The room‐temperature sodium–sulfur (RT‐Na/S) battery is one of the most promising technologies for low‐cost energy storage. However, application of RT‐Na/S batteries is currently impeded by severe shuttle effects and volume expansion that limits both energy density and cycling stability. Herein, first, the first‐principal calculation is used to find that the introduction of sulfur vacancies in MoS2 can effectively enhance polysulfide adsorption and catalytic ability as well as both the ion and electron conductivities. Then, unique MoS2−x/C composite spheres are further designed and synthesized with flower‐like few‐layer and interlayer‐enlarged MoS2−x nanosheets space‐confined in hollow carbon nanospheres by a “ship‐in‐a‐bottle” strategy. With this novel design, the mass loading of S in the MoS2−x/C composite can be reached to as high as 75 wt%. Owing to the synergetic effect of interlayer‐expanded and few‐layer MoS2−x nanosheets and hollow carbon spheres matrix with high electronic/Na+ conductivity, the RT‐Na/S batteries deliver highly stable cycle durability (capacity retention of 85.2% after 100 cycles at 0.1 A g−1) and remarkable rate capability (415.7 mAh g−1 at 2 A g−1) along with high energy density. This design strategy of defect‐ and interlayer‐engineering may find wide applications in synthesizing electrode materials for high‐performance RT‐Na/S batteries.

BackgroundDiabetes can lead to serious microvascular complications such as proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR), which results in severe vision loss. The diabetes-induced alterations in the vitreous protein composition in diabetic patients with PDR may be responsible for the presence of PDR. The vitreous humour can be utilised in a variety of studies aimed toward the discovery of new targets for the treatment or prevention of PDR and the identification of novel disease mechanisms. The aim of this study was to compare the protein profile of vitreous humour from diabetic patients with PDR with that of vitreous humour from normal human eyes donated for corneal transplant.ResultsVitreous humour from type 2 diabetic patients with PDR (n = 10) and from normal human eyes donated for corneal transplant (n = 10) were studied. The comparative proteomic analysis was performed using two-dimensional fluorescence difference gel electrophoresis (2-D DIGE). Differentially produced proteins (abundance ratio > 2 or < -2, p < 0.01) were identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) and MALDI-TOF tandem mass spectrometry. A total of 1242 protein spots were detected on the 2-D master gel of the samples, and 57 spots that exhibited statistically significant variations were successfully identified. The spots corresponded to peptide fragments of 29 proteins, including 8 proteins that increased and 21 proteins that decreased in PDR. Excluding the serum proteins from minor vitreous haemorrhage, 19 proteins were found to be differentially produced in PDR patients compared with normal subjects; 6 of these proteins have never been reported to be differentially expressed in PDR vitreous: N(G),N(G)-dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase 1 (DDAH 1), tubulin alpha-1B chain, gamma-enolase, cytosolic acyl coenzyme A thioester hydrolase, malate dehydrogenase and phosphatidylethanolamine-binding protein 1 (PEBP 1). The differential production of pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) and clusterin was confirmed by Western blot analysis.ConclusionsThese data provide an in-depth analysis of the human vitreous proteome and reveal protein alterations that are possibly involved in the pathogenesis of PDR. Further investigation of these special proteins may provide potential new targets for the treatment or the prevention of PDR.

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Potassium-ion batteries (PIBs) have been considered as potential alternatives for lithium-ion batteries since there is a demand for better anode with superior energy, excellent rate capability, and long cyclability. The high-capacity zinc selenide (ZnSe) anode, which combines the merits of conversion and alloying reactions, is promising for PIBs but suffers from poor cyclability and low electronic conductivity. To effectively boost electrochemical performance of ZnSe, a "dual-carbon-confined" structure is constructed, in which an inner N-doped microporous carbon (NMC)-coated ZnSe wrapped by outer-rGO (ZnSe@i-NMC@o-rGO) is synthesized. Combining finite element simulation, dynamic analysis, and density functional theory calculations, the respective roles of inner-and outer-carbon in boosting performance are revealed. The inner-NMC increased the reactivity of ZnSe with K + and alleviated the volume expansion of ZnSe, while outer-rGO further stabilized the structure and promoted the reaction kinetics. Benefiting from the synergistic effect of dual-carbon, ZnSe@i-NMC@o-rGO exhibited a high specific capacity 233.4 mAh g −1 after 1500 cycles at 2.0 A g −1 . Coupled with activated carbon, a potassium-ion hybrid capacitor displayed a high energy density of 176.6 Wh kg −1 at 1800 W kg −1 and a superior capacity retention of 82.51% at 2.0 A g −1 after 11000 cycles.

The high interfacial resistance and lithium (Li) dendrite growth are two major challenges for solid-state Li batteries (SSLBs). The lack of understanding on the correlations between electronic conductivity and Li dendrite formation limits the success of SSLBs. Here, by diluting the electronic conductor from the interphase to bulk Li during annealing of the aluminium nitride (AlN) interlayer, we changed the interphase from mixed ionic/electronic conductive to solely ionic conductive, and from lithiophilic to lithiophobic to fundamentally understand the correlation among electronic conductivity, Li dendrite, and interfacial resistance. During the conversion-alloy reaction between AlN and Li, the lithiophilic and electronic conductive Li x Al diffused into Li, forming a compact lithiophobic and ionic conductive Li 3 N, which achieved an ultrahigh critical current density of 2.6/14.0 mA/cm 2 in the time/capacity-constant mode, respectively. The fundamental understanding on the effect of interphase nature on interfacial resistance and Li dendrite suppression will provide guidelines for designing high-performance SSLBs.