Advanced Materials for Energy Harvesting and Soft Robotics: Emerging Frontiers to Enhance Piezoelectric Performance and Functionality.

Piezoelectric energy harvesting captures mechanical energy from a number of sources, such as vibrations, the movement of objects and bodies, impact events, and fluid flow to generate electric power. Such power can be employed to support wireless communication, electronic components, ocean monitoring, tissue engineering, and biomedical devices. A variety of self-powered piezoelectric sensors, transducers, and actuators have been produced for these applications, however approaches to enhance the piezoelectric properties of materials to increase device performance remain a challenging frontier of materials research.

Low-Cost Photoelectric Flow Rate Sensors Based on a Flexible Planar Curved Beam Structure for Clinical Treatments.

In clinical treatments, reliable flow rate measurements ensure accurate drug delivery during infusions, precise gas delivery during artificial ventilations, etc., thereby reducing patient morbidity and mortality. However, precise flow rate sensors are costly, so medical devices with limited budgets choose cheaper but unsatisfactory flow rate measurement approaches, leading to increased medical risks.

An Analytical Mechanics Model for the Rotary Sliding Triboelectric Nanogenerator.

In recent years, global attention towards new energy has surged due to increasing energy demand and environmental concerns. Researchers have intensified their focus on new energy, leading to advancements in technologies like triboelectrification, which harnesses energy from the environment. The invention of the triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) has led to new possibilities, with the rotary sliding TENG standing out for its superior performance.

Atmospheric deposition is an important pathway for inputting microplastics: Insight into the spatiotemporal distribution and deposition flux in a mega city.

Microplastics (MPs) refer to plastic particles with a size less than 5 mm, which attracted widespread attention as an emerging pollutant. The monitoring of atmospheric microplastics (AMPs) in a megacity was carried out to study the characteristics and spatiotemporal distribution of AMPs, explore the sources and estimate the deposition flux. The results showed that the annual average abundance of AMPs in Wuhan was 82.

Insight into the effect mechanism of sedimentary record of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon: Isotopic evidence for lake organic matter deposition and regional development model.

Deciphering the temporal patterns of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in sediment cores, and the effect mechanism of sedimentary organic matter (OM) and regional development model on PAHs are crucial for pollution control and environmental management. Herein, sediment core was collected from Chenhu international wetland in Wuhan, central China. Meanwhile, historical trend and source of PAHs and sedimentary OM were presented, respectively.

A Hierarchical Theory for the Tensile Stiffness of Non-Buckling Fractal-Inspired Interconnects.

The design of non-buckling interconnects with thick sections has gained important applications in stretchable inorganic electronics due to their simultaneous achievement of high stretchability, low resistance, and low heat generation. However, at the same time, such a design sharply increased the tensile stiffness, which is detrimental to the conformal fit and skin comfort. Introducing the fractal design into the non-buckling interconnects is a promising approach to greatly reduce the tensile stiffness while maintaining other excellent performances.

An Overstretch Strategy to Double the Designed Elastic Stretchability of Stretchable Electronics.

Achieving or enhancing the elastic stretchability of inorganic stretchable electronics is critically significant. However, only two types of fundamental strategies-using the prestrained elastic substrate and designing the geometric layouts-are exploited thus far. This study proposes a third strategy, an overstretch strategy, applied beyond the designed elastic range of stretchable structures after transfer printing and bonding to a soft substrate.

Huge quantities of microplastics are "hidden" in the sediment of China's largest urban lake-Tangxun Lake.

Microplastics (MPs) pollution in Tangxun Lake, the largest urban lake in China, was investigated. The average MPs pollution in sediment (1.81 ± 1.

Stretchable Electronic Facial Masks for Sonophoresis.

We introduce a stretchable electronic facial mask (SEFM) as a platform for facial healthcare, which can integrate with various sensors and actuators. As a demonstration, an SEFM for sonophoresis enabling the promotion of the delivery effect of a drug mask is developed. To overcome the technique challenges, several approaches including the design of the joined silicone layer by two planar half-face portions and the single-side soft pressing (SSSP) technique for encapsulation are exploited in this work, which could be extended to the design and fabrication of other stretchable electronics.

Status and prospects of atmospheric microplastics: A review of methods, occurrence, composition, source and health risks.

The global pollution of microplastics (MPs) has attracted widespread attention, and the atmosphere was an indispensable media for the global transmission of MPs. With the growing awareness of MPs, atmospheric microplastics (AMPs) have been proposed as a new topic in recent years. Compared with the extensive studies on MPs in Marine and terrestrial environments, the studies of AMPs remain limited.

[Pollution and Potential Ecological Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals in Surface Sediments of Tangxun Lake].

