Gold nanocages (AuNCs), which have tunable near-infrared (NIR) absorption and intrinsically high photothermal conversion efficiency, have been actively investigated as photothermal conversion agents for photothermal therapy (PTT). The short blood circulation lifetime of AuNCs, however, limits their tumor uptake and thus in vivo applications. Here we show that such a limitation can be overcome by cloaking AuNCs with red blood cell (RBC) membranes, a natural stealth coating. The fusion of RBC membranes over AuNC surface does not alter the unique porous and hollow structures of AuNCs, and the resulting RBC-membrane-coated AuNCs (RBC-AuNCs) exhibit good colloidal stability. Upon NIR laser irradiation, the RBC-AuNCs demonstrate in vitro photothermal effects and selectively ablate cancerous cells within the irradiation zone as do the pristine biopolymer-stealth-coated AuNCs. Moreover, the RBC-AuNCs exhibit significantly enhanced in vivo blood retention and circulation lifetime compared to the biopolymer-stealth-coated counterparts, as demonstrated using a mouse model. With integrated advantages of photothermal effects from AuNCs and long blood circulation lifetime from RBCs, the RBC-AuNCs demonstrate drastically enhanced tumor uptake when administered systematically, and mice that received PPT cancer treatment modulated by RBC-AuNCs achieve 100% survival over a span of 45 days. Taken together, our results indicate that the long circulating RBC-AuNCs may facilitate the in vivo applications of AuNCs, and the RBC-membrane stealth coating technique may pave the way to improved efficacy of PPT modulated by noble metal nanoparticles.

Electron-hole separation is a critical step to achieving efficient photocatalysis, towards which use of co-catalysts has become a widely used strategy. Despite the tremendous efforts and demonstrated functions of noble metal co-catalysts, seeking noble metal-free co-catalysts will always be the goal when designing costeffective, high-performance hybrid photocatalysts. In this work, we demonstrate that MoS 2 nanosheets with 1T phase (i.e., octahedral phase) can function as a co-catalyst with multiple merits: (1) Noble-metal-free; (2) high mobility for charge transport; (3) high density of active sites for H 2 evolution on basal planes; (4) good performance stability; (5) high light transparency. As demonstrated in both photocatalytic hydrogen production and Rhodamine B degradation, the developed hybrid structure with TiO 2 exhibits excellent performance, in sharp contrast to bare TiO 2 and the hybrid counterpart with 2H-MoS 2 .

Pursuing rechargeable metal-ion batteries with greater energy density is attracting great attention due to increasing demand for energy storage, where alloying anodes can provide very high capacity. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] This is particularly true since sodium and potassium ion battery technologies offer limited capacity and stability using classic carbon-based anodes compared to lithium ions. [8][9][10][11] However, alloying anodes are notorious for their severe capacity fading, which has hindered their practical applications. The failure mechanism of alloying anodes has always been ascribed to the large volumetric change (~300%) and/or the fragile solid electrolyte interphase (SEI). [12][13][14][15] This interpretation is popular because the pulverization of the alloy-based electrodes can be observed during the reactions. As a result, many strategies have been developed to overcome this issue. These strategies include nano-structural controlling, carbon modification, and improving electrical conductivity. Thus, many nanostructured alloys including particles, 16 fibers/tubes, 5,17 film/membrane, 18,19 and hierarchical material 20,21 are being explored to stabilize alloying anodes. Characteristic, conductive and/or protective materials such as carbon and artificial solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) have been also used to improve alloying anode capacities stabilities. [22][23][24][25] Herein we show that an unprecedented high capacity (>650 mAh g -1 ) and stability (>500 cycles) can be achieved in alloying anodes by simply tuning the electrolyte composition, without the need for nanostructural control, carbon modification, and/or SEI engineering. We confirm that the cation solvation structure (e.g., Na + , K + ), particularly the type and location of the anions present in the metal salt and solvents, plays a critical role in affecting the alloying anode performance. In addition, we present a new anionic model showing that the anion corrosion plays at least an equally important role in alloying anode stability as the volume variation and fragile SEI models. Moreover, we present a new reaction model for alloying anode to make the ASSOCIATED CONTENT Supporting Information. Experimental and simulation section. Figures S1-S17 and Table S1 are included.