SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-026-4295-5
Carbon nanomaterials (CNMs), including carbon nanotubes, graphene, and fullerenes, exhibit exceptional promise in precision biomedicine due to their tunable biocompatibility, programmable surface chemistry, large specific surface area, and quantum confinement effects. However, their clinical translation is hindered by aggregation, poor physiological dispersibility, and limited targeting specificity. This review systematically elaborates on surface engineering strategies—covalent functionalization, non-covalent assembly, and heteroatom doping—to optimize the multifunctionality, biocompatibility, and targeting capabilities of CNMs at the nano-bio interface. We explore how engineered interfaces enable advanced applications in biosensing, stimuli-responsive drug delivery, multimodal bioimaging, antibacterial therapy, and regenerative tissue engineering. The review also addresses challenges such as scalability, long-term toxicity, and regulatory hurdles, and proposes future directions to expedite clinical adoption. By providing a comprehensive framework for rational surface design, this work aims to bridge the gap between fundamental materials science and clinical needs, offering a roadmap for developing next-generation carbon-based theranostics.
New Carbon Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1016/S1872-5805(25)61033-X
Carbon-based materials have gained significant attention in anticancer treatment due to their exceptional biocompatibility, yet critical challenges persist in establishing definitive correlations between their porous structures and functional performance. We report the use of a silica template to guide pore formation in the design of mesoporous carbon spheres (mC) with tailored pore structures for improved combined photothermal-chemotherapy. The mesopore size of mC was adjusted by kinetic control of resin polymerization and silica hydrolysis. Structural characterization showed that 4.4 nm mesopores enabled an exceptional gemcitabine loading of 228 mg g−1 and a sustained pH/thermal dual-responsive release with >70% drug release under near-infrared (NIR) irradiation. Finite element analysis demonstrated pore size-dependent heat transfer dynamics, with the improved mC achieving a superior photothermal conversion efficiency of 62% by a combination of N-doping and defect engineering. In vitro evaluations confirmed outstanding biocompatibility with >95% cell viability at 200 μg mL−1 and potent tumor suppression in pancreatic and biliary cancer models with an ~5% cell viability at 25 μg mL−1 where combined therapy showed a 3.7-fold increased cytotoxicity over monotherapy. The improved structure of mC facilitated cascade therapeutic effects with enhanced tumor permeability derived from NIR-triggered hyperthermia and prolonged therapeutic exposure due to pH-responsive drug release. This pore engineering strategy establishes a structure-function process for next-generation theranostic platforms, addressing the critical limitations of conventional pancreatic and biliary cancer therapies through spatiotemporal control of multimodal treatment.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-025-3764-5
Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are ubiquitous in portable electronics and electric vehicles, yet their flammable liquid electrolytes pose safety hazards and limit energy density. All-solid-state batteries (ASSBs) with solid-state electrolytes (SSEs) offer enhanced safety and higher energy density. Among SSEs, metal chloride SSEs (Li aMCl b, M = In, Y, Er) combine high ionic conductivity, mechanical deformability, and compatibility with high-voltage cathodes. However, their ionic conductivity and anode stability require improvement. Here, we introduce pentavalent Ta5+ doping into Li3InCl6 (LIC) to engineer Li+ vacancies via charge compensation, yielding Li3−2xIn1−xTaxCl6 (LITxC, 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.6). Ta5+ incorporation efficiently increases Li+ vacancy content without disrupting the cubic close packing (ccp) structure. The optimized composition, Li2.4In0.7Ta0.3Cl6 (LIT0.3C), achieves an ionic conductivity of 2.19 mS cm−1 at 30 °C and a low activation energy of 0.273 eV, balancing vacancy concentration and Li+ content. Ta5+ doping also enhances kinetic stability against the anode. ASSBs with LIT0.3C demonstrate excellent cycling stability: Ni90 cathodes retain 72.3% capacity after 1000 cycles at 0.5 C, while NCM523 cathodes retain 84.1% after 500 cycles at 0.2 C and 80.7% after 1000 cycles. These results highlight a practical strategy for improving chloride SSE performance, offering new insights for high-performance ASSB design.