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Objective. To conduct a systematic review on the mechanism of action and use of traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) in allergic rhinitis treatment. Background. Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a type I allergic disease of the immune system induced by immunoglobulin E mediated inflammation and is characterized by sneezing, nasal itching, paroxysmal nasal obstruction, mucosal edema, cough, and rhinorrhea. More than 500 million people have been affected by rhinitis worldwide in the past 20 years, leading to negative effects on health, quality of life, and social relationships. Currently, the trending medicines used in the case of AR include intranasal corticosteroids and oral H1 antihistamines, which are given as combinatorial medicines supplemented with immune therapy. These medications have been found to be very effective in either the short term or long term; however, they have been found to possess some serious side effects. Search Methodology. The information in this article on classical and traditional Chinese medications used to treat AR was derived from original papers and reviews published in Chinese and English language journals. Two Chinese databases (Wanfang and CNKI) and three English databases (Cochrane Library, PubMed, and Embase) were utilized for data gathering. Results. Traditional Chinese remedies have been identified to influence the production of cytokines such as IL-5 and IL-6, which are key mediators of eosinophilic inflammation, TNF-α, which stimulates TH2 cells at the site of inflammation, and NF-кB, which is required for cytokine and IgE antibody production. TCM has also been shown to be successful in lowering histamine levels, preserving histological changes by decreasing the thickness of the lamina propria, and downregulating the expression of Orai1, STIM1, and TRYC1, showing low expression of Ca+2 channel proteins. Conclusion. In this review, we discussed a series of classical, traditional Chinese medications, including Centipeda minima, Scutellaria baicalensis, licorice root (Glycyrrhiza uralensis), and others, as potential antiallergic agents and investigate their in vivo effect upon the production of cytokines and release of histamines for allergic rhinitis treatment.

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) regulates neuronal plasticity by targeting the tyrosine kinase B receptor (TrkB) receptor, but limited researches concentrate on the role of BDNF/TrkB signaling in vestibular compensation. In this study, rats with unilateral vestibular dysfunction were established by unilateral labyrinthectomy (UL) and infusion with siBDNF or 7, 8-Dihydroxyflavone (7,8-DHF, a TrkB receptor agonist). The behavioral scores of rats with vestibular deficits were determined and the rotarod test was performed after UL. BDNF and TrkB levels after UL were determined by western blot and quantitative reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR). 5-bromo-2ʹ-deoxyuridine (BrdU)-positive cells (newly generated cells) and GAD67-positive cells (GABAergic neurons) were identified by immunohistochemistry. Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) (astrocyte marker)-positive cells were identified and GABA type A receptor (GABAAR) expression was detected by immunofluorescence. We found that after UL, BDNF and TrkB levels were up-regulated with a maximum value at 4 h, and then progressively down-regulated during 4 h ~ 7 d. Blocking BDNF/TrkB signaling inhibited the recovery from vestibular deficits, decreased the numbers of newly generated cells and astrocytes in medial vestibular nucleus (MVN), inferior vestibular nerve (IVN), superior vestibular nerve (SVN) and lateral vestibular nucleus (LVN), and disrupted the balances of GABAergic neurons and GABAAR expressions in the left (lesioned) side and right (intact) side of MVN, whereas activation of BDNF/TrkB signaling caused opposite results. The current study indicated that BDNF/TrkB signaling avails vestibular compensation, depending on the number of newly generated cells and astrocytes, the rebalance of GABAergic neurons, and GABAAR expression in bilateral MVN.

Classical laws of friction suggest that friction force is proportional to the normal load and independent of the nominal contact area. As a great improvement in this subject, it is now widely accepted that friction force is proportional to the real contact area, and much work has been conducted based on this hypothesis. In present study, this hypothesis will be carefully revisited by measuring the friction force and real contact area in-site and real-time at both normal loading and unloading stages. Our experiments reveal that the linear relation always holds between friction force and normal load. However, for the relation between friction force and real contact area, the linearity holds only at the loading stage while fails at the unloading stage. This study may improve our understanding of the origin of friction.

