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Graphitic carbon nitride nanosheets （g-C3N4 NSs） hybridized nitrogen doped titanium dioxide （N-TiO2） nanofibers （GCN/NT NFs） have been synthesized in situ via a simple electrospinning process combined with a modified heat-etching method. The prepared GCN/NT NFs were characterized by a variety of methods and their photocatalytic activities were evaluated by hydrogen （H2） production from water splitting and degradation of rhodamine B in aqueous solution. It was found that the GCN/NT NFs have a mesoporous structure, composed of g-C3N4 NSs and N-doped TiO2 crystallites. The g-C3N4 NSs synthesized after heat-etching were found to be embedded in, and covered, the hybrid NFs to form stable interfaces. The partial decomposition of g-C3N4 releases its nitrogen content which eventually gets doped into the nearby TiO2 skeleton. The GCN/NT NFs give a high photocatalytic H2 production rate of 8,931.3 μmol·h^-1·g^-1 in aqueous methanol solution under simulated solar light. Such a highly efficient photocatalytic perfor- mance can be ascribed to the combined effects of g-C3N4 NSs and N-doped TiO2 with enhanced light absorption intensity and improved electron transport ability. Also, the large surface area of the mesoporous NFs minimizes light reflection on the surface and provides more surface-active sites. This work highlights the potential of quasi-one dimensional hybrid materials in the field of solar energy conversion.

We quantitatively study the Raman and photoluminescence （PL） emission from single-layer molybdenum disulfide （MoS2） on dielectric （SiO2, hexagonal boron nitride, mica and the polymeric dielectric Gel-Film） and conducting substrates （Au and few-layer graphene）. We find that the substrate can affect the Raman and PL emission in a twofold manner. First, the absorption and emission intensities are strongly modulated by the constructive/destructive interference within the different substrates. Second, the position of the Alg Raman mode peak and the spectral weight between neutral and charged excitons in the PL spectra are modified by the substrate. We attribute this effect to substrate-induced changes in the doping level and in the decay rates of the excitonic transitions. Our results provide a method to quantitatively study the Raman and PL emission from MoSa-based vertical heterostructures and represent the first step in ad hoc tuning the PL emission of 1L MoS2 by selecting the proper substrate.

The properties and applications of boron nitride （BN） nanosheets are com- plementary to those of graphene, with advantages in chemical and thermal stability. Biocompatibility is an important property for future biomedical applications but has not been investigated experimentally. We studied the biocompatibility of BN nanosheets of different sizes and compared it with that of BN nanoparticles in osteoblast-like cells （SaOS2）. Our results showed that the biocompatibility of BN nanomaterials depends on their size, shape, structure, and surface chemical properties. Electron spin resonance measurement revealed that unsaturated B atoms located at the nanosheet edges or on the particle surface are responsible for the cell death.

Transition metal nitrides （TMNs） are of particular interest by virtue of their synergic advantages of superior electrical conductivity, excellent environmental durability and high reaction selectivity, yet it is difficult to achieve flexible design and operation. Herein, mesocrystal nanosheets （MCNSs） of vanadium nitride （VN） are synthesized via a confined-growth route from thermally stable layered vanadium bronze, representing the first two-dimensional （2D） metallic mesocrystal in inorganic compounds. Benefiting from their single-crystalline-like long-range electronic connectivity, VN MCNSs deliver an electrical conductivity of 1.44×10^5 S/m at room temperature, among the highest values observed for 2D nanosheets. Coupled with their unique pseudocapacitance, VN MCNS-based flexible supercapacitors afford a superior volumetric capacitance of 1,937 mF/cm3. Nitride MCNSs should have wide applications in the energy storage and conversion fields because their intrinsic high conductivity is coupled with the reactivity of inorganic lattices.

Semiconductor nanomaterials with photocatalytic activity have potential for many applications. An effective way of promoting photocatalytic activity is depositing noble metal nanoparticles （NPs） on a semiconductor, since the noble metal NPs act as excellent electron acceptors which inhibit the quick recombination of the photoexcited electron-hole pairs and thereby enhance the generation of reactive oxygen species （ROS）. Herein, a highly effective platform, graphitic carbon nitride （g-C3N4） nanosheets with embedded Ag nanopartides （Ag/g-C3N4）, was synthesized by a facile route. Under visible light irradiation, the ROS production of Ag/g-C3N4 nanohybrids was greatly improved compared with pristine g-C3N4 nanosheets, and moreover, the nanohybrids showed enhanced antibacterial efficacy and ability to disperse bacterial biofilms. We demonstrate for the first time that the Ag/g-C3N4 nanohybrids are efficient bactericidal agents under visible light irradiation, and can also provide a new way for biofilm elimination. The enhanced antibacterial properties and biofilm-disrupting ability of Ag/g-C3N4 nanohybrids may offer many biomedical applications.

