Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

In article number 2207155, Huiyuan Liu, Yujiang Song, and co-workers construct ultrathin ultralow-Pt integrated catalyst coated membrane by proton-initiated regioselective nucleation and growth of Pt/Pd catalyst layer on membrane. The highly active ultrathin catalyst layer greatly facilitates mass transfer and enhances the peak mass specific power density up to 59.9 W mg_{Pt, Cathode}⁻¹ for proton exchange membrane fuel cell. [Correction added on 10th of August, after first online publication: the front cover image was updated.]

Combinational Photothermal-Immunotherapy

In article number 2206441, Longjiang Zhang, Peng Huang, Zhongqiu Wang, and co-workers load dual-immune inhibitors nanomodulators for combinational photothermal-immunotherapy through regulating abnormal enzymatic metabolism of IDO, blocking PD-L1/PD-1 and CD47/SIRPα to reverse immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment, and prevent tumor growth and re-challenge.

Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

In article number 2207146, Rui Gao, Chuan Shi, and co-workers present Pt atoms to redisperse on α-MoC_1−x substrate from carbon nanotubes, which creates dual active interfaces of Pt species dispersed over carbon nanotubes and α-MoC_1−x. Benefiting from the strong electronic interaction between the Pt atom and α-MoC_1−x, the utilization efficiency of the Pt atom is evidently enhanced, providing practical solutions to enhance platinum dispersion, and thereby enhancing the catalytic activity in hydrogen production.

Tactile and Touchless Artificial Skins

In article number 2206830, Yifan Wang and co-workers present a dual-responsive artificial skin, which reacts to both pre-contact events and tactile pressure levels. Overlooked valuable information encoded in the proximal inputs from environments can be explored. Versatile human–machine interfaces (HMIs) for tactile and touchless interactions are achieved. Moreover, the proof-of-concept application for materials classification is successfully demonstrated in an entirely touchless mode.

Different dimensional-shaped nanomaterials have played a prominent role in influencing the ionic conductivity of composite solid electrolytes for lithium batteries in recent studies. Some of the designs have achieved an excellent room-temperature ionic conductivity of 10^–4 S cm^–1. The dimensional designs for composite solid electrolytes should be further studied to contribute to the evolution of all-solid-state lithium batteries.

This article introduces the design and fabrication of various polymeric drug delivery systems including dendrimer, polymer-drug conjugate, polymeric micelle, liposome and polymersome, hydrogel, and polymer–inorganic hybrid for the precise delivery of platinum drugs with an emphasis on multi-modal synergistic cancer treatment and imaging-guided Pt-based cancer therapy.

This review outlines the recent advances in the development of biosensors based on gold nanomaterials and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-Cas systems including CRISPR-Cas9, CRISPR-Cas12a, and CRISPR-Cas13a. The working mechanism, the sensing performance, and the prospect of gold nanomaterials-implemented CRISPR-Cas biosensors are highlighted and discussed.

Biomimetic Peptoid Membranes

Co-assembly of carbon nanotube porins into peptoid sheets creates novel precision pore membrane nanostructures. The membrane matrix is made up of peptoids, self-assembled designed sequence polymers, while carbon nanotube porins, short fragments of carbon nanotubes inserted into the peptoid matrix, form precision pores. This new membrane could be advantageous for high-value precision separation applications. More details can be found in article number 2206810 by Marcel Baer, Aleksandr Noy, Chun-Long Chen, and co-workers.

This work demonstrates the feasibility of engineering artificial membranes by co-assembling highly-programmable 2D peptoid sheets, with superior crystallinity and robustness, and CNTPs, with highly-efficient transport properties based on tunable pore sizes. This novel-engineered biomimetic membrane opens potential applications in precision separation, ranging from water purification to biopharmaceutical production.

Biopolymeric Nanocomposites

In article number 2207384, Qufu Wei, Pengfei Lv, and co-workers report on biopolymeric composites for triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs), piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENGs), and hybrid formats with outstanding mechanical and electrical properties. The designed composites are poling-responsive, outperform many reported biopolymer formats in voltage, currents, and power outputs. The materials demonstrate impressive energy storage capabilities, seamlessly interface with commercial microcontrollers, and power light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The devices and their functionalities advance the development of fully biopolymeric nanogenerators.

