Lead-Free Halide Perovskite Nanocrystals: Crystal Structures, Synthesis, Stabilities, and Optical Properties.

In recent years, there have been rapid advances in the synthesis of lead halide perovskite nanocrystals (NCs) for use in solar cells, light emitting diodes, lasers, and photodetectors. These compounds have a set of intriguing optical, excitonic, and charge transport properties, including outstanding photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) and tunable optical band gap. However, the necessary inclusion of lead, a toxic element, raises a critical concern for future commercial development. To address the toxicity issue, intense recent research effort has been devoted to developing lead-free halide perovskite (LFHP) NCs. In this Review, we present a comprehensive overview of currently explored LFHP NCs with an emphasis on their crystal structures, synthesis, optical properties, and environmental stabilities (e.g., UV, heat, and moisture resistance). In addition, strategies for enhancing optical properties and stabilities of LFHP NCs as well as the state-of-the-art applications are discussed. With the perspective of their properties and current challenges, we provide an outlook for future directions in this rapidly evolving field to achieve high-quality LFHP NCs for a broader range of fundamental research and practical applications.

Casein-based hydrogels: Advances and prospects.

Casein-based hydrogels (Casein Gels) possess advantageous properties, including mechanical strength, stability, biocompatibility, and even adhesion, conductivity, sensing capabilities, as well as controlled-releasing behavior of drugs. These features are attributed to their gelation methods and functionalization with various polymers. Casein Gels is an important protein-based material in the food industry, in terms of dairy and functional foods, biological and medicine, in terms of carrier for bioactive and sensitive drugs, wound healing, and flexible sensors and wearable devices. Herein, this review aims to highlight the importance of the features mentioned above via a comprehensive investigation of Casein Gels through multiple directions and dimensional applications. Firstly, the composition, structure, and properties of casein, along with the gelation methods employed to create Casein Gels are elaborated, which serves as a foundation for further exploration. Then, the application progresses of Casein Gels in dairy products, functional foods, medicine, flexible sensors and wearable devices, are thoroughly discussed to provide insights into the diverse fields where Casein Gels have shown promise and utility. Lastly, the existing challenges and future research trends are highlighted from an interdisciplinary perspective. We present the latest research advances of Casein Gels and provide references for the development of multifunctional biomass-based hydrogels.

Scalable and Multifunctional Polyurethane/MXene/Carbon Nanotube-Based Fabric Sensor toward Baby Healthcare.

Continuous monitoring of physiological health status and effective protection against external hazards is an indispensable aspect of healthcare management for critically vulnerable populations, particularly for infants or babies. So, the exploration of all-in-one devices remains critical to avoiding their injury and illness. The integration of multiple properties such as sensing, electromagnetic protection, warming/cooling, and water/bacterial repellence into a common fabric is no doubt a promising solution to coping with diverse application scenarios. However, achieving simultaneous integration in an effective and durable fashion faces huge challenges. Herein, multifunctional fabric was achieved by sequentially coating MXene, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and self-healing polyurethane (PU) onto cotton fabric. The outstanding conductivity of MXene and CNTs as well as the self-healing ability of PU synergistically enable a flexible, breathable, protective, and sensing fabric with a good durability. It could detect the body motions like bending of the finger, elbow, wrist, and knee, with a high gauge factor of 8.78 and fast response. Moreover, this sensing fabric could protect the wearers against electromagnetic waves and bacteria, delivering a minimum reflection loss of -57.6 dB at 7.6 GHz and high bacterial inhibition efficiency due to the incorporation of MXene and polyethylenimine. Besides, the electrothermal performance of carbonaceous materials enables them to act as a heater for body warmth. The synergistic design of this multifunctional textile offers a promising strategy for producing advanced smart textiles, holding great promise in infant or baby healthcare.

"Casein micelle -nanoparticle double cross-linking" triggered stable adhesive, tough CA/MWCNT/PAAm hydrogel wearable strain sensors, for human motion monitoring.