Inflammasomes are multi-protein complexes that trigger the activation of caspase-1 and the maturation of interleukin-1β （IL-1β）, yet the regulation of these complexes remains poorly characterized. Here we show that nitric oxide （NO） inhibited the NLRP3-mediated ASC pyroptosome formation, caspase-1 activation and IL-1β secretion in myeloid cells from both mice and humans. Meanwhile, endogenous NO derived from iNOS （inducible form of NO synthase） also negatively regulated NLRP3 inflammasome activation. Depletion of iNOS resulted in increased accu- mulation of dysfunctional mitochondria in response to LPS and ATP, which was responsible for the increased IL-1β production and caspase-1 activation, iNOS deficiency or pharmacological inhibition of NO production enhanced NL-RP3-dependent cytokine production in vivo, thus increasing mortality from LPS-induced sepsis in mice, which was prevented by NLRP3 deficiency. Our results thus identify NO as a critical negative regulator of the NLRP3 inflam-masome via the stabilization of mitochondria. This study has important implications for the design of new strategies to control NLRP3-related diseases.

The thermal conduction of suspended few-layer hexagonal boron nitride （h-BN） sheets was experimentally investigated using a noncontact micro-Raman spectroscopy method. The first-order temperature coefficients for monolayer （1L）, bilayer （2L） and nine-layer （9L） h-BN sheets were measured to be -（3.41 ± 0.12）× 10-2, -（3.15 ± 0.14） × 10-2 and -（3.78 ±0.16）× 10-2 cm-1.K-1, respectively. The room-temperature thermal conductivity of few-layer h-BN sheets was found to be in the range from 227 to 280 W.m-1-K-1, which is comparable to that of bulk h-BN, indicating their potential use as important components to solve heat dissipation problems in thermal management configurations.

Chemical vapor deposition （CVD） synthesis of large-domain hexagonal boron nitride （h-BN） with a uniform thickness is very challenging, mainly due to the extremely high nucleation density of this material. Herein, we report the successful growth of wafer-scale, high-quality h-BN monolayer films that have large single-crystalline domain sizes, up to -72 μm in edge length, prepared using a folded Cu-foil enclosure. The highly confined growth space and the smooth Cu surface inside the enclosure effectively reduced the precursor feeding rate together and induced a drastic decrease in the nucleation density. The orientation of the as-grown h-BN monolayer was found to be strongly correlated to the crystallographic orientation of the Cu substrate： the Cu （111） face being the best substrate for growing aligned h-BN domains and even single-crystalline monolayers. This is consistent with our density functional theory calculations. The present study offers a practical pathway for growing high-quality h-BN films by deepening our fundamental understanding of the process of their growth by CVD.

Tailored synthesis of well-defined anatase TiO2-based crystals with exposed {001} facets has stimulated incessant research interest worldwide due to their scientific and technological importance. Herein, anatase nitrogen-doped TiO2 （N-TiO2） nanoparticles with exposed {001} facets deposited on the graphene （GR） sheets （N-TiO2-001/GR） were synthesized for the first time via a one-step solvothermal synthetic route using NH4F as the morphology-controlling agent. The experimental results exemplified that GR was uniformly covered with anatase N-TiO2 nanoparticles （10-17 nm）, exposing the {001} facets. The percentage of exposed {001} facets in the N-TiO2-001/GR nanocomposites was calculated to be ca. 35%. Also, a red shift in the absorption edge and a strong absorption in the visible light range were observed due to the formation of Ti-O-C bonds, resulting in the successful narrowing of the band gap from 3.23 to 2.9 eV. The photocatalytic activities of the as-prepared photocatalysts were evaluated for CO2 reduction to produce CH, in the presence of water vapor under ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure using a low-power 15 W energy-saving daylight lamp as the visible light source--in contrast to the most commonly employed high-power xenon lamps--which rendered the process economically and practically feasible. Among all the studied photocatalysts, the N-TiO2-001/GR nanocomposites exhibited the greatest CH4 yield of 3.70 p-mol＇gcatalyst 1, approxi- mately 11-fold higher activity than the TiO2-001. The enhancement of photocatalyfic performance was ascribed to the effective charge anti-recombination of graphene, high absorption of visible light region relative to the {101} facets. and high catalytic activity of {001} facets

Ultrathin graphitic carbon nitride nanoplatelets （UGCNPs） are synthesized by a facile manner via an efficient and eco-friendly ball milling approach. The obtained UGCNPs are 2-6 nm in size and 0.35-0.7 nm in thickness, with improved specific surface area over that of bulk graphitic carbon nitride. Photochemical experiments show that the UGCNPs are highly active in visible-light water splitting, with a hydrogen evolution rate of 1,365 μmol·h^-1·g^-1, which is 13.7-fold greater than that of their bulk counterparts. The notable improvement in the hydrogen evolution rate observed with UGCNPs under visible light is due to the synergistic effects derived from the increased specific surface area, reduced thickness, and a negative shift in the conduction band concomitant with the exfoliation of bulk graphitic carbon nitride into UGCNPs. In addition to metal- free visible-light-driven photocatalytic hydrogen production, the UGCNPs find attractive applications in biomedical imaging and optoelectronics because of their superior luminescence characteristics.