Dynamically robust biopolymeric nanocomposite triboelectric nanogenerators/piezoelectric nanogenerators/hybrid devices with excellent mechanical and electrical properties are designed based on biocompatible BaTiO₃ and multiwalled carbon nanotubes crosslinked within a bacterial cellulose matrix by Pluronic F127. The electrical output performance of the composites is exceptionally high compared to other platforms with a sustainability approach that seamlessly interface with commercial microcontroller systems for operation as sensor switches and control units.

Electrocatalytic Oxygen Reduction

In article number 2207991, Cheng-Yan Xu and co-workers develop a self-sacrificing strategy to encapsulate single-atom Fe-N₄O₁ species into carbon hollow spheres assembled by ultrathin nanosheets Fe1–N–C hollow microspheres (Fe₁/N-HCMs). Such highly open architecture is supposed to be an ideal platform to isolate and fully expose single metal atoms. Benifiting from the highly open architecture and abundant Fe-N₄O₁ active sites, the Fe₁/N-HCMs exhibit excellent oxygen reduction performance.

A self-sacrificing template strategy is developed to fabricate 2 nm-thick nanosheets assembled Fe₁–N–C hollow microspheres (Fe₁/N-HCMs) with highly open porous architecture, which is supposed to fully expose the catalytic active sites to boost the oxygen reduction reaction. Unlike the general Fe–N₄ configuration in most reported Fe₁–N–C catalysts, the active sites in Fe₁/N-HCMs have been identified as Fe–N₄O₁ configuration.

Ultrathin ultralow-Pt catalyst coated membrane (UUCCM) is fabricated by proton-initiated regioselective nucleation and growth of Pd nanoneedle clusters on membrane, followed by dense deposition of Pt nanoparticles on Pd. The single cell of the UUCCM demonstrates a remarkable activity of 59.9 W mg_Pt,Cathode⁻¹, primarily arising from Pt/Pd interfacial strain, shortened mass transfer length, and optimal water management.

The co-delivery of dual-immune inhibitors, such as Indoleamine 2, 3-dioxygenase (IDO) inhibitor (IDOi, NLG919) and bromodomain extra-terminal inhibitor (OTX015) by mesoporous polydopamine nanoparticles is developed for combinational photothermal-immunotherapy through regulating abnormal enzymatic metabolism of IDO, blocking PD-L1/PD-1 and CD47/SIRPα to reverse immune suppressive tumor microenvironment, and preventing tumor growth and re-challenge.

Pt/CNTs-N + α-MoC_1 - x catalyst exhibits superior activity toward HER in both acidic and alkaline media. Thermo-activation treatment enables partial Pt atoms to redisperse on α-MoC_1 - x substrate from carbon nanotubes. Dual active interfaces of Pt species dispersed over carbon nanotubes and α-MoC_1 - x were formed. The strong electronic interaction between the Pt atom and α-MoC_1 - x enhanced the utilization efficiency of the Pt atom.

A dual-responsive artificial skin is present, for reacting to both pre-contact events and external pressure levels from environments. Versatile human–machine interfaces for tactile and touchless interactions are then demonstrated. Besides, overlooked valuable information encoded in the proximal inputs are explored. The proof-of-concept application for materials classification is successfully demonstrated in an entirely touchless mode.

Inspired by the succulent Fenestraria aurantiaca with excellent anti-dehydration capacity, a wetting-enabled three-dimensional interfacial polymerization strategy is developed for organogel-sealed anti-dehydration hydrogels. The anti-dehydration hydrogels can be molded to various 3D shapes due to the wetting and fluidity of liquid precursors on 3D hydrophobic-oleophilic surfaces. Strain sensors based on anti-dehydration hydrogels exhibit long-term stability for finger gesture perception.

A stark enhancement of STE emission upon compression in a 0D lead-free inorganic metal halide Cs₃Cu₂I₅ NCs is achieved. Moreover, in the process of decompression, a white light and a strong purple light emission is observed, in which the very bright purple light is able to be maintained at near-ambient pressure.

Direct focused-ion-beam writing is presented as an enabling technology for realizing functional spin-wave devices of high complexity, demonstrated by optically inspired designs. By experimentally showing flavors of reflective, refractive, and diffractive components (lenses, gratings, Fourier-domain processors), this technology is envisioned as the gateway to building magnonic computing devices that rival their optical counterparts in their complexity and computational power.

