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Effective protection against X-ray is the premise of utilizing the X-ray, thus it is critical to develop novel X-ray shielding materials with both low density and high X-ray attenuation efficiency. As the even distribution of high-Z element components is of great significance for increasing the attenuation efficiency of X-ray shielding materials, in this study, the microfiber membrane (MFM), a type of synthetic leather featuring hierarchical structure was chosen to provide large surface area for the dispersion of rare earth (RE) element. Meanwhile, plant polyphenol was utilized to achieve the stable loading and uniform dispersion of the Ce or Er into MFM. Benefiting from the assistance of polyphenol and hierarchical structure of MFM, the even dispersion of RE element was successfully realized. The resultant shielding materials displayed approximately 10% superior X-ray attenuation efficiency compared to that without polyphenol, and an averagely 9% increment in X-ray attenuation efficiency than that without hierarchical structure. Moreover, the obtained composite with a thickness of 2.8 mm displayed superior X-ray shielding performance compared to 0.25 mm lead sheet in 16–83 keV and retained an ultralow density of 1.4 g cm–3. Our research results would shed new light on the manufacture of high-performance X-ray shielding materials with excellent X-ray shielding performance. Graphical Abstract

Absorption-type shielding materials are significant in protecting humans and sensitive electronic devices against electromagnetic waves (EMWs) reflected from a metal surface. However, achieving hig...

Efficient production of bioethanol is desirable for bioenergy large-scale applications, but it is severely challenged by ethanol and sugar stresses. Here, collagen peptide (CP), as a renewable nitrogen-containing biomass, remarkably enhanced the stress resistance of Saccharomyces cerevisiae SLL-510 against ethanol challenge, based on its unique amino acid composition. Transcriptome analysis showed that the energy, lipid, cofactor, and vitamin metabolism may involve in stress tolerance provided by CP. When CP was added into the media containing 249.99 mg/mL glucose, the bioethanol yield increased from 8.03 to 12.25% (v/v) and 11.35 to 12.29% (v/v) at 43 and 120 h, respectively. Moreover, at 286.79 mg/mL glucose, the highest yield reached 14.48% (v/v), with 99.58% glucose utilization rate. The protection and promotion effects of CP were also shown by four other industrial S. cerevisiae strains. These results coupled with the advantages of abundant reserves, cleanliness, and renewability revealed that CP is a promising economically viable and industrially scalable enhancer for bioethanol fermentation.

A high-shielding, low secondary radiation, lightweight, flexible, and wearable X-ray protection material was prepared by coimpregnating La2O3 and Bi2O3 nanoparticles in natural leather (NL) with an additional Bi2O3 coating at the bottom surface of the leather. The prepared Bi28.2@Bi3.48La3.48-NL (28.2 and 3.48 mmol·cm-3 are the loading contents of elements) showed excellent X-ray shielding ability (65-100%) in a wide energy range of 20-120 keV with reduced scattered secondary radiation (30%). The bottom surface coating played a critical role in enhancing the X-ray attenuation and reducing the scattered secondary radiation by reflecting and deflecting incident X-ray photons. Excellent mechanical property with superb bending resistance of the NL matrix was properly maintained, and its tensile strength and tearing load were 15.39 MPa and 25.81 N·mm-1, respectively. This lightweight and wearable high-performance protection material can facilitate safety and comfortability during intensive activities of practitioners in the health care industry.

The demand for innovative materials with favorable antiadhesion and antibiofilm abilities against bacteria has become imperative, given the increasing cognition of the harmfulness of biofilm coloni...

