Advanced Materials

High performance organic solar cells (OSCs) are usually realized by using thermal post-treatment and/or additive, which can induce the formation of metastable morphology, leading to unfavorable device stability. In terms of the industrial production, the development of high efficiency as-cast OSCs is crucially important, but it remains a great challenge to obtain appropriate active layer morphology and high power conversion efficiency (PCE). Here, efficient as-cast OSCs are constructed via introducing a new polymer acceptor PY-TPT with a high dielectric constant into the D18:L8-BO blend to form a double-fibril network morphology...

The advancement of mRNA-based immunotherapies for cancer is highly dependent on the effective delivery of RNA payloads using ionizable lipid nanoparticles (LNPs). However, the clinical application of these therapies is hindered by variable mRNA expression among different cancer types and the risk of systemic toxicity. The transient expression profile of mRNA further complicates this issue, necessitating frequent dosing and thus increasing the potential for adverse effects. Addressing these challenges, we utilized a high-throughput combinatorial method to synthesize and screen LNPs that efficiently deliver circular RNA (circRNA) to lung tumors...

The poor bulk-phase and interphase stability, attributable to adverse internal stress, impede the cycling performance of silicon microparticles (μSi) anodes and its commercial application for high-energy-density lithium-ion batteries. In this work, we propose a groundbreaking gradient-hierarchically ordered conductive (GHOC) network structure, ingeniously engineered to enhance the stability of both bulk-phase and the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) configurations of μSi. Within the GHOC network architecture, two-dimensional transition metal carbides (Ti3 C2 Tx ) acts as a conductive "brick", establishing a highly conductive inner layer on μSi, while the porous outer layer, composed of one-dimensional Tempo-oxidized cellulose nanofibers (TCNF) and polyacrylic acid (PAA) macromolecule, functions akin to structural "rebar" and "concrete", effectively preserves the tightly interconnected conductive framework though multiple bonding mechanisms, including covalent and hydrogen bonds...

Scintillating materials emit light when exposed to ionizing radiation or particles and are employed for the detection of nuclear threats, medical imaging, high-energy physics, and other usages. For some of these applications, it is vital to distinguish neutrons and charged particles from γ-rays. This is achievable by pulse shape discrimination (PSD), a time-gated technique, which exploits that the scintillation kinetics can depend on the nature of the incident radiation. However, it proved difficult to realize efficient PSD with plastic scintillators, which have several advantages over liquid or crystalline scintillating materials, including mechanical robustness and shapeability...

State-of-the-art Fenton-like reactions are crucial in advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) for water purification. This review explores the latest advancements in heterogeneous metal-based catalysts within AOPs, covering nanoparticles (NPs), single-atom catalysts (SACs), and ultra-small atom clusters. A distinct connection between the physical properties of these catalysts, such as size, degree of unsaturation, electronic structure, and oxidation state, and their impacts on catalytic behavior and efficacy in Fenton-like reactions...

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) detection presents significant advantages in diagnosing liver cancer due to its non-invasiveness, real-time monitoring, and dynamic tracking. However, the clinical application of CTCs-based diagnosis is largely limited by the challenges of capturing low-abundance CTCs within a complex blood environment while ensuring them alive. Here we design an ultra-strong ligand, L-histidine-L-histidine (HH), specifically targeting sialylated glycans on the surface of CTCs. Further HH is integrated into a cell-imprinted polymer, constructing a hydrogel with precise CTCs imprinting, high elasticity, satisfactory blood-compatibility, and robust anti-interference capacities...

2D materials such as graphene, MoS2 , and hexagonal BN are the most advanced solid lubricating materials with superior friction and anti-wear performance. However, as a typical surface phenomenon, the lubricating properties of 2D materials are largely dependent on the surrounding environment, such as temperature, stress, humidity, oxygen, and other environmental substances. Given the technical challenges in experiment for real-time and in situ detection of microscopic environment-material interaction, recent years have witnessed the acceleration of computational research on the lubrication behavior of 2D materials in realistic environments...

The nonlinear elasticity of many tissue-specific extracellular matrices is difficult to recapitulate without the use of fibrous architectures, which couple strain-stiffening with stress relaxation. Herein, bottlebrush polymers are synthesized and crosslinked to form poly(ethylene glycol)-based hydrogels and used to study how strain-stiffening behavior affects human mesenchymal stromal cells (hMSCs). By tailoring the bottlebrush polymer length, the critical stress associated with the onset of network stiffening is systematically varied, and a unique protrusion-rich hMSC morphology emerges only at critical stresses within a biologically accessible stress regime...

Cost-effective transition metal chalcogenides (TMCs) are highly promising electrocatalysts for both alkaline and acidic hydrogen evolution reactions (HER). However, unsatisfactory HER kinetics and stability have severely hindered their applications in industrial water electrolysis. Herein, a nanoflowers-shaped W-doped cubic/orthorhombic phase-mixed CoSe2 catalyst ((c/o)-CoSe2 -W) is reported. The W doping induces spontaneous phase transition from stable phase cubic CoSe2 to metastable phase orthorhombic CoSe2 , which not only enables precise regulation of the ratio of two phases, but also realizes W doping at the interfaces of two phases...

