Despite potent preclinical antitumor activity, activation of stimulator of interferon genes (STING) has shown modest therapeutic effects in clinical studies. Many STING agonists including 2’,3’-cyclic guanosine monophosphate–adenosine monophosphate (cGAMP) show poor pharmacokinetic properties for sustaining STING activation in tumors and achieving optimal antitumor efficacy. Improved delivery of STING

Rechargeable sodium ion micro-batteries (NIMBs) constructed using low-cost and abundant raw materials in planar configuration with both cathode and anode on the same substrate, hold promises for powering coplanar microelectronics, but are hindered by the low areal capacity owing to thin microelectrodes. Here, a prototype of planar and flexible 3D-printed NIMBs is demonstrated with three-dimensionally

Over the last few decades, the research on ferroelectric memories has been limited due to their dimensional scalability and incompatibility with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology. The discovery of ferroelectricity in fluorite-structured oxides revived interest in the research on ferroelectric memories, with inducing nanoscale nonvolatility in state-of-the-art gate insulators

The implementation of high efficiency and high-resolution displays has been the focus of considerable research interest. Recently, micro-LEDs, which are inorganic light-emitting diodes of size less than 100 μm2, have emerged as a promising display technology owing to their superior features and advantages over other displays like liquid crystal displays and organic light-emitting diodes. Although many

Strain engineering is a promising way to tune the electrical, electrochemical, magnetic, and optical properties of two-dimensional (2D) materials, with the potential to achieve high-performance 2D-material-based devices ultimately. This review discusses the experimental and theoretical results from recent advances in the strain engineering of 2D materials. We summarize some novel methods to induce

Recently, ferromagnetic heterostructure spintronic terahertz (THz) emitters have been recognized as one of the most promising candidates for the next-generation THz sources, owing to their peculiarities of high efficiency, high stability, low cost, ultrabroad bandwidth, controllable polarization, and high scalability. Despite the substantial efforts, they rely on external magnetic fields to initiate

Solid-liquid transition reaction lays the foundation of many electrochemical energy storage systems with high capacity, but realizing high efficiency of this reaction remain a challenge. Herein, in terms of thermodynamics and dynamics, this work demonstrates the significant role of both interfacial H+ ion concentration and Mn2+ ion migration steric hindrance for the high-efficiency deposition/dissolution

Zinc-ion capacitors (ZICs) is promising technology for large-scale energy storage by integrating the attributes of supercapacitors and zinc-ion batteries. Unfortunately, the insufficient Zn2+ storage active sites of carbonaceous cathode materials and the mismatch of pore sizes with charge carriers led to unsatisfactory Zn2+ storage capability. Herein, we report new insights for boosting Zn2+ storage

Pressures generated by external forces or by internal body processes represent parameters of critical importance in diagnosing physiological health and in anticipating injuries. Examples span intracranial hypertension from traumatic brain injuries, high blood pressure from poor diet, pressure-induced skin ulcers from immobility, and edema from congestive heart failure. Pressures measured on the soft

The fabrication of intrinsic carbon defects is usually tangled with doping effects, and the identification of their unique roles in catalysis remains a tough task. Herein, a K+-assisted synthetic strategy is developed to afford porous carbon (K-defect-C) with abundant intrinsic defects and complete elimination of heteroatom via direct pyrolysis of K+-confined metal-organic framework (MOF). The positron

Electrochemical CO2 reduction to CO is a potential sustainable strategy for alleviating CO2 emissions and producing valuable fuels. In the quest to resolve its current problems of low energy efficiency and insufficient durability, we propose a dual-scale design strategy by implanting non-noble active Sn-ZnO heterointerface inside the nanopores of high-surface-area carbon nanospheres (Sn-ZnO@HC). The

Composite polymer electrolytes (CPEs) utilizing fillers as the promoting component bridge the gap between solid polymer electrolytes and inorganic solid electrolytes. The integration of fillers into the polymer matrices has been demonstrated as a prevailing strategy to enhance Li-ion transport and assist in constructing Li+-conducting electrode-electrolyte interface layer, which addresses the two key

