Permeable, Stretchable, and Recyclable Cellulose Aerogel On-Skin Electronics for Dual-Modal Sensing and Personal Healthcare.

Flexible on-skin electronics present tremendous popularity in intelligent electronic skins (e-skins), healthcare monitoring, and human-machine interfaces. However, the reported e-skins can hardly provide high permeability, good stretchability, and large sensitivity and are limited in long-term stability and efficient recyclability when worn on the human body. Herein, inspired from the human skin, a permeable, stretchable, and recyclable cellulose aerogel-based electronic system is developed by sandwiching a screen-printed silver sensing layer between a biocompatible CNF/HPC/PVA (cellulose nanofiber/hydroxypropyl cellulose/poly(vinyl alcohol)) aerogel hypodermis layer and a permeable polyurethane layer as the epidermis layer.

Fireproof Cavity Structure with Enhanced Impact Resistance and Thermal Insulation toward Safeguarding.

Developing devices emphasizing safety protection is becoming increasingly important due to the widespread occurrence of impact damage and thermal hazards. Herein, the F-SSG/TPU-based circular cavity structure (FC) is developed through a convenient and efficient template method, which can effectively achieve anti-impact and thermal insulation for protection. The flame-retardant shear stiffening gel/thermoplastic urethane (F-SSG/TPU) is synthesized through the dynamic interaction between the SSG, TPU, and modified ammonium polyphosphate (APP@UiO-66-NH) by thermo-solvent reactions.

Asymmetric Aramid Aerogel Composite with Durable and Covert Thermal Management via Janus Heat Transfer Structure.

Warmth preservation in cold climates requires a long-term heat supply. Conventional thermal devices usually deliver excessive heat and have difficulty preventing heat loss. Herein, to achieve durable thermal comfort, an asymmetric composite (AAAC) is devised through vacuum-filtrating silver nanowires (AgNWs) onto the surface of a poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-infiltrated aramid nanofiber aerogel.

Fast image-free autofocus method for passive FSPI microscopy.

Autofocus is crucial for capturing sharp images with imaging devices for information acquisition. Traditional autofocus strategies based on post-processing become less efficient for passive FSPI microscopy of yet low temporal resolution. In this Letter, a fast and image-free autofocus system is proposed for passive FSPI microscopy.

Nanosphere Chain Model of Magnetic Fluid and Its Dynamic Performance.

The magnetorheological effect is a critically important mechanical property of magnetic fluids. Accurately capturing the macroscopic properties of magnetorheological fluids with elongated particle forms, such as nanosphere chains, remains a challenging task, particularly due to the complexities arising from particle asymmetry. Traditional particle dynamics primarily utilize spherical particles as computational units, but this approach can lead to significant inaccuracies, especially when analyzing nonspherical magnetorheological fluids, due to the neglect of particle asymmetry.

Simultaneous Enhancement of Thermal Insulation and Impact Resistance in Transparent Bulk Composites.

Transparent bulk glass is highly demanded in devices and components of daily life to transmit light and protect against external temperature and mechanical hazards. However, the application of glass is impeded by its poor functional performance, especially in terms of thermal isolation and impact resistance. Here, a glass composite integrating the nacre-inspired structure and shear stiffening gel (SSG) material is proposed.

Triple-Responsive Soft Actuator with Plastically Retentive Deformation and Magnetically Programmable Recovery.

Multistimuli responsiveness and programmable shape recovery are crucial for soft actuators in soft robotics, electronics, and wearables. However, existing strategies for actuation cannot attain power-free shape retention after removing the external energy supply. Here, a self-assembled density deposition method was developed to fabricate an electrothermal-NIR-magnetic triple-response actuator which was composed of cellulose nanofiber/poly(vinyl alcohol)/liquid metal (CNF/PVA/LM) and magnetic polydimethylsiloxane (MPDMS) layer.

Size-dependent magnetomechanically enhanced photothermal antibacterial effect of FeO@Au/PDA nanodurian.

The global health crisis of bacterial resistance to antibiotics requires innovative antibacterial strategies. One promising solution is the exploitation of multifunctional nanoplatforms based on non-resistant antibacterial mechanisms. This work reports a novel FeO@Au/polydopamine (PDA) nanodurian with excellent photothermal-magnetomechanic synergistic antibacterial effects.

Control of climate and physiography on runoff response behavior through use of catchment classification and machine learning.

