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The acquisition of real-time temperature monitoring during photothermal therapy is significant to prevent unnecessary damage to healthy tissues. However, owing to complexity and diverse factors in microenvironment of cells, there still remain considerable challenges in achieving noninvasive temperature measurement and manipulation in therapeutic process. Herein, biocompatible Nd-doped MoSe2 nanosheets have been developed on the premise of excellent photothermal effect, which manifest desirable photoluminescence and distinct temperature self-monitored capability in near-infrared I and II bio-windows. Based on thermally coupled energy levels of Nd ions, the real-time monitoring on temperature changes in intracellular environment can be realized which provide instant temperature feedbacks to avoid side effects from hyperthermia. Exclusive of detrimental elements such as F and Pb, the objective nanosheets manifest satisfactory biosafety and can induce effective tumor ablation under near-infrared irradiation with photothermal conversion efficiency up to 40.8%, providing an innovative vision for developing more precisely and safely photothermal approaches.

Among numerous polluting compounds, the organic dyes and antibiotics are two servious factors causing water pollution. Hence, it is urgent to find a fast and safe way to degrade waste water in a sustainable approach. Here, ferroelectric heterostructure based on 2D Bi2MoO6 nanosheets and Bi2S3 nanorods has been prepared by a two-step solvothermal method for the reduction of organic dyes and antibiotics. Due to the energy band balance between Bi2S3 and Bi2MoO6, the formed type-II heterostructure can populate charge transfer at the junction and effectively inhibit electron-hole recombination. Under ultrasonic stimulation, catalytic active sites of a Bi2MoO6/Bi2S3 heterostructure for pollutant degradation can be generated through rapid charge transfer activation, thus enhancing the catalytic degradation effect of organic dyes and antibiotics. The Bi2MoO6/Bi2S3 heterostructure not only has good degradation effect, but also shows better stability. This work opens up new avenues for designing highly-efficient catalysts, which is of importance for wastewater degradation and energy-saving applications.

Abstract How to improve the capacity of light‐harvesting is still an important point and essential strategy for the assembling of high‐efficiency quantum dot–sensitized solar cells (QDSCs). A believable approach is to implant new light absorption materials into QDSCs to stimulate the charge transfer. Herein, the few‐layer black phosphorus quantum dots (BPQDs) are synthesized by electrochemical intercalation technology using bulk BP as source. Then the obtained BPQDs are deposited onto the surface of Zn–Cu–In–S–Se (ZCISSe) QD‐sensitized TiO2 substrate to serve as another light‐harvesting material for the first time. The experimental results have shown that BPQDs can not only increase the absorption intensity by photoanode but also reduce unnecessary charge recombination processes at the interface of photoanode/electrolyte. Through optimizing the size and deposition process of BPQDs, the champion power conversion efficiency of ZCISSe QDSCs is increased to 15.66% (26.88 mA/cm2, Voc = 0.816 V, fill factor [FF] = 0.714) when compared with the original value of 14.11% (Jsc = 25.41 mA/cm2, Voc = 0.779 V, FF = 0.713).

Rare earth sulfides are a promising group of semiconductor materials with intricate crystal structures and unique electronic configurations, which can be applied in the fields of energy storage, environmental protection and inorganic pigments. In recent years, with the development of modulation tools, rare earth sulfides have gained attention in more fields, such as thermoelectric materials, magnetic materials and electrochemical detection. We need to better understand rare earth sulfides before we can develop practical functional materials. In this article, we present the basic crystal structures of rare earth sulfides with recent research progress in preparation methods and microstructure modulation. Combined with the work of our group, this article focuses on the breakthroughs of rare earth sulfides in applications such as inorganic pigments, energy materials and photocatalysis. Even more, we discuss the intrinsic link between structures and properties and the design strategies to enhance the optical, electronic and catalytic properties of rare earth sulfides. Finally, we summarize the challenges and future directions in the research of rare earth sulfides.

