The detrimental hydrogen evolution side reaction is one of the major issues hindering the commercialization of Zn metal anode in high‐safety and low‐cost rechargeable aqueous batteries. Herein, the ...authors present a Sn alloying approach to effectively inhibit the hydrogen evolution and dendrite growth of the Zn metal anode. Through in situ monitoring of the hydrogen production during repeated plating/stripping tests, it is quantitatively demonstrated that the hydrogen evolution of alloy electrode with appropriate Sn amount is only half of that of pure Zn electrode. Furthermore, the Sn alloying allows for favorable Zn nucleation sites, lowering the Zn nucleation energy barrier and promoting more uniform Zn deposition. The Zn‐Sn alloy electrode offers much‐improved plating/stripping cycling, that is, over 240 h at 5 mA cm−2 and 35.2% depth of discharge. This work provides a practically viable strategy to stabilize Zn metal electrode in rechargeable aqueous batteries.
A Sn alloying approach is demonstrated to effectively inhibit hydrogen evolution and dendrite growth in the Zn metal anode, which is evidenced by precisely quantitative in situ measurement of the hydrogen production during the repeated Zn plating/stripping process.
High‐performance thermal insulating aerogels are attractive candidates for thermal protection in extreme environments. However, inorganic aerogels’ brittleness and poor machinability limit their ...applications, while organic aerogels suffer from severe strength degradation and structural collapse at high temperatures. Herein, for the first time, a thermo‐responsive self‐ceramifiable aerogel is demonstrated with exceptional strengthening and thermal insulation at high temperatures. This aerogel exhibits excellent toughness and processability like polymers under normal conditions but spontaneously transforms into high‐strength semi‐crystalline hard ceramics upon exposure to high temperatures. After prolonged thermal attack at 800 °C, the strength of the aerogels does not decrease but significantly increases several‐fold (from 0.739 to 2.726 MPa). The self‐ceramization behavior and mechanism of the aerogel are illustrated in detail. The unique self‐ceramifiable capacity enables aerogels to provide fire resistance, high‐strength support, and excellent thermal insulation at ultrahigh temperatures. Even with continuous burning at 1300 °C for 60 min, the 15 mm thick aerogel shows low backside temperature below 300 °C, crack‐free overall structure, and invariant porous morphology. This self‐ceramifiable aerogel opens up a new avenue for developing thermal‐protection materials with toughness, machinability, high strength, and thermal insulation in extreme environments.
A new thermo‐responsive self‐ceramifiable aerogel is for the first time reported with exceptional strengthening and thermal insulation at high temperatures. Under normal conditions, the aerogel exhibits excellent toughness and machinability. Upon exposure to high temperatures, the aerogel spontaneously and rapidly transforms into robust semi‐crystalline hard ceramics, thus leading to fire resistance, high strength, and thermal insulation in extreme environments.
To our knowledge, no randomised study has compared postmastectomy hypofractionated radiotherapy with conventional fractionated radiotherapy in patients with breast cancer. This study aimed to ...determine whether a 3-week schedule of postmastectomy hypofractionated radiotherapy is as efficacious and safe as a 5-week schedule of conventional fractionated radiotherapy.
This randomised, non-inferiority, open-label, phase 3 study was done in a single academic hospital in China. Patients aged 18–75 years who had undergone mastectomy and had at least four positive axillary lymph nodes or primary tumour stage T3–4 disease were eligible to participate. Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) according to a computer-generated central randomisation schedule, without stratification, to receive chest wall and nodal irradiation at a dose of 50 Gy in 25 fractions over 5 weeks (conventional fractionated radiotherapy) or 43·5 Gy in 15 fractions over 3 weeks (hypofractionated radiotherapy). The modified intention-to-treat population (including all eligible patients who underwent randomisation but excluding those who were considered ineligible or withdrew consent after randomisation) was used in primary and safety analyses. The primary endpoint was 5-year locoregional recurrence, and a 5% margin was used to establish non-inferiority (equivalent to a hazard ratio <1·883). This trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00793962.
Between June 12, 2008, and June 16, 2016, 820 patients were enrolled and randomly assigned to the conventional fractionated radiotherapy group (n=414) or hypofractionated radiotherapy group (n=406). 409 participants in the conventional fractionated radiotherapy group and 401 participants in the hypofractionated radiotherapy group were included in the modified intention-to-treat analyses. At a median follow-up of 58·5 months (IQR 39·2–81·8), 60 (7%) patients had developed locoregional recurrence (31 patients in the hypofractionated radiotherapy group and 29 in the conventional fractionated radiotherapy group); the 5-year cumulative incidence of locoregional recurrence was 8·3% (90% CI 5·8–10·7) in the hypofractionated radiotherapy group and 8·1% (90% CI 5·4–10·6) in the conventional fractionated radiotherapy group (absolute difference 0·2%, 90% CI −3·0 to 2·6; hazard ratio 1·10, 90% CI 0·72 to 1·69; p<0·0001 for non-inferiority). There were no significant differences between the groups in acute and late toxicities, except that fewer patients in the hypofractionated radiotherapy group had grade 3 acute skin toxicity than in the conventional fractionated radiotherapy group (14 3% of 401 patients vs 32 8% of 409 patients; p<0·0001).
