Qing He

1. Cancer remains a major threat to human health [1]. Surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy are widely used for cancer treatment [2–4]. However, because of the complexity of tumor development, a ...

The development of renewable energy storage technologies has become a critical priority for global sustainable development and energy diversification. In this study, strawberry straw, an agricultural waste material, was converted into porous carbon through KOH activation. In this structure, the innate vascular channels was preserved to create pathways for rapid ion transport, while the concurrent chemical etching generates a multitude of macro/meso/micropores, resulting in an integrated multi-scale pore network. At an optimized KOH/C ratio of 3:1, the as-prepared SPC₃ sample attained an ultrahigh specific surface area of 2746.5 m² g^-1. The preserved vascular bundle channels provide efficient pathways for ion transport, while the high specific surface area offers substantial active sites for charge storage. This synergy resulted in a high specific capacitance of 277 F g^-1 at 1 A g^-1 and exceptional cycling stability (95.6% of its capacitance after 10,000 cycles at 10 A g^-1). When assembled into a symmetric supercapacitor, the SPC_3//SPC₃ device delivered an energy density of 20.9 Wh kg^-1 at a power density of 600 W kg^-1, maintaining 16.83 Wh kg^-1 even at 6000 W kg^-1, highlighting its great potential for high-power energy storage applications.

Currently, new clean energy storage technology must be effective, affordable, and ecologically friendly so as to meet the diverse and sustainable needs of the energy supply. In this work, NiCo-LDH containing intercalated EG was successfully prepared within 210 s using an ultrafast microwave radiation technique. Subsequently, a series of characterization and systematic electrochemical tests were conducted to analyze the composition, structure, and energy storage mechanism of the NiCo-LDH material. The Ni:Co ratio of 5:5 results in the highest capacitance value of 2156 F/g at 1 A/g and an outstanding rate performance of 86.8% capacity retention rate at 10 A/g. The results demonstrated that the unique porous structure of NiCo-LDH and large layer spacing were conducive to more electrochemical reactions. Additionally, an electrochemical test was carried out on the NiCo-LDH as a hybrid supercapacitor electrode material, with NiCo-LDH-5:5 serving as the positive electrode and activated carbon as the negative electrode, the asymmetric supercapacitor can achieve a maximum energy density of 82.5 Wh kg⁻¹ and power density of 8000 W kg⁻¹. The NiCo-LDH-5:5//AC hybrid supercapacitors own 81.5% cycle stability and 100% coulombic efficiency after 6000 cycles at 10 A/g.

In this work, a series of urchin-like Ce(HCOO)₃ nanoclusters were synthesized via a facile and scalable microwave-assisted method by varying the irradiation time, and the structure–property relationship was investigated. The optimization of the reaction time was performed based on structural characterizations and electrochemical performances, and the Ce(HCOO)₃-210 s sample shows a specific capacitance as high as 132 F g⁻¹ at a current density of 1 A g⁻¹. This is due to the optimal mesoporous hierarchical structure and crystallinity that are beneficial to its conductivity, offering abundant Ce³⁺/Ce⁴⁺ active sites and facilitating the transportation of electrolyte ions. Moreover, an asymmetric supercapacitor based on Ce(HCOO)₃//AC was fabricated, which delivers a maximum energy density of 14.78 Wh kg⁻¹ and a considerably high power density of 15,168 W kg⁻¹. After 10,000 continuous charge–discharge cycles at 3 A g⁻¹, the ASC device retains 81.3% of its initial specific capacitance. The excellent comprehensive electrochemical performance of this urchin-like Ce(HCOO)₃ offers significant promise for practical supercapacitor applications.

An electrode material with high performance, long durability, and low cost for supercapacitors has long been desired in academia and industry. Among all the factors that affect the electrochemical performance and cycling stability of electrode materials, the morphology and intrinsic structure characteristics are the most important. In this study, a novel 3D flower-like Ce(COOH)₃ electrode material was designed by taking advantage of the Ce³⁺ and -COOH groups and fabricated by a one-pot microwave-assisted method. The morphology and structure characteristics of the sample were examined by SEM, EDS, TEM, XRD, FT-IR, XPS, N₂ adsorption/desorption techniques, and the electrochemical behaviors were investigated in a three-electrode configuration. The Ce(COOH)₃ electrode presents an excellent specific capacitance of 140 F g⁻¹ at 1 A g⁻¹, higher than many other previously reported Ce-based electrodes. In addition, it delivers high rate capability that retains 60% of its initial capacitance when the current density is magnified 20 times. Dramatically, the Ce(COOH)₃ electrode exhibits an ultra-high cycling stability with capacitance retention of 107.9% after 60,000 cycles, which is the highest durability among reported Ce–organic compound electrodes to the best of our knowledge. The excellent electrochemical performance is ascribed to its intrinsic crystal structure and unique morphology. This work indicates that the 3D flower-like Ce(COOH)₃ has significant potential for supercapacitor applications and the facile and scalable synthesis strategy can be extended to produce other metal–organic composite electrodes.

