Photokilling Squamous Carcinoma Cells SCCVII with Ultrafine Particles of Selected Metal Oxides

The ability of ultrafine particles of TiO₂, WO₃ and iron-doped TiO₂ to kill cancer cells in the presence of UV irradiation was investigated. The best photokilling effect on carcinoma cells SCVII cultured in vitro showed iron-doped TiO₂ ultrafine particles synthesized by the sol-gel procedure with starting chemicals Ti(IV)-isopropoxide and anhydrous Fe(II)-acetate. It was found that a small particle size and high dispersity influenced citotoxicity and photocatalytic efficiency. The remarkable photokiling effect of highly iron-doped TiO₂ ultrafine particles (the molar ratio Fe/Ti = 0.136) in the presence of UV irradiation was observed. The influence of ultrafine metal oxide particles on the inhibition of cancer cell proliferation was measured using a ³H-thymidine incorporation test. The possible mechanism involved in the photokilling of carcinoma cells with ultrafine particles of selected metal oxides was discussed.     

基于HSV的乳腺癌细胞识别方法

乳腺癌是女性致死率最高的疾病之一,严重威胁女性的身体健康。目前,病理医生判断病症等级,仍通过观察病理切片中的增殖细胞个数,具有很大的主观性。本文提出了一种将RGB彩色空间和HSV彩色空间模型结合的方法,采用各分量的色度特征,通过量化分析建立色度特征方程,实现从病理图像中检测识别乳腺癌增殖细胞。经20组乳腺癌病理切片图像验证,准确性达到了94.2%,优于单色彩空间模型方法约4%,本文提出方法能够更精确识别乳腺癌细胞,为乳腺癌细胞识别提供了一种新方法。     

Carbon Black-Supported Single-Atom Co?N?C as an Efficient Oxygen Reduction Electrocatalyst for H2O2 Production in Acidic Media and Microbial Fuel Cell in Neutral Media

Single metal atom isolated in nitrogen-doped carbon materials (M N C) are effective electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), which produces H₂O₂ or H₂O via 2-electron or 4-electron process. However, most of M N C catalysts can only present high selectivity for one product, and the selectivity is usually regulated by complicated structure design. Herein, a carbon black-supported Co N C catalyst (CB@Co N C) is synthesized. Tunable 2-electron/4-electron behavior is realized on CB@Co-N-C by utilizing its H₂O₂ yield dependence on electrolyte pH and catalyst loading. In acidic media with low catalyst loading, CB@Co N C presents excellent mass activity and high selectivity for H₂O₂ production. In flow cell with gas diffusion electrode, a H₂O₂ production rate of 5.04 mol h⁻¹ g⁻¹ is achieved by CB@Co N C on electrolyte circulation mode, and a long-term H₂O₂ production of 200 h is demonstrated on electrolyte non-circulation mode. Meanwhile, CB@Co N C exhibits a dominant 4-electron ORR pathway with high activity and durability in pH neutral media with high catalyst loading. The microbial fuel cell using CB@Co N C as the cathode catalyst shows a peak power density close to that of benchmark Pt/C catalyst.     

Versatile Hypoxic Extracellular Vesicles Laden in an Injectable and Bioactive Hydrogel for Accelerated Bone Regeneration

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have emerged as an appealing alternative to cell therapy in regenerative medicine. Unlike bone marrow MSCs (BMSCs) cultured in vitro with normoxia, bone marrow in vivo is exposed to a hypoxic environment. To date, it remains unclear whether hypoxia preconditioning can improve the function of BMSC-derived EVs and be more conducive to bone repair. Herein, it is found that hypoxia preconditioned BMSCs secrete more biglycan (Bgn)-rich EVs via proteomics analysis, and these hypoxic EVs (Hypo-EVs) significantly promote osteoblast proliferation, migration, differentiation, and mineralization by activating the phosphatidylinositide 3-kinase/protein kinase B pathway. Subsequently, an injectable bioactive hydrogel composed of poly(ethylene glycol)/polypeptide copolymers is developed to improve the stability and retention of Hypo-EVs in vivo. The Hypo-EVs-laden hydrogel shows continuous liberation of Hypo-EVs for 3 weeks and substantially accelerates bone regeneration in 5-mm rat cranial defects. Finally, it is confirmed that Bgn in EVs is a pivotal protein regulating osteoblast differentiation and mineralization and exerts its effects through paracrine mechanisms. Therefore, this study shows that hypoxia stimulation is an effective approach to optimize the therapeutic effects of BMSC-derived EVs and that injectable hydrogel-based EVs delivery is a promising strategy for tissue regeneration.     

