Molecularly engineered CMC-caged PNIPAM for broadband light management in energy-saving window.

Dynamic transparent-opaque transition behavior endows the stimuli-chromic materials with the solar modulation capability. However, these materials commonly involve the high manufacturing cost and complexity, the additional consumption of electric energy for solar modulation, or the weak effectiveness of light management. Herein, we develop a low-cost yet broadband light management sodium carboxymethyl cellulose-caging-poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) thermochromic composite (i.e., CMC/PNIPAM), where the nanoscale-skeleton CMC molecules well cage the PNIPAM molecules, which enables the homogeneous dispersion and sufficient distribution of the PNIPAM nanogels in the system. The CMC/PNIPAM features the excellent solar-modulation capability (including optical transmittance modulation of 68.17% and infrared transmittance modulation of 48.50%) and a low phase temperature of 30 °C, as well as the long-term stability of dynamic transparent-opaque transition. Such merits of the broadband light management, low cost, simply fabrication as well as scaling up, make the CMC/PNIPAM function as a promising candidate for the energy-saving buildings and construction.

A scalable fish-school inspired self-assembled particle system for solar-powered water-solute separation.

Complete separation of water and solute is the ultimate goal of water treatment, for maximized resource recycling. However, commercialized approaches such as evaporative crystallizers consume a large amount of electricity with a significant carbon footprint, leading to calls for alternative energy-efficient and eco-friendly strategies. Here, inspired by schooling fish, we demonstrate a collective system self-assembled by expanded polystyrene (EPS)-core/graphene oxide (GO)-shell particles, which enables autonomous, efficient and complete water-solute separation powered by sunlight. By taking advantage of surface tension, these tailored particles school together naturally and are bonded as a system to function collectively and coordinatively, to nucleate, grow and output salt crystals continuously and automatically out of even saturated brine, to complete water-solute separation. Solar-vapor conversion efficiency over 90% and salt production rate as high as 0.39 kg m-2 h-1 are achieved under 1-sun illumination for this system. It reduces the carbon footprint of ∼50 kg for treating 1-ton saturated brine compared with the commercialized approaches.

Scalable and hierarchically designed polymer film as a selective thermal emitter for high-performance all-day radiative cooling.

Traditional cooling systems consume tremendous amounts of energy and thus aggravate the greenhouse effect1,2. Passive radiative cooling, dissipating an object's heat through an atmospheric transparency window (8-13 µm) to outer space without any energy consumption, has attracted much attention3-9. The unique feature of radiative cooling lies in the high emissivity in the atmospheric transparency window through which heat can be dissipated to the universe. Therefore, for achieving high cooling performance, the design and fabrication of selective emitters, with emission strongly dominant in the transparency window, is of essential importance, as such spectral selection suppresses parasitic absorption from the surrounding thermal radiation. Recently, various materials and structures with tailored spectrum responses have been investigated to achieve the effect of daytime radiative cooling6-8,10-15. However, most of the radiative cooling materials reported possess broad-band absorption/emission covering the whole mid-infrared wavelength11-15. Here we demonstrate that a hierarchically designed polymer nanofibre-based film, produced by a scalable electrostatic spinning process, enables selective mid-infrared emission, effective sunlight reflection and therefore excellent all-day radiative cooling performance. Specifically, the C-O-C (1,260-1,110 cm-1) and C-OH (1,239-1,030 cm-1) bonding endows the selective emissivity of 78% in 8-13 µm wavelength range, and the design of nanofibres with a controlled diameter allows for a high reflectivity of 96.3% in 0.3-2.5 µm wavelength range. As a result, we observe ~3 °C cooling improvement of this selective thermal emitter as compared to that of a non-selective emitter at night, and 5 °C sub-ambient cooling under sunlight. The impact of this hierarchically designed selective thermal emitter on alleviating global warming and temperature regulating an Earth-like planet is also analysed, with a significant advantage demonstrated. With its excellent cooling performance and a scalable process, this hierarchically designed selective thermal emitter opens a new pathway towards large-scale applications of all-day radiative cooling materials.

Application of Machine Learning Techniques in Drug-target Interactions Prediction.

BACKGROUND: Drug-Target interactions are vital for drug design and drug repositioning. However, traditional lab experiments are both expensive and time-consuming. Various computational methods which applied machine learning techniques performed efficiently and effectively in the field. RESULTS: The machine learning methods can be divided into three categories basically: Supervised methods, Semi-Supervised methods and Unsupervised methods. We reviewed recent representative methods applying machine learning techniques of each category in DTIs and summarized a brief list of databases frequently used in drug discovery. In addition, we compared the advantages and limitations of these methods in each category. CONCLUSION: Every prediction model has both strengths and weaknesses and should be adopted in proper ways. Three major problems in DTIs prediction including the lack of nonreactive drug-target pairs data sets, over optimistic results due to the biases and the exploiting of regression models on DTIs prediction should be seriously considered.

An Interfacial Solar-Driven Atmospheric Water Generator Based on a Liquid Sorbent with Simultaneous Adsorption-Desorption.

Water scarcity is one of the greatest challenges facing human society. Because of the abundant amount of water present in the atmosphere, there are significant efforts to harvest water from air. Particularly, solar-driven atmospheric water generators based on sequential adsorption-desorption processes are attracting much attention. However, incomplete daytime desorption is the limiting factor for final water production, as the rate of water desorption typically decreases very quickly with decreased water content in the sorbents. Hereby combining tailored interfacial solar absorbers with an ionic-liquid-based sorbent, an atmospheric water generator with a simultaneous adsorption-desorption process is generated. With enhanced desorption capability and stabilized water content in the sorbent, this interfacial solar-driven atmospheric water generator enables a high rate of water production (≈0.5 L m-2 h-1 ) and 2.8 L m-2 d-1 for the outdoor environment. It is expected that this interfacial solar-driven atmospheric water generator, based on the liquid sorbent with a simultaneous adsorption-desorption process opens up a promising pathway to effectively harvest water from air.