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.

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.

Bioinspired claw-engaged and biolubricated swimming microrobots creating active retention in blood vessels.

Swimming microrobots guided in the circulation system offer considerable promise in precision medicine but currently suffer from problems such as limited adhesion to blood vessels, intensive blood flow, and immune system clearance-all reducing the targeted interaction. A swimming microrobot design with clawed geometry, a red blood cell (RBC) membrane-camouflaged surface, and magnetically actuated retention is discussed, allowing better navigation and inspired by the tardigrade's mechanical claw engagement, coupled to an RBC membrane coating, to minimize blood flow impact. Using clinical intravascular optical coherence tomography in vivo, the microrobots' activity and dynamics in a rabbit jugular vein was monitored, illustrating very effective magnetic propulsion, even against a flow of ~2.

Monitoring Cd in oily wastewater using an aptamer-graphene field-effect transistor with a selective wetting surface.

The discharge of oily industrial wastewater containing heavy metal ions with the development of industry severely threatens the environment and human health. Therefore, it is of great significance to monitor the concentration of heavy metal ions in oily wastewater quickly and effectively. Here, an integrated Cd monitoring system consisting of an aptamer-graphene field-effect transistor (A-GFET), oleophobic/hydrophilic surface and monitoring-alarm circuits was presented for monitoring the Cd concentration in oily wastewater.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Mechanochemical robust, magnetic-driven, superhydrophobic 3D porous materials for contaminated oil recovery.

Hypothesis: Research on the fabrication of superwettable adsorbents based on 3D porous materials has been attracting considerable attention due to the large storage space presented in their inner bodies. However, it is rare to present a facile, eco-friendly and ultralow-cost approach to modify the 3D porous materials with magnetism thereby obtaining a remotely controllable superhydrophobic/superoleophilic material.

Experiments: Based on this, the 3D magnetic superhydrophobic porous materials (MSPM) based on adsorbent cotton and sponge as substrates were fabricated by a simple dip-coating method using non-hazardous chemical reagents as raw materials.

Measurement of cytokine biomarkers using an aptamer-based affinity graphene nanosensor on a flexible substrate toward wearable applications.

We present an approach for the label-free detection of cytokine biomarkers using an aptamer-functionalized, graphene-based field effect transistor (GFET) nanosensor on a flexible, SiO2-coated substrate of the polymer polyethylene naphthalate (PEN). The nanosensor conforms to the underlying nonplanar surface and performs GFET-based rapid transduction of the aptamer-biomarker binding, thereby potentially allowing the detection of cytokine biomarkers that are sampled reliably from human bodily fluids (e.g.

Humanoid Identification of Fabric Material Properties by Vibration Spectrum Analysis.

In daily contexts, fabrics embodied in garments are in contact with human body all the time. Since fabric material properties-such as softness or fineness-can be easily sensed by human fingertips, fabric materials can be roughly identified by fingertip sliding. Identification by simply touching and sliding is convenient and fast, although the room for error is always very large.

Effective Boundary Slip Induced by Surface Roughness and Their Coupled Effect on Convective Heat Transfer of Liquid Flow.

As a significant interfacial property for micro/nano fluidic system, the effective boundary slip can be induced by the surface roughness. However, the effect of surface roughness on the effective slip is still not clear, both increased and decreased effective boundary slip were found with increased roughness. The present work develops a simplified model to study the effect of surface roughness on the effective boundary slip.

Optimal fractal tree-like microchannel networks with slip for laminar-flow-modified Murray's law.

The fractal tree-like branched network is an effective channel design structure to reduce the hydraulic resistance as compared with the conventional parallel channel network. In order for a laminar flow to achieve minimum hydraulic resistance, it is believed that the optimal fractal tree-like channel network obeys the well-accepted Murray's law of β = (β is the optimal diameter ratio between the daughter channel and the parent channel and is the branching number at every level), which is obtained under the assumption of no-slip conditions at the channel wall-liquid interface. However, at the microscale, the no-slip condition is not always reasonable; the slip condition should indeed be considered at some solid-liquid interfaces for the optimal design of the fractal tree-like channel network.

Interface conditions of roughness-induced superoleophilic and superoleophobic surfaces immersed in hexadecane and ethylene glycol.

Interface conditions are an important property that can affect the drag of fluid flow. For surfaces with different oleophobicity, the boundary slip at the solid-oil interface is mostly larger than that at the solid-water interface. Roughness is a key factor for the wettability of superoleophilic/superoleophobic surfaces, and it has been found to affect the effective value of slip length in measurements.

Tactile Perception of Roughness and Hardness to Discriminate Materials by Friction-Induced Vibration.

The human fingertip is an exquisitely powerful bio-tactile sensor in perceiving different materials based on various highly-sensitive mechanoreceptors distributed all over the skin. The tactile perception of surface roughness and material hardness can be estimated by skin vibrations generated during a fingertip stroking of a surface instead of being maintained in a static position. Moreover, reciprocating sliding with increasing velocities and pressures are two common behaviors in humans to discriminate different materials, but the question remains as to what the correlation of the sliding velocity and normal load on the tactile perceptions of surface roughness and hardness is for material discrimination.