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1. Kinetic surface control for improved magnesium-electrolyte interfaces for magnesium ion batteries

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ensm.2019.06.035  

   Li, Bin; Masse, Robert; Liu, Chaofeng; Hu, Yang; Li, Weishan; Zhang, Guoqing; Cao, Guozhong (November 2019, Energy Storage Materials)
2. Magnesium ion assignment and role in ribosome subunit rotation

   Wanes, George; Whitford, Paul C (February 2025, Biophysical Journal)
3. Application of Single-Ion Conducting Gel Polymer Electrolytes in Magnesium Batteries

   https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.9b00991  

   Merrill, Laura C.; Ford, Hunter O.; Schaefer, Jennifer L. (August 2019, ACS Applied Energy Materials)
4. Switchable inhibitory behavior of divalent magnesium ion in DNA hybridization-based gene quantification

   https://doi.org/10.1039/D2AN01164F  

   Jin, Hyowon; Lim, Hyun Jeong; Liles, Mark R.; Chua, Beelee; Son, Ahjeong (October 2022, The Analyst)

   Contrary to the understanding that divalent cations only result in under-estimation of gene quantification via DNA hybridization-based assays, we have discovered that Mg 2+ could cause either under or over-estimation at different concentrations. Its switchable inhibitory behavior is likely due to its rigid first solvation (hydrated) shell and hence it is inclined to form non-direct binding with DNA. At low concentrations, it caused under-estimation by occupying the hybridization sites. At high concentrations, it caused probe, signaling and target DNA to aggregate non-specifically via Coulomb forces. By quantifying target DNAs at a range of Mg 2+ concentrations using a gene quantification assay (NanoGene assay), a Mg 2+ inflection concentration of ∼10 −3 M was observed for both target ssDNA and dsDNA. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) were employed to observe Mg 2+ -induced non-specific binding in the complexes that mimicked the presence of target DNA. Together with two other divalent cations Ca 2+ and Cu 2+ , they were further examined via zeta potential measurements as well as NanoGene assay. This study revealed the importance of Mg 2+ in achieving accurate gene quantification. Through a better mechanistic understanding of this phenomenon, it will be possible to develop strategies to mitigate the impact of Mg 2+ on DNA hybridization-based gene quantification. 

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5. Ion Coordination and Transport in Magnesium Polymer Electrolytes Based on Polyester-co-Polycarbonate

   https://doi.org/10.34133/2021/9895403  

   Park, Bumjun; Andersson, Rassmus; Pate, Sarah G; Liu, Jiacheng; O’Brien, Casey P; Hernández, Guiomar; Mindemark, Jonas; Schaefer, Jennifer L (January 2021, Energy Material Advances)

   Magnesium-ion-conducting solid polymer electrolytes have been studied for rechargeable Mg metal batteries, one of the beyond-Li-ion systems. In this paper, magnesium polymer electrolytes with magnesium bis(trifluoromethane)sulfonimide (Mg(TFSI)₂) salt in poly(ε-caprolactone-co-trimethylene carbonate) (PCL-PTMC) were investigated and compared with the poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) analogs. Both thermal properties and vibrational spectroscopy indicated that the total ion conduction in the PEO electrolytes was dominated by the anion conduction due to strong polymer coordination with fully dissociated Mg²⁺. On the other hand, in PCL-PTMC electrolytes, there is relatively weaker polymer–cation coordination and increased anion–cation coordination. Sporadic Mg- and F-rich particles were observed on the Cu electrodes after polarization tests in Cu|Mg cells with PCL-PTMC electrolyte, suggesting that Mg was conducted in the ion complex form (Mg_xTFSI_y) to the copper working electrode to be reduced which resulted in anion decomposition. However, the Mg metal deposition/stripping was not favorable with either Mg(TFSI)₂in PCL-PTMC or Mg(TFSI)₂in PEO, which inhibited quantitative analysis of magnesium conduction. A remaining challenge is thus to accurately assess transport numbers in these systems. 

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