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To date, a number of studies have reported the use of vibrations coupled to ferroelectric materials for water splitting. However, producing a stable particle suspension for high efficiency and long‐term stability remains a challenge. Here, the first report of the production of a nanofluidic BaTiO3 suspension containing a mixture of cubic and tetragonal phases that splits water under ultrasound is provided. The BaTiO3 particle size reduces from approximately 400 nm to approximately 150 nm during the application of ultrasound and the fine‐scale nature of the particulates leads to the formation of a stable nanofluid consisting of BaTiO3 particles suspended as a nanofluid. Long‐term testing demonstrates repeatable H2 evolution over 4 days with a continuous 24 h period of stable catalysis. A maximum rate of H2 evolution is found to be 270 mmol h–1 g–1 for a loading of 5 mg l–1 of BaTiO3 in 10% MeOH/H2O. This work indicates the potential of harnessing vibrations for water splitting in functional materials and is the first demonstration of exploiting a ferroelectric nanofluid for stable water splitting, which leads to the highest efficiency of piezoelectrically driven water splitting reported to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As both major macronutrients and signal molecules, nitrogen metabolites, such as nitrate and nitrite, play an important role in plant growth and development. In this study, the callus growth of indica rice cv. 9311 was significantly enhanced by nitrite, whereas the soluble protein content remained unchanged. The deep RNA sequencing technology (RNA-seq) showed that the transcriptional profiles of cv. 9311 calli were significantly changed after adding nitrite to the nitrate-free medium, and these nitrite-responsive genes were involved in a wide range of plant processes, particularly in the secondary metabolite pathways. Interestingly, most of the genes involved in phenylpropanoid-related pathways were coordinately down-regulated by nitrite, such as four cinnamoyl-CoA reductase, and these in turn resulted in the decrease of lignin content of indica calli. Furthermore, several candidate genes related to cell growth or stress responses were identified, such as genes coding for expansins, SMALL AUXIN UP RNA (SAUR) and HSP20s, and these suggested that nitrite could probably serve as a transcriptome signal to enhance the indica calli growth by regulation of various downstream genes expression. This study contributes to a better understanding of the function of nitrite during the process of plant tissue culture and could aid in the application of this technology to improved indica genetic transformation efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]