Aim Long noncoding RNAs were widely reported to regulate laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC), a prevalent tumor in the head and neck. We aimed to investigate the role of solute carrier organic anion transporter family member 4A1 antisense RNA 1 (SLCO4A1-AS1) in LSCC. Materials & methods CCK-8 and colony formation assays were conducted to examine the viability and proliferation of LSCC cells. The apoptosis of LSCC cells was evaluated using flow cytometry and TUNEL assays. The distribution of SLCO4A1-AS1 in LSCC cells was detected by subcellular fractionation assay. The interaction between molecules was confirmed using luciferase reporter assay. Results SLCO4A1-AS1 was overexpressed in LSCC tissues and cells. Furthermore, silenced SLCO4A1-AS1 repressed the proliferation and facilitated apoptosis of LSCC cells. Mechanistical investigation revealed that SLCO4A1-AS1 was a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) to upregulate SETD7 by binding with miR-7855-p. Additionally, SLCO4A1-AS1 positively regulated the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway by upregulating SETD7. Rescue experiments demonstrated that SLCO4A1-AS1 promoted LSCC proliferation and inhibited LSCC apoptosis by upregulation of SETD7 and activation of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway. Conclusion SLCO4A1-AS1 promotes proliferation and inhibits apoptosis of LSCC cells by upregulation of SETD7 in a miR-7855-5p dependent way to activate the Wnt/β-catenin pathway.

Confined low dimensional charges with high density such as two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) at interfaces and charged domain walls in ferroelectrics show great potential to serve as functional elements in future nanoelectronics. However, stabilization and control of low dimensional charges is challenging, as they are usually subject to enormous depolarization fields. Here, we demonstrate a method to fabricate tunable charged interfaces with ~77°, 86° and 94° head-to-head polarization configurations in multiferroic BiFeO3 thin films by grain boundary engineering. The adjacent grains are cohesively bonded and the boundary is about 1 nm in width and devoid of any amorphous region. Remarkably, the polarization remains almost unchanged near the grain boundaries, indicating the polarization charges are well compensated, i.e., there should be two-dimensional charge gas confined at grain boundaries. Adjusting the tilt angle of the grain boundaries enables tuning the angle of polarization configurations from 71° to 109°, which in turn allows the control of charge density at the grain boundaries. This general and feasible method opens new doors for the application of charged interfaces in next generation nanoelectronics.

Sliding ferroelectricity is a recently observed polarity existing in two-dimensional materials. However, due to their weak polarization and poor electrical insulation in these materials, all available experimental evidence till now are indirect, with most based on transport properties in the nanoscale or piezoresponse force microscopy. We report the direct observation of sliding ferroelectricity, using a high-quality amphidynamic single crystal, (15-Crown-5)Cd$_3$Cl$_6$, which possesses a large band-gap and so allows direct measurement of P-E hysteresis. This coordination polymer is a van der Waals material, which is composed of inorganic stators and organic rotators as measured using XRD and NMR characterisation. From DFT calculations, we find that after the freezing of rotators an electric dipole is generated in each layer driven by the geometric mechanism, meanwhile a comparable ferroelectric polarization originates from the interlayer sliding. The net polarization of these two components can be directly measured and manipulated. Our finding provides insight into low-dimensional ferroelectrics, especially the controlling of synchronous dynamics of rotating molecules and sliding layers in solids., 21 pages, 5 figures

High-performance environment-friendly piezoelectric potassium sodium niobate (KNN)-based thin films have been emerged as promising lead-free candidates, while their substrate-dependent piezoelectricity faces the lack of high-quality information due to restraints in measurements. Although piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) is a potential measuring tool, still its regular mode is not considered as a reliable characterization method for quantification. After combining machine-learning enabled analysis using PFM datasets, it is possible to measure piezoelectric properties quantitatively. Here we utilized advanced PFM technology empowered by machine learning to measure and compare the piezoelectricity of KNN based thin films on different substrates. The results provide a better understanding of the relationship between structures and piezoelectric properties of the thin films.

Magnetoelectric materials have been considered as promising candidates for data storage and sensors based on spintronic technology. Multiferroic BiFeO3–CoFe2O4 (BFO–CFO) epitaxial thin films deposited on a (111)-oriented SrTiO3 substrate exhibit ferromagnetism, piezoelectricity and strong magnetoelectric properties simultaneously. Interfacial strain between two phases plays a key role in such unique characters. Thus, strain engineering is a good method to enhance the magnetoelectric coupling effect. Here, to clearly understand the role of strain for further strain engineering, the interfacial strain between BFO and CFO and its evolution under electric/magnetic fields are investigated. This work semiquantitatively establishes a detailed relationship between the magnetoelectric coupling effect and interfacial strains – the piezoelectric amplitude drops by 44.7% and meanwhile the out-of-plane tensile strain rises by 11.0% under magnetic fields. This finding is helpful in optimizing multiferroic composite structures and achieving wider applications in future.

