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The incessant mutations of viruses, variable immune responses, and likely emergence of new viral threats necessitate multiple approaches to novel antiviral therapeutics. Furthermore, the new antiviral agents should have broad-spectrum activity and be environmentally stable. Here, we show that biocompatible tapered CuS nanoparticles (NPs) efficiently agglutinate coronaviruses with binding affinity dependent on the chirality of surface ligands and particle shape.L-penicillamine-stabilized NPs with left-handed curved apexes display half-maximal inhibitory concentrations (IC₅₀) as low as 0.66 pM (1.4 ng/mL) and 0.57 pM (1.2 ng/mL) for pseudo-type SARS-CoV-2 viruses and wild-type Wuhan-1 SARS-CoV-2 viruses, respectively, which are about 1,100 times lower than those for antibodies (0.73 nM). Benefiting from strong NPs–protein interactions, the same particles are also effective against other strains of coronaviruses, such as HCoV-HKU1, HCoV-OC43, HCoV-NL63, and SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variants with IC₅₀values below 10 pM (21.8 ng/mL). Considering rapid response to outbreaks, exposure to elevated temperatures causes no change in the antiviral activity of NPs while antibodies are completely deactivated. Testing in mice indicates that the chirality-optimized NPs can serve as thermally stable analogs of antiviral biologics complementing the current spectrum of treatments. 

Van der Waals (vdW) epitaxial growth provides an efficient strategy to prepare heterostructures with atomically and electronically sharp interfaces. Herein, PbI2 was in situ thermally deposited onto exfoliated thin−layered CrOCl nanoflakes in high vacuum to fabricate vdW PbI2/CrOCl heterostructures. Optical microscopy, atomic force microscopy, X−ray diffraction, and temperature−dependent Raman spectroscopy were used to investigate the structural properties and phonon behaviors of the heterostructures. The morphology of PbI2 films on the CrOCl substrate obviously depended on the substrate temperature, changing from hemispherical granules to 2D nanoflakes with flat top surfaces. In addition, anomalous blueshift of the Ag1 and Au2 modes as the temperature increased in PbI2/CrOCl heterostructure was observed for the first time. Our results provide a novel material platform for the vdW heterostructure and a possible method for optimizing heterostructure growth behaviors. 

SnO2 modified mesoporous ZrO2 is used to replace the mesoporous TiO2 layer and serves as a kind of mesoporous electron-transport layer during the low-temperature fabrication of mesoscopic perovskite solar cells that are based on carbon electrode. X-ray/ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy studies and electrical test observe that SnO2 modification brought down the work function while increasing the conductivity of the mesoporous ZrO2. Transient photovoltage/photocurrent decay curves, impedance spectroscopy, and photoluminescence mapping show that after the bottom layer of ZrO2 is modified by SnO2, the charge extraction process is accelerated while recombination is retarded. This modification helps to increase the power conversion efficiency from 4.70 (±0.85)% to 10.15 (±0.35)%, along with the optimized efficiency at 13.37% (AM1.5G, 100 mW/cm2) for the low-temperature devices. In addition, the effects of modification layers of SnO2 on the power conversion properties are carefully studied. This study shows that SnO2 modified mesoporous ZrO2 could serve as an efficient electron-transport layer for the low-temperature mesoscopic devices.