Autophagy could play suppressing role in cancer therapy by facilitating release of tumor antigens from dying cells and inducing immunogenic cell death (ICD). Therefore, discovery and rational design of more effective inducers of cytotoxic autophagy is expected to develop new strategies for finding innovative drugs for precise and successful cancer treatment. Herein, we develop MoO3-x nanowires (MoO3-x NWs) with high oxygen vacancy and strong photothermal responsivity to ablate tumors through hyperthermia, thus promote the induction of cytotoxic autophagy and severe ICD. As expected, the combination of MoO3-x NWs and photothermal therapy (PTT) effectively induces autophagy to promote the release of tumor antigens from the ablated cells, and induces the maturation and antigen presentation of dendritic cells (DCs), subsequently activates cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs)-mediated adaptive immunity. Furthermore, the combination treatment of MoO3-x NWs with immune checkpoint blockade of PD-1 could promote the tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) polarization into tumor-killing M1 macrophages, inhibit infiltration of Treg cells at tumor sites, and alleviate immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment, finally intensify the anti-tumor activity in vivo. This study provides a strategy and preliminary elucidation of the mechanism of using MoO3-x nanowires with high oxygen vacancy to induce autophagy and thus enhance photothermal immunotherapy.

Aqueous zinc ion batteries (AZIBs) are considered to have great potential for future energy storage systems. But according to performance researches reported up to the present time, AZIBs do not seem to be able to replace the dominant position of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) in large-scale energy storage systems in a short term. In addition to dendrites and side reactions, the unrealistic low zinc utilization ratio (ZUR) and excessive thickness of Zn anode which limit AZIBs' energy density are also the main factors that prevent AZIBs from commercialization. In today's booming energy storage market, developing practical AZIBs with highly utilized Zn metal anode and pushing it to the market, and then conducting technical iterations through market feedback will allow AZIBs to be truly developed rather than merely staying in research literatures. In this review, the current development situation and market prospects of AZIBs was analyzed in detail based on the actual energy storage systems market. The characteristics of different batteries were also discussed to confirm the application position of AZIBs. Besides of the dendrites and side reactions, this review focus on the industrialization issues of AZIBs. We summarize the impacts of factors such as current density, areal capacity, ZUR, electrode thickness on the AZIBs, and also propose formulas to more accurately estimate the relationship between them. It is also discussed here recent progresses and perspectives related to these issues. We hope that this review can inspire feasible ideas for fast promoting the commercialization of AZIBs.

NiFe-based materials are among the most promising alkaline oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts because of their high intrinsic activities and abundance. Although many advanced NiFe-based catalysts have been developed, few exhibit simultaneous high ac-tivity, stability, good mass transfer, and cost-effective large-scale preparation. Further-more, NiFe-based catalysts have rarely been studied in alkaline water electrolyzers (AWE) where the catalysts work under a large current density in an alkaline electrolyte at high temperatures and high concentrations with tight assembly pressure. This study success-fully developes robust and highly active NiFe nanocone array (NA) catalysts that exhibit both fast and cost-effective mass production capabilities. Benefiting from the in situ -formed OER-active NiFe layered double hydroxide (LDH) and the superhydrophilic structure-induced fast mass transfer, the optimized NiFe NA sample presentes a low OER overpotential of 269 mV at 500 mA cm-2 in a 30 wt% KOH solution. The NiFe core-NiFe LDH shell structure and metallic bond between NiFe nanocones and the substrate are crucial for enabling the NiFe electrode to maintain a minimal potential increase of only 4% even after 250 h of testing at 500 mA cm-2 in a 30 wt% KOH solution. Moreover, the AWE using NiFe NA anodes and NiMo cathodes (NiFe//NiMo) works stably at 500 mA cm-2 under 80 degrees C in 30 wt% KOH solution and presents a power energy consumption of 4.0 kWh Nm-3 H2, much lower than that of the Ni mesh//Ni mesh counterpart and most commercial AWEs. This study, for the first time, evaluates the performance of NiFe electrodes in AWE and dem-onstrates their industrial application prospects in alkaline water electrolysis.(c) 2023 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Lithium is known as the “white petroleum” of the electrification era, and the global demand for lithium grows rapidly with the quick development of new energy industry. The aqueous solutions, such as salt lake brine, underground brine, and seawater, have large lithium reserves, thus this kind of lithium resource has become a research hotspot recently. Compared with other lithium extraction technologies, electro-sorption method shows good prospects for practical applications with advantages in the aspects of efficiency, recovery ratio, cost, and environment. Herein, this review covers recent progress on electro-sorption technology for lithium recovery from aqueous solutions, including the concept illustration, research progress of the applied working electrodes and counter electrodes, and the evaluation indicators of electro-sorption system. Meanwhile, some prospects for the development of this technology are also proposed. We hope this review is beneficial for the construction of high-efficient electrochemical lithium recovery system to achieve an adequate lithium supply in the future.

