Flexible/Regenerative Nanosensor with Automatic Sweat Collection for Cytokine Storm Biomarker Detection.

The real-time monitoring of low-concentration cytokines such as TNF-α in sweat can aid clinical physicians in assessing the severity of inflammation. The challenges associated with the collection and the presence of impurities can significantly impede the detection of proteins in sweat. This issue is addressed by incorporating a nanosphere array designed for automatic sweat transportation, coupled with a reusable sensor that employs a Nafion/aptamer-modified MoS field-effect transistor.

Sustainable Oily Liquid-Proof Passive Cooling (SOC) Textile for Personal Thermal Management.

Sweat passive-cooling textiles with asymmetric wettabilities on different sides offer an effective and low-energy consumption solution to personal thermal management in extreme thermal environments. However, the sweat-wicking and the cooling abilities decrease when the textile is contaminated by low-surface tension oily liquid fouling. The integration of anti-oily liquid fouling and sweat-wicking abilities on textile involves resolving the contradiction between hydrophilic and oleophobic properties and seeking eco-friendly short-chain fluorides to reduce the surface energy.

Research on a capacitive particle analysis smoke detector.

Smoke detectors face the challenges of increasing accuracy, sensitivity, and high reliability in complex use environments to ensure the timeliness, accuracy, and reliability of very early fire detection. The improvement and innovation of the principle and algorithm for smoke particle concentration detection provide opportunities for improving the performance of the detector. This study represents a new refinement of the smoke concentration detection principle based on capacitive detection of cell structures, and detection signals are processed by a multiscale smoke particle concentration detection algorithm to calculate smoke concentration.

Research on high performance combustible gas concentration sensor based on pyramid beam splitter matrix.

Combustible gas concentration detection faces challenges of increasing accuracy, and sensitivity, as well as high reliability in harsh using environments. The special design of the optical path structure of the sensitive element provides an opportunity to improve combustible gas concentration detection. In this study, the optical path structure of the sensitive element was newly designed based on the Pyramidal beam splitter matrix.

Seaweed-inspired underwater anti-oil-fouling and anti-fogging coating with mechanical durability.

Ecofriendly fabrication of anti-oil-fouling materials is of interest. Surfaces with underwater superoleophobicity have been fabricated which exhibit limited mechanical durability and water resistance. In this study, we report on a bioinspired bilayer design of a transparent anti-oil-fouling coating.

A Capacitive Particle-Analyzing Smoke Detector for Very Early Fire Detection.

Smoke detectors face the challenges of increasing accuracy, sensitivity, and high reliability in complex use environments to ensure the timeliness, accuracy, and reliability of very early fire detection. The improvement in and innovation of the principle and algorithm of smoke particle concentration detection provide an opportunity for the performance improvement in the detector. This study is a new refinement of the smoke concentration detection principle based on capacitive detection of cell structures, and detection signals are processed by a multiscale smoke particle concentration detection algorithm to calculate particle concentration.

Research on High Performance Methane Gas Concentration Sensor Based on Pyramid Beam Splitter Matrix.

Methane gas concentration detection faces the challenges of increasing accuracy and sensitivity, as well as high reliability in harsh environments. The special design of the optical path structure of the sensitive element provides an opportunity to improve methane gas concentration detection. In this study, the optical path structure of the sensitive element was newly designed based on the Pyramidal beam splitter matrix.

Durable Superoleophobic Janus Fabric with Oil Repellence and Anisotropic Water-Transport Integration toward Energetic-Efficient Oil-Water Separation.

Porous materials with opposing superwettability toward oil and water have aroused widespread interest for their selective-wetting advantage in oil-water separation. The separation process, however, requires constant energy input to maintain the driving force. Further reducing the external energy consumption or accelerating the liquid transport during separation is still a challenge.

Towards detection of biomarkers in the eye using an aptamer-based graphene affinity nanobiosensor.

