DNA self-assembly provides a powerful approach for preparation of nanostructures. It is often studied in bulk solution and involves only DNA-DNA interactions. When confined to surfaces, DNA-surface interactions become an additional, important factor to DNA self-assembly. However, the way in which DNA-surface interactions influence DNA self-assembly is not well studied. In this study, we showed that weak DNA-DNA interactions could be stabilized by DNA-surface interactions to allow large DNA nanostructures to form. In addition, the assembly can be conducted isothermally at room temperature in as little as 5 seconds.
Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is an emerging material with some unique physical and electronic properties somewhat comparable to those of graphene. It was prepared with the use of a simple hydrothermal process, and has a layered structure similar to that of graphene. Also, it has a peroxidase-like catalytic activity and is able to catalyze the oxidation of the colorless peroxidase substrate, 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB), in the presence of H2O2 to produce a blue product. This reaction used MoS2 as a useful peroxidase, which involved a colorimetric method for trace analysis of H2O2 in water, e.g. lake waters. This method is uncomplicated, inexpensive and highly sensitive for H2O2 in the 0.125-1.75 μM range (LOD: 0.08 μM). It is also quite stable in the presence of many common inorganic and organic potentially interfering compounds, e.g. metal ions as well as amino acids and sugars.
Carbon quantum dots (CQDs) have recentlya ttracted significant attention for both their fundamental science and technological applicationsas an ew class of fluorescentz ero-dimensional nanomaterials with as ize below 10 nm. However,t he reportedm ethods of synthesisw ere generally less suitable for the large-scale production of the CQDs with high-fluorescent quantumy ield (QY). In the paper,anovelo ne-pot microwave-assisted drying synthesis approach was presented to prepare CQDs with high QY of 61.3 %f or the first time. The production yield of CQDs was 35 AE 3% in weight. The as-prepared CQDs were characterized by various techniques such as TEM, AFM, XRD, XPS, FTIR spectroscopy,U V/Vis absorption spectroscopy,a nd fluorescence spectroscopy. Ther esults showedt hat the high QY of CQDs was largely attributed to the dual doping of nitrogen and sulphur into CQDs. Such CQDs were then used as live-cell imaging reagents due to their high QY,g ood water dispersibility,f ine biocompatibility,h igh photostability,a nd low cytotoxicity.
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