Abstract Background Insulin‐like growth Factor 2 mRNA‐binding protein 3 (IGF2BP3) is a highly conserved RNA‐binding protein and plays a critical role in regulating posttranscriptional modifications. Methods Immunoprecipitation was used to examine the interaction of Parkin and IGF2BP3. Mass spectrometry was performed to identify the ubiquitination sites of IGF2BP3. RNA‐immunoprecipitation was conducted to examine the target genes of IGF2BP3. Xenograft mouse model was constructed to determine the tumorigenesis of IGF2BP3. Results IGF2BP3 expression is negatively correlated with Parkin expression in human cervical cancer cells and tissues. Parkin directly interacts with IGF2BP3, and overexpression of Parkin causes the proteasomal degradation of IGF2BP3, while knockdown of PARK2 increases the protein levels of IGF2BP3. Mechanistically, in vivo and in vitro ubiquitination assays demonstrated that Parkin is able to ubiquitinate IGF2BP3. Moreover, the ubiquitination site of IGF2BP3 was identified at K213 in the first KH domain of IGF2BP3. IGF2BP3 mutation results in the loss of its oncogenic function as an m6A reader, resulting in the inactivation of the phosphoinositide 3‐kinase (PI3K) and mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) signalling pathways. In addition, IGF2BP3 mutation results in the attenuation of Parkin‐mediated mitophagy, indicating its inverse role in regulating Parkin. Consequently, the tumourigenesis of cervical cancer is also inhibited by IGF2BP3 mutation. Conclusion IGF2BP3 is ubiquitinated and regulated by the E3 ubiquitin ligase Parkin in human cervical cancer and ubiquitination modification plays an important role in modulating IGF2BP3 function. Thus, understanding the role of IGF2BP3 in tumourigenesis could provide new insights into cervical cancer therapy.

Optical thermometry has the distinct superiority of non-invasive, non-contact, and high spatial resolution. However, the simultaneous improvement of temperature sensitivity and resolution remains challenging. Herein, the tunable emission colors can be realized via energy transfer in Bi3+-Sm3+ co-doped La3Ta0.8Sb0.2O7, which further applied for fluorescence temperature sensing and imaging. With the partial substitution of Sb5+ with Ta5+, the emission peak of La3SbO7:0.04Bi3+ shiftes from 530 nm to 460 nm, together with a 2.1-fold enhancement of emission intensity. The emission shifted from bright blue to purple under 365 nm excitation based on the energy transfer. The energy transfer efficiency from Bi3+ to Sm3+ can reach 41.6 % via dipole–dipole interaction. The La3Ta0.8Sb0.2O7:(0.04Bi3+,0.005Sm3+) phosphors exhibit maximum relative sensitivity (Sr) of 1.32 %K−1 (@498 K) and absolute sensitivity (Sa) of 0.059 K−1 (@417 K), which have excellent temperature resolution and repeatability. Thus, the energy transfer in co-coped phosphors can simultaneously improve the temperature sensitivity and resolution for fluorescence temperature sensing. Besides, the phosphor/PDMS films can exhibit obvious thermochromic imaging.

The use of functional nanomaterials to realize tumor therapeutic therapy has received considerable attention. However, a single type of nanomaterial usually can only achieve one specific function, and may cause biosafety problems due to poor metabolism. In this work, we have designed a kind of nanocomposite film based on Bi2Se3 nanosheets and carbon nanotubes, which can achieve efficient photothermal conversion and reactive oxygen species generation under near-infrared laser irradiation. Moreover, the developed films showed good biocompatibility in vivo. The multifunctional films showed remarkable therapeutic effects under 808 nm excitation with 0.3 W/cm2, which avoiding the introduction of nano-reagents into the mice and excessive laser power damage. Our work will provide reference for the use of nanomaterials with heterojunctions in synergistic therapy strategies of photothermal and photodynamic therapy.

As the population ages, cancer has become a major health concern. Although surgical treatment, chemoradiotherapy, and other clinical treatments have become dominant, their strong invasiveness and intolerable toxic side effects seriously affect patients' quality of life. Therefore, developing non-invasive optical therapy with high safety is of great significance. In the last two decades of development, great progress has been made in lanthanide doped nanoparticles on biomedical applications under near-infrared (NIR) light due to their unique properties. These nanomaterials have been used in a wide range of applications, including bioluminescence marker detection, in vitro and in vivo imaging, photodynamic therapy (PDT), photothermal therapy (PTT), and other therapeutic applications. These therapies have been rapidly developed in the profession involving oncology due to their non-invasive, spatiotemporal controllability, and high efficiency. For this key review, the applications based on lanthanide nanoparticles have been listed as follows: bioimaging, biosensors, PDT and PTT. Some emerging biological applications of lanthanide-doped nanoparticles currently at the forefront of the nano/biological interface are also discussed. Finally, this review summarizes the future opportunities and challenges of nanotechnology research based on lanthanide-doped nanoparticles.

