Latest ArticlesChemotherapy is one of the most conventional modalities for cancer therapy. However, the high multidrug resistance of tumor cells still limited the clinical application of current chemotherapy. Considering the ability of nitric oxide (NO) to modulate potent P-glycoprotein to inhibit multi-drug resistance, a synergistic methodology combining chemotherapy and sustained NO generation is an ideal way to further promote the chemotherapy. Herein, a multi-functional micelle with tumor-selective chemotherapy driven by redox-triggered doxorubicin (DOX) release and drug resistance inhibition based on intracellular NO generation was fabricated for effective tumor treatment. The micelle consists of DOX as core, arginine/glucose oxidase (Arg/GOx) as shell and redox-responsive disulfide bond as a linker, which is denoted as micelle-DOX-Arg-GOx. The Arg serves as the biological precursor of nitric oxide for inhibition of multi-drug resistance to promote chemotherapy and GOx catalyzes glucose to produce hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) for increasing the generation of NO. Moreover, the glucose supply could be simultaneously blocked by the catalytic process, which further enhanced therapeutic efficiency. This micelle requests a tumor-specific microenvironment (a considerable amount of GSH) to perform synergistic therapeutics including chemotherapy, starvation therapy (catalytic medicine), and gas therapy for tumor treatment, which resulted in significant cytotoxicity to tumor tissue.
The widespread applications of aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens) inspire the creation of AIEgens with novel structures and functionalities. In this work, we focused on the direct and efficient synthesis of a new type of AIEgens, imidazo[1, 5-a]pyridicne derivatives, via iodine mediated cascade oxidative Csp2–H or Csp–H amination route from phenylacetylene or styrenes under mild conditions. The resulted compounds showed excellent AIE characteristics with tunable maximum emissions, attractive bioimaging performance, and potential anti-inflammatory activity, which exert broad application prospects in material, biology, medicine, and other relevant areas.
Tumor cells usually show abnormally high glycolysis rate to maintain the dynamic balance of energy. The growth of tumor cells can be affected by inhibiting the activity of pyruvate kinase (especially M2-type isozyme, PKM2), the rate limiting enzyme of glycolysis. This is helpful to the treatment of tumor. Herein, metal organic frameworks (MOFs) were found to inhibit the activity of PKM2. Nanoscale ZIF-8 was synthesized by standing and ultrasonic method, respectively. The ZIF-8 has the performance of inhibiting PKM2. Further research showed that the inhibition ability was attributed to zinc ion in ZIF-8. Interestingly, the IC50 of ZIF-8 on PKM2 was one percent of that of zinc ion. This novel enzyme inhibitor is expected to be used in cancer therapy.
The Co@NCNTs/Si pillars with channels is assemble to a suitable pure water gathering device, which is applied in seawater desalination and sewage purification to produce pure water by utilizing solar energy. High-efficiency utilization of solar energy to generate water vapor is popular, recyclable, and environmentally friendly for seawater desalination and sewage purification, helping to alleviate the global water shortage crisis. Here, we report an efficient and simple method to prepare a three-dimensional (3D) evaporator for steam generation by harnessing the power of the sun. This evaporation is composed of one-dimensional (1D) cobalt embedded and nitrogen doped carbon nanotubes (Co@NCNTs) and 3D silicon pillars array structure (Si pillars). The Co@NCNTs/Si pillars shows a wide light absorption range provided by carbon nanotubes and a long light absorption path because of the silicon pillars. The surface temperature of the sample rises rapidly in 1.5 min and exceed 80 ℃ under solar illumination of one sun. The water evaporation can be high as 1.21 kg m−2 h−1 under one sun irradiation (1 kW/m2) with the energy efficiency up to 82.4%. This scalable Co@NCNTs/Si pillars can prepare pure water from seawater and sewage, where the removal rate of ions in seawater and pollutants in sewage is similar to 100%. Based on our research, this multistage three-dimensional structure is a simple and efficient novel photothermal material for extensive seawater desalination and sewage purification.
A highly stable fluorescent terbium MOF (Tb4(paip)6·1.2H2O, paip=5-(1H-pyrazole-4-yl)isophthalate) showing a sharp green emission (545 nm) and a quantum yield of 21.0% was successfully synthesized. This compound is shown to be a recyclable sensor for detecting picric acid in aqueous solution with both high sensitivity and selectivity, attributed to the electron transfer quenching mechanism.