Phase instability (especially phase transition) is one of the major obstacles to the wide application of formamidinium (FA)-dominated perovskite solar cells (PSCs). An in-depth investigation on relevant phase transition kinetics is urgently needed to explore more effective phase stabilization strategies. Herein for the first time, we monitored the reversible phase transition process of FA1–xCsxPbI3

The sensing performances of gas sensors must be improved and diversified to enhance the quality of life by ensuring health, safety, and convenience. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), which exhibit an extremely high surface area, abundant porosity, and unique surface chemistry, provide a promising framework for facilitating gas sensor innovations. Enhanced understanding of conduction mechanisms of MOFs

NanoCluster Beacons (NCBs) are multicolor silver nanocluster probes whose fluorescence can be activated or tuned by a proximal DNA strand called the activator. While a single-nucleotide difference in a pair of activators can lead to drastically different activation outcomes, termed the polar opposite twins (POTs), it is difficult to discover new POT-NCBs using the conventional low-throughput characterization

Miniaturized and high-power density 3D electronic devices pose new challenges on thermal management. Indeed, prompt heat dissipation in electrically insulating packaging is currently limited by the thermal conductivity achieved by thermal interface materials (TIMs) and by their capability to direct the heat towards heat sinks. Here, we create high thermal conductivity BN-based composites able to conduct

Exchanging hydrophobic alkyl-based side chains to hydrophilic glycol-based side chains is a widely adopted method for improving mixed-transport device performance, despite the impact on solid state packing and polymer-electrolyte interactions being poorly understood. Presented here is a Molecular Dynamics (MD) force field for modelling alkoxylated and glycolated polythiophenes. The force field is validated

Cation disordering is commonly found in multinary cubic compounds, but its effect on electronic properties has been neglected because of difficulties in determining the ordered structure and defect energetics. An absence of rational understanding of the point defects present has led to poor reproducibility and uncontrolled conduction type. AgBiSe2 is a representative compound that suffers from poor

Cooperative coupling of photocatalytic H2O2 production with organic synthesis has an expansive perspective in converting solar energy into storable chemical energy. However, traditional powder photocatalysts suffer from severe agglomeration, limited light absorption, poor gas reactant accessibility and reusable difficulty, which greatly hinders their large-scale application. Herein, floatable composite

MXenes are seen as an exceptional candidate to reshape the future of energy with their viable surface chemistry, ultrathin 2D structure and excellent electronic conductivity. The extensive research efforts bring about rapid expansion of the MXene families with enriched functionalities, which significantly boost performance of the existing energy storage devices. In this review, we highlight the strategies

Assembling molecular catalytic centers into crosslinked networks is widely used to fabricate heterogeneous catalysts but they often suffer loss in activity and selectivity accompanied by unclear causes. Here we report a strategy for the construction of heterogeneous catalysts to induce activity and selectivity by bottom-up introduction of segregated electron conduction and mass transport interfaces

Piezoelectricity in low dimensional materials and metal-semiconductor junctions has attracted recent attention. We investigate a 2D in-plane metal-semiconductor junction made of multilayer 2H and 1T' phases of MoTe2 structure. Strong piezoelectric response is observed using piezoresponse force microscopy at the 2H-1T’ junction, despite that the multilayers of each individual phase are weakly piezoelectric

The rapid development of flexible electronic devices, especially based on two-dimensional(2D) materials, has triggered the demand for high-strength materials. Mono- or few-layer phosphorene with excellent electronic properties has attracted extensive attention. However, phosphorene is affected by its low Young's modulus when applied to flexible electronic devices. Here, we report a strategy via ion

Water current energy is an enormous and widely distributed clean energy in nature, with different scales from large ocean flow to small local turbulence. However, few effective technologies have been proposed to make use of different forms of water currents as a power source. Here, high-performance paired triboelectric nanogenerators (P-TENGs) capable of integrating massively into a thin flexible layer