The conventional liquid electrolytes (LEs) have a high level of ionic conductivity; however, they often suffer from the poor processability and safety risks of potential leakage. Although solid-state electrolytes (SSEs) can solve these inherent problems of LEs, the ionic conductivity of most SSEs is several magnitudes lower than these of LEs. Herein, we report a novel strategy by building liquid ion-transport channels in a solid framework and prepared an electrolyte-locked separator (ELS) using a collagen fiber membrane (CFm). The liquid electrolyte was primarily infiltrated in the smaller voids of CFm, and its ionic conductivity could attain to 9.0 × 10−3 S cm−1 when the electrolyte absorption (EA) reached up to 112.0%. After centrifuging treatment, the electrolyte retentions (ER) and ionic conductivities of ELS were 108.93% and 8.37 × 10−3 S cm−1, respectively, which were much higher than those of commercial cellulose separator (CS), exerting excellent liquid-locking performances. In particular, the electrical double-layer capacitors (EDLC) assembled by ELS or CS were characterized and exhibited similar electrochemical performance, demonstrating the satisfactory ability and applicability of ELS for commercial use. In addition, the ELS-based EDLC exhibited favorable flexibility with relative lower loss of capacitance under different angles of bending.

Clinically related infection is a critical risk for human health and is usually caused by biofilm formation on medical devices. Herein, typical polyphenols, catechin (Cat), and rare-earth ions (Re3+) were used for self-assembled Cat-Re nanoparticles that can be facilely coated on the surface of a polyamide (PA) membrane to synergistically prevent bacterial adhesion and subsequent biofilm formation. The antibacterial adhesion feature of the assembled Cat-Re nanoparticles coated on the PA membrane surface was assessed using Pseudomonas aeruginosa, one of the most common pathogenic bacteria, as probe bacteria under static and dynamic simulation flow conditions. The Cat-Re nanocoating showed excellent antibacterial and anti-adhesion activities against P. aeruginosa and successfully prevented biofilm formation on the material's surface. Regardless of the conditions, the Cat-Re nanocoating significantly suppressed the growth and attachment of P. aeruginosa and maintained >90% inhibition activity with favorable reusability and long-term stability. The results suggest that the self-assembled rare-earth-phenolic nanocoating has promising application potential in the prevention of medical device-related biofilm formation.

Nowadays, X-rays are playing increasingly important roles in daily life and industrial manufacture, which calls for effective and mobile shielding materials. However, it seems to be a paradox to prepare shielding materials simultaneously achieving excellent X-ray attenuation properties and superior mechanical strength. Here, an advanced leather-based X-ray shielding material containing bismuth and iodine (BiINP-LM) is prepared, and the stable and well-dispersed loading of high-Z element components is enabled by favorable interactions between bismuth iodide and leather, i.e., coordination, hydrogen bonds, and electrostatic attractions. A piece of BiINP-LM with 1.00 mm thickness displays an excellent X-ray attenuation efficiency of more than 90% in the photon energy range below 50 keV and 65% at 83 keV, which averagely exceeds ∼3% than that of the 0.25 mm lead plate and ∼5% than that of the 0.65 mm commercial lead apron. Additionally, the coordination between bismuth and leather provides an enhanced tensile and tear strength of ∼10-fold and 3-fold compared with the lead apron. It is worth mentioning that BiINP-LM also displays extra high water-vapor permeability, which is ∼50-fold more than the lead apron. Overall, this work opens up a new prospect for preparing advanced X-ray shielding materials with both excellent X-ray attenuation and outstanding physiomechanical performances.

Efficient sulfate radical-based advanced oxidation processes (SR-AOPs) are important for treating organic contaminants of industrial wastewater. To achieve this goal, tannic acid (TA)-modified skin collagen fibers (CFs) were prepared for the enhanced immobilization of Fe

Designing a hemoperfusion adsorbent for the excretion therapy of toxic heavy metals still remains a great challenge due to the biosafety risks of non-biological materials and the desired highly efficient removal capacity. Herein, inspired from the homeostasis mechanism of plants, natural polyphenols are integrated with collagen matrix to construct a polyphenol-functionalized collagen-based artificial liver (PAL) for heavy metals excretion and free radicals scavenging therapy. PAL presents high adsorption capacities for Cu

