An intrinsically conductive supramolecular polymer is prepared with remarkable thermal sensing and recyclable ability, providing a profound potential in green electronics.
A solvent-resistant and fully recyclable perfluoropolyether-based elastomer was designed and prepared for serving as an ideal alternative to polydimethylsiloxane for solvent-compatible and sustainable microfluidic chips.
Photothermal therapy (PTT) triggered by the second near-infrared light (NIR-II, 1000-1400 nm) has shown great potentials in tumor ablation because of its better tissue penetrability. However, even NIR-II PTT is still far from the desirable treatment of those tumors underneath skin, owing to the light scattering effect among skin components. This research aims to promote the NIR-II penetrability of skin tissue by weakening the light scattering effect led by the refractive index inhomogeneity among skin constituents. This strategy allows for a notable improvement of NIR-II transmittance from 30% to 70% through in vivo mice skin. In animal experiments, the local temperature of tumor tissue in the experiment group is 14.1°C higher than that in the control group due to superior tissue penetration, which is thus responsible for the excellent therapeutic effects of complete ablation without any reoccurrence. Such a strategy not only achieves perfect PTT effect, but benefits the development of other light-related biological applications.
Owing to a wide visual angle, few aberrations, and great depth of focus, flexible optoelectronics have become one subject of intense investigation for rescue equipment and endoscopy tools. Ionic liquids are rising as a kind of fluidic "semiconductor" with advantages of high flexibility and self-healing. However, challenges in the molecular design of photoresponsive ionic liquids impede the exploration of ionic liquids as intrinsic flexible liquid optoelectronics. This work demonstrated an imidazole-based ionic liquid covalently linked with a polypyrrole oligomer by alkyl chains. Such an ionic liquid has wide absorption from the visible light range to the near-infrared light range. The imidazole moiety acts as an electrical conductor which is thermally responsive. On the other hand, the polypyrrole segment serving as a light antenna is able to convert light energy to thermal heat. The alkyl linker tailors the energy transfer between polypyrrole and an imidazole cation. Negligible molecular aggregation and phase separation are attributed to the preservation of the fluidic nature at room temperature. This photoresponsive ionic liquid is successfully exploited as a flexible light detector that is adaptable to special sensing tests in bending states.
NIR absorbers for photothermal therapy are arousing great attention in tumor diagnosis and ablation. However, the inevitably wide distribution of NIR absorbers generally causes equal photothermal injuries to tumor tissues and healthy tissues. An initiative targeting strategy based on pH-sensitive redshift absorption has been proposed for NIR-induced hyperthermia only in tumor tissue. In this work, we develop a NIR absorber with superlarge redshift from middle visible light region to NIR light region once pH value drops. We also figure out a supramolecular route to improve the water solubility as well as the thermal stability of the NIR absorber in aqueous solutions. Animal experiments reveal that the tumor microenvironment can trigger selective NIR light absorbing, which is thus responsible for the tumor-selective hyperthermia and ablation. In terms of the advantages of easy preparation, low cytotoxicity, excellent tumor-selectivity, this supramolecular complex is considered to be a reliable photothermal agent for intelligent tumor-specific diagnosis and treatment.
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