Oxygen‐redox of layer‐structured metal‐oxide cathodes has drawn great attention as an effective approach to break through the bottleneck of their capacity limit. However, reversible oxygen‐redox can ...only be obtained in the high‐voltage region (usually over 3.5 V) in current metal‐oxide cathodes. Here, we realize reversible oxygen‐redox in a wide voltage range of 1.5–4.5 V in a P2‐layered Na0.7Mg0.2Fe0.2Mn0.6□0.2O2 cathode material, where intrinsic vacancies are located in transition‐metal (TM) sites and Mg‐ions are located in Na sites. Mg‐ions in the Na layer serve as “pillars” to stabilize the layered structure during electrochemical cycling, especially in the high‐voltage region. Intrinsic vacancies in the TM layer create the local configurations of “□–O–□”, “Na–O–□” and “Mg–O–□” to trigger oxygen‐redox in the whole voltage range of charge–discharge. Time‐resolved techniques demonstrate that the P2 phase is well maintained in a wide potential window range of 1.5–4.5 V even at 10 C. It is revealed that charge compensation from Mn‐ and O‐ions contributes to the whole voltage range of 1.5–4.5 V, while the redox of Fe‐ions only contributes to the high‐voltage region of 3.0–4.5 V. The orphaned electrons in the nonbonding 2p orbitals of O that point toward TM‐vacancy sites are responsible for reversible oxygen‐redox, and Mg‐ions in Na sites suppress oxygen release effectively.
Na0.7Mg0.2Fe0.2Mn0.6□0.2O2 with native transitional metal (TM) vacancies is designed as a novel cathode material for sodium‐ion batteries. The TM vacancies lead to nonbonding O 2p orbitals in this material, pointing toward these vacancies triggering reversible whole‐voltage‐range oxygen redox during charge and discharge processes. This work provides new ideals for design of cathode materials in anionic redox chemistry.
Confinement of noble nanometals in a zeolite matrix is a promising way to special types of catalysts that show significant advantages in size control, site adjustment, and nano‐architecture design. ...The beauty of zeolite‐confined noble metals lies in their unique confinement effects on a molecular scale, and thus enables spatially confined catalysis akin to enzyme catalysis. In this Minireview, the confined synthesis strategies of zeolite‐confined noble metals will be briefly discussed, showing the processes, advantages, features, and mechanisms. The confined catalysis carried on zeolite‐confined noble metals will be summarized, and great emphasis will be paid to the confinement effects involving size, encapsulation, recognition, and synergy. Great progress of atomic sites in the size effect, supercage stabilization in the encapsulation effect, site adsorption in the recognition effect, and cascade reaction in the synergy effect are highlighted. This Minireview is concluded with challenges and opportunities in terms of the synthesis of zeolite‐confined noble metals and their applications to design multifunctional catalysts with high catalytic activity, selectivity, and stability.
The beauty of zeolite‐confined noble metals lies in their unique confinement effects on a molecular scale, and thus enables spatially confined catalysis akin to enzyme catalysis. This Minireview summarizes synthesis strategies and targeted catalysis applications for multifunctional zeolite‐confined noble metal catalysts.
Abstract
High expression or aberrant activation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is related to tumor progression and therapy resistance across cancer types, including non-small cell lung ...cancer (NSCLC). EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) are first-line therapy for NSCLC. However, patients eventually deteriorate after inevitable acquisition of EGFR TKI-resistant mutations, highlighting the need for therapeutics with alternative mechanisms of action. Here, we report that the elevated tribbles pseudokinase 3 (TRIB3) is positively associated with EGFR stability and NSCLC progression. TRIB3 interacts with EGFR and recruits PKCα to induce a Thr654 phosphorylation and WWP1-induced Lys689 ubiquitination in the EGFR juxtamembrane region, which enhances EGFR recycling, stability, downstream activity, and NSCLC stemness. Disturbing the TRIB3-EGFR interaction with a stapled peptide attenuates NSCLC progression by accelerating EGFR degradation and sensitizes NSCLC cells to chemotherapeutic agents. These findings indicate that targeting EGFR degradation is a previously unappreciated therapeutic option in EGFR-related NSCLC.