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Abstract Effective and ecofriendly converting biomass to chemicals is important for sustainable engineering based on the foreseeable shortage of fossil resources. Undecylprodigiosin (UP) is a promising antibiotic, but the direct feeding of pure precursor amino acids makes it costly for large-scale production. Here, collagen peptide (CP), a renewable animal-derived biomass contains abundant precursor amino acids of UP. CP can act as carbon and nitrogen source for the growth of Streptomyces coelicolor CGMCC 4.7172. The plant biomasses including soybean meal, wheat bran, and malt extract were unsuitable for UP prodution. However, 365.40 µg/L UP was detected after 24 h in the media containing CP, and its highest concentration reached 1198.01 µg/L. UP was also detected in the media containing meat hydrolysates of domestic animals, but its initial production time was delayed, and final concentration was lower than that in the medium containing CP only. Compared the fermentation performances of CP and other proteins, CP has a special superiority for UP production. These results revealed that UP biosynthesis may be dependent on amino acid availability of substrates and CP is beneficial for UP production because of its specific amino acid composition. Graphical abstract

A novel hierarchically fibrous solid acid catalyst was facilely prepared by supporting Keggin-type phosphotungstic acid (HPW) on fibrous substrate of mesoporous TiO2-Al2O3 binary oxide nanofiber bundles. The acid strength and specific surface area were rationally tuned by changing the composition of TiO2-Al2O3 nanofiber bundles. When applied in fructose dehydration to prepare 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) using DMSO as the solvent, the fibrous HPW/TiO2-Al2O3 catalyst exhibited high catalytic activity (80.3%), selectivity (89.3%) and stability during the cycles. Our results demonstrated a promising and facile strategy for developing highly active and recyclable solid acid catalysts.

Roughly 4 billion tons of uranium exists in the oceans, which equates to a nearly inexhaustible supply for nuclear power production. However, the extraction of uranium from seawater is highly challenging due the background high salinity and uranium's relatively low concentration (∼3 μg L−1). Current approaches are generally limited by either their selectivity, sustainability, or their economic competitiveness. Here we engineered a biomass-derived microporous membrane, based on the interfacial formation of robust metal–phenolic networks (MPNs), for uranium capture from seawater. These membranes displayed advantages in terms of selectivity, kinetics, capacity, and renewability in both laboratory settings and marine field-testing. The MPN-based membranes showed a greater than ninefold higher uranium extraction capacity (27.81 μg) than conventional methods during a long-term cycling extraction of 10 L of natural seawater from the East China Sea. These results, coupled with our techno-economic analysis, demonstrate that MPN-based membranes are promising economically viable and industrially scalable materials for real-world uranium extraction.

The halophilic bacterial strain PT-20, isolated from saline alkali soil samples and identified as a member of the genus Oceanobacillus, exhibited a robust ability to degrade phenol under high salt conditions. It was determined that strain PT-20 was capable of degrading 1000 mg L−1 phenol completely in the presence of 10% NaCl within 120 h. Under the optimal degradation conditions, pH 8.0, 3% NaCl and 30 °C, 1000 mg L−1 phenol could be completely degraded in 48 h. Interestingly, the biodegradation rate of phenol was dramatically improved in the presence of glycine betaine. When glycine betaine was added, the time required to degrade 1000 mg L−1 phenol completely was significantly reduced from 120 h to 72 h, and the corresponding average degradation rate increased from 8.43 to 14.28 mg L−1 h−1 with 10% NaCl. Furthermore, transcriptome analysis was performed to investigate the effects of phenol and glycine betaine on the transcriptional levels of strain PT-20. The results indicated that the addition of glycine betaine enhanced the resistance of cells to phenol, increased the growth rate of strain PT-20 and upregulated the expression of related enzyme genes. In addition, the results of enzyme activity assays indicated that strain PT-20 degraded phenol mainly through a meta-fission pathway.

Because of their low-cost and high bacterial interception efficiency, large-scale membrane separation technologies like microfiltration (MF) have been widely implemented for water disinfection. However, lack of antibacterial ability and low sustainability are two major drawbacks of most petroleum-based MF membranes, which are normally associated with hazardous issues including biofouling and nonbiodegradable waste. In this work, abundant animal hides, which are by-products of the meat processing industry, were proposed as raw materials to fabricate a sustainable MF membrane due to their natural, hierarchical, and renewable collagen fibrous network (CFN) with inherent biodegradability. After the removal of non-collagen compositions from animal hides, such as hair and fat, through a facile pretreating process base on green chemistry principles, a thin CFN based membrane (CFN-M) with a similar micropore size to that of commercial MF membranes could be produced. Furthermore, inspired by conventional leather tanning technology, tannic acids (TA) were selected as plant polyphenol tanning agent to modify collagen fibers based on tanning chemistry to improve the thermal stability of CFN-M. Moreover, the TA cross-linked CFN-M (TA@CFN-M) exhibited excellent antibacterial properties due to the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by the catechol functional group. The resulting TA@CFN-M achieved99.9% water disinfection efficiency with a flux of ∼150 L m

