In situ gelation adds fresh potential for conventional liquid electrolytes in applications to lithium metal batteries.

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have achieved huge success in the past few decades, due to mature technologies, low cost, and high charge-discharge efficiency. However, the development

PurposeEpithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) can contribute to gastric cancer (GC) progression and recurrence following therapy. Tumor-associated neutrophils (TANs) are associated with poor outcomes in a variety of cancers. However, it is not clear whether TANs interact with the EMT process during GC development.MethodsImmunohistochemistry was performed to examine the distribution and levels of CD66 + neutrophils in samples from 327 patients with GC. CD66b + TANs were isolated either directly from GC cell suspensions or were conditioned from healthy donor peripheral blood polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) stimulated with tumor tissue culture supernatants (TTCS) and placed into co-culture with MKN45 or MKN74 cells, after which migration, invasion and EMT were measured. Interleukin-17a (IL-17a) was blocked with a polyclonal antibody, and the STAT3 pathway was blocked with the specific inhibitor AG490.ResultsNeutrophils were widely distributed in gastric tissues of patients with GC and were enriched predominantly at the invasion margin. Neutrophil levels at the invasion margin were an independent predictor of poor disease-free survival (DFS) and disease-specific survival (DSS). IL-17a + neutrophils constituted a large portion of IL-17a-producing cells in GC, and IL-17a was produced at the highest levels in co-culture compared with that in TANs not undergoing co-culture. TANs enhanced the migration, invasion and EMT of GC cells through the secretion of IL-17a, which activated the Janus kinase 2/signal transducers and activators of transcription (JAK2/STAT3) pathway in GC cells, while deprivation of IL-17a using a neutralizing antibody or inhibition of the JAK2/STAT3 pathway with AG490 markedly reversed these TAN-induced phenotypes in GC cells induced by TANs.ConclusionsNeutrophils correlate with tumor stage and predict poor prognosis in GC. TANs produce IL-17a, which promotes EMT of GC cells through JAK2/STAT3 signalling. Blockade of IL-17a signalling with a neutralizing antibody inhibits TAN-stimulated activity in GC cells. Therefore, IL-17a-targeted therapy might be used to treat patients with GC.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13046-018-1003-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Garnet-type electrolytes suffer from unstable chemistry against air exposure,w hichg enerates contaminants on electrolyte surface and accounts for poor interfacial contact with the Li metal. Thermal treatment of the garnet at > 700 8 8C could remove the surface contaminants,y et it regenerates the contaminants in the air,and aggravates the Li dendrite issue as more electron-conducting defective sites are exposed. In ad eparture from the removal approach,h ere we report an ew surface chemistry that converts the contaminants into af luorinated interface at moderate temperature < 180 8 8C. The modified interface shows ahigh electron tunneling barrier and alow energy barrier for Li + surface diffusion, so that it enables dendrite-proof Li plating/stripping at ah igh critical current density of 1.4 mA cm À2 .M oreover,t he modified interface exhibits high chemical and electrochemical stability against air exposure,which prevents regeneration of contaminants and keeps high critical current density of 1.1 mA cm À2 .T he new chemistry presents apractical solution for realization of highenergy solid-state Li metal batteries.

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Safety concerns are impeding the applications of lithium metal batteries. Flame‐retardant electrolytes, such as organic phosphates electrolytes (OPEs), could intrinsically eliminate fire hazards and improve battery safety. However, OPEs show poor compatibility with Li metal though the exact reason has yet to be identified. Here, the lithium plating process in OPEs and Li/OPEs interface chemistry were investigated through ex situ and in situ techniques, and the cause for this incompatibility was revealed to be the highly resistive and inhomogeneous interfaces. Further, a nitriding interface strategy was proposed to ameliorate this issue and a Li metal anode with an improved Li cycling stability (300 h) and dendrite‐free morphology is achieved. Meanwhile, the full batteries coupled with nickel‐rich cathodes, such as LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2, show excellent cycling stability and outstanding safety (passed the nail penetration test). This successful nitriding‐interface strategy paves a new way to handle the incompatibility between electrode and electrolyte.

