The selective oxidation of hydrocarbons to the corresponding ketones with solvent-free and molecular oxygen as an oxidant is of great importance in academic and industrial fields in view of economy and environment.

There is a great challenge to employ an electrocatalyst that has high efficiency, is earth-abundant, and is a non-noble metal for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Herein, we reported a low-cost and highly efficient OER catalyst, Fe-doped NiCoP nanosheet arrays in situ grown on nickel foam (NiCoFeP/NF), which was synthesized via a simple and mild hydrothermal and phosphorization method. In 1 M KOH solution, the as-prepared NiCoFeP/NF produces a larger current density of 200 mA·cm–2 at a low overpotential of 271 mV and exhibits a low Tafel slope of 45 mV·dec–1, which is superior to commercial RuO2. The outstanding OER performance of the as-prepared NiCoFeP/NF can be attributed to the synergetic effects among Fe, Ni, and Co elements, unique nanosheet arrays structure, and the great intrinsic electrocatalytic activity. On the basis of the above factors, the as-prepared NiCoFeP/NF may work as a promising OER electrocatalyst.

Carbon coated hollow mesoporous FeP microcubes derived from Prussian blue were superior in catalytic activity and durability toward electrochemical hydrogen evolution with an overpotential of 115 mV to drive 10 mA cm−2.

The research on complicated kinomics and kinase-target drug discovery requires the development of simple, cost-effective, and multiplex kinase assays. Herein, we propose a novel and versatile biosensing platform for the detection of protein kinase activity based on graphene oxide (GO)-peptide nanocomplex and phosphorylation-induced suppression of carboxypeptidase Y (CPY) cleavage. Kinase-catalyzed phosphorylation protects the fluorophore-labeled peptide probe against CPY digestion and induces the formation of a GO/peptide nanocomplex resulting in fluorescence quenching, while the nonphosphopeptide is degraded by CPY to release free fluorophore as well as restore fluorescence. This GO-based nanosensor has been successfully applied to sensitively detect two model kinases, casein kinase (CKII) and cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) with low detection limits of 0.0833 mU/μL and 0.134 mU/μL, respectively. The feasibility of this GO-based sensor was further demonstrated by the assessment of kinase inhibition by staurosporine and H-89, in vitro kinase assay in cell lysates, and simultaneous detection of CKII and PKA activity. Moreover, the GO-based fluorescence anisotropy (FA) kinase assay has been also developed using GO as a FA signal amplifier. The proposed sensor is homogeneous, facile, universal, label-free, and applicable for multiplexed kinase assay, presenting a promising method for kinase-related biochemical fundamental research and inhibitor screening.

RNA viruses represent a major global health threat, and the visualization of their RNA genome in infected cells is essential for virological research and clinical diagnosis. Due to the lack of chemical toolkits for the live-cell imaging of viral RNA genomes, especially native viral genomes without labeling and genetic modification, studies on native virus infection at the single-live-cell level are challenging. Herein, taking hepatitis C virus (HCV) as a representative RNA virus, we propose that the innate noncanonical G-quadruplex (G4) structure of viral RNA can serve as a specific imaging target and report a new benzothiazole-based G4-targeted fluorescence light-up probe, ThT-NE, for the direct visualization of the native RNA genome of HCV in living host cells. We demonstrate the use of the ThT-NE probe for several previously intractable applications, including the sensitive detection of individual virus-infected cells by small-molecule staining, real-time monitoring of the subcellular distribution of the viral RNA genome in live cells, and continuous live-cell tracking of the infection and propagation of clinically isolated native HCV. The fluorogenic-probe-based viral RNA light-up system opens up a promising chemical strategy for cutting-edge live-cell viral analysis, providing a potentially powerful tool for viral biology, medical diagnosis, and drug development.