Efficient production of bioethanol is desirable for bioenergy large-scale applications, but it is severely challenged by ethanol and sugar stresses. Here, collagen peptide (CP), as a renewable nitrogen-containing biomass, remarkably enhanced the stress resistance of

Natural leather (NL) based composite protection materials with lightweight, flexibility, wearability and high shielding efficiency will remarkably innovate the current research on X-ray protection materials. A co-doped Bi/Ce-NL composite with outstanding X-ray attenuation in the energy range of 20-120 keV is successfully fabricated. The uniform distribution of Bi2O3 and CeO2 nanoparticles in the hierarchical structure of natural leather significantly promotes the X-ray attenuation by improving the weak absorption region of Bi with Ce via synergistic effects of the two elements. The fabricated Bi/Ce-NL loading with 0.755 mmol cm-3 Bi2O3 and 1.51 mmol cm-3 CeO2 achieves approximately 100% X-ray shielding when the energy below 40 keV. Thus, the fabricated Bi/Ce-NL with superb X-ray attenuation can safely and comfortably protect human from the risk of X-ray exposure with low bulk density, high water vapor permeability, exceptional mechanical properties and excellent bending resistance, presenting significant advantages in wearability and flexibility compared to both traditional lead-based and polymer-based protection materials.

Biofilm is the crucial reason of clinical infections. Herein, green tea based polyphenol (catechin) and rare earth (RE) metal ions were employed for the preparation of catechin-RE complexes with significant anti-biofilm properties. The complexes were characterized by FT-IR, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and dynamic light scattering (DLS), which suggested that catechin coordinated with RE3+ through its ortho phenolic hydroxy groups. The prepared catechin-RE showed significant effects in anti-biofilm growth against P. aeruginosa (Gram-negative bacteria), S. sciuri (Gram-positive bacteria), and A. niger (fungi), which significantly exceeded the utilization of catechin or RE3+ . Morphological observations indicated that catechin supplied cell affinity to transfer RE3+ and helped to damage cell membrane, which act as a carrier to exert cytotoxicity of RE3+ to realize anti-biofilm. Differential gene expression analysis described gene expression changes induced by catechin-RE, including 56, 272 and 2160 downregulated genes for P. aeruginosa, S. sciuri and A. niger, respectively, which suggested critical changes in cellular metabolism, growth and other processes. These results illustrate the outstanding superiority of catechin-RE complexes in anti-infection aspect, i. e., the green tea based rare earth complexes are promising candidates for anti-biofilm applications to address serious challenges in the prevention of multiple infections.

Leather matrix (LM), a natural dielectric material, features a hierarchically suprafibrillar structure and abundant dipoles, which provides the possibility to dissipate electromagnetic waves (EW) energy via dipole relaxation combined with multiple diffuse reflections. Conventionally, metal-based materials are used as EW shielding materials due to that their high conductivity can reflect EW effectively. Herein, a lightweight and high-performance EW shielding composite with both absorption and reflection ability to EW was developed by coating metal nanoparticles (MNPs) onto LM. The as-prepared metal/LM membrane with only 4.58 wt % of coated MNPs showed excellent EW shielding effectiveness of ∼76.0 dB and specific shielding effectiveness of ∼200.0 dB cm3 g-1 in the frequency range of 0.01-3.0 GHz, implying that more than 99.98% of EW was shielded. Further investigations indicated that the high shielding performances of the metal/LM membrane were attributed to the cooperative shielding mechanism between LM and the coating of MNPs.

