Notes

Growing role involving trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) inside digestive tract cancers.
Optical anticounterfeiting, typically using luminescent materials to encode and unveil hidden patterns, plays an essential role in countering fraud in trademark, document security, food industry, and public safety. However, this technique is often realized through color-encoded fashion and in the visible range, preventing high-order encryption as well as visualization through scattering layers. Here, we describe a set of shortwave infrared (SWIR)-emitting lanthanide-doped nanoparticles with precisely controlled luminescence lifetime, which can be utilized as temporary codes for multilevel anticounterfeiting through opaque layers. To achieve this, we devise a core/shell/shell/shell structure of NaYF4Yb3+/Er3+ @ NaYbF4 @ NaYF4 @ NaYF4Nd3+, in which the inert NaYF4 shell acts as an energy-retarding layer to regulate energy flow from the outmost light-harvesting layer to the inner core domain to produce long-lived SWIR luminescence at 1532 nm. A precise control of the NaYF4 layer thickness enables yielding a precisely defined lifetime tunable between ∼3 and 10 ms, yet without compromising luminescence intensities. Importantly, optical patterns of these lifetime-encoded core/multishell nanoparticles are able to dynamically show a multitude of secured images in the time domain at defined time points through opaque plastic and biomimetic intralipid layers (about half a centimeter thick). Our temporal optical multiplexing results, demonstrated here in multilevel anticounterfeiting, have implications for optical data storage, biosensing, diagnostics, and nanomedicine.New ultrathin and multifunctional electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding materials are required for protecting electronics against electromagnetic pollution in the fifth-generation networks and Internet of Things era. Micrometer-thin Ti3C2Tx MXene films have shown the best EMI shielding performance among synthetic materials so far. Yet, the effects of elemental composition, layer structure, and transition-metal arrangement on EMI shielding properties of MXenes have not been explored, despite the fact that more than 30 different MXenes have been reported, and many more are possible. Here, we report on a systematic study of EMI shielding properties of 16 different MXenes, which cover single-metal MXenes, ordered double-metal carbide MXenes, and random solid solution MXenes of M and X elements. This is the largest set of MXene compositions ever reported in a comparative study. Films with thicknesses ranging from nanometers to micrometers were produced by spin-casting, spray-coating, and vacuum-assisted filtration. All MXenes achieved effective EMI shielding (>20 dB) in micrometer-thick films. The EMI shielding effectiveness of sprayed Ti3C2Tx film with a thickness of only ∼40 nm reaches 21 dB. Adjustable EMI shielding properties were achieved in solid solution MXenes with different ratios of elements. A transfer matrix model was shown to fit EMI shielding data for highly conductive MXenes but could not describe the behavior of materials with low conductivity. This work shows that many members of the large MXene family can be used for EMI shielding, contributing to designing ultrathin, flexible, and multifunctional EMI shielding films benefiting from specific characteristics of individual MXenes.We investigated the yield and distribution of macrocyclic products formed in combinatorial libraries (CLs) obtained via double-amidation reactions of methyl diesters with α,ω-diamines. The application of the static combinatorial chemistry (SCC) approach allowed us to generate a large number of macrocyclic diamides and tetraamides in single experiments. We show that high-pressure conditions accelerate the macrocyclization process but also have a great impact on the distribution of macrocyclic products in the presented libraries, promoting the formation of macrocyclic compounds and eliminating the linear ones. The distribution of macrocyclic products was also found to be strongly dependent on the structural features of the substrates employed. Furthermore, in three- and four-substrate CLs we observed the formation of a new type of hybrid tetraamides consisting of three different components.Detailed understanding of charge diffusion processes in a lithium-ion battery is crucial to enable its systematic improvement. Experimental investigation of diffusion at the interface between active particles and the electrolyte is challenging but warrants investigation as it can introduce resistances that, for example, limit the charge and discharge rates. Here, we show an approach to study diffusion at interfaces using muon spin spectroscopy. By performing measurements on LiFePO4 platelets with different sizes, we determine how diffusion through the LiFePO4 (010) interface differs from that in the center of the particle (i.e., bulk diffusion). We perform ab initio calculations to aid the understanding of the results and show the relevance of our interfacial diffusion measurement to electrochemical performance through cyclic voltammetry measurements. read more These results indicate that surface engineering can be used to improve the performance of lithium-ion batteries.Despite the unceasing flourishing of intelligent actuators, it still remains a huge challenge to design mechanically robust soft actuators with the characteristics of three-dimensional (3D) programmability, reconfigurability, and recyclability. Here, we utilize fully bioderived natural polymers to fabricate biomass soft actuators (BioSA) integrating all above features through an ingenious microstructure design. BioSA consists of an interconnected inverse opal-mimetic skeleton of sodium alginate (NaAlg) and a continuous matrix of epoxidized natural rubber (ENR), with exchangeable β-hydroxyl ester linkages at their interfaces. The hydrophilic nature and interconnected structure of the NaAlg skeleton endow BioSA with exceedingly acute humidity response and robust mechanical properties. Meanwhile, the dynamic nature of β-hydroxyl ester linkages enables the design of complex 3D structured soft actuators with reconfigurability and recyclability. Since both ENR and NaAlg are derived from natural resources, and the water-based manufacturing process is extremely facile and environmentally friendly, this work provides a novel strategy to fabricate 3D programmable intelligent actuators with both robust mechanical properties and sustainability.
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