We present an approach to enable the sensitive and specific detection of biomarkers in undiluted tears in the eye using an aptamer-based graphene affinity nanosensor. The nanosensor is a graphene field-effect transistor, in which a nucleic acid aptamer and a biomolecule-permeable polyethylene glycol (PEG) nanolayer are immobilized on the graphene surface. The aptamer is capable of specifically recognize the target biomarker and induce a change in the carrier concentration of the graphene, which is measured to determine the biomarker concentration.

Ultrasensitive Graphene-Based Nanobiosensor for Rapid Detection of Hemoglobin in Undiluted Biofluids.

Detection of hemoglobin (Hb), a critical part of the biological system that is responsible for oxygen transportation, is of great significance on clinical diagnosis of various diseases. Particularly, time-efficient Hb detection under nanomole levels has drawn much attention in recent years. Herein, we present a graphene field effect transistor (GFET)-based aptameric nanobiosensor for rapid detection of Hb in undiluted biofluids including serum and urine and for the first time use polyethylenimine (PEI), a kind of comparatively low-cost polymer consisting of numerous amino groups, which can be directly linked with the anchor molecule without any pretreatment as the graphene surface passivation agent.

Self-Limiting Opto-Electrochemical Thinning of Transition-Metal Dichalcogenides.

Two-dimensional monolayer and few-layer transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are promising for advanced electronic and photonic applications due to their extraordinary optoelectronic and mechanical properties. However, it has remained challenging to produce high-quality TMD thin films with controlled thickness and desired micropatterns, which are essential for their practical implementation in functional devices. In this work, a self-limiting opto-electrochemical thinning (sOET) technique is developed for on-demand thinning and patterning of TMD flakes at high efficiency.

Hygro-responsive, Photo-decomposed Superoleophobic/Superhydrophilic Coating for On-Demand Oil-Water Separation.

The superoleophobic/superhydrophilic material has attracted considerable interest due to the incomparable property of it for the oil-water separation. However, it is a challenge to make the prepared surface superoleophobic and superhydrophilic at the same time since the oleophobic surface tends to repel water. Herein, a hygro-responsive superoleophobic/superhydrophilic coating was fabricated by liquid-phase deposition of TiO with perfluorooctanoic acid.

An Intelligent Graphene-Based Biosensing Device for Cytokine Storm Syndrome Biomarkers Detection in Human Biofluids.

Abnormal elevated levels of cytokines such as interferon (IFN), interleukin (IL), and tumor necrosis factor (TNF), are considered as one of the prognosis biomarkers for indicating the progression to severe or critical COVID-19. Hence, it is of great significance to develop devices for monitoring their levels in COVID-19 patients, and thus enabling detecting COVID-19 patients that are worsening and to treat them before they become critically ill. Here, an intelligent aptameric dual channel graphene-TWEEN 80 field effect transistor (DGTFET) biosensing device for on-site detection of IFN-γ, TNF-α, and IL-6 within 7 min with limits of detection (LODs) of 476 × 10 , 608 × 10 , or 611 × 10 m respectively in biofluids is presented.

Superhydrophilic AlO Particle Layer for Efficient Separation of Oil-in-Water (O/W) and Water-in-Oil (W/O) Emulsions.

The separation of oil-water emulsion using superliquiphobic/philic porous coated materials has attracted considerable attention for dealing with environmental pollution and resource recycling issues. The coatings used may lack adequate surface mechanical and chemical durability. This paper proposes a simple method without other modifications for separating the oil-water emulsion.

A Wearable and Deformable Graphene-Based Affinity Nanosensor for Monitoring of Cytokines in Biofluids.

A wearable and deformable graphene-based field-effect transistor biosensor is presented that uses aptamer-modified graphene as the conducting channel, which is capable of the sensitive, consistent and time-resolved detection of cytokines in human biofluids. Based on an ultrathin substrate, the biosensor offers a high level of mechanical durability and consistent sensing responses, while conforming to non-planar surfaces such as the human body and withstanding large deformations (e.g.

Modulating the Linker Immobilization Density on Aptameric Graphene Field Effect Transistors Using an Electric Field.

