Fluorescent probes in the second near-infrared window (NIR-II) allow high-resolution bioimaging with deep-tissue penetration. However, existing NIR-II materials often have poor signal-to-background ratios because of the lack of target specificity. Herein, an activatable NIR-II nanoprobe for visualizing colorectal cancers was devised. This designed probe displays H S-activated ratiometric fluorescence and light-up NIR-II emission at 900-1300 nm. By using this activatable and target specific probe for deep-tissue imaging of H S-rich colon cancer cells, accurate identification of colorectal tumors in animal models were performed. It is anticipated that the development of activatable NIR-II probes will find widespread applications in biological and clinical systems.
Near-infrared (NIR)-II
fluorescence agents hold great promise for
deep-tissue photothermal therapy (PTT) of cancers, which nevertheless
remains restricted by the inherent nonspecificity and toxicity of
PTT. In response to this challenge, we herein develop a hydrogen sulfide
(H2S)-activatable nanostructured photothermal agent (Nano-PT)
for site-specific NIR-II fluorescence-guided PTT of colorectal cancer
(CRC). Our in vivo studies reveal that this theranostic Nano-PT probe
is specifically activated in H2S-rich CRC tissues, whereas
it is nonfunctional in normal tissues. Activation of Nano-PT not only
emits NIR-II fluorescence with deeper tissue penetration ability than
conventional fluorescent probes but also generates high NIR absorption
resulting in efficient photothermal conversion under NIR laser irradiation.
Importantly, we establish NIR-II imaging-guided PTT of CRC by applying
the Nano-PT agent in tumor-bearing mice, which results in complete
tumor regression with minimal nonspecific damages. Our studies thus
shed light on the development of cancer biomarker-activated PTT for
precision medicine.
Ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor Ga2O3 based electronic devices are expected to perform beyond wide bandgap counterparts GaN and SiC. However, the reported power figure-of-merit hardly can exceed, which is far below the projected Ga2O3 material limit. Major obstacles are high breakdown voltage requires low doping material and PN junction termination, contradicting with low specific on-resistance and simultaneous achieving of n- and p-type doping, respectively. In this work, we demonstrate that Ga2O3 heterojunction PN diodes can overcome above challenges. By implementing the holes injection in the Ga2O3, bipolar transport can induce conductivity modulation and low resistance in a low doping Ga2O3 material. Therefore, breakdown voltage of 8.32 kV, specific on-resistance of 5.24 mΩ⋅cm2, power figure-of-merit of 13.2 GW/cm2, and turn-on voltage of 1.8 V are achieved. The power figure-of-merit value surpasses the 1-D unipolar limit of GaN and SiC. Those Ga2O3 power diodes demonstrate their great potential for next-generation power electronics applications.
Arsenic trioxide (ATO) is a successful chemotherapeutic drug for blood cancers via selective induction of apoptosis; however its efficacy in solid tumors is limited. Here we repurpose nanodiamonds (NDs) as a safe and potent autophagic inhibitor to allosterically improve the therapeutic efficacy of ATO-based treatment in solid tumors. We find that NDs and ATO are physically separate and functionally target different cellular pathways (autophagy vs. apoptosis); whereas their metabolic coupling in human liver carcinoma cells remarkably enhances programmed cell death. Combination therapy in liver tumor mice model results in ~91% carcinoma decrease as compared with ~28% without NDs. Treated mice show 100% survival rate in 150 days with greatly reduced advanced liver carcinoma-associated symptoms, and ~80% of post-therapy mice survive for over 20 weeks. Our work presents a novel strategy to harness the power of nanoparticles to broaden the scope of ATO-based therapy and more generally to fight solid tumors.
This work acquires a vertical β-Ga2O3 Schottky barrier diode (SBD) with the advanced termination structure of p-type NiOx and n-type β-Ga2O3 heterojunctions and coupled field plate structures to alleviate the crowding electric field. A Ga2O3 SBD delivers an average breakdown voltage of 1860 V and a specific on-resistance of 3.12 mΩ cm2, yielding a state-of-the-art direct-current Baliga's power figure of merit of 1.11 GW/cm2 at an anode area of 2.83 × 10−5 cm2. In addition, the Ga2O3 SBD with the same fabrication process at a large area of 1.21 × 10−2 cm2 also presents a high forward current of 7.13 A, a breakdown voltage of 1260 V, and a power figure-of-merit of 235 MW/cm2. According to dynamic pulse switching and capacitance-frequency characteristics, an optimized p-NiOx/Ga2O3 interface with a maximum trap density of 4.13 × 1010 eV−1 cm−2 is delivered. Moreover, based on the forward current-voltage measurement at various temperatures, the physics behind a forward conduction mechanism is illustrated. Ga2O3 SBDs with p-NiOx/n-Ga2O3 heterojunction termination, field plate, high power figure of merit, and high quality interface as well as suppressed resistance increase after dynamic pulse switching, verifying their great promise for future high power applications.
In this paper, we show that high-performance β-Ga2O3 hetero-junction barrier Schottky (HJBS) diodes with various β-Ga2O3 periodic fin widths of 1.5/3/5 μm are demonstrated with the incorporation of p-type NiOx. The β-Ga2O3 HJBS diode achieves a low specific on-resistance (Ron,sp) of 1.94 mΩ cm2 with a breakdown voltage of 1.34 kV at a β-Ga2O3 periodic fin width of 3 μm, translating to a direct-current Baliga's power figure of merit (PFOM) of 0.93 GW/cm2. In addition, we find that by shrinking the β-Ga2O3 width, the reverse leakage current is minimized due to the enhanced sidewall depletion effect from p-type NiOx. β-Ga2O3 HJBS diodes with p-type NiOx turn out to be an effective route for Ga2O3 power device technology by considering the high PFOM while maintaining a suppressed reverse leakage current.
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