Recently discovered bismuth oxychalcogenide (Bi2O2Se) has aroused great interest due to its ultrahigh carrier mobility, tunable band gap and good environmental stability, making it a promising candidate for high-performance electronics and optoelectronics. Their synthesis by colloidal approaches represents a cost-effective alternative to well-established chemical vapor deposition methods, and the resulting electronic-grade inks are important for large-area printed or wearable electronics. However, it is still challenging to control the colloidal growth of Bi2O2Se nanosheets in solution in addition to their assembly into high-performance thin films. Here, we report a two-step colloidal synthesis of Bi2O2Se nanosheets by separating the seeding and growth steps, thereby achieving controllable production of nanosheets with a lateral size of 1.4 μm and a thickness of 10 nm at optimized reaction conditions. These Bi2O2Se nanosheets are electrostatically assembled into large-area thin films, from which a photodetector is fabricated with a responsivity of 6.1 A/W and a short response time of 368 μs under the 520-nm laser illumination. The device exhibits fast response to modulations as high as 100 kHz, along with a −3 dB bandwidth of 1 kHz. This work provides an important understanding of the controlled colloidal synthesis of Bi2O2Se nanosheets, and demonstrates their potential applications in fast photodetectors.
Lightweight, highly strong and bio-based structural materials remain a long-lasting challenge. Here, inspired by nacre, a lightweight and high mechanical performance cellulosic material was fabricated via a facile and effective top-down approach and the resulting material has a high tensile strength of 149.21MPa and toughness of 1.91 MJ/m3. More specifically, the natural balsawood (NW) was subjected to a simple chemical treatment, removing most lignin and partial hemicellulose, follow by freeze-drying, forming wood aerogel (WA). The delignification process produced many pores and exposed numerous aligned cellulose nanofibers. Afterwards, the WA absorbed a quantity of moisture and was directly densified to form above high-performance cellulosic material. Such treatment imitates highly ordered "brick-and-mortar" arrangement of nacre, in which water molecules plays the role of mortar and cellulose nanofibrils make the brick part. The lightweight and good mechanical properties make this material promising for new energy car, aerospace, etc. This paper also explains the strengthening mechanism for making biomimetic materials by water molecules-induced hydrogen bonding and will open a new path for designing high-performance bio-based structural materials.
A novel hydrogen-bonded organic frameworks (HOFs) FJU-200 has been constructed from N, N'-bis(5-isophthalic acid)naphthalimide (H4L). FJU-200 has a good dual-function of aniline and ultraviolet detection. FJU-200 is the first case of HOF with dual sensing of visual color changes and photoluminescence quenching for aniline detection, and the detection limit of aniline can reach 5.5 × 10−4 mol/L. Under ultraviolet FJU-200 will rapidly change from light yellow to rustic brown, which makes it possible to use FJU-200 to achieve minute-level ultraviolet detection. Moreover, for more convenient use, FJU-200 test papers are prepared. Using them, convenient and fast aniline or ultraviolet detection can be realized. The single-crystal X-ray structures show that compared with the original FJU-200, both and UV-FJU-200 have larger pore sizes, and the dihedral angles of the H2L2− in framework has been changed.
The research of borate materials as sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) anode is still in the early stages, but the boron polyoxoanions are attracting intense interest due to their low atomic weight and high electronegative features. In this work, FeBO3 was prepared with low-cost raw materials and evaluated as SIBs anode. The FeBO3 shows a high reversible capacity of 328 mAh/g at the current density of 0.4 A/g. In addition, the electrochemical performance of FeBO3 can be improved by carbon coating. The prepared carbon-coated FeBO3 composite has a reversible capacity of 426 mAh/g (at 0.4 A/g) and an outstanding rate capability of 272 mAh/g (at 1.6 A/g). Furthermore, the sodium storage mechanism of FeBO3 was studied by in-situ XRD and ex-situ XPS.
The successful applications of two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides highly rely on rational regulation of their electronic properties. The nondestructive and controllable doping strategy is of great importance to implement 2D materials in electronic devices. Herein, we propose a straightforward and effective method to realize controllable n-type doping in WSe2 monolayer by electron beam irradiation. Electrical measurements and photoluminescence (PL) spectra verify the strong n-doping in electron beam-treated WSe2 monolayers. The n-type doping arises from the generation of Se vacancies and the doping degree is precisely controlled by irradiation fluences. Due to the n-doping-induced narrowing of the Schottky barrier, the current of back-gated monolayer WSe2 is enhanced by an order of magnitude and a ~8 × increase in the electron filed-effect mobility is observed. Remarkably, it is a moderate method without significant reduction in electrical performance and severe damage to lattice structures even under ultra-high doses of irradiation.