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Accurate and reliable detection of exosomal miRNA can serve as a promising method for early diagnosis of disease and evaluation of therapeutic effects. However, current exosomal miRNA detection methods commonly involve exosome enrichment, containing RNA extraction, and qRT-PCR based quantification, which are expensive and time-consuming. Herein, we develop a DNA zipper-mediated membrane fusion approach for rapid exosomal miRNA detection and cancer diagnosis. First, a lipid vesicle probe containing miR21-targeting molecular beacons (MBs) is constructed and further loaded with zipper DNA constructs (ZDCs) on its surface. Meanwhile, complementary zipper DNA constructs (cZDCs) are introduced on the exosome of interest. Upon mixing them together, zipping between ZDC and cZDC induces the membrane fusion of exosomes and vesicle probes, triggering the recognition of exosomal miR21 by contained MBs and fluorescence emission that can be conveniently detected within 30 min. Importantly, with the assistance of flow cytometry, miR21-overexpressed tumor exosomes derived from either cell culture medium or clinical patient serums can be distinguished from exosomes secreted from normal cells. This approach provides a convenient way to accurately detect the exosomal miRNA, which may hold great potential in liquid biopsy for early cancer diagnosis and monitoring the therapeutic effects during the treatments.

Cost concerns have promoted the rise of Na-based batteries as an alternative to Li-based batteries, and the energy density pursuits have brought attention to Na metal anodes. Numerous studies have been conducted on the failure mechanisms and improvement methods of Na metal batteries (NMBs) at room temperature; however, the low-temperature applications are still faced with more complex challenges. On the basis of the concentration effect of the electrolytes, we propose a dilute electrolyte for the low-temperature operation of NMBs. With the low salt concentration and tetrahydrofuran cosolvent, the affinity between Na ions and the solvent molecules is weakened to achieve fast reaction kinetics at low temperatures. The designed electrolyte enables an effectively decreased cell impedance, which improves the cycling stability of Na symmetric cells. As a result, the full cell paired with the Na

High entropy materials, a horizon-broadening class of materials with complex stoichiometry, have gained significant interest recently. The ideal regulation and the attractive synergy effect make hi...

Na3V2(PO4)2O2F (NVPOF) is considered as a promising cathode material for sodium-ion batteries due to its high structural stability and high average operating voltage (3.8 V). However, its low elect...

The hazard of hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) from environmental pollution and medical implanted metal has been recognized widely. However, removal of trace amount of Cr(VI) in the blood circumstance faces tremendous difficulties for that most of Cr(VI) located in erythrocytes, thus there is almost no literature to report the removal of Cr(VI) in blood. Herein, a removal strategy, named as reduction-adsorption-separation, is proposed to realize the removal of Cr(VI) in blood. First, magnetic core-shell mesoporous nanocomposite is fabricated by using Fe3O4 nanoparticles as magnetic core and mesoporous silica (MS) as shell, hyperbranched polyamide (HPA) as mesoporous channel modifier and ascorbic acid (ASC) as the reductant drug loaded in the mesoporous channels, which is also denoted as Fe/MS/HPA/ASC. Then, on the basis of the bionic idea, the erythrocyte membrane (EM)-wrapped Fe/MS/HPA/ASC to protect ASC from deactivation is obtained and named as the therapeutic agent (Fe/MS/HPA/ASC@EM). During removal process, the therapeutic agent can enter in erythrocytes to use ASC to reduce Cr(VI) to Cr(III) and HPA in mesoporous channels to adsorb Cr(III) and can then be recollected from blood by magnetic separation. Finally, an animal model of blood Cr(VI) poisoning is constructed and used to test the removal ability of Cr(VI) from pig blood in vivo, verifying the effectiveness of this blood Cr(VI) removal strategy, providing a possible way to design more efficient and biosafe therapeutic agents for blood purification.

