A new nanocomposite consisting of ZnO nanowire turf‐coated Bi2O3 plates was synthesized using a method combining a chemical bath and hydrothermal crystal growth through sputtering ZnO seed ...layer‐assisted growth. Structural analysis revealed that highly crystalline, high‐density, one‐dimensional (1D) ZnO crystals were uniformly coated on the organized two‐dimensional (2D) Bi2O3 plates with a single β phase or dual α/β polymorphic phases. The Bi2O3–ZnO composites exhibited enhanced absorption properties in the ultraviolet and visible regions compared with pristine Bi2O3 and ZnO. Furthermore, the Bi2O3–ZnO composites exhibited higher photoactive performance than that of the pristine Bi2O3 and ZnO because of the low recombination rate of photoinduced electron−hole pairs caused by the vectorial transfer of electrons and holes between ZnO and Bi2O3 and the substantially increased surface area of the unique composite morphology. The ZnO nanowire turf‐coated Bi2O3 plates with a α/β‐Bi2O3 matrix exhibited photoelectrochemical and photocatalytic properties superior to those of the composite with a single β‐Bi2O3 matrix. The coexistence of α/β homojunction in the Bi2O3 matrix and the abundant heterojunctions between the ZnO nanowires and Bi2O3 plates substantially enhanced photoexcited charge separation efficiency. Growing high‐density 1D ZnO on 2D Bi2O3 via a combination methodology and crystallographic phase control provided a promising material design route for nanocomposite systems with high photoactivity for photoexcited device applications.
Recently, interest in aluminium ion batteries with aluminium anodes, graphite cathodes and ionic liquid electrolytes has increased; however, much remains to be done to increase the cathode capacity ...and to understand details of the anion-graphite intercalation mechanism. Here, an aluminium ion battery cell made using pristine natural graphite flakes achieves a specific capacity of ∼110 mAh g
with Coulombic efficiency ∼98%, at a current density of 99 mA g
(0.9 C) with clear discharge voltage plateaus (2.25-2.0 V and 1.9-1.5 V). The cell has a capacity of 60 mAh g
at 6 C, over 6,000 cycles with Coulombic efficiency ∼ 99%. Raman spectroscopy shows two different intercalation processes involving chloroaluminate anions at the two discharging plateaus, while C-Cl bonding on the surface, or edges of natural graphite, is found using X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Finally, theoretical calculations are employed to investigate the intercalation behaviour of choloraluminate anions in the graphite electrode.
Controlling matter-light interactions with cavities is of fundamental importance in modern science and technology
. This is exemplified in the strong-coupling regime, where matter-light hybrid modes ...form, with properties that are controllable by optical-wavelength photons
. By contrast, matter excitations on the nanometre scale are harder to access. In two-dimensional van der Waals heterostructures, a tunable moiré lattice potential for electronic excitations may form
, enabling the generation of correlated electron gases in the lattice potentials
. Excitons confined in moiré lattices have also been reported
, but no cooperative effects have been observed and interactions with light have remained perturbative
. Here, by integrating MoSe
-WS
heterobilayers in a microcavity, we establish cooperative coupling between moiré-lattice excitons and microcavity photons up to the temperature of liquid nitrogen, thereby integrating versatile control of both matter and light into one platform. The density dependence of the moiré polaritons reveals strong nonlinearity due to exciton blockade, suppressed exciton energy shift and suppressed excitation-induced dephasing, all of which are consistent with the quantum confined nature of the moiré excitons. Such a moiré polariton system combines strong nonlinearity and microscopic-scale tuning of matter excitations using cavity engineering and long-range light coherence, providing a platform with which to study collective phenomena from tunable arrays of quantum emitters.
The recent development of plasmonics has overcome the optical diffraction limit and fostered the development of several important components including nanolasers, low-operation-power modulators, and ...high-speed detectors. In particular, the advent of surface-plasmon-polariton (SPP) nanolasers has enabled the development of coherent emitters approaching the nanoscale. SPP nanolasers widely adopted metal–insulator–semiconductor structures because the presence of an insulator can prevent large metal loss. However, the insulator is not necessary if permittivity combination of laser structures is properly designed. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a SPP nanolaser with a ZnO nanowire on the as-grown single-crystalline aluminum. The average lasing threshold of this simple structure is 20 MW/cm2, which is four-times lower than that of structures with additional insulator layers. Furthermore, single-mode laser operation can be sustained at temperatures up to 353 K. Our study represents a major step toward the practical realization of SPP nanolasers.
