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Objective. Endometrial carcinoma (EC) is one of the most common malignancies leading to death in women and poses a serious threat to women’s health. Therefore, exploring the molecular mechanisms affecting EC progression and metastasis is a clinical research hotspot. It has been shown that lncRNAs play an important role in the pathogenesis of EC. It is important to investigate the role of lncRNAs in the growth of EC to improve diagnosis and find new therapeutic targets of EC. Methods. The expression of LINC00936 in 36 EC tissues, paracancerous tissues, and cell lines was measured by fluorescence quantitative PCR. The relationship between LINC00936 expression and clinicopathological characteristics of patients was analyzed. The effects of overexpression of LINC00936 on proliferation, invasion, and migration of EC cells were examined by CCK-8 and transwell assays. Colony formation assay was also performed to evaluate the colony forming ability of EC cells. The effect of overexpression of LINC00936 on the expression of EMT-related proteins in EC cells was examined by western blot. In addition, the effect of LINC00936 overexpression on the growth of EC in vivo was examined by using tumorigenicity assay in the nude mouse. Results. LINC00936 was expressed at a low level in EC tissues and cell lines and significantly correlated with tumor size and lymphatic metastasis of patients. Overexpression of LINC00936 significantly inhibited the proliferation, invasion, and migration, as well as colony formation ability of EC cells. Western blot analysis showed that overexpression of LINC00936 significantly promoted the expression of E-cadherin and inhibited the expression of N-cadherin and vimentin in EC cells. Tumorigenic assays in the nude mouse demonstrated that overexpression of LINC00936 inhibited the growth of EC in vivo by suppressing Ki-67 and promoting E-cadherin expression. Conclusion. LINC00936 was expressed at a low level in EC tissues and significantly correlated with tumor size and lymphatic metastasis of patients. Overexpression of LINC00936 significantly inhibited the proliferation, invasion, and migration, as well as colony formation ability of EC cells. Therefore, LINC00936 could be a new target for the early diagnosis and treatment of EC patients.

Lithium metal anodes (LMAs) with high energy density have recently captured increasing attention for development of next-generation batteries. However, practical viability of LMAs is hindered by the uncontrolled Li dendrite growth and infinite dimension change. Even though constructing 3D conductive skeleton has been regarded as a reliable strategy to prepare stable and low volume stress LMAs, engineering the renewable and lithiophilic conductive scaffold is still a challenge. Herein, a robust conductive scaffold derived from renewable cellulose paper, which is coated with reduced graphene oxide and decorated with lithiophilic Au nanoparticles, is engineered for LMAs. The graphene cellulose fibres with high surface area can reduce the local current density, while the well-dispersed Au nanoparticles can serve as lithiophilic nanoseeds to lower the nucleation overpotential of Li plating. The coupled relationship can guarantee uniform Li nucleation and unique spherical Li growth into 3D carbon matrix. Moreover, the natural cellulose paper possesses outstanding mechanical strength to tolerate the volume stress. In virtue of the modulated deposition behaviour and near-zero volume change, the hybrid LMAs can achieve reversible Li plating/stripping even at an ultrahigh current density of 10 mA cm-2 as evidenced by high Coulombic efficiency (97.2 % after 60 cycles) and ultralong lifespan (1000 cycles) together with ultralow overpotential (25 mV). Therefore, this strategy sheds light on a scalable approach to multiscale design versatile Li host, promising highly stable Li metal batteries to be feasible and practical.

The development of next-generation lithium metal batteries (LMBs) has been chronically hindered by uncontrollable dendrite growth and infinite dimension change of metal Li. Even though the porous carbon skeletons have been deemed as effective hosting materials to prepare low-stress Li metal anode (LMA), the lithiophobic feature and poor spatial regulation for Li nucleation/growth of carbon skeletons render the achievement of high-stable LMA to be challenging. Herein, vertical-aligned SnS2 nanosheet arrays (SnS2 NSA) with intrinsic lithiophilic nature, endowed by in situ formed Li13Sn5 via the alloying reaction of SnS2, are uniformly decorated on highly flexible carbon foam (SnS2 NSA@CF) to overcome the encountered issues of ordinary carbon skeletons. The vertical-aligned SnS2 nanosheet offers enriched lithiophilic surface area, thereby guiding the thin Li-nuclei layer uniformly deposited on nanosheet. Moreover, the continuous Li growth is proceeded on the initial Li-nuclei layer and spatially confined into the nanochannels of nanoarray to eliminate the volume change of LMA. The well-defined nanochannel effectively reduces the local current density and provides open spacing for quick charge transfer kinetics. Accordingly, the sustainable Li utilization with high Coulombic efficiency and highly stable Li plating/stripping with low polarization is achieved, shedding light on the feasibility of SnS2 NSA for dendrite-free LMA.

