Lithium metal batteries have been considerably limited by the problems of uncontrolled dendritic lithium formation and the highly reactive nature of lithium with electrolytes. Herein, we have developed functional porous bilayer composite separators by simply blade-coating polyacrylamide-grafted graphene oxide molecular brushes onto commercial polypropylene separators. Our functional porous bilayer composite separators integrate the lithiophilic feature of hairy polyacrylamide chains and fast electrolyte diffusion pathways with the excellent mechanical strength of graphene oxide nanosheets and thus enable molecular-level homogeneous and fast lithium ionic flux on the surfaces of electrodes. As a result, dendrite-free uniform lithium deposition with a high Coulombic efficiency (98%) and ultralong-term reversible lithium plating/stripping (over 2600 h) at a high current density (2 mA cm−2) are achieved for lithium metal anodes. Remarkably, lithium metal anodes with an unprecedented stability of more than 1900 h cycling at an ultrahigh current density of 20 mA cm−2 are demonstrated.
Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness
worldwide,
characterized by progressive vision loss due to the selective damage
to retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and their axons. Oxidative stress
is generally believed as one key factor of RGCs death. Recently, necroptosis
was identified to play a key role in glaucomatous injury. Therefore,
depletion of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and inhibition of necroptosis
in RGCs has become one of treatment strategies for glaucoma. However,
existing drugs without efficient drug enter into the retina and have
controlled release due to a short drug retention. Herein, we designed
a glaucomatous microenvironment-responsive drug carrier polymer, which
is characterized by the presence of thioketal bonds and 1,4-dithiane
unit in the main chain for depleting ROS as well as the pendant cholesterols
for targeting cell membranes. This polymer was adopted to encapsulate
an inhibitor of necroptosis, necrostatin-1, into nanoparticles (designated
as NP1). NP1 with superior biosafety could scavenge ROS in RGCs both in vitro and in vivo of an acute pathological
glaucomatous injury model. Further, NP1 was found to effectively inhibit
the upregulation of the necroptosis pathway, reducing the death of
RGCs. The findings in this study exemplified the use of nanomaterials
as potential strategies to treat glaucoma.
The development of Pt IV prodrugs that are reduced into the therapeutically active Pt II species within the tumor microenvironment has received much research interest. In order to provide spatial and temporal control over the treatment, there is a high demand for the development of compounds that could be selectively activated upon irradiation. Despite recent progress, the majority of Pt IV complexes are excited with ultraviolet or blue light, limiting the use of such compounds to superficial application. To overcome this limitation, herein, the first example of Pt IV prodrug nanoparticles that could be reduced with deeply penetrating ultrasound radiation is reported, enabling the treatment of deep-seated or large tumors. The nanoparticles were found to selectively accumulate inside a mouse colon carcinoma tumor upon intravenous injection and were able to eradicate the tumor upon exposure to ultrasound radiation.
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