The environmental problems of global warming and fossil fuel depletion are increasingly severe, and the demand for energy conversion and storage is increasing. Ecological issues such as global warming and fossil fuel depletion are increasingly stringent, increasing energy conversion and storage needs. The rapid development of clean energy, such as solar energy, wind energy and hydrogen energy, is expected to be the key to solve the energy problem. Several excellent literature works have highlighted quantum dots in supercapacitors, lithium-sulfur batteries, and photocatalytic hydrogen production. Here, we outline the latest achievements of quantum dots and their composites materials in those energy storage applications. Moreover, we rationally analyze the shortcomings of quantum dots in energy storage and conversion, and predict the future development trend, challenges, and opportunities of quantum dots research.

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Windows are the least energy efficient part of the buildings, as building accounts for 40% of global energy consumption. Traditional smart windows can only regulate solar transmission, while all the solar energy on the window is wasted. Here, for the first time, the authors demonstrate an energy saving and energy generation integrated smart window (ESEG smart window) in a simple way by combining louver structure solar cell, thermotropic hydrogel, and indium tin oxides (ITO) glass. The ESEG smart window can achieve excellent optical properties with ≈90% luminous transmission and ≈54% solar modulation, which endows excellent energy saving performance. The outstanding photoelectric conversion efficiency (18.24%) of silicon solar cells with louver structure gives the smart window excellent energy generation ability, which is more than 100% higher than previously reported energy generation smart window. In addition, the solar cell can provide electricity to for ITO glass to turn the transmittance of hydrogel actively, as well as the effect of antifreezing. This work offers an insight into the design and preparation together with a disruptive strategy of easy fabrication, good uniformity, and scalability, which opens a new avenue to realize energy storage, energy saving, active control, and antifreezing integration in one device.

Recently, we developed highly fluorescent Ti3C2 and Nb2C Mxene quantum dots (QDs) for labeling of in vitro models. However, the mechanism of the toxicity of the prepared QDs was not explored before. In this study, we addressed the possible mechanism associated with cytotoxicity of the QDs to human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Exposure to up to 100 μg/ml Ti3C2 but not Nb2C QDs for 24 h significantly induced cytotoxicity. The exposure also increased intracellular Ti and Nb elements, indicating the internalization of both types of QDs. None of the QDs promoted interleukin 6 (IL‐6) and IL‐8 releases. Rather, Ti3C2 QDs significantly reduced IL‐6 and IL‐8 release, indicating that the toxicity of Ti3C2 QDs was not due to elevated inflammatory responses. Exposure to Ti3C2 but not Nb2C QDs resulted in increased LC3B‐II/I ratio and beclin‐1 proteins, biomarkers of autophagy, as well as the accumulation of autophagic substance p62. Ti3C2 QDs also more effectively promoted pro‐caspase 3 but not pro‐caspase 8 compared with Nb2C QDs. Furthermore, pre‐treatment with autophagic modulators altered the cytotoxicity of Ti3C2 QDs, which further confirmed the role of autophagic dysfunction in Ti3C2 QD‐induced toxicity to HUVECs. In conclusion, the results from this study suggested that high levels of Ti3C2 QDs could induce cytotoxicity to HUVECs by inducing the dysfunction of autophagy. Nb2C QDs appeared to be more biocompatible to HUVECs compared with Ti3C2 QDs at the same mass concentrations, which suggested a role of composition of Mxene QDs to determine their toxicity to human endothelial cells.

Flexible sensors have great potential for human motion sensing, medical monitoring, electronic skin and display devices. Flexible hydrogel sensors with transparent characteristics have a good visual effect, which can be...