BINA

Although non-alkaline rechargeable Zn–air batteries (RZABs) are promising for energy storage, their chemistry is still underdeveloped and unclear. It was suggested that using Zn(OAc)2 or Zn(OTf)2 aqueous solutions as electrolytes enables reversible, corrosion-free charge–discharge processes, but the anodic stability of carbon in these cells has remained poorly studied. We report that CO2 evolution is manifested during the oxygen evolution reaction in non-alkaline RZABs, which is associated with the corrosion of carbon scaffolds. This corrosion is observed for different electrolyte compositions, such as Zn(OAc)2, ZnSO4 and Zn(OTf)2 solutions of various concentrations. The corrosion rate decreases when the overpotentials during the oxygen evolution reaction are lower. This study underlines the importance of addressing the anodic instability of carbon in non-alkaline RZABs.

The arginine‐glycine‐glutamic acid (RGD) sequence, an αvβ3 integrin recognition site, is overexpressed in malignancies and neovasculature, making it a potential therapeutic target. Here, we assess efficacy/safety of tumor‐targeted RGD‐based proteinoid nanocapsules (NCs) entrapping a synergistic combination of two drugs – palbociclib (Pal), a CDK4/6 inhibitor, and alpelisib (Alp), a P13K inhibitor, as a cancer treatment. P(RGD) proteinoid polymers are produced by thermal step‐growth polymerization of R, G and D under inert atmosphere. P(RGD) NCs, hollow and encapsulating 25 w% each of Pal and Alp, are formed by self‐assembly of the proteinoid polymer. The encapsulation yields of Pal and Alp were 72% and 95%, respectively. Long‐term stability, controlled release, cellular uptake, and synergistic cytotoxicity and induced cell death are evident from in‐vitro experiments. Findings from in‐vivo breast …

Electrolysis of sea water is regarded as the most appealing and promising approach for the generation of hydrogen green energy, and even it lowers the cost of hydrogen production. However, for seawater electrolysis, highly efficient and robust electrocatalysts that can withstand chloride corrosion on the electrodes, particularly the anode, are required. Here, we present the synthesis of nickel molybdenum phosphide engineered with ruthenium supported on nickel foam (Ru22NiMoP2/NF) by a hydrothermal technique followed by reactions under autogenic pressure at elevated temperatures (RAPET) in a Swagelok, which demonstrated excellent electrocatalytic activity in alkaline sea water. For the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), Ru22NiMoP2/NF requires low overpotentials of 60 and 52 mV to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm−2 compared to commercial Pt/C/NF (65 & 130 mV) in alkaline and alkaline sea …

The realization of lithium–oxygen (Li–O2) batteries has been impeded by parasitic reactions that cause cell component degradation, often accompanied by the release of CO2 gas during oxidation reactions. The use of halide-based redox mediators (RMs) like LiBr and LiI has been proposed as a strategy to reduce overpotentials during oxygen evolution reactions and thus suppress the subsequent evolution of CO2. However, there is a scarcity of research examining the effectiveness of these RMs in the direct mitigation of parasitic reactions. In this study, we investigated the evolution of CO2 during the oxidation processes using an online electrochemical mass spectrometer. The results show that cells without RMs exhibited high overpotentials and significant CO2 evolution from the first charging cycle. In contrast, the addition of 50 mM LiI to the electrolyte resulted in a delay in CO2 evolution, observed only after …

Ultrasonic irradiation of molten metals in liquid media causes dispersion of the metals into suspensions of micro- and nanoparticles that can be separated. This is applicable mainly to low-mp elemental metals or alloys, but higher mp elemental metals or alloys were also reported. Among metals, mercury and gallium exhibit especially-low melting points and are thus considered as liquid metals (LMs). Sonication of mercury in aqueous solutions of certain metal ions can cause simultaneous reduction of the ions and reactions between the metals. Gallium can be melted and sonicated in warm water, as well as in aqueous solutions of various solutes such as metal ions and organic compounds, which opened a wide window of interactions between the gallium particles and the solutes. Sonication of molten metals in organic liquids, such as polyethylene glycol (PEG) 400, forms carbon dots (C-dots) doped with …