In the present investigation, an collagen fibre (CF), abundant natural biomass, was successfully grafted by polyethyleneimine (PEI). The resultant PEI grafted collagen fibre (CF-PEI) was employed as biocompatible and high cell loading support matrix for the immobilization of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells. The as-prepared CF-PEI immobilized cells (CF-PEI-cell) exhibited high activity and stability for both batch and continuous fermentation. In batch fermentation, CF-PEI-cells showed enhanced stability as compared with other matrices supported cells, and produced an average ethanol concentration of 45.04 g/L with ethanol yield (YP/S) of 0.46 g/g and glucose conversion efficiency (η) of 90.4%. Continuous fermentation was operated stably in a down-flow trickling bed reactor charged with CF-PEI-cell for a total of 2 months. When the dilution rate was 0.16 1/h, the average ethanol productivity reached 7.18 g/(L h) with η of 88.94%. Further scanning electron microscopy observations confirmed that yeast cells can proliferate on the surface of CF-PEI during ethanol fermentation, which demonstrates that CF-PEI is indeed an ideal matrix for the immobilization of yeast cells.

Genomic sequence, transcriptomic, metabolomic and fatty acid analyses of strain HNA-14 were performed to understand the mechanism of salt tolerance for long-term survival. The results indicated that strain HNA-14 has different osmotic resistance mechanisms for long-term survival and short-term salt stress. The cells mainly synthesized compatible solutes to resist osmotic pressure when cultured under nutrient deficient conditions, while they can slow down the synthesis rate and uptake from the environment when cultured under a nutritionally rich environment. Also, the amounts of branched and unsaturated fatty acids in the cell membrane are maintained to a high degree (>50%) to maintain the fluidity of the cell membrane; when the cells are cultured in a high osmotic environment for long-term survival, they may increase the content of branched fatty acids and phosphoric fatty acids to increase the fluidity of the cell membrane to resist the high osmotic pressure.

The resource utilization of distillers' grains (DGs) is an essential issue for the sustainable development of Chinese bai jiu industry. In this study, metal oxide (MxOy, M=Mg, Al and Fe) loaded biochar (M BC) was prepared by using DGs for the production of novel adsorption/release materials for phosphate (P). The results indicated that the P adsorption capacity of Mg-BC, Al-BC and Fe-BC were as high as 14.74, 8.06 and 14.51 mg P/g, respectively. XPS and FTIR analysis demonstrated that the adsorption mechanism of M BC for P included electrostatic attraction, hydrogen bonding, ion exchange, precipitation and ligand exchange. The release of P from M-BC+P could be controlled by low molecular weight organic acids (LMWOAs), which were affected by the loaded metal oxides on the biochar. The release of P from Mg-BC+P was higher than 70 % after 7 days, which was about 60 % if Al-BC+P was used. Thus, M-BC+P can be used as a high-performance controlled release phosphate fertilizer, providing a promising value-added application approach for the bai jiu distillers' grains.

Highly efficient removal of bilirubin from blood by hemoperfusion for liver failure therapy remains a great challenge in the clinical field due to the unsatisfied biocompatibility of non-biological materials and the slow adsorption kinetics of currently used bilirubin adsorbents. Here, inspired by the natural collagen-supported multiscale structures of the liver for bilirubin removal, a natural collagen-based artificial liver, named ColAL, was successfully constructed via a biomimetic synthetic strategy. ColAL exhibited a record-high adsorption capacity of 102.32 mg g−1 for bilirubin in the presence of 40.0 g L−1 bovine serum albumin. The ColAL also presented excellent bilirubin adsorption capacity in the complex serum. Importantly, the total bilirubin (TBIL) removal rate was higher than 69.17% and the direct bilirubin (DBIL) removal rate was 75.31% by immersing the ColAL in ex vivo blood samples. No damages were observed in the major organs after the injection of ColAL extract solution subcutaneously in vivo, indicating high biocompatibility and biostability of these natural collagen-based materials. This facile approach provides a new avenue to develop collagen-based high-performance hemoperfusion adsorbent for the removal of bilirubin, showing great promise to the translational therapy of hyperbilirubinemia.