Lower limb rehabilitation exoskeleton robots have the characteristics of nonlinearity and strong coupling, and they are easily disturbed during operation by environmental factors. Thus, an accurate dynamic model of the robot is difficult to obtain, and achieving trajectory tracking control of the robot is also difficult. In this article, a self-adaptive-coefficient double-power sliding mode control method is proposed to overcome the difficulty of tracking the robot trajectory. The method combines an estimated dynamic model with sliding mode control. A nonlinear control law was designed based on the robot dynamics model and computational torque method, and a compensation term of control law based on double-power reaching law was introduced to reduce the disturbance from model error and environmental factors. The self-adaptive coefficient of the compensation term of the control law was designed to adaptively adjust the compensation term to improve the anti-interference ability of the robot. The simulation and experiment results show that the proposed method effectively improves the trajectory tracking accuracy and anti-interference ability of the robot. Compared with the traditional computed torque method, the proposed method decreases the tracking error by more than 71.77%. The maximum absolute error of the hip joint and knee joint remained below 0.55° and 1.65°, respectively, in the wearable experiment of the robot.

Developing nano-ferroelectric materials with excellent piezoelectric performance for piezo-catalysts used in water splitting is highly desired but also challenging, especially with respect to reaching large piezo-potentials that fully align with required redox levels. Herein, hetero-epitaxial strain in BaTiO 3 nanoparticles with a designed porous structure is successfully induced by engineering their surface reconstruction to dramatically enhance their piezoelectricity. The strain coherence can be maintained throughout the nanoparticle bulk, resulting in a significant increase of the BaTiO 3 tetragonality and thus its piezoelectricity. Benefiting from high piezoelectricity, the as-synthesized blue colored BaTiO 3 nanoparticles possess a superb overall water-splitting activity, with H 2 production rates of 159 μmolg -1 h -1 , which is almost 130 times higher than that of the pristine BaTiO 3 nanoparticles. This work thus provides a generic approach for designing highly efficient piezoelectric nano-materials by strain engineering that can be further extended to various other perovskite oxides, including SrTiO 3 , enhancing their potential for piezoelectric catalysis.

The mobility of domain walls under an external stimulus plays a crucial role in the piezoelectricity of ferroelectric materials, which usually manifests itself as an irreversible and hysteretic cha...

Manipulating the insulator-metal transition in strongly correlated materials has attracted a broad range of research activity due to its promising applications in, for example, memories, electrochromic windows and optical modulators

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Ferroelectric domain walls have continued to attract widespread attention due to both the novelty of the phenomena observed and the ability to reliably pattern them in nanoscale dimensions. However, the conductivity mechanisms remain in debate, particularly around nominally uncharged walls. Here, we posit a conduction mechanism relying on field-modification effect from polarization re-orientation and the structure of the reverse-domain nucleus. Through conductive atomic force microscopy measurements on an ultra-thin (001) BiFeO3 thin film, in combination with phase-field simulations, we show that the field-induced twisted domain nucleus formed at domain walls results in local-field enhancement around the region of the atomic force microscope tip. In conjunction with slight barrier lowering, these two effects are sufficient to explain the observed emission current distribution. These results suggest that different electronic properties at domain walls are not necessary to observe localized enhancement in domain wall currents., Understanding the conductivity at the nominally uncharged domain walls in ferroelectrics is still far from complete. Here the authors report an enhanced conduction at domain walls in an ultra-thin (001) BiFeO3 film resulting from the formation of a field-induced meta-stable twisted domain nucleus.

