Second near-infrared photothermal therapy (NIR-II PTT, 1000-1500 nm) has recently emerged as a new phototherapeutic modality with the advantages of deeper penetration, less energy dissipation and ...minimal normal-tissue toxicity over traditional first NIR PTT (750-1000 nm). However, suboptimal photothermal conversion and limited therapeutic efficacy remain the major challenges for NIR-II PTT. With the convergence in materials science, nanomedicine and biology, multifunctional NIR-II photothermal inorganic or organic materials have been extensively developed to combine NIR-II PTT with other therapeutic modalities for improved efficacies in treating life-threatening diseases including cancer and infection. This review summarizes the recent advances of NIR-II photothermal combinational theranostics pertinent to chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiotherapy, and photodynamic, sonodynamic, chemodynamic, gene, gas, ionic, vascular and magnetothermal therapy. Potential obstacles and perspectives for future research and clinical translation of this new theranostic modality are also discussed.
This review summarizes the recent development of second near-infrared photothermal combinational nanotheranostics for cancer, infectious diseases and regenerative medicine.
To clarify the moisture migration and microstructure of taro in contact ultrasound enhanced far-infrared radiation drying (CUFRD), low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), scanning electron ...microscopy (SEM), paraffin sectioning and microscopic observation techniques were applied to explore the changes of the drying curves, water status, microstructure, porosity, microscopic images and distribution curves of cell microstructure parameters of taro under different ultrasound powers of 0, 40, and 80 W. The results showed that applying contact ultrasound (CU) during drying was beneficial to accelerating the dehydration process and improving the porosity of taro slice. With the augment of CU power, the drying times of taro reduced by 16.67% to 25.00%, and the effective water diffusion coefficient was improved by 14.72% to 31.38%. In addition, the application of CU resulted in an increase firstly and then decrease in the cross-sectional area and perimeter distribution curves of taro cells and a widening of the peak shape of the distribution curve of taro cell roundness. In conclusion, CU application could cause faster internal moisture migration, and higher CU power had more obvious effect on microstructure and cell morphological parameters of taro during CUFRD.
The extreme Deep Field (XDF) combines data from 10 years of observations with the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and the Wide-Field Camera 3 Infra-Red (WFC3/IR) into the ...deepest image of the sky ever in the optical/near-IR. Since the initial observations of the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field (HUDF) in 2003, numerous surveys and programs, including supernovae follow-up, HUDF09, CANDELS, and HUDF12, have contributed additional imaging data across this region. However, these images have never been combined and made available as one complete ultra-deep image dataset. We combine them now with the XDF program. Our new and improved processing techniques provide higher quality reductions of the total dataset. All WFC3/IR and optical ACS data sets have been fully combined and accurately matched, resulting in the deepest imaging ever taken at these wavelengths, ranging from 29.1 to 30.3 AB mag (5sigma in a 0".35 diameter aperture) in 9 filters. The combined image therefore reaches to 31.2 AB mag 5sigma (32.9 at 1sigma) for a flat functionof sub(nu) source. The gains in the optical for the four filters done in the original ACS HUDF correspond to a typical improvement of 0.15 mag, with gains of 0.25 mag in the deepest areas. Such gains are equivalent to adding ~130 to ~240 orbits of ACS data to the HUDF. Improved processing alone results in a typical gain of ~0.1 mag. Our 5sigma (optical+near-IR) SExtractor catalogs reveal about 14,140 sources in the full field and about 7121 galaxies in the deepest part of the XDF.
Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy occupies a specific spot across the field of bioscience and related disciplines. Its characteristics and application potential differs from infrared (IR) or Raman ...spectroscopy. This vibrational spectroscopy technique elucidates molecular information from the examined sample by measuring absorption bands resulting from overtones and combination excitations. Recent decades brought significant progress in the instrumentation (e.g., miniaturized spectrometers) and spectral analysis methods (e.g., spectral image processing and analysis, quantum chemical calculation of NIR spectra), which made notable impact on its applicability. This review aims to present NIR spectroscopy as a matured technique, yet with great potential for further advances in several directions throughout broadly understood bio-applications. Its practical value is critically assessed and compared with competing techniques. Attention is given to link the bio-application potential of NIR spectroscopy with its fundamental characteristics and principal features of NIR spectra.
Recent developments in targeted photothermal therapy focus on integrating near‐infrared (NIR) light and biocompatible nanostructures. It is yet unclear if graphene oxide nanosheets (GO) can assist in ...the photothermal response of cellular barriers under NIR irradiation. Herein, this study investigates the photothermal response of a cellular barrier treated with different concentrations of GO under the irradiation of NIR light. The synthesized GO nanosheets show good stability in aqueous media. No toxic effects are imposed onto human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) when the cells are treated with GO up to 20 μg/mL for 1 day. In addition, the in vitro cellular barrier model with intercellular tight junctions is formed by using HUVECs, which have a high transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) value of 89.3 Ω · cm2. Under the irradiation of NIR light (980 nm), the photothermal response on the cellular barrier is enhanced by introducing GO, which has been verified by the decrease of TEER value and the increase in the transport of dextran. The results indicate that the thermal response of a cellular barrier exposed to NIR light is non‐linearly enhanced with increasing concentration of GO.
