Highly Compressible 3D-Printed Soft Magnetoelastic Sensors for Human-Machine Interfaces.

Incorporating perception into robots or objects holds great potential to revolutionize daily human life. To achieve this, critical factors include the design of an integrable three-dimensional (3D) soft sensor with self-powering capability, a wide working range, and tuneable functionalities. Here, we introduce a highly compressible 3D-printed soft magnetoelastic sensor with a wide strain sensing range.

Facile synthesis of epsilon iron oxides spray drying for millimeter-wave absorption.

A simple, scalable spray drying method was developed for high-yield epsilon iron oxide (ε-FeO) synthesis. The ε-FeO particle size can be tailored by varying the annealing temperature and molar ratio of Fe/Si, producing a high-purity ε-phase. This strategy also enables ferromagnetic resonance tuning, making it potentially usable in millimeter-wave absorbers.

Single Walled Carbon Nanotube-Based Electrical Biosensor for the Label-Free Detection of Pathogenic Bacteria.

We herein describe the development of a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT)-based electrical biosensor consisting of a two-terminal resistor, and report its use for the specific, label-free detection of pathogenic bacteria via changes in conductance. The ability of this biosensor to recognize different pathogenic bacteria was analyzed, and conditions were optimized with different probe concentrations. Using this system, the reference strains and clinical isolates of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli were successfully detected; in both cases, the sensor showed a detection limit of 10 CFU.

Cylindrical posts of Ag/SiO₂/Au multi-segment layer patterns for highly efficient surface enhanced Raman scattering.

We fabricated a regular array of Ag/SiO₂/Au multi-segment cylindrical nanopatterns to create a highly efficient surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) active substrate using an advanced soft-nanoimprint lithographic technique. The SERS spectra results for Rhodamine 6G (R6G) molecules on the Ag/SiO₂/Au multi-segment nanopatterns show that the highly ordered patterns and interlayer thickness are responsible for enhancing the sensitivity and reproducibility, respectively, The multi-segment nanopattern with a silica interlayer generates significant SERS enhancement (~EF = 1.2 x 10⁶) as compared to that of the bimetallic (Ag/Au) nanopatterns without a dielectric gap (~EF = 1.

Label-free detection of DNA hybridization using pyrene-functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes: effect of chemical structures of pyrene molecules on DNA sensing performance.

We investigate the effect of functional groups of pyrene molecules on the electrical sensing performance of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) based DNA biosensor, in which pyrenes with three different functional groups of carboxylic acid (Py-COOH), aldehyde (Py-CHO) and amine (Py-NH2) are used as linker molecules to immobilize DNA on the SWNT films. UV/Visible absorption spectra results show that all of the pyrene molecules are successfully immobilized on the SWNT surface via pi-pi stacking interaction. Based on fluorescence analysis, we show that the amide bonding of amine terminated DNA via pyrene containing carboxylic groups is the most efficient to immobilize DNA on the nanotube film.

New top-down approach for fabricating high-aspect-ratio complex nanostructures with 10 nm scale features.

We describe a new patterning technique, named "secondary sputtering lithography" that enables fabrication of ultrahigh-resolution (ca. 10 nm) and high aspect ratio (ca. 15) patterns of three-dimensional various shapes.

Tin nanoparticle thin film electrodes fabricated by the vacuum filtration method for enhanced battery performance.

A novel method for fabricating tin nanoparticle thin film electrodes that show good performance in lithium ion batteries during cycling is reported. The vacuum filtration method has the advantage of affording a high degree of dispersion of the electrode components, thereby providing good electrical contacts between the tin nanoparticles and the conductive carbon or current collector. The reversible capacity and initial Coulombic efficiency are 726 mA h g(-1) and 85.