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Regarding the poor visible light response and the difficulty in synchronously driving photocatalytic reduction and oxidation reactions of MOFs, In2S3/UiO-67 composites (IM-1, IM-3, and IM-5) were prepared by deposition of in situ generated In2S3 species on the surface of UiO-67(Zr-MOF), and the formation of heterostructure was confirmed by PXRD, FT-IR and XPS characterization. Under the irradiation of 500 W xenon lamp, the reduction efficiency of IM-3 for Cr(Ⅵ) reached 92.4% within 60 min, providing the reduction rate of 2.3 and 20 times that of pure In2S3 and Zr-MOF, respectively. The degradation efficiency for RhB was 78% within 180 min, with the degradation rate of 1.75 and 2.3 times of that of pure In2S3 and Zr-MOF. Moreover, the migration direction of photogenerated carriers were elucidated by XPS, and the photocatalytic reaction mechanism was further revealed in combination with free radical trapping experiments.

Recovering valuable materials from spent lithium-ion batteries is an important task because of the asymmetry in resource distribution, supply, and demand around the world. A lithium-ion battery is a combination system of various elements and their oxides. Current recovering technologies focus on the separation of valuable metal elements. They can inescapably bring secondary contamination and cost to the environment due to the addition of leachants and precipitants. To recover valuable materials, in situ recombination of elements in spent lithium-ion batteries can be a more economical and environment-friendly solution. Herein, we developed a technology based on in situ aluminothermic reduction and interstitial solid solution transformation to recover high-value γ-LiAlO 2 and LiAl 5 O 8 under vacuum and high-temperature (1723 K) conditions. It was found that the process of Li 2 O filling into the lattice of O-Al-O structure is an energy-reducing process, while LiAl 5 O 8 was an existing high-energy transition-state matter. Since there was no wastewater generated, the process brought a new environment-friendly method for recovering valuable metals from spent lithium-ion batteries. This study also provides new comprehension regarding the design for high-value products' recovery from multi-element mixed wastes on an atomic scale.

Our study aims to access the influence of caveolin1 (CAV1) on β cell expression profiles. We knocked down the expression of CAV1 in both NIT-1 cells and islets isolated from C57BL/6J mice using an RNA interference technique, which was realized by the transfer of an shRNA vector targeting CAV1 mRNA into NIT-1 cells or islets through latent virus infection. First, we identified the change in gene expression profiles in islets, in which the CAV1 expression level was down-regulated, as ascertained by mouse gene expression microarray, and the results showed that pathways related to β cell proliferation and pancreatic secretion functions were significantly influenced. The results of MTT demonstrated that the knockdown of CAV1 expression in NIT-1 cells promoted proliferation. The protein array results showed that pro-apoptotic cytokines were down-regulated in the NIT-1 cell line with CAV1 knockdown. These findings suggest that CAV1 might be involved in apoptosis and proliferation regulation in β cells, and therefore could be a potential target for the development of novel therapies for diabetes mellitus.