Plasmonic photothermal polymerase chain reaction (PPT-PCR) is a nucleic acid amplification technique that utilizes the localized surface plasmon resonance effect of plasmonic nanomaterials under the irradiation of light with specific wavelengths to achieve rapid thermal cycling. PPT-PCR is considered as a next-generation PCR technique due to the potential to be applied to the development of point-of-care diagnostics and the fast, sensitive and accurate detection performance. In this study, we present PHANTOM, a proof-of-concept system that functionally integrates plasmonic photothermal PCR, magnetic nanoparticle removal, and swCNT-FET-based label-free electrical readout for rapid molecular diagnostics. The swCNT-FET sensor exhibits high sensitivity, capable of detecting low concentrations of target nucleic acids within minutes after PPT-PCR amplification. Besides, to improve the specificity of the assay, we introduce a hairpin structured primer to generate amplicons with an external single-strand tail that can hybridize with probes modified on the swCNT-FET sensor. With this design, an estimated limit of detection of 1.5 aM (experimentally validated down to 10 aM) was achieved within 20 min.

Practical applications of MXene-based hydrogels have been limited owing to their poor oxidation stability and mechanical performance. To overcome these issues, numerous efforts have been devoted to the surface modification of MXenes, but the optimal type of surface modifier has not been systematically explored. Herein, MXene is modified with diverse polymeric modifiers, including polyphenols (PPs) and linear synthetic polymers (LSPs), and the resulting properties are investigated in relation to their molecular structures. LSPs outperform PPs in improving oxidation resistance and mechanical performance of hydrogels, among which poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) provides the highest overall performance. Subsequently, the PAA-modified MXene hydrogel (PMH) is converted into organohydrogels (PMOH) to enhance mechanical performance and environmental durability. The PMOH exhibits substantially improved mechanical performance, including a tensile strain of 1487.5%, a tensile strength of 750 kPa, and a toughness of 5.27 MJ m(-3) with a tissue-like modulus of 71.9 kPa. The PMOH also shows enhanced conductivity compared with the bare organohydrogel (0.105 to 0.133 S m(-1)), robust adhesion to the skin (55.3 kPa), and outstanding resistance to freezing, dehydration, and oxidation. Owing to these properties, the PMOH is employed as a wearable strain and electrophysiological sensor. This study provides rational insights into the development of durable and high-performance MXene hydrogels for biomedical applications.

Lithium-oxygen batteries (LOBs) offer exceptionally high energy density but are limited by poor reversibility and large charging overpotentials owing to sluggish lithium oxide decomposition. We propose a rational Fe-4d dualatom catalyst (DAC) strategy to regulate oxygen evolution and stabilize NO2- redox mediation. Fe-Zr/Nb/Mo pairs are atomically dispersed onto defect-rich nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (NCNTs) and evaluated as oxygen-electrode catalysts. Among these, Nb-Fe-NCNT exhibits a superior performance, enabling excellent cycling for over 290 cycles with significantly reduced polarization. Electrochemical analysis reveals that Nb-Fe enhances charge-transfer kinetics and sustains low-voltage redox-mediated oxygen evolution while suppressing high-voltage direct Li2O2 oxidation. Ex situ characterization confirms highly reversible Li2O2 formation and decomposition. Density functional theory shows favorable reaction energetics and enhanced electron redistribution, which strengthens mediator interaction. These results demonstrate that metal-dependent electronic synergy in Fe-4d DACs governs oxygen-evolution pathways and provide practical design guidelines for durable, nonprecious catalysts for high-performance LOBs.

The chemical space explored through synthesis is largely shaped by the availability of building blocks supplied by nature. Because biosynthesis follows defined metabolic logic, naturally occurring compounds are unevenly distributed across carbon count, creating intrinsic biases in synthetic accessibility. Consequently, molecules differing by only a single carbon atom can require markedly different synthetic effort. To overcome this longstanding challenge, we report a bidirectional coupling strategy that assembles alkenes and nucleophiles across an intervening methylene unit. In contrast to conventional alkene hydrofunctionalization, which joins these partners directly, this approach retains the modularity of the parent reaction while increasing product carbon count. We show that a designer methylene-bridged thianthrenium dication reagent exploits distinct redox properties and strain-release reactivity to differentiate two C-S bonds at a single carbon center. This design enables sequential alkene hydroalkylation and downstream nucleophile incorporation via substitution, cross-coupling or radical manifolds. This divergent reactivity accommodates diverse nucleophile classes (N, O, B, S, Se, C and halides), facilitates the hybridization of complex biorelevant fragments and expands retrosynthetic flexibility in the synthesis of marketed drugs. By rerouting two abundant substrate classes through a single-carbon linchpin, this platform opens one-carbon-shifted chemical space beyond the reach of conventional alkene hydrofunctionalization.