Preparation of a material with excellent rate performance and high capacity contribution is significant for sodium-ion hybrid capacitors (SIHCs). TiO2 has been extensively studied due to its outstanding chemical stability, but the low specific capacity greatly hinders its practical application. Herein, TiO2 with a foveolate-shape is prepared via a precisely controlled Ostwald maturation procedure. Benefiting from the unique structure, foveolate TiO2 possesses satisfactory electrochemical performance. When used as the anode for SIHCs, a high reversible specific capacity of 290 mA h g−1 is obtained with an ultrahigh initial coulombic efficiency of 96% at 100 mA g−1. Even if the current density increases to 1000 mA g−1, the specific discharge capacity can still be maintained at 158 mA h g−1 after 1500 cycles. To further improve its capacity, the TiO2@MoSe2 composite electrode is synthesized by using foveolate TiO2 as the skeleton for the successful growth of MoSe2 nanosheets. A higher reversible specific capacity of 551 mA h g−1 is achieved at 100 mA g−1. Moreover, a reversible specific capacity of 164 mA h g−1 is maintained after 500 cycles at 5000 mA g−1. The foveolate TiO2 preparation method developed in this work provides new ideas for the development of both substrate materials and active materials in the field of energy storage.

Background: MIAT (myocardial infarction-associated transcript) regulates cell proliferation, apoptosis, and metastasis in several cancers. In this study, the authors aimed to explore the role of MIAT in ovarian cancer. Materials and Methods: The expression of MIAT in ovarian cancer subtypes, normal human ovarian surface epithelial and ovarian cancer cell lines was measured by qualitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). OVCAR3 and SKOV3 cells were transfected with MIAT overexpression plasmid or siMIAT. The cell growth ability was then evaluated by CCK-8 and colony formation assays. The cell migration and invasion rate were separately measured by wound-healing and transwell assays. The levels of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-associated markers were evaluated by Western blotting. MIAT sponging miR-150-5p was predicted by starBase and confirmed by dual-luciferase reporter assays. The expression of miR-150-5p in OVCAR3 and SKOV3 cells with MIAT overexpression or knockdown, and in ovarian cancer subtypes was also measured by qRT-PCR. Further analyses confirmed the role of MIAT sponging miR-150-5p in ovarian cancer cells. Results: MIAT was highly expressed in mesenchymal subtype ovarian cancer tissues and ovarian cancer cells. In OVCAR3 and SKOV3 cells, overexpression of MIAT promoted, and knockdown of MIAT suppressed the cell growth, migration, invasion, and EMT. miR-150-5p was sponged and regulated by MIAT. miR-150-5p was downregulated in mesenchymal subtype ovarian cancer. Suppression of cell migration, invasion, and EMT caused by miR-150-5p overexpression was rescued by MIAT overexpression. Conclusions: MIAT acts as an oncogene in ovarian cancer cells through sponging miR-150-5p. MIAT or miR-150-5p expression might be a potential prognostic biomarker for ovarian cancer patients. MIAT and miR-150-5p are potential therapeutic targets in treatment of ovarian cancer.

Phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with high electroluminescence (EL) efficiency and low efficiency roll-off are urgently required to meet the continuously increasing market need ...

As one of the most environmentally friendly photovoltaic (PV) conversion equipments, aqueous-processed CdTe nanocrystal solar cells (NC SCs) have attracted great interest in recent years because of their excellent properties such as high charge-carrier mobility and broad absorption. However, two issues including interfacial recombination and leakage current seriously restrict their performance. In this paper, insulating polymer poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) is introduced into CdTe NC SCs to solve the problems. The experimental results of transmission electron microscopy (TEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and dark current measurements, etc., demonstrate the leakage current is effectively suppressed by introducing PVP. Through further designing device structure, the reduction of interfacial recombination after introducing PVP is confirmed. By strategically taking the advantages of PVP properties (e.g., water solubility and thermostability), the power conversion efficiency of the devices with PVP is enhanced by almost 37% compared to pure CdTe devices. This work demonstrates an effective and low-cost method to fabricate NC SCs via aqueous route. Moreover, it also proves that appropriate content of insulating polymer is of beneficial in promoting the PV performance.

