Xenotransplantation is a promising strategy to alleviate the shortage of organs for human transplantation. In addition to the concerns about pig-to-human immunological compatibility, the risk of ...cross-species transmission of porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs) has impeded the clinical application of this approach. We previously demonstrated the feasibility of inactivating PERV activity in an immortalized pig cell line. We now confirm that PERVs infect human cells, and we observe the horizontal transfer of PERVs among human cells. Using CRISPR-Cas9, we inactivated all of the PERVs in a porcine primary cell line and generated PERV-inactivated pigs via somatic cell nuclear transfer. Our study highlights the value of PERV inactivation to prevent cross-species viral transmission and demonstrates the successful production of PERV-inactivated animals to address the safety concern in clinical xenotransplantation.
In vivo fluorescent monitoring of physiological processes with high‐fidelity is essential in disease diagnosis and biological research, but faces extreme challenges due to aggregation‐caused ...quenching (ACQ) and short‐wavelength fluorescence. The development of high‐performance and long‐wavelength aggregation‐induced emission (AIE) fluorophores is in high demand for precise optical bioimaging. The chromophore quinoline‐malononitrile (QM) has recently emerged as a new class of AIE building block that possesses several notable features, such as red to near‐infrared (NIR) emission, high brightness, marked photostability, and good biocompatibility. In this minireview, we summarize some recent advances of our established AIE building block of QM, focusing on the AIE mechanism, regulation of emission wavelength and morphology, the facile scale‐up and fast preparation for AIE nanoparticles, as well as potential biomedical imaging applications.
In this Minireview, recent advances related to the aggregation‐induced emission (AIE) building block quinoline‐malononitrile are summarized. It focuses on the AIE mechanism, regulation of emission wavelength and morphology, the facile scale‐up and fast preparation for AIE nanoparticles, and potential biomedical imaging applications.
Layered transition metal oxide (NaxTMO2), being one of the most promising cathode candidates for sodium‐ion batteries (SIBs), have attracted intensive interest because of their nontoxicity, high ...theoretical capacities, and easy manufacturability. However, their physical and electrochemical properties of water sensitivity, sluggish Na+ transport kinetics, and irreversible multiple‐phase translations hinder the practical application. Here, a concept of surface lattice‐matched engineering is proposed based on in situ spinel interfacial reconstruction to design a spinel coating P2/P3 heterostructure cathode material with enhanced air stability, rate, and cycle performance. The novel structure and its formation process are verified by transmission electron microscopy and in situ high‐temperature X‐ray diffraction. The electrode exhibits an excellent rate performance with the highly reversible phase transformation demonstrated by in situ charging/discharging X‐ray diffraction. Additionally, even after a rigorous water sensitivity test, the electrode materials still retain almost the same superior electrochemical performance as the fresh sample. The results show that the surface spinel phase can play a vital role in preventing the ingress of water molecules, improving transport kinetics, and enhancing structural integrity for NaxTMO2 cathodes. The concept of surface lattice‐matched engineering based on in situ spinel interfacial reconstruction will be helpful for designing new ultra‐stable cathode materials for high‐performance SIBs.
The formation process and function mechanism for inhibiting phase transformation and enhancing air stability of surface lattice‐matched engineering based on in situ spinel interfacial reconstruction are studied. This strategy of designing heterostructure with in situ interfacial reconstruction will inspire the exploitation of new chemistries and materials.
Developing dopant‐free hole transporting materials (HTMs) is of vital importance for addressing the notorious stability issue of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, efficient dopant‐free HTMs are ...scarce. Herein, we improve the performance of dopant‐free HTMs featuring with a quinoxaline core via rational π‐extension. Upon incorporating rotatable or chemically fixed thienyl substitutes on the pyrazine ring, the resulting molecular HTMs TQ3 and TQ4 show completely different molecular arrangement as well as charge transporting capabilities. Comparing with TQ3, the coplanar π‐extended quinoxaline based TQ4 endows enriched intermolecular interactions and stronger π–π stacking, thus achieving a higher hole mobility of 2.08×10−4 cm2 V−1 s−1. It also shows matched energy levels and high thermal stability for application in PSCs. Planar n‐i‐p structured PSCs employing dopant‐free TQ4 as HTM exhibits power conversion efficiency (PCE) over 21 % with excellent long‐term stability.