Introducing conductive nanoparticles into ferroelectric polymers gives rise to significant enhancement of permittivity (e), making these composites practically promising for energy storage devices. However, the breakdown strength (EB) of such composites is reduced with few exceptions, which limits high-performance applications. Here we study the energy storage behavior of well-designed Fe3O4@BaTiO3 core-shell nanoparticle/poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) nanocomposites in which conductive Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) are coated by ferroelectric BaTiO3 (BT), together with the PVDF matrix, forming the ternary nanocomposite films with high energy storage performance. Notably, the permittivity is enhanced by increasing the volume fraction of the Fe3O4@BT NPs, reaching 38 with 2 vol% Fe3O4@BT NPs and remaining low dielectric loss (~0.066). In particular, the nanocomposites exhibit moderate breakdown strength (~430 kV/mm), which is attributed to the “voltage dispersion layer” (the BaTiO3 shell) between the polymer matrix and Fe3O4 NPs. The finite element simulation substantiates the experimental results and further confirms the positive correlation of the breakdown strength and the permittivity of the “voltage dispersion layer”. With the synergistic effect of both breakdown strength and electric displacement, a remarkable energy density (16 J/cc, at 430 kV/mm) is obtained.

The strong coupling between antiferromagnetism and ferroelectricity at room temperature found in BiFeO3 generates high expectations for the design and development of technological devices with novel functionalities. However, the multi-domain nature of the material tends to nullify the properties of interest and complicates the thorough understanding of the mechanisms that are responsible for those properties. Here we report the realization of a BiFeO3 material in thin film form with single-domain behaviour in both its magnetism and ferroelectricity: the entire film shows its antiferromagnetic axis aligned along the crystallographic b axis and its ferroelectric polarization along the c axis. With this we are able to reveal that the canted ferromagnetic moment due to the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction is parallel to the a axis. Furthermore, by fabricating a Co/BiFeO3 heterostructure, we demonstrate that the ferromagnetic moment of the Co film does couple directly to the canted moment of BiFeO3., The coupling of ferroelectric and antiferromagnetic order in BiFeO3 makes it appealing for applications however the presence of domain structure acts to undermine this potential. Here, the authors demonstrate BiFeO3 thin films with a single domain of electrical polarization and canted antiferromagnetic order.

To understand the effects of tellurium (Te) inclusions on the device performance of CdZnTe radiation detectors, the perturbation of the electrical field in and around Te inclusions was studied in CdZnTe single crystals via Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM). Te inclusions were proved to act as lower potential centers with respect to surrounding CdZnTe matrix. Based on the KPFM results, the energy band diagram at the Te/CdZnTe interface was established, and the bias-dependent effects of Te inclusion on carrier transportation is discussed.

A giant electrocaloric effect (ECE) can be achieved in ferroelectric thin films, which demonstrates the applications of thin films in alternative cooling. However, electrocaloric thin films fabricated by conventional techniques, such as the pulsed laser deposition or sol–gel methods, may be limited by high costs, low yield and their dependence on substrates. In this study, we present a new bottom-up strategy to construct electrocaloric Ba0.8Sr0.2TiO3 thin films by assembling precisely designed building blocks of ferroelectric nanocubes, which is supported by detailed structural characterization. Moreover, it is found that our assembled Ba0.8Sr0.2TiO3 films differ remarkably from both individual Ba0.8Sr0.2TiO3 NPs and bulk Ba0.8Sr0.2TiO3 ceramics in terms of new collective ferroelectric properties, including superior and diffused permittivity constants and polarization-electric field loops. Benefiting from these unique ferroelectric properties, a giant ECE (9.1 K) over a broad temperature range (20 °C to 60 °C) is achieved, which is very large in the lead-free oxide film. Clearly, this bottom-up strategy provides a promising pathway for developing high electrocaloric effect devices.

Most ferroelectric transitions occur ultrafast and are time independent. However, here in (1-x) (Bi0.5Na0.5)TiO3-xBaTiO3, we have found a ferroelectric phase transition induced solely by increasing waiting time at certain temperatures (isothermal phase transition). Through cooling, a unique metastable state between a relaxor ferroelectric and a ferroelectric is unveiled, which in essence is initially a short-range ordered glassy state and then can evolve into a long-range ordered ferroelectric state through the isothermal process. It is also found that these isothermal ferroelectric transitions only occur within a specific temperature region with different waiting time needed. These features of isothermal phase transition can be understood by Landau theory analysis with the consideration of random defects as a competition between the thermodynamically favored long-range ordered state and the kinetically frustrated short-range ordered glassy state from random defects. This study offers a precise experimental as well as a phenomenological interpretation on the isothermal ferroelectric transition, which may help to further clarify the intricate structure-property relationship in this important lead-free piezoelectric material and other related systems.

