A Sunlight-Driven Self-Cleaning CuCo-MOF Composite Membrane for Highly Efficient Emulsion Separation and Water Purification.

The fouling phenomenon of membranes has hindered the rapid development of separation technology in wastewater treatment. The integration of materials into membranes with both excellent separation performance and self-cleaning properties still pose challenges. Here, a self-assembled composite membrane with solar-driven self-cleaning performance is reported for the treatment of complex oil-water emulsions. The mechanical robustness of the composite membrane is enhanced by the electrostatic attraction between chitosan and metal-organic frameworks (MOF) CuCo-HHTP as well as the crosslinking effect of glutaraldehyde. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations also revealed the hydrogen bonding interaction between chitosan and CuCo-HHTP. The composite membrane of CuCo-HHTP-5@CS/MPVDF exhibits a high flux ranging from 700.6 to 2350.6 L∙m-2∙h-1∙bar-1 and excellent separation efficiency (>99.0%) for various oil-water emulsions, including crude oil, kerosene, and other light oils. The addition of CuCo-HHTP shows remarkable photothermal effects, thus demonstrating excellent solar-driven self-cleaning capability and antibacterial performance (with an efficiency of ≈100%). Furthermore, CuCo-HHTP-5@CS/MPVDF can activate peroxomonosulfate (PMS) under sunlight, quickly removing oil-fouling and dyes. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicate that the bimetallic sites of Cu and Co in CuCo-HHTP effectively promoted the activation of PMS. This study provides distinctive insights into the multifaceted applications of MOFs-derived photothermal anti-fouling composite membranes.

Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity of V2C MXene-Coupled ZnO Porous Nanosheets with Increased Surface Area and Effective Charge Transfer.

Photocatalysis performs excellently when degrading organic pollutants, but the photocatalytic degradation rate is not high for most photocatalysts due to their narrow sunlight adsorption range and high recombination rate of electron hole pairs. Herein, we use V2C-MXene with a wide sunlight adsorption range to couple ZnO porous nanosheets and form ZnO/MXene hybrids using a facile electrostatic self-assembly method. The ZnO/MXene hybrids acquired demonstrated improved photochemical efficiency in breaking down methylene blue (MB) when contrasted with porous ZnO nanosheets. The degradation rate of MB reached 99.8% under UV irradiation for 120 min after the ZnO/MXene hybrid formation, while 38.6% was attained by the ZnO porous nanosheets. Moreover, photodegradation rate constants (k) were calculated as 3.05 × 10-3 and 5.42 × 10-2 min-1 for ZnO porous nanosheets and ZnO/MXene hybrids, respectively, indicating that the photodegradation performance was enhanced by 17.8 times after the modification of V2C. This was probably because the modification of V2C can increase the specific surface area to provide more sites for MB adsorption, widen the sunlight adsorption range to produce good photothermal effect, and facilitate the transfer of photogenerated carriers in ZnO to promote the reaction of more photogenerated carriers with MB. Hence, this work offers a simple approach to creating effective photocatalysts for breaking down organic contaminants.

Modulatory Effects on Laminar Neural Activity Induced by Near-Infrared Light Stimulation with a Continuous Waveform to the Mouse Inferior Colliculus In Vivo.

Infrared neural stimulation (INS) is a promising area of interest for the clinical application of a neuromodulation method. This is in part because of its low invasiveness, whereby INS modulates the activity of the neural tissue mainly through temperature changes. Additionally, INS may provide localized brain stimulation with less tissue damage. The inferior colliculus (IC) is a crucial auditory relay nucleus and a potential target for clinical application of INS to treat auditory diseases and develop artificial hearing devices. Here, using continuous INS with low to high-power density, we demonstrate the laminar modulation of neural activity in the mouse IC in the presence and absence of sound. We investigated stimulation parameters of INS to effectively modulate the neural activity in a facilitatory or inhibitory manner. A mathematical model of INS-driven brain tissue was first simulated, temperature distributions were numerically estimated, and stimulus parameters were selected from the simulation results. Subsequently, INS was administered to the IC of anesthetized mice, and the modulation effect on the neural activity was measured using an electrophysiological approach. We found that the modulatory effect of INS on the spontaneous neural activity was bidirectional between facilitatory and inhibitory effects. The modulatory effect on sound-evoked responses produced only an inhibitory effect to all examined stimulus intensities. Thus, this study provides important physiological evidence on the response properties of IC neurons to INS. Overall, INS can be used for the development of new therapies for neurological disorders and functional support devices for auditory central processing.

