Owing to their unique, nanoscale related optical properties, nanostructures assembled from molecular photosensitizers (PSs) have interesting applications in phototheranostics. However, most ...nanostructured PS assemblies are super‐quenched, thus, preventing their use in photodynamic therapy (PDT). Although some of these materials undergo stimuli‐responsive disassembly, which leads to partial recovery of PDT activity, their therapeutic potentials are unsatisfactory owing to a limited ability to promote generation reactive oxygen species (ROS), especially via type I photoreactions (i.e., not by 1O2 generation). Herein we demonstrate that a new, nanostructured phthalocyanine assembly, NanoPcA, has the ability to promote highly efficient ROS generation via the type I mechanism. The results of antibacterial studies demonstrate that NanoPcA has potential PDT applications.
Photodynamic nanodots self‐assembled from phthalocyanine molecules (NanoPcA) display highly efficient reactive oxygen species generation via a type I mechanism. Antibacterial studies demonstrate that NanoPcA has potential photodynamic therapy applications.
Recent research in topological photonics has not only proposed and realized novel topological phenomena such as one‐way broadband propagation and robust transport of light, but also designed and ...fabricated photonic devices with high‐performance indexes, which are immune to fabrication errors such as defects or disorders. Photonic crystals, which are periodic optical structures with the advantages of good light field confinement and multiple adjusting degrees of freedom, provide a powerful platform to control the flow of light. With the topology defined in the reciprocal space, photonic crystals have been widely used to reveal different topological phases of light and demonstrate topological photonic functionalities. This review presents the physics of topological photonic crystals with different dimensions, models, and topological phases. The design methods of topological photonic crystals are introduced. Furthermore, the applications of topological photonic crystals in passive and active photonics are reviewed. These studies pave the way for applying topological photonic crystals in practical photonic devices.
For the ability to improve the robustness of photonic devices under different kinds of defects, topological photonic crystals have attracted increasing attention and have been used as a platform for studying intriguing physical phenomena and realizing novel functional devices. This review provides an introduction to the fundamental physics, optical design, and promising applications of topological photonic crystals in different dimensions.
Backscattering suppression in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) is one of the central issues to reduce energy loss and signal distortion, enabling for capability improvement of modern information processing ...systems. Valley physics provides an intriguing way for robust information transfer and unidirectional coupling in topological nanophotonics. Here we realize topological transport in a SOI valley photonic crystal slab. Localized Berry curvature near zone corners guarantees the existence of valley-dependent edge states below light cone, maintaining in-plane robustness and light confinement simultaneously. Topologically robust transport at telecommunication is observed along two sharp-bend interfaces in subwavelength scale, showing flat-top high transmission of ~10% bandwidth. Topological photonic routing is achieved in a bearded-stack interface, due to unidirectional excitation of valley-chirality-locked edge state from the phase vortex of a nanoscale microdisk. These findings show the prototype of robustly integrated devices, and open a new door towards the observation of non-trivial states even in non-Hermitian systems.
The use of formic acid (FA) to produce molecular H2 is a promising means of efficient energy storage in a fuel‐cell‐based hydrogen economy. To date, there has been a lack of heterogeneous catalyst ...systems that are sufficiently active, selective, and stable for clean H2 production by FA decomposition at room temperature. For the first time, we report that flexible pyridinic‐N‐doped carbon hybrids as support materials can significantly boost the efficiency of palladium nanoparticle for H2 generation; this is due to prominent surface electronic modulation. Under mild conditions, the optimized engineered Pd/CN0.25 catalyst exhibited high performance in both FA dehydrogenation (achieving almost full conversion, and a turnover frequency of 5530 h−1 at 25 °C) and the reversible process of CO2 hydrogenation into FA. This system can lead to a full carbon‐neutral energy cycle.
Pyridinic‐N‐tuned catalysis: An electron‐rich pyridinic‐N dopant modulates the electronic interactions between the active sites of palladium nanoparticles and the carbon support. Formic acid dehydrogenation at room temperature is significantly boosted by the pyridinic‐N‐doped palladium catalyst, presenting an efficient and reliable route to clean H2 generation and sustainable energy storage.
This study aims to investigate the protective effects of gastrodin (GSTD), a natural compound isolated from the root of Gastrodia elata BL., on ethanol-induced liver injury and apoptosis in HepG2 ...cells and animal models. For in vitro studies, GSTD was used to pre-treat the cells for 4 h followed by 600 mM of ethanol co-administration for 24 h. Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) of Sprague–Dawley (SD) rats was induced by chronic ethanol-feeding plus a single dose (5 g/kg) of acute ethanol administration, GSTD at different doses were co-administered for 8 weeks. For acute liver injury experiment of ICR mice, GSTD (100 mg/kg/d) was pre-treated for 3 d followed by ethanol administration (5 g/kg) for 3 times. The results showed that GSTD protects HepG2 cells from ethanol-induced toxicity, injury, and apoptosis significantly. Co-administered with ethanol, GSTD prevented the loss of mitochondrial membrane potential, reduced the release cytochrome c from mitochondria, and inhibited the activation of caspase-3 in HepG2 cells. In SD rats induced by chronic ethanol-feeding, GSTD significantly restored liver function and ameliorated pathological changes of the liver. In rat liver, GSTD greatly suppressed the activation of caspase-3 and inhibited hepatocellular apoptosis. In ethanol-induced acute liver injury of ICR mice, GSTD reduced liver acetaldehyde and suppressed the up-regulation of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and CYP2E1 significantly. Our results demonstrate that GSTD is efficacious in protecting liver cells from ethanol-induced injury and apoptosis; it may be useful for the development of novel agents for the treatment of ALD in the future.
The Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant of SARS-CoV-2 emerged in November 2021 and is rapidly spreading among the human population
. Although recent reports reveal that the Omicron variant robustly escapes ...vaccine-associated and therapeutic neutralization antibodies
, the pathogenicity of the virus remains unknown. Here we show that the replication of Omicron is substantially attenuated in human Calu3 and Caco2 cells. Further mechanistic investigations reveal that Omicron is inefficient in its use of transmembrane serine protease 2 (TMPRSS2) compared with wild-type SARS-CoV-2 (HKU-001a) and previous variants, which may explain its reduced replication in Calu3 and Caco2 cells. The replication of Omicron is markedly attenuated in both the upper and lower respiratory tracts of infected K18-hACE2 mice compared with that of the wild-type strain and Delta (B.1.617.2) variant, resulting in its substantially ameliorated lung pathology. Compared with wild-type SARS-CoV-2 and the Alpha (B.1.1.7), Beta (1.351) and Delta variants, infection by Omicron causes the lowest reduction in body weight and the lowest mortality rate. Overall, our study demonstrates that the replication and pathogenicity of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 in mice is attenuated compared with the wild-type strain and other variants.
A second-order surface reconstruction (SR) method for the shallow water equations with a discontinuous bottom topography and a Manning friction source term is presented. We redefine the water surface ...level at the cell interface by using the minimum difference between the bottom level and the original water surface level. The reconstructed water surface level is used to define the intermediate bottom level and the intermediate water height at the cell interface. We propose an explicit-implicit method to address the friction source term. The new second-order SR scheme together with the explicit-implicit method can preserve a special steady-state solution of the system and can maintain the positivity of the water depth. We also extend the new scheme to two-dimensional shallow water flows. To demonstrate the robustness and effectiveness of the new scheme, we use several classical numerical experiments for the shallow water flows over a complex bottom topography.
Only rarely have polyoxometalates been found to form core–shell nanoclusters. Here, we succeeded in isolating a series of rare giant and all‐inorganic core–shell cobalt polyoxoniobates (Co−PONbs) ...with diverse shapes, nuclearities and original topologies, including 50‐nuclearity {Co12Nb38O132}, 54‐nuclearity {Co20Nb34O128}, 62‐nuclearity {Co26Nb36O140} and 87‐nuclearity {Co33Nb54O188}. They are the largest Co−PONbs and also the polyoxometalates containing the greatest number of Co ions and the largest cobalt clusters known thus far. These molecular Co−PONbs have intriguing and atomically precise core–shell architectures comprising unique cobalt oxide cores and niobate oxide shells. In particular, the encapsulated cobalt oxide cores with different nuclearities have identical compositions, structures and mixed‐valence Co3+/Co2+ states as the different sized Co−O moieties of the bulk cubic‐spinel Co3O4, suggesting that they can serve as various molecular models of the cubic‐spinel Co3O4. The successful construction of the series of the Co−PONbs reveals a feasible and versatile synthetic method for making rare core–shell heterometallic PONbs. Further, these new‐type core–shell bimetal species are promising cluster molecular catalysts for visible‐light‐driven CO2 reduction.
A series of rare Co−Nb‐based core–shell polyoxometalates containing 50, 54, 62 and 87 metal polyhedra is prepared. The cobalt oxide cores correspond to increasingly large molecular analogues of infinite cubic‐spinel Co3O4. They are the largest cobalt polyoxoniobates and the polyoxometalates with the greatest number of Co ions and the highest‐nuclearity cobalt clusters known thus far. They are shown to be efficient photocatalysts for CO2 reduction.
The application of phthalocyanines in photothermal therapy has attracted increasing interest in recent years. In this review, the design considerations for enhancing the photothermal effect of ...phthalocyanines are highlighted.
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•Recent progresses made in the use of phthalocyanines as contrast agents for photothermal therapy are outlined.•The main design considerations for enhancing the photothermal effect of phthalocyanine-based contrast agents are discussed.•The perspectives and challenges for the application of phthalocyanines as contrast agents for PTT are discussed.
Phthalocyanine, as a type of organic photothermal agent, has advantages including a definite chemical structure, repeatable synthesis, strong absorption in the near-infrared region, tunable photophysical and photochemical properties, and inherent biodegradability. This review focuses on the recent progress made in the application of phthalocyanines as contrast agents for photothermal therapy (PTT). The present review not only discusses the molecular and/or supramolecular design considerations for enhancing the PTT effect of phthalocyanines, but also provides the perspectives and challenges of the use of phthalocyanines as contrast agents for PTT.
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