The high photogenerated carrier recombination rate and the low visible light utilization limit the development of graphitic carbon nitride (CN) in industrial photocatalytic H

Lithium (Li) metal is deemed as an ideal and promising star anode for high energy storage but its application still is impeded due to uncontrollable Li dendrite growth and tremendous dimension change. Although the flexible and conductive three-dimensional (3D) skeleton can improve the structural and interfacial stability of Li anode, its inherently lithiophobic feature usually brings a high nucleation barrier, uneven Li+ flux, and large concentration polarization, leading to inhomogeneous Li plating/stripping. Here, we develop target material (denoted as Mo2C NPs@CC) consisting of well-distributed molybdenum carbide nanoparticles (Mo2C NPs) with intrinsic lithiophilicity serving as lithiophilic seeds implanted onto the carbon cloth, breaking the dilemma of ordinary 3D conductive skeletons. The Mo2C NPs with large Li absorption energy provide plentiful lithiophilic sites for guiding the uniform and thin Li-nuclei layer formation, thereby realizing flat Li growth and stable electrode/electrolyte interface. Moreover, the high electronic conductivity of Mo2C-modified 3D scaffolds can balance the lithiophilicity, ensuring the fast electron transport in the whole electrode, effectively lowering the local current density, and providing enough space for buffering volume change, and synergistically suppresses the growth of Li dendrites. As a result, a prolonged lifespan of 5000 cycles with low voltage hysteresis of 10 mV at current density of 2 mA cm-2 with area capacity (Ca) of 1 mA h cm-2 has been achieved, giving rational guidance for designing high-performance composite Li anodes.

SnS2 as the promising anode for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) still encounters the undesirable rate performance and cycle stability. Herein, a unique stable structure is developed, where the SnS2 nanocrystals (NCs) are sturdily encapsulated by carbon shells anchored on a reduced graphene oxide (rGO) via the one-pot solvothermal process. The well-controlled carbon shells provide the enduring protection for SnS2 NCs through C–S covalent bonds from the corrosion of electrolyte and pulverization of structure. Moreover, both experimental results and density functional theory (DFT) calculations demonstrate that the carbon protective shell effectively enhances the structure stability and conductivity of the resulting materials. Interestingly, the size of SnS2 NCs and the thickness of carbon shells are accurately controlled by regulating the content of glucose. Aided by the advanced electron/ion transfer kinetics and structure stability, the SnS2-based electrode exhibits desired lithium/sodium storage performance and unprecedented long-term cycling stability (capacity retention of 74.7% after 1000 cycles at 2 A g−1 for LIBs and 102% after 200 cycles at 500 mA g−1 for SIBs). This work develops a method for promoting the practical applications and large-scale production of SnS2 composites for energy storage devices.

The Fe-based transition metal oxides are promising anode candidates for lithium storage considering their high specific capacity, low cost, and environmental compatibility. However, the poor electron/ion conductivity and significant volume stress limit their cycle and rate performances. Furthermore, the phenomena of capacity rise and sudden decay for α-Fe2 O3 have appeared in most reports. Here, a uniform micro/nano α-Fe2 O3 nanoaggregate conformably enclosed in an ultrathin N-doped carbon network (denoted as M/N-α-Fe2 O3 @NC) is designed. The M/N porous balls combine the merits of secondary nanoparticles to shorten the Li+ transportation pathways as well as alleviating volume expansion, and primary microballs to stabilize the electrode/electrolyte interface. Furthermore, the ultrathin carbon shell favors fast electron transfer and protects the electrode from electrolyte corrosion. Therefore, the M/N-α-Fe2 O3 @NC electrode delivers an excellent reversible capacity of 901 mA h g-1 with capacity retention up to 94.0 % after 200 cycles at 0.2 A g-1 . Notably, the capacity rise does not happen during cycling. Moreover, the lithium storage mechanism is elucidated by ex situ XRD and HRTEM experiments. It is verified that the reversible phase transformation of α↔γ occurs during the first cycle, whereas only the α-Fe2 O3 phase is reversibly transformed during subsequent cycles. This study offers a simple and scalable strategy for the practical application of high-performance Fe2 O3 electrodes.

The intrinsic charge-transfer property bears the primary responsibility for the sluggish redox kinetics of the common electrode materials, especially operated at low temperatures. Herein, we report...

