Currently, there is an increasing interest in adding value to corncob, since corncob is a low-cost, green, and reliable cellulose material that is often discarded as waste without utilization. To increase the value of corncob, we developed a multifunctional corncob-based material by grafting polyethylenimine on oxidized corncob (PEI-g-OC). The PEI-g-OC was then used to remove the heavy metal ions and kill bacteria from water. We found that PEI-g-OC presented high adsorptive capabilities to Cu 2+ , Cd 2+ , and Pb 2+ at 159.5, 212.6, and 224.0 mg/g in water, more potent than the other corncob-based biosorbents. Moreover, the PEI-g-OC is able to kill the model bacteria of S. aureus, P. aeruginosa, and E. coli with minimal inhibitory concentrations (MIC) at 3.5, 12.0, and 8.5 mg/mL, indicating its effect on antibacteria. Hence, PEI-g-OC with multiple functions improved the recyclability of corncob and added its value for application in water treatment.

Through exchange-extended growth method (EEGM), MOF-on-MOF heteroarchitectures with distinct crystallography were produced and pyrolyzed into hybrid metal oxides. The strong exchange ability of organometallic compounds realized the component reconstruction of...

Stiffness of blood vessels is one of the most important parameters involving in vascular diseases. However, no vascular model well mimics the stiffness of native blood vessels, and thus, the effects of vascular stiffness on endothelial cells cannot be studied in vitro. For this purpose, we fabricated the gelatin/carboxybetaine (CBMA) interpenetrating network (IPN) hydrogel tubes to exactly present the stiffness of soft (i.e., physical) and stiff (i.e., pathological) arteries in human. The vascular models are then constructed via endothelial cell culture inside the gel tubes under a cardiac-like pulsatile perfusion. As found, the velocity magnitude and wall shear stress in the stiff gel tube are much higher than those in the soft one. Correspondingly, the endothelial cells in the soft gel tube (i.e., physical model) express higher vascular functions than those in the stiff one (i.e., pathological model). Moreover, a pathological model was more sensitive to ethanol-induced vascular injury than the physical model. Thus, the new vascular models with a tunable stiffness provide a useful tool to investigate the stiffness involved mechanism in vascular diseases under in vivo mimicked microenvironments.

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