Recent improvements in the performances of solution-processed semiconductor materials and optoelectronic devices have shifted research interest to the diversification/advancement of their functionality. Embedding a molecular switch capable of transition between two or more metastable isomers by light stimuli is one of the most straightforward and widely accepted methods to potentially realize the multifunctionality

Polymer-based dielectrics have received intensive interest from academic community in the field of high-power energy storage owing to their superior flexibility and fast charge-discharge ability. Recently, how to suppress the loss of polymer-based dielectrics has been increasingly recognized as a critical point to attain a high charge-discharge efficiency in the film capacitors. Some achievements have

Therapeutic approaches that reprogram the gut microbiome are promising strategies to alleviate and cure inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, abnormal expansion of E. coli during inflammation can promote pathogenic bacteria occupying ecological niches to resist reprogramming of the microbiome. Herein, we develop a bionic regulator (CaWO4@YCW) to efficiently and precisely regulate the gut microbiome

This review outlines requirements and recent advances in research on organic neuro-electronics. Neuro-electronics such as neural interfaces and neuroprosthetics provide a promising approach to diagnose and treat neurological diseases. However, the current neural interfaces are rigid and not biocompatible, so they induce an immune response and deterioration of neural signal transmission. Organic materials

Wavelength discriminating systems typically consist of heavy benchtop-based instruments, comprising diffractive optics, moving parts, and adjacent detectors. For simple wavelength measurements, such as lab-on-chip light source calibration or laser wavelength tracking, which do not require polychromatic analysis and cannot handle bulky spectroscopy instruments, light-weight, easy-to-process, and flexible

Invisibility has been a topic of long-standing interest owning to the advent of metamaterials and transformation optics, but still faces open challenges after its tremendous development in recent decades. One of the big challenges is the narrow bandwidth, as the realization of an invisibility cloak is usually based on a metamaterial – an artificial composite material composed of subwavelength resonator

Fabricating perovskite solar cells (PSCs) in air is conducive to low-cost commercial production, nevertheless it is rather difficult to achieve comparable device performance as that in an inert atmosphere because of poor moisture toleration of perovskite materials. Here, the perovskite crystallization process was systematically studied using two-step sequential solution deposition in inert atmosphere

Lithium (Li) metal anode offers a promising solution for high-energy-density lithium metal batteries (LMBs). However, the significant volume expansion of Li metal during charge results in poor cycling stability as a result of the dendritic deposition and broken solid electrolyte interphase. Herein, we propose a facile one-step roll-to-roll fabrication of a zero-volume-expansion Li metal composite anode

A scalable synthetic route to colloidal atoms has significantly advanced over the past two decades. Recently, colloidal clusters with DNA-coated cores called “patchy colloidal clusters” have been developed, providing a directional bonding with specific angle of rotation due to the shape complementarity between colloidal clusters. Through a DNA-mediated interlocking process, they were directly assembled

Metal halide perovskites combine excellent electronic and optical properties such as defect tolerance and high photoluminescence efficiency with the benefits of low-cost, large area, solution-based processing. Composition- and dimension-tunable properties of perovskites have already been utilized in bright and efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs). At the same time, there are still great challenges

Due to the intrinsic lack of spatial order and self-supported shape, liquids are often incompatible with precision manufacturing/processing and are potentially limited for advanced functionality. Herein, we develop an optothermal strategy to fully command phase-separated liquids with unprecedent spatiotemporal addressability. Specifically, we focus a laser onto an Au film to create a hot spot that

Chemoimmunotherapy has shown great potential to activate immune response, but immunosuppressive microenvironment associated T cell exhaustion remains a challenge in cancer therapy. The proper immune-modulatory strategy to provoke a robust immune response is to simultaneously regulate T-cell exhaustion and infiltration. Here, a new kind of carrier-free nanoparticle (NP) was developed to simultaneously

The current energy crises and imminent danger of global warming severely limits our ability to scale societal development sustainably. As such, there is a pressing need for utilizing renewable, green energy sources such as wind energy which is ubiquitously available on Earth. In this work, we report a fundamentally new wind energy harvesting technology based on the giant magnetoelastic effect in a

