Functional nanomaterials show great promise in next-generation targeted non-genetic neuromodulation and on-demand neurotransmitter release with superior spatiotemporal accuracy. L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia (LID) is a common complication during the treatment process of Parkinson's disease. Dysfunction in the dynamics of dopamine release plays a pivotal role in the disease. A strategy for LID treatment by using ultrasound-responsive functional nanomaterials for controlled release of nitric oxide is proposed, which can activate the nitric oxide (NO)-soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC)-cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) signaling pathway. This alleviates the abnormal synaptic plasticity caused by excessive and pulsatile dopamine, and diminishes hypersensitivity of the D-1 dopamine receptors, thereby reducing the behavioral disorders associated with LID. These findings offer a novel perspective for therapy of neurodegenerative diseases.

The rapid growth of micro-devices demands power supplies with remote self-powering, high energy density, and high power capability, thereby driving continuous advancements in energy harvesting technology. Here, a novel photo-pyroelectric energy harvester based on poly(vinylidene difluoride-trifluoroethylene) P(VDF-TrFE) ferroelectric polymer is presented, addressing the limitations of conventional pyroelectric energy harvesting technologies, particularly their low energy and power densities. The unique photothermal effect of nanostructured Au electrode on the polymer generates rapid temperature oscillations of the polymer under visible light, enabling efficient pyroelectric energy harvesting. The harvester achieves a highest energy density of 4.75 J cm-3 and a highest power density of 1711.9W cm-3, surpassing existing pyroelectric energy harvesters. Furthermore, functioning as dielectric capacitors, the Au metallized polymer films exhibit a photo-capacitance effect as high as 281%, allowing for greatly enhanced energy storage and power conditioning capabilities via light irradiation. In addition, the successful combination of pyroelectric energy harvesting and electrostatic energy storage, which are often considered to be incompatible in term of energy generating mechanism and energy release speed, in one material offers a promising strategy for developing compact energy supply and power conditioning devices for various applications. © 2025 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.

In patients with retinal degenerative diseases, vision restoration is feasible through implanted artificial retinal prostheses to stimulate surviving neurons. Photoelectric composites based on ferroelectric polymers have been attempted to construct retinal prostheses. However, these materials normally have a low photoelectric response and a narrow response wavelength range. Here, we synthesize conjugated poly-Schiff base nanoparticles with ultra-small size, and the nanocomposites of the nanoparticles and poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE)) ferroelectric polymer generate a high photoelectric response (maximum peak-to-peak voltage > 90 V) under visible and near-infrared light. This flexible all-organic nanocomposite has good biocompatibility and can establish effective signal transduction with neuron cells. We explored the use of composites to construct ferroelectric retinal prostheses. Electrophysiological tests and animal behavior analysis have preliminary shown that implanted retinal prostheses can restore the visible light sensitivity of blind rats and further endow them with the ability to perceive infrared light, demonstrating their potential application in bioelectronics. This work presents a novel all-organic ferroelectric polymer composite with flexibility, biocompatibility, and excellent photoelectric response that can be used for artificial retinal prostheses. The nanocomposite composed of ultra-small conjugated nanoparticles and ferroelectric P(VDF-TrFE) exhibits excellent photo-pyroelectric response under visible and infrared light, with a peak-to-peak voltage exceeding 90 V. The ultra-thin retinal prostheses (∼ 20 µm) constructed from this nanocomposite can directly stimulate nerve cells, effectively restore the visual function of blind rats, and endow them with infrared light sensitivity. © 2024 Elsevier Ltd

Materials that can realize photo-electric conversion have received continuous attention. Composite materials constructed from ferroelectric polymers and photoresponsive materials have been demonstrated to generate substantial photo-electric responses and have several important applications, such as sensors and artificial retinal prostheses. However, currently, the photo-electric response of such materials is relatively low. Here, we developed flexible photo-electric conversion composites consisting of Schiff base molecular crystals with photoresponsive and ferroelectric polymers. We investigated the structure-property relationships of the composites and obtained composite materials with strong photo-electric responses over the whole visible light range. The maximum peak-to-peak open-circuit voltage exceeds 80 V, which is significantly superior to that of other photo-electric conversion materials based on ferroelectric polymers. We further demonstrated that the excellent photo-electric response of these composites is mainly due to the coupling of the photothermal effect of Schiff base molecular crystals and the pyroelectric effect of ferroelectric polymers. We have shown that the high photo-pyroelectric response of composite materials can be used to drive electronic devices that require relatively high operating voltages, including liquid crystal displays and electrochromic display devices, indicating their potential applications in energy harvesting and flexible electronics.We achieve strong photo-pyroelectric response under visible light in P(VDF-TrFE) ferroelectric polymer by combining photoresponsive Schiff-base crystals with the polymer.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease with dopaminergic neurons loss, which induces dopamine reduction and body motion disorder. Traditional deep brain stimulation (DBS), which involves the implanting metal electrodes into the subcortical nucleus of the brain, has a huge risk of invasive surgery and low resolution. Here we present that pomegranate-like piezoelectric nanogenerators are able to efficiently transduce ultrasonic wave into electric power generation under ultrasound stimulation, which modulates intracellular calcium signaling and tyrosine hydroxylase levels to activate the neuron activity and process of deep-brain tissue in vitro and in vivo. Strikingly, after one-week nanogenerator-mediated neuromodulation, the damaged dopaminergic neurons in PD-zebrafish and mice were reversed with a decrease in alpha-synuclein aggregates and an increase in tyrosine hydroxylase for neuronal recovery of PD. The behaviors of PD mice model also have a significant improvement, compared with untreated group. This approach provides a minimally invasive and high precision neurotechnology protect against neuronal death and loss of synapse in PD and other neurodegenerative diseases.

