Front Cover

In article number 2100195, Kim, Cho, and co-workers prepared highly conductive 3-DOM microspheres comprising bimetallic Ni₇S₆-MoS₂ crystals and N-doped graphitic carbon by spray pyrolysis. 40-nm-sized mesopores with open channels and N-doped graphitic carbon were incorporated into the composite microsphere. Combined with a rational architecture, synthesized mesoporous composite microspheres exhibited superior electrochemical properties as an anode material for Na ion batteries.

Inside Front Cover

In article number 2100206, Yang, Li, Huang, and co-workers designed an interactive web-based tool: LINT-web that demonstrates a novel intra-omics strategy to analyze multi-omics data. This strategy combines lipidomics, proteomics, and genomics information tto data mining the new biological processes. For such reason, we design this cover illustration that shows each type of information is tunneling into the LINT-web and generating the results.

Inside Back Cover

In article number 2100542, Tsutsui, Baba, Kawai, and co-workers demonstrated the use of a 3D integrated nanopore system for in situ detections of single molecule proteins and DNA in a cell by ionic current. With the proven potential of nanopore sequencing, the present device technology promises amplification free genome analysis that may revolutionize biology and medicine through uncovering genetic variations at a single cell level.

Back Cover

In article number 2100402, Pierini and co-workers summarize recent advances in the development of nanotechnology-mediated RNA delivery systems, which permits overcoming human body barriers and exploit the RNA biochemical functions at the target site. Researchers working in different fields have made enormous efforts to design RNA-based therapeutics for treating severe medical conditions, revealing the potential clinical translation of RNA therapeutics.

Nanotechnology-mediated RNA delivery enables regulating a broad range of cellular processes providing effective strategies for personalized medicine. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the recent evidence in the field, highlighting key RNA molecules and nanostructured carriers. Their innovative applications for vaccine development, wound healing, cancer, and neural system treatments are summarized. Finally, new trends and future applications are discussed.

A comprehensive overview of recent progress on gas sensors based on various functional materials varying from 0D to 3D is provided. The multifunctional sensing applications, including environmental monitoring, breath analysis, food quality and safety, and flexible, wearable electronics are summarized. In addition, the recent development and further challenge are also discussed and highlighted.

The current review focuses on the application of the synchrotron X-ray tomography technique in battery research. Firstly, fundamental principles and experimental setups of this technique are detailed. Secondly, a user guide to its application in battery research and an extensive case summary are presented. The review ends with the discussion of the future opportunities of this technique for next-generation battery research.

To systematically understand the developments of furan-based photovoltaic materials, the relationships between the molecular structure, optoelectronic properties, and photovoltaic performance for the furan-based semiconductor materials (including single furan, benzofuran, benzodifuran (BDF) (containing thienobenzofuran (TBF)), naphthodifurans (NDF), and polycyclic furan) are summarized. It is believed that this review will be of significant guidance for developing furan-based semiconductor materials in organic photovoltaics.

In this review, the advanced progress in graphene fiber-based flexible supercapacitors is comprehensively summarized, mostly focusing on the fiber preparation and morphology modulation methodologies, critical parameters of supercapacitors, charge storage mechanisms, structure-activity relationship, key structural characteristic for superior mechanical/electrical properties, optimized strategies for high capacitance performance, constructions of supercapacitor, and practical wearable applications.

Intercalation strategy for 2D materials has been a current research hotspot due to the strong tunability of chemical and physical properties. This review highlights the recent developments of intercalation methods and applications focusing on electronics and optoelectronics. The remaining challenges and potential applications in the future are also discussed.

Highly conductive 3D ordered mesoporous microspheres comprising Ni₇S₆ and MoS₂ nanocrystals encapsulated by N-doped graphitic carbon (NGC) is prepared as anodes for Na-ion batteries. The uniquely designed architecture results in superior electrochemical performance because of efficient Na⁺ ion diffusion, alleviation of severe volume stress during charge–discharge, and rapid charge transfer due to higher electrical conductivity of NGC.

