A porous carbon (PC) material, containing carbon and oxygen only, was synthesized via carbonisation of a Zn-MOF (IRMOF-8) at 950 °C. Interestingly, the derived materials of this reaction exhibit excellent electrocatalytic activity, molecular selectivity and long-term durability. The fact that this material, which is effectively a “pure” carbon, lacking any elemental doping, exhibits excellent oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity suggests that a mechanism not dependent on elemental doping is being utilised. We suggest the formation of defects arising from the removal of Zn atoms as a consequence of the calcination procedure play the critical role in this process.

A facile defect creation method was used to enable the inert activated carbon into a highly active ORR and HER electrocatalyst.

A novel 3D metal–organic framework (MOF) with 2D rhombic channels was synthesized for selective adsorption of p-xylene from xylene isomers by acting as a molecular sieve.

Designer self‐assembling peptides form the entangled nanofiber networks in hydrogels by ionic‐complementary self‐assembly. This type of hydrogel has realistic biological and physiochemical properties to serve as biomimetic extracellular matrix (ECM) for biomedical applications. The advantages and benefits are distinct from natural hydrogels and other synthetic or semisynthetic hydrogels. Designer peptides provide diverse alternatives of main building blocks to form various functional nanostructures. The entangled nanofiber networks permit essential compositional complexity and heterogeneity of engineering cell microenvironments in comparison with other hydrogels, which may reconstruct the tumor microenvironments (TMEs) in 3D cell cultures and tissue‐specific modeling in vitro. Either ovarian cancer progression or recurrence and relapse are involved in the multifaceted TMEs in addition to mesothelial cells, fibroblasts, endothelial cells, pericytes, immune cells, adipocytes, and the ECM. Based on the progress in common hydrogel products, this work focuses on the diverse designer self‐assembling peptide hydrogels for instructive cell constructs in tissue‐specific modeling and the precise oncology remodeling for ovarian cancer, which are issued by several research aspects in a 3D context. The advantages and significance of designer peptide hydrogels are discussed, and some common approaches and coming challenges are also addressed in current complex tumor diseases.

Background: A nanoscale injectable in situ-forming hydrogel drug delivery system was developed in this study. The system was based on a self-assembling peptide RADA16 solution, which can spontaneously form a hydrogel rapidly under physiological conditions. We used the RADA16 hydrogel for the controlled release of paclitaxel (PTX), a hydrophobic antitumor drug. Methods: The RADA16-PTX suspension was prepared simply by magnetic stirring, followed by atomic force microscopy, circular dichroism analysis, dynamic light scattering, rheological analysis, an in vitro release assay, and a cell viability test. Results: The results indicated that RADA16 and PTX can interact with each other and that the amphiphilic peptide was able to stabilize hydrophobic drugs in aqueous solution. The particle size of PTX was markedly decreased in the RADA16 solution compared with its size in water. The RADA16-PTX suspension could form a hydrogel in culture medium, and the elasticity of the hydrogel showed a positive correlation with peptide concentration. In vitro release measurements indicated that hydrogels with a higher peptide concentration had a longer half-release time. The RADA16-PTX hydrogel could effectively inhibit the growth of the breast cancer cell line, MDA-MB-435S, in vitro, and hydrogels with higher peptide concentrations were more effective at inhibiting tumor cell proliferation. The RADA16-PTX hydrogel was effective at controlling the release of PTX and inhibiting tumor cell growth in vitro. Conclusion: Self-assembling peptide hydrogels may work well as a system for drug delivery.