Exploration of uricase-like activity in Pd@Ir nanosheets and their application in relieving acute gout using self-cascade reaction.

Gout, marked by the deposition of sodium urate crystals in joints and peripheral tissues, presents a considerable health challenge. Recent research has shown a growing interest in nanozyme-based treatments for gout. However, literature on nanozymes that combine uricase-like (UOX) activity for uric acid (UA) degradation with catalase (CAT)-like activity for HO elimination through a self-cascade reaction is limited.

Progressive Optimization of Lanthanide Nanoparticle Scintillators for Enhanced Triple-Activated Radioluminescence Imaging.

Lanthanide nanoparticle (LnNP) scintillators exhibit huge potential in achieving radionuclide-activated luminescence (radioluminescence, RL). However, their structure-activity relationship remains largely unexplored. Herein, progressive optimization of LnNP scintillators is presented to unveil their structure-dependent RL property and enhance their RL output efficiency.

A continuously efficient O-supplying strategy for long-term modulation of hypoxic tumor microenvironment to enhance long-acting radionuclides internal therapy.

Radionuclides internal radiotherapy (RIT) is a clinically powerful method for cancer treatment, but still poses unsatisfactory therapeutic outcomes due to the hypoxic characteristic of tumor microenvironment (TME). Catalase (CAT) or CAT-like nanomaterials can be used to enzymatically decompose TME endogenous HO to boost TME oxygenation and thus alleviate the hypoxic level within tumors, but their effectiveness is still hindered by the short-lasting of hypoxia relief owing to their poor stability or degradability, thereby failing to match the long therapeutic duration of RIT. Herein, we proposed an innovative strategy of using facet-dependent CAT-like Pd-based two-dimensional (2D) nanoplatforms to continuously enhance RIT.

Preparation of Two-Dimensional Pd@Ir Nanosheets and Application in Bacterial Infection Treatment by the Generation of Reactive Oxygen Species.

Noble metal nanozymes have shown great promise in biomedicine; however, developing novel and high-performance noble metal nanozymes is still highly pressing and challenging. Herein, we, for the first time, prepared two-dimensional (2D) Pd@Ir bimetal nanosheets (NSs) with well-defined size and composition by a facile seed-mediated growth strategy. Enzyme-mimicked investigations find that the Pd@Ir NSs possess oxidase (OXD)-, peroxidase (POD)-, and catalase (CAT)-like multienzyme-mimetic activities.

A Novel Cascade Nanoreactor Integrating Two-Dimensional Pd-Ru Nanozyme, Uricase and Red Blood Cell Membrane for Highly Efficient Hyperuricemia Treatment.

Nanozyme-based cascade reaction has emerged as an effective strategy for disease treatment because of its high efficiency and low side effects. Herein, a new and highly active two-dimensional Pd-Ru nanozyme is prepared and then integrated with uricase and red blood cell (RBC) membrane to fabricate a tandem nanoreactor, Pd-Ru/Uricase@RBC, for hyperuricemia treatment. The designed Pd-Ru/Uricase@RBC nanoreactor displayed not only good stability against extreme pH, temperature and proteolytic degradation, but also long circulation half-life and excellent safety.

Economizing Production of Diverse 2D Layered Metal Hydroxides for Efficient Overall Water Splitting.

2D layered metal hydroxides (LMH) are promising materials for electrochemical energy conversion and storage. Compared with exfoliation of bulk layered materials, wet chemistry synthesis of 2D LMH materials under mild conditions still remains a big challenge. Here, an "MgO-mediated strategy" for mass production of various 2D LMH nanosheets is presented by hydrolyzing MgO in metal salt aqueous solutions at room temperature.

Structure and formation of highly luminescent protein-stabilized gold clusters.

Highly luminescent gold clusters simultaneously synthesized and stabilized by protein molecules represent a remarkable category of nanoscale materials with promising applications in bionanotechnology as sensors. Nevertheless, the atomic structure and luminescence mechanism of these gold clusters are still unknown after several years of developments. Herein, we report findings on the structure, luminescence and biomolecular self-assembly of gold clusters stabilized by the large globular protein, bovine serum albumin.

Efficient, Hysteresis-Free, and Stable Perovskite Solar Cells with ZnO as Electron-Transport Layer: Effect of Surface Passivation.

The power conversion efficiency of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) has ascended from 3.8% to 22.1% in recent years.

The biodistribution, excretion and potential toxicity of different-sized Pd nanosheets in mice following oral and intraperitoneal administration.

Two-dimensional (2D) Pd-based nanomaterials with strong near-infrared absorption have recently shown great application prospects in cancer diagnosis and therapy. Most previous studies mainly focused on understanding the in vivo behaviors and treatment effects of these Pd-based nanomaterials after intravenous injection into mice. However, it remains unclear whether other administration routes will affect the in vivo biodistribution, excretion and potential toxicity of Pd-based nanomaterials.