Strain-mediated magnetoelectric (ME) coupling effect is expected in self-assembly heterostructures engineered by ferroelectric and ferromagnetic materials, contributing to the enhanced overall magnetoelectric effect. Microstructures as well as the connectivity configuration are considered to play a significant role in achieving efficient magnetoelectric properties. Different from the conventional (1-3) and (2-2) type composite films, we fabricate BiFeO3-CoFe2O4 (BFO-CFO) composite thin films with a novel quasi (0-3) type connectivity via a dual-target pulsed laser deposition process. The self-assembly growth mechanism has been studied, which demonstrates that the perovskite (BFO) matrix segments the connectivity of spinel (CFO) resulting in a quasi (0-3) composite. Direct observation of ferroelectric domain wall motion under external magnetic fields proves a strong magnetoelectric coupling effect in these (0-3) thin films. Our preliminary findings reveal the promising application potential of this new structure as multiferroic domain wall devices.

Spatially resolved time and voltage-dependent polarization dynamics in PbTiO3 thin films is explored using dynamic piezoresponse force microscopy (D-PFM) in conjunction with interferometric displacement sensing. This approach gives rise to 4D data sets containing information on bias-dependent relaxation dynamics at each spatial location without long-range electrostatic artifacts. To interpret these data sets in the absence of defined physical models, we employ a non-negative tensor factorization method which clearly presents the data as a product of simple behaviors allowing for direct physics interpretation. Correspondingly, we perform phase-field modeling finding the existence of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ domain wall edges. This approach can be extended to other multidimensional spectroscopies for which even exploratory data analysis leads to unsatisfactory results due to many components in the decomposition.

Machine learning of dynamic responses allows determination of structural phase transitions in relaxor ferroelectrics., Exploration of phase transitions and construction of associated phase diagrams are of fundamental importance for condensed matter physics and materials science alike, and remain the focus of extensive research for both theoretical and experimental studies. For the latter, comprehensive studies involving scattering, thermodynamics, and modeling are typically required. We present a new approach to data mining multiple realizations of collective dynamics, measured through piezoelectric relaxation studies, to identify the onset of a structural phase transition in nanometer-scale volumes, that is, the probed volume of an atomic force microscope tip. Machine learning is used to analyze the multidimensional data sets describing relaxation to voltage and thermal stimuli, producing the temperature-bias phase diagram for a relaxor crystal without the need to measure (or know) the order parameter. The suitability of the approach to determine the phase diagram is shown with simulations based on a two-dimensional Ising model. These results indicate that machine learning approaches can be used to determine phase transitions in ferroelectrics, providing a general, statistically significant, and robust approach toward determining the presence of critical regimes and phase boundaries.

The pursuit of more advanced electronics, finding solutions to energy needs, and tackling a wealth of social issues often hinges upon the discovery and optimization of new functional materials that enable disruptive technologies or applications. However, the discovery rate of these materials is alarmingly low. Much of the information that could drive this rate higher is scattered across tens of thousands of papers in the extant literature published over several decades, and almost all of it is not collated and thus cannot be used in its entirety. Many of these limitations can be circumvented if the experimentalist has access to systematized collections of prior experimental procedures and results that can be analyzed and built upon. Here, we investigate the property-processing relationship during growth of oxide films by pulsed laser deposition. To do so, we develop an enabling software tool to (1) mine the literature of relevant papers for synthesis parameters and functional properties of previously studied materials, (2) enhance the accuracy of this mining through crowd sourcing approaches, (3) create a searchable repository that will be a community-wide resource enabling material scientists to leverage this information, and (4) provide through the Jupyter notebook platform, simple machine-learning-based analysis to learn the complex interactions between growth parameters and functional properties (all data and codes available on https://github.com/ORNL-DataMatls). The results allow visualization of growth windows, trends and outliers, and which can serve as a template for analyzing the distribution of growth conditions, provide starting points for related compounds and act as feedback for first-principles calculations. Such tools will comprise an integral part of the materials design schema in the coming decade., 30 pages; 8 figures

Lead-free (Na 0 .5 Bi 0.5 ) 0.95 Ba 0.05 TiO 3 (0.95NBT–0.05BT) thin films were deposited on polycrystalline Ni substrates by using the RF high-pressure sputtering system. Microstructural studies by high resolution X-ray diffraction reveal that the as-deposited 0.95NBT–0.05BT thin films are polycrystalline structures. The piezoelectric property measurements by a piezoresponse force microscopy exhibit that the polycrystalline 0.95NBT–0.05BT thin films have an excellent piezoelectric response. It is indicated that the as-grown 0.95NBT–0.05BT thin films have the potential for the development of the structural health monitoring systems and related device applications.