Nanostructured molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is successfully embedded in the N-doped porous carbon to form micro-sized MoS2/N-C particles via a simple one-pot solution reaction. Yolk, a biomass carbon source with rich nitrogen and oxygen, makes a success to the heteroatom self-doping. The obtained N-doped porous carbon coating layers largely improve the conductivity and electrochemical activity. Moreover, the unique structure of MoS2 nanodots embedded in the porous carbon effectively combines the advantages of nanoscale MoS2 and micron scale N-doped C, which addresses the issues of MoS2 in lithium ion batteries (e.g., poor conductivity, sulfur loss and easy conglomeration). Interestingly, MoS2/N-C composite shows the first discharge/charge capacities of 1002 and 724 mAh g−1 at 0.1 A g−1 and stabilizes around 805 mAh g−1 after 100 cycles. Especially, it still remains at 630 mAh g−1 even under 0.5 A g−1 after 500 cycles, exhibiting excellent lithium ion (Li+) storage and cycle-to-cycle durability. This desired performance of MoS2/N-C is mainly resulted from the unique embedded structure, which effectively improves ion/electron transportation, ensures high sulfur reservation and prevents the conglomeration or accumulation during lithiation/delithiation reaction.

Zero-dimensional graphitic carbon nitride nanoparticles (0D g-C3N4 NPs) possess the advantages of non-toxicity, metal-free, and rich surface catalytic active sites. However, the complex preparation process, wide bandgap structure, easily particle aggregation and rapid carriers’ recombination still limit their development in photocatalysis. Herein, these issues are addressed by synthesizing a novel hydroxyl (-OH) modified g-C3N4 NPs with a simple hydrothermal method without using any etching agents. Besides the high hydrophily and small particle size, the OH decorated 0D g-C3N4 NPs possess obvious narrowed bandgap and high reduction potential. To further improve their dispersity and carriers’ separation rate, 0D/3D g-C3N4 NPs/ZnS type II heterojunction is fabricated, which simultaneously improves the hydrophily, passivates the surface defects and extends the sunlight absorption range of ZnS. As a result, a high and cyclable photocatalytic activity of 112 μmol h−1 (5.6 mmol h−1 g−1) is achieved under visible light irradiation without any co-catalysts, which is 140 times higher than that of pure ZnS and much better than the pure 0D g-C3N4 NPs. A systematic study of photocatalytic mechanism is proposed by combining the theoretical calculations and experimental results. This work offers a new sight for the design of 0D g-C3N4 NPs based photocatalysts for H2 production.

Two novel orange-emitting iridium (III) complexes (nbi)2Ir (bisq) (1) and (nbi)2Ir (dmbisq) (2) utilizing 2-naphthalen-1-yl-phenyl-1H-benzimidazole as cyclometalated ligands were successfully synthesized and characterized. The effect of substituent groups in the ancillary ligands on their emission properties was systematically investigated. The experimental results indicate that complex 2 modified by introduction of methyl groups into its ancillary ligand exhibited higher photoluminescence and electroluminescence efficiencies than 1 without methyl groups. Such improved emission efficiencies were tentatively attributed to the suppressed intermolecular interactions in the solid state caused by the introduction of the methyl groups. Although the obtained efficiencies herein are not high, this work enlightens us to manipulate the photoluminescence and electroluminescence properties of iridium (III) complexes via reasonable modification in the ancillary ligand.

Photothermal therapy (PTT) is successfully integrated with photodynamic therapy (PDT) to effectively improve the curative effect of cancer. The therapy nanoplatform is based on hollow Pd (H-Pd) nanospheres conjugated with Ce6 (Pd@Ce6). H-Pd nanospheres and Ce6 work as PTT and PDT agents, respectively. The H-Pd nanospheres with tunable surface plasmon resonance (SPR) properties effectively absorb light with near-infrared (NIR) emission and then convert the light to heat, selectively killing tumor cells. The experimental results show that H-Pd nanospheres with a size of 90 nm have the strongest absorbance and exhibit a high photothermal conversion efficiency (η) of 70%. Moreover, the absorption intensity and photothermal properties of H-Pd nanospheres do not show any decrease after 6 months of storage at room temperature, showing their excellent stability. Furthermore, after Ce6 is conjugated onto the surface of H-Pd nanospheres using polyethylenimine (PEI) as a linker, Pd@Ce6 not only exhibits the capabilities of photothermal conversion but also generates singlet oxygen (

As important anodes in lithium-ion batteries, graphene is always faced with the aggregation problem that makes most of the active sites lose their function at high current densities, resulting in low Li-ion intercalation capacity and poor rate performance. To address this issue, a layered g-C3N4@reduced graphene oxide composite (g-C3N4@RGO) was prepared via a scalable and easy strategy. The resultant g-C3N4@RGO composite possesses large interlayer distances, rich N-active sites, and a microporous structure, which largely improves Li storage performance. It shows excellent cycle stability (899.3 mA h g–1 after 350 cycles under 500 mA g–1) and remarkable rate performance (595.1 mA h g–1 after 1000 cycles under 1000 mA g–1). Moreover, the g-C3N4@RGO electrode exhibits desired capacity retention and relatively high initial Coulombic efficiency of 58.8%. Impressively, this result is better than that of RGO (29.1%) and most of RGO-based anode materials reported in the literature. Especially, the g-C3N4@RGO-base...

