Search

Radiodynamic therapy (RDT), which produces 1 O 2 and other reactive oxygen species (ROS) in response to X-rays, can be used in conjunction with radiation therapy (RT) to drastically lower X-ray dosage and reduce radio resistance associated with conventional radiation treatment. However, radiation-radiodynamic therapy (RT-RDT) is still impotent in a hypoxic environment in solid tumors due to its oxygen-dependent nature. Chemodynamic therapy (CDT) can generate reactive oxygen species and O 2 by decomposing H 2 O 2 in hypoxic cells and thus potentiate RT-RDT to achieve synergy. Herein, we developed a multifunctional nanosystem, AuCu-Ce6-TPP (ACCT), for RT-RDT-CDT. Ce6 photosensitizers were conjugated to AuCu nanoparticles via Au-S bonds to realize radiodynamic sensitization. Cu can be oxidized by H 2 O 2 and catalyze the degradation of H 2 O 2 to generate • OH through the Fenton-like reaction to realize CDT. Meanwhile, the degradation byproduct oxygen can alleviate hypoxia while Au can consume glutathione to increase the oxidative stress. We then attached mercaptoethyl-triphenylphosphonium (TPP-SH) to the nanosystem, targeting ACCT to mitochondria (colocalization Pearson coefficient 0.98) to directly disrupt mitochondrial membranes and more efficiently induce apoptosis. We confirmed that ACCT efficiently generates 1 O 2 and • OH upon X-ray irradiation, resulting in strong anticancer efficacy in both normoxic and hypoxic 4T1 cells. The down-regulation of hypoxia-inducible factor 1α expression and reduction of intracellular H 2 O 2 concentrations suggested that ACCT could significantly alleviate hypoxia in 4T1 cells. ACCT-enhanced RT-RDT-CDT can successfully shrink or remove tumors in radioresistant 4T1 tumor-bearing mice upon 4 Gy of X-ray irradiation. Our work thus presents a new strategy to treat radioresistant hypoxic tumors.

Here we reported the doping of graphdiyne in P3CT-K in MAPbI 3 perovskite solar cells as hole-transport materials. The doping could improve the surface wettability of P3CT-K, and the resulting perovskite morphology was improved with homogeneous coverage and reduced grain boundaries. Simultaneously, it increased the hole-extraction mobility and reduced the recombination as well as improved the performance of devices. Therefore, a high efficiency of 19.5% was achieved based on improved short-circuit current and fill factor. In addition, hysteresis of the J- V curve was also obviously reduced. This work paves the way for the development of highly efficient perovskite solar cells.

In this work, PC 61 BM:SnO 2 electron transport layers (ETLs) were applied in inverted CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3 perovskite solar cells, and a high power conversion efficiency of 19.7% could be obtained. It increased by 49.0% in comparison with the device based on PC 61 BM-only ETL (13.2%). SnO 2 nanocrystals with excellent dispersibility were employed here to fill the pinholes and cover the valleys of PC 61 BM layer, forming smooth and compact PC 61 BM:SnO 2 layers. Simultaneously, the electron traps caused by deep-level native defects of SnO 2 were reduced by PC 61 BM, proved by the space charge limited current analysis. Thus, PC 61 BM:SnO 2 ETLs can inhibit both of the defects in PC 61 BM and SnO 2 layers which contribute to the electron transport improvement and reduce the recombination loss. Moreover, the device stability based on the bilayer was significantly improved in comparison with the PC 61 BM-only device and the performance of 85% could be maintained after 1 month.

The molecular structure of cathode interface modification materials can affect the surface morphology of the active layer and key electron transfer processes occurring at the interface of polymer solar cells in inverted structures mostly due to the change of molecular configuration. To investigate the effects of spatial configuration of the cathode interfacial modification layer on polymer solar cells device performances, we introduced two novel organic ionic salts (linear NS2 and three-dimensional (3D) NS4) combined with the ZnO film to fabricate highly efficient inverted solar cells. Both organic ionic salts successfully decreased the surface traps of the ZnO film and made its work function more compatible. Especially NS4 in three-dimensional configuration increased the electron mobility and extraction efficiency of the interfacial film, leading to a significant improvement of device performance. Power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 10.09% based on NS4 was achieved. Moreover, 3D interfacial modification could retain about 92% of its initial PCE over 160 days. It is proposed that 3D interfacial modification retards the element penetration-induced degradation without impeding the electron transfer from the active layer to the ZnO film, which significantly improves device stability. This indicates that inserting three-dimensional organic ionic salt is an efficient strategy to enhance device performance.