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To enhance the catalytic performance of catalysts for the ethanol steam reforming (ESR) reaction, a facile reverse micelle strategy was adopted to prepare a core@shell Ni–Cu@Ca–SiO2 (Ni–Cu@CS) nanoreactor composed of an ultra-small Ni–Cu alloy (∼2.8 nm) encapsulated in Ca-functionalized SiO2 nanoparticles. Benefiting from its core@shell structural features and unique components, the Ni–Cu@CS nanoreactor exhibited superior activity (69.91% H2 selectivity and 99.99% ethanol conversion) and stability compared to reference samples. The regenerated Ni–Cu@CS nanoreactor showed high stability, maintaining 98.14% ethanol conversion and only 1.98 mg gcat−1 h−1 in carbon deposition. The high catalytic performance of Ni–Cu@CS is attributed to not only its encapsulated structure, which effectively prevented the sintering of neighboring Ni–Cu alloy nanoparticles, but also to its Ca-functionalized porous SiO2 shell, suppressing the carbon deposition. Moreover, its porous thin shell facilitated the mass transfer and diffusion of reactants and products. Thus, the Ni–Cu@CS nanoreactor is expected to become a new type of high-efficiency nanoreactor for the ESR reaction.

Nanosystems responsive to a tumor microenvironment (TME) have recently attracted great attention due to their potential in precision cancer theranostics. However, theranostic nanosystems with a TME-activated consecutive cascade for the accurate diagnosis and treatment of cancer have rarely been exploited. Herein, an activatable theranostic nanosystem (Bi2S3-Ag2S-DATS@BSA-N3 NYs) is designed and constructed on the basis of a one-pot biomineralization method and surface functional modification to improve second near-infrared (NIR-II) fluorescence/photoacoustic (PA) imaging-guided photothermal therapy (PTT)/gas therapy (GT). Based on enhanced penetration and retention (EPR) effect-mediated tumor accumulation, the tumor-overexpressed glutathione (GSH) can accelerate hydrogen sulfide (H2S) generation from the nanoparticles by reacting with the encapsulated diallyl trisulfide (DATS). Meanwhile, the in situ released H2S can be used not only for gas therapy, but also to start the reduction of -N3(-) to -NH2(+), thereby enhancing the tumor-specific aggregation of NYs. As a result, the activatable nanosystems with excellent tumor accumulation and biodistribution could achieve an accurate NIR-II/PA dual-modality imaging for guiding the synergistic anticancer efficacy (PTT/GT). Thus, this work provides a promising TME-mediated continuously responsive strategy for efficient anticancer therapy.

Although nanomedicines have shown high performance in tumor theranostics, their anticancer activity is still limited by the drug delivery capacity, especially lack of targeting capability, poor tumor accumulation, and insufficient tumor deep-penetration. To address this challenge, a high biocompatibility nano-truck (BMP NT) with a two-stage delivery mechanism is designed and developed to achieve the precision therapeutic efficacy of cancer. In view of the enhanced permeability retention (EPR) effect, the surface cleavable layer of BMP NTs can be selectively removed by the overexpressed MMP-2 in a tumor-microenvironment to expose the hydrophobic segments for an induced "braking effect" strategy, resulting in a significant increase in tumor accumulation. Once internalized into cancer cells with the overproduced glutathione (GSH) and H2O2, the BMP NTs undergo the second-stage "unloading process" to release Mn2+ ions and ultrasmall Bi2S3@BSA nanoparticles, and the obtained Mn2+ ions can act as a Fenton-like catalyst for continuously catalyzing the endogenous H2O2 into highly toxic hydroxyl radicals (˙OH) for CDT. The GSH depletion will in turn improve the Mn2+-H2O2 reaction, further enhancing CDT efficiency. Meanwhile, the ultrasmall Bi2S3@BSA endows BMP NTs with excellent photothermal conversion ability to generate local hyperthermia and accelerate the intratumoral Fenton process, thus leading to an effective tumor therapeutic outcome in the synergistic function of CDT/photothermal therapy (PTT). Moreover, the BMP NTs can be used for in situ self-generation magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and photoacoustic (PA) imaging to guide precision cancer therapy.

To enhance the catalytic performance of catalysts for the ethanol steam reforming (ESR) reaction, a facile reverse micelle strategy was adopted to prepare a core@shell Ni-Cu@Ca-SiO2 (Ni-Cu@CS) nanoreactor composed of an ultra-small Ni-Cu alloy (∼2.8 nm) encapsulated in Ca-functionalized SiO2 nanoparticles. Benefiting from its core@shell structural features and unique components, the Ni-Cu@CS nanoreactor exhibited superior activity (69.91% H2 selectivity and 99.99% ethanol conversion) and stability compared to reference samples. The regenerated Ni-Cu@CS nanoreactor showed high stability, maintaining 98.14% ethanol conversion and only 1.98 mg gcat-1 h-1 in carbon deposition. The high catalytic performance of Ni-Cu@CS is attributed to not only its encapsulated structure, which effectively prevented the sintering of neighboring Ni-Cu alloy nanoparticles, but also to its Ca-functionalized porous SiO2 shell, suppressing the carbon deposition. Moreover, its porous thin shell facilitated the mass transfer and diffusion of reactants and products. Thus, the Ni-Cu@CS nanoreactor is expected to become a new type of high-efficiency nanoreactor for the ESR reaction.