Climate change calls for a change in the way we use and produce energy, and carbon-free has become the future direction of energy production and utilization. To obtain this, we must rely on sustainable energy sources such as wind and sun, but their intermittence limits the production of clean energy to only a few hours a day. To overcome this issue, energy storage and production technologies must be developed. Although several technologies have been proposed, the only viable scheme that could allow short-to-long-term storage and efficient energy transportation at-scale is the hydrogen economy, which relies on three pillars of technology: electrolyzers, hydrogen storage and fuel cells. In recent years, there have been rapid technological advances in hydrogen production, new hydrogen storage materials, and high-performance hydrogen fuel cells, etc. However, there are still numerous technological difficulties …

A sustainable future based on hydrogen fuel rests on the rapid advancement of non-precious metal catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). We demonstrate the efficient utilisation in the analysis of a large compositional space of binary NiFe and ternary NiFeV alloys for OER using a combinatorial method. We fabricated a gradient library of these multi-metal alloys using physical vapor deposition and characterised them using high-throughput techniques. The electrocatalytic OER activity was studied using an automated electrochemical scanning droplet cell (SDC) set-up designed in our lab. From the overpotential (@10 mA cm−2) heatmaps of the libraries, the compositional regime of interest is funnelled down to 10–15% of Fe and 85–90% of Ni for the NiFe alloy and 1–3% V, 10–15% Fe, and 80–90% Ni for the NiFeV alloy with their overpotential values falling between 300–320 mV. Due to its oxidation …

Emerging energy storage systems based on abundant and cost-effective materials are key to overcome the global energy and climate crisis of the 21st century. Rechargeable Magnesium Batteries (RMB), based on Earth-abundant magnesium, can provide a cheap and environmentally responsible alternative to the benchmark Li-ion technology, especially for large energy storage applications. Currently, RMB technology is the subject of intense research efforts at laboratory scale. However, these emerging approaches must be placed in a real-world perspective to ensure that they satisfy key technological requirements. In an attempt to bridge the gap between laboratory advancements and industrial development demands, herein, we report the first non-aqueous multilayer RMB pouch cell prototypes and propose a roadmap for a new advanced RMB chemistry. Through this work, we aim to show the great unrealized …

T-cell diversity is crucial for producing effective receptors that can recognize the pathogens encountered throughout life. A stochastic biological process known as VDJ recombination accounts for the high diversity of these receptors, making their analysis challenging. We present a new approach to sequence encoding and analysis, based on the Lempel-Ziv 76 algorithm (LZ-76). By creating a graph-like model, we identify specific sequence features and produce a new encoding approach to an individual's repertoire. We demonstrate that this repertoire representation allows for various applications, such as generation probability inference, informative feature vector derivation, sequence generation, and a new measure for diversity estimation.

Gene editing promises the ultimate cure for genetic diseases by directly correcting disease-causing variants. However, the first clinical trials have chased the “low hanging fruit” using editing strategies that rely on gene disruption by introducing double-strand DNA breaks that lead to insertions and deletions (indels) by the NHEJ pathway. Since NHEJ is constitutively active throughout the cell cycle and the default DNA repair pathway, this is by far the most efficient type of conventional gene editing as opposed to homology-directed repair (HDR). HDR relies on delivery of an exogenous repair template and this pathway is active only in the S and G2 phases of the cell cycle. These two parameters constitute challenges in clinical use of HDR since exogenous DNA is toxic in most therapeutically relevant cell types and since the inherent competition between NHEJ and HDR can be a bottleneck. However, HDR benefits …

New naphthocorrole ligands, display both the cavity size of corroles and the dianionic character of porphyrins. Nonaromatic and yet flaunting deceptively porphyrin-like optical spectra, they are readily accessible via a simple protocol.