Quinoxaline derivatives, featuring with rotatable and chemically fixed thienyl substitutes, are introduced as the core for constructing dopant‐free hole transporting materials (HTMs). The coplanar π‐extended quinoxaline‐based HTM TQ4 achieves the best photovoltaic performance (exceed 21 %) among planar n‐i‐p structured dopant‐free perovskite solar cells.
Developing high‐performance batteries through applying renewable resources is of great significance for meeting ever‐growing energy demands and sustainability requirements. Biomaterials have ...overwhelming advantages in material abundance, environmental benignity, low cost, and more importantly, multifunctionalities from structural and compositional diversity. Therefore, significant and fruitful research on exploiting various natural biomaterials (e.g., soy protein, chitosan, cellulose, fungus, etc.) for boosting high‐energy lithium‐based batteries by means of making or modifying critical battery components (e.g., electrode, electrolyte, and separator) are reported. In this review, the recent advances and main strategies for adopting biomaterials in electrode, electrolyte, and separator engineering for high‐energy lithium‐based batteries are comprehensively summarized. The contributions of biomaterials to stabilizing electrodes, capturing electrochemical intermediates, and protecting lithium metal anodes/enhancing battery safety are specifically emphasized. Furthermore, advantages and challenges of various strategies for fabricating battery materials via biomaterials are described. Finally, future perspectives and possible solutions for further development of biomaterials for high‐energy lithium‐based batteries are proposed.
Adopting biomaterials for boosting high‐energy lithium‐based batteries strongly benefits sustainable and clean energy storage. This review covers primary strategies for engineering of electrodes, electrolytes, and separators by biomaterials, which aim to resolve the critical issues of high‐energy lithium‐based batteries. Significant contributions from biomaterials to specific battery systems, current challenges for each strategy, and forthcoming opportunities are discussed.
Sensing of metal ions and anions is of great importance because of their widespread distribution in environmental systems and biological processes. Colorimetric and fluorescent chemosensors based on ...organic molecular species have been demonstrated to be effective for the detection of various ions and possess the significant advantages of low cost, high sensitivity, and convenient implementation. Of the available classes of organic molecules, porphyrin analogues possess inherently many advantageous features, making them suitable for the design of ion chemosensors, with the targeted sensing behavior achieved and easily modulated based on their following characteristics: (1) NH moieties properly disposed for binding of anions through cooperative hydrogen-bonding interactions; (2) multiple pyrrolic N atoms or other heteroatoms for selectively chelating metal ions; (3) variability of macrocycle size and peripheral substitution for modulation of ion selectivity and sensitivity; and (4) tunable near-infrared emission and good biocompatibility. In this Review, design strategies, sensing mechanisms, and sensing performance of ion chemosensors based on porphyrin analogues are described by use of extensive examples. Ion chemosensors based on normal porphyrins and linear oligopyrroles are also briefly described. This Review provides valuable information for researchers of related areas and thus may inspire the development of more practical and effective approaches for designing high-performance ion chemosensors based on porphyrin analogues and other relevant compounds.
Accurate electric load forecasting is critical in guaranteeing the efficiency of the load dispatch and supply by a power system, which prevents the wasting of electricity and facilitates energy ...sustainability. Applications of hybrid intelligent computing methods and swarm-based algorithms with the support vector regression (SVR) model are very promising for solving the problem of premature convergence. This paper presents a novel SVR-based electric load forecasting model by hybridizing variational mode decomposition (VMD), the chaotic mapping mechanism, and the grey wolf optimizer (GWO) in the VMD-SVR-CGWO model to improve the solution searching experiences and to determine the appropriate combination of SVR’s parameters that improve forecasting accuracy. Numerical examples that involve two widely known electric load data sets reveal that the proposed VMD-SVR-CGWO model outperforms other models with respect to forecasting accuracy.