NIR-driven multifunctional PEC biosensor based on aptamer-modified PDA/MnO2 photoelectrode for bacterial detection and inactivation.

Sensitive detection and effective inactivation of bacteria are essential in preventing foodborne bacterial infection that poses a significant threat to human health. Herein, a near-infrared (NIR)-driven multifunctional photoelectrochemical (PEC) biosensor was constructed for detection and inactivation of S. aureus. Based on the covalent bonding between amine and carboxyl groups, carboxyl-functionalized SA31 aptamer was immobilized on the PDA/MnO2 photoelectrode. In the presence of S. aureus, SA31 aptamer can specifically capture S. aureus, causing the decrease of photocurrent signal owing to steric hindrance effect. Leveraging photocurrent-off signal, there existed a satisfied linear relationship between the photocurrent variation and the logarithm of S. aureus concentration, achieving a wide linear range from 10 to 107 CFU/mL with a low detection limit of 2.0 CFU/mL. Notably, PDA/MnO2 with peroxidase-like activity facilitated the catalytic oxidation of S. aureus with assistance of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to cause the inactivation of S. aureus. Desorption of inactivated S. aureus from the photoelectrode led to a recovery of photocurrent signal, enabling a "signal on" switch. Simultaneously, the excellent photothermal performance of the PDA/MnO2 converted light energy into heat energy under the irradiation of NIR light (808 nm, 1.5 W/cm2), triggering the synergistic antibacterial effect against S. aureus (97.36%). This work provides a novel strategy for fabricating the detection and inactivation of bacteria in practical applications.

Uncovering Photoelectronic and Photothermal Effects in Plasmon-Mediated Electrocatalytic CO2 Reduction.

Plasmon-mediated electrocatalysis that rests on the ability of coupling localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) and electrochemical activation, emerges as an intriguing and booming area. However, its development seriously suffers from the entanglement between the photoelectronic and photothermal effects induced by the decay of plasmons, especially under the influence of applied potential. Herein, using LSPR-mediated CO2 reduction on Ag electrocatalyst as a model system, we quantitatively uncover the dominant photoelectronic effect on CO2 reduction reaction over a wide potential window, in contrast to the leading photothermal effect on H2 evolution reaction at relatively negative potentials. The excitation of LSPR selectively enhances the CO faradaic efficiency (17-fold at -0.6 VRHE ) and partial current density (100-fold at -0.6 VRHE ), suppressing the undesired H2 faradaic efficiency. Furthermore, in situ attenuated total reflection-surface enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy (ATR-SEIRAS) reveals a plasmon-promoted formation of the bridge-bonded CO on Ag surface via a carbonyl-containing C1 intermediate. The present work demonstrates a deep mechanistic understanding of selective regulation of interfacial reactions by coupling plasmons and electrochemistry.

One-pot synthesized Au@Pt nanostars-based lateral flow immunoassay for colorimetric and photothermal dual-mode detection of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid antibody.

In addition to confirming virus infection, quantitative identification of the antibodies to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2) also evaluates persons immunity to guide personal protection. However, portable assays for fast and accurate quantification of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies remain challenging. In this work, we synthesized Au@Pt star-like nanoparticles (NPs) quickly and easily by a one-pot wet-chemical approach, allowing the stellate Au core to be partially decorated by Pt nanoshells. The nanoparticles were used as probe in a lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) that operated in both colorimetric and photothermal dual modes, which could detect the antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid (N) protein with high sensitivity. Due to the sharp tips on the external region of nanostars and surface plasmon coupling effect between the Au core and Pt shell, the NIR absorption capacity and photothermal performance of these NPs were exceptional. Under optimal conditions, the colorimetric mode's detection limit for SARS-CoV-2 N protein antibody was 1 ng mL-1, which is significantly lower by 2-order of magnitude compared to commercially available colloidal gold strips. And the detection limit for the photothermal mode was as low as 24.91 pg mL-1, which was approximately 40-fold more sensitive than colorimetric detection. Moreover, the method demonstrated favorable specificity, reproducibility and stability. Finally, the approach was employed for the successful identification of actual serum samples. Therefore, the dual-mode LFIA can be applied for screening and tracking the early immunological reaction to SARS-CoV-2, and it has great promise for clinical application.