Microporous Cyclic Titanium-Oxo Clusters with Labile Surface Ligands.

By using ethylene glycol and monocarboxylic acid as surface ligands, a series of cyclic Ti-oxo clusters (CTOC) with permanent microporosity are successfully synthesized. With a cyclic {Ti O } backbone made of eight connected Ti tetrahedral cages that are arranged in a zigzag fashion, the clusters have a "donut" shape with an inner diameter of 8.3 Å, outer diameter of 26.

Ultrastable atomic copper nanosheets for selective electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide.

The electrochemical conversion of CO and HO into syngas using renewably generated electricity is an attractive approach to simultaneously achieve chemical fixation of CO and storage of renewable energy. Developing cost-effective catalysts for selective electroreduction of CO into CO is essential to the practical applications of the approach. We report a simple synthetic strategy for the preparation of ultrathin Cu/Ni(OH) nanosheets as an excellent cost-effective catalyst for the electrochemical conversion of CO and HO into tunable syngas under low overpotentials.

Self-supporting sulfur cathodes enabled by two-dimensional carbon yolk-shell nanosheets for high-energy-density lithium-sulfur batteries.

How to exert the energy density advantage is a key link in the development of lithium-sulfur batteries. Therefore, the performance degradation of high-sulfur-loading cathodes becomes an urgent problem to be solved at present. In addition, the volumetric capacities of high-sulfur-loading cathodes are still at a low level compared with their areal capacities.

Two-dimensional Pd-based nanomaterials for bioapplications.

Noble metal nanomaterials have been extensively explored in cancer diagnostic and therapeutic applications owing to their unique physical and chemical properties, such as facile synthesis, straightforward surface functionalization, strong photothermal effect, and excellent biocompatibility. Herein, we summarize the recent development of two-dimensional (2D) Pd-based nanomaterials and their applications in cancer diagnosis and therapy. Different synthetic strategies for Pd nanosheets and the related nanostructures, including Pd@Au, Pd@Ag nanoplates and mesocrystalline Pd nanocorolla, are first discussed.

Self-Supported 3D PdCu Alloy Nanosheets as a Bifunctional Catalyst for Electrochemical Reforming of Ethanol.

3D PdCu alloy nanosheets exhibit enhanced electrocatalytic activity toward hydrogen evolution reaction and ethanol oxidation reaction in alkaline media. Simultaneous hydrogen and acetate production via a solar-powered cell for ethanol reforming has been fabricated using the nanosheets as bifunctional electrocatalysts. The device is promising for the production of both hydrogen and value-added chemicals using renewable energy.

Surface Coordination Chemistry of Metal Nanomaterials.

Surface coordination chemistry of nanomaterials deals with the chemistry on how ligands are coordinated on their surface metal atoms and influence their properties at the molecular level. This Perspective demonstrates that there is a strong link between surface coordination chemistry and the shape-controlled synthesis, and many intriguing surface properties of metal nanomaterials. While small adsorbates introduced in the synthesis can control the shapes of metal nanocrystals by minimizing their surface energy via preferential coordination on specific facets, surface ligands properly coordinated on metal nanoparticles readily promote their catalysis via steric interactions and electronic modifications.

Embryonic Growth of Face-Center-Cubic Silver Nanoclusters Shaped in Nearly Perfect Half-Cubes and Cubes.

Demonstrated herein are the preparation and crystallographic characterization of the family of fcc silver nanoclusters from Nichol's cube to Rubik's cube and beyond via ligand-control (thiolates and phosphines in this case). The basic building block is our previously reported fcc cluster [Ag(SPhF)(PPh)] (1). The metal frameworks of [Ag(SPhF)(PR')] (2) and [Ag(SPhF)(PR')] (2), where HSPhF = 3,4-difluorothiophenol and R' = alkyl/aryl, are composed of 2 × 2 = 4 and 2 × 2 × 2 = 8 metal cubes of 1, respectively.

Site Preference in Multimetallic Nanoclusters: Incorporation of Alkali Metal Ions or Copper Atoms into the Alkynyl-Protected Body-Centered Cubic Cluster [Au Ag (C≡C Bu) ].

The synthesis, structure, substitution chemistry, and optical properties of the gold-centered cubic monocationic cluster [Au@Ag @Au (C≡C Bu) ] are reported. The metal framework of this cluster can be described as a fragment of a body-centered cubic (bcc) lattice with the silver and gold atoms occupying the vertices and the body center of the cube, respectively. The incorporation of alkali metal atoms gave rise to [M Ag Au (C≡C Bu) ] clusters (n=1 for M=Na, K, Rb, Cs and n=2 for M=K, Rb), with the alkali metal ion(s) presumably occupying the vertex site(s), whereas the incorporation of copper atoms produced [Cu Ag Au (C≡C Bu) ] clusters (n=1-6), with the Cu atom(s) presumably occupying the capping site(s).

