Living creatures are continuous sources of inspiration for designing synthetic materials. However, living creatures are typically different from synthetic materials because the former consist of living cells to support their growth and regeneration. Although natural systems can grow materials with sophisticated microstructures, how to harness living cells to grow materials with predesigned microstructures in engineering systems remains largely elusive. Here, an attempt to exploit living bacteria and 3D-printed materials to grow bionic mineralized composites with ordered microstructures is reported. The bionic composites exhibit outstanding specific strength and fracture toughness, which are comparable to natural composites, and exceptional energy absorption capability superior to both natural and artificial counterparts. This report opens the door for 3D-architectured hybrid synthetic-living materials with living ordered microstructures and exceptional properties.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/adma.202006946 | DOI Listing |
Adv Sci (Weinh)
January 2025
College of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 1, Sub-Lane Xiangshan, Xihu District, Hangzhou, 310024, China.
The integration of mid-infrared (MIR) photodetectors with built-in encryption capabilities holds immense promise for advancing secure communications in decentralized networks and compact sensing systems. However, achieving high sensitivity, self-powered operation, and reliable performance at room temperature within a miniaturized form factor remains a formidable challenge, largely due to constraints in MIR light absorption and the intricacies of embedding encryption at the device level. Here, a novel on-chip metamaterial-enhanced, 2D tantalum nickel selenide (Ta₂NiSe₅)-based photodetector, meticulously designed with a custom-engineered plasmonic resonance microstructure to achieve self-powered photodetection in the nanoampere range is unveiled.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Phys Chem B
January 2025
Key Laboratory for Ecological Metallurgy of Multimetallic Mineral (Ministry of Education), School of Metallurgy, Northeastern University, Shenyang, Liaoning 110819, China.
This study employs first-principles molecular dynamics (FPMD) simulations combined with the Voronoi tessellation method to explore the microstructure, transport properties, electronic properties, and Raman spectra of the NaF-AlF-CaF/LiF/KF systems with varying cryolite ratios, additive types, and concentrations. The results indicate that Na, Ca, Li, and K exist in a free state in the molten salts, while Al forms complex ion groups in the form of [AlF] with F, and free F also exists in the molten salts. In the NaF-AlF-CaF system, the average Al-F distance is slightly shorter than that in the other two systems, while the Al-F coordination number is higher in NaF-AlF-LiF.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNano Lett
January 2025
Department of Biochemical Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, State Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, Frontier Science Center for Synthetic Biology and Key Laboratory of Systems Bioengineering (MOE), Tianjin University, Tianjin 300350, China.
Organisms that survive at freezing temperatures produce antifreeze proteins (AFPs) to manage ice nucleation and growth. Inspired by AFPs, a series of synthetic materials have been developed to mimic these proteins in order to avoid the limitations of natural AFPs. Despite their great importance in various antifreeze applications, the relationship between structure and performance of AFP mimics remains unclear, especially whether their molecular charge-specific effects on ice inhibition exist.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWater Res
December 2024
Institute for Advanced Membrane Technology (IAMT), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1, 76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany. Electronic address:
In flow-through reactors, the photodegradation rate can be improved by enhancing contact and increasing the photocatalyst loading. Both can be attained with a higher surface-to-volume ratio. While previous studies focused on thin membranes (30 - 130 µm) with small pore sizes of 20 - 650 nm, this work employed poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE) supports, of which pore sizes are in the order of 10 µm, while the porosities and thicknesses are variable (22.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
January 2025
School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Anhui University of Science and Technology, AnHui Huainan, 232001, China.
In order to study the durability of solidified waste mud, dry-wet cycle experiments were carried out under the erosion of sodium chloride solutions with different concentrations. The unconfined compressive strength and mass change rate of solidified mud were studied and analyzed. The results show that when the number of dry-wet cycles increases, the unconfined compressive strength and mass of the sample show a downward trend.
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