The studies presented were designed to highlight the impact of pancreatic enzymes on glycemic control and insulin response. Blood glucose and plasma insulin levels were monitored after intravenous, oral or direct gut glucose tolerance tests (GTT) in 6 pigs with an intact gastrointestinal tract and in 12 pigs following duodenal-jejunal bypass (DJB) surgery. In the intact pigs, pancreatic enzymes (Creon®) given orally 1 h prior to the GTT, lowered the blood glucose levels during the oral and meal GTT and reduced the plasma insulin response during the intravenous and meal GTT. In DJB pigs, blood glucose and plasma insulin levels were higher following glucose loading into the by-passed biliopancreatic limb as compared to that following glucose loading orally or into the common intestinal limb. Infusion of amylase or amylase peptides together with glucose into the biliopancreatic limb lowered blood glucose levels in DJB pigs. These preliminary data suggest new, extra-digestive, actions of enteral pancreatic enzymes – probably amylase or its peptides – on glucose homeostasis, with an reduction in net glucose absorption into the blood and in insulin response. This ability of digestive enzymes (amylase) to reduce post-prandial hyperglycaemia in an insulin-independent manner could aid in preventing the development of obesity and diabetes.

No abstract

Robust anchoring of high-capacity nanocrystals (NCs) on porous conductive substrates is of paramount importance but it is challenging for highly efficient energy storage to prevent the weak interfacial interactions, inevitable aggregation, and sluggish charge transfer, due to the technical hurdles of constructing heterostructures with firm electron/ion bridging. Herein, a facile and highefficiency liquid-phase laser manufacturing strategy to guarantee the covalent bonding of ultrafine NCs on conductive substrates by predesigning metastable supranano (<10 nm) particles is proposed. The manufacturing of supranano SnO 2 (≈3.4 nm) is demonstrated to tightly anchor on mesoporous walls of graphene with high loading (≈81.3%) and homogenous dispersion. Such a optimized heterostructure with unimpeded electron/ion transfer delivers extraordinary long-term cycling stability (1132 mAh g -1 at 1.0 A g -1 after 1250 cycles) and impressive rate capability (275 mAh g -1 at 30.0 A g -1 ) as the anode for Li-storage, which are some of the highest values among the reported SnO 2 -based anodes. The study provides an important avenue for addressing the interfacial bridging in-between heterostructures via creating active metastable supranano particles for intriguing electrochemical applications or even beyond, based on laser-matter interactions.

Potassium-ion batteries (PIBs) hold great promise as alternatives to lithium ion batteries in post-lithium age, while face challenges of slow reaction kinetics induced by the inherent characteristics of large-size K +. We herein show that creating sufficient exposed edges in MoS 2 via constructing ordered mesoporous architecture greatly favors for improved kinetics as well as increased reactive sites for K storage. The engineered MoS 2 with edge-enriched planes (EE-MoS 2) is featured by three-dimensional bicontinuous frameworks with ordered mesopores of ~ 5.0 nm surrounded by thin wall of ~ 9.0 nm. Importantly, EE-MoS 2 permits exposure of enormous edge planes at pore walls, renders its intrinsic layer spacing more accessible for K + and accelerates conversion kinetics, thus realizing enhanced capacity and high rate capability. Impressively, EE-MoS 2 displays a high reversible charge capacity of 506 mAh•g −1 at 0.05 A•g −1 , superior cycling capacities of 321 mAh•g −1 at 1.0 A•g −1 after 200 cycles and a capacity of 250 mAh•g −1 at 2.0 A•g −1 , outperforming edge-deficient MoS 2 with nonporous bulk structure. This work enlightens the nanoarchitecture design with abundant edges for improving electrochemical properties and provides a paradigm for exploring high-performance PIBs.

No abstract

No abstract

The incorporation of functional building blocks to construct functionalized and highly porous covalent triazine frameworks (CTFs) is essential to the emerging adsorptive-involved field. Herein, a series of amide functionalized CTFs (CTF-PO71) have been synthesized using a bottom-up strategy in which pigment PO71 with an amide group is employed as a monomer under ionothermal conditions with ZnCl2 as the solvent and catalyst. The pore structure can be controlled by the amount of ZnCl2 to monomer ratio. Benefitting from the highly porous structure and amide functionalities, CTF-PO71, as a sulfur cathode host, simultaneously demonstrates physical confinement and chemical anchoring of sulfur species, thus leading to superior capacity, cycling stability, and rate capability in comparison to unfunctionalized CTF. Meanwhile, as an adsorbent of organic dye molecules, CTF-PO71 was demonstrated to exhibit strong chemical interactions with dye molecules, facilitating adsorption kinetics and thereby promoting the adsorption rate and capacity. Furthermore, the dynamic adsorption experiments of organic dyes from solutions showed selectivity/priority of CTF-PO71s for specific dye molecules.

No abstract