Ni-based catalysts have been widely studied as promising alternatives to Pt group metal catalysts in anion exchange membrane water electrolysis. However, their insufficient durability at the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) poses a significant limitation. In this study, we evaluated the performance and durability of Ni₃Mo, PtNi/C, and Pt/C catalysts in MEAs under various intermittent protocols that mimic electricity production from renewable energy sources. In the intermittent protocols, sets of open circuit voltage (OCV) and constant current densities of 0.1 A cm−2 and/or 1 A cm−2 with different duration times were repeated for overall test time of 165 h. The Ni3Mo catalyst demonstrated severe degradation in cell performance for the long OCV duration of 1 h, while shorter exposure of 1 or 30 min presented little degradation, although the metal dissolution still occurred significantly. The cell degradation mainly resulted from phase transformation of the metallic Ni3Mo to Ni(OH)2. The Pt/C catalyst showed substantial degradation in the cell performance when the current density was frequently changed with short duration (1 min) at OCV, resulting from the Pt aggregation. The PtNi/C presented the most stable cell performance under various intermittent protocols, due to the formation of surface Ni hydroxide species that inhibit aggregation. The changes in the overpotentials at cathode, membrane, and anode were further investigated using 3-electrode MEA system. The PtNi/C catalysts were synthesized with various compositions of Pt:Ni ratios, and also the Pt1Ni1/C catalysts were synthesized with various sizes, but the effect of composition and sizes were insignificant for the cell performance.

Electrochemical synthesis offers a promising route toward renewable-energy-based chemical production and a sustainable carbon cycle. Maleic acid (MA) production from biomass-derived furfural (FF) via electrochemical oxidation (FFOR) represents a valuable model system for multi-step electro-organic oxidation reactions. However, oxygenation and dehydrogenation are conventionally treated as indistinguishable oxidation processes, obscuring key factors and the rational design of complex electro-organic reactions. Herein, we decouple oxygenation and dehydrogenation kinetics in FFOR, identify the key controlling factors for each step, and demonstrate that independent regulation enables high selectivity with 81.0% yield using a PbO x anode. Employing (bi)carbonate electrolytes moderates center dot OH-mediated oxygenation, improving carbon efficiency. 2,2,6,6-Tetramethylpiperidine 1-oxyl (TEMPO) mediator selectively accelerates dehydrogenation of the key intermediate (5-hydroxy-2(5H)-dihydrofuran-2-one, HFN, or cis-beta-formylacrylate, FAA-) to MA without perturbing FF-to-HFN/FAA- oxidation, shifting the rate-determining step. Mechanistic studies reveal that oxidation by TEMPO+ promotes oxoammonium-mediated proton transfer, driving the selective dehydrogenation toward MA. Systematic control of pH, cation/anion, and TEMPO concentration demonstrates that these factors strongly influence kinetics between center dot OH-mediated oxygenation and TEMPO-mediated dehydrogenation, with selective MA production achieved under their optimal balance. These mechanistic insights highlight strategies for the rational design of electro-organic synthesis by independently controlling oxygenation and dehydrogenation pathways under complex aqueous conditions.

Natural de novo shoot organogenesis (DNSO) is the spontaneous regeneration of shoots from wound sites outside the shoot apical region through endogenous developmental programs. This regenerative capacity enables plants to recover from severe tissue damage by re-establishing the shoot-root axis. Here, we review current knowledge about the molecular mechanisms of natural DNSO, focusing on transcriptomic and physiological studies in model plants. Accumulating evidence suggests that natural DNSO proceeds through three sequential phases: (i) early wound responses, characterized by the activation of the WIND1-ESR1 module and the establishment of apical-basal auxin asymmetry; (ii) cellular proliferation driven by metabolic and cell-cycle reprogramming; and (iii) cytokininmediated establishment of shoot apical meristem identity. We also discuss how these mechanistic insights have been harnessed for practical applications, including tissue culture-free transformation systems such as the cut-dip-budding (CDB) method, and developmental reprogramming strategies that employ ectopic expression of developmental regulator (DR) genes to induce DNSO in otherwise recalcitrant species. Together, these advances illustrate how understanding natural regeneration can guide the development of simplified, broadly applicable plant transformation technologies.

Accurate quantification of binding affinities for intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) is challenged by their flexibility and propensity for aggregation, often requiring cross-validation across distinct biophysical methods. Here, we investigated the interaction between interacting domains of karyopherin (31 (KapN) and Nup153 (Nup153 3-2), a highly aggregation-prone IDR fragment of nucleoporin 153. To circumvent experimental time constraints imposed by rapid sample aggregation, we employed a suite of short-timescale methodologies: NMR chemical shift perturbations (CSPs), lineshape analysis, 15N-edited diffusion NMR, and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC). Remarkably, despite relying on fundamentally different physical principles, all four methods yielded apparent dissociation constants (Kd) in the low-micromolar range, with lineshape analysis, diffusion NMR, and ITC converging closely (2-3 mu M) while CSP gave a modestly lower value (1.18 mu M). These findings demonstrate that cross-validating short-timescale methodologies can reveal and account for method-specific biases, providing a robust strategy for characterizing aggregation-prone biomolecular systems.

beta-Diketiminate (BDI)-supported zinc complexes are among the most efficient initiators for the ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of beta-butyrolactone (BBL), but their application in high-temperature bulk polymerization is limited by initiator deactivation. To improve thermal robustness, a new BDI-supported zinc initiator incorporating a 2,6-bis(diphenylmethyl)-4-methylphenyl substituent was designed, synthesized, and structurally characterized. Compared with a conventional BDI-supported zinc initiator, the new complex exhibits superior performance in the bulk polymerization of BBL at elevated temperatures, affording colorless poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) with number-average molecular weights up to 187 000 g mol-1 under solvent-free conditions. The enhanced polymerization performance is attributed to improved thermal robustness arising from the suppression of initiator deactivation during high-temperature polymerization.