Soft biological tissues perform various functions. Sensory nerves bring sensations of light, voice, touch, pain, or temperature variation to the central nervous system. Animal senses have inspired tremendous sensors for biomedical applications. Following the same principle as photosensitive nerves, we design flexible ionic hydrogels to achieve a biologic photosensor. The photosensor allows responding to near-infrared light, which is converted into a sensory electric signal that can communicate with nerve cells. Furthermore, with adjustable thermal and/or electrical signal outputs, it provides abundant tools for biological regulation. The tunable photosensitive performances, high flexibility, and low cost endow the photosensor with widespread applications ranging from neural prosthetics to human-machine interfacing systems.

Immunotherapy has offered new opportunities to treat head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC); however, its clinical applications are hindered by modest therapeutic outcomes and the "always-on" pharmacological activity of immunomodulatory agents. Strategies for precise spatiotemporal activation of antitumor immunity can tackle these issues but remain challenging. Herein, a semiconducting polymeric nanoagonist (SPNM) with in situ sono-activatable immunotherapeutic effects for precision sono-immunotherapy of HNSCC is reported. SPNM is self-assembled from a sonodynamic semiconducting polymer core conjugated with a stimulator of interferon genes (STING) agonist (MSA-2) via a singlet oxygen cleavable linker. Under sono-irradiation, SPNM produces singlet oxygen not only to eradicate tumor cells to trigger immunogenic cell death but also to unleash caged STING agonists via the cleavage of diphenoxyethene bonds for in situ activation of the STING pathway in the tumor region. Such sono-driven STING activation mediated by SPNM promotes effector T cell infiltration and potentiates systemic antitumor immunity, eventually leading to tumor growth inhibition and long-term immunological memory. This study thus presents a promising strategy for the precise spatiotemporal activation of cancer immunotherapy. © 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.

In two composition ranges of nanocomposites, anomalous enhancement of the dielectric property of polyetherimide (PEI, dielectric constant ~ 3.2) by adding Al2O3 nanoparticles (dielectric constant ~ 9–10), which have dielectric properties comparable to PEI, was found. At a low filling ratio (2O3; in composites containing 20 vol% Al2O3, the dielectric constant can reach 8.5, which is more than twice that of the pristine polymer. The dielectric loss of the composites studied remains low (2O3 nanoparticles are replaced with MgO nanoparticles, the behavior persists, indicating that it is a general phenomenon in PEI nanocomposites. The experimental findings suggest that the improved dielectric properties observed in nanocomposites with high nanoparticle loading can be attributed to increased free volume. The unexpected expansion of the nanocomposite volume shows that adding nanoparticles may introduce more free volume into the polymer, boosting the activity of polar functional groups in the polymer and resulting in a more robust dielectric response. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

In recent years, neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's or Alzheimer's diseases, are rapidly rising in prevalence. The main hallmark of Parkinson's disease is the falling levels of neurotransmitter dopamine in the mid-brain with dopaminergic neurons losing. Typical therapeutic solutions, including drugs, deep brain stimulation, and cell transplantation, can only alleviate the symptoms of Parkinson's disease. It is a tremendous challenge to reverse the function degeneration of the crucial dopaminergic neurons. Herein, we develop a core-satellite-like nanoassembly (PDA-AFn (by integrating polydopamine nanoparticles and apoferritin)) to raise the expression of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), a rate-limiting enzyme in the formation of the dopamine. Both components in the nanoassembly could cooperate with each other, not only elaborately regulate the iron homeostasis and redox microenvironment, but also utilize excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) and iron ions in the damaged neurons to supply extra dopamine and enhance TH activity, and consequently restore the function of the degenerated neurons. Remarkably, the nanoassembly-treatment relieves the dyskinesia and dramatical increases the tyrosine hydroxylase and dopamine level in the midbrain of Parkinson's disease model mice. It is an explicit yet inspiring advance in treatment of the neurodegeneration.

Adjuvant whole-breast radiotherapy is essential for breast cancer patients who adopted breast-conserving surgery (BCS) to reduce the risk of local recurrences, which however suffer from large-area and highly destructive ionizing radiation-induced adverse events. To tackle this issue, an afterglow/photothermal bifunctional polymeric nanoparticle (APPN) is developed that utilizes nonionizing light for precise afterglow imaging-guided post-BCS adjuvant second near-infrared (NIR-II) photothermal therapy. APPN consists of a tumor cell targeting afterglow agent, which is doped with a NIR dye as an afterglow initiator and a NIR-II light-absorbing semiconducting polymer as a photothermal transducer. Such a design realizes precise afterglow imaging-guided NIR-II photothermal ablation of minimal residual breast tumor foci after BCS, thus achieving complete inhibition of local recurrences. Moreover, APPN enables early diagnosis and treatment of local recurrence after BCS. This study thus provides a nonionizing modality for precision post-BCS adjuvant therapy and early recurrence theranostic. © 2023 American Chemical Society.