Lithiated oxides like Li[NixCoyMnz]O2 (x+y+z=1) with high nickel content (x≥0.8) can possess high specific capacity ≥ 200 mAhg-1 and have attracted extensive attention as perspective cathode materials for advanced lithium-ion batteries. In this work, we synthesized LiNi0.9Co0.1O2 (NC90) materials and studied their structural characteristics, electrochemical performance, and thermal behavior in Li-cells. We developed modified cationic-doped NC90 samples with greatly improved properties due to doping with Mo6+ and B3+ and dual doping via simultaneous modification with these dopants. The main results of the current study are significantly higher capacity retention, greatly reduced voltage hysteresis, and considerably decreased charge-transfer resistance of the Mo and Mo-B doped electrodes compared to the undoped ones upon prolonged cycling. We also revealed remarkable microstructural stability of …

Machine-learning methods (ML) have shown great potential in the adaptive immune receptor repertoire (AIRR) field. However, there is a lack of large-scale ground-truth experimental AIRR data suitable for AIRR-ML-based disease diagnostics and therapeutics discovery. Simulated ground-truth AIRR data are required to complement the development and benchmarking of robust and interpretable AIRR-ML approaches where experimental data is inaccessible or insufficient as of yet. The challenge for simulated data to be useful is the ability to incorporate key features observed in experimental repertoires. These features, such as complex antigen or disease-associated immune information, cause AIRR-ML problems to be challenging. Here, we introduce LIgO, a modular software suite, which simulates AIRR data for the development and benchmarking of AIRR-based machine learning. LIgO incorporates different types of immune information both on the receptor and the repertoire level and preserves native-like generation probability distribution. Additionally, LIgO assists users in determining the computational feasibility of their simulations. We show two examples where LIgO simulation supports the development and validation of AIRR-ML methods: (1) how individuals carrying out-of-distribution immune information impacts receptor-level prediction performance and (2) how immune information co-occurring in the same AIRs have an impact on the performance of conventional receptor-level encoding and repertoire-level classification approaches. The LIgO software guides the advancement and assessment of interpretable AIRR-ML methods.

Micro- and Nano-particles are elemental for many current and developing technologies. Specifically, these particles are being extensively used in biological studies and applications, including imaging, drug delivery and therapeutics. Recent advances have led to the development of multifunctional particles, which have the potential to further enhance their effectiveness, enabling novel applications. Therefore, many efforts are devoted to produce well-defined particles for specific needs. However, conventional fabrication methodologies utilized to develop particles are time consuming, making it extremely challenging to fine-tune properties of the particles for multifunctional applications. Herein, we present a simple and facile method to fabricate dome-shaped micron and nano particles by a robust physical route. The presented method enables to design particles with a vast range of materials, sizes and compositions …

New naphthocorrole ligands, display both the cavity size of corroles and the dianionic character of porphyrins. Nonaromatic and yet flaunting deceptively porphyrin-like optical spectra, they are readily accessible via a simple protocol.

Lithiated oxides like Li[NixCoyMnz]O2 (x+y+z=1) with high nickel content (x≥0.8) can possess high specific capacity ≥ 200 mAhg-1 and have attracted extensive attention as perspective cathode materials for advanced lithium-ion batteries. In this work, we synthesized LiNi0.9Co0.1O2 (NC90) materials and studied their structural characteristics, electrochemical performance, and thermal behavior in Li-cells. We developed modified cationic-doped NC90 samples with greatly improved properties due to doping with Mo6+ and B3+ and dual doping via simultaneous modification with these dopants. The main results of the current study are significantly higher capacity retention, greatly reduced voltage hysteresis, and considerably decreased charge-transfer resistance of the Mo and Mo-B doped electrodes compared to the undoped ones upon prolonged cycling. We also revealed remarkable microstructural stability of …

