Zunli Mo

Phenylalanine (Phe) enantiomers participate differently in biological metabolism, making their enantioselective recognition important for understanding chiral amino‐acid interactions and developing enantioselective analytical interfaces. However, low‐cost and environmentally benign chiral electrochemical interfaces remain difficult to construct because many natural chiral selectors have poor conductivity and limited exposure of effective recognition sites. Here, we report a dual‐starch/graphene oxide chiral electrochemical recognition platform for Phe enantiomers. A composite polysaccharide (CS/SPS) was prepared from corn starch (CS) and sweet potato starch (SPS), and graphene oxide (GO) was introduced as an electroactive substrate to construct CS/SPS/GO/glassy carbon electrode (GCE). Compared with either single‐starch layer, the dual‐starch assembly provides a better‐dispersed polysaccharide microenvironment with more accessible hydrogen‐bonding and stereochemical recognition sites, while GO enhances interfacial electron transfer. The CS/SPS/GO/GCE interface produced a markedly stronger differential pulse voltammetry response toward L‐Phe than toward D‐Phe. Under optimized conditions (pH 6.0, 20 °C, 20 s incubation, and 5 mM Phe), the peak current ratio of L‐Phe to D‐Phe reached 3.47, exceeding those obtained with single‐polysaccharide‐modified electrodes. The interface showed good selectivity over representative interfering molecules, tolerance toward K ⁺ and Na ⁺ , and storage stability, retaining 98.7% of its initial response after 16 days. Ultraviolet–visible (UV–vis) analysis gave higher apparent binding affinity for L‐Phe than for D‐Phe based on the mass concentration of CS/SPS ( K _L = 0.3095 mL mg ⁻¹ and K _D = 0.1516 mL mg ⁻¹ ), and DFT calculations supported a more favorable L‐Phe–associated complex under the same simplified host model. This work provides a simple strategy for constructing biomass‐derived polysaccharide/graphene chiral interfaces for amino‐acid enantioselective electrochemical recognition.

Developing electrocatalysts of remarkable potency, rapid charge transfer, and lasting durability is crucial for improving electrocatalytic performance toward the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Here, a nickel hexacyanoferrate-anchored covalent triazine framework-coated carbon nanotube composite catalyst (NiHCF@CTF/CNT) was fabricated through a one-step hydrothermal strategy. In this core−shell hierarchical architecture, the CNT serves as a conductive inner core, CTF provides a nitrogen-rich confined interface and anchoring sites, and NiHCF is loaded on the outer surface as a Ni/Fe bimetallic active precursor. Benefiting from optimized interfacial coupling and more accessible active sites, NiHCF@CTF/CNT exhibits excellent OER performance in 1 M KOH, requiring only 275 mV to deliver 10 mA cm−2, with a low Tafel slope of 42.97 mV dec−1, while maintaining stable operation for 300 h. Combined experimental and theoretical analyses reveal favorable electronic structure reconstruction of the surface Ni/Fe sites, which optimizes intermediate adsorption and lowers the reaction energy barrier. This study provides a viable strategy for developing high-durability composite OER electrocatalysts.

Laboratory instruction remains a central feature of secondary chemistry education because it links abstract chemical ideas to observable phenomena, supports practical skill development, and provides opportunities for scientific inquiry. In recent years, research on school chemistry laboratories has expanded across inquiry-oriented practical work, technology-supported and virtual laboratories, and green or microscale approaches. However, this literature is often organized by innovation type rather than by a shared pedagogical logic, making it difficult to compare what different laboratory designs are intended to accomplish, what they enable, and what constraints accompany their use. This paper presents a journal-bounded critical review of secondary chemistry laboratory instruction studies published in Journal of Chemical Education and Chemistry Education Research and Practice between 2016 and 2025. The review was guided by the analytical lenses of pedagogical aims, affordances, and trade-offs and informed by a transparent process of studies identification, selection, and coding. A total of 79 studies were included in the review. Rather than cataloging laboratory innovations by type alone, the review examines how different laboratory designs align with different educational purposes and how their pedagogical promise is shaped by classroom realities. Across the 79 studies, conceptual understanding remained a dominant aim, but many studies also emphasized inquiry, evidence use, scientific reasoning, student engagement, and, in some cases, equity and sustainability. Inquiry-oriented designs, digital and sensor-based approaches, and green or microscale formats each offered distinctive pedagogical affordances. At the same time, these benefits were frequently accompanied by trade-offs involving time, curriculum pressure, teacher facilitation demands, resource availability, technology access, and uneven implementation conditions. This review shifts attention from laboratory formats alone to the pedagogical decisions that shape laboratory teaching within a bounded but influential subset of chemistry education research. It argues that the value of a laboratory design lies less in novelty than in its alignment with intended learning goals under real instructional conditions. The findings have implications for classroom practice, curriculum design, teacher education, and future research on secondary chemistry laboratory instruction.

The enantioselective recognition of biomolecules such as amino acids has significant value in medicine, life sciences, agriculture, and other fields. In this study, a novel electrochemical chiral sensor, CS@Cu‐β‐CD/GCE, was successfully prepared by self‐assembling Cu ²⁺ modified β‐cyclodextrin (β‐CD) with chitosan (CS) and coating it onto a glassy carbon electrode (GCE). This method effectively addresses the agglomeration issues associated with CS while significantly enhancing the conductive properties of the material and increasing the number of chiral recognition sites. Experimental testing and structural analysis revealed that differentiated hydrogen bonding provides the driving force for molecular binding, while the confinement of the Cu‐β‐CD cavity and steric hindrance enable structure selection. At optimized testing conditions (30 s incubation, 25°C, pH = 6.0, 5.0 mM), it exhibited the peak current ratio (I _D /I _L ) of up to 2.25 for phenylalanine (Phe) isomers, outperforming most previously reported electrochemical sensors. Meanwhile, the CS@Cu‐β‐CD/GCE exhibits excellent stability (98.6% signal retention after 16 days of storage at 5°C), high enantiomeric selectivity for Phe, and good resistance to interference, can be developed for distinguishing racemic phenylalanine. This strategy provides a simple and efficient approach for electrochemical chiral identification of Phe enantiomers and holds wide‐ranging application prospects in chiral sensing and drug analysis.

STEAM education is the integration of content and methods from multiple disciplines, including science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics. C-STEAM education highlights the discipline of chemistry and incorporates excellent traditional Chinese culture. Project-based learning provides students with a more practical, innovative, and engaging learning experience. Therefore, the C-STEAM interdisciplinary project-based activity design, rooted in traditional Chinese culture, is the best way to cultivate students’ comprehensive qualities, innovative thinking, interdisciplinary abilities, and cultural confidence. This study took constructivism and situational learning theory as the theoretical support of the three-level teaching framework of “project - task – activity” by selecting the famous work “A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains” by Wang Ximeng of the Song Dynasty as the material to create a situation for the design of C-STEAM interdisciplinary project-based activities. We constructed a comprehensive evaluation system of four dimensions: scientific inquiry, innovative thinking, interdisciplinary application, and cultural understanding. Furthermore, we provided an operational example for the in-depth integration of excellent traditional Chinese culture into the basic education curriculum. We offered local experience to develop international C-STEAM education.