This work presents the establishment of novel bright-emission small-molecule NIR-II fluorophores for in vivo tumor imaging and NIR-II image-guided sentinel lymph node surgery.

Hollow Au−Cu 2 O core−shell nanoparticles were synthesized by using hollow gold nanoparticles (HGNs) as the plasmon-tailorable cores to direct epitaxial growth of Cu 2 O nanoshells. The effective geometry control of hollow Au−Cu 2 O core−shell nanoparticles was achieved through adjusting the HGN core sizes, Cu 2 O shell thicknesses, and morphologies related to structure-directing agents. The morphology-dependent plasmonic band red-shifts across the visible and near-infrared spectral regions were observed from experimental extinction spectra and theoretical simulation based on the finite-difference time-domain method. Moreover, the hollow Au−Cu 2 O core−shell nanoparticles with synergistic optical properties exhibited higher photocatalytic performance in the photodegradation of methyl orange when compared to pristine Cu 2 O and solid Au−Cu 2 O core−shell nanoparticles under visible-light irradiation due to the efficient photoinduced charge separation, which could mainly be attributed to the Schottky barrier and plasmon-induced resonant energy transfer. Such optical tunability achieved through the hollow cores and structure-directed shells is of benefit to the performance optimization of metal−semiconductor nanoparticles for photonic, electronic, and photocatalytic applications.

Three-dimensional oxygen-incorporated MoS 2 ultrathin nanosheets decorated on reduced graphene oxide (OMoS 2 /rGO) had been successfully fabricated through a facile solvent-assisted hydrothermal method. The origin of the incorporated oxygen and its incorporation mechanism into MoS 2 were carefully investigated. We found that the solvent N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) was the key as the reducing agent and the oxygen donor, expanding interlayer spaces and improving intrinsic conductivity of MoS 2 sheets (modulating its electronic structure and vertical edge sites). These O dopants, vertically aligned edges and decoration with rGO gave effectively improved double-layer capacitance and catalytic performance for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) of MoS 2 . The prepared O-MoS 2 /rGO catalysts showed an exceptional small Tafel slope of 40 mV/decade, a high current density of 20 mA/cm 2 at the overpotential of 200 mV and remarkable stability even after 2000th continuous HER test in the acid media.

Highly adherent wettability patterns on the substrate-independent superhydrophobic surfaces of trimethoxyoctadecylsilane modified titanium dioxide (TiO)-based coatings were prepared by using commercial photolithography. Three custom unidirectional channels with gradient wettability patterns were obtained by spatially selective wettability conversion from superhydrophobic to superhydrophilic when the coatings were exposed to ultraviolet light (∼365 nm). The movement behavior of droplets on these unidirectional channels was studied and the displacement of droplet movement was effectively controlled. Integrating the idea of gradient wettability patterns into planar microfluidic devices (microreactors), a self-driven fluid transport was achieved to realize droplet metering, merging or reaction, and rapid transport. This self-driven fluid transport with gradient wettability patterns has great potential in fabricating a new category of pump-free microfluidic systems that can be used in various conditions.