A lightweight, wearable, and high-performance electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding membrane was prepared by using collagen fiber membrane (CFM) as microwave absorptive substrate and multiple wall carbon nanotubes-encapsulated metal nanoparticles (MNPs@MWCNTs) as efficient microwave absorbers coated on CFM. CFM is able to consume microwaves via dielectric loss, in addition to its the role as a supporting matrix. Encapsulating of metal nanoparticles (MNPs) enhances the dissipation capability of MWCNTs and also improves the stability of encapsulated MNPs. A cooperative shielding mechanism between CFM and MNPs@MWCNTs is responsible for the absorption-dominated shielding performance. The as-prepared MNPs@MWCNTs/CFM composite membrane exhibited a high shielding effectiveness (SE) of 30–60 dB with 4.0 wt % of MNPs@MWCNTs in a wide frequency range of 0.5–12.0 GHz, and the specific SE was high, up to 162 dB cm–3 g–1. The MNPs@MWCNTs/CFM membrane also is lightweight and features good flexibility and wearabi...

The antioxidant activity in vivo and biological safety of a novel antioxidant peptide from bovine hair hydrolysates (BHP) were investigated. In various testing systems, BHP showed a strong capability to enhance the activities of antioxidant enzymes, including superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px). Moreover, BHP led to a significant decrease of malondialdehyde (MDA) level in animal serums. All the results indicated that BHP (with a major sequence of Cys-Glu-Arg-Pro-Thr-Cys-Cys-Glu-His-Ser) had a remarkable antioxidant activity in vivo . Meanwhile, no mortalities or evidence of adverse effects was observed in Sprague-Dawley rats following acute oral gavage with BHP at a dose of 10 g/kg body weight during the acute toxicity test. Furthermore, the negative results obtained in Ames test, bone marrow micronucleus test and sperm malformation test demonstrated that BHP had no obvious genetic toxicity to cause mutagenicity of microorganism gene, chromosome and genital cells. All the results suggested that BHP possessed the remarkable antioxidant activity in vivo and biological safety, and therefore had the potential value to be safely utilized as a natural antioxidant agent applied in pharmaceutical, cosmetic and medicinal industries.

This study explored the possible application of collagen hydrolysate (CH) in the fermentation process using Bacillus pumilus as probe bacterial strain. When CH acted as an only source of carbon and nitrogen in the culture medium, B. pumilus was observed to show normal characterizations during its growing process. Meanwhile, the utilization degree of CH by B. pumilus could be enhanced when wheat bran was added (used as carbon source) in the fermentation process. It was found that the highest alkaline protease activity was 325 U/mL when only CH was used, while it was increased to 620 U/mL with the addition of wheat bran. Besides, with different combination of soybean meal and CH, it was found that the ability using CH to produce alkaline protease is comparable to that of soybean meal in the presence of wheat bran. Moreover, the growth behaviors of the strain were not affected by inoculation concentrations, but the time of producing alkaline protease was greatly saved as reducing loading volume. Present investigation suggested that CH can be used as carbon and nitrogen sources in the fermentation process.

A low-cost and water resistant biomass adhesive, collagen hydrolysate–silane coupling agent hybrids (CSH), was prepared by using collagen hydrolysate (CH) extracted from leather waste as the starting material, and silane coupling agent (SCA) as the crosslinking agent. The as-prepared adhesive was fully characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), 29Si CP-MAS NMR spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), ANS assay and ninhydrin assay. The as-prepared CSH exhibited pretty good adhesive strength and water resistance. Moreover, the water resistance of CSH can be conveniently tuned by changing the type and dosage of the silane coupling agent. When used as a wood adhesive, the dry adhesive strength of CSH was as high as 1.57 MPa, and the corresponding wet adhesive strength reached 0.95 MPa. Our experimental results suggest that the collagen hydrolysate extracted from leather waste has a great potential to be used as a low-cost and highly effective adhesive in the wood composite industry.

