Simple, Fast, and Scalable Reverse-Offset Printing of Micropatterned Copper Nanowire Electrodes with Sub-10 µm Resolution.

Copper nanowires (CuNWs) possess key characteristics for realizing flexible transparent electronics. High-quality CuNW micropatterns with high resolution and uniform thickness are required to realize integrated transparent electronic devices. However, patterning high-aspect-ratio CuNWs is challenging because of their long length, exceeding the target pattern dimension. This work reports a novel reverse-offset printing technology that enables the sub-10 µm high-resolution micropatterning of CuNW transparent conducting electrodes (TCEs). The CuNW ink for reverse-offset printing was formulated to control viscoelasticity, cohesive force, and adhesion by adjusting the ligands, solvents, surface energy modifiers, and leveling additives. An inexpensive commercial adhesive handroller achieved a simple, fast, and scalable micropatterning of CuNW TCEs. Easy production of high-quality CuNW micropatterns with various curvatures and shapes was possible, regardless of the printing direction. The reverse-offset-printed CuNW micropatterns exhibited a minimum of 7 µm line width and excellent pattern qualities such as fine line spacing, sharp edge definition, and outstanding pattern uniformity. In addition, they exhibited excellent sheet resistance, high optical transparency, outstanding mechanical durability, and long-term stability. Flexible light-emitting diode (LED) circuits, transparent heaters, and organic LEDs (OLEDs) can be fabricated using high-resolution reverse-offset-printed CuNW micropatterns for applications in flexible transparent electronic devices.

Recent advances in chiral nanomaterials with unique electric and magnetic properties.

Research on chiral nanomaterials (NMs) has grown radically with a rapid increase in the number of publications over the past decade. It has attracted a large number of scientists in various fields predominantly because of the emergence of unprecedented electric, optical, and magnetic properties when chirality arises in NMs. For applications, it is particularly informative and fascinating to investigate how chiral NMs interact with electromagnetic waves and magnetic fields, depending on their intrinsic composition properties, atomic distortions, and assembled structures. This review provides an overview of recent advances in chiral NMs, such as semiconducting, metallic, and magnetic nanostructures.

Enhanced cell growth inhibition by thiacremonone in paclitaxel-treated lung cancer cells.

Activation of nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB) is implicated in drug resistant of lung cancer cells. Our previous data showed that thiacremonone inhibited activation of NF-κB. In the present study, we investigated whether thiacremonone enhanced susceptibility of lung cancer cells to a common anti-cancer drug paclitaxel by further inhibition of NF-κB. Thus, we used the threefold lower doses of IC50 values (50 µg/ml thiacremonone and 2.5 nM paclitaxel). We found that combination treatment with thiacremonone and paclitaxel was more susceptible (combination index; 0.40 in NCI-H460 cells and 0.46 in A549 cells) in cell growth inhibition of two types of lung cancer cell lines compared to a single agent treatment. Consistent with the combination effect on cancer cell growth inhibition, the combination treatment further induced apoptotic cell death and arrested the cancer cells in G2/M phase accompanied with a much lower expression of cdc2 and cyclin B1, and inhibited colony formation. Much more inactivation of NF-κB and greater expression of NF-κB target apoptosis regulated genes such as caspase-8 and PARPs were found by the combination treatment. Molecular model and pull down assay as well as MALDI-TOF analysis demonstrated that thiacremonone directly binds to p50. These data indicated that thiacremonone leads to increased apoptotic cell death in lung cancer cell lines through greater inhibition of NF-κB by the combination treatment with paclitaxel.