The soft and polar nature of quasi‐2D (PEA)2PbBr4 perovskite, and robust photo‐generated excitons lead exciton‐polaritons and exciton‐polarons as the important phenomena near the band edge for ...application in the lighting aspect. In this work, a convenient methodology is proposed based on the polariton resonant modes in temperature‐dependent (77 K to RT) spectroscopy, and investigate the effect of these quasi‐particles on refractive index dispersion. The large binding energy (≈335 meV) of quasi‐2D excitons is obtained by the reflectance measurements at 77 K. Stable exciton‐polaritons and exciton‐polarons are confirmed by energy dispersions and the observation of self‐trapped exciton‐polaron state, respectively. Furthermore, the large negative thermal‐optic coefficient due to damping effect of exciton‐phonon scattering is observed. The phenomenon is opposite to those observed in conventional semiconductors (e.g., Si, Ge, GaN, AlN, GaAs, AlAs, and ZnO etc.). The observed stable negative thermal‐optic coefficients from 160 K to RT indicate that the quasi‐2D perovskite can be used as a phase compensator for conventional semiconductor materials.
The shrinkage of the energy difference between lower polariton branches (LPs) and upper polariton branches (UPs) proves that oscillator strength decreases when the temperature rises from 77 to 300 K. Therefore, the strong damping effect of exciton‐phonon interactions reduces the oscillator strength when the temperature rises, and further result in the negative thermal‐optic behaviors of quasi‐2D (PEA)2PbBr4 perovskite.
Cancer metastasis is a common cause of failure in cancer therapy. However, over 60% of oral cancer patients present with advanced stage disease, and the five‐year survival rates of these patients ...decrease from 72.6% to 20% as the stage becomes more advanced. In order to manage oral cancer, identification of metastasis biomarker and mechanism is critical. In this study, we use a pair of oral squamous cell carcinoma lines, OC3, and invasive OC3‐I5 as a model system to examine invasive mechanism and to identify potential therapeutic targets. We used two‐dimensional differential gel electrophoresis (2D‐DIGE) and matrix‐assisted laser desorption ionization time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry (MALDI‐TOF/TOF MS) to examine the global protein expression changes between OC3 and invasive OC3‐I5. A proteomic study reveals that invasive properties alter the expression of 101 proteins in OC3‐I5 cells comparing to OC3 cells. Further studies have used RNA interference technique to monitor the influence of progesterone receptor membrane component 1 (PGRMC1) protein in invasion and evaluate their potency in regulating invasion and the mechanism it involved. The results demonstrated that expression of epithelial‐mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers including Twist, p‐Src, Snail1, SIP1, JAM‐A, vimentin and vinculin was increased in OC3‐I5 compared to OC3 cells, whereas E‐cadherin expression was decreased in the OC3‐I5 cells. Moreover, in mouse model, PGRMC1 is shown to affect not only migration and invasion but also metastasis in vivo. Taken together, the proteomic approach allows us to identify numerous proteins, including PGRMC1, involved in invasion mechanism. Our results provide useful diagnostic markers and therapeutic candidates for the treatment of oral cancer invasion.
Semiconductor microcavities with a high quality‐factor are an important component for photonics research and technology, especially in the strong coupling regime. While van der Waals semiconductors ...have emerged as an interesting platform for photonics due to their strong exciton–photon interaction strength and engineering flexibility, incorporating them in photonic devices requires heterogeneous integration and remains a challenge. This study demonstrates a method to assemble high quality factor microcavities for van der Waals materials, using high reflectance top mirrors which, similar to van der Waals materials themselves, can be nondestructively and reliably peeled off the substrate and transferred onto the rest of the device. Microcavities are created with quality factors consistently above 2000 and up to 11000 ± 800; and the strong coupling regime is demonstrated. The method can be generalized to other types of heterogeneously integrated photonic structures and will facilitate research on cavity quantum electrodynamic and photonic systems using van der Waals materials.
A new type of microcavity for van der Waals materials is demonstrated using mirrors which, similar to van der Waals materials themselves, can be nondestructively and reliably peeled off the substrate and transferred onto the rest of the device. Such cavities feature consistently high quality factors while allowing precise control of the cavity resonance and ready integration of van der Waals materials.