Organic–inorganic 0–3 nanocomposites, which combine the potentially high dielectric strength of the organic matrix and the high dielectric permittivity of the inorganic filler, are extensively studied as energy-storage dielectrics in high-performance capacitors. In this study, a gradated multilayer BaTiO3/poly(vinylidene fluoride) thin film structure is presented as a means to achieve both a higher breakdown strength and a superior energy-storage capability. The central layer of this film, designed to provide high electric displacement, is composed of a high volume fraction of 6–10 nm BTO nanocrystals produced by a TEG-sol method. The small particle size contributes to a high dispersibility of the nanocrystals in polymer media, as well as a high interfacial area to mitigate the local electric field concentration. The outer layers of the structure are predominantly PVDF, with a significantly low volume fraction of BTO, taking advantage of the high dielectric strength of pure PVDF at the electrode–nanocomposite interface. The film is mechanically flexible, and can be removed from the substrate, with total thicknesses in the range of 1.2–1.5 μm. Parallel plate capacitance devices exhibit highly improved dielectric performances with low-frequency permittivity values of 20–25, a maximal discharge energy density of 19.37 J cm−3 and dielectric (breakdown) strengths of up to 495 kV mm−1.

Multiferroic composites containing barium titanate (BaTiO3) and cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4) were synthesized by a simplified one pot solid-state reaction process, in which all of the basic chemicals (BaCO3, TiO2, Fe2O3, CoO) were directly mixed together. Compared with the conventional two step solid-state reaction process, this simplified process tends to form smaller grains, and enhances the magnetodielectric interaction between the different phases, which indirectly benefits the magnetoelectric coupling.

A giant electrocaloric effect (ECE) can be achieved in ferroelectric thin films, which demonstrates the applications of thin films in alternative cooling. However, electrocaloric thin films fabricated by conventional techniques, such as the pulsed laser deposition or sol-gel methods, may be limited by high costs, low yield and their dependence on substrates. In this study, we present a new bottom-up strategy to construct electrocaloric Ba

The paper presents a discrete spectrum analyzing method based on DFT, which can effectively reduce the phase error by choosing the window function with a real even function that has the linear phase spectrum. Since the traditional DFT algorithm could result in larger measurement error because of the spectral leakage and fence effect, the phase difference correction algorithm is proposed to cope with the problem. The simulation results indicate that the correction algorithm with Hanning window function can effectively improve the metering precision.

A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions of this paper. The error has not been fixed in the paper.

Multifunctional hybrid glider(MHG) is a new type of platform for ocean observation, integrating the concept of underwater glider and wave glider. The implementation scheme of its motion mechanism is proposed in this paper, and with the rubber webbed wings introduced and the structure redesigned, this vehicle can glide on the ocean surface and in the vertical profile. This can overcome the shortcomings of underwater glider and wave glider, such as low carrying capacity of underwater glider and its only underwater gliding mode, the complicated structure of wave glider and its only ocean surface gliding mode. MHG will be more suitable for large scale, multitasking and long-term three-dimensional ocean observation in the comprehensive and complex ocean environment.

Ni-doped anatase TiO2 nanobelts (NBs) with different Ni2+ contents were simply prepared by combining ion-exchange with hydrothermal treatment. They were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), and magnetic measurement techniques. The results showed that Ni2+ cations doped into the TiO2 lattice and no metallic nickel clusters or nanoparticles could be found. The magnetic results demonstrated that the prepared Ni-doped TiO2 samples had complex magnetic mechanism including room-temperature ferromagnetic and paramagnetic behaviors, and with the increase of Ni2+ content, the magnetization also increased under the same applied field owing to uniform distribution of Ni2+ ions in TiO2 nanobelts.