Classical methods for the detection of heavy metal ions in water are tedious and time consuming.

Male rats develop a conditioned ejaculatory preference (CEP) toward females bearing an odor or somatosensory cue (rodent jacket) when those stimuli are paired with the postejaculatory reward state. As with a copulatory conditioned place preference, CEP for an odor depends on endogenous opioid transmission after ejaculation. The nonselective opioid receptor antagonist naloxone (NAL) disrupts CEP for an odor cue on female rats when injected systemically to males prior to each conditioning trial. Here, we evaluated whether NAL would disrupt the development of a CEP for the somatosensory cue. Long–Evans males were assigned randomly to two groups and underwent 14 copulatory conditioning trials for 30 min each, spaced every 4 days, and consisting of sequential pairing of a jacket on a sexually receptive female and no jacket on a sexually nonreceptive female. The control group was injected with saline (SAL) in both conditions throughout training, whereas the experimental group was injected with NAL when females were receptive and wore a jacket, and with SAL when they were not receptive and did not wear a jacket. On the final test, all males were injected with SAL and placed into an open field with two sexually receptive females, one with the jacket and the other without the jacket. Control males displayed a significant CEP for females with the jacket on, whereas males injected with NAL during sexually receptive jacket conditions displayed a significant CEP for the nonjacketed female. This study confirms that opioid transmission is necessary for the establishment of a somatosensory CEP.

Visible light photosensitization of metal oxides to create heterostructures for the conversion of solar-to-chemical energy is a promising approach to produce solar fuels and other valuable chemicals. Carbon dots have recently been considered as suitable candidates to sensitize wide bandgap metal oxide semiconductors due to their low cost and tunable optical properties. While photocatalytic systems using carbon dots as sensitizers have been reported, transformations involving the production of value-added chemicals as well as the electron transfer mechanisms underpinning photocatalysis within such heterostructures remain underexplored. Here we report the sensitization of zinc oxide nanowires with carbon dots for the α-heteroarylation of 1-phenylpyrrolidine with 2-chlorobenzothiazole under visible light illumination at room temperature. The carbon dots improve the light absorption of the nanowires in the visible region of the spectrum affording the use of white light to drive catalysis. From optical spectroscopy and electrochemistry investigations of the resulting nanohybrid material, the photocatalytic properties are explained by the band alignment at the zinc oxide-carbon dot junction where a series of single-electron transfers creates the necessary potential to oxidize 1-phenylpyrrolidine. The resulting cascade of electron transfers into and from the carbon dots drives the α-heteroarylation to a 97% yield after 24 hrs. <br>

Visible light photosensitization of metal oxides to create heterostructures for the conversion of solar-to-chemical energy is a promising approach to produce solar fuels and other valuable chemicals. Carbon dots have recently been considered as suitable candidates to sensitize wide bandgap metal oxide semiconductors due to their low cost and tunable optical properties. While photocatalytic systems using carbon dots as sensitizers have been reported, transformations involving the production of value-added chemicals as well as the electron transfer mechanisms underpinning photocatalysis within such heterostructures remain underexplored. Here we report the sensitization of zinc oxide nanowires with carbon dots for the α-heteroarylation of 1-phenylpyrrolidine with 2-chlorobenzothiazole under visible light illumination at room temperature. The carbon dots improve the light absorption of the nanowires in the visible region of the spectrum affording the use of white light to drive catalysis. From optical spectroscopy and electrochemistry investigations of the resulting nanohybrid material, the photocatalytic properties are explained by the band alignment at the zinc oxide-carbon dot junction where a series of single-electron transfers creates the necessary potential to oxidize 1-phenylpyrrolidine. The resulting cascade of electron transfers into and from the carbon dots drives the α-heteroarylation to a 97% yield after 24 hrs. <br>