Monolayer two-dimensional (2D) materials are of great interest because of their unique electronic structures, noticeable in-plane confinement effect, and exceptional catalytic properties. Here, we prepared 2D covalent networks of polyoxometalate clusters (CN-POM) featuring monolayer crystalline molecular sheets, formed by the covalent connection between tetragonally arranged POM clusters. The CN-POM shows a superior catalytic efficiency in the oxidation of benzyl alcohol, and the conversion rate is five times higher than that of the POM cluster units. Theoretical calculations show that in-plane electron delocalization of CN-POM contributes to easier electron transfer and increases catalytic efficiency. Moreover, the conductivity of the covalently interconnected molecular sheets was 46 times greater than that of individual POM clusters. The preparation of monolayer covalent network of POM clusters provides a strategy to synthesize advanced cluster-based 2D materials and a precise molecular model to investigate the electronic structure of crystalline covalent networks.

Harvesting solar energy for saline and polluted water purification is a sustainable and affordable solution to alleviate the stress on water shortages. However, the water evaporation rate relies on high optical intensity and suffers from inadequate energy conversion. Herein, a novel hybrid donor–acceptor dendritic nanosheets (denoted as DNS) composed of phosphomolybdic acid (PMA) clusters and porphyrin ligands is reported. Experimental results and molecular dynamics simulations indicate that the PMA and porphyrin are oriented attachment and assembled into a stable nanostructure. Benefiting from the advantages of the unique structure and photosensitive components, the DNS exhibits high evaporation rate of 2.23 kg m‐2 h‐1 with 90.9% energy efficiency under 1 sun irradiation. It is noteworthy that the evaporation performance is upgraded by innovative technology, and even under 0.5 sun that is close to the natural sunlight intensity, the evaporation rate reaches up to 1.31 kg m‐2 h‐1, which exceeds that of the vast majority of the reported evaporators. Furthermore, this evaporator also displays excellent seawater desalination and wastewater decontamination based on photo‐thermal distillation, highlighting its potential application toward water purification.

Inspired by the success of graphene, a series of single- or few-layer 2D materials have been developed and applied in the past decade. Here, the successful preparation of monolayer and bilayer 2D porphyrin-based metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) by a facile solvothermal method is reported. The structure transition from monolayer to bilayer drives distinct electronic properties and restructuring behaviors, which finally results in distinct catalytic pathways towards CO2 electrocatalysis. The monolayer favors CO2 -to-C2 pathway due to the restructuring of CuO4 sites, while CO and HCOO- are the major products over the bilayer. In photocoupled electrocatalysis, the Faradaic efficiency (FE) of the C2 compounds shows a nearly fourfold increase on the monolayer than that under dark conditions (FEC2 increases from 11.9% to 41.1% at -1.4 V). For comparison, the light field plays a negligible effect on the bilayer. The light-induced selectivity optimization is investigated by experimental characterization and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. This work opens up a novel possibility to tune the selectivity of carbon products just by tailoring the layer number of the 2D material.