Lignosulfonate sodium assisted PEDOT-based all-gel supercapacitors with enhanced supercapacitance and wide temperature tolerance.

Conducting polymer hydrogels are typically employed in all-gel supercapacitors; however, Poly[3,4-ethylene-dioxythiophene] (PEDOT)-based hydrogel supercapacitors still suffer from low capacitance because of the low packing density of PEDOT in the electrodes. Here, we demonstrate lignosulfonate sodium (LS) as an excellent template to synthesize various LS-PEDOT conductive nanofillers for high mass-loading LS-PEDOT/PAAM hydrogel electrodes. Then, the optimum LS-PEDOT/PAAM electrode was assembled with a redox-active LS/PAAM/Fe3+ hydrogel electrolyte to form sandwich-structured all-gel supercapacitors, which could deliver a high specific capacitance of 672.5 mF/cm2 and an energy efficiency of 60 µWh/cm2, which are three times higher than the 220 mF/cm2 and 19.5 µWh/cm2 of the device without Fe3+ at the same condition. Such a device shows excellent temperature tolerance from -30 to 100 °C. Besides, the LS-PEDOT/PAAM electrode has excellent photothermal conversion effects under simulated solar illumination. The sluggish electrochemical performance of the SC under low temperatures could be significantly boosted by ~50 % under simulated solar light. All of these findings demonstrate that the capacitance performance of the PEDOT-based hydrogel device is successfully improved not only at room temperature but also under subzero conditions.

Predictable and adjustable broadband gold nanorods for photothermal effects and foldable performances.

Colloidal gold nanorods (GNRs) have demonstrated their potential to absorb light within specific wavelength bands and induce photothermal effects. However, the unpredictability and lack of adjustability in the broadband spectrum formed by the self-assembly of gold nanospheres or the coupling of various sizes of GNRs have posed significant challenges. To address this, we have developed broadband GNRs (BGNRs) with a predictable and adjustable extinction band in the visible and near-infrared regions. The BGNRs were synthesized by simply mixing GNRs with different aspect ratios, allowing for control over the bandwidths and positions of the extinction bands. Subsequently, the BGNRs were coated with silica and underwent surface modification. The resulting BGNRs@SiO2were then mixed with either polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) or polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) to create BGNRs@SiO2/PDMS (or PVDF) films. The BGNRs@SiO2/PDMS and BGNRs@SiO2/PVDF films both exhibit excellent photothermal performance properties. Additionally, the light absorption intensity of the BGNRs@SiO2/PVDF film linearly increases upon folding, leading to significantly enhanced photothermal performance after folding. This work demonstrates that plasmonic colloidal GNRs, without the need for coupling, can yield predictable and adjustable extinction bands. This finding holds great promise for future development and practical applications, particularly in the transfer of these properties to films.

Biomineralized Polydopamine Nanoparticle-Based Sodium Alginate Hydrogels for Delivery of Anti-serine/Threonine Protein Kinase B-Rapidly Accelerated Fibrosarcoma siRNA for Metastatic Melanoma Therapy.

