The van der Waals (vdW) heterostructure, made up of two dissimilar two-dimensional materials held together by van der Waals interactions, has excellent electronic and optoelectronic properties as it provides a superior interface quality without the lattice mismatch problem. Here, we report the development and photoresponse characteristics of a p-n diode based on a stacked black phosphorus (BP) and rhenium disulfide (ReS2) heterojunction. The heterojunction showed a clear gate-tunable rectifying behavior similar to that of the conventional p-n junction diode. Under UV illumination, the BP/ReS2 p-n diode displayed a high photoresponsivity of 4120 A W-1 and we were able to modify the photoresponse properties by adjusting the back gate voltage. Moreover, an investigation of various channel lengths yielded the highest photoresponsivity of 11 811 A W-1 for a BP length of 1 μm. These results suggested vdW 2D materials to be promising for developing advanced heterojunction devices for nano-optoelectronics.

Primed and naive human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) do not fully recapitulate the X chromosome status observed in human preimplantation epiblast and fail to initiate random X chromosome inactivation (XCI) upon differentiation. Therefore, an ideal system for studying XCI during early human development is yet to be established. We show that incomplete blocking of autocrine fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) signaling in naive hESCs drives significant heterogeneity in X chromosome and pluripotency status. We derived homozygous XaXa naive hESCs with dual allelic XIST expression and high levels of TFCP2L1, whose transcriptome and X chromosome states are similar to human preimplantation epiblast. Random XCI was initiated upon naive-to-primed conversion of these cells, and both pre-and post-XCI primed hESCs were obtained. We observed random XCI in all cells upon further differentiation of pre-XCI primed hESCs. Together, these findings enable derivation of homogeneous naive hESCs and establish a powerful platform to study human XCI.

Here, we propose the use of carboxyl-functionalized ionic liquid, [Hbet][Tf 2 N], to separate the fission products from spent nuclear fuels. This innovative method allows the selective dissolution of neutron poisons, lanthanides oxide, as well as some fission products with high yield, leaving most of the UO 2 matrix and minor actinides behind in the spent nuclear fuel and accomplishing the actinides recovery as a group. Water-saturated [Hbet][Tf 2 N] can dissolve lanthanides oxide from simulated spent nuclear fuel with a dissolution ratio of 100% at 40 °C. However, the dissolution of uranium is almost negligible (<1%) under the same conditions. This big difference in dissolution provides a novel separation approach to spent nuclear fuel recycling and may open new perspectives for spent nuclear fuel reprocessing. The recovery of Nd and U from metal-loaded ionic liquids and the recyclability of the ionic liquid [Hbet][Tf 2 N] have also been investigated. Furthermore, a U/x value related to the lattice energy U of metal compound M x O y is used to elaborate the solubility. This work represents the first case for efficient fission products removal by selective dissolution, avoiding the complete dissolution of spent nuclear fuel, the producing of the large high-level radioactive waste, and reducing environmental hazards.