The halophilic bacterial strain PT-20, isolated from saline alkali soil samples and identified as a member of the genus

The targeted therapy of metastatic melanoma is an important yet challenging goal that has received only limited attention to date. Herein, green tea polyphenols, (–)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), and lanthanide metal ions (Sm3+) are used as building blocks to engineer self-assembled SmIII-EGCG nanocomplexes with synergistically enhanced tumor inhibitory properties. These nanocomplexes have negligible systemic toxic effects on healthy cells but cause a significant reduction in the viability of melanoma cells by efficiently regulating their metabolic pathways. Moreover, the wound-induced migration of melanoma cells can be efficiently inhibited by SmIII-EGCG, which is a key criterion for metastatic melanoma therapy. In a mouse melanoma tumor model, SmIII-EGCG is directly compared with a clinical anticancer drug, 5-fluorouracil and shows remarkable tumor inhibition. Moreover, the targeted therapy of SmIII-EGCG is shown to prevent metastatic lung melanoma from spreading to main organs with no adverse side effects on the body weight or organs. These in vivo results demonstrate significant advantages of SmIII-EGCG over its clinical counterpart. The results suggest that these green tea-based, self-assembled nanocomplexes possess all of the key traits of a clinically promising candidate to address the challenges associated with the treatment of advanced stage metastatic melanoma.

The targeted therapy of metastatic melanoma is a highly challenging therapeutic goal that has received only limited attention to date. In article number 1801688, Junling Guo, Xuepin Liao, and co‐workers report the self‐assembly of therapeutic nanocomplexes composed of green tea polyphenols, epigallocatechin‐3‐gallate (EGCG), and lanthanide metal ions (Sm3+). These nanocomplexes show remarkable targeted therapy against melanoma and prevent aggressive migration to main organs with no adverse side effects.

Developing efficient adsorbents with radiation stability for uranium removal from nuclear wastewater is greatly important for resource sustainability and environmental safety in manufacturing nuclear fuel. A novel adsorbent of hydrous titanium oxide-immobilized collagen fibers (HTO/CFs) with good radiation stability for UO22+ removal was developed. Results showed that the adsorption capacity of HTO/CFs for UO22+ was 1.379 mmol g−1 at 303 K and pH 5.0 when the initial concentration of UO22+ was 2.5 mmol L−1. Moreover, HTO/CFs showed high selectivity for U(VI) in bilateral mixed solution including UO22+ with another coexisting ion, such as Cl−, NO3−, Zn2+, and Mg2+. The adsorption behavior of UO22+ from radioactive wastewater on HTO/CF column was also investigated, and the breakthrough point was approximately 250 BV (bed volume). Notably, the HTO/CFs column can be rapidly regenerated by using only 4.0 BV of 0.1 mol L−1 HNO3 solution. The regenerated HTO/CFs column exhibited slight change in the breakthrough curve, suggesting its excellent reapplication ability. Furthermore, after irradiation under 60Co γ-ray at total doses of 10–350 kGy, HTO/CFs still preserved fibrous morphology and adsorption capacity, indicating significant radiation stability. These results demonstrate that HTO/CFs are industrial scalable adsorbents for the adsorptive recovery of uranium.

The implementation of transition metal oxides as anode materials for Li-ion batteries (LIBs) has been largely hindered by their huge volumetric change during the lithiation/delithiation cycles, which generally leads to electrode pulverization with a fast capacity fading. Slow ambipolar (ionic and electronic) diffusion kinetics are another disadvantage suffered by transition metal oxides. This intrinsic drawback inevitably causes a poor rate capability of transition metal oxides. SnO2 is an attractive candidate as an anode material for next-generation LIBs due to its high theoretical capacity, low cost and improved safety. In this article, a sandwich-structured carbon nanofiber@SnO2@carbon coating (C@SnO2@C) nanofiber bundle was facilely prepared by using collagen fiber, a typical fibrous protein, as the biotemplate as well as the carbon source. The hierarchical architecture of the C@SnO2@C nanofiber bundle guaranteed a good match between the electron transport kinetics and the Li+ diffusion kinetics, thus realizing efficient ambipolar diffusion. Another merit that originated from the configuration of the C@SnO2@C nanofiber bundle was the unique “breath” behavior, which effectively accommodated the volume change of SnO2 so as to ensure structural integrity with the formation of the smooth and thin solid electrolyte interphase (SEI). The C@SnO2@C nanofiber bundle showed obvious advantages both in rate capability and cycling stability as compared with those of conventional carbon/SnO2 nanocomposites, including a C@SnO2 nanofiber bundle and SnO2@C nanofiber bundle. Our strategy developed here may be extended for the synthesis of other high-performance anode materials, especially for transition metal oxides that suffered from poor electrical conductivity and/or huge volumetric change.

