In the quest for strong lightweight materials, silica aerogels would be very attractive, if they were not fragile. The strength of silica aerogel monoliths has been improved by a factor of over 100 through cross-linking the nanoparticle building blocks of preformed silica hydrogels with poly(hexamethylene diisocyanate). Composite monoliths are much less hygroscopic than native silica, and they do not collapse when in contact with liquids.

Voltage-gated ion channels generate electrical currents that control muscle contraction, encode neuronal information, and trigger hormonal release. Tissue-specific expression of accessory (β) subunits causes these channels to generate currents with distinct properties. In the heart, KCNQ1 voltage-gated potassium channels coassemble with KCNE1 β-subunits to generate the IKs current (Barhanin et al., 1996; Sanguinetti et al., 1996), an important current for maintenance of stable heart rhythms. KCNE1 significantly modulates the gating, permeation, and pharmacology of KCNQ1 (Wrobel et al., 2012; Sun et al., 2012; Abbott, 2014). These changes are essential for the physiological role of IKs (Silva and Rudy, 2005); however, after 18 years of study, no coherent mechanism explaining how KCNE1 affects KCNQ1 has emerged. Here we provide evidence of such a mechanism, whereby, KCNE1 alters the state-dependent interactions that functionally couple the voltage-sensing domains (VSDs) to the pore.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.03606.001

Bayer AG.

2 CONSPECTUSCarbon materials have a long history of use as electrodes in electrochemistry, from (bio)electroanalysis to applications in energy technologies, such as batteries and fuel cells. With the advent of new forms of nano-carbon, particularly carbon nanotubes and graphene, carbon electrode materials have taken on even greater significance for electrochemical studies, both in their own right, and as components and supports in an array of functional composites.With the increasing prominence of carbon nanomaterials in electrochemistry, comes a need to critically evaluate the experimental framework from which a microscopic understanding of electrochemical processes is best developed. This article advocates the use of emerging electrochemical imaging techniques and confined electrochemical cell formats that have considerable potential to reveal major new perspectives on the intrinsic electrochemical activity of carbon materials, with unprecedented detail and spatial resolution. These techniques allow particular features on a surface to be targeted and models of structure-activity to be developed and tested on a wide range of length scales and time scales.When high resolution electrochemical imaging data are combined with information from other microscopy and spectroscopy techniques applied to the same area of an electrode surface, in a correlative-electrochemical microscopy approach, highly resolved and unambiguous pictures of electrode activity are revealed that provide new views of the electrochemical properties of carbon materials. With a focus on major sp 2 carbon materials -graphite, graphene and single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) -this article summarizes recent advances that have changed understanding of interfacial electrochemistry at carbon electrodes including:(i) Unequivocal evidence for the high activity of the basal surface of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG), which is at least as active as noble metal electrodes (e.g. platinum) for outersphere redox processes. 3(ii) Demonstration of the high activity of basal plane HOPG towards other reactions, with no requirement for catalysis by step edges or defects, as exemplified by studies of proton-coupled electron transfer, redox transformations of adsorbed molecules, surface functionalization via diazonium electrochemistry and metal electrodeposition.(iii) Rationalization of the complex interplay of different factors that determine electrochemistry at graphene, including the source (mechanical exfoliation from graphite vs. graphene grown by chemical vapor deposition), number of graphene layers, edges, electronic structure, redox couple, and electrode history effects.(iv) New methodologies that allow nanoscale electrochemistry of 1D materials (SWNTs) to be related to their electronic characteristics (metallic vs. semiconductor SWNTs), size and quality, with high resolution imaging revealing the high activity of SWNT sidewalls and the importance of defects for some electrocatalytic reactions (e.g. the oxygen reduction reaction).The experimental ...