Search

The graphite–silicon composite (GSC) anode materials with high specific capacity and excellent conductivity hold intriguing promise for high‐performance lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs). However, commercializing GSC is hindered by its poor cyclability and safety issues. Here, a fire‐resistant polymer crosslinked with ammonium polyphosphate (APP) and polyacrylic acid (PAA) to improve the electrochemical properties and enhance the safety of the GSC anode is designed. The crosslinked polymer not only forms a 3D network structure to strengthen the mechanical properties of the composite electrode but also uniformly covers the electrode surface to effectively minimize the side‐reaction between electrodes and electrolyte, thereby improving its rate capacity and cycling stability. As a result, the GSC/PAA anode crosslinked with 10 wt% APP (GSC/10APP‐PAA) delivers a high capacity of 315 mAh g−1 at 0.5 C and stably operates for 1000 cycles with 0.03% capacity decay cycle−1. More importantly, the peak heat release rate and the total heat release value of GSC/10APP‐PAA anode are significantly depressed from 0.35 to 0.1 J s−1, and from 1.6 to 0.6 J g−1, respectively, thereby reducing the self‐extinguishing time, which proves that the crosslinked polymer plays a fireproof role in the process of the thermal runaway of LIBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

2D Bi2O2Se has recently attracted widespread research interest due to its high electron mobility and good air stability with tunable bandgap. However, the direct and controllable growth of large‐size, high‐quality ultrathin Bi2O2Se with tunable electronic properties remains a great challenge. Here, an organic ion template‐guided solution growth method, is developed using water as a solvent to efficiently obtain high‐quality 2D Bi2O2Se. Significantly, the thicknesses and morphologies of 2D Bi2OxSe with various oxygen deficiencies; are also achieved. Optical spectroscopic results indicate that oxygen defects can dramatically tune the electronic properties of Bi2O2Se, such as work function, band gap, and energy‐band positions. As a result, the optimized Bi2O2Se devices exhibit a high photoresponsivity of 842.91 A W−1, photo‐detectivity of 8.18 × 1012 Jones under 532 nm laser, and electron mobility of 334.7 cm2 V−1 s−1. This work proposes a new green solution method to synthesize large‐sized, high‐quality Bi2O2Se with tunable electronic structures that can be extended for various applications and provides a new possibility of transfer‐free large‐scale device manufacturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aqueous zinc‐ion battery (AZB) is a promising candidate for next‐generation energy storage owing to inherent safety and low cost. However, AZBs are currently plagued by Zn dendrite growth and undesirable side‐reactions, leading to poor cycling stability and premature failure. To restrain the uncontrollable Zn growth, a unique separator is developed based on polyacrylonitrile/graphene oxide (abbreviated as PG) composite nanofibers, which contain abundance of zincophilicity functional groups to regulate the migration and distribution of Zn2+ ions in the separator. It is demonstrated that the cyano ligands on PG not only facilitate the dehydration of solvated Zn2+ ions prior to deposition, but also form fast lanes to enable homogenous scattering of deposition spots. Benefiting from these features, the PG separator offers a high ionic conductivity of 7.69 mS cm‐1 and a transference number of 0.74 for Zn2+. The Zn||Zn symmetrical cells with PG separators achieve an ultra‐stable cycle life over 13 000 h. Zn||Zn0.27V2O5 full batteries with PG separators retain 71.5% of the original capacity after 2800 cycles at a high current density of 2 A g‐1. This study offers future research directions toward the design of multifunctional separators to overcome the limits of Zn metal anode in AZBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) is a promising solid electrolyte material for solid‐state lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries, but low intrinsic ionic conductivity, poor mechanical properties, and failure to hinder the polysulfide shuttle effect limits its application. Herein, a polymer of intrinsic microporosity (PIM) is synthesized and applied as an organic framework to comprehensively enhance the performance of PEO by forming a composite electrolyte (PEO‐PIM). The unique structure of PIM‐1 not only enhances the mechanical strength and hardness over the PEO electrolyte by an order of magnitude, increasing stability toward the metallic lithium anode but also increases its ionic conductivity by lowering the degree of crystallinity. Furthermore, the PIM‐1 is shown to effectively trap lithium polysulfide species to mitigate against the detrimental polysulfide shuttle effect, as electrophilic 1,4‐dicyanooxanthrene functional groups possess higher binding energy to polysulfides. Benefiting from these properties, the use of PEO‐PIM composite electrolyte has achieved greatly improved rate performance, long‐cycling stability, and excellent safety features for solid‐state Li‐S batteries. This methodology offers a new direction for the optimization of solid polymer electrolytes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is the leading cause of chronic kidney disease worldwide and the strongest predictor of mortality in patients with diabetes. Despite its significance, the pathological mechanism underlying the onset and progression of DKD remains incompletely understood. In this study, we have shown that mitochondrial ribosomal protein L12 (MRPL12) plays a significant role in DKD by modulating mitochondrial function. We demonstrated that MRPL12 was mainly ubiquitinated at K150 in renal tubular epithelial cells. We have found that Cullin3 (CUL3), an E3 ubiquitin ligase, directly interacts with MRPL12 and induces the