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been applied to treat a wide range of medical conditions, including wet age-related macular degeneration psoriasis, atherosclerosis, viral infection and malignant ...cancers. However, the tissue penetration limitation of excitation light hinders the widespread clinical use of PDT. To overcome this "Achilles' heel", deep PDT, a novel type of phototherapy, has been developed for the efficient treatment of deep-seated diseases. Based on the different excitation sources, including near-infrared (NIR) light, X-ray radiation, and internal self-luminescence, a series of deep PDT techniques have been explored to demonstrate the advantages of deep cancer therapy over conventional PDT excited by ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) light. In particular, the featured applications of deep PDT, such as organelle-targeted deep PDT, hypoxic deep PDT and deep PDT-involved multimodal synergistic therapy are discussed. Finally, the future development and potential challenges of deep PDT are also elucidated for clinical translation. It is highly expected that deep PDT will be developed as a versatile, depth/oxygen-independent and minimally invasive strategy for treating a variety of malignant tumours at deep locations.
This review summarizes the latest progress in deep photodynamic therapy (PDT), which overcomes the Achilles' heel of PDT.
Feasible commercial process to manufacture highly efficient perovskite solar cells.
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•A rapid and nitrogen-free process for the fabrication of planar inverted structured perovskite ...solar cells (PSCs).•An alternative post-annealed method was developed by near-infrared (NIR) radiation to traditional heating oven. The annealed time can be shorten from 1500 s to 30 s by NIR irradiation.•The crystalline and nano-morphological structures of perovskite layers correlated to thermal and NIR annealing effects were revealed by the grazing-incidence wide-angle and small-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS and GISAXS).•Performance of sheet-to-sheet slot-die coated PSCs fabricated under ambient air can be achieved to 12.3%.
A nitrogen-free and slot-die coating fabrication of perovskite solar cells combined with NIR annealing. We develop a fabrication approach of planar inverted structured perovskite solar cell (PSC) in ambient condition with a PCE of 12.4% as compared to that (13.3%) of PSC fabricated in glove box filled with nitrogen. In addition, we demonstrate an alternative post-annealed method by near-infrared (NIR) radiation to traditional heating method by oven. The annealed time by NIR can be shortened from 1500 s to 30 s and the device performance over 10% can be achieved. The present work investigates the NIR effect for different layers in the two-step processing on the cell performance. The grazing-incidence wide-angle and small-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS and GISAXS) techniques for the perovskite layers are performed to reveal the crystalline and nano-morphological structures of perovskite layers correlated to thermal and NIR annealing effects. Based on this approach under ambient air, we scale up to the large-area fabrication using the slot-die coating. The performance of slot-die coated PSC can achieve to 12.3%. The critical step is the control of PbI2 layer thickness. We also applied the NIR radiation to the slot-die coated PSC and the PCE of 11.4% can be achieved. Our study paves a facile way to rapid manufacture and mass production of perovskite solar cells.
We present the Red MSX Source survey, the largest statistically selected catalog of young massive protostars and H II regions to date. We outline the construction of the catalog using mid- and ...near-infrared color selection. We also discuss the detailed follow up work at other wavelengths, including higher spatial resolution data in the infrared. We show that within the adopted selection bounds we are more than 90% complete for the massive protostellar population, with a positional accuracy of the exciting source of better than 2 arcsec. We briefly summarize some of the results that can be obtained from studying the properties of the objects in the catalog as a whole; we find evidence that the most massive stars form: (1) preferentially nearer the Galactic center than the anti-center; (2) in the most heavily reddened environments, suggestive of high accretion rates; and (3) from the most massive cloud cores.
Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are attracting considerable attention around the world. Phosphor materials, as crucial color-converted components, play central roles in LED development. The demands for ...phosphor materials have become increasingly stringent over the past decades, from high brightness to narrowband emission or function-dependent spectrum engineering. Although substantial progress has been made for currently developed phosphor materials, simultaneously satisfying all requirements for high-level applications remains challenging. In this review, we aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of the development of phosphor materials in different generations and to elucidate the key designed mechanisms concerning the activators and the host structures to fulfill the aforementioned aspects. We highlight the developments in phosphor materials through the classification of demands for high luminescence, high thermal stability, narrowband emission for high color gamut, and broadband emission for near-infrared. We also focus on elucidating the key designed mechanisms of phosphor materials in different generations. Furthermore, future perspectives about micro-LED applications and nanoluminescent materials are provided. This study opens up an avenue for designing the luminescent materials of the future.
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