Solar-Driven Interfacial Evaporation Accelerated Electrocatalytic Water Splitting on 2D Perovskite Oxide/MXene Heterostructure

The rational design of economic and high-performance electrocatalytic water-splitting systems is of great significance for energy and environmental sustainability. Developing a sustainable energy conversion-assisted electrocatalytic process provides a promising novel approach to effectively boost its performance. Herein, a self-sustained water-splitting system originated from the heterostructure of perovskite oxide with 2D Ti₃C₂T_x MXene on Ni foam (La_1-xSr_xCoO₃/Ti₃C₂T_x MXene/Ni) that shows high activity for solar-powered water evaporation and simultaneous electrocatalytic water splitting is presented. The all-in-one interfacial electrocatalyst exhibits highly improved oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance with a low overpotential of 279 mV at 10 mA cm⁻² and a small Tafel slope of 74.3 mV dec⁻¹, superior to previously reported perovskite oxide-based electrocatalysts. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the integration of La_0.9Sr_0.1CoO₃ with Ti₃C₂T_x MXene can lower the energy barrier for the electron transfer and decrease the OER overpotential, while COMSOL simulations unveil that interfacial solar evaporation could induce OH⁻ enrichment near the catalyst surfaces and enhance the convection flow above the catalysts to remove the generated gas, remarkably accelerating the kinetics of electrocatalytic water splitting.     

Optical Design of Silica Aerogels for On-Demand Thermal Management

Silica aerogels, a type of porous material featuring extra low density and thermal conductivity, have drawn increasing interest from both academia and industry owing to their excellent thermal insulation performance. However, thermal insulation is always the single consideration when silica aerogels are used for thermal management. In this study, the on-demand thermal management (ODTM) of silica aerogel with either passive thermal insulation, passive heating, or passive cooling in different environments is revealed. The ODTM behavior of silica aerogels can be simply fulfilled through their optical property variations such as solar light transparency and infrared emissivity, which are controllable via the microstructures of the building blocks and surface composition design. Robust solar heating of 25 °C higher than the ambient in the daytime and sub-ambient cooling of 7 °C at night is achieved with the traditional transparent silica aerogel. Interestingly, sub-ambient cooling of 5 °C in the daytime and a warmer state on cold nights is achieved by modifying its solar transmittance and infrared emissivity. This study guides a comprehensive understanding of the thermal management behavior of silica aerogels and leads to ODTM applications of silica aerogels by tailoring their optical and thermal conductivity properties.     

Solution-Mediated Hybrid FAPbI3 Perovskite Quantum Dots for Over 15% Efficient Solar Cell

Organic–inorganic formamidinium lead triiodide (FAPbI₃) hybrid perovskite quantum dot (QD) is of great interest to photovoltaic (PV) community due to its narrow band gap, higher ambient stability, and long carrier lifetime. However, the surface ligand management of FAPbI₃ QD is still a key hurdle that impedes the design of high-efficiency solar cells. Herein, this study first develops a solution-mediated ligand exchange (SMLE) for preparing FAPbI₃ QD film with enhanced electronic coupling. By dissolving optimal methylammonium iodide (MAI) into antisolvent to treat the FAPbI₃ QD solution, the SMLE can not only effectively replace the long-chain ligands, but also passivate the A- and X-site vacancies. By combining experimental and theoretical results, this study demonstrates that the SMLE engineered FAPbI₃ QD exhibits lower defect density, which is beneficial for fabricating high-quality QD arrays with desired morphology and carrier transport. Consequently, the SMLE FAPbI₃ QD based solar cell outputs a champion efficiency of 15.10% together with improved long-term ambient storage stability, which is currently the highest reported value for hybrid perovskite QD solar cells. These results would provide new design principle of hybrid perovskite QDs toward high-performance optoelectronic application.     