We are presenting a sol–gel method for building novel nanostructures made of nanosized F-doped Na1–2xTi2(PO4)3–xFx (NTP-Fx, x = 0, 0.02, 0.05, and 0.10) particles embedded in three-dimensional (3D)...

NaTi2(PO4)3 (NTP) with a sodium superionic conductor three-dimensional (3D) framework is a promising anode material for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) because of its suitable potential and stable structure. Although its 3D structure enables high Na-ion diffusivity, low electronic conductivity severely limits NTP's practical application in SIBs. Herein, we report porous NTP/C nanofibers (NTP/C-NFs) obtained via an electrospinning method. The NTP/C-NFs exhibit a high reversible capacity (120 mA h g-1 at 0.2 C) and a long cycling stability (a capacity retention of ∼93% after 700 cycles at 2 C). Furthermore, sodium-ion full cells and hybrid sodium-ion capacitors have also been successfully assembled, both of which exhibit high-rate capabilities and remarkable cycling stabilities because of the high electronic/ionic conductivity and impressive structural stability of NTP/C-NFs. The results show that the nanoscale-tailored NTP/C-NFs could deliver new insights into the design of high-performing and highly stable anode materials for room-temperature SIBs.

Advances in developing affordable batteries are vital for integrating renewable and environmentally friendly energy sources into the power grid. Benefiting from the abundance of sodium resources, sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) have attracted great attention as one of the most promising energy storage and conversion devices for grid-scale energy storage systems. From this perspective, we present a succinct and critical survey of the emerging electrode materials, such as layered transition-metal oxides, polyanionic compounds, Prussian blue analogue cathode materials, and hard carbon anode materials, that have potential value for large-scale applications.

A novel solid sodium-ion conductor, Na2Mg2TeO6 (NMTO) with a P2-type honeycomb-layered structure, has been synthesized for the first time by a simple solid-state synthetic route. The conductor of NMTO exhibits high conductivity of 2.3 × 10-4 S cm-1 at room temperature (RT) and a large electrochemical window of ∼4.2 V (versus Na+/Na). The conductor is remarkably stable, both in the ambient environment and within its metallic Na anode. This facile sodium-ion conductor displays potential for use in all-solid-state sodium-ion batteries (SS-SIBs).

Sodium iron hexacyanoferrate (Fe-HCF) has been proposed as a promising cathode material for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) because of its desirable advantages, including high theoretical capacity (∼170 mAh g–1), eco-friendliness, and low cost of worldwide rich sodium and iron resources. Nonetheless, its application faces a number of obstacles due to poor electronic conductivity and structural instability. In this work, Fe-HCF nanospheres (NSs) were first synthesized and fabricated by an in situ graphene rolls (GRs) wrapping method, forming a 1D tubular hierarchical structure of Fe-HCF NSs@GRs. GRs not only provide fast electronic conduction path for Fe-HCF NSs but also effectively prevent organic electrolyte from reaching active materials and inhibit the occurrence of side reactions. The Fe-HCF NSs@GRs composite has been used as a binder-free cathode with a capacity of ∼110 mAh g–1 at a current density of 150 mA g–1 (∼1C), the capacity retention of ∼90% after 500 cycles. Moreover, the Fe-HCF NSs@GRs cathode ...

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) have shown extensive prospects as alternative rechargeable batteries in large-scale energy storage systems, because of the abundance and low cost of sodium. The development of high-performance cathode and anode materials is a big challenge for SIBs. As is well known, TiNb2O7 (TNO) exhibits a high capacity of ∼250 mAh g–1 with excellent capacity retention as a Li-insertion anode for lithium-ion batteries, but it has rarely been discussed as an anode for SIBs. Here, we demonstrate ball-milled TiNb2O7 (BM-TNO) as an SIB anode, which provides an average voltage of ∼0.6 V and a reversible capacity of ∼180 mAh g–1 at a current density of 15 mA g–1, and presents excellent cyclability with 95% capacity retention after 500 cycles at 500 mA g–1. A possible Na storage mechanism in BM-TNO is also proposed.