Malignant melanoma, as a highly aggressive skin cancer, is strongly associated with mutations in serine/threonine protein kinase B-RAF (BRAF, where RAF stands for rapidly accelerated fibrosarcoma). Targeted therapy with anti-BRAF small interfering RNA (siBRAF) represents a crucial aspect of metastatic melanoma treatment. In this study, an injectable hydrogel platform based on sodium alginate (SA), with multifunctions of photothermal and Ca2+-overload cell apoptosis, was explored as a siBRAF carrier for metastatic melanoma therapy. We employed polydopamine nanoparticles (PDAs) as a photothermal core and constructed a calcium phosphate (CaP) shell via biomineralization (PDA@CaP) to load siBRAF (PDA@siBRAF/CaP). The pH-sensitive CaP shell facilitated the release of Ca2+ under the weakly acidic tumor microenvironment, triggering the gelation of PDA@siBRAF/CaP-SA to localized release siBRAF at tumor sites with the interruption of the RAS-RAF-MEK-ERK (MAPK) pathway. Besides, the continuous release of Ca2+ could also lead to Ca2+-overload cell apoptosis. Moreover, the photothermal effect of PDA regulated the release kinetics, resulting in coordinated therapeutic abilities of individual components in the PDA@siBRAF/CaP-SA hydrogels. Consequently, the effective inhibition of tumor growth and metastasis was achieved in vitro and in vivo using a highly metastatic melanoma cell line B16F10 as the model, by combining photothermal ablation, Ca2+ overload, and BRAF silencing. Our work provides a proof-of-concept for an injectable hydrogel system that simultaneously targets multiple mechanisms involved in melanoma progression and has the potential to be translated into clinical use for the metastatic melanoma therapy.

Mild Photothermal Therapy Prevents Posterior Capsule Opacification through Cytoskeletal Remodeling.

Cataract is the first leading cause of blindness in the world and posterior capsule opacification (PCO) is the most common long-term complication after surgery. The primary pathogenic processes contributing to PCO are the proliferation and migration of residual lens epithelial cells (LECs). This study aimed to explore the mild photothermal effect on LECs. Interestingly, this work finds that the mild photothermal effect significantly inhibited the proliferation and migration of LECs. The live cell fluorescence imaging reveals that the remodeling of the actin cytoskeleton and cell morphology attributed to the inhibition effect. Further mechanistic studies at molecular level suggest that the mild photothermal effect can regulate the phosphorylation of ERM, YAP, and Cofilin and thereby affect the proliferation and migration of LECs. In order to explore the potential clinical application of mild photothermal therapy for PCO prevention, PDA/PVA gel rings with photothermal effect is prepared by the repeated freeze-thaw method and conducted experiments in vivo, which achieved favorable PCO prevention effect. Overall, this study shows that the mild photothermal effect can regulate the proliferation and migration of LECs through cytoskeletal remodeling and the results of experiments in vivo demonstrate that mild photothermal effect is a promising approach for PCO prevention.

Flash-Thermal Shock Synthesis of High-Entropy Alloys Toward High-Performance Water Splitting.

High-entropy alloys (HEAs) provide unprecedented physicochemical properties over unary nanoparticles (NPs). According to the conventional alloying guideline (Hume-Rothery rule), however, only size-and-structure similar elements can be mixed, limiting the possible combinations of alloying elements. Recently, it has been reported that based on carbon thermal shocks (CTS) in a vacuum atmosphere at high temperature, ultrafast heating/cooling rates and high-entropy environment play a critical role in the synthesis of HEAs, ruling out the possibility of phase separation. Since the CTS requires conducting supports, the Joule-heating efficiencies rely on the carbon qualities, featuring difficulties in uniform heating along the large area. This work proposes a photo-thermal approach as an alternative and innovative synthetic method that is compatible with ambient air, large-area, remote process, and free of materials selection. Single flash irradiation on carbon nanofibers induced momentary high-temperature annealing (>1800 °C within 20 ms duration, and ramping/cooling rates >104 K s-1 ) to successfully decorate HEA NPs up to nine elements with excellent compatibility for large-scale synthesis (6.0 × 6.0 cm2 of carbon nanofiber paper). To demonstrate their feasibility toward applications, senary HEA NPs (PtIrFeNiCoCe) are designed and screened, showing high activity (ηoverall = 777 mV) and excellent stability (>5000 cycles) at the water splitting, including hydrogen evolution reactions and oxygen evolution reactions.