Non-contact remote optical thermometers as a significant technique have been extensively developed. However, it is still a challenge to design new Bismuth-doped phosphor materials with tunable spectra for high-sensitive optical temperature sensors. Herein, a novel YxLu1-xNbO4:Bi3+ (0 ≤ x ≤ 1.0) phosphor is constructed by the isomorphic end components LuNbO4 and YNbO4. Owing to the modification of crystal field strength around Bi3+ ions, the emission positions controllably shifted from 475 to 462 nm with the increase of Y3+ ions concentrations. Besides, systematic luminescence modifying from blue to red across the white light region could be achieved via the design of Bi3+→Eu3+ energy transfer (ET). Intriguingly, an anti-thermal-quenching behavior of Eu3+ ion originating from the ET is found in Y0.8Lu0.2NbO4:Bi3+, Eu3+ (YLNO:Bi3+, Eu3+) phosphors, while Bi3+ ion presents a great emission intensity loss with only retaining 46.8% at 383 K. Based on the disparate thermal responses, the fluorescence intensity ratio (FIR) of Eu3+ to Bi3+ demonstrates excellent thermometry properties from 303 to 503 K. The maximum absolute sensitivity (Sa) and relative sensitivity (Sr) reach 0.318 K−1 (@328 K) and 1.62%K−1 (@393 K). In addition, the thermochromic performance of the resultant phosphors could be applied to qualitatively estimate the surrounding temperature. The spectral adjustability and high-sensitive of the developed phosphors highlight their multiplicity of applications in non-contact temperature measurement and white LED.

Rational design and preparation of multifunctional low dimensional nanomaterials are of great importance for in vivo imaging and safety therapy. Meanwhile, nanomaterials with good bio-compatible and effectively photothermal conversion are still demanded to be fabricated in biomedicine. In this work, we have developed two-dimensional bismuth selenide nanosheets as the imaging and photothermal nanoagents. Through doping engineering, the near infrared photothermal conversion of Nd doped nanosheets was boosted by 52 %, which is higher than many previous works. Besides, the prepared nanomaterials can realize infrared and in vivo computed X-ray tomography bioimaging, due to the rich optical-magnetic properties of Nd atoms. The in vitro and vivo experiments with mice display that the Nd doped nanosheets have low toxicity and high biocompatibility. More importantly, the nanomaterials can efficiently achieve photothermal tumor ablation. It is suggested that designed and developed nanosheets have promising applications for biomedicine.

Developing highly efficient flexible microwave absorber is of great significance for wearable electronics and aerospace applications. In this work, the fusiform SnO2 nanocrystals film in situ grown on flexible carbon fiber cloth is rationally designed and fabricated through combining air calcination and hydrothermal synthesis. X-ray photoelectron spectrum confirms fusiform SnO2 nanocrystals film and carbon fiber cloth are effectively integrated with strong chemical bonds of COSn. The as-prepared composite exhibits strong reflection loss of −49.1 dB (2.6 GHz) and wide effective absorption bandwidth of 5.8 GHz (11.6–17.4 GHz) with a thin matched thickness of 1.6 mm, surpassing to pure carbon fiber cloth and many SnO2/carbon-based microwave absorbers. The efficient performance originates from well-matched characteristic impedance and multifarious electromagnetic attenuation mechanisms, i.g., dipole orientation polarization, interfacial polarization relaxation, conductive loss, and multiple reflections/scatterings. Especially, differential charge density calculation reveals the uneven charge distribution at SnO2/C interface, which is believed to remarkably enhance interfacial polarization relaxation and contribute to microwave absorption. Our results illustrate that the ingenious integration of nanomaterials on carbon fiber cloth promises a way to achieve efficient and flexible microwave absorbers.

Cu2+ is an essential trace element for humans and animals, and the precise detection of Cu2+ can help diagnose many diseases. However, the current Cu2+ detection technology still needs to be improved in terms of the biocompatibility of the material, the penetration of the excitation source, and the detection limit. In this paper, the polyacrylic acid (PAA) capped NaYF4:Yb3+/Er3+@NaYF4 core–shell nanoparticles (NPs) with a particle size of about 22.5 nm is proposed. Under the excitation of 980 nm with strong penetration, the Cu2+ concentration can be detected by the emission intensity of NPs at 520 nm, and the detection limit is 0.018 μM. In addition, this material can also perform temperature detection within 296–373 K with a relative sensitivity of 1.23 % K−1. Therefore, this NPs is a promising multifunctional material that can detect temperature and Cu2+ concentration.

Abstract Large‐scale production of two‐dimensional (2D) materials still is a crucial point toward its practical applications. Violet phosphorus (VP) with a wide bandgap accelerates and broadens the potential applications of elemental phosphorus in optoelectronics. Here, we demonstrate the scalable production of solution‐processable violet phosphorus flakes stably dispersed in several solvents. The exfoliated VP flakes exhibit thickness‐dependent visible photoluminescence characteristics, which covers the shortcoming of black phosphorus. Meanwhile, the VP‐based field‐effect transistor reveals relatively competitive electrical properties to other liquid‐phase exfoliated 2D materials. Our study paves the way for a wide range of applications of optical devices, energy storage, catalysis, and sodium batteries based on large‐scale VP flakes.

