Periodic Si nanopillar arrays (NPAs) were fabricated by the colloidal lithography combined with catalytic etching. By varying the size of colloidal crystals using oxygen plasma etching, Si NPAs with desirable diameter and fill factor could be obtained. The Fresnel reflection can be eliminated effectively over broadband regions by NPAs; i.e., the wavelength-averaged specular reflectance is decreased to 0.70% at wavelengths of 200-1900 nm. The reflectance is reduced greatly for the incident angles up to 70 degrees for both s- and p-polarized light. These excellent antireflection performances are attributed to light trapping effect and very low effective refractive indices, which can be modified by the fill factor of Si in the NPA layers.

Self-cleaning transparent glass surfaces with periodic micro–nano structures fabricated by a femtosecond laser exhibit exceptional water repellency and thermostability.

Slope-tunable Si nanorod arrays (NRAs) were fabricated with colloidal lithography and reactive ion etching (RIE). Sharpened NRAs fabricated by increasing the SF6/O2 flow ratio during RIE exhibit enhanced antireflection (AR) and hydrophobic properties, which are attributed to the smooth gradient in the effective refractive index of NRAs, and the enlarged water/air interface of the water drops in the NRA layers, respectively. Enhanced AR characteristics via modifying the slope of NRAs are accompanied by broad-band working ranges, omnidirectionality, and polarization insensitivity. Detailed experimental and theoretical analysis of slope-tunable NRAs should benefit the development of various self-cleaning optoelectronic devices with efficient light management.

The increasing demand for wearable electronic devices necessitates flexible batteries with high stability and desirable energy density. Flexible lithium–sulfur batteries (FLSBs) have been increasingly studied due to their high theoretical energy density through the multielectron chemistry of low-cost sulfur. However, the implementation of FLSBs is challenged by several obstacles, including their low practical energy density, short life, and poor flexibility. Various graphene-based materials have been applied to address these issues. Graphene, with good conductivity and flexibility, exhibits synergistic effects with other active/catalytic/flexible materials to form multifunctional graphene-based materials, which play a pivotal role in FLSBs. This review summarizes the recent progress of graphene-based materials that have been used as various FLSB components, including cathodes, interlayers, and anodes. Particular attention is focused on the precise nanostructures, graphene efficacy, interfacial effects, and battery layout for realizing FLSBs with good flexibility, energy density, and cycling stability.

Colorectal cancer is one of the most common causes of cancer-related death in humans. Coptisine (COP) is a natural alkaloid from Coptidis Rhizoma with unclear antitumor mechanism. Human colon cancer cells (HCT-116) and xenograft mice were used to systematically explore the anti-tumor activity of COP in this study. The results indicated that COP exhibited remarkably cytotoxic activities against the HCT-116 cells by inducing G1-phase cell cycle arrest and increasing apoptosis, and preferentially inhibited the survival pathway and induced the activation of caspase proteases family of HCT-116 cells. Experimental results on male BALB/c nude mice confirmed that orally administration of COP at high-dose (150 mg/kg) could suppress tumor growth, and may reduce cancer metastasis risk by inhibiting the RAS-ERK pathway in vivo. Taken together, the results suggested that COP may be potential as a novel anti-tumor candidate in the HCT-116 cells-related colon cancer, further studies are still needed to suggest COP for the further use.

Oxides (such as SiO2, TiO2, ZrO2, Al2O3, Fe2O3, CeO2) have often been used to prepare supported Pt catalysts for CO oxidation and other reactions, whereas metal phosphate-supported Pt catalysts for CO oxidation were rarely reported. Metal phosphates are a family of metal salts with high thermal stability and acid-base properties. Hydroxyapatite (Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2, denoted as Ca-P-O here) also has rich hydroxyls. Here we report a series of metal phosphate-supported Pt (Pt/M-P-O, M = Mg, Al, Ca, Fe, Co, Zn, La) catalysts for CO oxidation. Pt/Ca-P-O shows the highest activity. Relevant characterization was conducted using N2 adsorption-desorption, inductively coupled plasma (ICP) atomic emission spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), CO2 temperature-programmed desorption (CO2-TPD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and H2 temperature-programmed reduction (H2-TPR). This work furnishes a new catalyst system for CO oxidation and other possible reactions.

Superhydrophobic metallic hierarchical surfaces with micro-cones designed to protect functional nanostructures exhibit outstanding comprehensive mechanical durability.

droplets to move along the leaf veins and finally to the root, helping the plants to survive. [11] Inspired by rice leaves, several methods have been proposed to fabricate anisotropic groove-like micro-and nanostructures for obtaining superhydrophobic surfaces with anisotropic sliding behavior. [14][15][16][17][18] Comparing to normal microstructures, fabricating such microstructures faces some challenges. The formation of anisotropic groove-like micron-structures with large period and height is really difficult. So most methods use photolithography to prepare micro-grooves, and combine with other methods to form nanostructures. [11,13,[19][20][21] Therefore, these methods are always timeconsuming, expensive, and size-limited. Some other methods, including surface wrinkling, [22,23] self-masking reactive-ion etching, [24] nano-imprinting lithography, [25] and relevant biomimetic fabrication methods [26,27] cannot control the period and height of the surface micro-grooves precisely. Because of the lack of suitable fabrication methods, systematic studies about the influences of anisotropic groove-like microstructures on the anisotropic sliding behavior are insufficient.In this work, we found that the groove-like microstructures and anisotropic sliding behavior of water droplets were also existed on some other plants, such as the reed leaves. To understand more about the anisotropic sliding behavior of water droplets caused by the anisotropic groove-like microstructures, we fabricated periodic groove-like microstructures on metal surfaces by femtosecond laser micromachining. As the flexibility and controllability of this method, we could not only control the period and height of the surface micron-structures, but also regulate the surface nanoscale roughness. We studied the influences of these structural parameters on the anisotropic sliding behavior systematically, and theoretical analyses were conducted to explain the observed phenomena. Results and Discussion Reed LeavesThe surfaces of rice leaves display many parallel micro-grooves. The width and depth of these micro-grooves reach up to about Former studies have found that water droplets on the rice leaves exhibit anisotropic sliding behavior, which is mainly caused by the anisotropic groovelike surface microstructures. Similar groove-like surface microstructures and anisotropic sliding behavior of water droplets can also be found on some other plants, such as the reed leaves. In this paper, biomimetic groove-like surface microstructures are fabricated on copper surfaces by femtosecond laser micromachining. Thanks to the flexibility of this method, the period and height of the periodic micro-grooves can be precisely controlled, and the nanoscale surface roughness can also be regulated. The influences of these surface morphologies on the wetting state and anisotropic sliding behavior of water droplets are studied systematically, and theoretic analyses are also conducted. Our results prove that the anisotropic sliding behavior is mainly decided by the wetting stat...