A simple and enzyme-free strip biosensor for the amplified detection of Pb(2+) has been constructed based on a catalytic DNA circuit. This assay is ultrasensitive, enabling the visual detection of Pb(2+) concentrations as low as 10 pM without instrumentation.

A lateral flow biosensor for detection of single nucleotide polymorphism based on circular strand displacement reaction (CSDPR) has been developed. Taking advantage of high fidelity of T4 DNA ligase, signal amplification by CSDPR, and the optical properties of gold nanoparticles, this assay has reached a detection limit of 0.01 fM.

Metal nanoparticles (NPs) stabilized by MOFs are very promising for catalysis, whereas introduction of C into MOFs has been very rarely used, and there was no report for their cooperative catalysis in organic syntheses. In this work, C @UiO-67 was synthesized by a one-pot method, so that C is uniformly distributed on UiO-67 in molecular form. Pd NPs coordinating with C have been successfully embedded into the framework. The obtained multifunctional C Pd @UiO-67 catalyst exhibits remarkable synergistic catalytic activity in cascade reactions under mild conditions, where UiO-67 affords Lewis acidity and C Pd offers higher hydrogenation activity relative to solely Pd NPs.