Photothermal and Catalytic Performance of Multifunctional Cu-Fe Bimetallic Prussian Blue Nanocubes with the Assistance of Near-Infrared Radiation.

Copper and iron are the basic metal elements that have attracted much attention in industry. Prussian blue (PB) is a significant class of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs); however, the lack of such linkages between the structure and properties, as well as properties differences, limits their potential applications. In this paper, the Cu-based Prussian blue nanocubes with and without Fe doping were synthesized. With the increasing reaction time, the morphology of the Cu-based Prussian blue nanocubes without Fe doping (PB:Cu NCs) changes from cuboidal to circular, and finally grows back to cuboidal. However, Cu-based Prussian blue nanocubes with Fe doping (PB: CuFe NCs) grow directly from the cube and eventually collapse. The nanocubes show a notable red shift with the tunable spectra from 400 nm to 700 nm. Compared with PB: Cu NCs, the PB: CuFe NCs have higher temperature rise under 808 nm irradiation and better photothermal efficacy. The catalytic efficiency of PB: CuFe NCs changes with the pH and reaches its maximum value of 1.021 mM with a pH of 5.5. The enhanced catalytic reaction by the near-infrared radiation plasmonic photothermal effect is also confirmed. This work highlights the potential of the developed PB: Cu and PB: CuFe NCs for photothermal-enhanced co-catalysis nanomaterials.

Cryptotanshinone-Doped Photothermal Synergistic MXene@PDA Nanosheets with Antibacterial and Anti-Inflammatory Properties for Wound Healing.

Humans are threatened by bacteria and other microorganisms, resulting in countless pathogen-related infections and illnesses. Accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in infected wounds activates strong inflammatory responses. The overuse of antibiotics has led to increasing bacterial resistance. Therefore, effective ROS scavenging and bactericidal capacity are essential and the advanced development of collaborative therapeutic techniques to combat bacterial infections is needed. Here, this work developes an MXene@polydopamine-cryptotanshinone (MXene@PDA-CPT) antibacterial nanosystem with excellent reactive oxygen and nitrogen species scavenging ability, which effectively inactivates drug-resistant bacteria and biofilms, thereby promoting wound healing. In this system, the adhesion of polydopamine nanoparticles to MXene produced a photothermal synergistic effect and free radical scavenging activity, presenting a promising antibacterial and anti-inflammatory strategy. This nanosystem causes fatal damage to bacterial membranes. The loading of cryptotanshinone further expanded the advantages of the system, causing a stronger bacterial killing effect and inflammation mitigatory effect with desired biosafety and biocompatibility. In addition, combining nanomaterials and active ingredients of traditional Chinese medicine, this work provides a new rationale for the future development of wound dressings, which contributes to eliminating bacterial resistance, delaying disease deterioration, and alleviating the pain of patients.

Cascade reaction triggering and photothermal AuNPs@MIL MOFs doped intraocular lens for enhanced posterior capsular opacification prevention.

Posterior capsular opacification (PCO) is the most common complication after cataract surgery. Present strategies can't meet the clinical needs of long-term prevention. This research reports a novel intraocular lens (IOL) bulk material with high biocompatibility and synergistic therapy. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) doped MIL-101-NH2 metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) (AuNPs@MIL) was firstly fabricated via in situ reductions. Then the functionalized MOFs were uniformly mixed with glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) and 2-(2-ethoxyethoxy) ethyl acrylate (EA) to form the nanoparticle doped polymer (AuNPs@MIL-PGE), and which was used to fabricate IOL bulk materials. The materials' optical and mechanical properties with different mass contents of nanoparticles are investigated. Such bulk functionalized IOL material could efficiently remove residual human lens epithelial cells (HLECs) in the capsular bag in the short term, and can prevent PCO on demand in the long run by near-infrared illumination (NIR) action. In vivo and in vitro experiments demonstrate the biosafety of the material. The AuNPs@MIL-PGE exhibits excellent photothermal effects, which could inhibit cell proliferation under NIR and doesn't cause pathological effects on the surrounding tissues. Such functionalized IOL can not only avoid the side effects of the antiproliferative drugs but also realize the enhanced PCO prevention in clinical practice.