An oil/water separation film with excellent durability and stable recyclability is highly desired for the treatment of oil containing effluents, like industrial oily wastewater. Herein, a novel superhydrophobic nanofibrous film (SNF) was fabricated by growing TiO2 on a collagen fiber membrane (CFM), followed by surface coating of vinyl triethoxysilane. The as-prepared SNF was well characterized by SEM, SEM-EDS and XPS. Due to the unique structure, the SNF featured superhydrophobicity with a water contact angle (WCA) of 153°. When applied in the separation of oil/water mixtures, SNF exhibited a high separation efficiency of ∼97% in 5 circles, and it showed more effective oil/water separation efficiency compared to the commercial PTFE film. SNF was also effective for the separation of gasoline/water or diesel oil/water mixtures with varied volume ratios, and all the corresponding separation efficiencies were higher than 97% even after 5 cycles. In addition, SNF could still maintain superhydrophobicity with WCA around 150° after being treated by high temperature (120 °C), ultraviolet irradiation, water or organic solvent immersion for 24 h, manifesting an excellent durability.

Ammonia and total nitrogen are concerned wastewater pollutants generated in beamhouse processing of leather production. Nitrogen pollution in tannery wastewater is mainly originated from unhairing/liming, deliming and bating processes due to the removal of non-collagenous proteins and the use of ammonium salts. In this study, protease assisted hair saving unhairing/liming, non-ammonia deliming and non-ammonia bating were integrated into a cleaner process to minimize nitrogen impact from the origin. It was found that the performances of the integrated cleaner beamhouse process were similar or better than conventional process. Leather made by the cleaner process exhibited comparable physical and morphological properties to conventional one. Ammonia nitrogen and total nitrogen in the wastewater from the cleaner process were reduced by 97% and 48%, respectively. Meanwhile, reductions of chemical oxygen demand, total solids and sulfide were also achieved.

A leather matrix (LM) was used as a microwave-absorptive substrate to surface coat with Cu@Ag nanoflakes to prepare a lightweight, high-performance and wearable nanocomposite shielding material. The essence of this strategy is that the shielding capacity of the nanocomposite is dependent not only on the reflectivity of Cu@Ag nanoflakes to microwaves, but also on the absorption capacity of the LM to the incident microwaves via dielectric loss. In this way, an extremely low content of Cu@Ag nanoflakes is enough for LM-Cu@Ag to achieve superior high shielding ability (∼100 dB), thus showing lightweight high-performance shielding ability (specific shielding effectiveness up to 120 dB cm3 g−1) in a board frequency range (10–3000 MHz, 8–12 GHz). Moreover, this nanocomposite shielding material is also able to be tailored into wearable clothing, demonstrating its practical wearability.

A C@Fe3O4 core–shell nanofiber bundle (C@Fe3O4NFB) was easily prepared using a natural collagen fiber (CF) as the biotemplate and carbon source. The as-prepared C@Fe3O4NFB features a continuous conductive pathway with dramatically accelerated electron and Li+ transport kinetics, thus exhibiting an ultrahigh-rate capability. Furthermore, the C@Fe3O4 core–shell structure is able to suppress the electrode pulverization due to the existence of the carbon nanofiber as an elastic buffering matrix, thus delivering long-term cycling stability. Based on electrochemical experiments, C@Fe3O4NFB delivered capacities of 839, 668, 422 and 301 mA h g−1 at current densities of 0.2, 1.0, 5.0 and 10.0 A g−1, respectively. At the current density of 1.0 A g−1, the reversible capacity of C@Fe3O4NFB is as high as 632 mA h g−1 in the 500th cycle, which accounts for 84.38% capacity of the 2nd cycle, suggesting a low capacity loss of 0.23 mA h g−1 per cycle. Even after 2000 cycles at 5.0 A g−1, the discharge capacity still reaches 354 mA h g−1. This biotemplated synthesis approach provides a novel and interesting route for fabricating ultrahigh-rate anode materials of LIBs.