Welding of thermoplastics is common practice in many industrial sectors, but it has yet to be realized with fluids. Here, we report the thermal welding of liquids by using the assembly and jamming of nanoparticles surfactants (NPSs) at liquid-liquid interfaces. By fine-tuning the dynamic interaction strength within NPSs, the interfacial activity of NPSs, as well as the binding energy of NPSs to the interface can be precisely controlled, leading to a dynamic exchange of NPSs, maximizing the reduction in the interfacial energy...

The precise delivery of anti-seizure medications (ASM) to epileptic loci remains the major challenge to treat epilepsy without causing adverse drug reactions. The unprovoked nature of epileptic seizures raises the additional need to release ASMs in a spatiotemporal controlled manner. Targeting the oxidative stress in epileptic lesions, here we developed the reactive oxygen species induced in situ supramolecular assemblies which synergized bioorthogonal reactions to deliver inhibitory neurotransmitter (GABA) on-demand...

Myocardial infarction (MI) causes cell death, disrupts electrical activity, triggers arrhythmia, and results in heart failure, whereby 50-60% of MI-associated deaths manifest as sudden cardiac deaths (SCD). The most effective therapy for SCD prevention is implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs). However, ICDs contribute to adverse remodeling and disease progression and do not prevent arrhythmia. We developed an injectable collagen-PEDOT:PSS hydrogel that protects infarcted hearts against ventricular tachycardia (VT) and can be combined with hiPSC-cardiomyocytes to promote partial cardiac remuscularization...

Swarm behaviors are common in nature, where individual organisms collaborate via perception, communication, and adaptation. Emulating these dynamics, large groups of active agents can self-organize through localized interactions, giving rise to complex swarm behaviors, which exhibit potential for applications across various domains. This review presents a comprehensive summary and perspective of synthetic swarms, to bridge the gap between the microscale individual agents and potential applications of synthetic swarms...

Protonic ceramic fuel cells (PCFCs) hold potential for sustainable energy conversion, yet their widespread application is hindered by the sluggish kinetics and inferior stability of cathode materials. Here, a facile and efficient reverse atom capture technique is developed to manipulate the surface chemistry of PrBa0.5 Sr0.5 Co1.5 Fe0.5 O5+δ (PBSCF) cathode for PCFCs. This method successfully captures segregated Ba and Sr cations on the PBSCF surface using W species, creating a (Ba/Sr)(Co/Fe/W)O3-δ (BSCFW)@PBSCF heterostructure...

The development of single-system materials that exhibit both multi-color room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) and thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) with tunable afterglow colors and channels is challenging. In this study, we developed four metal-free carbon dots (CDs) through structural tailoring and achieved panchromatic high-brightness RTP via strong chemical encapsulation in urea. The maximum lifetime and quantum yield reached 2141 ms and 56.55%, respectively. Moreover, CDs-IV@urea, prepared via core-shell interaction engineering, exhibited a dual afterglow of red RTP at 622 nm and green TADF...

While valued for their durability and exceptional performance, crosslinked thermosets are challenging to recycle and reuse. Here, we unveil inherent reprocessability in industrially relevant polyolefin thermosets. Unlike prior methods, our approach eliminates the need to introduce exchangeable functionality to regenerate the material, relying instead on preserving the activity of the metathesis catalyst employed in the curing reaction. Frontal ring opening metathesis polymerization (FROMP) proves critical to preserving this activity...

Self-sustained motions are widespread in biological systems by harvesting energy from surrounding environments, which inspire scientists to develop autonomous soft robots. However, most-existing soft robots require dynamic heterogeneous stimuli or complex fabrication with different components. Recently, control of topological geometry has been promising to afford soft robots with physical intelligence and thus life-like motions. Reported here are a series of closed twisted ribbon robots, which exhibit self-sustained flipping and rotation under constant light irradiation...

Wireless and wearable sensors attract considerable interest in personalized healthcare by providing a unique approach for remote, non-contact, and continuous monitoring of various health-related signals without interference with daily life. Recent advances in wireless technologies and wearable sensors have promoted practical applications due to their significantly improved characteristics, such as reduction in size and thickness, enhancement in flexibility and stretchability, and improved conformability to the human body...

The triplet-triplet annihilation (TTA) ratio and the rate coefficient (kTT ) of TTA are key factors in estimating the contribution of triplet excitons to radiative singlet excitons in fluorescent TTA organic light-emitting diodes. In this study, we implemented deep learning models to predict key factors from transient electroluminescence (trEL) data using new numerical equations. A new TTA model was developed that considers both polaron and exciton dynamics, enabling the distinction between prompt and delayed singlet decays with a fundamental understanding of the mechanism...

Aqueous zinc-based batteries (ZBs) have been widely investigated owing to their intrinsic safety, low cost, and simple assembly. However, the actual behavior of Zn deposition under large current density is still a severe issue associated with obscure mechanism interpretation of ZBs under high loading. Here, differing from the conventional understanding that short circuit is induced by dendrite penetrating under large current density (10-100 mA cm-2 ), the separator permeation effect is unraveled to illustrate the paradox between smooth deposition and short lifespan...