The demand for practical and cost‐effective environmental treatment and energy storage materials is exploding. Porous polymeric and carbonaceous materials have attracted tremendous interest on ...account of their well‐developed porosity and tunable surface chemistry. Functionalization of pore structures further enhances their properties for environmental treatment and energy storage. Herein, the procedures for functionalization of porous structures are introduced, including predesign and postsynthetic strategies. Subsequently, the important advancements of emerging porous polymers for environmental treatment in sorption (e.g., organic micropollutant adsorption, heavy metal ion removal, radionuclide extraction, and oil absorption) and membrane separation (e.g., aqueous micropollutant separation, organic solvent nanofiltration, desalination and pervaporation), as well as for energy storage ranging from the electrodes and separators of batteries to supercapacitor electrodes are highlighted. Moreover, given the combined merits of high intrinsic conductivity, porosity, and physicochemical stability, novel polymer‐based porous carbons for energy storage are also highlighted. Key functionalization chemistry for each application is discussed and an in‐depth understanding of the structure–property relationships of these functional porous materials is provided. Finally, the challenges and perspectives of emerging functional porous polymeric and carbonaceous materials for environmental treatment and energy storage are proposed.
Procedures for the functionalization of porous polymeric and carbonaceous materials are introduced, including predesigned and postsynthetic strategies. Key functionalization chemistry for applications in environmental treatment and energy storage is discussed and an in‐depth understanding of the structure–property relationships is provided. Finally, the challenges and perspectives of these emerging functional porous materials are proposed.
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•Detailed role that nanotechnology can play in addressing this pandemic.•Using FDA-approved nanomaterials for drug/vaccine delivery, including further exploration of the inhalation ...pathway.•Introducing promising nanomaterials currently in clinical trials for drug/vaccine delivery.•Designing novel biocompatible nanomaterials to combat the virus via interfering in its life cycle.•Promoting the utilization of nanomaterials in pneumonia treatment.
In just a few months, SARS-CoV-2 and the disease it causes, COVID-19, created a worldwide pandemic. Virologists, biologists, pharmacists, materials scientists, and clinicians are collaborating to develop efficient treatment strategies. Overall, in addition to the use of clinical equipment to assist patient rehabilitation, antiviral drugs and vaccines are the areas of greatest focus. Given the physical size of SARS-CoV-2 and the vaccine delivery platforms currently in clinical trials, the relevance of nanotechnology is clear, and previous antiviral research using nanomaterials also supports this connection. Herein we briefly summarize current representative strategies regarding nanomaterials in antiviral research. We focus specifically on SARS-CoV-2 and the detailed role that nanotechnology can play in addressing this pandemic, including i) using FDA-approved nanomaterials for drug/vaccine delivery, including further exploration of the inhalation pathway; ii) introducing promising nanomaterials currently in clinical trials for drug/vaccine delivery; iii) designing novel biocompatible nanomaterials to combat the virus via interfering in its life cycle; and iv) promoting the utilization of nanomaterials in pneumonia treatment.
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.
Versatile strategies such as pore structure regulation, presynthetic modification, and postsynthetic modification are adopted to design and construct novel porous polymers for task‐specific applications in gas adsorption, water treatment, separation, heterogeneous catalysis, electrochemical energy storage, precursors for porous carbons, and other interesting fields.
Protecting the whole small intestine from radiation-induced intestinal injury during the radiotherapy of abdominal or pelvic solid tumors remains an unmet clinical need. Amifostine is a promising ...selective radioprotector for normal tissues. However, its oral application in intestinal radioprotection remains challenging. Herein, we use microalga Spirulina platensis as a microcarrier of Amifostine to construct an oral delivery system. The system shows comprehensive drug accumulation and effective radioprotection in the whole small intestine that is significantly superior to free drug and its enteric capsule, preventing the radiation-induced intestine injury and prolonging the survival without influencing the tumor regression. It also shows benefits on the gut microbiota homeostasis and long-term safety. Based on a readily available natural microcarrier, this work presents a convenient oral delivery system to achieve effective radioprotection for the whole small intestine, providing a competitive strategy with great clinical translation potential.
Abstract
The modulation of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels is crucial for cellular homeostasis and determination of cellular fate. A sublethal level of ROS sustains cell ...proliferation, differentiation and promotes tumor metastasis, while a drastic ROS burst directly induces apoptosis. Herein, surface-oxidized arsenene nanosheets (As/As
x
O
y
NSs) with type II heterojunction are fabricated with efficient ·O
2
−
and
1
O
2
production and glutathione consumption through prolonging the lifetime of photo-excited electron-hole pairs. Moreover, the portion of As
x
O
y
with oxygen vacancies not only catalyzes a Fenton-like reaction, generating ·OH and O
2
from H
2
O
2
, but also inactivates main anti-oxidants to cut off the “retreat routes” of ROS. After polydopamine (PDA) and cancer cell membrane (M) coating, the engineered As/As
x
O
y
@PDA@M NSs serve as an intelligent theranostic platform with active tumor targeting and long-term blood circulation. Given its narrow-band-gap-enabled in vivo fluorescence imaging properties, As/As
x
O
y
@PDA@M NSs could be applied as an imaging-guided non-invasive and real-time nanomedicine for cancer therapy.
This review provides an overview of biologically modified nanoparticles as theranostic bionanomaterials, which are anticipated to revolutionize the current theranostic modalities of diseases in the ...clinic and exhibit huge potential for further clinical applications.