Two-dimensional (2D) ZnS-SnS2 porous nanosheets are designed as clean and low cost photocatalysts for water splitting. The composites successfully combine high photoelectron reduction potential of ZnS with the sufficient sunlight harvesting ability of SnS2. Moreover, SnS2 acts as an effective electron transfer medium from ZnS to SnS2 due to the construction of quasi-type II structure. This greatly promotes the transfer of electron-hole pairs and effectively inhibits their recombination. Especially, the unique porous nanosheets structure maintains them high specific surface area and countless reactive sites, which increases the reactants' contact area and facilitates the migration of carriers upon photocatalysis. This further suppresses the charge recombination and improves the photocatalysts' stability. As a result, an optimized specific surface area of 246.7 m2 g−1 and photocatalytic H2 generation rate of 536 μmol h−1 g−1 are achieved in the absence of a surfactant and co-catalyst, which is 10 times higher than ZnS and 17 times higher than SnS2. In addition, the porous nanosheets have fairly good photocatalytic stability and can be reused at least five cycles without obvious changes in activity and structure. This work successfully presents the potential of ZnS and SnS2-based photocatalyst for clean and low cost hydrogen production from water splitting.

A sustainable and green one-arrow-two-hawks strategy is developed to cyclically prepare nitrogen-doped carbon materials from egg yolk. Firstly, nitrogen-doped fluorescent carbon dots (N-CDs) are obtained from the supernatant product via hydrothermal reaction. The resulted N-CDs show excellent water solubility and desired photoluminescence properties with the relative quantum yield (QY) of about 35%. A bulk fluorescent nanocomposite fabricated by using the prepared N-CDs exhibits excellent processibility, showing its potential applications in a wide range of fields. The bottom product via hydrothermal reaction is used as lithium-ion batteries anodes after carbonization, exhibiting desired electrochemical performances such as the capacity of 711.6 mA h g−1 after 100 cycles at 100 mA g−1. Moreover, the bottom product can be reused as the carbon source for the next round synthesis of N-CDs. N-CDs obtained from each round still exhibit a strong blue emission under UV illumination (365 nm) with averaged relative QY of about 26%. To the best of our knowledge, the strategy to obtain N-CDs with high relative QY through cycle hydrothermal reaction is seldom reported, which is significant to improve the utilization of original materials and decrease the cost of synthesis.

Although the achievements made for improving the stability of MoS2, active sites-loss resulting from layers stack and structure-collapse still exists in harsh conditions (e.g., super-high current density, low temperature). This is mainly because the current matrixes are lack of chemical anchoring effect and confinement ability for MoS2 growth. Herein, a new concept of “confined-growth MoS2” (noted as c-MoS2) is proposed to successfully prepare MoS2 with long life cycle performance especially in harsh conditions for lithium/sodium-ion batteries (LIBs/SIBs). A unique composite matrix consisted of carbon and carbonnitride TiO2 nanocrystals (TiO2 NCs) is designed to provide an ideal environment for MoS2 growth. The profound investigation on the formation process confirms an “in-situ driving nucleation and growth” mechanism, forming the designed covalent bond and confinement effect between matrix and MoS2. As a result, the capacity of c-MoS2 at 5 A g−1 maintains 450 mAh g−1 for 600 cycles with no fading in LIBs, and reaches more than 220 mAh g−1 for 2000 cycles at 1 A g−1 in SIBs. Especially, super-stable performance at low temperature (0 °C and −25 °C), and rechargeable lithium-ion full battery coupled with LiNiCoMnO2 cathode are achieved. This unique composite matrix and novel concept provide an insight into designing stable two-dimension materials as well as their application in fast charging batteries.

