No abstract

The adhesion of as-formed gas bubbles on the electrode surface usually impedes mass-transfer kinetics and subsequently decreases electrolysis efficiency. Here it is demonstrated that nanostructured MoS₂ films on conductive substrates show a faster hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), current increase, and a more-stable working state than their flat counterpart by significantly alleviating the adhesion of as-formed gas bubbles on the electrode. This study clearly reveals the importance of a nano-porous structure for HER, which should be general and beneficial for constructing other gas-evolution electrodes.

Treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) has demonstrated clinical benefit for a wide range of cancer types. Because only a subset of patients experience clinical benefit, there is a strong need for biomarkers that are easily accessible across diverse practice settings. Here, in a retrospective cohort study of 1714 patients with 16 different cancer types treated with ICI, we show that higher neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is significantly associated with poorer overall and progression-free survival, and lower rates of response and clinical benefit, after ICI therapy across multiple cancer types. Combining NLR with tumor mutational burden (TMB), the probability of benefit from ICI is significantly higher (OR = 3.22; 95% CI, 2.26-4.58; P < 0.001) in the NLR low/TMB high group compared to the NLR high/TMB low group. NLR is a suitable candidate for a cost-effective and widely accessible biomarker, and can be combined with TMB for additional predictive capacity.

Understanding the behavior of gas bubbles in aqueous media and realizing their spontaneous and directional manipulation are of vital importance in both scientific research and industrial applications, owing to their significant influences on many processes, such as waste water treatment, gas evolution reactions, and the recovery of valuable minerals. However, the behaviors of gas bubbles in aqueous media are mainly dominated by the buoyant force, which greatly impedes gas bubble transportation to any other direction except upward. Consequently, the spontaneous and directional transportation of gas bubbles in aqueous media is still identified as a big issue. Here, superhydrophobic copper cones have been successfully fabricated by integrating low‐surface‐tension chemical coatings with conical morphology. The generated superhydrophobic copper cones are capable of transporting gas bubbles from their tip to the base spontaneously and directionally underwater, even when they are vertically fixed with tips pointing up. The present study will inspire people to develop novel strategies to achieve efficient manipulation of gas bubbles in practical applications.

In this paper, a phenomenon of air bubbles quickly bursting within several milliseconds on a "self-cleaning" lotus leaf was described. This observation prompted the synthesis of artificial surfaces similar to that of the lotus leaf. The artificial leaf surfaces, prepared by photolithography and wet etching, showed a similar air bubble bursting effect. Smooth and rough silicon surfaces with an ordered nanostructure or patterned microstructure were utilized to study the contribution of the micro/nano hierarchical structures to this phenomenon of air bubble bursting. Air bubbles were found to burst on some superhydrophobic surfaces with microstructure (within 220 ms). However, air bubbles burst much more rapidly (within 13 ms) on similar surfaces with micro/nanostructure. The height, width, and spacing of hierarchical structures could also affect air bubble bursting, and the effect of the height was more obvious. When the height of hierarchical structures was around the height found in natural lotus papillae, the width and spacing were significant for air bubble bursting. An original model was proposed to further evaluate the reason why the micro/nano hierarchical rough structures had an excellent air bubble bursting effect, and the validity of the model was theoretically demonstrated.