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Successful repair of long-distance peripheral nerve injuries remains a challenge in the clinic. Rapid axon growth is a key to accelerate nerve regeneration. Herein, a pure silk fibroin (SF) hydrogel with a combination of high-strength and aligned microgrooved topographic structure is reported. The hydrogels exhibit excellent mechanical properties with high strength. Good biocompatibility also allows the hydrogels to support cell survival. Significantly, the hydrogel with aligned microgrooved structures enables the aligned growth of Schwann cells. Moreover, the hydrogel holds a strong capacity for promoting axon growth and guiding neurite sprouting. Thus, this micropatterned SF hydrogel would have great potential for peripheral nerve regeneration.

The performance of wound dressing determines the effect of wound closure and recovery. Water absorption and bacteriostasis of wound dressings play an important role in wound recovery and healing. In this study, an optimized chitosan wound dressing-tough chitosan dressing (TCS) with high water absorption, high bacteriostasis, and degradability was developed. The chemical structure of chitosan remained stable during the process of optimized treatment, and an increase in mechanical properties was obtained for the dressing. After optimization, the water absorption and antibacterial properties of the chitosan dressing were greatly improved, which is significantly better than sodium alginate dressing. The authors believe that TCS dressing with high hygroscopicity and high bacteriostasis has great potential application value in the field of wound recovery and healing.

Organic‐free perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have been of rising interest due to their remarkable resistance toward long‐term thermal stress. Nevertheless, the inorganic perovskite films usually suffer from poor crystallization and high‐density defects in bulk and near/at the interfaces, which leads to significant charge recombination loss and hence inferior device performance. Herein, it is demonstrated that high‐quality CsPbI2Br perovskite films could be prepared by using 2D non‐layered materials as additives, such as In2S3 nanoflakes (Nano‐In2S3) with well‐matched lattices and unsaturated dangling bonds on the surface. In addition, it is found that the introduction of Nano‐In2S3 results in not only defect passivation but also remarkable quasi‐Fermi level splitting across the perovskite film due to its gradient doping behavior, thereby enhancing the built‐in electric field in the inverted PSCs. As a result, the optimal devices based on Nano‐In2S3:CsPbI2Br absorber and all‐inorganic interfacial layers deliver a champion power conversion efficiency of 15.17% along with excellent ambient and thermal stabilities, superior to those of the pristine devices and comparable to the best organic‐free PSCs. A novel strategy for highly efficient and stable organic‐free photovoltaics by using 2D non‐layered materials as multifunctional additives is demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sulfur metabolism plays a major role in plant growth and development, environmental adaptation, and material synthesis, and the sulfate transporters are the beginning of sulfur metabolism. We identified 37 potential VcSULTR genes in the blueberry genome, encoding peptides with 534 to 766 amino acids. The genes were grouped into four subfamilies in an evolutionary analysis. The 37 putative VcSULTR proteins ranged in size from 60.03 to 83.87 kDa. These proteins were predicted to be hydrophobic and mostly localize to the plasma membrane. The VcSULTR genes were distributed on 30 chromosomes; VcSULTR3;5b and VcSULTR3;5c were the only tandemly repeated genes. The VcSULTR promoters contained cis -acting elements related to the fungal symbiosis and stress responses. The transcript levels of the VcSULTRs differed among blueberry organs and changed in response to ericoid mycorrhizal fungi and sulfate treatments. A subcellular localization analysis showed that VcSULTR2;1c localized to, and functioned in, the plasma membrane and chloroplast. The virus-induced gene knock-down of VcSULTR2;1c resulted in a significantly decreased endogenous sulfate content, and an up-regulation of genes encoding key enzymes in sulfur metabolism ( VcATPS2 and VcSiR1 ). These findings enhance our understanding of mycorrhizal-fungi-mediated sulfate transport in blueberry, and lay the foundation for further research on blueberry-mycorrhizal symbiosis.

All inorganic CsPbI 2 Br perovskite (AIP) has attracted great attention due to its excellent resistance against thermal stress as well as the remarkable capability to deliver high-voltage output. However, CsPbI 2 Br perovskite solar cells (PeSCs) still encounter critical challenges in attaining both high efficiency and mechanical stability for commercial applications. In this work, formamidine disulfide dihydrochloride (FADD) modified ZnO electron transport layer (ETL) has been developed for fabricating inverted devices on either rigid or flexible substrate. It is found that the FADD modification leads to efficient defects passivation, thereby significantly reducing charge recombination at the AIP/ETL interface. As a result, rigid PeSCs (r-PeSCs) deliver an enhanced efficiency of 16.05% and improved long-term thermal stability. Moreover, the introduced FADD can regulate the Young's modulus (or Derjaguin-Muller-Toporov (DMT) modilus) of ZnO ETL and dissipate stress concentration at the AIP/ETL interface, effectively restraining the crack generation and improving the mechanical stability of PeSCs. The flexible PeSCs (f-PeSCs) exhibit one of the best performances so far reported with excellent stability against 6000 bending cycles at a curvature radius of 5 mm. This work thus provides an effective strategy to simultaneously improve the photovoltaic performance and mechanical stability., (© 2024 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)