A complimentary white light with tunable tone is realized by dual STEs emissions in a single-component perovskite Cs₂SnCl₆:La³⁺ microcrystal, and the impurity point defects created by the introduction of heterovalent La³⁺ have been investigated.

A novel cooperative catalytic with dual active sites (oversaturated Fe-N₅ and Fe₂O₃ nanocrystals) are co-embedded in nitrogen-doped hollow carbon spheres (Fe₂O₃/Fe-SA@NC) is designed. The dual active sites synchronically enhance conversion ability of polysulfides. Consequently, the Li–S battery exhibits a high capacity retention of 78% after 800 cycles at 1 C and good performance at 0.1 C for pouch cell.

A stretchable microsupercapacitor utilizes crumpled MXene electrodes to achieve high specific area capacitance and ultrahigh stretchability of up to 800% area strain. Stable charging–discharging capability is well retained under both static and dynamic tensile loadings. A self-powered light-emitting diode array illustrates the practical application of integrated microsupercapacitors as the soft energy source for stretchable electronics.

A molecular design strategy is developed for regulating the first coordination shell of single Zn atoms in carbon. Thanks to the high-density Zn–N₃S moieties, the as-prepared carbon shows ultrahigh reactivity and efficient electron/ion transfer capability, which enables fascinating performance for sodium-ion hybrid capacitors.

It is reported that the kinetic balance between proton-feeding and hydrogenation in CO₂ electroreduction by fine-tuning the content of Ni single atom sites and Ni nanoparticles (denoted as Ni_NPx@Ni_SAy-NG (x,y = 1,2,3)). As a result, CO Faraday efficiency of 98% at −0.58 V (vs. RHE) and the current density of −264 mA cm⁻² at −0.98 V (vs. RHE) can be achieved in Ni_NP2@Ni_SA-NG.

A method to increase the photocatalytic syngas production from biomass reforming reaction is established. Chloride, adsorbed on the surface of CdS, can increase the internal electric field, and enhance the charge separation and migration. The catalyst contributes an 11-fold enhanced photocatalytic syngas evolution from glycerol. The study offers a convenient strategy to prohibit surface holes and electrons recombination.

In this work, a universal room-temperature 3D printing strategy toward PEO/MOF (ZIF-67, MOF-74, UIO-66, ZIF-8) hybrid solid-state electrolyte is first proposed. The 3D-printed PEO/ZIF-67 hybrid solid-state electrolyte displays excellent dendrite inhibition, enhanced ionic conductivities, and improved electrochemical performances.

The authors present a laser-induced fabrication method for engineering a unique carbon-titanium carbide heterostructure electrode. Its featured macropores of the carbon nanofoam layer and mesopores of the underlying high polarity titanium carbide layer enable the assembled symmetric supercapacitor excellent frequency response and high areal specific energy density.

The binding of fibroblast activation protein (FAP)-targeting iron oxide nanoparticles within the complex tumor microenvironment. FAP is overexpressed in tumor stromal components such as cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) and vasculature cells, adding to its suitability as a target for the imaging of solid tumors for the guidance of focal therapies such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) guided-radiotherapy.

The reversible twinning-mediated pseudo-elasticity and variable electro-conductivity in Mo nanocrystals are shown by in situ tension and current measurement. Coherent and inclined twin boundary (TB) twinning mechanisms are uncovered in nanocrystals with smaller and larger diameters, respectively. The effects of size and TB types on the electrical conductivity are also quantified based on the experimental measurements and calculations.

Engineered organic nanorockets are powered by photoactivated organic kinetic systems through a two-stage light-to-heat-to-chemical energy transition for a stable ultrafast (≈300 µm s⁻¹) self-propulsion in the liquid media. The programmable navigation allows a high permeability against physiological barriers for elevating accumulation and deep penetration at the tumor site, thereby significantly enhancing the antitumor efficacy of the nanomedicines.

A crowding agent, poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), invokes depletion forces that act on synthetic supramolecular tubes pushing them into hierarchically assembled bundles. Biotin groups on the surface of the tubes enable cross-linking via biotin–streptavidin interactions. The interplay of depletion forces and biomolecular recognition provides a new strategy for building hierarchically organized supramolecular architectures.