High-performance hierarchical cheese-like C-ZSM-5 nanocrystals are successfully prepared by acid–base treatment and are evaluated for oxidative desulfurization of dibenzothiophene. The acid–base treatment can generate a large number of Si-OH bonds and an open-mesoporous structure, which is conducive for the dispersion of TiO2 and also for the transport of dibenzothiophene and its oxidation products simultaneously. The catalytic results indicate that the hierarchical cheese-like C-ZSM-5 nanocrystals are highly active catalysts for the oxidative desulfurization of dibenzothiophene due to open mesoporosity. Complete conversion was obtained within 80 min at 338 K. The excellent performance is due to the large number of active framework sites and open mesopores generated by post-processing.

Micro–nano structures (M–N) are thought to be one of the best systems for conversion reaction-based anode materials used in lithium-ion batteries because they combine the advantages of nanometer-sized building blocks and micrometer-sized assemblies. However, some drawbacks of most M–N materials, particularly the existence of unactivated materials caused by low electronic conductivity, poor redox kinetics and insufficient electrolyte penetration, hamper their widespread application to some extent. In this work, these issues were addressed by the rational design of an M–N structure containing hollow carbon nanofibers (HCNFs). Perfectly shaped and hierarchical MnO spheres were grown in situ on the HCNFs (MnO/HCNFs), forming a cherry-like morphology. Of particular note is the role of the HCNFs, which act as electrical “highways” through which electrons can travel very quickly to the inside of the hierarchical MnO microspheres without obstruction. As a result, electrochemical tests demonstrated that the MnO/HCNFs exhibited much improved Li-storage properties in terms of high reversible capacity with long-term cycle life (1093.4/987.6 mA h g−1 after 300/800 cycles at 200/2000 mA g−1) and superior rate capability (206.3 mA h g−1 at 6.4 A g−1) in comparison to conventional M–N MnO spheres without HCNFs. Moreover, the realization of good electrochemical performance without nanostructuring in complex metal oxides expands the scope of the HCNF-inserted M–N structure for other materials used in energy storage.

A clear relationship between structures and desired properties is a crucial factor for further material design with diverse structure and performance optimization. Herein, a new design strategy to achieve efficient mechanochromism of Ir(III) complexes has been described by deeply exploring the photophysical properties of a series of cationic Ir(III) phosphors that contain the same main ligands but easily tunable donor–acceptor type ancillary ligands. All designed phosphors exhibit intense emissions in solid states due to intrinsic aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics. By simply tuning the donor moieties on ancillary ligands, controllable and naked-eye visible mechanochromic luminescence behavior has been successfully realized. Compared with previous works, this design strategy reported herein is more simple and feasible. Subtle modification of the donor groups on ancillary ligands leads to obvious changes in the dipole moments. The larger the dipole moments, the more efficient is the mechanochromism for such a studied system. Benefiting from the prominent and reversible mechanochromism as well as intense emission in the aggregation state, an efficient data encryption device and a sensitive explosive probe towards 2,4,6-trinitrophenol (TNP) are achieved.

A novel kind of biomass-derived, high-oxygen-containing carbon material doped with nitrogen that has willow-leaf-shaped pores was synthesized. The obtained carbon material has an exotic hierarchical pore structure composed of bowl-shaped macropores, willow-leaf-shaped pores, and an abundance of micropores. This unique hierarchical porous structure provides an effective combination of high current densities and high capacitance because of a pseudocapacitive component that is afforded by the introduction of nitrogen and oxygen dopants. Our synthetic optimization allows further improvements in the performance of this hierarchical porous carbon (HPC) material by providing a high degree of control over the graphitization degree, specific surface area, and pore volume. As a result, a large specific surface area (1093 m2 g-1) and pore volume (0.8379 cm3 g-1) are obtained for HPC-650, which affords fast ion transport because of its short ion-diffusion pathways. HPC-650 exhibits a high specific capacitance of 312 F g-1 at 1 A g-1, retaining 76.5% of its capacitance at 20 A g-1. Moreover, it delivers an energy density of 50.2 W h kg-1 at a power density of 1.19 kW kg-1, which is sufficient to power a yellow-light-emitting diode and operate a commercial scientific calculator.

A facile and efficient copper-catalyzed azidative multifunctionalization of alkynes has been developed by using N-fluorobenzenesulfonimide (NFSI) as both nitrogen source and aryl source and trimethylsilyl azide (TMSN3) as azido source. This transformation proceeds under mild conditions, providing a series of α-azido-α-aryl imine in good yields by a single operation starting from a wide range of alkynes. The prepared α-azido-α-aryl imines could be easily converted into 1,5-piperizine-fused 1,2,3-triazoles and azido enamines.

