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An overarching challenge of the electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction reaction (eCO2RR) is finding an earth-abundant, highly active catalyst that selectively produces hydrocarbons at relatively low overpotentials. Here, we report the eCO2RR performance of two-dimensional transition metal carbide class of materials. Our results indicate a maximum methane (CH4) current density of −421.63 mA/cm2 and a CH4 faradic efficiency of 82.7% ± 2% for di-tungsten carbide (W2C) nanoflakes in a hybrid electrolyte of 3 M potassium hydroxide and 2 M choline-chloride. Powered by a triple junction photovoltaic cell, we demonstrate a flow electrolyzer that uses humidified CO2 to produce CH4 in a 700-h process under one sun illumination with a CO2RR energy efficiency of about 62.3% and a solar-to-fuel efficiency of 20.7%. Density functional theory calculations reveal that dissociation of water, chemisorption of CO2 and cleavage of the C-O bond—the most energy consuming elementary steps in other catalysts such as copper—become nearly spontaneous at the W2C surface. This results in instantaneous formation of adsorbed CO—an important reaction intermediate—and an unlimited source of protons near the tungsten surface sites that are the main reasons for the observed superior activity, selectivity, and small potential.

Voltage-gated potassium (Kv) channels are known to be involved in cancer development and cancer cell proliferation. KV9.3, an electronically silent subunit, forms heterotetramers with KV2.1 in excitable cells and modulates its electrophysiological properties. However, the role of KV9.3 alone in non-excitable cancer cells has not been studied. Here, we evaluated the effect of silencing KV9.3 on cancer cell proliferation in HCT15 colon carcinoma cells and A549 lung adenocarcinoma cells. We confirmed the expression of KV9.3 mRNA in HCT15 and A549 cells and showed that silencing KV9.3 using small interfering RNA caused G0/G1 cell cycle arrest and alterations in cell cycle regulatory proteins in both HCT15 and A549 cells without affecting apoptosis. Also, stable knockdown of KV9.3 expression using short-hairpin RNA inhibited tumor growth in SCID mouse xenograft model. Using a bioinformatics approach, we identified Sp1 binding sites in the promoter region of the gene encoding KV9.3. We further found that Sp1 bound to this region and showed that the Sp1 inhibitor, mithramycin A, induced a concentration-dependent decrease in KV9.3 expression. Taken together, these data suggest that knockdown of KV9.3 inhibits proliferation in colon carcinoma and lung adenocarcinoma cell lines and may be regulated by Sp1.

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