Room temperature processed protective layer for printed silver electrodes.

Low-temperature processed printed silver electrodes pave the way for electrical connections in flexible substrates with reduced energy consumption. Despite their excellent performance and simple process, printed silver electrodes' poor stability limits their applications. This study demonstrates a transparent protective layer without thermal annealing for printed silver electrodes, which maintains its electrical properties for a long period of time.

Investigation on photopolymerization of PEGDA to fabricate high-aspect-ratio microneedles.

Microneedles (MNs) are micron-sized needles that can penetrate the stratum corneum, enabling the non-invasive and painless administration of drugs and vaccines. In this work, fabrication conditions for high-aspect-ratio MNs by the photopolymerization of polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA) were investigated. Ultraviolet (UV) light was used to crosslink photocurable prepolymers in specific areas defined by a photomask.

High-permeability vacuum membrane distillation utilizing mechanically compressed carbon nanotube membranes.

Membranes for membrane distillation (MD) are mostly made of polymeric and ceramic materials. We demonstrate here that the laterally-compressed, vertically-aligned CNTs (VACNT) obtainable from a CNT forest are an excellent membrane material for vacuum membrane distillation (VMD). The VACNT structure provides interstices between CNTs for extracting vaporized water molecules, while efficiently filtering the impurity salts.

Well-dispersed Pt/RuO-decorated mesoporous N-doped carbon as a hybrid electrocatalyst for Li-O batteries.

Despite their high energy density, the poor cycling performance of lithium-oxygen (Li-O) batteries limits their practical application. Therefore, to improve cycling performance, considerable attention has been paid to the development of an efficient electrocatalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Catalysts that can more effectively reduce the overpotential and improve the cycling performance for the OER during charging are of particular interest.

Carbon Quantum Dots' Synthesis with a Strong Chemical Claw for Five Transition Metal Sensing in the Irving-Williams Series.

Carbon quantum dots (CQDs) are an excellent eco-friendly fluorescence material, ideal for various ecological testing systems. Herein, we establish uniform microwave synthesis of the group of carbon quantum dots with specific functionalization of ethylenediamine, diethylenetriamine, and three types of Trilon (A, B and C) with chelate claws -C-NH. CQDs' properties were studied and applied in order to sense metal cations in an aquatic environment.

Citric Acid-Mediated Microwave-Hydrothermal Synthesis of Mesoporous F-Doped HAp Nanorods from Bio-Waste for Biocidal Implant Applications.

In this current research, mesoporous nano-hydroxyapatite (HAp) and F-doped hydroxyapatite (FHAp) were effectively obtained through a citric acid-enabled microwave hydrothermal approach. Citric acid was used as a chelating and modifying agent for tuning the structure and porosity of the HAp structure. This is the first report to use citric acid as a modifier for producing mesoporous nano HAp and F-doped FHAp.

Mesoporous Mn-doped hydroxyapatite nanorods obtained via pyridinium chloride enabled microwave-assisted synthesis by utilizing Donax variabilis seashells for implant applications.

Manganese-doped mesoporous hydroxyapatite (MnHAp) nanorods, a bio-apatite were synthesized via pyridinium chloride mediated microwave approach using bio-waste Donax variabilis seashells to treat orthopedic infections. This is the first report on using pyridinium chloride mediated mesoporous MnHAp nanorods synthesis. Pure and Mn doped HAp samples were examined using Raman spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) studies to confirm the prepared HAp nanorods.

Development and Characteristics of Multipurpose Transparent Polyurethane Film.

In industry, recent research developments include flexible films and foldable films. The next step is the development of stretchable films, and studies are being intensively carried out. Research on the development of stretchable and transparent materials is also increasing greatly.

Large-Scale Rapid Laser Sintering of Highly Stretchable Electrodes Using a Homogenized Rectangular Laser Beam.

This study explored the feasibility of a fast and uniform large-scale laser sintering method for sintering stretchable electrodes. A homogenized rectangular infrared (IR) laser with a wavelength of 980 nm was used in the sintering process. A highly stretchable composite electrode was fabricated using silver (Ag) microparticles and Ag flakes as the fillers and polyester resin as the binder on the polyurethane substrate.