Understanding of runoff response changes (RRC) is essential for water resource management decisions. However, there is a limited understanding of the effects of climate and landscape properties on RRC behavior. This study explored RRC behavior across controls and predictability in 1003 catchments in the contiguous United States (CONUS) using catchment classification and machine learning.

Wearable Safeguarding Leather Composite with Excellent Sensing, Thermal Management, and Electromagnetic Interference Shielding.

This work illustrates a "soft-toughness" coupling design method to integrate the shear stiffening gel (SSG), natural leather, and nonwoven fabrics (NWF) for preparing leather/MXene/SSG/NWF (LMSN) composite with high anti-impact protecting, piezoresistive sensing, electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, and human thermal management performance. Owing to the porous fiber structure of the leather, the MXene nanosheets can penetrate leather to construct a stable 3D conductive network; thus both the LM and LMSN composites exhibit superior conductivity, high Joule heating temperature, and an efficient EMI shielding effectiveness. Due to the excellent energy absorption of the SSG, the LMSN composites possess a huge force-buffering (about 65.

Ultra-Stretchable Spiral Hybrid Conductive Fiber with 500%-Strain Electric Stability and Deformation-Independent Linear Temperature Response.

Stretchable configuration occupies priority in devising flexible conductors used in intelligent electronics and implantable sensors. While most conductive configurations cannot suppress electrical variations against extreme deformation and ignore inherent material characteristics. Herein, a spiral hybrid conductive fiber (SHCF) composed of aramid polymeric matrix and silver nanowires (AgNWs) coating is fabricated through shaping and dipping processes.

Enhancing Bioinspired Aramid Nanofiber Networks by Interfacial Hydrogen Bonds for Multiprotection under an Extreme Environment.

In nature, many insects have evolved sclerotic cuticles to shelter their soft bodies, which are considered as "body armor". For beetles, the epidermis is composed of cross-linked intertwined fiber structures; such a fiber network structure could provide an anti-impact function for composites. Aramid nanofibers (ANFs) are of great interest in various applications due to their 1D nanoscale, high aspect ratio, excellent strength and modulus, and impressive chemical and thermal stability.

Flexible and Stretchable Elastomer Composites Based on Lightweight Liquid Metal Foam Spheres with Pod-like Contacts.

Liquid metal (LM) is increasingly employed as a conductive filler in soft and flexible elastomer composites owing to its favorable conductivity and liquid fluidity. However, the high density of LM inevitably increases the weight of composites, which brings limitations in large-area and weight-sensitive applications. This work reports a flexible and stretchable elastomer composite composed of pod-like contacting lightweight LM foam spheres and polydimethylsiloxane matrix (LMS/PDMS).

Controlled Desiccation of Preprinted Hydrogel Scaffolds Toward Complex 3D Microarchitectures.

Additive manufacturing (AM) is the key to creating a wide variety of 3D structures with unique and programmable functionalities. Direct ink writing is one of the widely used AM technologies with numerous printable materials. However, the extrude-based method is limited by low fabrication resolution, which is confined to printing macrostructures.

Bioinspired Impact-Resistant and Self-Monitoring Nanofibrous Composites.

Lightweight and impact-resistant materials with self-monitoring capability are highly desired for protective applications, but are challenging to be artificially fabricated. Herein, a scalable-manufactured aramid nanofiber (ANF)-based composite combining these key properties is presented. Inspired by the strengthening and toughening mechanisms relying on recoverable interfaces commonly existing in biological composites, mechanically weak but dense hydrogen bonds are introduced into the ANF interfaces to achieve simultaneously enhanced tensile strength (300 MPa), toughness (55 MJ m ), and impact resistance of the nanofibrous composite.

Nacre-Mimetic Hierarchical Architecture in Polyborosiloxane Composites for Synergistically Enhanced Impact Resistance and Ultra-Efficient Electromagnetic Interference Shielding.

Pervasive mechanical impact is growing requirement for advanced high-performance protective materials, while the electromagnetic interference (EMI) confers severe risk to human health and equipment operation. Bioinspired structural composites achieving outstanding safeguards against a single threat have been developed, whereas the synergistic implementation of impact/EMI coupling protection remains a challenge. This work proposes the concept of nacre-mimetic hierarchical composite duplicating the "brick-and-mortar" arrangement, which consists of freeze-drying constructed chitosan/MXene lamellar architecture skeleton embedded in a shear stiffening polyborosiloxane matrix.

