Mengyao She

Tetracycline hydrochloride is a common aquatic contaminant and poses significant risks to environmental and human health. However, developing high-performance removal materials with good recyclability remains a challenge. The electron-deficient benzothiadiazole linker endowed these frameworks with visible-light absorption capability, while lanthanide nodes regulated ligand–metal electronic coupling and graphene oxide-mediated interfacial charge transfer, creating efficient photocatalyst composites (Ln-MOFs/GO) for TC degradation. The graphene oxide loading was optimized to obtain Ho/10-GO, which achieved 84.6% degradation of 10 ppm tetracycline (TC) hydrochloride within 40 min under visible-light irradiation after dark adsorption equilibrium had been reached. Encapsulating the composite in sodium alginate gel maintained a high pollutant removal rate over 15 catalytic cycles and enabled simple material recovery. Mechanistic studies combining radical-trapping tests and DMPO-based EPR measurements confirmed the generation of •O2– and indicated that the O2/electron-mediated pathway plays a key role in TC degradation. Structure–property analysis showed that the photocatalytic performance results from the visible-light-responsive benzothiadiazole units and the formation of type II heterojunctions, which improve photogenerated carrier separation. Ho/10-GO@Alg was also applied to visible-light-driven condensation–cyclization synthesis of benzothiazole derivatives. This research provides an effective strategy for TC degradation and offers insights into treating TC contaminants in aquatic environments.

Inorganic lead halide perovskite quantum dots (PQDs) feature exceptional optoelectronic properties but suffer from poor stability, limiting their commercial viability. This study employs a mechanochemical synthesis route utilizing shared cesium ion to synthesize CsPbBr₃ PQDs within supramolecular γ-cyclodextrin metal-organic frameworks (γ-CD-MOFs). The resulting CsPbBr₃@γ-CD-MOFs achieves high photoluminescence quantum yield (73%) alongside exceptional thermal, photochemical, and environmental stabilities. Mechanistic investigations reveal synergistic augmentation effects: multianchored defect passivation via γ-CD hydroxyl groups, enhanced radiative recombination through type-I heterojunction-driven directional carrier injection, and suppression of ion migration and phase separation by MOFs' physical barriers and interfacial chemical bonds. The composite was successfully applied in white light-emitting diodes, boasting color rendering index of 90.1 and color gamut coverage of 115%. Furthermore, benefiting from the good biocompatibility imparted by γ-CD-MOFs, the composite serves as fluorescent probe for specific labeling and imaging of lysosomes in living cells. This supramolecular-MOFs strategy provides design principles for developing stable, efficient, and biologically compatible PQDs, accelerating their optoelectronic and bioimaging applications.

Lipid droplets (LDs) are multifunctional organelles essential for lipid storage, metabolic regulation, and cellular homeostasis, and their dysregulation is closely associated with the onset and progression of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). Sensitive and specific fluorescent imaging of LDs dynamics is crucial for elucidating MASLD pathogenesis and accelerating the development of effective therapeutics. Herein, we report near-infrared fluorescent carbon dots (NIR-FCDs) with precise LDs-targeting capability and enabling high-contrast imaging of LDs distribution in AML-12 cells and MASLD mice model, exhibiting high brightness (QY: 8.6%), deep-tissue penetration (75 μm), excellent photostability (>3 h continuous irradiation), and superior signal-to-background (SBR = 26). Leveraging these properties, NIR-FCDs was applied for visualizing pathological lipid accumulation in MASLD mice models and demonstrated their utility in a drug-screening platform successfully. This work developed a robust NIR-FCDs for LDs-specific imaging and highlighted its potential to advance mechanistic studies and therapeutic discovery in metabolic liver diseases.