Cost-effective, active, and durable electrocatalyst is an integral requirement for a practical fuel cell. To achieve multifunctional electrocatalytic properties in one catalyst is always preferred. Inspired by the distinctive properties and outstanding catalytic performance of one-dimensional (1D) nanowires for electrocatalytic reactions, a one-pot, one-step noble metal-induced reduction method is reported to synthesize ultrathin diameter palladium-based multimetallic PdBiM (M = Mo, Mn, Co, Cu) alloy nanowires with excellent electrocatalytic performance in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The synthesized alloy nanowires showed ORR and remarkable tolerance against the small molecular poisoning species (i.e., SOx, NOx, POx, CO, etc.) in acidic and alkaline media. This work implicates a new direction for the controlled synthesis of multifunctional 1D alloy nanowires that may provide new openings for enhancing catalytic activities and tolerance against the poisoning species in the practical fuel cells.

Constructing single-crystal inorganic helical structures is a fascinating subject for a large variety of research fields. However, the driving force of self-coiling, particularly in helical architectures, still remains a major challenge. Here, using MoO3-x sub-nanometric wires (SNWs) as an example, we identified that spontaneous helical architecture with different dimensional features is closely related with their surface asymmetrical defects. Specifically, the surface defects of SNWs are critical to produce the self-coiling process, thereby achieving the ordered helical conformations. Theoretical calculations further suggest that the formation of in-plane and out-of-plane coiling structures is determined by the asymmetrical distribution of the surface defects, and the inhomogeneous charge separation with strong Coulomb attraction dominates the different structural configurations. The resulting MoO3-x SNW exhibits excellent photothermal behaviors in both aqueous solutions and hydrogel matrixes. Our study provides a novel protocol to achieve helical structure design for their future applications.

Subnanometer nanowires (SNWs) refer to nanowires with diameters close to the size of a single crystal cell. SNWs show not only qualitative change in nature compared to the bulk materials or nanomaterials with larger size but also show several advantages in assembly and processing due to their polymer‐analog properties. However, the synthesis of SNWs is still a great challenge. Herein, a synthesis method of SNWs assisted by polyoxometalates is developed. Based on this method, several kinds of SNWs are prepared successfully, and the properties of the SNWs can be regulated efficiently and effectively, demonstrating the extensibility of this synthesis method. Among these SNWs, Bi 2 O 3 –PMoO SNWs show good photothermal conversion performance and can be processed into freestanding and flexible films through the wet‐spinning method. The Bi 2 O 3 –PMoO SNW films show good performance in solar steam generation and seawater desalination. The average stable evaporation rate can reach 1.38 kg m −2 h −1 , and the efficiency is ≈ 91.1% under 1 sun illumination. The concentration of ions in the desalted seawater with the Bi 2 O 3 –PMoO SNWs film are reduced by four orders of magnitude, meeting the quality standards of drinking water and potential for practical utilization of solar energy in the seawater desalination.

In addition to offering conformational flexibility, sub‐nanometer nanobelts (SNBs) also outperform many larger nanobelts with large size owing to their ultrathin morphologies. However, to date, only a few monocomponent SNBs have been synthesized. This study presents a facile method for synthesizing ZrO 2 –PMoO (PMZ) SNBs and TiO 2 –PMoO (PMT) SNBs with heterostructures. The SNBs comprise ZrO 2 /TiO 2 and polyoxometalate (POM) nanoclusters, which are formed via the aggregation and subsequent transformation of nanoclusters. Significantly, these SNBs demonstrate high catalytic activity and stability in oxidative desulfurization reactions at room temperature. The impressive catalytic performance of the SNBs is aided by the POM nanoclusters, which not only coassemble with ZrO 2 /TiO 2 nuclei to form building blocks of PMZ SNBs/PMT SNBs but also serve as catalytic centers. The catalytic performance is further enhanced by the ZrO 2 /TiO 2 in the SNBs. Moreover, the proposed synthesis method can be utilized to produce other SNBs. Thus, this method provides valuable insights into the strong performance properties of SNBs created by combining metal oxides and POM nanoclusters into SNBs, which have great potential as redox catalysts.