Transcriptomics-Based Study of Differentially Expressed Genes Related to Fat Deposition in Tibetan and Yorkshire Pigs.

Fat deposition traits are one of the key factors in pig production and breeding. The fat deposition capacity of pigs mainly affects the quality of pork and pig productivity. The aim of this study was to analyze the differential expression of mRNA levels in dorsal adipose tissue of Tibetan and York pigs at different growth stages using transcriptomic data to estimate key genes that regulate fat deposition in pigs.

Bio-Inspired Bianisotropic Magneto-Sensitive Elastomers with Excellent Multimodal Transformation.

Magneto-sensitive soft materials that can accomplish fast, remote, and reversible shape morphing are highly desirable for practical applications including biomedical devices, soft robotics, and flexible electronics. In conventional magneto-sensitive elastomers (MSEs), there is a tradeoff between employing hard magnetic particles with costly magnetic programming and utilizing soft magnetic particle chains causing tedious and small deformation. Here, inspired by the shape and movement of mimosa, a novel soft magnetic particle doped shape material bianisotropic magneto-sensitive elastomer (SM bianisotropic MSE) with multimodal transformation and superior deformability is developed.

3D Printing Ultraflexible Magnetic Actuators via Screw Extrusion Method.

Soft magnetic actuators with programmable structure design and controllable deformation ability based on 3D printing technology have attracted extensive attention. In this paper, a novel 3D printing strategy is developed to manufacture the ultraflexible magnetic actuator, in which the printed material is composed of magnetic particles and thermoplastic rubber materials. Different from the traditional fused deposition printing, this printing strategy introduces screw extrusion technology to the heating components of the printer to overcome the problem of filament buckling in the flexible material.

Stretchable and Recyclable Liquid Metal Droplets Embedded Elastomer Composite with High Mechanically Sensitive Conductivity.

Liquid metal (LM)-based elastomers have received growing interest for a wide range of applications such as soft robotics and flexible electronics. This work reports a stretchable and bendable liquid metal droplets embedded elastomer (LMDE) composite, which consists of liquid metal droplets (LMDs) filler and carbonyl iron particles (CIPs)/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) hybrid matrix. The reversible switching of the composite from an insulator to a conductor can be realized through the contact and noncontact process between the LMDs.

A Prestressing Strategy Enabled Synergistic Energy-Dissipation in Impact-Resistant Nacre-Like Structures.

The application of prestresses is a valuable strategy for enhancing the overall mechanical performances of structural materials. Residual stresses, acting as prestresses, exist naturally in biological structural materials, such as the nacre with the 3D "brick-and-mortar" arrangement. Although regulation of the tablets sliding has recently been demonstrated to be vital to improve toughness in synthetic nacre-like structures, the effects of prestresses on the tablets-sliding mechanism in these nacre-like structures remain unclear.

A shape-deformable liquid-metal-filled magnetorheological plastomer sensor with a magnetic field "on-off" switch.

Flexible viscoelastic sensors have gained significant attention in wearable devices owing to their exceptional strain-dependent electrical resistance. Most of the strain sensors are elastic composites, thus the internal stress is often preserved during the deformation when they are attached to the uneven target. Therefore, there is a pressing need for viscoelastic composites with highly self-adapted electromechanical properties sensitive to multiexternal circumstances.

3D Printing Magnetic Actuators for Biomimetic Applications.

Biomimetic actuators with stimuli-responsiveness, adaptivity, and designability have attracted extensive attention. Recently, soft intelligent actuators based on stimuli-responsive materials have been gradually developed, but it is still challenging to achieve various shape manipulations of actuators through a simple 3D printing technology. In this paper, a 3D printing strategy based on magneto-active materials is developed to manufacture various biomimetic magnetic actuators, in which the new printable magnetic filament is composed of a thermoplastic rubber material and magnetic particles.

Effect of Elevated Temperature on Mechanical Properties of High-Volume Fly Ash-Based Geopolymer Concrete, Mortar and Paste Cured at Room Temperature.

This paper presents results from experimental work on mechanical properties of geopolymer concrete, mortar and paste prepared using fly ash and blended slag. Compressive strength, splitting tensile strength and flexural strength tests were conducted on large sets of geopolymer and ordinary concrete, mortar and paste after exposure to elevated temperatures. From Thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscope (SEM) test results, the geopolymer exhibits excellent resistance to elevated temperature.