Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum Inspired Polystyrene-Brush-Based Superhigh Sulfur Content Cathodes Enable Lithium-Sulfur Cells with High Mass and Capacity Loading.

The development of highly sophisticated biomimetic models is significant yet remains challenging in the electrochemical energy storage field. Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) cells with high sulfur content and high-sulfur-loading cathodes are urgently required to meet the fast-growing demand for electronic devices. Nevertheless, such cathode materials generally suffer from large sulfur agglomeration, nonporous structure, and insufficient conductivity, leading to rapid capacity decay and low sulfur utilization. Herein, inspired by rough endoplasmic reticulum, a 2D polystyrene (PS)-brush-based (G-g-PS) superhigh-sulfur-content (96 wt%) composite(G-g-sPS@S) is fabricated via the vulcanization reaction. The vulcanized PS side-chains and their S8 composites on the nanosheet surface can efficiently provide sulfur species, and the intersheet interstitial pores can provide rapid mass-transfer channels for redox reactions of sulfur species. Furthermore, the highly sulfophilic vulcanized PS side-chains are able to effectively inhibit the shuttle effect of polysulfides and regulate their redox process. With these merits, the cells with G-g-sPS@S cathodes exhibit an ultralow decay rate of 0.02% per cycle over 400 cycles at 2 C and deliver a superior areal capacity of 12.6 mAh cm-2 even with a high sulfur loading of 10.5 mg cm-2 .

Early Mental Health and Quality of Life in Discharged Patients With COVID-19.

Aim: This study aimed to analyze the early mental health (MH) and quality of life (QoL) of discharged patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which can provide a scientific basis for the further development of intervention programs. Methods: In total, 108 subjects participated in this study, including an experimental group (90 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 from March to April 2020 and hospitalized in Wuhan China Resources & WISCO General Hospital, Wuhan, China, 83.3%) and a control group (18 healthy participants, 16.7%). Their MH and QoL were measured through the 12-item Short Form Health Survey version 2 (SF-12v2), the Self-rating anxiety scale (SAS), the Self-rating depression scale (SDS), and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). The results of questionnaires were compared between these two groups. Results: (1) Comparison of anxiety status: among 90 discharged patients with COVID-19, 30 patients (33.3%) had a state of anxiety. Compared with healthy participants and the general population, patients with COVID-19 in the early stages of discharge had a higher incidence of anxiety and more severe anxiety symptoms (P < 0.05). (2) Comparison of depression status: among 90 discharged patients with COVID-19, 29 patients (32.2%) had a state of depression. Compared with healthy participants and the general population, patients with COVID-19 in the early stages of discharge had a higher incidence of depression and more severe depression symptoms (P < 0.05). (3) Comparison of QoL: 78 patients (86.7%) presented a decrease in physical health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and 73 patients (81.1%) presented a decrease in psychology-related QoL. The SF-12v2 physical component summary (PCS) and the SF-12v2 mental component summary (MCS) of patients were significantly lower than those of healthy people, especially in physical function (PF), vitality (VT), social function (SF), and mental health (MH) (all P < 0.05). (4) Gender differences in mental health and the QoL among patients with COVID-19: women had more severe anxiety/depression symptoms than men (P < 0.05). The scores of women in all dimensions of SF-12V2 were lower than those of men, and there were statistically significant differences between the two groups in PCS, PF, general health (GH), VT, and role-emotional (RE) (P < 0.05). Conclusion: During the early phase after being discharged, patients with COVID-19 might experience negative emotions, such as anxiety or depression, and also problems with reduced QoL, especially among female patients. Therefore, an intervention plan should focus on strengthening psychological condition and improving physical function, and gender-specific rehabilitation programmes should be adapted to improve psychological status and QoL.

Porous Polymers as Multifunctional Material Platforms toward Task-Specific Applications.

Exploring advanced porous materials is of critical importance in the development of science and technology. Porous polymers, being famous for their all-organic components, tailored pore structures, and adjustable chemical components, have attracted an increasing level of research interest in a large number of applications, including gas adsorption/storage, separation, catalysis, environmental remediation, energy, optoelectronics, and health. Recent years have witnessed tremendous research breakthroughs in these fields thanks to the unique pore structures and versatile skeletons of porous polymers. Here, recent milestones in the diverse applications of porous polymers are presented, with an emphasis on the structural requirements or parameters that dominate their properties and functionalities. The Review covers the following applications: i) gas adsorption, ii) water treatment, iii) separation, iv) heterogeneous catalysis, v) electrochemical energy storage, vi) precursors for porous carbons, and vii) other applications (e.g., intelligent temperature control textiles, sensing, proton conduction, biomedicine, optoelectronics, and actuators). The key requirements for each application are discussed and an in-depth understanding of the structure-property relationships of these advanced materials is provided. Finally, a perspective on the future research directions and challenges in this field is presented for further studies.

A hypercrosslinking-induced self-assembly strategy for preparation of advanced hierarchical porous polymers with customizable functional components.

The fabrication of advanced hierarchical porous polymers with a unique 3D nanonetwork structure composed of functional core-microporous shell nanoparticles was reported based on the development of a simple and efficient hypercrosslinking-induced self-assembly strategy.

A new luminescent lanthanide supramolecular network possessing free Lewis base sites for highly selective and sensitive Cu(2+) sensing.

A series of new lanthanide complexes, formulated as [Ln2(DCSAL)3(H2O)11]·3DCSAL·4H2O [Ln = Eu (1), Gd (2) and Tb (3); DCSAL = 3,5-dichlorosalicylate], have been synthesized and characterized by single crystal X-ray analysis. They are dinuclear clusters and form a 3D supramolecular network viaπ-π stacking and halogen bonding interactions. 3 exhibits strong Tb characteristic emission, whose quantum yield is as high as 38%. Due to binding with Cu(2+) ions via its Lewis acid-base interactions, 3 displayed a high selectivity and sensitivity for Cu(2+) detection based on Tb(3+) emission quenching. The possible quenching mechanism was further proved to be a static quenching mechanism by Stern-Volmer plots and UV-vis spectrum. More importantly, the binding constant between 3 and Cu(2+) is also calculated by the Benesi-Hildebrand method, which is helpful for quantitative analysis.