Electrospun Lignin/ZnO Nanofibrous Membranes for Self-Powered Ultrasensitive Flexible Airflow Sensor and Wearable Device.

The interest and demand for flexible sensors and wearable devices are rapidly growing. The added benefit of electricity generation, enabling gas sensors to be self-powered, increases the applicability of these devices for flexible and wearable airflow sensors. Inspired by water evaporation-induced power generation, this study explores its potential in sensing applications, which has not yet been explored in detail.

Design of Hydrogel Electrolytes Using Strong Bacterial Cellulose with Weak Ionic Interactions.

Hydrogel electrolytes with both high ionic conductivity and sufficient mechanical strength are in great demand but remain a long-standing challenge. Here, we report a simple method to fabricate highly conductive and strong hydrogels (IBVA) by leveraging a layered cellulose network with weak ionic interactions. Specifically, bacterial cellulose (BC) membranes with high crystallinity and mechanical strength are employed as the strong skeletons of the hydrogel matrix.

Dehydration regulates structural reorganization of dynamic hydrogels.

The dehydration process is widely recognized as a significant phenomenon in nature. Hydrogels, which are important functional materials with high water content and crosslinked networks, encounter the issue of dehydration in their practical applications. Here, we report the distinctive anisotropic dehydration modality of dynamic hydrogels, which is fundamentally different from the more commonly observed isotropic dehydration of covalent hydrogels.

Semiconducting Polymer Dots Directly Stabilized with Serum Albumin: Preparation, Characterization, and Cellular Immunolabeling.

Semiconducting polymer dots (Pdots) are brightly fluorescent nanoparticles of growing interest for bioanalysis and imaging. A recurring challenge with these materials is obtaining robust physical and colloidal stability and low nonspecific binding. Here, we prepared and characterized Pdots with bovine serum albumin (BSA) as the stabilizing agent (BSA-Pdots) instead of a more conventionally used amphiphilic polymer, both without and with cross-linking of the protein using glutaraldehyde (BSA(GA)-Pdots) or disuccinimidyl glutarate.

Luminescent Surface-Tethered Polymer Brush Materials.

Surface-tethered polymers are unique molecular architectures that have been recently used in advanced sensors, electronics and biomedical applications. However, techniques for characterizing these materials in their surface-tethered form remain limited. The incorporation of luminescent functionality into these materials has enabled new characterization methods, while also unlocking new applications in optoelectronics, stenography and sensing.

Preparation of Patterned and Multilayer Thin Films for Organic Electronics via Oxygen-Tolerant SI-PET-RAFT.

An oxygen-tolerant approach is described for preparing surface-tethered polymer films of organic semiconductors directly from electrode substrates using polymer brush photolithography. A photoinduced electron transfer-reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (PET-RAFT) approach was used to prepare multiblock polymer architectures with the structures of multi-layer organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), including electron-transport, emissive, and hole-transport layers. The preparation of thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) and thermally assisted fluorescence (TAF) trilayer OLED architectures are described.

Toward Biodegradable Electronics: Ionic Diodes Based on a Cellulose Nanocrystal-Agarose Hydrogel.

Bioderived cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are used to create light, flexible, biocompatible, and biodegradable electronic devices. Herein, surface modification of cellulose nanocrystals was employed to fabricate cationic and anionic CNCs. Subsequently, we demonstrated rectification behavior from a fixed junction between two agarose hydrogels doped with cationic and anionic cellulose nanocrystals.

Multichromic Monolayer Terpyridine-Based Electrochromic Materials.

The article describes novel electrochromic materials (ECMs) that are based on a monolayer consisting of two or three isostructural metal complexes of 4'-(pyridin-4-yl)-2,2':6',2''-terpyridine simultaneously deposited on surface-enhanced support. The support was made by screen printing of indium tin oxide (ITO) nanoparticles on ITO-glass and has a surface area sufficient for a monolayer to give color visible to the naked eye. The ability to separately electrochemically address the oxidation state of the metal centers on the surface (i.

1,8-Naphthalimide-Based Polymers Exhibiting Deep-Red Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence and Their Application in Ratiometric Temperature Sensing.

A series of naphthalimide (NAI)-based red-emissive thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) acrylic monomers has been designed and synthesized. When copolymerized with a host material by Cu(0)-reversible deactivation radical polymerization (Cu(0)-RDRP), polymers exhibiting orange to deep-red TADF were obtained with quantum yields of up to 58% in solution and 31% in the solid state. These emitters exhibit dual emission consisting of high-energy prompt fluorescence from the NAI acceptor (λ = 340 nm in toluene) and red-delayed fluorescence from the charge-transfer process (λ = 633-711 nm in toluene).

Ligand Impact on Monolayer Electrochromic Material Properties.

In this study, we present a range of efficient highly durable electrochromic materials that demonstrate excellent redox and lifetime stability, sufficient coloration contrast ratios, and the best-in-class electron-transfer constants. The materials were formed by anchoring as little as a monolayer of predefined iron complexes on a surface-enhanced conductive solid support. The thickness of the substrate was optimized to maximize the change in optical density.

Hemoglobin-driven iron-directed assembly of gold nanoparticles.

The ability to form complex 3D architectures using nanoparticles (NPs) as the building blocks and complex macromolecules that direct these assemblies remains a challenging objective for nanotechnology. Here we report results in which the partial substitution of classical Turkevich citrate-capped gold NPs by a novel, heteroaromatic ligand (L) results in NPs able to form coordination-driven assemblies mediated by free or protein-bound iron ions. The morphology of these assemblies can be tuned depending on the source of iron.

Terpyridine-Based Monolayer Electrochromic Materials.

Novel electrochromic (EC) materials were developed and formed by a two-step chemical deposition process. First, a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of 2,2':6',2″-terpyridin-4'-ylphosphonic acid, L, was deposited on the surface of a nanostructured conductive indium-tin oxide (ITO) screen-printed support by simple submerging of the support into an aqueous solution of L. Further reaction of the SAM with Fe or Ru ions results in the formation of a monolayer of the redox-active metal complex covalently bound to the ITO support (Fe-L/ITO and Ru-L/ITO, respectively).