D-A Structured High-Performance Photothermal/Photodynamic Thionin-Synthetic Melanin Nanoparticles for Rapid Bactericidal and Wound Healing Effects.

Synthesized melanin nanoparticles (SMNPs) are used as advanced photothermal materials. However, their internal structures are complex and disordered, and tuning the photothermal performance of nanoparticles is still a hot spot of concern. This article presents thionin (Th)-doped SMNPs, namely Th-SMNPs, which are the first SMNPs formed using the one-pot polymerization of Th with Levodopa. Th can undergo Michael addition and Schiff base reaction between indole dihydroxy/indolequinone and their oligomers to form donor-acceptor pairs in the structure to modulate the photothermal performance of SMNPs. Structural and spectroscopic analyses and density functional theory simulations further confirm the existence of the donor-acceptor structure. Th-SMNPs exhibit excellent total photothermal efficiency (34.49%) in the near-infrared region (808 nm), which is a 60% improvement compared to SMNPs. This allows Th-SMNPs to exhibit excellent photothermal performance at low power 808 nm laser irradiation. Meanwhile, Th not only enhances the photothermal properties of SMNPs, but also imparts photodynamic effects to SMNPs. Th-SMNPs can produce 1 O2 under 660 nm laser irradiation. A dual-function photothermal and photodynamic textile named Th-SMNPs@cotton is constructed based on Th-SMNPs, which can act as a rapid photothermal/photodynamic sterilization and is promising for wound healing treatment of bacterial infections under low-power dual laser irradiation.

Polydopamine Nanoparticles-Based Photothermal Effect Against Adhesion Formation in a Rat Model of Achilles Tendon Laceration Repair.

Background: Adhesion formation after tendon surgery is a major obstacle to repair of tendon ruptures, and there is still no effective clinical anti-adhesion method. Myofibroblasts expressing α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) play a crucial role in adhered fibrous tissue. Heat shock protein (Hsp) 72 can selectively prevent the activation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), which mediates the conversion from fibroblasts to myofibroblasts. The purpose of this study was to investigate for the first time whether polydopamine nanoparticles (PDA NPs)-based photothermal effect would attenuate adhesion formation in a rat model of Achilles tendon laceration repair. Materials and Methods: Forty-five adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to the photothermal group, the control group and the PDA NPs group (n = 15 per group). The primary outcome measure was the adhesion scores at two weeks after surgery according to the grading of Tang et al. The secondary outcomes included the expressions of Hsp 72, JNK, phosphorylated JNK and α-SMA, which were measured by immunohistochemistry or Western blot. Results: The average adhesion score was significantly lower in the photothermal group (4.25 ± 0.21) than that in the control group (5.29 ± 0.12) (p = 0.005) and the PDA NPs group (5.29 ± 0.20) (p = 0.005). Relative to the control group and PDA NPs group, Hsp 72 in the photothermal group was significantly increased whereas α-SMA and p-JNK was significantly decreased, but JNK was not found to be different across the three groups. Conclusion: The photothermal effect produced by PDA NPs could reduce tendon adhesion formation in rats by inhibiting myocyte fibrosis, which may have potential in developing endogenous heating for postsurgical tissue adhesions.

Gold-silver alloy hollow nanoshells-based lateral flow immunoassay for colorimetric, photothermal, and SERS tri-mode detection of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody.

Although many approaches have been developed for the quick assessment of SARS-CoV-2 infection, few of them are devoted to the detection of the neutralizing antibody, which is essential for assessing the effectiveness of vaccines. Herein, we developed a tri-mode lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) platform based on gold-silver alloy hollow nanoshells (Au-Ag HNSs) for the sensitive and accurate quantification of neutralizing antibodies. By tuning the shell-to-core ratio, the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) absorption band of the Au-Ag HNSs is located within the near infrared (NIR) region, endowing them with an excellent photothermal effect under the irradiation of optical maser at 808 nm. Further, the Raman reporter molecule 4-mercaptobenzoic acid (MBA) was immobilized on the gold-silver alloy nanoshell to obtain an enhanced SERS signal. Thus, these Au-Ag HNSs could provide colorimetric, photothermal and SERS signals, with which, tri-mode strips for SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody detection were constructed by competitive immunoassay. Since these three kinds of signals could complement one another, a more accurate detection was achieved. The tri-mode LFIA achieved a quantitative detection with detection limit of 20 ng/mL. Moreover, it also successfully detected the serum samples from 98 vaccinated volunteers with 79 positive results, exhibiting great application value in neutralizing antibody detection.