Flexible hydrogels have emerged as highly-desirable materials for wearable strain sensors. However, pristine biomass hydrogel systems are limited by their lack of stretchability, self-adhesion, and sensitivity. Here, a novel CA/MWCNT/PAAm double-network conductive hydrogel was developed through integrating casein (CA) micelles and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) into the polyacrylamide (PAAm) network. The resulting hydrogel displayed desired properties such as adhesiveness, toughness, self-healing, and near-infrared photothermal response. In this hybrid system, MWCNT were uniformly dispersed in the presence of casein micelles through hydrogen bonding and electrostatic interactions, favoring its role of nano reinforcement. Moreover, based on the "casein micelle-nanoparticle double cross-linking" mechanism and its double network structure, the prepared hydrogel showed high extensibility (2288 % ± 63 %), fast responsiveness (273 ± 5.13 ms), high sensitivity (GF = 12.46 ± 0.35), and a wide strain range (1-1000 %). Through consistent and repeated electrical inputs, this hydrogel was able to detect including large and small human movements, such as hand, leg, and swallowing motions. The results from this study provide a new way to fabricate bio-based hydrogel sensors with excellent mechanical and electrical properties.

3-D flower-like templated LDH-rGO as coating additive for flame retardant products.

Construction of multi-component heterostructures as a flame retardant reinforcer within a polymer is a favorable option to realize the synergistic effects between different types of reinforcers. However, it is difficult to improve polymer flame retardance as the poor compatibility of retardants with polymer matrix can lead to low dispersion. Herein, 3-D flower-like templated layered double hydroxides (LDH) and graphene (rGO) were prepared on the surface of a caprolactam-modified casein micelle template for integration with casein latex based on a blending-casting method. Temp@LDH-rGO hardly affected the stability of the casein-based latex, as its casein-based composite latex was used as a leather surface coating. The limiting oxygen index of finished leather increased up to 27.4% when casein-based 4% Temp@LDH-rGO composite latex was applied for leather finishing. In contrast, its heat release rate and smoke production rate were lowered to 55.686 kW/m2 and 2.239 m-2 s-1, respectively. According to the combustion analysis, the leather samples finished by casein-based Temp@LDH-rGO latex exhibited significant improvement in flame retardant and smoke suppression performance. The casein-based Temp@LDH-rGO composite latex has thus been demonstrated as a highly effective option for functional coatings in diverse fields (e.g., automobile interior decoration, furniture manufacturing, and firefighting equipment).

Breathability and Moisture Permeability of Cellulose Nanocrystals Hollow Microsphere Coatings for PET Fabrics.

In this study, cellulose nanocrystals hollow microspheres (HMs) were fabricated through Pickering emulsion polymerization, in which hydrophobically modified cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) acted as Pickering stabilizers. The hollow interior core was prepared by solvent evaporation. This manuscript describes the synthesis of HMs in detail. The hollow structure and nanoscale size of HMs were verified using TEM. The resultant HMs could easily coat self-forming films on the surface of PET fabrics. Additionally, these coatings exhibited superior breathability and moisture permeability properties with a high one-way transport index of 936.33% and a desirable overall moisture management capability of 0.72. Cellulose nanocrystal hollow microsphere coatings could be used as a moisture-wicking functionality agent for finishing fabrics, oil-water separation, and fog harvesting.

Pt nanoenzyme decorated yolk-shell nanoplatform as an oxygen generator for enhanced multi-modality imaging-guided phototherapy.

The unsatisfactory efficacy of conventional theranostic agents in ablating tumor poses urgent demands on the development of high-performance integrated theranostic agents utilizing rising nanotechnology. To cope with the existing limitations, here we presented an intelligent nanoplatform based on yolk-shell Fe3O4@polydopamine prepared by mussel-inspired polydopamine chemistry and sacrificial template method as well as subsequent incorporation of Pt nanoparticles and chlorine 6 (Ce6) by in situ reduction and electrostatic adsorption for photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photothermal (PTT). The resultant nanoplatform could effectively deliver photosensitizer Ce6 to tumor sites, then promoting the decomposition of endogenous H2O2 to oxygen, finally achieving enhanced PDT therapy, which is demonstrated by in vitro and in vivo evaluations. Importantly, the generated oxygen bubbles could improve the echogenicity signal of yolk-shell microspheres and thereby provide enhanced ultrasonic (US) signal for imaging solid tumors. Overall, the synergistic combination of magnetic Fe3O4, green polydopamine, catalytic Pt nanoparticles, photosensitive Ce6 enabled the hybrid nanoplatform to have good biocompatibility, efficient tumor accumulation, excellent phototherapy efficiency, high T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and fluorescence imaging ability (FL). Our study integrating the merits of PDT/PTT and US/MRI/FL into a single nanoplatform will open an avenue of therapeutic strategy toward biomedical applications.

Versatile Nanoplatforms with enhanced Photodynamic Therapy: Designs and Applications.