Aptameric graphene-based field-effect transistors (A-GFETs) always employ linkers, which could immobilize on graphene through π-π stacking between contained pyrenyl groups and graphene, to anchor aptamers. Aptamer density is closely associated with the A-GFET sensitivity and determined by the linker density. Using known linker immobilization methods, the linker density is random, uncontrollable, and limited.

Multifunctional TiO-Based Superoleophobic/Superhydrophilic Coating for Oil-Water Separation and Oil Purification.

Materials that possess distinguishable superwettability toward oil and water have aroused widespread attention for their application in oil-water separation. Among them, a superoleophobic/superhydrophilic material is considered as the ideal candidate because of its antioil-fouling and water-wetting behavior; however, the fabrication is a challenge and there has been insufficient attention given to multipurpose applications in treating intricate mixtures. Herein, for the first time, a multifunctional superoleophobic/superhydrophilic coating integrated with a photocatalysis property was fabricated by the combination of polarity component-enhanced fluorosurfactant and titanium dioxide (TiO) nanoparticles.

Pilot study on deformed bullet correlation.

Most studies on bullet identification address test fired bullets that have near pristine striated marks on the land engraved areas (LEAs). However, in case work, bullets found at a crime scene may be severely deformed or fragmented. The resulting missing, expanded, or distorted LEA striations can cause challenges in toolmark comparisons performed by examiners or algorithms.

An Ultraflexible and Stretchable Aptameric Graphene Nanosensor for Biomarker Detection and Monitoring.

An ultraflexible and stretchable field-effect transistor nanosensor is presented that uses aptamer-functionalized monolayer graphene as the conducting channel. Specific binding of the aptamer with the target biomarker induces a change in the carrier concentration of the graphene, which is measured to determine the biomarker concentration. Based on a Mylar substrate that is only 2.

Fired bullet signature correlation using the Congruent Matching Profile Segments (CMPS) method.

We introduce the Congruent Matching Profile Segments (CMPS) method for objective comparison of striated tool marks and apply it to bullet signature correlations. The method is derived from the congruent matching cell (CMC) method developed for the comparison of impressed tool marks. The proposed method is designed to increase comparison accuracy by addressing the comparison challenges caused by striae profiles with different lateral scales, varying vertical (height) scales, and sections that are poorly marked or have little to no similarity.

Ultraviolet-driven switchable superliquiphobic/superliquiphilic coating for separation of oil-water mixtures and emulsions and water purification.

Materials with switchable wettability by external stimuli are of interest in on-demand oil-water separation. Among these materials, ultraviolet (UV) light-stimuli TiO-based materials are considered as predominant candidates due to the photoinduced superliquiphilicity of TiO. Besides the photoinduced superliquiphilic property, the photocatalysis is another important intrinsic property of TiO which has applications in liquid purification.

Sensitive detection of lung cancer biomarkers using an aptameric graphene-based nanosensor with enhanced stability.

We present an electrolyte-gated graphene field effect transistor (GFET) nanosensor using aptamer for rapid, highly sensitive and specific detection of a lung cancer biomarker interleukin-6 (IL-6) with enhanced stability. The negatively charged aptamer folds into a compact secondary conformation upon binding with IL-6, thus altering the carrier concentration of graphene and yielding a detectable change in the drain-source current I. Aptamer has smaller size than other receptors (e.

Rapid, ultraviolet-induced, reversibly switchable wettability of superhydrophobic/superhydrophilic surfaces.

Controllable wettability is important for a wide range of applications, including intelligent switching, self-cleaning and oil/water separation. In this work, rapid switching and extreme wettability changes upon ultraviolet (UV) illumination were investigated. TiO nanoparticles were modified in solutions of trimethoxy(alkyl)silane, and the suspensions were sprayed on glass substrates.

Bioinspired superoleophobic/superhydrophilic functionalized cotton for efficient separation of immiscible oil-water mixtures and oil-water emulsions.

Oil contamination is pressing environmental and natural resource issues. Oil-water separation technology can be used for water purification. Traditional methods are either time consuming or energy intensive.