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Inspired by natural biology, cell membrane-mimetic surface engineering and cell membrane camouflaging technology have been widely investigated. Notably, the cell membrane-camouflaged nanoparticles (CM-NPs), which are produced by fusing synthetic nanoparticles with cellular membranes, gain unprecedented attention in biomedical fields. Compared with conventional nanosystems, these biomimetic nanoparticles (NPs) are bestowed with favored properties of elongated circulation time, immune evading and active targeting, which exhibit great potential in numerous biomedical applications and are anticipated to revolutionize the traditional nanomedicine. So far, a variety of cell membranes, along with expansive options of core materials, have been extensively investigated to construct the biomimetic system with unique functionalities. This review describes the evolution process from cell membrane-mimetic surface engineering to cell membrane camouflaging technology, which focuses on (I) cell membrane-mimetic surface engineering strategies (II) the fabrication of CM-NPs, (III) cell membrane-camouflaged nano-carriers, (VI) cell membrane camouflaged nano-phototherapeutic agents, (V) cell membrane camouflaged nano-antidotes, (VI) cell membrane camouflaged nanovaccines, (VII) cell membrane camouflaged nanoprobes, and (VIII) other relevant applications, providing an overview of the latest progress in the fabrication and application of cell membrane-based biomimetic and highlighting the major challenges as well as opportunities in this field.
Clay-based nanomaterials, especially 2:1 aluminosilicates such as vermiculite, biotite, and illite, have demonstrated great potential in various fields. However, their characteristic sandwiched ...structures and the lack of effective methods to exfoliate two-dimensional (2D) functional core layers (FCLs) greatly limit their future applications. Herein, we present a universal wet-chemical exfoliation method based on alkali etching that can intelligently "capture" the ultrathin and biocompatible FCLs (MgO and Fe
O
) sandwiched between two identical tetrahedral layers (SiO
and Al
O
) from vermiculite. Without the sandwich structures that shielded their active sites, the obtained FCL nanosheets (NSs) exhibit a tunable and appropriate electron band structure (with the bandgap decreased from 2.0 eV to 1.4 eV), a conductive band that increased from -0.4 eV to -0.6 eV, and excellent light response characteristics. The great properties of 2D FCL NSs endow them with exciting potential in diverse applications including energy, photocatalysis, and biomedical engineering. This study specifically highlights their application in cancer theranostics as an example, potentially serving as a prelude to future extensive studies of 2D FCL NSs.
The treatment of diabetic ulcer (DU) remains a major clinical challenge due to the complex wound-healing milieu that features chronic wounds, impaired angiogenesis, persistent pain, bacterial ...infection, and exacerbated inflammation. A strategy that effectively targets all these issues has proven elusive. Herein, we use a smart black phosphorus (BP)-based gel with the characteristics of rapid formation and near-infrared light (NIR) responsiveness to address these problems. The in situ sprayed BP-based gel could act as 1) a temporary, biomimetic “skin” to temporarily shield the tissue from the external environment and accelerate chronic wound healing by promoting the proliferation of endothelial cells, vascularization, and angiogenesis and 2) a drug “reservoir” to store therapeutic BP and pain-relieving lidocaine hydrochloride (Lid). Within several minutes of NIR laser irradiation, the BP-based gel generates local heat to accelerate microcirculatory blood flow, mediate the release of loaded Lid for “on-demand” pain relief, eliminate bacteria, and reduce inflammation. Therefore, our study not only introduces a concept of in situ sprayed, NIR-responsive pain relief gel targeting the challengingwound-healing milieu in diabetes but also provides a proof-of-concept application of BP-based materials in DU treatment.
While the printed circuit board (PCB) has been widely considered as the building block of integrated electronics, the world is switching to pursue new ways of merging integrated electronic circuits ...with textiles to create flexible and wearable devices. Herein, as an alternative for PCB, we described a non-printed integrated-circuit textile (NIT) for biomedical and theranostic application via a weaving method. All the devices are built as fibers or interlaced nodes and woven into a deformable textile integrated circuit. Built on an electrochemical gating principle, the fiber-woven-type transistors exhibit superior bending or stretching robustness, and were woven as a textile logical computing module to distinguish different emergencies. A fiber-type sweat sensor was woven with strain and light sensors fibers for simultaneously monitoring body health and the environment. With a photo-rechargeable energy textile based on a detailed power consumption analysis, the woven circuit textile is completely self-powered and capable of both wireless biomedical monitoring and early warning. The NIT could be used as a 24/7 private AI "nurse" for routine healthcare, diabetes monitoring, or emergencies such as hypoglycemia, metabolic alkalosis, and even COVID-19 patient care, a potential future on-body AI hardware and possibly a forerunner to fabric-like computers.
Fluorosurfactant-stabilized microfluidic droplets are widely used as pico- to nanoliter volume reactors in chemistry and biology. However, current surfactants cannot completely prevent inter-droplet ...transfer of small organic molecules encapsulated or produced inside the droplets. In addition, the microdroplets typically coalesce at temperatures higher than 80 °C. Therefore, the use of droplet-based platforms for ultrahigh-throughput combination drug screening and polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based rare mutation detection has been limited. Here, we provide insights into designing surfactants that form robust microdroplets with improved stability and resistance to inter-droplet transfer. We used a panel of dendritic oligo-glycerol-based surfactants to demonstrate that a high degree of inter- and intramolecular hydrogen bonding, as well as the dendritic architecture, contribute to high droplet stability in PCR thermal cycling and minimize inter-droplet transfer of the water-soluble fluorescent dye sodium fluorescein salt and the drug doxycycline.
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