In Situ Polymerizing Internal Encapsulation Strategy Enables Stable Perovskite Solar Cells toward Lead Leakage Suppression

Despite the outstanding power conversion efficiency (PCE) of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) achieved over the years, unsatisfactory stability and lead toxicity remain obstacles that limit their competitiveness and large-scale practical deployment. In this study, in situ polymerizing internal encapsulation (IPIE) is developed as a holistic approach to overcome these challenges. The uniform polymer internal package layer constructed by thermally triggered cross-linkable monomers not only solidifies the ionic perovskite crystalline by strong electron-withdrawing/donating chemical sites, but also acts as a water penetration and ion migration barrier to prolong shelf life under harsh environments. The optimized MAPbI₃ and FAPbI₃ devices with IPIE treatment yield impressive efficiencies of 22.29% and 24.12%, respectively, accompanied by remarkably enhanced environmental and mechanical stabilities. In addition, toxic water-soluble lead leakage is minimized by the synergetic effect of the physical encapsulation wall and chemical chelation conferred by the IPIE. Hence, this strategy provides a feasible route for preparing efficient, stable, and eco-friendly PSCs.     

Doped/Undoped A1-A2 Typed Copolymers as ETLs for Highly Efficient Organic Solar Cells

The electron transport layer (ETL) is a critical component in achieving high device performance and stability in organic solar cells. Conjugated polyelectrolytes (CPEs) have become an attractive alternative due to film-forming properties and ease of preparation. However, p-type CPEs generally exhibit poor charge mobility and conductivity, incorporation of electron-withdrawing units forming alternated D-A conjugated backbone can make up for these deficiencies. Herein, the ratio of electron withdrawing moieties are further increased and two poly(A1-alt-A2) typed PIIDNDI-Br and PDPPNDI-Br based on the combination of naphthalene diimide (NDI) with isoindigo (IID) or diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) via direct arylation polycondensation are synthesized. These CPEs possess excellent alcohol solubility, a suitable lowest unocuppied molecular orbital energy level, and work function tunability. Surprisingly, the incorporation of IID and DPP units generate distinct self-doping behaviors, which are confirmed by UV–vis absorption and ESR spectra. However, no matter doped or undoped, both CPEs present better charge-transporting properties and conductivity when utilized as ETLs. The PIIDNDI-Br and PDPPNDI-Br display good universal compatibility with the blend of PM6:Y6 and PM6:L8-BO, and PCEs of 18.32% and 18.36% are obtained, respectively, which also present excellent storage stability. In short, the combination of two different acceptors demonstrates an efficient strategy to design highly efficient ETLs for high performance photovoltaic devices.     

Review of roll-to-roll fabrication techniques for colloidal quantum dot solar cells

Colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) are of great interest to photovoltaic (PV) technologies as they possess the benefits of solution-processability, size-tunability, and roll-to-roll manufacturability, as well as unique capabilities to harvest near-infrared (NIR) radiation. During the last decade, lab-scale CQD solar cells have achieved rapid improvement in the power conversion efficiency (PCE) from ~1% to 18%, which will potentially exceed 20% in the next few years and approach the performance of other PV technologies, such as perovskite solar cells and organic solar cells. In the meanwhile, CQD solar cells exhibit long lifetimes either under shelf storage or continuous operation, making them highly attractive to industry. However, in order to meet the industrial requirements, mass production techniques are necessary to scale up the fabrication of those lab devices into large-area PV modules, such as roll-to-toll coating. This paper reviews the recent developments of large-area CQD solar cells with a focus on various fabrication methods and their principles. It covers the progress of typical large-area coating techniques, including spray coating, blade coating, dip coating, and slot-die coating. It also discusses next steps and new strategies to accomplish the ultimate goal of the low-cost large-area fabrication of CQD solar cells and emphasizes how artificial intelligence or machine learning could facilitate the developments of CQD solar cell research.