LINT-web is an interactive website designed for lipidomic data processing, which applies integrative intra-omic strategy to data mining the lipid ontology. The website takes lipidomic results produced by mass spectrometry and performs basic statistical analyses, integrative intra-omic correlation, and ontology network construction. The advantages of integrative intra-omic analysis on novel lipid function discovery are evaluated by different biological systems.

Vertically stacked nanopore membranes enable single-cell electrolysis to in situ intracellular biomolecule detections by ionic current measurements.

Structural Phase Transition

In article number 2100464, Seibt and co-workers studied a high-temperature structural phase transition in a perovskite thin film using environmental transmission electron microscopy. The reaction path is controlled via the ambient condition and both reversible behavior as well as irreversible is found depending on the oxygen partial pressure (picture courtesy of Lukas Kroll).

A high-temperature structural phase transition in a nanotwinned epitaxial perovskite thin film is studied using environmental transmission electron microscopy. The reaction path while heating is controlled via the ambient condition and both reversible behavior as well as irreversible, related to oxygen vacancy formation and ordering, is found depending on the oxygen partial pressure.

A bifunctional 3D-printed scaffold (FeMg-SC) based on PDA nanoparticles containing Fe³⁺ and Mg²⁺ (FeMg-NPs) is used to treat bone metastatic tumors and to realize subsequent bone repair. The scaffold released Fe³⁺ in planted site to display a potent synergistic CDT/PTT for tumor cell kiliing, while releasing Mg²⁺ to enhance osteoblastic differentiation for tumor-associated bone defects repair.

Measuring the injection-dependent charge carrier lifetime is an essential characterization technique for semiconductor materials. This paper proposes a dynamic lifetime calibration method. The proposed method is much less sensitive to measurement noise compared to conventional methods. Bulk doping information is also not required and can even be extracted if the proposed method is used for photoluminescence-based measurements.

Ultrahigh concentration of pyridine N (≈7.9%) inside hard carbon can provide extra sodium storage sites with stable CN• and CC• radical during cycling, which is systematically studied by electron paramagnetic resonance technology. 3D structure with a multistage pore structure is constructed to expose more radical sites for sodium storage.

Direct imaging and characterization of nanoscale lipid heterogeneity in living cells with high temporal and spatial resolution using developed bioorthogonal cholesterol probe and nanoscopy are introduced. This probe enables tackling biological questions that were previously beyond reach. Visualization of cholesterol distribution through thick tissues outlines the tool's potential to investigate the role of cholesterol in health and disease.

Flexible single-component organic solar cells with an excellent efficiency of 7.21% were fabricated for the first time. Simultaneously, they exhibited better mechanical durability (>95% retention after 1000 bending cycles) and storage stability (97.6% retention after 430 h) in the nitrogen atmosphere compared to BHJ-type flexible devices.

Lithium sulfur batteries are a promising next-generation chemistry but currently face significant challenges including capacity loss owing to polysulfide shuttling and slow Li⁺ transport. This work uses additive manufacturing in conjunction with cobalt sulfide nanocatalysts to effectively address both polysulfide shuttling and Li⁺ transport. The outlined design demonstrates a viable strategy to elevate the performance of Li-S batteries.

Plasmonic metasurfaces are versatile structures able to manipulate electromagnetic fields beyond natural possibilities. Their application can be extended to magnetic resonance techniques working at terahertz frequencies. This provides a series of significant and unprecedented advantages in terms of sensitivity and integrability when dealing with nanosized materials as well as ultra-thin molecular films.

Al_xMnO₂ nanosphere cathode is electrochemically reformed in situ, which consists of the α-MnO₂ nanorod coating layer and inner Mn₂AlO₄ nanoflower. The composite structure enables the MnO₂/Al battery a high discharge voltage plateau of 1.9 V and an enhanced discharge capacity for Al ion storage, attributed to reversible MnO₂ electrolysis and Al insertion favored Mn₂AlO₄, respectively.

