Carbon materials are widely used for supercapacitor applications thanks to their high surface area, good rate capability, and excellent cycling stability. However, the development of high energy density carbon supercapacitors still remains a challenge. In this work, hollow Co₃O₄ nanoboxes have been embedded into three-dimensional macroporous laser-scribed graphene (LSG) to produce composite electrodes with improved electrochemical performance. Here, Co₃O₄ provides high capacity through fast and reversible redox reactions, while LSG serves as a conductive network to maintain high power. The open nanobox morphology is a unique solution for extracting the maximum capacity from Co3O4, resulting in electrodes whose surfaces, both internal and external, are accessible to the electrolyte. The electrochemical performance of the composite material is promising with a volumetric capacity of 60.0 C/cm³ and a specific capacity of 542.3 C/g, corresponding to 682.0 C/g of the constituent Co₃O₄. With a low equivalent series resistance of 0.9 Ω, the Co₃O₄/LSG electrode is able to maintain 113.1% of its original capacity after 10, 000 cycles. This work provides new insights into the design of high-performance carbon/metal oxide nanocomposites for next-generation energy storage devices.

Biotemplated metal nanoclusters have garnered much attention owing to their wide range of potential applications in biosensing, bioimaging, catalysis, and nanomedicine. Here, we report the synthesis of stable, biocompatible, water-soluble, and highly fluorescent bovine serum albumin-templated cadmium nanoclusters (Cd_NCs) through a facile one-pot green method. We covalently conjugated hyaluronic acid (HA) to the Cd_NCs to form a pH-responsive, tumortargeting theranostic nanocarrier with a sustained release profile for doxorubicin (DOX), a model anticancer drug. The nanocarrier showed a DOX encapsulation efficiency of about 75.6%. DOX release profiles revealed that 74% of DOX was released at pH 5.3, while less than 26% of DOX was released at pH 7.4 within the same 24-h period. The nanocarrier selectively recognized MCF-7 breast cancer cells expressing CD44, a cell surface receptor for HA, whereas no such recognition was observed with HA receptor-negative HEK293 cells. Biocompatibility of the nanocarrier was evaluated through cytotoxicity assays with HEK293 and MCF-7 cells. The nanocarrier exhibited very low to no cytotoxicity, whereas the DOX-loaded nanocarrier showed considerable cellular uptake and enhanced MCF-7 breast cancer cell-killing ability. We also confirmed the feasibility of using the highly fluorescent nanoconjugate for bioimaging of MCF-7 and HeLa cells. The superior targeted drug delivery efficacy, cellular imaging capability, and low cytotoxicity position this nanoconjugate as an exciting new nanoplatform with promising biomedical applications.