Three-dimensional Bi2O3 crystals with various morphologies were successfully synthesized on F-doped tin oxide substrates with and without homoseed layers via chemical bath deposition (CBD) routes. ...The structural analysis reveals that control of the pH value of the reaction solution resulted in as-grown Bi2O3 crystals with nanosheet and plate morphologies. A lower pH value of the reaction solution engendered formation of a porous sheet-like morphology of Bi2O3; by contrast, a higher pH value of the reaction solution is favorable for formation of solid Bi2O3 plates on the substrates. Furthermore, a sputter coated Bi2O3 seed layer with dual α- and β-Bi2O3 phases plays an important role in the CBD-derived Bi2O3 crystallographic structures. The Bi2O3 crystals formed via CBD processes without a sputter coated Bi2O3 homoseed layer demonstrated a high purity in β-Bi2O3 phase; those grown with a homoseed layer exhibited a dual α/β phase. The photoactive performance results show that construction of an α/β-Bi2O3 homojunction in the CBD-derived Bi2O3 crystals substantially improved their photoactive performance. Comparatively, the porous Bi2O3 nanosheets with a dual α/β-Bi2O3 phase demonstrated the highest photoactive performance among various Bi2O3 crystals in this study. The superior photoactivity of the porous α/β-Bi2O3 nanosheets herein is attributed to their high light absorption capacity and photoinduced charge separation efficiency. The experimental results in this study provide a promising approach to design CBD-derived Bi2O3 crystals with desirable photoelectric conversion functions via facile morphology control and seed layer crystal engineering.
Hemodynamic stability is important during neurointerventional procedures. However, ICP or blood pressure may increase due to endotracheal extubation. The aim of this study was to compare the ...hemodynamic effects of sugammadex and neostigmine with atropine in neurointerventional procedures during emergence from anesthesia.
Patients undergoing neurointerventional procedures were allocated to the sugammadex group (Group S) and the neostigmine group (Group N). Group S was administered IV 2 mg/kg sugammadex when a train-of-four (TOF) count of 2 was present, and Group N was administered neostigmine 50 mcg/kg with atropine 0.2 mg/kg at a TOF count of 2. We recorded heart rate, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, mean blood pressure (MAP), and peripheral arterial oxygen saturation during administration of the reverse agent and at 2, 5, 10, 15, 30, 120 min, and 24 h thereafter. The primary outcome was blood pressure and heart rate change after the reversal agent was given. The secondary outcomes were systolic blood pressure variability standard deviation (a measure of the amount of variation or dispersion of a set of values), systolic blood pressure variability-successive variation (square root of the average squared difference between successive blood pressure measurements), nicardipine use, time-to-TOF ratio ≥0.9 after the administration of reversal agent, and time from the administration of the reversal agent to tracheal extubation.
A total of 31 patients were randomized to sugammadex, and 30 patients were randomized to neostigmine. Except for anesthesia time, there were no significant differences in any of the clinical characteristics between the two groups. The results demonstrated that the increase in MAP from period A to B was significantly greater in Group N than in Group S (regression coefficient = -10, 95% confidence interval = -17.3 to -2.7,
= 0.007). The MAP level was significantly increased from period A to B in the neostigmine group (95.1 vs. 102.4 mm Hg,
= 0.015), but it was not altered in Group S. In contrast, the change in HR from periods A to B was not significantly different between groups.
We suggest that sugammadex is a better option than neostigmine in interventional neuroradiological procedures due to the shorter extubation time and more stable hemodynamic change during emergence.
In this study, the potentiometric arrayed glucose biosensors, which were based on zinc oxide (ZnO) or aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) sensing membranes, were fabricated by using screen-printing ...technology and a sputtering system, and graphene oxide (GO) and Nafion-glucose oxidase (GOx) were used to modify sensing membranes by using the drop-coating method. Next, the material properties were characterized by using a Raman spectrometer, a field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), and a scanning probe microscope (SPM). The sensing characteristics of the glucose biosensors were measured by using the voltage-time (V-T) measurement system. Finally, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was conducted to analyze their charge transfer abilities. The results indicated that the average sensitivity of the glucose biosensor based on Nafion-GOx/GO/AZO was apparently higher than that of the glucose biosensor based on Nafion-GOx/GO/ZnO. In addition, the glucose biosensor based on Nafion-GOx/GO/AZO exhibited an excellent average sensitivity of 15.44 mV/mM and linearity of 0.997 over a narrow range of glucose concentration range, a response time of 26 s, a limit of detection (LOD) of 1.89 mM, and good reproducibility. In terms of the reversibility and stability, the hysteresis voltages (V
) were 3.96 mV and 2.42 mV. Additionally, the glucose biosensor also showed good anti-inference ability and reproducibility. According to these results, it is demonstrated that AZO is a promising material, which could be used to develop a reliable, simple, and low-cost potentiometric glucose biosensor.
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