Solar-powered simultaneous highly efficient seawater desalination and highly specific target extraction with smart DNA hydrogels.

Obtaining freshwater and important minerals from seawater with solar power facilitates the sustainable development of human society. Hydrogels have demonstrated great solar-powered water evaporation potential, but highly efficient and specific target extraction remains to be expanded. Here, we report the simultaneous highly efficient seawater desalination and specific extraction of uranium with smart DNA hydrogels. The DNA hydrogel greatly promoted the evaporation of water, with the water evaporation rate reached a high level of 3.54 kilograms per square meter per hour (1 kilowatt per square meter). Simultaneously, uranyl-specific DNA hydrogel exhibited a high capture capacity of 5.7 milligrams per gram for uranium from natural seawater due to the rapid ion transport driven by the solar powered interfacial evaporation and the high selectivity (10.4 times over vanadium). With programmable functions and easy-to-use devices, the system is expected to play a role in future seawater treatment.

Ultrasmall zirconium carbide nanodots for synergistic photothermal-radiotherapy of glioma.

Glioma is characterized by highly invasive, progressive, and lethal features. In addition, conventional treatments have been poorly effective in treating glioma. To overcome this challenge, synergistic therapies combining radiotherapy (RT) with photothermal therapy (PTT) have been proposed and extensively explored as a highly feasible cancer treatment strategy. Herein, ultrasmall zirconium carbide (ZrC) nanodots were successfully synthesized with high near-infrared absorption and strong photon attenuation for synergistic PTT-RT of glioma. ZrC-PVP nanodots with an average size of approximately 4.36 nm were prepared by the liquid exfoliation method and modified with the surfactant polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), with a satisfactory absorption and photothermal conversion efficiency (53.4%) in the near-infrared region. Furthermore, ZrC-PVP nanodots can also act as radiosensitizers to kill residual tumor cells after mild PTT due to their excellent photon attenuating ability, thus achieving a significant synergistic therapeutic effect by combining RT and PTT. Most importantly, both in vitro and in vivo experimental results further validate the high biosafety of ZrC-PVP NDs at the injected dose. This work systematically evaluates the feasibility of ZrC-PVP NDs for glioma treatment and provides evidence of the application of zirconium-based nanomaterials in photothermal radiotherapy.

A near-infrared light-controlled, oxygen-independent radical generating nano-system toward cancer therapy.

Anti-tumor treatment based on free radicals is often inefficient in hypoxic tumors, mainly because of the oxygen-dependent generation mechanism of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Herein, we report an NIR laser-controlled nano-system that is capable of generating alkyl radicals in situ in an oxygen-independent approach. Hollow mesoporous Prussian blue nanoparticles (HPB NPs) were developed to co-encapsulate the azo initiator (AIBI) and 1-tetradecanol as the phase change material (PCM, melting point of ∼39 °C), obtaining the AP@HPB NPs. At normal body temperature, the PCM remained in the solid state to prevent the pre-leakage of AIBI. Upon NIR laser irradiation (808 nm) at the tumor site, AP@HPB NPs generated heat upon photothermal conversion, which melted the PCM to release AIBI and decomposed AIBI to produce toxicity free alkyl radicals under both normoxic and hypoxic conditions. The alkyl free radicals efficiently killed tumor cells by causing oxidative stress and damaging DNA. Meanwhile, NIR light-induced hyperthermia cooperated with free radicals to efficiently eradicate tumors. This study therefore provides a promising strategy toward oxygen-independent free radical therapy, especially for the treatment of hypoxic tumors.

Polyhydric polymer-loaded pyrene composites as powerful adsorbents and fluorescent probes: highly efficient adsorption and test strips-based fluorimetric analysis of curcumin in urine and plant extracts.

Polyhydric poly (vinyl alcohol) was covalently loaded with a 1-pyrenecarboxyaldehyde fluorophore. The yielded PVA-Pyr composites can serve as powerful adsorbents and strong fluorescent probes for the highly efficient adsorption and sensitive fluorimetric detection with test strips of curcumin in samples of urine and plant extracts.