Photo-Stimulated Zn-based Batteries: Progress, Challenges, and Perspectives.

Solar energy, as a renewable energy source, dominates the vast majority of human energy, which can be harvested and converted by photovoltaic solar cells. However, the intermittent availability of solar energy restricts the actual utilization circumstances of solar cells. Integrating photo-responsive electrodes into an energy storage device emerges as a dependable and executable strategy, fostering the creation of photo-stimulated batteries that seamlessly amalgamate the process of solar energy collection, conversion, and storage in one system.

Pollen-derived porous carbon decorated with cobalt/iron sulfide hybrids as cathode catalysts for flexible all-solid-state rechargeable Zn-air batteries.

The development of flexible all-solid-state rechargeable Zn-air batteries (FS-ZABs) for wearable applications faces challenges from the balance between performance and flexibility of the battery; efficient cathode catalyst and reasonable electrode construction design are key factors. Herein, a low-cost pollen derived N,S co-doped porous carbon decorated with Co9S8/Fe3S4 nanoparticle hybrids (Co-Fe-S@NSRPC) has been synthesized. Owing to the active Co9S8/Fe3S4 nanoparticles, N,S co-doping, and large specific area of the pollen derived porous carbon matrix, the Co-Fe-S@NSRPC composite exhibits an excellent bifunctional catalytic activity with a small potential gap (ΔE = 0.

Non-viral nanocarriers for intracellular delivery of microRNA therapeutics.

MicroRNAs are small regulatory noncoding RNAs that regulate various biological processes associated with neurological disorders, cardiovascular diseases, cancer and viral infection. MiRNA-based therapeutics have broad applications including cancer immunotherapy, genomic engineering and protein replacement therapy. Until now, a variety of materials have been proved to be promising as non-viral nanocarriers for intracellular delivery of miRNAs, such as polymeric nanoparticles, lipid nanocapsules, and inorganic nanoparticles, etc.

Facile fabrication and configuration design of CoO porous acicular nanorod arrays on Ni foam for supercapacitors.

The configuration of electrode materials is of great significance to the performance of supercapacitors (SCs) because of its direct effects on specific surface area and electron transfer path. Given this, herein, a series of CoO hierarchical configurations composed of porous acicular nanorods are designedly synthesized on Ni foam with in-site self-organization method depending on the addition of NHF. In the absence of NHF, CoO nanorods self-assemble into porous urchin-like structure (PULS), while the introduction of NHF can induce the vertical growth of CoO acicular nanorods, forming porous acicular nanorod arrays (PANRAs).

Two-Solvent Method Synthesis of NiO/ZnO Nanoparticles Embedded in Mesoporous SBA-15: Photocatalytic Properties Study.

Different loadings of NiO/ZnO nanoparticles embedded in mesoporous silica (SBA-15) were prepared via a two-solvent method with the ordered hexagonal mesoporous structure of SBA-15 kept. X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscope, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, diffusive reflective UV-vis spectroscopy, and N2 adsorption porosimetry were employed to characterize the nanocomposites. The results indicate that the ordered hexagonal mesoporous structure of SBA-15 is kept and the absorption band edges of the nanocomposites shift into the ultraviolet light regime.

Synthesis of mesoporous silica@Co-Al layered double hydroxide spheres: layer-by-layer method and their effects on the flame retardancy of epoxy resins.

Hierarchical mesoporous silica@Co-Al layered double hydroxide (m-SiO2@Co-Al LDH) spheres were prepared through a layer-by-layer assembly process, in order to integrate their excellent physical and chemical functionalities. TEM results depicted that, due to the electrostatic potential difference between m-SiO2 and Co-Al LDH, the synthetic m-SiO2@Co-Al LDH hybrids exhibited that m-SiO2 spheres were packaged by the Co-Al LDH nanosheets. Subsequently, the m-SiO2@Co-Al LDH spheres were incorporated into epoxy resin (EP) to prepare specimens for investigation of their flame-retardant performance.