In order to understand the pollution characteristics, spatial distribution, potential sources, and ecological risk of heavy metals in the sediments of Tangxun Lake, the contents of heavy metals (As, Hg, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Zn, and Ni) in the surface sediments of Tangxun Lake were analyzed, and the pollution status and potential ecological risk degree of heavy metals in the sediments were evaluated using the geo-accumulation index and potential ecological risk index. The potential sources of heavy metal pollutants were analyzed by correlation and principal component analysis. The results showed that except for Cr, the contents of other heavy metals were higher than their background values.

Contact-Resistance-Free Stretchable Strain Sensors with High Repeatability and Linearity.

Most of the existing stretchable strain sensors are based on the contact-resistance mechanism, where the stretchability and resistance variation depend on the change of the contact relationship of the conductive microstructures. These sensors usually exhibit large sensing ranges and gauge factors but unsatisfactory repeatability and linearity of the electrical responses because the contact is unstable. Here, we report a completely different design for stretchable strain sensors based on a contact-resistance-free structure, i.

Wafer-scale integration of stretchable semiconducting polymer microstructures via capillary gradient.

Organic semiconducting polymers have opened a new paradigm for soft electronics due to their intrinsic flexibility and solution processibility. However, the contradiction between the mechanical stretchability and electronic performances restricts the implementation of high-mobility polymers with rigid molecular backbone in deformable devices. Here, we report the realization of high mobility and stretchability on curvilinear polymer microstructures fabricated by capillary-gradient assembly method.

Modern lake sedimentary record of PAHs and OCPs in a typical karst wetland, south China: Response to human activities and environmental changes.

The sedimentary history of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) over the past 140 years in a lake sediment core from Huixian karst wetland was reconstructed. The total PAHs and OCPs concentrations ranged from 40.0 to 210 ng g and 0.

Deposition records of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and black carbon in peat core from Dajiuhu, Shennongjia, Central China: human activity imprint since the industrial revolution.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a kind of organic pollutants with carcinogenic, teratogenic, and mutagenic effects. This study aims to assess the effects of changes in China's socio-economic indicators represented by energy consumption and number of motor vehicles, on PAHs and black carbon (BC) deposition. For this, a 50-cm peat core from Dajiuhu peatland, Central China, was collected and divided into 50 subsamples to establish a sedimentary record of about 200 years with radioactive Pb.

Winding-Locked Carbon Nanotubes/Polymer Nanofibers Helical Yarn for Ultrastretchable Conductor and Strain Sensor.

Wearable and stretchable electronics including various conductors and sensors are featured with their lightweight, high flexibility, and easy integration into functional devices or textiles. However, most flexible electronic materials are still unsatisfactory due to their poor recoverability under large strain. Herein, we fabricated a carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and polyurethane (PU) nanofibers composite helical yarn with electrical conductivity, ultrastretchability, and high stretch sensitivity.

Nano-confined crystallization of organic ultrathin nanostructure arrays with programmable geometries.

Fabricating ultrathin organic semiconductor nanostructures attracts wide attention towards integrated electronic and optoelectronic applications. However, the fabrication of ultrathin organic nanostructures with precise alignment, tunable morphology and high crystallinity for device integration remains challenging. Herein, an assembly technique for fabricating ultrathin organic single-crystal arrays with different sizes and shapes is achieved by confining the crystallization process in a sub-hundred nanometer space.

Nanocracking and metallization doubly defined large-scale 3D plasmonic sub-10 nm-gap arrays as extremely sensitive SERS substrates.

Considering the technological difficulties in the existing approaches to form nanoscale gaps, a convenient method to fabricate three-dimensional (3D) sub-10 nm Ag/SiN gap arrays has been demonstrated in this study, controlled by a combination of stress-induced nanocracking of a SiN nanobridge and Ag nanofilm deposition. This scalable 3D plasmonic nanogap is specially suspended above a substrate, having a tunable nanogap width and large height-to-width ratio to form a nanocavity underneath. As a surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate, the 3D Ag/SiN nanogap shows a large Raman enhancement factor of ∼10 and extremely high sensitivity for the detection of Rhodamine 6G (R6G) molecules, even down to 10 M, indicating an extraordinary capability for single-molecule detection.

In-Plane Deformation Mechanics for Highly Stretchable Electronics.

Scissoring in thick bars suppresses buckling behavior in serpentine traces that have thicknesses greater than their widths, as detailed in a systematic set of analytical and experimental studies. Scissoring in thick copper traces enables elastic stretchability as large as ≈350%, corresponding to a sixfold improvement over previously reported values for thin geometries (≈60%).