yields unprecedented stable photocurrent density with an apparent cathodic shift of 0.46 V under 1.5 AM simulated light illumination. This is also evidenced by the flat-band potential change through Mott-Schottky analysis, which reveals the formation of p-ZnCo2O4 on n-BiVO4. The improvement in the PEC performance of the composite with respect to bare BiVO4 is ascribed to the formation of thin passivating layer of p-ZnCo2O4 on n-BiVO4 which improves the kinetics of interfacial charge transfer. Based on our study, we have gained an in-depth understanding of the BiVO4/ZnCo2O4 composite as high potential in efficient PEC water splitting devices.Rational design of electrode with hierarchical charge-transfer structure and good electronic conductivity is important to achieve high specific capacitance and energy density for supercapacitor, but it still remains a challenge. Herein, a nitrogen, sulfur co-doped pollen-derived carbon/graphene (PCG) composite with interconnected "sphere-in-layer" structure was fabricated, in which hierarchically pollen-derived carbon microspheres can serve as "porous spacers" to prevent the agglomeration of graphene nanosheets. RCM-1 The optimized PCG composite prepared with 0.5 wt% of graphene oxide (PCG-0.5) exhibited high specific capacitance (420Fg-1 at 1Ag-1), rate performance (280Fg-1 at 20Ag-1), and excellent cycling stability with 94% of capacitance retention after 10,000 cycles. The symmetrical device delivered a remarkable energy density of 31.3Whkg-1 in neutral medium. Moreover, density functional theory calculation revealed that PCG electrode possessed the accelerated charge transfer and enhanced electronic conductivity, thus ensuring a remarkable electrochemical performance. This work may afford an effective strategy for the development of biomass-derived carbon electrodes with novel charge-transfer structure toward supercapacitor applications.The construction of peptide and metal nanoparticles hybrid is attractive to explore their synergistic properties and applications extensively. However, it remains a challenge to fabricate a well-defined and size-controllable short peptide/Au nanoparticles hybrid. Here, we report a facile and flexible co-assembly strategy for the construction of tripeptide coated Au nanorods (AuNRs). The tripeptide (Phe-Phe-Cys, FFC) grows via covalently crosslinking to form spheres. The size of the core@shell nanospheres can be controlled by modulating the amount or size of AuNRs. Especially, the concentration of AuNRs fixes the amount of seeds, which further affect the local concentration of FFC on the surface of AuNRs seed, leading to a narrower diameter of hybrid compared to FFC spheres. Moreover, owing to their synergistic effects, this hybrid exhibits a good adsorption capacity of Hg2+ from aqueous solutions by electrostatic interaction and forming into Au/Hg amalgam. This strategy could be extended to the fabrication of other biomolecules and metal nanoparticle hybrids with diverse functions.