Thermal storage cement-based materials, formed by integrating phase change materials into cementitious materials, exhibit significant potential as energy storage materials. However, poor thermal conductivity severely limits the development and application of these materials. In this study, an amorphous SiO2 shell is encapsulated on a graphite surface to create a novel thermally modified admixture (C@SiO2). This material exhibits excellent thermal conductivity, and the surface-encapsulated amorphous SiO2 enhances its bond with cement. Further, C@SiO2 was added to the thermal storage cement-based materials at different volume ratios. The effects of C@SiO2 were evaluated by measuring the fluidity, thermal conductivity, phase change properties, temperature change, and compressive strength of various thermal storage cement-based materials. The results indicate that the newly designed thermal storage cement-based material with 10 vol% C@SiO2 increases the thermal conductivity coefficient by 63.6% and the latent heat of phase transition by 11.2% compared to common thermal storage cement-based materials. Moreover, C@SiO2 does not significantly impact the fluidity and compressive strength of the thermal storage cement-based material. This study suggests that C@SiO2 is a promising additive for enhancing thermal conductivity in thermal storage cement-based materials. The newly designed thermal storage cement-based material with 10 vol% C@SiO2 is a promising candidate for energy storage applications.

The photocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) in aqueous solution is a green and sustainable strategy for ammonia production. Nonetheless, the efficiency of the process still has a wide gap compared to that of the Haber-Bosch one due to the difficulty of N2 activation and the quick recombination of photo-generated carriers. Herein, a core-shell Bi@Bi2MoO6 microsphere through constructing Schottky junctions has been explored as a robust photocatalyst toward N2 reduction to NH3. Metal Bi self-reduced onto Bi2MoO6 not only spurs the photo-generated electron and hole separation owing to the Schottky junction at the interface of Bi and Bi2MoO6 but also promotes N2 adsorption and activation at Bi active sites synchronously. As a result, the yield of the photocatalytic N2-to-ammonia conversion reaches up to 173.40 μmol g-1 on core-shell Bi@Bi2MoO6 photocatalysts, as much as two times of that of bare Bi2MoO6. This work provides a new design for the decarbonization of the nitrogen reduction reaction by the utilization of renewable energy sources.

Recently, silica nanoparticles (NPs) have attracted considerable attention as biocompatible and stable templates for embedding noble metals. Noble-metal-embedded silica NPs utilize the exceptional optical properties of novel metals while overcoming the limitations of individual novel metal NPs. In addition, the structure of metal-embedded silica NPs decorated with small metal NPs around the silica core results in strong signal enhancement in localized surface plasmon resonance and surface-enhanced Raman scattering. This review summarizes recent studies on metal-embedded silica NPs, focusing on their unique designs and applications. The characteristics of the metal-embedded silica NPs depend on the type and structure of the embedded metals. Based on this progress, metal-embedded silica NPs are currently utilized in various spectroscopic applications, serving as nanozymes, detection and imaging probes, drug carriers, photothermal inducers, and bioactivation molecule screening identifiers. Owing to their versatile roles, metal-embedded silica NPs are expected to be applied in various fields, such as biology and medicine, in the future.

Selective oxidation of ethylbenzene to acetophenne is an important process in both organic synthesis and fine chemicals diligence. The cobalt-based catalysts combined with nitrogen-doped carbon have received great attention in ethylbenzene (EB) oxidation. Here, a series of cobalt catalysts with metallic cobalt nanoparticles (NPs) encapsulated in nitrogen-doped graphite-like carbon shells (Co@NC) have been constructed through the one-pot pyrolysis method in the presence of different nitrogen-containing compounds (urea, dicyandiamide and melamine), and their catalytic performance in solvent-free oxidation of EB with tert-butyl hydrogen peroxide (TBHP) as an oxidant was investigated. Under optimized conditions, the UCo@NC (urea as nitrogen source) could afford 95.2% conversion of EB and 96.0% selectivity to acetophenone, and the substrate scalability was remarkable. Kinetics show that UCo@NC contributes to EB oxidation with an apparent activation energy of 32.3 kJ/mol. The synergistic effect between metallic cobalt NPs and nitrogen-doped graphite-like carbon layers was obviously observed and, especially, the graphitic N species plays a key role during the oxidation reaction. The structure-performance relationship illustrated that EB oxidation was a free radical reaction through 1-phenylethanol as an intermediate, and the possible reaction mechanistic has been proposed.

Vinyl-capped cationic waterborne polyurethane (CWPU) was prepared using isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI), polycarbonate diol (PCDL), N-methyldiethanolamine (MDEA), and trimethylolpropane (TMP) as raw materials and hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) as a capping agent. Then, a crosslinked FPUA composite emulsion with polyurethane (PU) as the shell and fluorinated acrylate (PA) as the core was prepared by core-shell emulsion polymerization with CWPU as the seed emulsion, together with dodecafluoroheptyl methacrylate (DFMA), diacetone acrylamide (DAAM), and methyl methacrylate (MMA). The effects of the core-shell ratio of PA/PU on the surface properties, mechanical properties, and heat resistance of FPUA emulsions and films were investigated. The results showed that when w(PA) = 30~50%, the stability of FPUA emulsion was the highest, and the particles showed a core-shell structure with bright and dark intersections under TEM. When w(PA) = 30%, the tensile strength reached 23.35 ± 0.08 MPa. When w(PA) = 50%, the fluorine content on the surface of the coating film was 14.75% and the contact angle was as high as 98.5°, which showed good hydrophobicity; the surface flatness of the film was observed under AFM. It is found that the tensile strength of the film increases and then decreases with the increase in the core-shell ratio and the heat resistance of the FPUA film is gradually increased. The FPUA film has excellent properties such as good impact resistance, high flexibility, high adhesion, and corrosion resistance.