K63‐linked ubiquitination of MRPL12, resulting in mitochondrial biosynthesis dysfunction. Moreover, under high‐glucose (HG) conditions in renal tubular epithelial cells, we observed up‐regulation of CUL3 expression, significant increase in CUL3‐mediated ubiquitination of MRPL12 and dysregulation of mitochondrial biosynthesis. Notably, CUL3 knockdown stabilised the MRPL12 protein and protected mitochondrial biosynthesis under HG conditions. Our findings provide novel insight into how CUL3 affects mitochondrial biosynthesis in renal tubular epithelial cells through MRPL12 ubiquitination and suggest a potential therapeutic strategy for DKD in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of modern technology, the functions of smart windows are expected to be more abundant apart from reducing energy consumption. A viable and popular solution is to develop a versatile product. Here a multi‐functional tandem device enabled by ionic gels to form a smart glass that can be applied in manifold scenarios, is reported. The ionic gels successfully fulfill the multiple tasks of simultaneously being electrolytes, ion storage medium, as well as transparent electrodes, and help heighten the overall transparency of the devices. The novel tandem configuration simply consists of five stacking functional layers and is universal for DC‐driven electrochromic and AC‐driven electroluminescent sub‐devices. The newly‐developed devices demonstrate magnificent characteristics of high and tunable transparency (0–77%), selective infrared shielding ability, diversified displaying and decoration, excellent stability (3000 cycles), and even flexibility. Multifarious application scenarios of the structure in diversified device forms are proposed and presented. The proposed device architecture provides a facile methodology to fabricate functional devices and will provoke infinite novel ideas for developing the next‐generation smart windows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration (IVDD) is closely linked to degenerative spinal disease, resulting in disability, poor quality of life, and financial burden. Apoptosis of nucleus pulposus (NP) cells (NPCs) is a key pathological basis of IVDD. Periostin (POSTN), an extracellular matrix protein, is expressed in many tissues, whereas its abnormal expression is associated with IVDD. The conventional Wnt/β‐catenin pathway is also involved in IVDD and contributes to NPCs apoptosis. However, research on the mechanisms of POSTN in IVDD is lacking. This study investigated the relationship between POSTN and β‐catenin expression in degenerated IVDs. We detected the expression of POSTN, β‐catenin, and cleaved‐caspase‐3 (C‐caspase3) in degenerated and non‐degenerated IVD tissues of different grades (n = 8) using RT‐qPCR, immunohistochemical staining, and western blotting analysis. Next, we explored the effects of recombinant periostin (rPOSTN) and isoquercitrin (Iso), an inhibitor of the Wnt/β‐catenin pathway, on NPCs apoptosis. Finally, we inhibited the expression of POSTN in degenerated NPCs in vivo and investigated the anti‐apoptotic effect. The expression of β‐catenin, POSTN, and C‐caspase3 in severe degenerative IVDs was significantly higher than that in mild degenerative IVDs. These findings were confirmed in rat and cell‐based degenerative models. When treated with rPOSTN, the Wnt/β‐catenin pathway activity and cell apoptosis were time‐ and dose‐dependent. However, rPOSTN‐induced NPCs apoptosis decreased after iso‐induced inhibition of the Wnt/β‐catenin pathway. POSTN inhibition reduced apoptosis but was restored by rPOSTN re‐addition. Lastly, POSTN inhibition ameliorated puncture‐induced IVDD in vivo. Overall, our study demonstrated that POSTN promotes NPCs apoptosis and aggravates degeneration by activating the Wnt/β‐catenin pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carboxylated pillar[5]arene (CP5) macrocycles were modified onto the surface of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) via covalent bonds to form new pillarene-functionalized RGO nanosheets, i.e., RGO-CP5. The obtained RGO-CP5 nanosheets capable of molecular recognition exhibited much better water-dispersibility and enhanced fluorescence-quenching property as compared with native RGO. This new sensing platform holds great potentials in the sensing and detection of analytes, such as organic dye molecules and pesticides, in aqueous solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to prepare electrodes with high mass loading and areal capacities, the key issue is to achieve depolarization for both ion and electron transfer on the electrode material surface. In this work, through copolymerization of xanthan gum (XG) and amorphophallus konjac gum (KG) followed by an ice‐templating method, aligned electrodes with high areal mass loading of active materials are prepared. In addition to firmly holding active materials together, the prepared KG–XG copolymer also facilitates improved effective porosity as well as homogeneous dispersion of conductive agents (i.e., CNTs). Consequently, with minimum inactive components (i.e., binder and conductive agents), the proposed electrode structure delivers good cycling stability and rate capability under high areal loading (as high as 200 mg cm−2). The excellent electrochemical performance can be attributed to the unique aligned structure where the robust conductive network provides an efficient electron and lithium‐ion pathway, and the homogenous porosity is beneficial for the electrolyte percolation, hence the reduced polarization during charge transfer. In addition, this electrode preparation method is found to be universal as it is suitable for various types of anode and cathode materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cover page of the January 2015 issue of the "Chinese Journal of Chemistry" featuring carboxylatopillarene-modified reduced graphene oxides is presented.