Unconventional superconductivity was realized in systems comprising a monolayer of magnetic adatoms adsorbed on conventional superconductors, forming Shiba‐bands. Another approach to induce unconventional superconductivity and 2D Shiba‐bands was recently introduced, namely, by adsorbing chiral molecules (ChMs) on conventional superconductors, which act in a similar way to magnetic impurities as verified by conductance spectroscopy. However, the fundamental effect ChMs have on the strength of superconductivity has not yet been directly observed and mapped. In this work, local magnetic susceptometry is applied on heterostructures comprising islands of ChMs (α‐helix L‐polyalanine) monolayers adsorbed on Nb. It is found that the ChMs alter the superconducting landscape, resulting in spatially‐modulated weaker superconductivity. Surprisingly, the reduced diamagnetic response is located …

Endogenous gene knock-in using CRIPSR is becoming the standard for fluorescent tagging of endogenous proteins. Some protocols, particularly those that utilize insert cassettes that carry a fluorescent protein tag, can yield many types of cells with off-target insertions that have diffuse fluorescent signal throughout the whole cell in addition to scarce cells with on-target gene insertions that show the correct sub-cellular localization of the tagged protein. As such, when searching for cells with on-target integration using flow cytometry, the off-target fluorescent cells yield a high percentage of false positives. Here, we show that by changing the gating used to select for fluorescence during flow cytometry sorting, namely utilizing the width of the signal as opposed to the area, we can highly enrich for positively integrated cells. Reproducible gates were created to select for even minuscule percentages of correct subcellular signal, and these parameters were validated by fluorescence microscopy. This method is a powerful tool to rapidly enhance the generation of cell-lines with correctly integrated gene knock-ins encoding endogenous fluorescent proteins.

A sustainable future based on hydrogen fuel rests its faith on the rapid advancement of non-precious metal catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). We demonstrate the efficient utilisation in the analysis of a large compositional space of binary NiFe and ternary NiFeV alloys for OER using a combinatorial method. We fabricated a gradient library of these multi metal alloys using physical vapor deposition and characterised them using high-throughput techniques. The electrocatalytic OER activity was studied using an automated electrochemical scanning droplet cell (SDC) set up designed in our lab. From the overpotential (@10mA/cm2) heatmaps of the libraries, the compositional regime of interest is funnelled down to 10-15% of Fe and 85-90 % of Ni for the NiFe alloy and 1-3% V, 10-15% Fe, and 80-90% Ni for the NiFeV alloy with their overpotential values falling between 320 – 330 mV. Due to its oxidation …

Imaging and microscopy have played a very important role in biological research. In this commentary, we have provided a summary of the development of different imaging modalities and quantitative techniques as an introduction. We have briefly described the technique Statistical Parametrization of Cell Cytoskeleton (SPOCC) and evaluated it against similar techniques available. We have also discussed the advantages, short comings and future prospective of SPOCC both technically and biologically.

Regarding energy density, safety, cost, and sustainability rechargeable magnesium batteries are a very promising next-generation energy storage technology. However, for a successful commercialization of Mg batteries there are still some challenges to overcome. Generally, the high charge density of the bivalent cation causes strong coulomb interactions with anions and solvent molecules. Therefore, energetic barriers for desolvation and solid-state diffusion are usually very high, which can have a crucial impact on the battery performance. Former can significantly hinder the electron-transfer reaction,[1] whereas latter makes the choice of suitable cathode materials very challenging. For instance, it is wellknown that the morphology of an intercalation material can strongly influence the battery performance and smaller particles as well as thinner electrodes are common strategies for avoiding adverse effects of transport limitations. Moreover, the presence of chlorides can influence the intercalation process.[2] Up to date Chevrel phase (CP) Mo6S8 is considered as a benchmark intercalation cathode. In our contribution we carefully study this model system of a magnesium-ion battery to get a better understanding of how to overcome undesired limitations. Therefore, we present a newly-developed continuum model, which is able to describe the complex intercalation process of magnesium cations into a CP cathode (Fig. 1). The model considers not only the different thermodynamics and kinetics of the two intercalation sites of Mo6S8 and their interplay, but also the impact of the desolvation on the electrochemical reactions and possible ion …