Electroconversion of acetylene towards polymer-grade ethylene (EAE) is recognized as a promising substitution for thermo-catalytic route. The excessive active-hydrogen supplies a high current density induces the conspicuous hydrogen evolution, reducing the ethylene Faradaic efficiency (FE). Here, we develop a Cu-Pd single atom alloy (SAA) catalyst, achieving a 90.5% FE with a large ethylene partial current density of −1.16 A cm⁻², and maintain stability for 110 h at −0.2 A cm⁻² in the flow-cell system. In membrane electrode assembly, Cu-Pd SAA delivers a 90.1% ethylene FE and ~100 % conversion at −2.5 A (−0.1 A cm⁻²), along with 500 h stability for crude ethylene purification. Combined in-situ spectroscopy and DFT calculation reveal that the catalyst facilitates the direct hydrogenation of acetylene via Pd-H species rather than hydrogen spillover. This mechanism concurrently lowers the EAE energy barrier and suppresses the hydrogen evolution reaction. This work provides insights for designing high-efficiency electrocatalysts for hydrogenation electrosynthesis.

Selecting metal nodes on the basis of their electronic configurations is crucial for enhancing the photocatalytic performance of Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). However, regulation of the inherent structure-performance relationship of MOFs by rational selection of metal nodes remains largely unknown. To address this issue, two boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY)-based MOFs, Co-MOF and Zn-MOF, featuring identical ligands but distinct metal centers, were constructed. Replacing Zn(II) with Co(II) transforms the framework from a dense 3-fold interpenetrating structure to a more open 2-fold interpenetrating structure, which increases the pore size and solvent-accessible volume (25.6% vs 40.2%). Moreover, the 3d⁷ electronic configuration of Co(II) facilitates rapid ligand-to-metal charge transfer (LMCT) and enhances photogenerated charge separation. Consequently, compared with the Zn-MOF, the Co-MOF demonstrates superior photocatalytic activity in both N-demethylation of tertiary amines and C-3 formylation of indoles. Particularly, this is the first time that MOFs based on BODIPY ligands have achieved photocatalytic conversion in these two organic reactions. This work discusses that the selection of metal nodes is a key factor in achieving the synergistic regulation of the structure and photoelectric properties of MOFs.

Hard-healing wounds are a serious issue faced by diabetic patients, and the cellular autophagy level is closely related to the wound healing progress. However, it is difficult to monitor the real-time autophagy levels in living organisms. In this work, we provided a new autophagy fluorescent sensor IN-NH₂ based on the modification of 2-substituted quinoline, giving an excellent ability to quantify the pH fluctuation in lysosomes during autophagy. This sensor was successfully applied in the real-time monitoring of autophagy levels in a wound healing model of diabetic rats, showing potential for exploring the internal mechanism between autophagy and disease progression.

A modular protocol that achieved the efficient synthesis of imidazo[2,1-b][1,3,4]thiadiazoles/selenadiazoles via using easily available N-tosylhydrazones, chalcone derivatives, and KSCN/KSeCN is proposed. The method overcomes the elongated synthesis steps and prefunctionalized synthons of previous methods. It solves the problem of traditional preparation methods, which makes it difficult to synthesize thickened selenium-containing heterocyclic molecules, further expanding the number of members in its family. The fluorescence of these compounds also reveals the potential values of the scaffolds we synthesized.

Accurate quantification of cisplatin (cDDP) in body fluids (blood, urine, and ascites) is crucial in monitoring therapeutic processes, assessing drug metabolism, and optimizing treatment schedules for cancer patients. Nonetheless, due to the inherent fluorescence and complexity of the body fluid matrix, along with the low cDDP concentrations in these fluids during treatment, using fluorescent sensors for fluid detection remains a subject of ongoing research. Herein, a series of water-soluble cDDP-activatable fluorescent sensors was rationally constructed by introducing thioether groups to the xanthene skeleton based on the chalcogenophilicity of platinum. These sensors exhibit excellent sensitivity and certain anti-interference capabilities for sensing cDDP in living cells, rat tissues, and zebrafish. Especially, with a simplified sample pretreatment procedure, for the first time, Rh3 and Rh4 have enabled quantitative detection of cDDP levels in diversiform body fluids from clinical ovarian and bladder cancer patients. These results are highly consistent with those obtained by ICP-MS detection. This work paves the way for utilizing fluorescent sensors in clinical body fluid analysis, thus potentially revolutionizing the monitoring methods of cDDP in clinic settings.

A green and efficient one-pot photocatalytic synthetic methodology was presented for fabrication of thiadiazole/selenadiazole derivatives with good group tolerance, safe conditions, and high yields.