Fluorescence anisotropy (FA) is a reliable, sensitive, and robust assay approach for determination of many biological targets. However, it is generally not applicable for the assay of small molecules because their molecular masses are relatively too small to produce observable FA value changes. To address this issue, we report herein the development of a FA signal amplification strategy by employing graphene oxide (GO) as the signal amplifier. Because of the extraordinarily larger volume of GO, the fluorophore exhibits very high polarization when bound to GO. Conversely, low polarization is observed when the fluorophore is dissociated from the GO. As proof-of-principle, the approach was applied to FA detection of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) with a fluorescent aptamer. The aptamer exhibits very high polarization when bound to GO, while the FA is greatly reduced when the aptamer complexes with ATP, which exhibits a maximum signal change of 0.316 and a low detection limit of 100 nM ATP in buffer solution. Successful application of this strategy has been demonstrated that it can be constructed either in a "signal-off" or in a "signal-on" detection scheme. Moreover, because FA is less affected by environmental interferences, FA measurements could be conveniently used to directly detect as low as 1.0 μM adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in human serum. The universality of the approach could be achieved to detect an array of biological analytes when complemented with the use of functional DNA structures.

Up to now, the successful fabrication of efficient hot-spot substrates for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) remains an unsolved problem. To address this issue, we describe herein a universal aptamer-based SERS biodetection approach that uses a single-stranded DNA as a universal trigger (UT) to induce SERS-active hot-spot formation, allowing, in turn, detection of a broad range of targets. More specifically, interaction between the aptamer probe and its target perturbs a triple-helix aptamer/UT structure in a manner that activates a hybridization chain reaction (HCR) among three short DNA building blocks that self-assemble into a long DNA polymer. The SERS-active hot-spots are formed by conjugating 4-aminobenzenethiol (4-ABT)-encoded gold nanoparticles with the DNA polymer through a specific Au-S bond. As proof-of-principle, we used this approach to quantify multiple target analytes, including thrombin, adenosine, and CEM cancer cells, achieving lowest limit of detection values of 18 pM, 1.5 nM, and 10 cells/mL, respectively. As a universal SERS detector, this prototype can be applied to many other target analytes through the use of suitable DNA-functional partners, thus inspiring new designs and applications of SERS for bioanalysis.

Summary Biomass is one of the most promising clean energy sources. The porous carbon materials prepared by biomass as electrode materials of electric double‐layer capacitors (EDLCs) are easily available at a low price, which would greatly reduce the cost of the production. However, carbon materials made with biomass generally have many disadvantages such as low specific surface area (SSA), poor pore size structure, and difficulty to control the pore diameter, which results in the poor EDLC performance. In this paper, the prime purpose is to expose the recent progress of biomass carbon in the fields of electrode materials of EDLC. The review provides a comprehensive literature review that is focused on EDLC electrodes derived from biochar of the evidence of 181 publications published over a period of 30 years from 1989 to 2019. Various carbon materials derived from different biomass for electrode of EDLC are discussed. The most promising methods for the preparation of several biomass carbons are described in detail. Some factors such as SSA, pore size structure, surface functional groups, and electrolyte are further analyzed to discuss the effects on the electrochemical performance of the EDLC. Notably, current deficiencies and possible solutions of preparation methods of biomass carbon as electrode materials are outlined. And the future research trends in this field are prospected.

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