Unveiling the Effect of Crystal Facets on Piezo-Photocatalytic Activity of Bivo4

Highly efficient harvesting of vibration energy for complex wastewater purification using Bi5Ti3FeO15 with controlled oxygen vacancies

Unveiling the effect of crystal facets on piezo-photocatalytic activity of BiVO4

Design strategies and effect comparisons toward efficient piezocatalytic system

Piezoelectric materials are sensitive to lattice strain, which is always related with their macroscopic properties. Therefore, it is of scientific significance to improve piezocatalytic performance by strain engineering and clarify the underlying mechanism. Herein, BaTiO3 (BTO) powder is fabricated by a solid‐state reaction and ball‐milling is employed to induce lattice strain in BTO. By prolonging ball‐milling time, the lattice strain increases, leading to an enhancement of tetragonality and piezocatalytic performance of BTO. The strain‐engineered BTO exhibited an excellent piezocatalytic activity, with a degradation rate constant k of ∼0.03 min−1 and a H2 evolution rate of 0.899 mmol g−1 h−1, which are 3 and 3.52 times those of the strain‐free one, respectively. The enhanced piezocatalytic performance can be ascribed to the improved piezoelectricity, piezoelectric polarization and adsorption activities for O2, OH and H of the strain‐engineered BTO. This work not only provides a simple and general method to improve piezocatalytic performance by strain engineering, but also unveils the enhancement mechanism.

Strain Engineering to Boost Piezocatalytic Activity of BaTiO3

Insight into oxygen-vacancy regulation on piezocatalytic activity of (Bi1/2Na1/2)TiO3 crystallites: Experiments and first-principles calculations

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a common autoimmune disease characterized by chronic inflammation. Immune dysfunction is an essential mechanism in the pathogenesis of RA and directly linked to synovial inflammation and cartilage/bone destruction. Intermediate conductance Ca2+-activated K+ channel (KCa3.1) is considered a significant regulator of proliferation, differentiation, and migration of immune cells by mediating Ca2+ signal transduction. Earlier studies have demonstrated abnormal activation of KCa3.1 in the peripheral blood and articular synovium of RA patients. Moreover, knockout of KCa3.1 reduced the severity of synovial inflammation and cartilage damage to a significant extent in a mouse collagen antibody-induced arthritis (CAIA) model. Accumulating evidence implicates KCa3.1 as a potential therapeutic target for RA. Here, we provide an overview of the KCa3.1 channel and its pharmacological properties, discuss the significance of KCa3.1 in immune cells and feasibility as a drug target for modulating the immune balance, and highlight its emerging role in pathological progression of RA.

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Ren Zhu

Papers

Insight into oxygen-vacancy regulation on piezocatalytic activity of (Bi1/2Na1/2)TiO3 crystallites: Experiments and first-principles calculations

Regulatory role of KCa3.1 in immune cell function and its emerging association with rheumatoid arthritis