Physiologically-based kinetic (PBK) model parameters are estimated for gold nanoparticles (NPs) in rats. These parameters are complemented with previously published PBK parameters of two other NPs (i.e., LipImage 815 and poly(alkyl cyanoacrylate) loaded with cabazitaxel) to create an initial database of PBK parameters. This database may help in quantifying a relation between NP characteristics and PBK parameter values.

A multiscale modification strategy of hard carbon (HC) is proposed by exquisitely tuning the microstructure on the particle level as well as supplementing extra Na⁺ reservoir for the electrode through an insulation-buffer-layer assisted presodiation therapy. The coulombic efficiency of HC anode is precisely controlled till the close-to-unit value and Na⁺ diffusivity is drastically enhanced by two orders of magnitude at the low-potential region.

As revealed by low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, single-layer Cr₃(HITP)₂ (HITP=2,3,6,7,10,11-hexaiminotriphenylene) conjugated metal-organic frameworks (c-MOFs) have been synthesized by substituting Cr for Ni atoms in Ni₃(HITP)₂ templates on Au(111) substrate under ultrahigh vacuum conditions. This work demonstrates a new on-surface synthesis strategy to prepare high-quality early-transition-metal-based c-MOFs.

A new proteomics approach by a combined use of proximity-dependent chemical tagging and bio-orthogonal noncovalent click chemistry provides detection of altered proteomic environment upon nuclear protein mutations and allows to discover putative proteins associated with a nuclear protein mutation-linked disease.

Gel structures based on nanocrystals (NCs) exhibit an interesting morphology with high porosity and good surface accessibility, which combines the physicochemical properties of NCs with the size of bulk material. Due to these properties, nanocrystal-based gel structures show a fivefold higher hydrogen evolution response in photocatalytic studies than their colloidal non-gelated nanocrystal counterparts.

A defect-induced heteroatom refilling strategy is used here to synthesize heteroatoms introduced in carbon nitride by precisely controlling the “introduction” sites on efficient N1 sites. The refilling of B, P, and S has stronger H₂O adsorption and dissociation capacity than traditional doping, which makes it an optimal H₂ production path.

One-step purification of ethylene (C₂H₄) from a quaternary gas mixture of C₂H₆/C₂H₄/C₂H₂/CO₂ with high productivity is realized on MOFs-based platform customized by Lego-brick strategy with specific binding sites for various gas impurities.

The construction of bifunctional cobalt/nitrogen-codoped carbon (CoNC) nanosheet arrays on carbon cloth (CC) as both cathode and anode to drive a hydrazine assisted seawater electrolysis system for H₂ production is reported, which only needs an ultra-low cell voltage of 0.557 V and electricity consumption of 1.22 kW h per cubic meter of H₂ at 200 mA cm⁻².

Cobalt selenide (CoSe₂) polyhedrons anchored on few-layer TiSe₂-C nanosheets derived from Ti₃C₂T_x MXenes (CoSe₂@TiSe₂-C) are constructed. The dual-conductive CoSe₂@TiSe₂-C heterostructures can accelerate the conversion reaction from liquid lithium polysulfides to solid Li₂S and promote Li₂S dissociation process through high conductivity and lowered reaction energy barriers for promoting overall sulfur redox kinetics under high sulfur loadings and lean electrolyte.

The assembled magnesium ion batteries using expanded graphite cathode coupled with 3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic diimide anode in a hybrid aqueous/organic electrolyte achieve an ultra-high capacity. The introduction of Cu foam interlayer offers effective capacity-compensation by means of the dynamic redox of copper ions, the weakened solvation of Mg²⁺ cations, and the enhanced electronic conductivity of anode.

An efficient method to regulate the surface structure of Co-free Li-rich cathode materials is proposed by simply adjusting the distribution state of the boron nickel complexes coating layer. The full-surface coating layer plays the role of sharing voltage, protective layer, and passivation of surface lattice oxygen. As a result, the comprehensive electrochemical properties are enhanced effectively.

