Harnessing Transition Metal Scaffolds for Targeted Antibacterial Therapy

Antimicrobial resistance, caused by persistent adaptation and growing resistance of pathogenic bacteria to overprescribed antibiotics, poses one of the most serious and urgent threats to global public health. The limited pipeline of experimental antibiotics in development further exacerbates this looming crisis and new drugs with alternative modes of action are needed to tackle evolving pathogenic adaptation. Transition metal complexes can replenish this diminishing stockpile of drug candidates by providing compounds with unique properties that are not easily accessible using pure organic scaffolds. We spotlight four emerging strategies to harness these unique properties to develop new targeted antibacterial agents.

Ag+ -Doped InSe Nanosheets for Membrane Electrode Assembly Electrolyzer toward Large-Current Electroreduction of CO2 to Ethanol

It is an appealing approach to CO2 utilization through CO2 electroreduction (CO2 ER) to ethanol at high current density; however, the commonly used Cu-based catalysts cannot sustain large current during CO2 ER despite their capability for ethanol production. Herein, we report that Ag+ -doped InSe nanosheets with Se vacancies can address this grand challenge in a membrane electrode assembly (MEA) electrolyzer. As revealed by our experimental characterization and theoretical calculation, the Ag+ doping, which can tailor the electronic structure of InSe while diversifying catalytically active sites, enables the formation of key reaction intermediates and their sequential evolution into ethanol. More importantly, such a material can well work for large-current conditions in MEA electrolyzers with In2+ species stabilized via electron transfer from Ag to Se. Remarkably, in an MEA electrolyzer by coupling cathodic CO2 ER with anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER), the optimal catalyst exhibits an ethanol Faradaic efficiency of 68.7 % and a partial current density of 186.6 mA cm-2 on the cathode with a full-cell ethanol energy efficiency of 26.1 % at 3.0 V. This work opens an avenue for large-current production of ethanol from CO2 with high selectivity and energy efficiency by rationally designing electrocatalysts.

First principles study on magnetic anisotropy of 5d transition metal doped graphidiyne

The exceptional porous architecture of graphdiyne (GDY) renders it a potential candidate for magnetic storage media. This paper delves into the magnetic properties of GDY doped with 5d transition metal atoms via first-principles calculations. Our results divulge the stable embedding of these transition metal atoms within the triangular cavities of GDY, yielding a significant magneto-crystal anisotropy energy. In particular, Ta@GDY exhibits a remarkable magneto-crystal anisotropy energy value of 11.72 meV. By introducing transition metal atoms at the top, one could significantly change the magneto-crystal anisotropy energy value of the system, subsequently flipping the easy magnetization axis. The MAE values of Os-W_3@GDY and Re-Ir_3@GDY are -21.60 meV and -41.68 meV, which are expanded by a factor of 4 and 6 compared to those before the introduction of the top atom. Furthermore, we observed that the magneto-crystal anisotropy energy value of Ta@GDY is modulated by strain. Our research uncovers GDY as a promising substrate for two-dimensional magnetic materials that could be exploited in forthcoming magnetic memory devices.