As an emerging antitumor strategy, photodynamic therapy (PDT) has attracted intensive attention for the treatment of various malignant tumors owing to its noninvasive nature and high spatial selectivity in recent years. However, the therapeutic effect is unsatisfactory on some occasions due to the presence of some unfavorable factors including nonspecific accumulation of PS towards malignant tissues, the lack of endogenous oxygen in tumors, as well as the limited light penetration depth, further hampering practical application. To circumvent these limitations and improve real utilization efficiency, various enhanced strategies have been developed and explored during the past years. In this review, we give an overview of the state-of-the-art advances progress on versatile nanoplatforms for enhanced PDT considering the enhancement from targeting or responsive, chemical and physical effect. Specifically, these effects mainly include organelle-targeting function, tumor microenvironment responsive release photosensitizers (PS), self-sufficient O2 (affinity oxygen and generating oxygen), photocatalytic water splitting, X-rays light stimulate, surface plasmon resonance enhancement, and the improvement by resonance energy transfer. When utilizing these strategies to improve the therapeutic effect, the advantages and limitations are addressed. Finally, the challenges and prospective will be discussed and demonstrated for the future development of advanced PDT with enhanced efficacy.

Polyelectrolyte complex from cationized casein and sodium alginate for fragrance controlled release.

CA/NaAlg polyelectrolyte complex (PEC) novelly obtained from cationized casein (CA) and sodium alginate (NaAlg) via electrostatic interactions was designed for fragrance (vanillin) controlled release. Structural variation between pristine CA/NaAlg PEC and vanillin-loaded CA/NaAlg PEC were investigated by ultraviolet (UV), fourier transform infrared (FI-TR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Pristine CA/NaAlg PEC and vanillin-loaded CA/NaAlg PEC were demonstrated spherical in shape by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) showed that PEC's encapsulating could enhance the stability of vanillin whilst the vanillin encapsulation efficiency was 41.39% and the vanillin loading efficiency was 19.83%. The data also proved sustained release of vanillin in vitro. This work offers a feasible pathway of fabricating microcapsules for controlled releasing system, which have a great potential use in several fields, such as food packaging, cosmetics and textile.

Hollow Casein-Based Polymeric Nanospheres for Opaque Coatings.

Casein-based hollow polymeric sphere were fabricated through emulsifier-free polymerization coupled with alkali swelling approach. Hollow structure and nanoscale size of casein-based polymeric spheres were verified by TEM, AFM, SEM, and UV-vis spectra. The as-obtained hollow spheres were proved exhibiting superior opaque characteristic. Through adjusting the structural parameters, for example, MAA usages and MAA content in seed to core, sphere film showed tunable visible-light transmittance and antiultraviolet property. The formation mechanism of casein-based hollow sphere has been discussed in depth. Worth mentioning, the resultant hollow polymeric sphere can easily form films itself at room temperature, which would open a new possibility of designing opaque coatings in several fields, such as leather, packaging, paper making, biomedical, and special indoor coating applications.

Animal-derived natural products review: focus on novel modifications and applications.

Bio-based natural products have attracted exploding interests, while the environmental pollutions caused by the synthetic polymers are deteriorating dramatically. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of the modification of animal-derived natural products with an emphasis on casein, chitosan and collagen. Furthermore, their novel applications in controlled drug delivery system, leather finishing, and pollutant adsorption are also demonstrated. Accordingly, some perspectives in the future development of animal-derived natural products are further proposed.

Synthesis and biological response of casein-based silica nano-composite film for drug delivery system.

Casein possesses many interesting properties that make it a good candidate for conventional and novel drug delivery systems. In this study, casein-based silica nano-composite was prepared via double in situ method, and the as-prepared latex particles were evaluated in terms of their morphology and size through transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The film morphology was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), and the mechanical property and response behavior of the films as a function of silica content were discussed. Ibuprofen was used as the model drug. The drug load and release properties were studied by solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (solid-state NMR), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), SEM and in vitro test. The composite latex particle showed a stable core-shell structure, and the film exhibited a regular surface with even SiO2 distribution. The drug load efficiency of the composite films increased with adding silica because of the adsorption of the drugs on the silica. In an acidic release medium, the ibuprofen-loaded composite showed a slower drug release dependent on the silica content. These behaviors were most likely due to the reduced diffusion rate of the drug through the composite microsphere, which resulted from the interaction between the silica and the drug.