Long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) have critical roles in various pathophysiological processes, and are frequently dysregulated in many diseases, particularly in cancer. The lncRNA glypican 3 antisense ...transcript 1 (GPC3‐AS1) has been reported to be a potential biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) screening. However, the exact biological functions of GPC3‐AS1 in HCC, and its roles and regulation mechanisms regarding GPC3 are still unknown. In this study, we observed a significant upregulation of GPC3‐AS1 in HCC. Increased expression of GPC3‐AS1 was associated with α‐fetoprotein, tumor size, microvascular invasion, encapsulation, Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage, and worse prognosis of HCC patients. Furthermore, we found that GPC3‐AS1 physically associated with P300/CBP‐associated factor and recruited it to the GPC3 gene body region, consequently inducing an increase in euchromatic histone marks and activating GPC3 transcription. GPC3‐AS1 expression was strongly correlated with GPC3 in HCC tissues. Gain‐of‐function and loss‐of‐function analyses showed that GPC3‐AS1 overexpression enhanced HCC cell proliferation and migration in vitro and xenograft tumor growth in vivo. GPC3‐AS1 knockdown inhibited HCC cell proliferation and migration. Moreover, the effects of GPC3‐AS1 on HCC cell proliferation and migration were dependent on the upregulation of GPC3. Collectively, our studies indicate that GPC3‐AS1 significantly promotes HCC progression via epigenetically activating GPC3, and identifies GPC3‐AS1 as a potential therapeutic target for HCC.
The long noncoding RNA GPC3‐AS1 is significantly upregulated in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and indicates poor prognosis of HCC patients. GPC3‐AS1 physically associates with P300/CBP‐associated factor (PCAF) and recruits it to the GPC3 gene body region, consequently inducing an increase in euchromatic histone marks and activating GPC3 transcription. GPC3‐AS1 overexpression enhances HCC cell proliferation and migration in vitro and xenograft tumour growth in vivo.
Lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs) are used widely in today's consumer electronics and offer great potential for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug‐in HEVs, pure EVs, and also in smart grids as future ...energy‐storage devices. However, many challenges must be addressed before these future applications of LIBs are realized, such as the energy and power density of LIBs, their cycle and calendar life, safety characteristics, and costs. Recently, a technique called atomic layer deposition (ALD) attracted great interest as a novel tool and approach for resolving these issues. In this article, recent advances in using ALD for LIB studies are thoroughly reviewed, covering two technical routes: 1) ALD for designing and synthesizing new LIB components, i.e., anodes, cathodes, and solid electrolytes, and; 2) ALD used in modifying electrode properties via surface coating. This review will hopefully stimulate more extensive and insightful studies on using ALD for developing high‐performance LIBs.
Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a highly tunable technique for fabricating various nanostructured materials that can potentially be used in lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs) as anodes, cathodes, or inorganic solid electrolytes. It is also a viable approach to coat electrode materials of LIBs for improved performance.
With the rising demand for flexible and wearable electronic devices, flexible power sources with high energy densities are required to provide a sustainable energy supply. Theoretically, ...rechargeable, flexible Li‐O2/air batteries can provide extremely high specific energy densities; however, the high costs, complex synthetic methods, and inferior mechanical properties of the available flexible cathodes severely limit their practical applications. Herein, inspired by the structure of human blood capillary tissue, this study demonstrates for the first time the in situ growth of interpenetrative hierarchical N‐doped carbon nanotubes on the surface of stainless‐steel mesh (N‐CNTs@SS) for the fabrication of a self‐supporting, flexible electrode with excellent physicochemical properties via a facile and scalable one‐step strategy. Benefitting from the synergistic effects of the high electronic conductivity and stable 3D interconnected conductive network structure, the Li‐O2 batteries obtained with the N‐CNTs@SS cathode exhibit superior electrochemical performance, including a high specific capacity (9299 mA h g−1 at 500 mA g−1), an excellent rate capability, and an exceptional cycle stability (up to 232 cycles). Furthermore, as‐fabricated flexible Li‐air batteries containing the as‐prepared flexible super‐hydrophobic cathode show excellent mechanical properties, stable electrochemical performance, and superior H2O resistibility, which enhance their potential to power flexible and wearable electronic devices.
