The long-term cycling of anode-free Li-metal cells (i.e., cells where the negative electrode is in situ formed by electrodeposition on an electronically conductive matrix of lithium sourced from the positive electrode) using a liquid electrolyte is affected by the formation of an inhomogeneous solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) on the current collector and irregular Li deposition. To circumvent these issues, we report an atomically defective carbon current collector where multivacancy defects induce homogeneous SEI formation on the current collector and uniform Li nucleation and growth to obtain a dense Li morphology. Via simulations and experimental measurements and analyses, we demonstrate the beneficial effect of electron deficiency on the Li hosting behavior of the carbon current collector. Furthermore, we report the results of testing anode-free coin cells comprising a multivacancy defective carbon current collector, a LixNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1-based cathode and a nonaqueous Li-containing electrolyte solution. These cells retain 90% of their initial capacity for over 50 cycles under lean electrolyte conditions.

Dendritic cells (DCs)-based cancer immunotherapy has been used various strategies to inhibit immune suppressive mechanisms. CD25 antibodies and cyclophosphamide are well-studied immunomodulators through inhibition of regulatory T cells (Treg) and a blockade the immune-checkpoint molecule, cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) was recently targeted for immunomodulation. We used anti-CTLA-4 antibody, which is known to induce effective antitumor immunity by facilitating tumor-specific T-cell activation and suppressing Treg cells, as useful immunomodulator to provide a potentiating effect in the intratumoral injection of immature DCs (iDCs) into the irradiated tumor (IR/iDC). Ionizing radiation (IR) was applied at a dose of 10 Gy to the tumor on the right thigh of mice. Then, iDCs were intratumorally injected into the irradiated tumor. Anti-CTLA-4 antibody (100 µg/mouse) was administered intraperitoneally to mice on the same day with every iDCs injection. The growth of distant tumors was inhibited by IR/iDC and this effect was significantly augmented by combination treatment of anti-CTLA-4 antibody. Furthermore, the survival rate of tumor-bearing mice improved more by the combination treatment of anti-CTLA-4 antibody and IR/iDC compared with other groups. It was related to the increased tumor-specific interferon-γ-secreting T cells and CTL activity. Therefore, our results demonstrated that immunomodulator such as anti-CTLA-4 antibody enhances antitumor immunity of intratumoral injection of iDCs into irradiated tumor and suggested a new strategy to get more clinical benefits for cancer treatment.

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Achieving high reproducibility in materials properties of perovskites is critical to the reliable development of optoelectronic device applications such as photovoltaics and light-emitting diodes. However, it can be difficult to obtain reproducible and optimized performance from these materials, particularly for reduced-dimensional perovskites, because different 2D/quasi-2D perovskite layer numbers have similar formation energies. Here, we report that variations in the exact ambient temperature during solution processing, even in the small range of 21–31 °C, as may occur during the day or across seasons, influence the formation and crystallographic orientation of Ruddlesden–Popper phase perovskites with a formula of PEA2MA n–1Pb n Br3n+1. We find that growth at a lower ambient temperature (∼21 °C) predominantly favors low-n phases of the perovskite, especially n = 1 with an orientation parallel to the substrate. Conversely, higher ambient temperatures (∼26 and 31 °C) yield a larger fraction of high-n phases with a vertical orientation and suppressed the formation of the low-n phases. We show that the coexistence of parallel and perpendicular orientations leads to improvements in the electrical and photophysical properties, and consequently improved light-emitting device performance. Furthermore, higher ambient temperatures affect the surface morphology through the formation of cubic grains. Consequently, the precise ambient temperature yields a relative standard deviation of 9.9% for maximum luminance, while uncontrolled temperature causes a high relative standard deviation of 71.4%. These findings highlight the importance of ambient temperature control during processing of layered perovskites. We anticipate that this study should help the field of optoelectronic device research improve the reproducibility in the fabrication of low-dimensional perovskite-based devices.