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The Cu-In 2 O 3 /C nanocomposite was prepared by a simple solid-phase reduction method. The introduction of In 2 O 3 into Cu/C to form the Cu-In 2 O 3 /C nanocomposite evidently enhances the electrocatalytic activity for the selective reduction of CO 2 to CO. Specifically, the Cu-In 2 O 3 /C nanocomposite exhibits higher Faraday efficiency (FE = 86.7%) at -0.48 V vs. the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) in the electrocatalytic reduction of CO 2 to CO and larger current densities (55 mA cm -2 ) under a low overpotential (-1.08 V vs. RHE). These indicate its superior performance over many of the reported Cu-based catalysts [1-4]. It was also found that by rationally adjusting the applied potential, tunable syngas can be formed, which can be used to synthesize formic acid, methyl ether, methanol, synthetic fuels, or other bulk chemicals through appropriate industrial processes. Furthermore, the Cu-In 2 O 3 /C nanocomposite maintains good stability in the electrocatalytic reduction of CO 2 . This work demonstrates a novel strategy to convert CO 2 into desired products with high energy efficiency and large current density under low overpotential by the rational designing of non-precious metal catalysts., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The electronic balance, one of the most common pieces of equipment in the laboratory, is normally used to directly measure the weight of a target with high accuracy. However, little attention has been paid to the extension of its applications. In this study, an electronic balance was used as a readout to develop a novel aptasensor for protein quantification for the first time. Thrombin was selected as a model target, and its two aptamers recognizing different sites of the protein were used (one aptamer was immobilized on the surface of magnetic microparticles and the other aptamer was functionalized with platinum nanoparticles). The two aptamers were specifically bound with the thrombin to form a sandwich structure; thus, the platinum nanoparticles were linked to the magnetic microparticles, and they were separated by a magnet easily. The captured platinum nanoparticles effectively catalyzed the decomposition of H 2 O 2 , generating a large volume of O 2 to discharge a certain amount of water in a drainage device, because the pressure in the vial is higher than that outside of the vial. The weight of water was accurately measured by an electronic balance. The weight of water increased with the increasing of the thrombin concentration in the range of 0 to 100 nM with a detection limit of 2.8 nM. This is the first time the use of an electronic balance as a signal readout for biomolecule quantitation in bioassay has been reported.