Impact of Iron on the Fe-Co-Ni Ternary Nanocomposites Structural and Magnetic Features Obtained via Chemical Precipitation Followed by Reduction Process for Various Magnetically Coupled Devices Applications.

This paper presents the synthesis of Fe-Co-Ni nanocomposites by chemical precipitation, followed by a reduction process. It was found that the influence of the chemical composition and reduction temperature greatly alters the phase formation, its structures, particle size distribution, and magnetic properties of Fe-Co-Ni nanocomposites. The initial hydroxides of Fe-Co-Ni combinations were prepared by the co-precipitation method from nitrate precursors and precipitated using alkali.

Ascorbic Acid-Assisted Microwave Synthesis of Mesoporous Ag-Doped Hydroxyapatite Nanorods from Biowaste Seashells for Implant Applications.

Post-surgery implant infection is one of the most challenging issues in orthopedics and it is mainly caused by infective micro-organisms. A potential approach to overcome this issue is developing biomaterials with efficient antibacterial activity. The main intention of this present research is devoted to ascorbic acid-assisted microwave synthesis of mesoporous (silver) Ag-doped hydroxyapatite (HAp) nanorods using biowaste seashells with antibacterial properties.

Click Chemistry-Based Injectable Hydrogels and Bioprinting Inks for Tissue Engineering Applications.

Background: The tissue engineering and regenerative medicine approach require biomaterials which are biocompatible, easily reproducible in less time, biodegradable and should be able to generate complex three-dimensional (3D) structures to mimic the native tissue structures. Click chemistry offers the much-needed multifunctional hydrogel materials which are interesting biomaterials for the tissue engineering and bioprinting inks applications owing to their excellent ability to form hydrogels with printability instantly and to retain the live cells in their 3D network without losing the mechanical integrity even under swollen state.

Methods: In this review, we present the recent developments of hydrogel in the field of click chemistry reported for the tissue engineering and 3D bioinks applications, by mainly covering the diverse types of click chemistry methods such as Diels-Alder reaction, strain-promoted azide-alkyne cycloaddition reactions, thiol-ene reactions, oxime reactions and other interrelated reactions, excluding enzyme-based reactions.

Current Status of Development and Intellectual Properties of Biomimetic Medical Materials.

Biomimetic medical materials are the biomaterials which mimic the important characteristic features of natural material/tissue structures or architectures and are mainly used in biomedical field for their applications in tissue regeneration, medical devices, biosensors and drug delivery. It is one of the leading research topics which have the ability to replace the existing biomaterials and medical devices and to development new biomaterials. The innovation and development in this research area are growing quickly because of the state-of-the-art techniques like nanobiotechnology, biosensors, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, and 3D (bio)printing.

Recent trends in bioinks for 3D printing.

Background: The worldwide demand for the organ replacement or tissue regeneration is increasing steadily. The advancements in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine have made it possible to regenerate such damaged organs or tissues into functional organ or tissue with the help of 3D bioprinting. The main component of the 3D bioprinting is the bioink, which is crucial for the development of functional organs or tissue structures.

A Reliable TTP-Based Infrastructure with Low Sensor Resource Consumption for the Smart Home Multi-Platform.

With the ICT technology making great progress in the smart home environment, the ubiquitous environment is rapidly emerging all over the world, but problems are also increasing proportionally to the rapid growth of the smart home market such as multiplatform heterogeneity and new security threats. In addition, the smart home sensors have so low computing resources that they cannot process complicated computation tasks, which is required to create a proper security environment. A service provider also faces overhead in processing data from a rapidly increasing number of sensors.

Leaky Integrate-and-Fire Neuron Circuit Based on Floating-Gate Integrator.

The artificial spiking neural network (SNN) is promising and has been brought to the notice of the theoretical neuroscience and neuromorphic engineering research communities. In this light, we propose a new type of artificial spiking neuron based on leaky integrate-and-fire (LIF) behavior. A distinctive feature of the proposed FG-LIF neuron is the use of a floating-gate (FG) integrator rather than a capacitor-based one.