Solar vapor generation has presented great potential for wastewater treatment and seawater desalination with high energy conversion and utilization efficiency. However, technology gaps still exist for achieving a fast evaporation rate and high quality of water combined with low‐cost deployment to provide a sustainable solar‐driven water purification system. In this study, a naturally abundant biomass, konjac glucomannan, together with simple‐to‐fabricate iron‐based metal‐organic framework‐derived photothermal nanoparticles is introduced into the polyvinyl alcohol networks, building hybrid hydrogel evaporators in a cost‐effective fashion ($14.9 m−2 of total materials cost). With advantageous features of adequate water transport, effective water activation, and anti‐salt‐fouling function, the hybrid hydrogel evaporators achieve a high evaporation rate under one sun (1 kW m−2) at 3.2 kg m−2 h−1 out of wastewater with wide degrees of acidity and alkalinity (pH 2–14) and high‐salinity seawater (up to 330 g kg−1). More notably, heavy metal ions are removed effectively by forming hydrogen and chelating bonds with excess hydroxyl groups in the hydrogel. It is anticipated that this study offers new possibilities for a deployable, cost‐effective solar water purification system with assured water quality, especially for economically stressed communities.
Atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) emerges as a promising means to overcome the water scarcity of arid regions, especially for inland areas lacking liquid water sources. Beyond conventional system engineering that improves the water yield, novel moisture-harvesting materials provide new aspects to fundamentally promote the AWH technology benefiting from their high tunability and processability. Innovative material and structural designs enable the moisture harvesters with desirable features, such as high water uptake, facile water collection and long-term recyclability, boosting the rapid development of next-generation AWH. In this Perspective, we first illustrate the sorption mechanism, including absorption and adsorption for moisture-harvesting materials and summarize fundamental requirements, as well as design principles of moisture harvesters. Recent progress on material and structural designs of moisture harvesters for AWH is critically discussed. We conclude with prospective directions for nextgeneration moisture harvesters to promote AWH from scientific research to practical application.
Background Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-derived exosomes emerge as promising candidates for treating delayed wound healing in diabetes due to the promotion of angiogenesis. Preconditioned MSC with chemical or biological factors could possibly enhance the biological activities of MSC-derived exosomes. The purpose of this research focused on whether exosomes derived from the bone marrow MSC (BMSC) pretreated with atorvastatin (ATV), could exhibit better pro-angiogenic ability in diabetic wound healing or not and its underlying molecular mechanism. Methods We isolated exosomes from non-pretreated BMSC (Exos) and ATV pretreated BMSC (ATV-Exos) and evaluated their characterization by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) and Western blotting. In vivo, we made full-thickness skin defects in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats and the defects received multiple-point injection with PBS, Exos, or ATV-Exos. Two weeks later, histological analysis was conducted to evaluate the impact of different treatments on wound healing and the neovascularization was measured by micro-CT. In vitro, cell proliferation, migration, tube formation, and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) secretion were measured in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC). The role of miRNAs and AKT/eNOS signaling pathway in the promoted angiogenesis of ATV-Exos were assessed with their inhibitors. Results No significant difference in morphology, structure, and concentration was observed between ATV-Exos and Exos. In STZ-induced diabetic rats, ATV-Exos exhibited excellent abilities in facilitating the wound regeneration by promoting the formation of blood vessels compared with Exos without influencing liver and kidney function. Meanwhile, ATV-Exos promoted the proliferation, migration, tube formation, and VEGF level of endothelial cells in vitro. And AKT/eNOS pathway was activated by ATV-Exos and the pro-angiogenic effects of ATV-Exo were attenuated after the pathway being blocked. MiR-221-3p was upregulated by ATV-Exos stimulation, and miR-221-3p inhibitor suppressed the pro-angiogenesis effect of ATV-Exos. Conclusions Exosomes originated from ATV-pretreated MSCs might serve as a potential strategy for the treatment of diabetic skin defects through enhancing the biological function of endothelial cells via AKT/eNOS pathway by upregulating the miR-221-3p.
The development of biomass-based energy storage devices is an emerging trend to reduce the ever-increasing consumption of non-renewable resources. Here, nitrogen-doped carbonized bacterial cellulose (CBC-N) nanofibers are obtained by one-step carbonization of polyaniline coated bacterial cellulose (BC) nanofibers, which not only display excellent capacitive performance as the supercapacitor electrode, but also act as 3D bio-template for further deposition of ultrathin nickel-cobalt layered double hydroxide (Ni-Co LDH) nanosheets. The as-obtained CBC-N@LDH composite electrodes exhibit significantly enhanced specific capacitance (1949.5 F g(-1) at a discharge current density of 1 A g(-1) , based on active materials), high capacitance retention of 54.7% even at a high discharge current density of 10 A g(-1) and excellent cycling stability of 74.4% retention after 5000 cycles. Furthermore, asymmetric supercapacitors (ASCs) are constructed using CBC-N@LDH composites as positive electrode materials and CBC-N nanofibers as negative electrode materials. By virtue of the intrinsic pseudocapacitive characteristics of CBC-N@LDH composites and 3D nitrogen-doped carbon nanofiber networks, the developed ASC exhibits high energy density of 36.3 Wh kg(-1) at the power density of 800.2 W kg(-1) . Therefore, this work presents a novel protocol for the large-scale production of biomass-derived high-performance electrode materials in practical supercapacitor applications.
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