A nitrogen-doped hollow carbon nanospheres-based aptasensor for non-invasive salivary detection of progesterone

Developing an easy-to-use and non-invasive sensor for monitoring progesterone (P4) as a multi-functional hormone is highly demanded for point-of-care testing. In this study, an ultrasensitive electrochemical aptasensor is fabricated for monitoring P4 in human biofluids. The sensing interface was designed based on the porous nitrogen-doped hollow carbon spheres (N-HCSs). The N-HCSs covalently immobilized high-dense aptamer (Apt) sequences as the bioreceptor of P4. The electron transfer of the redox probe was hindered by incubating P4 on the aptasensor surface and forming the P4-Apt complexes. Meanwhile, the signaling was decreased under two wide linear dynamic ranges (LDRs) from 10 fM to 5.6 μM with a limit of detection (LOD) value of 3.33 fM. The aptasensor presented satisfactory selectivity in the presence of different off-target species with successful feasibility for P4 detection in some human urine and saliva samples. The aptasensor with high sensitivity, as an advantage for on-site and sensitive measurement of P4, can be considered a non-invasive tool for routine analysis of real-world clinical samples method.

Regulation of Impedance Matching and Dielectric Loss Properties of N-Doped Carbon Hollow Nanospheres Modified With Atomically Dispersed Cobalt Sites for Microwave Energy Attenuation

The rational design of lightweight, broad-band, and high-performance microwave absorbers is urgently required for addressing electromagnetic pollution issue. Metal single atoms (M-SAs) absorbers receive considerable interest in the field of microwave absorption due to the unique electronic structures of M-SAs. However, the simultaneous engineering of the morphology and electronic structure of M-SAs based absorbers remains challenging. Herein, a template-assisted method is utilized to fabricate isolated Co-SAs on N-doped hollow carbon spheres (NHCS@Co-SAs) for high-performance microwave absorption. The combination of atomically dispersed Co sites and hollow supports endows NHCS@Co-SAs with excellent microwave absorption properties. Typically, at an ultralow filler content of 8 wt%, the minimum reflection loss and effective absorption bandwidth of the NHCS@Co-SAs are up to -44.96 dB and 5.25 GHz, respectively, while the absorbing thickness is only 2 mm. Theoretical calculations and experimental results indicate that the impedance matching characteristic and dielectric loss of the NHCSs can be tuned via the introduction of M-SAs, which are responsible for the excellent microwave absorption properties of NHCS@Co-SAs. This work provides an atomic-level insight into the relationship between the electronic states of absorbers and their microwave absorption properties for developing advanced microwave absorbers.

NiO/Ni Heterojunction on N-Doped Hollow Carbon Sphere with Balanced Dielectric Loss for Efficient Microwave Absorption

Hollow carbon spheres are potential candidates for lightweight microwave absorbers. However, the skin effect of pure carbon-based materials frequently induces a terrible impedance mismatching issue. Herein, small-sized NiO/Ni particles with heterojunctions on the N-doped hollow carbon spheres (NHCS@NiO/Ni) are constructed using SiO₂ as a sacrificing template. The fabricated NHCS@NiO/Ni displayed excellent microwave absorbability with a minimum reflection loss of -44.04 dB with the matching thickness of 2 mm and a wider efficient absorption bandwidth of 4.38 GHz with the thickness of 1.7 mm, superior to most previously reported hollow absorbers. Experimental results demonstrated that the excellent microwave absorption property of the NHCS@NiO/Ni are attributed to balanced dielectric loss and optimized impedance matching characteristic due to the presence of NiO/Ni heterojunctions. Theoretical calculations suggested that the redistribution of charge at the interfaces and formation of dipoles induced by N dopants and defects are responsible for the enhanced conduction and polarization losses of NHCS@NiO/Ni. The simulations for the surface current and power loss densities reveal that the NHCS@NiO/Ni has- applicable attenuation ability toward microwave under the practical application scenario. This work paves an efficient way for the reasonable design of small-sized particles with well-defined heterojunctions on hollow nanostructures for high-efficiency microwave absorption.