Postmastectomy hypofractionated radiotherapy was non-inferior to and had similar toxicities to conventional fractionated radiotherapy in patients with high-risk breast cancer. Hypofractionated radiotherapy could provide more convenient treatment and allow providers to treat more patients.
National Key Projects of Research and Development of China; the Chinese Academy of Medical Science Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences; and Beijing Marathon of Hope, Cancer Foundation of China.
The development of stretchable/soft electronics requires power sources that can match their stretchability. In this study, a highly stretchable, transparent, and environmentally stable triboelectric ...nanogenerator with ionic conductor electrodes (iTENG) is reported. The ion‐conducting elastomer (ICE) electrode, together with a dielectric elastomer electrification layer, allows the ICE‐iTENG to achieve a stretchability of 1036% and transmittance of 91.5%. Most importantly, the ICE is liquid solvent‐free and thermally stable up to 335 °C, avoiding the dehydration‐induced performance degradation of commonly used hydrogels. The ICE‐iTENG shows no decrease in electrical output even after storing at 100 °C for 15 h. Biomechanical motion energies are demonstrated to be harvested by the ICE‐iTENG for powering wearable electronics intermittently without extra power sources. An ICE‐iTENG‐based pressure sensor is also developed with sensitivity up to 2.87 kPa−1. The stretchable ICE‐iTENG overcomes the strain‐induced performance degradation using percolated electrical conductors and liquid evaporation‐induced degradation using ion‐conducting hydrogels/ionogels, suggesting great promising applications in soft/stretchable electronics under a relatively wider temperature range.
Stretchable, transparent, and thermally stable triboelectric nanogenerators are reported based on solvent‐free ion‐conducting elastomer electrodes, achieving excellent environmental stability and overcoming the dehydration issue of commonly used hydrogel electrodes
Soft ionic conductors show great promise in multifunctional iontronic devices, but currently utilized gel materials suffer from liquid leakage or evaporation issues. Here, a dry ion‐conducting ...elastomer with dynamic crosslinking structures is reported. The dynamic crosslinking structures endow it with combined advantageous properties simultaneously, including high ionic conductivity (2.04 × 10−4 S cm−1 at 25 °C), self‐healing capability (96% healing efficiency), stretchability (563%), and transparency (78%). With this ionic conductor as the electrode, two soft iontronic devices (electroluminescent devices and triboelectric nanogenerator tactile sensors) are realized with entirely self‐healing and stretchable capabilities. Due to the absence of liquid materials, the dry ion‐conducting elastomer shows wide operational temperature range, and the iontronic devices achieve excellent stability. These findings provide a promising strategy to achieve highly conductive and multifunctional soft dry ionic conductors, and demonstrate their great potential in soft iontronics or electronics.
Dynamically crosslinked dry ion‐conducting elastomers with exceptional properties of high ionic conductivity, self‐healing capability, stretchability, and transparency are reported. Two self‐healing stretchable iontronic devices (electroluminescent devices and triboelectric nanogenerator tactile sensors) are then realized with excellent environmental stability.
Electrochromic supercapacitor devices (ESCDs) are highly promising for energy‐saving applications or smart windows, whereas they still require electrical energy inputs. In this study, a self‐charging ...ESCD (SC‐ESCD) based on the ESCD and a sliding‐mode direct‐current triboelectric nanogenerators is successfully proposed. The SC‐ESCD cannot merely convert mechanical sliding kinetic energy into electrical energy and store the electricity in electrochromic supercapacitors but can also show optical responses to the mechanical sliding motions. The prominent electrochemical performances of the SC‐ESCD are confirmed by the high areal capacitance (15.2 mF cm−2 at 0.1 mA cm−2) and stable cycling performance (99% for 5000 cycles). Besides, it can be prepared into arbitrary characters or patterns to adapt to various applications. The study demonstrates a potential approach to develop multifunctional self‐charging power sources which combine energy harvesting, energy storage, and electrochromic functions.
Self‐charging electrochromic supercapacitor devices are demonstrated, which cannot only scavenge and store the sliding kinetic energy but also show optical responses according to the mechanical motions.
