Synergistic effect of MXene on the flame retardancy and thermal degradation of intumescent flame retardant biodegradable poly(lactic acid)composites

The effect of Ti3C2 MXene nanosheets on the intumescent flame retardant(IFR)poly(lactic acid)(PLA)composites was investigated among a series of PLA/IFR/MXene,which were prepared by melt blending 0-2.0 wt%MXene,10.0 wt%-12.0 wt%IFR and PLA together.The results of limiting oxygen index(LOI)and vertical burning(UL-94)discover that the combination of 0.5 wt%MXene and 11.5 wt%IFR synergistically improves the fire safety of PLA to reach UL-94 V-0 rating with LOI value of 33.0%.The PLA/IFR/MXene composites perform an obvious reduction in peak of heat release rate(HRR)in cone calorimeter tests(CCTs).Furthermore,the carbon residues after CCTs were characterized by scanning electron microscope(SEM),laser Raman spectroscopy(LRS),X-ray diffraction(XRD)and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS).It is demonstrated that both the titanium composition of the MXene structure and the characteristics of the two-dimensional material enhance the PLA/IFR/MXene composite materials’ability to produce a dense barrier layer to resist burnout during thermal degradation.

Encoding and display technologies for combinatorial libraries in drug discovery:The coming of age from biology to therapy

Drug discovery is a sophisticated process that incorporates scientific innovations and cuttingedge technologies.Compared to traditional bioactivity-based screening methods,encoding and display technologies for combinatorial libraries have recently advanced from proof-of-principle experiments to promising tools for pharmaceutical hit discovery due to their high screening efficiency,throughput,and resource minimization.This review systematically summarizes the development history,typology,and prospective applications of encoding and displayed technologies,including phage display,ribosomal display,mRNA display,yeast cell display,one-bead one-compound,DNA-encoded,peptide nucleic acidencoded,and new peptide-encoded technologies,and examples of preclinical and clinical translation.We discuss the progress of novel targeted therapeutic agents,covering a spectrum from small-molecule inhibitors and nonpeptidic macrocycles to linear,monocyclic,and bicyclic peptides,in addition to antibodies.We also address the pending challenges and future prospects of drug discovery,including the size of screening libraries,advantages and disadvantages of the technology,clinical translational potential,and market space.This review is intended to establish a comprehensive high-throughput drug discovery strategy for scientific researchers and clinical drug developers.

Improved in situ sequencing for high-resolution targeted spatial transcriptomic analysis in tissue sections

Spatial transcriptomics enables the study of localization-indexed gene expression activity in tissues,providing the transcriptional landscape that in turn indicates the potential regulatory networks of gene expression.In situ sequencing(ISS)is a targeted spatial transcriptomic technique,based on padlock probe and rolling circle amplification combined with next-generation sequencing chemistry,for highly multiplexed in situ gene expression profiling.Here,we present improved in situ sequencing(IISS)that exploits a new probing and barcoding approach,combined with advanced image analysis pipelines for high-resolution targeted spatial gene expression profiling.We develop an improved combinatorial probe anchor ligation chemistry using a 2-base encoding strategy for barcode interrogation.The new encoding strategy results in higher signal intensity as well as improved specificity for in situ sequencing,while maintaining a streamlined analysis pipeline for targeted spatial transcriptomics.We show that IISS can be applied to both fresh frozen tissue and formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue sections for single-cell level spatial gene expression analysis,based on which the developmental trajectory and cell-cell communication networks can also be constructed.

Superior anti-corrosion and self-healing bi-functional polymer composite coatings with polydopamine modified mesoporous silica/graphene oxide

In this article,graphene oxide(GO)and benzotriazole-loaded mesoporous silica nanoparticles(BTA/MSNs)are combined on micro scale through the in situ polymerization of polydopamine(PDA),preparing a selfhealing bi-functional GO(fGO)used as nano-fillers for anti-corrosion enhancement of waterborne epoxy(WEP)coatings.Scanning electronic microscopy(SEM)images show that the BTA/MSNs are uniformly distributed on the surface of high aspect ratio GO nanosheets to endow GO nanocontainer characteristics.UV-vis profiles demonstrate that fGO has p H-controlled release function.Modulus at lowest frequency is generally used for comparing the corrosion resistance of organic coatings.Modulus at lowest frequency(1.42×10^(5)Ωcm^(2))after 30 days immersion in 3.5 wt.%Na Cl solution revealed 2 orders of magnitude higher that of blank WEP(1.17×10^(7)Ωcm^(2)).With artificial cracks on its coatings,fGO/WEP had no obvious rust compared with blank WEP after 240 h of immersion.We anticipate that self-healing and physical barrier bi-functional nanocontainers improve the traditional anticorrosion coating efficiency with better,longer-lasting performance for shipping,oil drilling or bridge maintenance.