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A major challenge to nanomaterial-based medicine is theabilityto release drugs on-command. Here, we describe an innovative drugdelivery system based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs), in which compoundscan be released inside cells from within the nanotube “on-command”by inductive heating with an external alternating current or pulsedmagnetic field. Without inductive heating the drug remains safelyinside the CNTs, showing no toxicity in cell viability tests. Similarto the “Trojan-Horse” in function, we demonstrate thedelivery of a combination of chemotherapeutic agents with low aqueoussolubility, paclitaxel (Taxol), and C6-ceramide, to multidrug resistantpancreatic cancer cells. Nanotube encapsulation permitted the drugsto be used at a 100-fold lower concentration compared to exogenoustreatment yet achieve a comparable ∼70% cancer kill rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The obstacle for efficient electrochemical water splitting lies in the kinetically sluggish oxygen evolution reaction. Despite the various efforts that have been made to understand and tune the active sites for oxygen evolution reaction, an insight into the configurations of active sites from the electronic perspective is still lacking. Here, we report an atomic doping strategy to break the O h symmetry of the CoO 6 octahedron in LiCoO 2 . The specific activity of the La-doped LiCoO 2 was 3.14 mA cm -2 at the overpotential of 0.35 V, which was 8.3 times higher than that of pristine LiCoO 2 . The overpotential with a value of 330 mV at 10 mA cm -2 was the lowest among the LiCoO 2 -based OER electrocatalysts ever reported. Mechanistic studies revealed that the superior activity originated from the asymmetric octahedral coordination of Co, resulting in the enhanced electronic conductivity and Co-O hybridization for the accelerated oxygen evolution kinetics. This work opens a door to enhance the catalytic performance through the manipulation of local symmetry.