Owing to its high reliability and accuracy, the ratiometric luminescent thermometer can provide non-contact and fast temperature measurements. In particular, the nanomaterials doped with lanthanide ions can achieve multi-mode luminescence and temperature measurement by modifying the type of doped ions and excitation light source. The better penetration of the near-infrared (NIR) photons can assist bio-imaging and replace thermal vision cameras for photothermal imaging. In this work, we prepared core–shell cubic phase nanomaterials doped with lanthanide ions, with Ba2LuF7 doped with Er3+/Yb3+/Nd3+ as the core and Ba2LaF7 as the coating shell. The nanoparticles were designed according to the passivation layer to reduce the surface energy loss and enhance the emission intensity. Green upconversion luminescence can be observed under both 980 nm and 808 nm excitation. A single and strong emission band can be obtained under 980 nm excitation, while abundant and weak emission bands appear under 808 nm excitation. Meanwhile, multi-mode ratiometric optical thermometers were achieved by selecting different emission peaks in the NIR window under 808 nm excitation for non-contact temperature measurement at different tissue depths. The results suggest that our core–shell NIR nanoparticles can be used to assist bio-imaging and record temperature for biomedicine.

Hydrogen-bonded organic frameworks (HOFs), as an emerging porous material, have attracted increasing research interest in fluorescence sensing due to their inherent fluorescence emission units with unique physicochemical properties. Herein, based on the organic building block 3,3′,5,5′-tetrakis-(4-carboxyphenyl)-1,1′-biphenyl (H4TCBP), the porous material HOF-TCBP was successfully synthesized using hydrogen bond self-assembly in a DMF solution. The fluorescence properties of the HOF-TCBP solution showed that when the concentration was high, excimers were easily formed, the PL emission was red-shifted, and the fluorescence intensity became weaker. HOF-TCBP showed good sensitivity and selectivity to metal ions Fe3+, Cr3+, and anion Cr2O72−. In addition, HOF-TCBP can serve as a label-free fluorescent sensor material for the sensitive and selective detection of dopamine (DA). HOF-based DA sensing is actually easy, low-cost, simple to operate, and highly selective for many potential interfering substances, and it has been successfully applied to the detection of DA in biological samples with satisfactory recoveries (101.1–104.9%). To our knowledge, this is the first report of HOF materials for efficient detection of the neurotransmitter dopamine in biological fluids. In short, this work widely broadens the application of HOF materials as fluorescent sensors for the sensing of ions and biological disease markers.

At present, the shortage of potable water is still a critical issue. The emerging of solar-driven evaporation technique offers a promising way to solve freshwater scarcity. However, developing highly efficient evaporation system is still a challenge. Herein, this work developed two-dimensional heterostructure nanosheets as the photothermal agent. We used the WSe2 nanosheets to enhance the absorption of graphene and facilitate the heat localization due to its higher visible light absorption and ultralow thermal conductivity. And graphene provided the low surface reflection and a broad absorption spectrum. Moreover, the enhanced near infrared photothermal conversion of the heterostructure nanosheets is realized to be 41.4% higher than some previous works by introducing lanthanide ions. A series of experiments are performed to determine its heterostructure. Besides, the interfacial evaporation system has been constructed based on as-prepared nanosheets, exhibiting excellent solar-to-heat efficiency of 91.8% and water evaporation rate of 1.672 kg m−2h−1 under stimulated 1 sun irradiation. It is suggested that developed nanosheets have the potential application for highly effective solar-driven evaporation.

In order to reduce the influence of water molecules, the samples will be dried in an oven at 300 °C for 3 h before various tests. The crystal phase of samples was measured by x-ray diffraction (XRD) in steps of 0.01°/s with 1 s counting time per step and equipped with a temperature controller. The microstructure and chemical composition of samples were studied by a scanning electron microscope (SEM, SU8010 FE-SEM HITACHI, Japan) coupled with an energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS). The diffuse reflectance spectrum was recorded with a spectrophotometer in steps of 1 nm with an integration time of 0.5 s. The luminescence spectra and lifetime were measured by the spectrometer (HORIBA CANADA QuantaMaster 8000). The temperature-dependent upconversion emission spectra were recorded in a home-made optical system. The 980 nm diode laser was used as an excitation source. The power density of the laser was set to 3.2 W/cm². [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]