Exploring highly‐efficient and low‐cost electrodes for both hydrogen and oxygen evolution reaction (HER and OER) is of primary importance to economical water splitting. Herein, a series of novel and robust bifunctional boride‐based electrodes are successfully fabricated using a versatile Et2NHBH3‐involved electroless plating (EP) approach via deposition of nonprecious boride‐based catalysts on various substrates. Owing to the unique binder‐free porous nodule structure induced by the hydrogen release EP reaction, most of the nonprecious boride‐based electrodes are highly efficient for overall water splitting. As a distinctive example, the Co‐B/Ni electrode can afford 10 mA cm−2 at overpotentials of only 70 mV for HER and 140 mV for OER, and can also survive at large current density of 1000 mA cm−2 for over 20 h without performance degradation in 1.0 m KOH. Several boride‐based two‐electrode electrolyzers can achieve 10 mA cm−2 at low voltages of around 1.4 V. Moreover, the facile EP approach is economically viable for flexible and large size electrode production.

A family of catalytic electrodes fabricated by insulating substrates of paper, cloth and sponge which bring dramatic advantages of high performance, low cost, light weight, eco-friendliness, flexibility, and simple fabrication, were developed.

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The technology of electrolyzing water to prepare high-purity hydrogen is an important field in today's energy development. However, how to prepare efficient, stable, and inexpensive hydrogen production technology from electrolyzed...

The development of efficient and earth‐abundant water‐splitting electrocatalysts is of great importance for energy conversion and storage technologies. In this study, surface‐activated amorphous FexB catalysts, Fe–B–O@Fe2B and Fe–B–O@FeB2, are synthesized and remarkable activity for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is achieved, e.g., Fe–B–O@FeB2 delivering a current density of 10 mA cm−2 at overpotential of 260 mV with Tafel slope of 57.9 mV dec−1 for OER in alkaline electrolyte. Iron oxide/hydroxide and oxidized borate species on the surface of FexB are found to have a synergistic effect on promoting the OER activity of the sample. Moreover, it is found that the OER active oxidization layer of iron boride is less active toward hydrogen evolution reaction.

Efficient delivery of nucleic acids into target cells is crucial for nucleic acid-based therapies. Various nucleic acid delivery systems have been developed, each with its own advantages and limitations. We previously developed a nanoparticle-based delivery system for small chemical drugs using pH-responsive PEG 8 -PDPA 100 -PEG 8 polymer micelles as carriers. In this study, we extend the application of these pH-responsive micelle-like nanoparticles (MNPs) to deliver oligonucleotides. We demonstrate that the MNPs efficiently encapsulate and deliver oligonucleotides of different lengths (20–100 nt) into cells. The cargo oligonucleotides are rapidly released at pH 5.0. We prepared MNPs carrying a Texas red-fluorescently labeled anti-human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) aptamer (HApt). Compared to free HApt, the HApt-MNPs resulted in significantly better cellular uptake, reduced cell viability, and increased apoptosis in SKBR3 breast cancer cells, which overexpress HER2. Moreover, HApt-MNPs were significantly less cytotoxic to MCF7 breast cancer cells, which express low levels of HER2. After cellular uptake, HApt-MNPs mainly accumulated in lysosomes; inhibition of lysosomal activity using bafilomycin A1 and LysoTracker Red staining confirmed that lysosomal activity and low pH were required for HApt-MNP accumulation and release. Furthermore, HER2 protein expression declined significantly following treatment with HApt-MNPs in SKBR3 cells, indicating that HApt-induced translocation of HER2 to lysosomes exerted a potent cytotoxic effect by altering signaling downstream of HER2. In conclusion, this pH-responsive and lysosome-targeting nanoparticle system can efficiently deliver oligonucleotides to specific target cells and has significant potential for nucleic acid-based cancer therapies.

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