Metal-organic frameworks—through the use of creative synthetic designs—could produce MOF materials with excellent porosity, stability, particle microstructures, and conductivity, and their inherent characteristics—including their porosity and controllable structure—may result in an immense number of prospects for energy storage. In this paper, a nanosphere-like NiCo-MOF was effectively manufactured via an ultra-fast microwave technique. Additionally, the ideal synthesis conditions of the NiCo-MOF were investigated by adjusting the microwave output power and microwave reaction time. Under the reaction conditions of a 600 W microwave and a 210 s microwave reaction time, the NiCo-MOF exhibited an excellent capacitance of 1348 F/g at a current density of 1 A/g and an 86.1% capacity retention rate at 10 A/g. In addition, self-assembled NiCo-MOF/AC asymmetric capacitors showed a splendid energy density of 46.6 Wh/kg and a power density of 8000 W/kg.

A Zr‐based metal‐organic framework PCN‐777 with good biocompatibility was synthesized by solvothermal method using 2,4,6‐Tris(4‐Carboxyphenyl)‐1,3,5‐Triazine and ZrOCl₂ ⋅ 8H₂O as raw materials. Its structure was identified and the results showed that it had good crystallinity. Then the anti‐inflammatory drug ibuprofen sodium was loaded into PCN‐777 to establish an IBUNa@PCN‐777 compound and the maximum loading capacity was tested. When the mass ratio of IBUNa to PCN‐777 was 4 : 1, the loading of IBUNa in IBUNa@PCN‐777 reached the maximum value 72.53 wt %. Biocompatibility investigation indicated PCN‐777 and IBUNa@PCN‐777 had good biocompatibility. Moreover, the drug release behavior of IBUNa@PCN‐777 testified the drug release at pH 7.4(>80 %) was greater than that at pH 2.0(<20 %). indicated that IBUNa@PCN‐777 had good pH response in simulated digestive environments. The above results demonstrated that PCN‐777 had potential application prospects as an oral drug carrier.

For most electrodes fabricated with carbon, transition metal compounds, or conductive polymers, the capacitance may deteriorate with cyclic charging and discharging. Thus, an electrochemically stable supercapacitor has long been pursued by researchers. In this work, the hierarchical structure of balsa wood is preserved in the converted carbon which is used as a supporting framework to fabricate electrodes for supercapacitors. Well‐grown carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on interior and exterior surfaces of balsa carbon channels provide two advantages including 1) offering more specific surface area to boost capacitance via electric double layer capacitance and 2) offering more active Fe and Ni sites to participate in the redox reaction to enhance capacitance of the balsa carbon/CNTs electrode. The balsa carbon/CNTs demonstrate an excellent area capacitance of 1940 mF cm⁻². As active sites on Ni and Fe catalysts and inner walls of CNTs are gradually released, the capacitance increases 66% after 4000 charge–discharge cycles. This work brings forward a strategy for the rational design of high‐performance biomass carbon coupled with advanced nanostructures for energy storage.

A Zr‐based metal‐organic framework was synthesized by solvothermal method. It was designated as UiO‐67(bpy) since its structure matched well with UiO‐67 according to the X‐ray diffraction results. The cytotoxicity assay of UiO‐67(bpy) was measured and it revealed that UiO‐67(bpy) had excellent biocompatibility. UiO‐67(bpy) was used to load anti‐inflammatory drugs, and the loading capacity of diclofenac sodium (DS) of UiO‐67(bpy) reached 30.08 wt %. Furthermore, the DS@UiO‐67(bpy) exhibited a pH‐controlled drug deliver behavior. The DS released in simulated intestinal environment (pH 7.4) was about 20 times of that in simulated gastric environment (pH 2.0) after 12 h. UiO‐67(bpy) showed potential application prospects as an oral drug carrier.

A detailed analysis of the dehydrogenation mechanism of LiBH₄/xLiAlH₄ (x = 0.5, 1, 2) composites was performed by thermogravimetry (TG), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), mass spectral analysis (MS), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), along with kinetic investigations using a Sievert-type apparatus. The results show that the dehydrogenation pathway of LiBH₄/xLiAlH₄ had a four-step character. The experimental dehydrogenation amount did not reach the theoretical expectations, because the products such as AlB₂ and LiAl formed a passivation layer on the surface of Al and the dehydrogenation reactions associated with Al could not be sufficiently carried out. Kinetic investigations discovered a nonlinear relationship between the activation energy (E_a) of dehydrogenation reactions associated with Al and the ratio x, indicating that the E_a was determined both by the concentration of Al produced by the decomposition of LiAlH₄ and the amount of free surface of it. Therefore, the amount of effective contact surface of Al is the rate-determining factor for the overall dehydrogenation of the LiBH₄/xLiAlH₄ composites.