Camphorsulfonic acid doped polyaniline (PANI-CSA) displays a morphology memory effect, and five different nanofeatures (sea cucumber-like, nanofiber, amorphous, nanotube, and nanorod) have been successfully transferred onto indium tin oxide substrate via electrophoretic deposition without involving a dedoping process with ammonia solution. This method is also applicable to transfer PANI/gold nanorod composites which exhibits excellent sensing performance.

In this work, the conducting polymer-based composites with controllable multiscale chiral morphology are successfully prepared via in situ polymerization with broadband and efficient microwave absorption performance. Multiscale-chiral structure electromagnetic simulation models are established to reveal related electromagnetic response characteristics. The multiscale-chiral synergistic effect and broadband absorption mechanism are discussed in term of experiment and theory.

A facilely designed TCR reactor is developed by the encapsulation of GSH-reducible RMD into TiO₂@g-C₃N₄ heterojunction, which serves as an intracellular redox homeostasis perturbator for augmented oncotherapy. This study provides useful insights into promoting the therapeutic performance of TiO₂-based sonosensitizers by optimizing the semiconductor heterostructures.

The injectable conductive hydrogel electrodes, composed of functionalized poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) polymers and Pluronic-coated reduced graphene oxide, exhibit good electrical conductivity, softness, cell and tissue compatibility, and tunable degradability in vivo. These injectable conductive hydrogels displaying different degradation profiles are useful for implantable bioelectrodes.

The presence of TCEP during the encapsulation of DOX in Ftn reduces the non-specific interaction between DOX and Ftn. Similar results can be achieved by washing with acidic solution. Finally, in vitro cell experiments shows that the resulting DOX-Ftn variants are non-toxic to MCF-7 cancer cells, but toxic to MHS cancer cells.

A multipurpose phototheranostic nanoplatform (TTCBTA NP) with AIE characteristics is designed to carry out fluorescent monitoring, lysosome-specific targeting, and fluorescence image-guided photodynamic therapy.

This work introduces a novel solution treatment utilizing spark discharges to enable a highly controlled aggregation of semiconducting polymers. The aggregate fraction and the quality of the polymer backbone order can be finely tuned over exceptionally broad ranges by choosing appropriate parameters for this current-induced doping treatment.

The psoralen- and calcium peroxide-loaded tripolycerol monostearate (TGMS) hydrogel (psoralen gel) is developed to administer via intra-articular injection for rheumatoid arthritis treatment by regulating inflammatory environment, anoxic microenvironment, and metabolic network, and metabolomic analysis used further proves the efficacy of hydrogel as a sustained-release carrier.

A generalized method to fabricate multi-scale and diverse-dimensional oxide wrinkles on liquid metal surfaces by an electrochemical anodization mechanism is reported. By altering the distribution of growth stress, changing the substrate geometry, or tuning the surface tension, various wrinkle morphologies of different scales can be generated, such as striped, labyrinthine, and radial wrinkles.

A molecular design strategy is devised to generate α-lipoic acid-derived ion-conductive elastomers which show unprecedented, prolonged, superfast self-healing underwater, universal adhesion, sensing capability, and flame retardancy. These unusual characteristics stem synergistically from the maximized availability of dynamic disulfide bonds and high-density diverse noncovalent interactions in combination involving carboxylic groups, catechols and associated hydrogen bonds and π–π stacking, and others.

A bi-functional Co/Al modified 1T-MoS₂/rGO catalyst is developed. The catalyst exhibits high hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance and uranium extraction capability in seawater and without a post-treatment process, showing good reusability and easy recovery of uranium-containing products. This work provides a new strategy for the design and preparation of bi-functional catalysts with high HER performance and uranium extraction and recovery capabilities in seawater.

The E-cad-targeted and N-cad-targeted gas vesicles (GVs) are successfully developed as the acoustic probes for imaging epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) status and assessing tumor metastatic potential.

A lithiophilic-magnetic host (Co₃O₄-CCNFs) is prepared by in situ anchoring of homogeneous Co₃O₄ nanocrystal onto carbon nanofibers composite matrix. The Co₃O₄-CCNFs can endow a targeted Li deposition behavior throughout the whole 3D matrix, thus, facilitating the formation of compact Li anode by inducing a micromagnetic field. Benefiting from the elaborate design, lithium-metal batteries assembled with Co₃O₄-CCNFs deliver remarkably improved performance.