Ionic

Future work will explore other ionic materials that can achieve similar effects.

The absorption of the X-rays caused molecular bonds to break, creating ionic fragments that could be analysed.

To make them, the researchers start with the liquid precursors of glassy polymers and mix them with an ionic liquid.

They observed that tumour growth decreased with the ionic treatment but not with the daily-dose approach, even though the latter was twice as strong.

"Specifically, these molecules introduce in-plane hydrogen bonding that is compatible with both the ionic nature and octahedron spacing of halide perovskites," she said.