A hierarchical nanostructure composed of NiMn‐layered double hydroxide (NiMn‐LDH) microcrystals grafted on carbon nanotube (CNT) backbone is constructed by an in situ growth route, which exhibits superior supercapacitive performance. The resulting composite material (NiMn‐LDH/CNT) displays a three‐dimensional architecture with tunable Ni/Mn ratio, well‐defined core‐shell configuration, and enlarged surface area. An electrochemical investigation shows that the Ni3Mn1‐LDH/CNT electrode is rather active, which delivers a maximum specific capacitance of 2960 F g–1 (at 1.5 A g–1), excellent rate capability (79.5% retention at 30 A g–1), and cyclic stability. Moreover, an all‐solid‐state asymmetric supercapacitor (SC) with good flexibility is fabricated by using the NiMn‐LDH/CNT film and reduced graphene oxide (RGO)/CNT film as the positive and negative electrode, respectively, exhibiting a wide cell voltage of 1.7 V and largely enhanced energy density up to 88.3 Wh kg–1 (based on the total weight of the device). By virtue of the high‐capacity of pseudocapacitive hydroxides and desirable conductivity of carbon‐based materials, the monolithic design demonstrated in this work provides a promising approach for the development of flexible energy storage systems.

TiO2/graphene/NiFe-layered double hydroxide nanorod arrays were fabricated as highly efficient photoanodes for photoelectrochemical water splitting with simultaneously enhanced charge separation and water oxidation efficiency.

Fast electrosynthesis of Fe-containing layered double hydroxide arrays and their highly-efficient electrocatalytic performance toward small molecule oxidation reactions.

A novel member of the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) family has been identified from the human umbilical vein endothelial cell cDNA library, named vascular endothelial growth inhibitor (VEGI). The VEGI gene was mapped to human chromosome 9q32. The cDNA for VEGI encodes a protein of 174 amino acid residues with the characteristics of a type II transmembrane protein. Its amino acid sequence is 20-30% identical to other members of the TNF family. Unlike other members of the TNF family, VEGI is expressed predominantly in endothelial cells. Local production of a secreted form of VEGI via gene transfer caused complete suppression of the growth of MC-38 murine colon cancers in syngeneic C57BL/6 mice. Histological examination showed marked reduction of vascularization in MC-38 tumors that expressed soluble but not membrane-bound VEGI or were transfected with control vector. The conditioned media from soluble VEGI-expressing cells showed marked inhibitory effect on in vitro proliferation of adult bovine aortic endothelial cells. Our data suggest that VEGI is a novel angiogenesis inhibitor of the TNF family and functions in part by directly inhibiting endothelial cell proliferation. The results further suggest that VEGI maybe highly valuable toward angiogenesis-based cancer therapy.

Recently, layered double hydroxides (LDHs) have attracted extensive attention in the field of energy storage and conversion, and a deep understanding of their semiconducting properties is rather limited. In this work, the electronic properties (band structure, density of states (DOS), band edge placement) of M ΙΙ Μ ΙΙΙ -LDHs (M ΙΙ = Mg, Co, Ni and Zn; Μ ΙΙΙ = Al and Ga) were studied in detail. The thermodynamic mechanism toward oxygen evolution reaction (OER) was investigated by using the density functional theory plus U (DFT + U) method. The calculation results of band structure indicate that Mg and Zn-based LDHs (band gap energies larger than 3.1 eV) are ultraviolet responsive while Co and Ni-based LDHs are responsive to visible light (band gap energies less than 3.1 eV). The DOS calculations reveal that the photogenerated hole localizes on the surface hydroxyl group of LDHs, facilitating the oxidization of water molecule without a long transportation route. The band edge placements of M ΙΙ Μ ΙΙΙ -LDHs show that NiGa-, CoAl-, ZnAl-and NiAl-LDHs have a driving force (0.965 eV, 0.836 eV, 0.667 eV and 0.426 eV, respectively) toward oxygen evolution. However, the thermodynamic mechanism of these four LDHs reveal that only CoAl-LDH can overcome the reaction barrier (0.653 eV) via the driving force of photogenerated hole (0.836 eV). Experimental observations of MgAl-, CoAl-and ZnAl-LDHs further prove that only CoAl-LDH is an efficient oxygen evolution photocatalyst (O 2 generation rate: 973 µmol h −1 g −1 ), agreeing well with the theoretical prediction. Therefore, this work provides an effective theoretical and experimental combined method for screening possible photocatalysts, which can be extended to other semiconductor materials in addition to LDHs. double hydroxides (LDHs) have attracted considerable attention in the field of photocatalysis. LDHs are important layered clays generally expressed by the formula [M 2+ 1−x M 3+ x (OH) 2 ] x+ (A n− ) x/n ·mH 2 O, where M 2+ and M 3+ are divalent and trivalent metal cations and A n− is the anion compensating for the positive charge of the hydroxide layers. 13 In the previous reports, transition metal-containing LDHs materials have shown photocatalytic behavior.For instance, ZnCr-, 14,15 NiTi-16,17 and CoFe-LDHs 18 serve as efficient photocatalysts for oxygen evolution while MgCr-and NiCr-LDHs 19 exhibit photocatalytic activity toward decomposition of organic pollutants. Although much progress has been made, to the best of our knowledge, a rational design based on their semiconductor properties is rather limited, which restricts the exploration. The above mentioned LDHs just contain the transition metal; does the LDH including main group elements such as Al and Ga show the photocatalytic activity? In addition, it is highly essential to understand the structure-property correlation of LDHs-based photocatalysts so as to give a rational material design.With recent progress in computational hardware and software, the band gaps of fluorite TiO 2 , 20 graphene derivatives, 21...