Imidazolium ionic Liquid-Regulated Sub-5-nm Pt(111) with a stable configuration anchored on hollow carbon nanoshells for efficient oxygen reduction

Here, N-doped hollow carbon sphere (NHCS)-supported (111)-plane-engineered sub-5-nm Pt (Pt-NHCS) catalysts regulated precisely by imidazolium ionic liquids were synthesized successfully and used to catalyze oxygen reduction. The (111)-plane engineered Pt nanocrystals with a diameter of 4.5 ± 0.5 nm were homogeneously deposited on the 3-dimensional spherical nanoshells. The resulting Pt nanocrystals anchored on the carbon skeleton exhibit a stable configuration in both alkaline and acid electrolytes with the help of imidazolium cations and pyrolysis. Among all as-prepared catalysts, the optimized Pt-NHCS shows remarkable long-term durability. Specifically, Pt-NHCS maintains 95.3% of the original current density after 10,000 potential cycles, while Pt/C benchmarks exhibit a retention of 78.5%. Accelerated durability test results indicate that Pt-NHCS exhibits a high efficiency of 96 % in comparison with initial current density, while a value of 86% for Pt/C. Density functional theory calculations demonstrate that reactive Pt(111) planes with well-defined Schottky defects and vacancies adsorb and activate oxygen molecule rapidly while desorbing the reaction intermediates.

CoS2 /N-Doped Hollow Spheres as an Anode Material for High-Performance Sodium-Ion Batteries

In this work, we first synthesized polyacrylic acid (PAA) spheres and then used PAA as a template to load Co(OH)₂ particles onto its surface. The product of CoS₂ nanoparticles dispersed in N-doped hollow spheres (N-HCS) was prepared through sulfurization treatment (CoS₂ /S@N-HCS). During the sulfuration process, sulfur penetrates into the PAA, embedding into the graphite layer along with the carbonization process. It was found that during the charging and discharging process, the sulfur in the carbon layer will gradually dissolve out, thereby forming new ion diffusion channels in the carbon spheres and exposing more CoS₂ active sites. The CoS₂ /S@N-HCS composite exhibits a specific capacity of 729.6 mAh g^-1 after 500 cycles at a current density of 1 A g^-1 . The sodium-storage mechanism and reaction kinetics of the materials were further measured by in-situ electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, ex-situ X-ray diffraction, capacitance performance evaluation, and galvanostatic intermittent titration technique. The excellent cycling performance and rate capability demonstrated that the CoS₂ /S@N-HCS is a potential and prospective anode material for sodium-ion batteries.

Designed Formulation of Se-Impregnated N-Containing Hollow Core Mesoporous Shell Carbon Spheres: Multifunctional Potential Cathode for Li-Se and Na-Se Batteries

Nitrogen-containing carbon spheres with hollow core and mesoporous shell (NHCS), capable of confining Se at levels as high as 72 wt % has been demonstrated to exhibit appreciable electrochemical behavior with 52 and 61 wt % Se loading. In particular, 52 wt % Se confined NHCS cathode exhibits 265 mAh/g at 10C rate and retains 75% of initial capacity at 2C rate up to 10 000 cycles with an insignificant decay of 0.0025% per cycle, which is an ever first report on the extended cycle life of Li-Se batteries. Due to the negligible difference found between the transport kinetics of Se and that of Li₂Se, irrespective of the cycling rate, 52 wt % Se @ NHCS performs better at high rates. Furthermore, capacity is governed by the extent of utilization of confined Se and cycle life by the extent of mitigation of volume expansion. Accordingly, rate capability studies recommend 52 wt % Se loaded cathode above 2C rate and 61 wt % Se loading up to 2C rate. Furthermore, NHCS/Se-52 cathode demonstrates suitability for Na-Se batteries by exhibiting 339 and 219 mAh/g of capacity at rates of C/5 and 2C rates, respectively. NHCS with select Se concentration could thus be exploited for multifunctional cathode behavior in Li-Se and Na-Se systems.