New N-doped graphene-coated molybdenum carbide nanoparticles are prepared, which exhibit superior electrocatalytic activity and long-term durability for the hydrogen evolution reaction.

Auranofin, an FDA-approved arthritis drug, has recently been repurposed as a potential antimicrobial agent; it performed well against many Gram-positive bacteria, including multidrug resistant strains. It is, however, inactive toward Gram-negative bacteria, for which we are in dire need of new therapies. In this work, 40 auranofin analogues were synthesized by varying the structures of the thiol and phosphine ligands, and their activities were tested against ESKAPE pathogens. The study identified compounds that exhibited bacterial inhibition (MIC) and killing (MBC) activities up to 65 folds higher than that of auranofin, making them effective against Gram-negative pathogens. Both thiol and the phosphine structures influence the activities of the analogues. The trimethylphosphine and triethylphosphine ligands gave the highest activities against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, respectively. Our SAR study revealed that the thiol ligand is also very important, the structure of which can modulate the activities of the AuI complexes for both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. Moreover, these analogues had mammalian cell toxicities either similar to or lower than that of auranofin.

Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) with a mean size of about 90 nm were synthesized by polyol reduction of silver nitrate with ethylene glycol (EG) in the presence of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP). The Ag NPs undergo a spontaneous coalescence in the presence of chloride ions even without a traditional sintering process which occurs at a relatively high temperature. Such behavior can cause a rapid decrease in the resistivity of the patterns fabricated by Ag NPs. Conductive silver lines were successfully fabricated on FR-4 substrate using this method. The resulting conductivity of the silver lines reached about 16% of the bulk silver value, which enables fabrication of conductive patterns on some electronic devices.

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