Zhao Xiaomeng,Zhang Heng,Chan Kit-Ying,Huang Xinyue,Yang Yunfei,Shen Xi
Inspired by transport system in trees, a two-way water and salt transport mechanism is realized in a structurally graded aerogel, enabling simultaneous fast water uptake and salt rejection.
The horizontally aligned pore channels near the surface achieve excellent heat localization by maximizing solar absorption and minimizing heat loss.
The integrated water, salt, and thermal transports impart an impressive evaporation rate of 1.94 kg m −2 h −1 in a 20 wt% NaCl solution for 8 h without salt accumulation.
Qieyuan Gao,Bo Weng,Pengrui Jin,Shushan Yuan,Xiahui Gui,Junfeng Zheng,Daliang Xu,Yue Wang,Alexander Volodine,Li Sun,Bart Van der Bruggen
Separation of dyes and salts from textile wastewater is essential for the secondary utilization of resources. Here in, with supramolecular β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) and mussel-inspired polydopamine (pDA) as building blocks, an super-selectiveand highly water permeable photocatalytic membrane with a stable intermediate layer of AgBr-Ag 3 PO 4 photocatalyst was developed by in-situ formation of AgBr-Ag 3 PO 4 photocatalyst via in-situ formation, in which the β-CD with an inherent cavity was used to formed honeycomb microstructures via host–guest interaction with pDA. The optimized photocatalytic membrane, demonstrated a superior-separation performance with a water permeance of 101.3 LMH bar −1 , while achieved a high rejection of all tested dyes of up to 99% and high salt transport of from synthetic dyes textile wastewater. Under visible light, the AgBr-Ag 3 PO 4 layer exhibited ∼ 100% degradation of dyes attaching on the membrane surface, endowing the membrane with excellent photocatalytic self-cleaning ability. Combining with material and membrane characterization, the separation performance of the membrane was rationalized, demonstrating the advantages of the host–guest interaction between β-CD and pDA and in-situ photocatalytic functionalization. This study guides the rapid separation of angstrom-sized molecules in the membrane separation process.
A nanochannel-based electrochemical immunoassay was developed for the detection of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), with molybdate as the reporter to explore the interaction occurring into the nanochannels. The presence of target increased steric hindrance of the antibody-functionalized nanochannels, thereby hindering the transport of molybdate. And the reporter could be monitored by working electrode modified with hydroxyapatite nanoparticles, based on the formation of the redox-active molybdophosphate. As a result, peak current obtained at ca. − 0.28 V in square wave voltammograms could be applied to quantitative determination of HER2. The electrochemical signal increased linearly with the logarithm of the concentration of HER2 in a broad dynamic range of 0.1 pg∙mL −1 to 10 ng∙mL −1 with a detection limit of 0.05 pg∙mL −1 . The reliability of this immunoassay was validated by a recovery range of 99.5% to 111.7% for the detection of three different levels of HER2 in human serum samples. Integrating with multiple bionanochannels, this immunoassay is expected to provide a versatile approach for quantitative detection of various biomarkers in related disease diagnosis and therapy. Graphical Abstract