Solar-to-H2 O2 Energy Conversion by the Photothermal Effect of a Polymeric Photocatalyst via a Two-Channel Pathway.

With a view to using solar energy, the exploitation of near-infrared (NIR) light, which constitutes about 50 % of solar energy, in photocatalytic H2 O2 synthesis remains challenging. In this study, resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF), which has a relatively low bandgap and high conductivity, is introduced for photothermal catalytic generation of H2 O2 under ambient conditions. Owing to the promoted surface charge transfer rate under high temperature, the photosynthetic yield reaches roughly 2000 µm within 40 min under 400 mW cm-2 irradiation with a solar-to-chemical conversion (SCC) efficiency of up to 0.19 % at 338 K under ambient conditions, exceeding the rate of photocatalysis with a cooling system by a factor of about 2.5. Notably, the H2 O2 produced by RF during photothermal process was formed via a two-channel pathway, leading to the overall promotion of H2 O2 formation. The resultant H2 O2 can be applied in situ for pollutant removal. This work offers a sustainable and economical route for the efficient formation of H2 O2 .

A 3D Biocompatible Plasmonic Tweezer for Single Cell Manipulation.

Plasmonic tweezers are an emerging research topic because of their low input power and wide operating range from homogeneous particles to complex biological objects. But it is still challenging for plasmonic tweezers to trap or manipulate objects of tens of microns, especially in biological science. This study introduces a new 3D biocompatible plasmonic tweezer for single living cell manipulation in solution. The key design is a tapered tip whose three-layer surface structure consists of nanoprobe, gold nanofilm, and thermosensitive hydrogel, thiolated poly(N-isopropylacrylamide). Incident light excites the surface plasmon polaritons on gold film and generates heat to induce thermally driven phase transition of the thermosensitive hydrogel, which enables reversible binding between functionalized surface and cell membrane and avoids both thermal and mechanical stresses in the meanwhile. The 3D biocompatible plasmonic tweezer realizes selective capture, 3D pathway free transport, and position-controlled release of target cells, and it displays excellent biocompatibility, low energy consumption, and high operational flexibility.

Self-Assembled Corrole/Chitosan Photothermal Nanoparticles for Accelerating Infected Diabetic Wound Healing.

Microvascular dysfunction caused by hyperglycemia leads to slow healing of diabetic wounds and significantly increases the risk of bacterial infection. The misuse of antibiotics can also lead to bacterial resistance, making the management of diabetic wounds more challenging. Thus, developing new antibacterial agents or strategies to overcome antibiotic resistance is highly pursued. Herein, novel supramolecular photothermal nanoparticles (MCC/CS NPs), assembled from mono-carboxyl corrole (MCC) and chitosan via hydrogen bonding and π-π stacking, are developed and used for treating bacterial wound infection. The MCC molecules possess good photothermal performance and the chitosan with inherent bioactivity can exert moderate antibacterial effects. The aggregation of MCC in MCC/CS NPs induced by chitosan-templated self-assembly further quenches molecular fluorescence and realizes an extraordinary photothermal conversion efficiency of 66.4%. Moreover, the highly positively charged MCC/CS NPs can selectively target bacteria via electrostatic interactions. Under near-infrared laser irradiation, the MCC/CS NPs achieve potent photothermal and inherent antimicrobial synergistic effects against Escherichia coli and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in vitro. Furthermore, the bacteria-infected diabetic wound model confirms that the MCC/CS NPs can effectively kill drug-resistant bacteria, accelerate wound healing and angiogenesis, and show good biocompatibility, representing a novel and efficient photothermal antibacterial nanoplatform.