In this work, we demonstrated the EG-assisted solvothermal synthesis of 3-D microspherical BiOBr architectures assembled by nanosheets. The morphology and compositional characteristics of the 3-D architectures were investigated by various microscopy techniques. The possible formation mechanism for the architectures was discussed. The band gap of the obtained BiOBr materials was estimated to be 2.54 eV by UV-vis. The specific surface area and porosity of the BiOBr 3-D architectures also were investigated by using nitrogen adsorption and desorption isotherms. Because of the narrow bandgap and the novel 3-D micro-/nanostructure, the BiOBr architectures show a more excellent photocatalytic activity under visible light irradiation than the BiOBr bulk plates. Several possible reasons for the higher photocatalytic activity have been taken into consideration. In addition, the photocatalyst is stable during the reaction and can be used repeatedly.

The novel morphology of BN nanotubes with a collapsed structure has been discovered by a metal-catalyzed treatment. The collapse causes the dramatic enlargement of a specific surface area of BN nanotubes and remarkably enhances the hydrogen storage capacity of BN nanotubes.

A phage-displayed library of variable domain of heavy chain of the heavy chain antibody (VHH) or nanobody (Nb) was constructed after immunizing an alpaca with aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) conjugated with bovine serum albumin (AFB1-BSA). Two AFB1-specific nanobodies were selected. The obtained nanobodies were compared to an aflatoxin-specific monoclonal antibody B5 with respect to stability under organic solvents and high temperature. The two nanobodies could bind antigen specifically after exposure to temperatures as high as 95 °C. Besides, the nanobodies showed better or similar tolerance to organic solvents. A competitive ELISA with nanobody Nb26 was developed for the analysis of AFB1, exhibiting an IC50 value of 0.754 ng/mL (2.4 μM), linear range from 0.117 to 5.676 ng/mL. Due to the high tolerance to methanol, sample extracts were analyzed by nanobody-based ELISA without dilution. The recovery from spiked peanut, rice, corn and feedstuff ranged from 80 to 115%. In conclusion, the isolated nanobodies are excellent candidates for immunoassay application in aflatoxin determination.

Voltage decay and capacity fading are the main challenges for the commercialization of Li‐rich Mn‐based layered oxides (LLOs). Now, a three‐in‐one surface treatment is designed via the pyrolysis of urea to improve the voltage and capacity stability of Li1.2Mn0.6Ni0.2O2 (LMNO), by which oxygen vacancies, spinel phase integration, and N‐doped carbon nanolayers are synchronously built on the surface of LMNO microspheres. Oxygen vacancies and spinel phase integration suppress irreversible O2 release and help lithium ion diffusion, while N‐doped carbon nanolayer mitigates the corrosion of electrolyte with excellent conductivity. The electrochemical performance of LMNO after the treatment improves significantly; the capacity retention rate after 500 cycles at 1 C is still as high as 89.9 % with a very small voltage fading rate of 1.09 mV cycle−1. This three‐in‐one surface treatment strategy can suppress the voltage decay and capacity fading of LLOs.

In this work, a hydrothermal route using an ethanol-water solution to progressively synthesize a sequence of flowerlike three-dimensional gamma-AlOOH boehmite nanostructures without employing templates or matrixes for self-assembly is presented. The flowerlike boehmite nanoarchitectures exhibit three hierarchies of self-organization, i.e., single-crystalline nanorods, nanostrips, and bundles, which are characterized by scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The sequence of products obtained after different processing times indicates a self-assembly mechanism. The hydrogen bonding on the surface of nanorods or nanostrips possibly plays a key role, as identified by FTIR spectra of the products after they had been heated to 1000 degrees C. The specific surface area and pore-size distribution of the obtained product as determined by gas-sorption measurements show that the boehmite nanoarchitectures exhibit high BET surface area and porosity properties.

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The detection of adulteration of high priced oils is a particular concern in food quality and safety. Therefore, it is necessary to develop authenticity detection method for protecting the health of customers. In this study, fatty acid profiles of five edible oils were established by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC/MS) in selected ion monitoring mode. Using mass spectral characteristics of selected ions and equivalent chain length (ECL), 28 fatty acids were identified and employed to classify five kinds of edible oils by using unsupervised (principal component analysis and hierarchical clustering analysis), supervised (random forests) multivariate statistical methods. The results indicated that fatty acid profiles of these edible oils could classify five kinds of edible vegetable oils into five groups and are therefore employed to authenticity assessment. Moreover, adulterated oils were simulated by Monte Carlo method to establish simultaneous adulteration detection model for five kinds of edible oils by random forests. As a result, this model could identify five kinds of edible oils and sensitively detect adulteration of edible oil with other vegetable oils about the level of 10%.

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