SnO_x/Sn film is introduced on the surface of Na₃Zr₂Si₂PO₁₂ (NZSP) to improve the interface contact and reduce the resistance between Na and NZSP. As a result, the Na/NZSP interfacial resistance is dramatically reduced from 581 to 3 Ω cm². The Na||Na symmetric cell with SnO_x/Sn-modified NZSP cycles stably over 1500 h at room temperature.

Mimicking basic characteristics of the adhesive chemistry practiced by marine mussels, adhesive polydopamine (PDA)@Fe₃O₄ magnetic microrobots (MagRobots) are prepared by coating Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles with a polymeric layer of dopamine. In addition, lipase is loaded on the PDA@Fe₃O₄ MagRobots’ surface to perform microplastic enzymatic degradation. The synthesized MagRobots are externally triggered by transversal rotating magnetic field to clear away the targeted microplastics.

X-ray diffraction computed tomography is employed to study commercial cylindrical Li-ion batteries electrochemically cycled at C/2 and C/20 rates. The chemical maps reveal heterogeneities at both electrodes which are related to uneven Li and current distribution in the cells. The current work demonstrates the unique spatially-resolved physico-chemical information obtained with this technique from industrially-relevant energy storage devices.

Pulp cells have the greatest communication in terms of quantity with other cell types, while T cells have the least communication in human dental pulp. In addition, pulp cells and dental pulp stem cells exhibit characteristic heterogeneity.

SnSe₂/FeSe₂ nanocubes capsulated in nitrogen-doped carbon (SFS@NC) are fabricated, which exhibit superb rate capability of 408.1 mAh g⁻¹ after 1200 cycles at 6 A g⁻¹, corresponding to an 85.3% retention. The synergistic effect of dual selenide components and core-shell architecture mitigates the volume effect, alleviates the agglomeration of nanoparticles, and further improves the electric conductivity.

Herein, V₂O₃ microspheres with internal macrovoids, composited with entangled carbon nanotubes are prepared and applied as cathode for aqueous zinc-ion batteries, where the electrochemical conversion reaction mechanism is investigated by in/ex situ analyses. The cathode exhibits stable cycle life up to 5000 cycles at 10 A g⁻¹, and ultrafast rate capability (211 mA h g⁻¹ at 50 A g⁻¹).

A mitochondria-targeted oxidative stress amplifier is designed to reverse hypoxia resistance and enhance tumor sensitivity to hypoxia-resistant photodynamic therapy. Oxidative stress amplifiers specifically target mitochondria in tumor cells and block the mitochondrial respiration chain, leading to long-term high oxidative stress generation as well as full local oxygen availability to enhance hypoxia-resistant photodynamic therapy.

Yttrium vanadium oxide-poly(3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT@YVO) composite with an enlarged interplanar lattice spacing of 3.4 Å is synthesized to be a stable cathode material for aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs). It demonstrates higher discharge capacities than the pure YVO at 0.2 C rate, and a long-term stable discharge-charge cycle performance of 4000 cycles with a capacity retention of 79.2%.

The authors describe a cell culture platform comprised of paper coated with electrospun nanofibers. Culture of a 2D endothelial cell layer atop a nanofiber layer and 3D astrocytes within the paper fibers creates a unique blood–brain barrier model. Characterization via microscopy, resistance and permeability measurements, and differential gene expression underscore the promise of this model for blood–brain interface studies.

A highly conductive S-doped catalytic host (Co_0.85SeS) is designed for lithium–sulfur batteries. It exhibits an outstanding electrocatalytic effect on lithium polysulfides (LiPSs) conversion by integrating experimental data and DFT calculations. Furthermore, high S loading cathodes are prepared through in situ synthesis of the Co_0.85SeS on flexible carbon cloth (Co_0.85SeS@CC). Pouch batteries based on cathodes show potential application in flexible electronic devices.