Inspired by blood capillary tissue, a self‐standing, flexible N‐CNTs@SS Li‐O2 battery cathode with an interpenetrative structure is fabricated via a facile and scalable one‐step strategy. The flexible Li‐O2 batteries with N‐CNTs@SS exhibit excellent mechanical properties, stable electrochemical performance, and superior H2O resistibility.
Microbial-induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) represents a promising approach to improve the geotechnical engineering properties of soils through the precipitation of calcium carbonate ...(CaCO
3
) at soil particle contacts and soil particle surfaces. An extensive experimental study was undertaken to investigate the influence of initial relative density on the efficiency of the biocementation process, the reduction of liquefaction susceptibility, and the cyclic response in biocemented calcareous soils. For this purpose, stress-controlled undrained cyclic triaxial shear (CTS) tests were carried out on untreated and MICP-treated calcareous sand specimens for different initial relative densities and magnitudes of biocementation. Improvement in the cyclic response was quantified and compared in terms of excess pore pressure generation, evolution of axial strains, and the number of cycles to liquefaction. The cyclic experiments show that MICP treatment can change the liquefaction failure mechanism from flow failure to cyclic mobility and can significantly change the excess pore pressure generation response of initially loose specimens. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images indicate the CaCO
3
crystals alter the characteristics of the sand particles and confirm the physical change in soil fabric that impacts the dynamic behavior and liquefaction resistance of MICP-treated specimens. Furthermore, the effect of biocementation was contrasted against the effect of relative density alone, and MICP treatment was shown to exhibit greater efficiency in improving the cyclic resistance than densification.
In this paper, a new integral transform operator, which is similar to Fourier transform, is proposed for the first time. As a testing example, an application to the one-dimensional heat-diffusion ...problem is discussed. The result demonstrates accuracy and efficiency of the present technology to find the analytical solution for the heat-transfer problem.
Abstract
In radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGNs), ultra-fast outflows (UFOs) were detected at the inclination angle of ∼10°–70° away from jets. Except for the inclination angle of UFOs, the UFOs ...in radio-loud AGNs have similar properties to that in radio-quiet AGNs. The UFOs with such low inclination cannot be explained in the line-force mechanism. The magnetic-driving mechanism is suggested to explain the UFOs based on a self-similar solution with radiative transfer calculations. However, the energetics of self-similar solution need to be further confirmed based on numerical simulations. To understand the formation and acceleration of UFOs in radio-loud AGNs, this paper presents a model of the disk winds driven by both line force and magnetic field and implements numerical simulations. Initially, a magnetic field is set to 10 times stronger than the gas pressures at the disk surface. Simulation results imply that the disk winds driven by both line force and magnetic field could describe the properties of UFOs in radio-loud AGNs. Pure magnetohydrodynamics (MHDs) simulation is also implemented. When the initial conditions are the same, the hybrid models of magnetic fields and line force are more helpful to form UFOs than the pure MHD models. It is worth studying the case of a stronger magnetic field to confirm this result.
The increasing demands of energy storage require the significant improvement of current Li‐ion battery electrode materials and the development of advanced electrode materials. Thus, it is necessary ...to gain an in‐depth understanding of the reaction processes, degradation mechanism, and thermal decomposition mechanisms under realistic operation conditions. This understanding can be obtained by in situ/operando characterization techniques, which provide information on the structure evolution, redox mechanism, solid‐electrolyte interphase (SEI) formation, side reactions, and Li‐ion transport properties under operating conditions. Here, the recent developments in the in situ/operando techniques employed for the investigation of the structural stability, dynamic properties, chemical environment changes, and morphological evolution are described and summarized. The experimental approaches reviewed here include X‐ray, electron, neutron, optical, and scanning probes. The experimental methods and operating principles, especially the in situ cell designs, are described in detail. Representative studies of the in situ/operando techniques are summarized, and finally the major current challenges and future opportunities are discussed. Several important battery challenges are likely to benefit from these in situ/operando techniques, including the inhomogeneous reactions of high‐energy‐density cathodes, the development of safe and reversible Li metal plating, and the development of stable SEI.
Recent developments of the five important in situ/operando characterization categories for lithium battery research are summarized, including X‐ray, electron, neutron, optical, and scanning probe techniques. For each technique, the operating principles and in situ cell design are described in detail, including representative studies of typical electrode materials and related processes summarized in tables for easy comparison and cross reference.
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