Carbon dots (CDs) obtained from rapeseed pollen with a high production yield, good biocompatibility, good water solubility, low cost, and simple synthesis are systematically characterized. They can be directly added to Hoagland nutrient solution for planting hydroponically cultivated Lactuca sativa L. to explore their influence on the plants at different concentrations. By measuring lettuce indices of growth, morphology, nutrition quality, gas exchange, and content of photosynthetic pigment, amazing growth-promotion effects of CDs were discovered, and the mechanism was analyzed. Moreover, the in vivo transport route of CDs in lettuce was evaluated by macroscopic and microscopic observations under UV light excitation. The results demonstrate that pollen-derived CDs can be potentially used as a miraculous fertilizer for agricultural applications and as a great in vivo plant bioimaging probe.

In this work, aiming at a UV-curing 3D printing process with liquid crystal display (LCD) irradiation, a novel free-radical/cationic hybrid photosensitive resin was designed and prepared. After testing, the results showed that the acrylate monomers could be polymerized through a free-radical mechanism, while the epoxides were polymerized by a cationic curing mechanism. During the process of UV-curing, the acrylate and epoxide polymers were crosslinked and further locked together by non-covalent bonds. Therefore, an interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) structure could be formed through light-curing 3D-printing processes. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) revealed that the 3,4-epoxy cyclohexyl methyl-3,4-epoxy cyclohexyl formate and acrylic resin were both successfully involved in the UV-curing process. Furthermore, in order to make the 3D-printed objects cured completely, post-processing was of great importance. The results from the systematic study of the dynamic mechanical properties of the printed objects showed that the heating treatment process after UV irradiation was very necessary and favorable for the complete cationic polymerization of UV-6110 induced by Irgacure 261. The optimum heating treatment conditions were achieved at a temperature of 70 °C for 3 h.

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A ultraviolet (UV)-curing free-radical/cationic hybrid resin is designed and developed by blending epoxy resin with an acrylic resin, including N-acryloyl morpholine, polyurethane acrylic ester (PUA), free-radical and cationic photoinitiator. During UV-curing, crosslinking locks the acrylate and epoxide polymers together through non-covalent interaction. Most likely, the interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) structure can be generated in the threedimensional (3D)-printed objects. The obtained results from Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) show that bisphenol A epoxy resin and acrylic resin are both successfully involved in the UV-curing process. In addition, the effects of the mass ratio of epoxy to acrylic resin and the UV irradiation time on the properties of the hybrid resin are systematically investigated using liquid crystal display (LCD) 3D printers. It is found that the tensile strength of the hybrid resin increases in a certain range and the elongation at the break maintains an upward trend with the increasing mass ratio. Finally, it is found that the shrinkage of the hybrid resin also depends on the mass ratio of epoxy to acrylic resin, which decreases with the increase of the epoxy resin content in a certain range. Thus, herein we propose a feasible UV-curing mechanism for the synthesis of hybrid resins for 3D printing applications.