Copper sulphides, as a novel kind of photothermal agent for photothermal therapy (PTT) of cancer cells, have attracted increasing attention in recent years due to good photostability, synthetic simplicity, low toxicity and low cost. However, the unsatisfactory photothermal conversion efficiency of copper sulphides limits their bioapplication as PTT agents. Herein, Cu7.2S4 NCs with a mean size of ∼20 nm as a novel photothermal agent have been prepared by a simple thermal decomposition route. Moreover, these NCs exhibit strong near-infrared (NIR) absorption, good photostability and significant photothermal conversion efficiency up to 56.7% due to strong NIR absorption, good dispersity and suitable size. Importantly, these NCs can be very compatibly used as a 980 nm laser-driven PTT agent for the efficient PTT of cancer cells in vitro and in vivo.

Faceted crystals with different exposed planes have attracted intensive investigations for applications.Herein, we report a facile hydrothermal and thermal decomposition process which is successfully developed to grow 3D NiCo 2 O 4 micro-spheres constructed with radial chain-like NiCo 2 O 4 nanowires with different exposed crystal planes. When applied as electrode materials for supercapacitors, chainlike NiCo 2 O 4 nanowires exhibit excellent electrochemical performances in supercapacitors with high specific capacitance (1284 F g À1 at 2 A g À1 ), good rate capability, and excellent cycling stability (only 2.5% loss after 3000 cycles). In situ electrical properties clearly illustrated that the chain-like nanowires with different exposed crystal planes exhibit excellent electronic conductivity, which shows that the electronic conductivity plays an essential role for electrode materials in supercapacitors. So, high electronic conductivity chain-like NiCo 2 O 4 nanowires with different exposed crystal planes can form a competitive electrode material for next generation supercapacitors.

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Preparation of Au/PDMS films: PDMS films were prepared from Sylgard 184 Silicone Elastomer Kit (Dow Inc.). A mixture of precursor and crosslinker at 10:1 ratio was spin coated on a fluorinated silicon wafer at 800 rpm for 60 s, and cured 60 o C for 5 h. The prepared PDMS films were around 70 μm thick. Au nanolayers were deposited by a vacuum thermal evaporator (Nano 36, Kurt J. Lesker) under 2×10 -6 Torr with a deposition rate of 0.3 Å/s. The Au source was purchased from Kurt J. Lesker and the purity was 99.99%. The deposition time was controlled to get 80 nm thick gold layers.Synthesis of dopamine methacrylamide (DMA) monomer: DMA monomer was synthesized according to the previously reported method. [S1] 10 g of sodium tetraborate and 4 g of sodium bicarbonate were dissolved in 100 mL deionized water and bubbled with nitrogen for 20 min.With continuous nitrogen flow, 5 g of dopamine hydrochloride (26.4 mmol) was dissolved in the solution. Then 5 mL of methacrylate anhydride (94 % purity, 29.1 mmol) in 20 ml THF was added dropwise, during this process the pH was kept above 8 with the addition of 1 M sodium hydroxide. The mixture was stirred overnight at room temperature. The reaction mixture was washed twice with 50 mL ethyl acetate, and then the pH of the aqueous solution was changed to less than 2 and extracted with 50 mL of ethyl acetate three times. The ethyl acetate layers were combined and dried over sodium sulfate, evaporated to reduce to around 30

The semiconductor compounds have been proven to be promising candidates as a new type of photothermal therapy agent, but unsatisfactory photothermal conversion efficiencies limit their widespread application in photothermal therapy (PTT). Herein, we synthesized cysteine-coated CuS nanoparticles (Cys-CuS NPs) as highly efficient PTT agents by a simple aqueous solution method. The Cys-CuS NPs have a good biocompatibility owing to their biocompatible cysteine coating and exhibit a strong absorption in the near-infrared region due to the localized surface plasma resonances of valence-band free carriers. The photothermal conversion efficiency of Cys-CuS NPs reaches 38.0%, which is much higher than that of the recently reported Cu9S5 and Cu(2-x)Se nanocrystals. More importantly, tumor growth can be efficiently inhibited in vivo by the fatal heat arising from the excellent photothermal effect of Cys-CuS NPs at a low concentration under the irradiation of a 980 nm laser with a safe power density of 0.72 W cm(-2). Therefore, the Cys-CuS NPs have great potential as ideal photothermal agents for cancer therapy.

Wearable epidermal sensors are of great importance to the next generation personalized healthcare. The adhesion between the flexible sensor and skin surface is critical for obtaining accurate, reliable and stable signals. Herein we present a facile approach to fabricate a micro-structured, natural silk fibroin protein based adhesive for achieving highly conformal, comfortable, adjustable, and biocompatible adhesion on the skin surface. The micro-structured fibroin adhesive (MSFA) exhibits reliable and stable bonding force on skin surfaces, even under humid or wet conditions, and can be easily peeled off from the skin without causing significant pain.Such MSFA can greatly improve the sensitivity and reusability of epidermal strain sensors due to its 2 conformal and tunable adhesion on skin surfaces. The MFSA has a great potential to be applied as functional adhesives for various epidermal electronic sensors in the era of personalized healthcare.

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A novel and facile synthetic route has been developed to fabricate porous SiO2-coated ultrasmall Se particles (Se@SiO2 nanospheres) as a drug delivery nanoplatform which combines Se quantum dots and doxorubicin (DOX) for efficient synergistic treatment of cancer cells.