Sub-nanometric materials (SNMs) are an attractive scope in recent years due to their atomic-level size and unique properties. Among various performances of SNMs, photothermal energy conversion is one of the most important ones because it can efficiently utilize the light energy. Herein, the SNMs with photothermal energy conversion behaviors and their applications are reviewed. First, a hydrothermal/solvothermal method for the synthesis of SNMs is systematically discussed, including the LaMer pathway and the cluster-nuclei coassembly pathway. Based on this synthetic strategy, many kinds of SNMs with different morphologies are successfully prepared, such as nanorings, nanowires, nanosheets, and nanobelts. These SNMs exhibit excellent photothermal performance under the laser or solar irradiation according to their different light absorption ranges. These enhanced absorption performances of SNMs are induced by the mechanism of plasmonic localized heating or nonradiative relaxation. Finally, the applications of the photothermal SNMs are illustrated. The SNMs with photothermal behaviors can be widely applied in the fields of solar vapor generation, biomedicine, and light-responsive composites construction. It is hoped that this review can provide new viewpoints and profound understanding to the SNMs in photothermal energy conversion.

Solar vapor generation is a promising method to efficiently produce fresh water. However, the insufficient vapor yields under natural daylight restrict its practical applications, and the basic evaporation mechanisms are deficient for reasonable design of evaporator structure. Here, hydrophobic nano-confined water molecule channels (NCWMCs) are demonstrated, which can reduce the vaporization enthalpy for water evaporation and achieve a record vapor generation rate of 1.25 kg m-2 h-1 under 0.5 sun irradiation. Molecular dynamics simulations reveal the cluster-evaporation process in the NCWMC system. As a result, the evaporator with NCWMC system can effectively purify seawater and wastewater samples using this environmentally friendly strategy.

2D catalysts combined with single atom sites are promising candidates to promote CO2 reduction performance, but the ability to target stable materials with distinct structure still remains challenging. Herein, a series of single metal atoms anchored 2D metal-organic framework nanosheets (MOF-NS-M) with visualized and well-ordered mesoporous structures are fabricated and exhibit enhanced CO2 reduction activity and selectivity with the assistance of visible-light. Encouragingly, the CO Faradaic efficiency of MOF-NS-Co exceeds 90% in a wide potential window of -0.5 to -1.0 V versus RHE and reaches 98.7% with 100 mV positive shift compared with the result measured under dark. The catalytic kinetics studies show a fast initial electron transfer to CO2 to form *COO- , thanks to the sufficient exposed active sites resulting from the nanosheet nature and adjusted electron transfer pathway caused by the porphyrin photoswitch.

The design and synthesis of radionuclide adsorbent materials with high uptake efficiency, capacity, and excellent hydrolytic stability remains a challenge. Herein, an all inorganic, a cluster-nucle...

Complex nanostructures with high compositional and structural tailorability are highly desired in order to meet the material needs in the rapid development of nanoscience and nanotechnology. Therefore, the synthetic technique is of essential importance but currently still suffers from many challenges. Herein, we elaborately explore and demonstrate the flexibility of the anisotropic metallo-organic compound (dihafnium dichloride, Cp2HfCl2) for the fabrication of inorganic architectures by mimicking the assembly behaviors in biomolecules. The open and discrete architectures of mesoporous HfO2 nanoframes were constructed via the self-assembly of precursor with acetone as solvent and ammonia as the basic source, but without any addition of auxiliary organic molecules, like surfactants, DAN or peptides. In addition, the nanostructures (hollow spheres, solid spheres, yolk-shells, aggregations and defect-rich nanoparticles) of HfO2 assemblies can be well manipulated by simply modulating the synthesis parameters. The marked difference in the chemical bonds by the different ligands resulted in discrepant hydrolysis and then specific directional bonds for the diversity of the resultant HfO2 assemblies. Interestingly, the HfO2 nanoframe exhibits enhanced piezoelectricity, and can be used as a microelectrode reactor to trigger the pseudo-electrochemical aniline polymerization reaction by introducing ultrasonic excitation to renew the surface charges. Moreover, as compared with nanoparticle catalysts, the palladium (Pd) loaded nanoframe reactor exhibits obvious enhanced catalytic performance for classical Suzuki coupling, benefiting from the structural advantages of the HfO2 frame. Our findings here can be expected to offer new perspectives to find suitable materials by understanding the analogy between materials chemistry and biomolecule chemistry.