Polymer based nanocontainers have attracted a myriad of interests due to their functional groups, mechanical stability, combining with inner voids and large specific surface area. Preparation of polymer nanocontainers with specific nonspherical geometric morphology, precisely controllable structure, composition, and functionalities still remains a significant challenge. Here, we report a method that enables synthesizing nonspherical polymer nanocontainers with different morphologies and properties by using anisotropic metal–organic coordination compounds as templates. The preparation process is based on the stronger monomer’s binding ability to metal cations than that to the organic linkers. The correlation between the binding energy and the formation of the hollow structure is calculated theoretically. Polymer nanocontainers with multiple morphologies (such as octahedron, dodecahedron, etc.) are constructed by expanding template materials. The as-prepared polymer nanocontainers exhibit active properties ...

In this work, oxygen-deficient anatase TiO2 nanosheets (A-TiO2-x NSs) are proposed as a substrate to improve the electrochemical properties of sulfur electrodes for lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries. The A-TiO2-x NSs are prepared by partly reducing pristine TiO2 nanosheets (A-TiO2 NSs) in NaBH4 solution. With some oxygen vacancies on the surface of the TiO2 nanosheets, A-TiO2-x NSs not only promote electronic transfer, but also act as more effective polysulfide reservoirs to minimize the dissolution of lithium polysulfides (LiPSs) than the A-TiO2 NSs control. Hence, upon utilization as modifiers for cathodes of Li-S batteries, the A-TiO2-x NSs-modified sulfur (A-TiO2-x NSs-S) cathode exhibits a higher reversible specific capacity and greater cycling performance and rate capability than the A-TiO2 NSs-modified one (A-TiO2 NSs-S). For example, A-TiO2-x NSs-S delivers an initial specific capacity of 1277.1 mAh g-1 at 0.1 C and maintains a stable Coulombic efficiency of approximately 99.2 % after the first five cycles; these values are higher than those of 997.3 mAh g-1 and around 96.7 %, respectively, for A-TiO2 NSs-S. The enhanced electrochemical properties of the A-TiO2-x NSs-S cathode can be ascribed mainly to the more effective adsorption of dissolvable and diffused LiPSs by the oxygen vacancies. Therefore, utilization of the structure of oxygen vacancies in Li-S batteries demonstrates great prospects for practical application.

Novel di- and trinuclear cationic iridium(III) complexes with flexible chain functionalized triazole–pyridine moieties as bridging ligands, namely DC-Ir and TC-Ir , were successfully synthesized and their photophysical and electrochemical properties studied. Despite DC-Ir and TC-Ir have different numbers of iridium(III) cores, the almost identical emissions in both solutions and aggregation states were observed. Theoretical calculations were performed to investigate their electronic structures and rationalize the photophysical and electrochemical behaviors. Compared with the emission in the solution, they exhibit enhanced photoluminescence in the aggregation states. Benefiting from the high emission in aqueous solution, DC-Ir and TC-Ir were employed as the “turn-off” sensors to detect the explosives. The results reveal that DC-Ir and TC-Ir show fast and highly sensitive and selective detection towards 2,4,6-trinitrophenol (TNP) owing to the efficient photo-induced electron transfer as well as the strong electrostatic interaction.

Black phosphorus nanoparticles (BP NPs) possess great advantages in photocatalysis owing to the rich surface active sites, extremely high carrier mobility, and strong visible-near-infrared light response. However, the complex preparation process, poor stability, and rapid carrier recombination restrict their successful application in photocatalysis. Herein, the above problems are resolved by preparing BP NPs through a facile sonication-assisted hydrothermal method. To further improve the stability and photocatalytic activity, BP NPs are tightly anchored onto ZnS to prepare ZnS-BP porous nanosheets. With the Zn-P coordination bond built between them, higher stability, enhanced carrier transport ability, and excellent hydrogen adsorption and desorption equilibrium of photocatalysts are achieved. An efficient and recyclable photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rate of 1561 μmol h

Developing lithium ion capacitors possessing both brilliant energy and power density is still significant for numerous re-searchers. In this paper, we synthesized MnO2 nanowires via a simple hydrothermal process. The nanostructure MnO2 can expose more electrochemical sites and thus optimize the kinetics of Li+. Moreover, we used MnO2 nanowires (MnO2 NWs) as anode and a N-doped porous carbon (NPC) as cathode to assemble lithium ion capacitors (MnO2 NWs//NPC LIC). Compared to the traditional supercapacitor with aqueous electrolyte, the MnO2 NWs//NPC LIC exhibits a wider voltage of 0-4.2 V, which is helpful to enhance its energy and power density. Furthermore, MnO2 NWs//NPC LIC can deliver an excellent capacity of 150 mAh g-1 with an excellent energy density of 82.7 Wh kg-1 and power density of 1.05 kW kg-1. Meanwhile, a good cyclic stability of LICs with a 20% retention after 1000 times charge and discharge process proves its practical potential, indicating a good promising for the application in storage devices.