Dry ion-conducting elastomers (ICEs) are emerging stretchable and ionic conductive materials that are demonstrated with excellent thermal stability and great promise in multifunctional iontronic ...devices. Nevertheless, the poor interface between the ICEs and the dielectric material is one of the issues hindering the application of the stretchable iontronic device. Herein, a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) based ion-conducting elastomer with dynamic crosslinking structures is reported, which achieves the stretchability of 475% and healing efficiency of 99%. More importantly, a robust interface bonding can be generated between the electrode and the dielectric material, which is beneficial to enhance the performance and lifespan of the flexible iontronic devices. Using this PDMS based ICE as the electrode and PDMS as the dielectric material, two stretchable iontronic devices (triboelectric nanogenerator and capacitive pressure sensor) are realized with overall self-healing and stretchable capabilities. These findings provide a promising strategy to achieve integrate stretchable iontronics or electronics with a robust interface between the electrode and dielectric materials.
Soft iontronics expand the toolbox of bio‐integrated or bio‐interfaced devices, owing to their natural resemblance with living systems; however, the development for analogous integrated ionic ...circuits is immature due to the difficulty of fabricating fundamental ionic logic elements. Among these, ionic diodes have motivated great endeavors for their unique ionic current rectifying characteristics. Nonetheless, it is still challenging to achieve high‐performance ionic diodes; also, most reported aqueous solution‐based ionic diodes fail to work at extreme temperatures, seriously hindering their practical uses. This work reports a highly rectifying, temperature‐tolerant, and flexible hydrogel ionic diode enabled by an ethylene glycol/water binary solvent system. The ionic diodes exhibit outstanding dehydration resistance to high temperatures (100 °C) and anti‐freezing performance at low temperatures (−20 °C). Rectification ratios as high as 1201 (with 0% ethylene glycol content) and 566 (with 40% EG content) are achieved, which are distinctly advantageous over most previous reports. A flexible four‐diode bridge full‐wave rectifier circuit is then fabricated, and its integration with the triboelectric nanogenerator for effective biomechanical energy harvesting is demonstrated. This work is believed to open up new insights for the development of future bio‐interfaced applications.
A flexible ionic diode with high rectifying and wide temperature tolerance is fabricated in this work. An optimized rectification ratio as high as 1201 is achieved. The ionic diodes exhibit outstanding dehydration resistance to high temperature (100 °C) and anti‐freezing performance at low temperature (−20 °C). A full‐wave rectifier is then developed for applications in biomechanical energy collection.
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•MXene with low emissivity and high solar absorption is used for the Janus fabric.•The fabric utilizes passive radiative heating and solar heating to warm body up.•The fabric ...possesses good wearability which can be used in practical applications.
Smart textiles for personal thermal management achieved by regulating multi-wavelength radiative characteristics of fabrics are highly demanded since they are potentially energy efficient, convenient and even fashionable. Herein, we report a Janus fabric for radiative heating by taking full advantages of MXene’s dual characteristics of ultralow mid-infrared emission and high photothermal conversion ability. After brush-coating a MXene layer on one side of a commercial polyamide fabric substrate, the Janus fabric enables 3.4 ℃ temperature increase of the simulated skin by suppressing body radiation loss. Meanwhile, the Janus fabric demonstrates superior photothermal conversion efficiency (13%) and photothermal heating performance, achieving 14.2 ℃ temperature increase under one sun irradiation. By virtue of the robust substrate and lightweight coating, the Janus fabric possesses satisfactory wearability (i.e., mechanical strength, flexibility, permeability), making the fabric be able to heat human body in practical uses. The efficient and durable Janus fabric provides a great potential of future all-day personal thermal management fabrics which can be applied in wide scenarios.
To map the location of metastatic supraclavicular (SCV) lymph nodes (LNMs) in breast cancer patients with SCV node involvement and determine whether and where the radiation therapy clinical target ...volume (CTV) of this region could be modified in high-risk subsets.
Fifty-five patients with metastatic SCV LNMs were eligible for geographic mapping and atlas coverage analysis. All LNMs and their epicenters were registered proportionally by referencing the surrounding landmarks onto simulation computed tomography images of a standard patient. CTVs based on selected SCV atlases, including the one by the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) were contoured. A modified SCV CTV was tried and shown to have better involved-node coverage and thus theoretically improved prophylaxis in this setting.
A total of 50 (91%) and 45 (81.8%) patients had LNMs in the medial and lateral SCV subregions, respectively. Also, 36 patients (65.5%) had LNMs located at the junction of the jugular-subclavian veins. All nodes were covered in only 25.5% to 41.8% of patients by different atlases. The RTOG atlas covered all nodes in 25.5% of patients. Stratified by the nodes in all the patients as a whole, 49.2% to 81.3% were covered, and the RTOG atlas covered 62.6%. The lateral and posterior borders were the most overlooked locations. Modification by extending the borders to natural anatomic barriers allowed the new CTV to cover all the nodes in 81.8% of patients and encompass 96.1% of all the nodes.
According to the distribution of SCV LNMs, the extent of existing atlases might not be adequate for potential metastatic sites in certain groups of patients. The extension of the lateral and posterior CTV borders in high-risk or recurrent patients might be a reasonable approach for increasing coverage. However, additional data in more homogeneous populations with localized disease are needed before routine application.
