A Magneto-Heated Ferrimagnetic Sponge for Continuous Recovery of Viscous Crude Oil.

The high viscosity and low fluidity of heavy crude oil hinder its sorption by conventional porous sorbents, so the efficient clean-up of such heavy crude oil spills is challenging. Recently, Joule heating has been emerging as a new tool to reduce the viscosity of heavy crude oil dramatically. However, this direct-contact heating approach presents a potential risk due to the high voltage applied.

Boosting photoelectrochemical efficiency by near-infrared-active lattice-matched morphological heterojunctions.

Photoelectrochemical catalysis is an attractive way to provide direct hydrogen production from solar energy. However, solar conversion efficiencies are hindered by the fact that light harvesting has so far been of limited efficiency in the near-infrared region as compared to that in the visible and ultraviolet regions. Here we introduce near-infrared-active photoanodes that feature lattice-matched morphological hetero-nanostructures, a strategy that improves energy conversion efficiency by increasing light-harvesting spectral range and charge separation efficiency simultaneously.

Ultralow-Voltage-Driven Smart Control of Diverse Drop's Anisotropic Sliding by in Situ Switching Joule Heat on Paraffin-Infused Microgrooved Slippery Surface.

Stimuli-responsive anisotropic slippery surfaces (ASSs) have demonstrated intriguing performance in manipulating the behaviors of some liquids. However, most present methods have been limited to conductive droplets, certain specific conductive platforms, and higher manipulation temperature that greatly hinder its practical applications. Here, an electric-responsive paraffin-infused ASS (ER-PIASS) composed of paraffin, microgrooved PDMS, and flexible embedded silver nanowire heater is reported.

Photothermal Actuation of Diverse Liquids on an FeO-Doped Slippery Surface for Electric Switching and Cell Culture.

The photoinduced manipulation of liquids on a slippery lubricant-infused porous surface (SLIPS) has attracted a tremendous amount of attention because of its merits of contactless stimulation and excellent spatial and temporal control. However, tedious fabrication methods by a combination of template transfer and fluorination for a photothermal-material-doped SLIPS and the lack of deeper systematically quantitative analysis with respect to droplet hydrokinetics are greatly perplexing in both academic research and industrial applications. Here we demonstrate a kind of FeO-doped SLIPS by one-step femtosecond laser cross-scanning, which can readily steer diverse liquids toward arbitrary directions with a fast velocity of up to 1.

In Situ Reversible Control between Sliding and Pinning for Diverse Liquids under Ultra-Low Voltage.

Thermally responsive paraffin-infused slippery surfaces have demonstrated intriguing performance in manipulating the behaviors of versatile droplets. However, present methods have been limited to ex situ rigid heat sources with a high voltage of 220 V or certain specific photothermal materials, which greatly hinders its practical applications. To solve this problem, an intelligent droplet motion control actuator (DMCA) composed of paraffin wax, hydrophobic micropillar-arrayed ZnO film, and a flexible transparent silver nanowire heater (SNWH) is reported in this work.

Joule-heated graphene-wrapped sponge enables fast clean-up of viscous crude-oil spill.

The clean-up of viscous crude-oil spills is a global challenge. Hydrophobic and oleophilic oil sorbents have been demonstrated as promising candidates for oil-spill remediation. However, the sorption speeds of these oil sorbents for viscous crude oil are rather limited.

Advanced Sorbents for Oil-Spill Cleanup: Recent Advances and Future Perspectives.

Oil sorbents play a very important part in the remediation processes of oil spills. To enhance the oil-sorption properties and simplify the oil-recovery process, various advanced oil sorbents and oil-collecting devices based on them have been proposed recently. Here, we firstly discuss the design considerations for the fabrication of oil sorbents and describe recently developed oil sorbents based on modification strategy.

A Stretchable Electronic Fabric Artificial Skin with Pressure-, Lateral Strain-, and Flexion-Sensitive Properties.

A stretchable and multiple-force-sensitive electronic fabric based on stretchable coaxial sensor electrodes is fabricated for artificial-skin application. This electronic fabric, with only one kind of sensor unit, can simultaneously map and quantify the mechanical stresses induced by normal pressure, lateral strain, and flexion.