To address the thermal comfort needs of the human body, the development of personal thermal management textile is critical. Phase change materials (PCMs) have a wide range of applications in thermal management due to their large thermal storage capacity and their isothermal properties during phase change. However, their inherent low thermal conductivity and susceptibility to leakage severely limit their application range. In this study, polyethylene glycol (PEG) was used as the PCM and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) as the polymer backbone, and the thermal conductivity was increased by adding spherical nano-alumina (Al2O3). Utilizing coaxial electrospinning technology, phase-change thermoregulated nanofiber membranes with a core-shell structure were created. The study demonstrates that the membranes perform best in terms of thermal responsiveness and thermoregulation when 5% Al2O3 is added. The prepared nanofiber membranes have a melting enthalpy of 60.05 J·g-1 and retain a high enthalpy after 50 cycles of cold and heat, thus withstanding sudden changes in ambient temperature well. Additionally, the nanofiber membranes have excellent air permeability and high moisture permeability, which can increase wearer comfort. As a result, the constructed coaxial phase change thermoregulated nanofiber membranes can be used as a promising textile for personal thermal management.

The use of proteins as biomolecular templates to synthesize atomically precise metal nanoclusters has been gaining traction due to their appealing properties such as photoluminescence, good colloidal- and photostability and biocompatibility. The synergistic effect of using a protein scaffold and metal nanoclusters makes it especially attractive for biomedical applications. Unlike other reviews, we focus on proteins in general as the protective ligand for various metal nanoclusters and highlight their applications in the biomedical field. We first introduce the approaches and underlined principles in synthesizing protein-templated metal nanoclusters and summarize some of the typical proteins that have been used thus far. Afterwards, we highlight the key physicochemical properties and the characterization techniques commonly used for the size, structure and optical properties of protein-templated metal nanoclusters. We feature two case studies to illustrate the importance of combining these characterization techniques to elucidate the formation process of protein-templated metal nanoclusters. Lastly, we highlight the promising applications of protein-templated metal nanoclusters in three areas-biosensing, diagnostics and therapeutics.

Thermal stability is an important feature of the materials used as components and parts of sensors and other devices of nanoelectronics. Here we report the results of the computational study of the thermal stability of the triple layered Au@Pt@Au core-shell nanoparticles, which are promising materials for H2O2 bi-directional sensing. A distinct feature of the considered sample is the raspberry-like shape, due to the presence of Au nanoprotuberances on its surface. The thermal stability and melting of the samples were studied within classical molecular dynamics simulations. Interatomic forces were computed within the embedded atom method. To investigate the thermal properties of Au@Pt@Au nanoparticles, structural parameters such as Lindemann indexes, radial distribution functions, linear distributions of concentration, and atomistic configurations were calculated. As the performed simulations showed, the raspberry-like structure of the nanoparticle was preserved up to approximately 600 K, while the general core-shell structure was maintained up to approximately 900 K. At higher temperatures, the destruction of the initial fcc crystal structure and core-shell composition was observed for both considered samples. As Au@Pt@Au nanoparticles demonstrated high sensing performance due to their unique structure, the obtained results may be useful for the further design and fabrication of the nanoelectronic devices that are required to work within a certain range of temperatures.

A sensitive electrochemical molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) sensor was fabricated for detection of ezetimibe (Eze) as an effective cholesterol absorption inhibitor on the surface of a screen-printed carbon electrode based on a magnetic nanoparticle decorated with MIP (Fe3O4@MIP). Placing the magnetic nanoparticle inside the MIP increases the biocompatibility, surface-to-volume ratio, and sensitivity of the sensor. Methacrylic acid (MAA) was used as a monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) as a cross-linker, and Eze as a template. The fabricated Fe3O4@MIP was characterized using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Detection of Eze was achieved by differential pulse voltammetry. Using this sensor, Eze can be sensitively detected in the range of 1.0 nM-10 μM and detection limit of 0.7 nM. In addition, we have shown that the proposed sensor successfully detects different concentrations of Eze in human serum samples and thus proves its practical application.

A core-shell structure UiO-66-(OH)2@UiO-66-NH2 (MOF@MOF) nanoparticle was synthesized through a simple hydrothermal method and employed as an adsorbent and laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) matrix for the quantitative analysis of rhubarb anthraquinones (RAs). The properties of the materials were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller. The results indicate that MOF@MOF is regular octahedral structure with a size distribution of about 100 nm, having large BET specific surface area (920 m2/g). Using the MOF@MOF as a matrix shows lower background interference, higher sensitivity, and better storage stability than that of traditional matrices. The MOF@MOF matrix exhibits excellent salt tolerance even under a NaCl concentration of 150 mM. Then, the enrichment conditions were optimized, and the adsorption time of 10 min, adsorption temperature of 40 °C and adsorbent amount of 100 μg were selected. In addition, the possible mechanism of MOF@MOF as an adsorbent and matrix was discussed. Finally, the MOF@MOF nanoparticle was employed as a matrix for the sensitive MALDI-TOF-MS analysis of RAs in spiked rabbit plasma, and the recoveries are in the range of 88.3-101.5% with RSD ≤9.9%. In short, the novel MOF@MOF matrix has demonstrated its potential in the analysis of small-molecule compounds in biological samples.