Nanocellulose/montmorillonite (MTM) composite films were prepared from 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl radical (TEMPO)-oxidized cellulose nanofibrils (TOCNs) with an aspect ratio of >200 dispersed in water with MTM nanoplatelets. The composite films were transparent and flexible and showed ultrahigh mechanical and oxygen barrier properties through the nanolayered structures, which were formed by compositing the anionic MTM nanoplatelet filler in anionic and highly crystalline TOCN matrix. A composite film with 5% MTM content had Young's modulus 18 GPa, tensile strength 509 MPa, work of fracture of 25.6 MJ m(-3), and oxygen permeability 0.006 mL μm m(-2) day(-1) kPa(-1) at 0% relative humidity, respectively, despite having a low density of 1.99 g cm(-3). As the MTM content in the TOCN/MTM composites was increased to 50%, light transmittance, tensile strength, and elongation at break decreased, while Young's modulus was almost unchanged and oxygen barrier property was further improved to 0.0008 mL μm m(-2) day(-1) kPa(-1).

Reconfigurability of photonic integrated circuits (PICs) has become increasingly important due to the growing demands for electronic–photonic systems on a chip driven by emerging applications, including neuromorphic computing, quantum information, and microwave photonics. Success in these fields usually requires highly scalable photonic switching units as essential building blocks. Current photonic switches, however, mainly rely on materials with weak, volatile thermo‐optic or electro‐optic modulation effects, resulting in large footprints and high energy consumption. As a promising alternative, chalcogenide phase‐change materials (PCMs) exhibit strong optical modulation in a static, self‐holding fashion, but the scalability of present PCM‐integrated photonic applications is still limited by the poor optical or electrical actuation approaches. Here, with phase transitions actuated by in situ silicon PIN diode heaters, scalable nonvolatile electrically reconfigurable photonic switches using PCM‐clad silicon waveguides and microring resonators are demonstrated. As a result, intrinsically compact and energy‐efficient switching units operated with low driving voltages, near‐zero additional loss, and reversible switching with high endurance are obtained in a complementary metal‐oxide‐semiconductor (CMOS)‐compatible process. This work can potentially enable very large‐scale CMOS‐integrated programmable electronic–photonic systems such as optical neural networks and general‐purpose integrated photonic processors.

A potent SARS coronavirus (CoV) 3CL protease inhibitor (TG-0205221, K i ) 53 nM) has been developed. TG-0205221 showed remarkable activity against SARS CoV and human coronavirus (HCoV) 229E replications by reducing the viral titer by 4.7 log (at 5 µM) for SARS CoV and 5.2 log (at 1.25 µM) for HCoV 229E. The crystal structure of TG-0205221 (resolution ) 1.93 Å) has revealed a unique binding mode comprising a covalent bond, hydrogen bonds, and numerous hydrophobic interactions. Structural comparisons between TG-0205221 and a natural peptide substrate were also discussed. This information may be applied toward the design of other 3CL protease inhibitors.