Weixia Zhang

We exquisitely designed thein situgrowth of Co nanoparticles coated with tannin-carbon embedded on the hierarchical ultrathin g-C₃N₄nanosheets for boosting electrocatalytic oxygen reduction through the MPNs strategy.

Lithium (Li) metal is considered as the most promising anode material for rechargeable high‐energy batteries. Nevertheless, the practical implement of Li anodes is significantly hindered by the growth of Li dendrites, which can cause severe safety issues. To inhibit the formation of Li dendrites, coating an artificial layer on the Li metal anode has been shown to be a facile and effective approach. This review mainly focuses on recent advances in artificial layers for stable Li metal anodes. It summarizes the progress in this area and discusses the different types of artificial layers according to their mechanisms for Li dendrite inhibition, including regulation of uniform deposition of Li metal and suppression of Li dendrite growth. By doing this, it is hoped that this contribution will provide instructional guidance for the future design of new artificial layers.

Inhomogeneous microcapsules that can encapsulate various cargo for controlled release triggered by osmotic shock are designed and reported. The microcapsules are fabricated using a microfluidic approach and the inhomogeneity of shell thickness in the microcapsules can be controlled by tuning the flow rate ratio of the middle phase to the inner phase. This study demonstrates the swelling of these inhomogeneous microcapsules begins at the thinnest part of shell and eventually leads to rupture at the weak spot with a low osmotic pressure. Systematic studies indicate the rupture fraction of these microcapsules increases with increasing inhomogeneity, while the rupture osmotic pressure decreases linearly with increasing inhomogeneity. The inhomogeneous microcapsules are demonstrated to be impermeable to small probe molecules, which enables long‐term storage. Thus, these microcapsules can be used for long‐term storage of enzymes, which can be controllably released through osmotic shock without impairing their biological activity. The study provides a new approach to design effective carriers to encapsulate biomolecules and release them on‐demand upon applying osmotic shock.

The performance and safety of lithium (Li) metal batteries can be compromised owing to the formation of Li dendrites. Here, the use of a polymer of intrinsic microporosity (PIM) is reported as a feasible and robust interfacial layer that inhibits dendrite growth. The PIM demonstrates excellent film‐forming ability, electrochemical stability, strong adhesion to a copper metal electrode, and outstanding mechanical flexibility so that it relieves the stress of structural changes produced by reversible lithiation. Importantly, the porous structure of the PIM, which guides Li flux to obtain uniform deposition, and its strong mechanical strength combine to suppress dendrite growth. Hence, the electrochemical performance of the anode is significantly enhanced, promising excellent performance and extended cycle lifetime for Li metal batteries.

Biodiesel inherently contains more water than mineral diesel and as a result microbial contamination is a major problem that hinders its widespread application. The current method of removing the microbial contamination is direct addition of biocide. However, this method cannot enrich the water phase with biocide rapidly enough, leading to unavoidable overdosing of biocide and environmental issues. Here, biocide is encapsulated within hydrogel microparticles with a water‐triggered release feature to improve antimicrobial efficiency of biocide in biodiesel. To demonstrate the water‐triggered release mechanism, a green dye is encapsulated within the microparticles. The encapsulated dye remains inside the microparticles for more than 6 weeks when the microparticles are stored in oil phase; however, the dye releases in 4 min when the microparticles contact water. Using this water‐triggered release strategy, biocide is successfully delivered to the water phase in biodiesel. The encapsulated biocide shows higher antimicrobial efficacy than that of free biocide, in both short‐term and long‐term experiments. The possibility of scaling up the production of hydrogel microparticles using bulk emulsification method is also explored. Moreover, the water‐triggered release strategy can be used for releasing other water‐soluble functional materials. This opens opportunities for a wide range of encapsulation and controlled delivery applications.

Bioinspired structural color materials represent a curiosity-led, technology-driven field with multidisciplinary research studies aiming at mimicking and recapitulating natural coloration and functions. Over the past several decades, great achievements have been made, including natural structural coloration mechanisms, fabrication of artificial structural color materials, and their applications in extensive areas. In very recent years, research has been propelled forward towards making structural color materials intelligent by incorporating fascinating functions such as self-healing, autonomous regulation, shape memory, etc. These accomplishments create a great leap for structural color materials being applied in real-life scenarios and devices such as in anti-counterfeiting, displays, sensors, soft robots, wearable electronics, organ-on-a-chip platforms, etc.

This review summarizes microparticles produced by droplet microfluidics and their applications in biomedical fields.

New treatment strategies for spinal cord injury with good therapeutic efficacy are actively pursued. Here, acetalated dextran (AcDX), a biodegradable polymer obtained by modifying vicinal diols of dextran, is demonstrated to protect the traumatically injured spinal cord. To facilitate its administration, AcDX is formulated into microspheres (≈7.2 µm in diameter) by the droplet microfluidic technique. Intrathecally injected AcDX microspheres effectively reduce the traumatic lesion volume and inflammatory response in the injured spinal cord, protect the spinal cord neurons from apoptosis, and ultimately, recover the locomotor function of injured rats. The neuroprotective feature of AcDX microspheres is achieved by sequestering glutamate and calcium ions in cerebrospinal fluid. The scavenging of glutamate and calcium ion reduces the influx of calcium ions into neurons and inhibits the formation of reactive oxygen species. Consequently, AcDX microspheres attenuate the expression of proapoptotic proteins, Calpain, and Bax, and enhance the expression of antiapoptotic protein Bcl‐2. Overall, AcDX microspheres protect traumatically injured spinal cord by alleviating the glutamate‐induced excitotoxicity. This study opens an exciting perspective toward the application of neuroprotective AcDX for the treatment of severe neurological diseases.

Smart regulation of substance permeability through porous membranes is highly desirable for membrane applications. Inspired by the stomatal closure feature of plant leaves at relatively high temperature, here we report a nano-gating membrane with a negative temperature-response coefficient that is capable of tunable water gating and precise small molecule separation. The membrane is composed of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) covalently bound to graphene oxide via free-radical polymerization. By virtue of the temperature tunable lamellar spaces of the graphene oxide nanosheets, the water permeance of the membrane could be reversibly regulated with a high gating ratio. Moreover, the space tunability endows the membrane with the capability of gradually separating multiple molecules of different sizes. This nano-gating membrane expands the scope of temperature-responsive membranes and has great potential applications in smart gating systems and molecular separation.