This Letter presents for the first time a scheme to generate intense high-order optical vortices that carry orbital angular momentum in the extreme ultraviolet region based on relativistic harmonics from the surface of a solid target. In the three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation, the high-order harmonics of the high-order vortex mode is generated in both reflected and transmitted light beams when a linearly polarized Laguerre-Gaussian laser pulse impinges on a solid foil. The azimuthal mode of the harmonics scales with its order. The intensity of the high-order vortex harmonics is close to the relativistic region, with the pulse duration down to attosecond scale. The obtained intense vortex beam possesses the combined properties of fine transversal structure due to the high-order mode and the fine longitudinal structure due to the short wavelength of the high-order harmonics. In addition to the application in high-resolution detection in both spatial and temporal scales, it also presents new opportunities in the intense vortex required fields, such as the inner shell ionization process and high energy twisted photons generation by Thomson scattering of such an intense vortex beam off relativistic electrons. Light beams can exhibit helical wave fronts: the light phase "winds up" around the spatial beam center and forms an optical vortex. The phase wind imprints an orbital angular momentum (OAM) to the beam [1,2]. The characteristic helical phase profiles of optical vortices are described by expðilϕÞ multipliers, where ϕ is the azimuthal coordinate and the integer number l is their topological charge, corresponding to the order of the mode. The total phase accumulated in one full annular loop is 2πl, and an OAM of lℏ is carried by per photon for an l-order linearly polarized optical vortex beam. Based on this, the high-order optical vortex beam provides a powerful tool in optical information to investigate the entanglement state [3] and for studies of cold atoms and enhancing atomic transition [4][5][6][7].In order to provide more quantum information and for other potential applications, high-order vortex beams are required. However, limited by the etching resolution, the common method using forked diffraction grating [8] or the spiral phase plates [1] to generate the optical vortex beams is difficult to be used to obtain them. Many studies have attempted to generate light beams with OAM. For example, a relativistic electron beam can act as a mode converter that interacts with a laser in a helical undulator [9-11] and high-energy photons in MeV-GeV with OAM can be obtained by Compton backscattering of twisted laser photons off relativistic electrons [12], where the mode of the Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) pulse remains unchanged. In addition, in view of the gas high-order harmonics generation (HHG) scheme [13][14][15], because of the confluence of OAM and HHG, this scheme has an extraordinarily promising perspective. The observed harmonics possess a helical wave front in both experimental [16,17] and theoretical...

When a relativistic laser pulse with a high photon density interacts with a specially tailored thin foil target, a strong torque is exerted on the resulting spiral-shaped foil plasma, or "light fan." Because of its structure, the latter can gain significant orbital angular momentum (OAM), and the opposite OAM is imparted to the reflected light, creating a twisted relativistic light pulse. Such an interaction scenario is demonstrated by particle-in-cell simulation as well as analytical modeling, and should be easily verifiable in the laboratory. As an important characteristic, the twisted relativistic light pulse has a strong torque and ultrahigh OAM density. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.235001 PACS numbers: 52.38.-r, 03.50.De, 42.50.Tx, 52.59.-f Prompted by the fast development of laser techniques [1], light-matter interaction has entered the regime of a relativistic laser-plasma interaction. Over the past few decades, a number of novel mechanisms and schemes have been proposed. Among these mechanisms and schemes, the most promising application is for use in laser-driven plasma accelerator science, such as laser wakefield acceleration of electrons [2] and a laser driving foil to accelerate protons [3]. Laser-plasma interaction can also be an efficient source of high-order harmonic generation (HHG) [4], x rays [5], and even gamma rays [6,7]. One of the key issues in the above mechanisms is how to make use of the laser ponderomotive force efficiently to pump a strong charge separation field in plasma, which is the origin of particle acceleration. Hence, it is the force (the accelerating force, the confining force, etc.) that people care about most in relativistic laser plasma physics. The effect of another important dynamical quantity, the torque, although as important as force, has not been revealed for a relativistic laser pulse. How to observe the orbital angular momentum (OAM) in laser-plasma interaction and how the appearance of OAM would essentially affect the process are of special interest. Circularly polarized light carries a spin angular momentum of AEℏ per photon; however, the total OAM of a normal Gaussian pulse, commonly found in the current chirped pulse amplification technology, is zero. Therefore, observation of the torque and OAM in relativistic laserplasma interaction is rare.OAM has been discussed extensively for weak light [8-13] and extreme ultraviolet light [14][15][16]. Since Allen et al. first showed that a Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) laser pulse has finite OAM [8], many applications using twisted light have been found [9][10][11]. The OAM of a twisted light can be transferred to matter. More interestingly, several phenomena observed in astrophysics, like pulsars, are related to the OAM of light and plasma [17,18]. Thus, simulating and investigating such an immense process in a laboratory on the Earth would be of great convenience. Recently, Mendonca et al. have derived the solutions of plasma wave with OAM [19,20]. They also created a donut plasma wakefield using an intense laser with OAM f...