Au 25 (Captopril) 18 nanoclusters (NCs) are a 1.2 nm watersoluble metal nanomaterial with strong two-photon absorption, with excited-state reactive oxygen production, and of potential applicability for biomedical imaging and two-photon photodynamic therapy (2p-PDT). Because of the low cellular uptake of Au 25 (Captopril) 18 clusters, its limited potential for conjugation with targeting agents, and to enhance its biocompatibility, we embedded these clusters into hydrogel nanoparticles (NPs) by synthesizing polyacrylamide-encapsulated Au 25 (Capt) 18 nanoparticles (PAAm-Au 25 (Capt) 18 NPs). We verified that the two-photon absorption and singlet oxygen production of these PAAm-Au 25 NPs still exhibit the favorable properties of the original metal nanocluster. Furthermore, the Au 25 -encapsulated polyacrylamide nanoparticles have enhanced in vitro cell uptake, can be easily conjugated to targeting moieties, and exhibit significantly higher biocompatibility. Photoirradiation experiments on HeLa cancer cells incubated with these PAAm-Au 25 (Capt) 18 NPs reveal excellent 2p-PDT efficacy, in contrast to 1p-PDT, thus demonstrating their promising potential for cancer PDT with infrared light that penetrates deeply into live tissue.

Biodemulsifiers are environmentally friendly agents used in recycling oil or purifying water from emulsion, yet the demulsifying feature of cell-surface composition remains unclear. In this study, potentiometric titration, attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry were combined to characterize cell-surface chemical composition of demulsifying strain Alcaligenes sp. S-XJ-1 cultivated with different carbon sources. Cells cultivated with alkane contained abundant elemental nitrogen and basic functional groups, indicating that their surface was rich in proteins or peptides, which contributed to their highest demulsifying efficiency. For cells cultivated with fatty acid ester, the relatively abundant surface lipid contributed to a 50% demulsification ratio owing to the presence of more acidic functional group. The cells cultivated with glucose exhibited a high oxygen concentration (O/C ∼0.28), which indicated the presence of more polysaccharides on the cell surface. This induced the lowest demulsification ratio of 30%. It can be concluded that cell surface-associated proteins or lipids other than the polysaccharide of the demulsifying strain played a positive role in the demulsification activity. In addition, the cell-surface oligoglutamate compounds identified in situ were crucial to the demulsifying capability.

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Herein, we described the strategy of cascade nanotheranostics for in real-time tracking of GOD release and thus provide the feedback information of biocatalysis cascade process with significantly enhanced in vivo therapeutic efficiency.

Cysteine (Cys) is well-known to be an important biothiol and related to many diseases. However, the in situ trapping of endogenous Cys is still handicapped by a lack of straightforward methods combined with long-wavelength emission and high-performance response. In this work, we described the rational design strategy of cyanine-based near-infrared (NIR) probes for the rapid detection of mitochondrial Cys in living cells and mice. We focus on how to improve the response rate via regulating the electron density of the recognition units in probes. The obtained three probes all displayed remarkable fluorescence enhancement at 780 nm. From screening the obtained probes, it was found that the probe Cy-S-diOMe with electron-donating recognition unit displayed the fastest response rate, the lowest detection limit, and the highest signal-to-noise ratio. More importantly, Cy-S-diOMe was successfully applied to monitor Cys in tumor-bearing mice (within merely 5 min). This paradigm by modulation of the response rate in the cyanine dyes provides a promising methodology for the design of high-performance cyanine-based NIR probes.

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Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are regarded as promising cathode materials for zinc‐ion storage owing to their large interlayer spacings. However, their capabilities are still limited by sluggish kinetics and inferior conductivities. In this study, a facile one‐pot solvothermal method is exploited to vertically plant piezoelectric 1T MoSe2 nanoflowers on carbon cloth (CC) to fabricate crystallographically textured electrodes. The self‐built‐in electric field owing to the intrinsic piezoelectricity during the intercalation/deintercalation processes can serve as an additional piezo‐electrochemical coupling accelerator to enhance the migration of Zn2+. Moreover, the expanded interlayer distance (9–10 Å), overall high hydrophilicity, and conductivity of the 1T phase MoSe2 also promoted the kinetics. These advantages endow the tailored 1T MoSe2/CC nanopiezocomposite with feasible Zn2+ diffusion and desirable electrochemical performances at room and low temperatures. Moreover, 1T MoSe2/CC‐based quasi‐solid‐state zinc‐ion batteries are constructed to evaluate the potential of the proposed material in low‐temperature flexible energy storage devices. This work expounds the positive effect of intrinsic piezoelectricity of TMDs on Zn2+ migration and further explores the availabilities of TMDs in low‐temperature wearable energy‐storage devices.

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