The additive manufacturing technique direct laser writing (DLW), also known as two-photon laser lithography, is becoming increasingly established as a technique capable of fabricating functional three-dimensional microstructures. Recently, there has been an increasing effort to impart microstructures fabricated using DLW with advanced functionalities by introducing responsive chemical entities into

Triiodide cesium lead perovskite (CsPbI3) has promising prospects in the development of efficient and stable photovoltaics in both single-junction and tandem structure. However, achieving inverted devices which provide good stability and are compatible to tandem devices, remains a challenge and the deep insights are still unintelligible. In this study, we found that the surface components of CsPbI3

Layered Ni-rich lithium transition metal oxides are promising battery cathodes due to their high specific capacity, but their poor cycling stability due to intergranular cracks in secondary particles restricts their practical applications. Surface engineering is an effective strategy for improving a cathode's cycling stability, but most reported surface coatings cannot adapt to the dynamic volume changes

With the flourishing development of material simulation methods (quantum chemistry methods, molecular dynamics, Monte Carlo, phase field, etc.), extensive adoption of computing technologies (high-throughput, artificial intelligence, machine learning, etc.), and the invention of high-performance computing equipment, computational simulation tools have sparked the fundamental mechanism-level explorations

Bendable organic single crystals are promising candidates for flexible electronics owing to their superior charge transport properties. However, large-area high-quality organic single crystals are rarely available on polymer substrates generally used in flexible electronics. Here, a surface-assisted assembly strategy based on a polymer modification, poly (amic acid) (PAA), is developed to grow large-area

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanocrystals have attracted great attention in heterogeneous photocatalysis and photoelectricity fields for decades. However, contradictious conclusions on the reporting of crystallographic orientation and exposed facets of TiO2 nanocrystals frequently appeared in the literature. Herein, using anatase TiO2 nanocrystals with highly exposed {001} facets as a model, we clarified

The recent advances in optic neuromorphic devices have led to a subsequent rise in use for construction of energy-efficient artificial vision systems. The widespread use can be attributed to their ability to capture, store, and process visual information from the environment. The primary limitations of existing optic neuromorphic devices include nonlinear weight updates, cross-talk issues, and silicon

The unique properties of the emerging photonic materials, conducting nitrides and oxides, especially their tailorability, large damage thresholds, and, importantly, the so-called epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) behavior, have enabled novel photonic phenomena spanning optical circuitry, tunable metasurfaces, and nonlinear optical devices. This work explores direct control of the optical properties of polycrystalline

Hydroxyapatite (HAP) is a green catalyst which has a wide range of applications in the catalysis due to its high flexibility and multi-functionality. These properties allow HAP to accommodate a large number of catalyst modifications that can selectively improve the catalytic performance in target reactions. To date, many studies have been conducted to elucidate the effect of HAP modification on the

The potential for creating hierarchical domain structures, or mixtures of energetically degenerate phases with distinct patterns that can be modified continually, in ferroelectric thin films offers a pathway to control their mesoscale structure beyond lattice-mismatch strain with a substrate. Here, it is demonstrated that varying the strontium content provides deterministic strain-driven control of

Tungsten-based nanomaterials (TNMs) with diverse nanostructures and unique physicochemical properties have been widely applied in the biomedical field. Although various reviews have described the application of TNMs in specific biomedical fields, there are still no comprehensive studies that summarize and analyze research trends of the field as a whole. To identify and further promote the development

Polymer self-assembly is a crucial process in materials engineering. Currently, almost all polymer self-assembly is limited to non-covalent bonding methods, even though these methods have drawbacks as they require complicated synthesis techniques and produce relatively unstable structures. Here, a novel mechanism of covalent polymer assembly is discovered and employed to address drawbacks of non-covalent

We report one pot chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth of large area Janus SeMoS monolayers, with the asymmetric top (Se) and bottom (S) chalcogen atomic planes with respect to the central transition metal (Mo) atoms. The formation of these two-dimensional semiconductor monolayers takes place upon the thermodynamic equilibrium driven exchange of the bottom Se atoms of the initially grown MoSe2 single