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Nanotechnology 2021 May 6. Epub 2021 May 6.

School of Optoelectronic Information, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, chengdu, CHINA.

Solution-processed organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) are regarded as the promising candidates for low-cost gas sensors due to their advantages of high throughput, large-area and sensitive to various gas analytes. Microstructure control of organic active layers in OTFTs is an effective route to improve the sensing performance. In this work, we report a simple method to modify the morphology of 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl)pentacene (TIPS-pentacene) thin films via doping gold nanorods (Au NRs) for enhancing the performance of the corresponding OTFT sensors for nitrogen dioxide (NO) detection. Read More

J Colloid Interface Sci 2021 Apr 20;599:313-325. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Department of Physical and Macromolecular Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Hlavova 8, 128 00 Prague 2, Czech Republic. Electronic address:

Hydrophobic blocks of amphiphilic block copolymers often form glassy micellar cores at room temperature with a rigid structure that limits their applications as nanocapsules for targeted delivery. Nevertheless, we prepared and analyzed core/shell micelles with a soft core, formed by a self-assembled block copolymer consisting of a hydrophobic block and a polycation block, poly(lauryl acrylate)-block-poly(trimethyl-aminoethyl acrylate) (PLA-QPDMAEA), in aqueous solution. By light and small-angle neutron scattering, by transmission electron microscopy and by fluorescence spectroscopy, we showed that these core/shell micelles are spherical and cylindrical with a fluid-like PLA core and a positively charged outer shell and that they can encapsulate and release hydrophobic solutes. Read More

J Chromatogr A 2021 Apr 15;1647:462148. Epub 2021 Apr 15.

SapienzaUniversità di Roma, Dipartimento di Chimica e Tecnologie del Farmaco, P.le A. Moro 5, 00185Rome, Italy. Electronic address:

The toolbox of medicinal chemists includes the 1,4-benzodiazepine scaffold as a "privileged scaffold" in drug discovery. Several biologically active small molecules containing a 1,4-benzodiazepine scaffold have been approved by the FDA for the treatment of various diseases, with most of them being used for their psychotropic effects. The therapeutic potential of 1,4-benzodiazepines has stimulated the interest of synthetic chemists in developing new synthetic strategies to a range of substituted analogues for biological evaluation. Read More

Hum Reprod 2021 May 6. Epub 2021 May 6.

Nuffield Department of Women's and Reproductive Health, Women's Centre, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.

Study Question: Can ovarian tissue morphology be better preserved whilst enabling histological molecular analyses following fixation with a novel fixative, neutral buffered formalin (NBF) with 5% acetic acid (referred to hereafter as Form-Acetic)?

Summary Answer: Fixation with Form-Acetic improved ovarian tissue histology compared to NBF in multiple species while still enabling histological molecular analyses.

What Is Known Already: NBF fixation results in tissue shrinkage in various tissue types including the ovary. Components of ovarian tissue, notably follicles, are particularly susceptible to NBF-induced morphological alterations and can lead to data misrepresentation. Read More

Nanoscale 2021 May;13(17):8058-8066

Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and Centre for Functional Photonics (CFP), City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, P. R. China and Shenzhen Research Institute, City University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, 518057, P. R. China.

Since chirality is one of the phenomena often occurring in nature, optically active chiral compounds are important for applications in the fields of biology, pharmacology, and medicine. With this in mind, chiral carbon dots (CDs), which are eco-friendly and easy-to-obtain light-emissive nanoparticles, offer great potential for sensing, bioimaging, enantioselective synthesis, and development of emitters of circularly polarized light. Herein, chiral CDs have been produced via two synthetic approaches using a chiral amino acid precursor l/d-cysteine: (i) surface modification treatment of achiral CDs at room temperature and (ii) one-pot carbonization in the presence of chiral precursor. Read More