An adaptive and stable gum bio-electrolyte was developed, which enabled Zn-ion batteries that have very competitive performances in terms of capacity, energy density, power density, rate capability and cyclability.

Developing efficient but nonprecious bifunctional electrocatalysts for overall water splitting in basic media has been the subject of intensive research focus with the increasing demand for clean and regenerated energy. Herein, we report on the synthesis of a novel hierarchical hybrid electrode, NiFe-layered double hydroxide molecularly ultrathin sheets grown on NiCoO nanowire arrays assembled from thin platelets with nickel foam as the scaffold support, in which the catalytic metal sites are more accessible and active and most importantly strong chemical coupling exists at the interface, enabling superior catalytic power toward both oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and additionally hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in the same alkaline KOH electrolyte. The behavior ranks top-class compared with documented non-noble HER and OER electrocatalysts and even comparable to state-of-the-art noble-metal electrocatalysts, Pt and RuO. When fabricated as an integrated alkaline water electrolyzer, the designed electrode can deliver a current density of 10 mA cm at a fairly low cell voltage of 1.60 V, promising the material as efficient bifunctional catalysts toward whole cell water splitting.

Carbon nanotube (CNT) film is a favorable kind of substrate in flexible electric devices because of its superior flexibility, favorable mechanical strength and excellent electrical conductivity. Moreover, since conductive polymer polyaniline (PANI) owns high capacitance and easy manufacture method, it is always 10 in favor for the supercapacitors. In this research, CNT film synthesized via floating catalyst chemical vapor deposition method could be further activated by electrochemically re-expanding to achieve better porosity and higher specific area, in order to obtain all-solid-state flexible supercapacitor with higher area capacitance. Comparing with the pristine CNT film characterized by PANI, electrochemically fabricated CNT hydrogel film with PANI deposition had higher specific area capacitance, which was 680 mF cm -2 at 15 1 mA cm -2 . All-solid-state supercapacitor that was synthesized by this composite film exhibited high specific area capacitance of 184.6 mF cm -2 at 1 mA cm -2 , which was higher than many similar supercapacitors. The rolling test showed that this supercapacitor maintained its high capacitance even in the rolling condition. After 500 charge-discharge cycles, it also remained high Coulombic efficiency and specific area capacitance. This all-solid-state supercapacitor shows great potential for energy storage 20 device.CNT film prepared via floating catalyst CVD method was activated by electrochemical strategy for better PANI growth. Both of this CNT/PANI hydrogel film electrode and flexible symmetric supercapacitor based on this electrode material exhibited high areal capacitance.

Developing neural circuits face the dual challenge of growing in an activity-induced fashion and maintaining stability through homeostatic mechanisms. Compared to our understanding of homeostatic regulation of excitatory synapses, relatively little is known about the mechanism mediating homeostatic plasticity of inhibitory synapses, especially that following activity elevation. Here, we found that elevating neuronal activity in cultured hippocampal neurons for 4 h significantly increased the frequency and amplitude of mIPSCs, before detectable change at excitatory synapses. Consistently, we observed increases in presynaptic and postsynaptic proteins of GABAergic synapses, including GAD65, vGAT, and GABA A R␣1. By suppressing activity-induced increase of neuronal firing with expression of the inward rectifier potassium channel Kir2.1 in individual neurons, we showed that elevation in postsynaptic spiking activity is required for activity-dependent increase in the frequency and amplitude of mIPSCs. Importantly, directly elevating spiking in individual postsynaptic neurons, by capsaicin activation of overexpressed TRPV1 channels, was sufficient to induce increased mIPSC amplitude and frequency, mimicking the effect of elevated neuronal activity. Downregulating BDNF expression in the postsynaptic neuron or its extracellular scavenging prevented activity-induced increase in mIPSC frequency, consistent with a role of BDNF-dependent retrograde signaling in this process. Finally, elevating activity in vivo by kainate injection increased both mIPSC amplitude and frequency in CA1 pyramidal neurons. Thus, spiking-induced, cell-autonomous upregulation of GABAergic synaptic inputs, through retrograde BDNF signaling, represents an early adaptive response of neural circuits to elevated network activity.

Neural circuit development requires concurrent morphological and functional changes. Here we identify coordinated and inversely correlated changes in dendritic morphology and mEPSC amplitude following increased neural activity. We show that over-expression of β-catenin, a molecule that increases total dendritic length, mimics the effects of increased neuronal activity by scaling down mEPSC amplitudes, while postsynaptic expression of a protein that sequesters β-catenin reverses the effects of activity on reducing mEPSC amplitudes. These results were confirmed immunocytochemically as changes in the size and density of surface synaptic AMPA receptor clusters. In individual neurons there was an inverse linear relationship between total dendritic length and average mEPSC amplitude. Importantly, β-catenin over-expression in vivo promoted dendritic growth and reduced mEPSC amplitudes. Together, these results demonstrate that coordinated changes in dendritic morphology and unitary excitatory synaptic strength may serve as an important intrinsic mechanism that helps prevent neurons from over-excitation during neural circuit development.

Air electrodes with high catalytic activity are of great importance for rechargeable zinc-air batteries. Herein, a flexible, binder-free composite air electrode for zinc-air batteries is reported, which utilizes a lightweight, conductive, and crosslinked aerogel film of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) functioned as a 3D catalyst-supporting scaffold for bifunctional cobalt (II/III) oxides and as a current collector. The composite electrode shows high catalytic activities for both oxygen reduction reaction and oxygen evolution reaction, resulting from the synergistic effect of nitrogen-doped CNTs and spinel Co O nanoparticles. Solid-state Zn-air batteries assembled using such free-standing air electrodes (without the need of additional current collectors) are bendable and show low resistances, low charge/discharge overpotentials, and a high cyclic stability.

Confining Zn plating and stripping in a robust and conductive 3D carbon nanotube network results in an electrode, which shows excellent reversibility at high depth of discharge and enables zinc-ion batteries with high-rate and long-term performance.

Electrochromic ModulationElectrochromic materials, which dynamically change color under applied potential, have gained renewed interest and fresh attention from researchers owing to their importance in recent developments of next-generation smart window technology. [1,2] Electrochromic devices that can independently control the transmittance of near-infrared (NIR) and visible light are in great demand, which would provide solutions for the serious problem of energy consumption in modern buildings. However, conventional electrochromism only involves visible light