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Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) as a novel class of ionic liquid analogues has been widely used in various fields. Herein, a multifunctional biomass-based DES composed of choline chloride (ChCl) and glucose (GLU) was synthesized and used for the modification of vanadium phosphorus oxide (VPO) catalyst, which is the sole catalyst for the selective oxidation of n-butane to maleic anhydride (MA) in industry. The DES is more green, cost-effective and efficient compared with traditional modifier (metal inorganics and organic polymers). A combination of structure and catalytic performance was investigated in detail to deeply understand its functions. Initially, this DES plays the role of structure directing agent at the stage of precursor synthesis, which can induce the formation of active plane and obtain highly crystalline precursors. Accordingly, the active phase with highly crystalline was obtained after the activation of precursors. Additionally, the DES was decomposed during the precursors activation, resulting in the formation of porous structure around 20 nm on the active plane. Besides this, the surface chemical state including the valence state and acid–base property was changed significantly due to the function of DES. All of these lead to about an 11% increase of MA mass yield, which has great significance to the high value utilization of low carbon alkanes.

Methotrexate (MTX) was used as an anti-cancer drug, but its excessive use can cause serious side effects, it was necessary to monitor MTX in vivo. In this report, DNA was immobilized on a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) modified with graphene oxide (GO) to develop an electrochemical sensor for sensitive determination of MTX for the first time. The adsorptive voltammetric behaviors of MTX on DNA sensor were investigated using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). The peak current response of guanine in DNA was used as a determination signal of MTX in acetate buffer solution pH 4.6. Voltammetric investigations revealed that the proposed method could determine MTX in the concentration range from 5.5 3 10 À8 to 2.2 3 10 À6 mol L À1 with a lower detection limit of 7.6 3 10 À 9 mol L À1 (S/N = 3). The method was applied to detect MTX in human blood serum and diluted urine samples with excellent recoveries of 97.4-102.5 %. Compared with the previous studies, the DNA/GO/GCE electrode constructed by us based on the change rate of guanine current (R%) in DNA, proportionally reflecting the MTX concentration, is simple and sensitive.

A novel micro-monolithic fuel cell converts low-grade methane efficiently to clean electrical energy.