The ubiquitin‐proteasome system (UPS) is a rapid regulatory mechanism for selective protein degradation in plants and plays crucial roles in growth and development. There is increasing evidence that ...the UPS is also an integral part of plant adaptation to environmental stress, such as drought, salinity, cold, nutrient deprivation and pathogens. This review focuses on recent studies illustrating the important functions of the UPS components E2s, E3s and subunits of the proteasome and describes the regulation of proteasome activity during plant responses to environment stimuli. The future research hotspots and the potential for utilization of the UPS to improve plant tolerance to stress are discussed.
The ubiquitin‐proteasome system (UPS) plays crucial roles in plant responses to environment stimuli through degrading distinct target proteins. This review summaries recent progress in our understanding of the regulation of UPS components, subunits and proteasome activity under abiotic and biotic stress, and future research hotspots are discussed.
Inverted‐structured perovskite solar cells (PSCs) mostly employ poly‐triarylamines (PTAAs) as hole‐transporting materials (HTMs), which generally result in low‐quality buried interface due to their ...hydrophobic nature, shallow HOMO levels, and absence of passivation groups. Herein, the authors molecularly engineer the structure of PTAA via removing alkyl groups and incorporating a multifunctional pyridine unit, which not only regulates energy levels and surface wettability, but also passivates interfacial trap‐states, thus addressing above‐mentioned issues simultaneously. By altering the linking‐site on pyridine unit from ortho‐ (o‐PY) to meta‐ (m‐PY) and para‐position (p‐PY), they observed a gradually improved hydrophilicity and passivation efficacy, mainly owing to increased exposure of the pyridine‐nitrogen as well as its lone electron pair, which enhances the contact and interactions with perovskite. The open‐circuit voltage and power conversion efficiency (PCE) of inverted‐structured PSCs based on these HTMs increased with the same trend. Consequently, the optimal p‐PY as HTM enables facile deposition of uniform perovskite films without complicated interlayer optimizations, delivering a remarkably high PCE exceeding 22% (0.09 cm2). Moreover, when enlarging device area tenfold, a comparable PCE of over 20% (1 cm2) can be obtained. These results are among the highest efficiencies for inverted PSCs, demonstrating the high potential of p‐PY for future applications.
The quality of buried interfaces in inverted perovskite solar cells is improved via constructing hole‐transporting materials with deep HOMO levels, high wetting, and passivation capabilities. By systematically regulating the linking‐site of pyridine unit, high efficiencies exceeding 22% (0.09 cm2) and 20% (1 cm2) are achieved.
The charge transport system in an energy storage device (ESD) fundamentally controls the electrochemical performance and device safety. As the skeleton of the charge transport system, the “traffic” ...networks connecting the active materials are primary structural factors controlling the transport of ions/electrons. However, with the development of ESDs, it becomes very critical but challenging to build traffic networks with rational structures and mechanical robustness, which can support high energy density, fast charging and discharging capability, cycle stability, safety, and even device flexibility. This is especially true for ESDs with high‐capacity active materials (e.g., sulfur and silicon), which show notable volume change during cycling. Therefore, there is an urgent need for cost‐effective strategies to realize robust transport networks, and an in‐depth understanding of the roles of their structures and properties in device performance. To address this urgent need, the primary strategies reported recently are summarized here into three categories according to their controllability over ion‐transport networks, electron‐transport networks, or both of them. More specifically, the significant studies on active materials, binders, electrode designs based on various templates, pore additives, etc., are introduced accordingly. Finally, significant challenges and opportunities for building robust charge transport system in next‐generation energy storage devices are discussed.
The charge‐transport network structures serving as conduction pathways for ions/electrons play an increasingly critical role in next‐generation energy‐storage devices. They fundamentally control the overall electrochemical performance, device safety, and flexibility. The tremendous efforts on composite electrodes, from the perspective of transport network structures, are summarized and discussed.
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