Interfacial Mass Diagnostics: Quantitative Perspective on Construction and Mechanism Understanding of Dye-Sensitized, Perovskite and Quantum Dots Solar Cells.

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), quantum dot-sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs) and perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have attracted wide attention. DSSCs, QDSSCs and PSCs can be prepared by liquid phase or solid phase, which causes a certain range of interface micro-mass changes during preparation. In addition, the photoelectric conversion process occurring inside the device also inevitably causes interface micro-mass changes. Interpretation of these interface micro-mass changes can help to optimize the cell structure, improve the stability and performance repeatability of the device, as well as directly or indirectly infer, track and predict the internal photoelectric conversion mechanism of the device. Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) is a powerful tool for studying surface mass changes, extending this technology to the fields of solar cells to directly obtain interface micro-mass changes, which makes the research more in-depth and opens up a new perspective for explaining the basic principles of solar cells. This review summarizes the research progress of QCM application in DSSCs, QDSSCs and PSCs in recent years, and explores the challenges and new opportunities of QCM application in new solar cells in the future.

Skin-permissible NIR-actuated hyperthermia using a photothermally responsive hydrogel membrane for the effective treatment of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection.

With the long-term widespread overuse of antibiotics, a large number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria have emerged and become a serious threat to healthcare systems. As an alternative strategy, near-infrared light (NIR)-actuated photothermal treatment has been developed for killing antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Although promising, the widespread applications of photothermal antibacterial platforms face great challenges due to the skin-harmful high laser irradiation. In this work, a novel NIR-responsive hydrogel membrane for effective photothermal sterilization upon light irradiation at skin-permissible intensity has been successfully prepared using a sodium alginate-based hydrogel membrane containing tannic acid-Fe(III) compounds (STF). The as-prepared STF displayed excellent mechanical capacity and fabricability. More importantly, the as-prepared STF revealed superior photothermal efficiency under a low-intensity NIR irradiation (0.3 W cm-2), which was below the maximum permissible exposure of skin (0.33 W cm-2). In addition, the STF showed the excellent performance of photothermal sterilization for MRSA both in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, the STF showed good biocompatibility. Based on the simple synthesis method, outstanding mechanical properties, excellent photothermal sterilization performance and good biocompatibility, the STF could be a promising wound dressing for antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections.

Low-intensity near-infrared light-triggered spatiotemporal antibiotics release and hyperthermia by natural polysaccharide-based hybrid hydrogel for synergistic wound disinfection.

Photothermal sterilization is a promising and effective treatment method in treating bacterial infection. Generally, a widely employed light source in photothermal sterilization inevitably damages the skin tissue due to the high-intensity irradiation dose. How to provide useful antibacterial outcomes without light-triggered skin damage is a challenge for photothermal sterilization. In this work, a novel antibacterial hydrogel (VAT hydrogel, the abbreviation for vancomycin-agarose-ferric tannate hydrogel) has been successfully constructed by the natural polysaccharide hydrogel (AG) encapsulating ferric tannate (TA-Fe) nanoparticles and vancomycin. The VAT hydrogel exhibited the outstanding photothermal properties and controllable antibiotics release. With the results of antibacterial assays, the VAT hydrogel revealed the superior effectiveness of synergistic wound disinfection by the low-intensity near-infrared light-triggered spatiotemporal antibiotics release and hyperthermia. More importantly, the VAT hydrogels possessed the good biocompatibility. With the outstanding synergistic sterilizing effect and excellent biocompatibility, the VAT hydrogel would be a promising candidate for bacteria-associated wound infections.

Facile and eco-friendly fabrication of polysaccharides-based nanocomposite hydrogel for photothermal treatment of wound infection.

Nowadays, photothermal killing of pathogenic bacteria and treatment of wound infection have attracted great attention owing to effectively avoiding the drawbacks of traditional antibiotics. In this work, an agarose (AG)-based hydrogel containing tannic acid-Fe(III) (TA-Fe) nanoparticles was fabricated by a facile and eco-friendly strategy. The optimal nanocomposite hydrogel showed the good mechanical property and superior processability. More importantly, the nanocomposite hydrogel revealed outstanding photothermal effect, which exhibited a sharp temperature increase of 58 °C during NIR exposure for 10 min. With in vitro antibacterial experiment, the hydrogel could effectively kill of nearly 99 % of bacteria with 10 min of NIR irradiation. Additionally, for the in vivo experiment, the nanocomposite hydrogel could effectively cure wound infection and promote wound healing. Moreover, the hydrogel possessed high biocompatibility. Based on the good mechanical property, outstanding photothermal effect and high biocompatibility, the nanocomposite hydrogel could become a promising antibacterial wound dressings for biomedical applications.