Asymmetric Synthesis of Chiral Bimetallic [AgCu(SR)] Nanoclusters via Ion Pairing.

In this work, a facile ion-pairing strategy for asymmetric synthesis of optically active negatively charged chiral metal nanoparticles using chiral ammonium cations is demonstrated. A new thiolated chiral three-concentric-shell cluster, [AgCu(SR)], was first synthesized as a racemic mixture and characterized by single-crystal X-ray structure determination. Mass spectrometric measurements revealed relatively strong ion-pairing interactions between the anionic nanocluster and ammonium cations.

Plasmonic twinned silver nanoparticles with molecular precision.

Determining the structures of nanoparticles at atomic resolution is vital to understand their structure-property correlations. Large metal nanoparticles with core diameter beyond 2 nm have, to date, eluded characterization by single-crystal X-ray analysis. Here we report the chemical syntheses and structures of two giant thiolated Ag nanoparticles containing 136 and 374 Ag atoms (that is, up to 3 nm core diameter).

Electrochemical Partial Reforming of Ethanol into Ethyl Acetate Using Ultrathin Co3O4 Nanosheets as a Highly Selective Anode Catalyst.

Electrochemical partial reforming of organics provides an alternative strategy to produce valuable organic compounds while generating H2 under mild conditions. In this work, highly selective electrochemical reforming of ethanol into ethyl acetate is successfully achieved by using ultrathin Co3O4 nanosheets with exposed (111) facets as an anode catalyst. Those nanosheets were synthesized by a one-pot, templateless hydrothermal method with the use of ammonia.

Identifying the Molecular Structures of Intermediates for Optimizing the Fabrication of High-Quality Perovskite Films.

During the past two years, the introduction of DMSO has revolutionized the fabrication of high-quality pervoskite MAPbI3 (MA = CH3NH3) films for solar cell applications. In the developed DMSO process, the formation of (MA)2Pb3I8·2DMSO (shorted as Pb3I8) has well recognized as a critical factor to prepare high-quality pervoskite films and thus accomplish excellent performances in perovskite solar cells. However, Pb3I8 is an I-deficient intermediate and must further react with methylammonium iodide (MAI) to be fully converted into MAPbI3.

Photochemical route for synthesizing atomically dispersed palladium catalysts.

Atomically dispersed noble metal catalysts often exhibit high catalytic performances, but the metal loading density must be kept low (usually below 0.5%) to avoid the formation of metal nanoparticles through sintering. We report a photochemical strategy to fabricate a stable atomically dispersed palladium-titanium oxide catalyst (Pd1/TiO2) on ethylene glycolate (EG)-stabilized ultrathin TiO2 nanosheets containing Pd up to 1.

Platinum(IV) prodrug conjugated Pd@Au nanoplates for chemotherapy and photothermal therapy.

Owing to the excellent near infrared (NIR) light absorption and efficient passive targeting toward tumor tissue, two-dimensional (2D) core-shell PEGylated Pd@Au nanoplates have great potential in both photothermal therapy and drug delivery systems. In this work, we successfully conjugate Pd@Au nanoplates with a platinum(IV) prodrug c,c,t-[Pt(NH3)2Cl2(O2CCH2CH2CO2H)2] to obtain a nanocomposite (Pd@Au-PEG-Pt) for combined photothermal-chemotherapy. The prepared Pd@Au-PEG-Pt nanocomposite showed excellent stability in physiological solutions and efficient Pt(IV) prodrug loading.

Trace surface-clean palladium nanosheets as a conductivity enhancer in hole-transporting layers to improve the overall performances of perovskite solar cells.

Surface-clean Pd nanosheets were synthesized and embedded in a hole transport material (HTM) matrix to improve the conductivity of the HTM layer. Applying only a trace amount of Pd nanosheets readily led to a remarkably enhanced performance of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). This finding provides an effective strategy to build efficient charge-transport materials for improving the overall performance of PSCs.

Interfacial electronic effects control the reaction selectivity of platinum catalysts.

Tuning the electronic structure of heterogeneous metal catalysts has emerged as an effective strategy to optimize their catalytic activities. By preparing ethylenediamine-coated ultrathin platinum nanowires as a model catalyst, here we demonstrate an interfacial electronic effect induced by simple organic modifications to control the selectivity of metal nanocatalysts during catalytic hydrogenation. This we apply to produce thermodynamically unfavourable but industrially important compounds, with ultrathin platinum nanowires exhibiting an unexpectedly high selectivity for the production of N-hydroxylanilines, through the partial hydrogenation of nitroaromatics.