Antimony (Sb) and its oxides, as promising electrode materials, have attracted much attention because of their low cost, environmental friendliness, and high theoretical capacity. Herein, boron doped flower-cluster-like Sb/SbO2@reduced graphene oxide (rGO) composites are synthesized for use as sodium-ion battery anode materials using a solvothermal strategy. The contents of Sb and antimony oxide (SbO2) are controlled by adding different contents of NaBH4. Meanwhile, the introduction of NaBH4 successfully realizes boron doping and enlarges the lattice spacing of the SbO2, improving its conductivity and Na+ transport. As a result, optimal Sb/SbO2@rGO-10 composites display a desirable capacity of 346 mAh g−1 at 50 mA g−1 after 100 cycles with a capacity retention of 106%. Even at high current densities, a capacity of 236 mAh g−1 is achieved, demonstrating a satisfactory rate capacity. Moreover, the Sb/SbO2@rGO-10 electrode shows satisfactory Na storage performance at low temperatures. In addition, sodium-ion full cells are assembled using an Sb/SbO2@rGO-10 anode and a Na3V2(PO4)2O2F cathode, with which a satisfactory electrochemical performance of 102 mAh g−1 after 50 cycles at 50 mA g−1 is achieved, showing their high practical potential.

Due to their environmentally friendly ideology, aqueous-processed hybrid solar cells (HSCs) are favored for industrial production. However, relatively low device performance urges the progress in power conversion efficiency (PCE) for their further applications. In this work, the function of polymer and nanocrystal (NC) is studied by investigating three different device structures. The polymer (low hole mobility), which plays an important role even if the content is extremely low, is mainly responsible for enhancing the Voc and FF, while the NC (high hole mobility) is the principle part in light absorbing, carrier generating, and transporting. The intensive study of polymer and NC makes it possible to achieve high performance through adjusting the thickness of different active layers by using device structures of the cathode/electron transport layer (ETL)/NC/polymer:NC/hole transport layer (HTL)/anode. An efficient aqueous-processed HSC with PCE of 5.64% is obtained which presents the highest performance a...

Novel dodecahedral carbon nanocages (NCs) modified with Fe3O4 nanoparticles (Fe3O4/C NCs) were constructed by utilizing a zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-8) as the template and polydopamine (PDA) as the carbon source. The obtained nanocages not only display specific morphology with controllable feature structures, but also possess a large surface area and inner cavity. This unique structure of the nanocages and special synthesis approach make Fe3O4 NPs homogenously distributed in the system, which further enriched the function of the carbon nanocages. Due to the integrated functional nanoparticles and large interior of such specific structures, the as-prepared Fe3O4/C NCs are further used as anode materials in lithium ion batteries (LIBs), which exhibit high activity in lithiation/delithiation cycling process and stable capacity retention. The nanocages we prepared may provide a train of thought to construct a series of hollow carbon nanostructures with functional materials incorporated.

A novel two-step solution approach is put forward to design a unique three dimensional (3D) porous ZnO-SnS p-n heterojunction under mild conditions. This special 3D structure is induced via flower-like ZnO in which SnS serves as an efficient photosensitizer to improve the light harvesting across the whole visible range. A profound investigation of the mechanism shows that this 3D porous ZnO-SnS material effectively integrates the large surface area and high redox potential of ZnO, and wide visible-light harvesting of SnS, which largely promotes the transfer and separation rate of carriers. The systematic study on the active species generated during the photocatalysis illustrates that it is the photoelectrons, ˙OH and O2˙- that play the crucial role in the degradation of dyes. As a result, the noble-metal free photocatalyst degrades nearly 100% of rhodamine B (RhB) within 80 min and methylene blue (MB) in 40 min under visible light. The photocatalytic activity is 10 times higher than that of the pure flower-like ZnO and two times higher than that of the SnS material. Moreover, the photocatalyst is easily separated and reused at least four times without obvious change in efficiency and properties. This work provides an effective strategy for the synthesis of 3D porous p-n heterojunction semiconductor-based photocatalysts with low cost and low toxicity, which present promising applications in the field of solar energy storage and conversion.