Solar steam generation is a potential approach for fresh water recycling, thus attracting increasing attention recently. To further promote water evaporation rate, some new materials need to be developed, such as plasmonic transition metal oxides. In this work, we report an oxygen‐defected molybdenum oxides hierarchical nanostructure (MoOx HNS) composed of ultrathin nanosheets with atomic‐level thickness, which is demonstrated as an efficient absorber for solar steam generation. Benefiting from broadband light absorption and special assembled architecture, the resulting MoOx HNS loaded on a PTFE membrane (MoOx HNS Membrane) exhibits excellent performance for boosting steam generation rate. Under 1 sun (1 kW m−2) illumination, the evaporation rate can reach at 1.255 kg m−2 h−1, with the energy conversion efficiency of 85.6%, which is one of the best performance compared with other desalination materials. Meanwhile, the MoOx HNS Membrane can achieve high‐performance seawater desalination in both laboratorial and outdoor conditions. The enhanced water evaporation performance can be attributed to the synergistic effects of the efficient solar‐to‐thermal conversion and the unique channel structure. This work expands the scope of investigated materials which can be applied in seawater desalination system.

Photothermal therapy (PTT) and photo-dynamic therapy (PDT) have emerged as effective approaches for cancer treatment. Herein, we present atomic-level scale (0.5 nm thickness) ultrathin sulfur-doped molybdenum oxide nanorings (S-MoOx A-NRs) and with surface coating of polyethylene glycol (PEG) (PEG@S-MoOx A-NRs). This nanomaterial shows high absorbance in the near-infrared (NIR) range and can be used as a sensitive photoacoustic imaging (PAI) contrast agent. Upon NIR irradiation, the particles show high photothermal conversion and reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, which effectively kills cancer cells both in vitro and in vivo. The PEG@S-MoOx A-NRs allow PAI and synergistic PTT/PDT therapy, which is demonstrated as a promising theranostic strategy for future cancer therapy.

Superthin nanostructures, particularly with atomic-level thicknesses, typically display unique optical properties because of their exceptional light–matter interactions. Here, we report a facile strategy for the synthesis of sulfur-doped molybdenum oxide nanorings with an atomic-level size (thickness of 0.5 nm) and a tunable ring-in-ring architecture. These atomic-level nanorings displayed strong photo-absorption in both the visible and infrared-light ranges and acted as a photothermal agent. Under irradiation with an 808 nm laser with an intensity of 1 W/cm 2 , a composite of the nanorings embedded in polydimethylsiloxane showed an ultrafast photothermal effect, delivering a local temperature of up to 400 °C within 20 s, which to the best of our knowledge is the highest temperature by light irradiation reported to date. Meanwhile, the resulting nanorings were also employed as a photoinitiator to remotely induce a visible-light shape memory response, self-healing, reshaping performance and reversible actuation of dynamic three-dimensional structures. This study demonstrates an advancement towards controlling atomic-level-sized nanostructures and achieving greatly enhanced optical performances for optoelectronics.

Hollow mixed metal oxides have received much attention owing to their great performance for wide potential applications. Here, we have successfully prepared hollow Co-Mo mixed oxide nanostructures with controlled structure and compositions, including hollow Co3O4/CoMoO4 heterostructures and ball-in-ball CoMoO4 nanospheres. Uniform CoMo-Co-Mo hybrid precursors are prepared through one-pot solvothermal hybrid spheres method and then transformed into hollow structures after thermal treatment. Importantly, this strategy can be used to prepare other ternary Mo-based oxides. In view of the unique heterostructure with hollow structure, the Co3O4/CoMoO4 heterostructures exhibit much better electrocatalytic activity for the oxygen evolution reaction than CoMoO4. Moreover, the as-synthesized carbon-coated Co3O4/CoMoO4 nanospheres show excellent lithium storage properties. Our result described here provides a method to fabricate other mixed metal oxides with complicated structure.