| Controlling Pyrene Association in DNA Duplexes by B‐ to Z‐DNA Transitions
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| B‐ to Z‐DNA transitions play a crucial role in biological systems and have attracted the interest of researchers for their applications in DNA nanotechnology. DNA and DNA analogs have also been used as templates to construct helical chromophore associations with π‐interactions. In this work, the B‐ to Z‐DNA transition‐induced switching of pyrene in an association manner was evaluated using DNA duplexes with non‐nucleosidic pyrene residues in the middle of d(CG) repeat sequences. One of the pyrene‐labeled DNAs was shown to exhibit inverted exciton coupled circular dichroism signals upon pyrene association through a B‐ to Z‐DNA transition. This observation indicates that pyrene association switches the DNA conformation from right‐ to left‐handed. Interestingly, the fluorescence of the pyrene‐labeled DNA duplex also dynamically changed upon switching of the pyrene in an association‐based manner. Taken together, these studies demonstrate that pyrene‐labeled DNA shows promise as a chiroptical molecular switch.
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| In-situ imaging electrocatalysis in a K-O2 battery with hollandite α-MnO2 nanowires air cathode
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| Chem. Commun., 2019, Accepted Manuscript DOI: 10.1039/C9CC05226G, Communication Yushu Tang, Liqiang Zhang, Yongfu Tang, Xin Wang, Teng Zhang, Rui Yang, Chi Ma, Na Li, Yuening Liu, Xinxin Zhao, Xionghu Zhang, Zaifa Wang, Baiyu Guo, Yongfeng Li, Jianyu Huang Using α-manganese dioxide (α-MnO2) nanowires as the air electrode, a K-O2 nanobattery is assembled in aberration corrected environmental transmission electron microscope. It is found that the α-MnO2 nanowire is reduced...
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| Thinnest optical waveguide channels light within just three layers of atoms
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 Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed the thinnest optical device in the world -- a waveguide that is three layers of atoms thin. The work is a proof of concept for scaling down optical devices to sizes that are orders of magnitude smaller than today's devices. It could lead to the development of higher density, higher capacity photonic chips.
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| Ionic thermal up-diffusion boosts energy harvesting
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 Recently nanofluidic salinity gradient energy harvesting via ion channels or membranes has drawn increasing concerns due to the advances in materials science and nanotechnology, which exhibits much higher power density than the macro reverse electrodialysis systems, indicating its potential to harvest the huge amount blue energy released by mixing seawater and river water and enhance power extracted for osmotic heat engines. Scientists based in China present an anomalous temperature dependence in nanofluidic power generation.
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| How do atoms vibrate in graphene nanostructures?
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 Researchers from the University of Vienna, the Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Japan, the company JEOL and La Sapienza University in Rome have developed a method capable to measure all phonons existing in a nanostructured material. This is a breakthrough in the analysis of nanoscale functional materials and devices.
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| You're not so tough, h-BN
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 Rice University scientists make hexagonal-boron nitride, a 2D material much stiffer than steel and an excellent conductor of heat, much simpler to modify for applications through a chemical process partially developed at Rice.
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| Sharp meets flat in tunable 2D material
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 Rice University scientists have created unique two-dimensional flakes with two distinct personalities: molybdenum diselenide on one side of a sharp divide with rhenium diselenide on the other. The materials show promise for optoelectronics.
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, article language English ( Russian [ translation ] )
