Nacre-Inspired,Liquid Metal-Based Ultrasensitive Electronic Skin by Spatially Regulated Cracking Strategy

The realization of liquid metal-based wearable systems will be a milestone toward high-performance, integrated electronic skin. However, despite the revolutionary progress achieved in many other components of electronic skin, liquid metal-based flexible sensors still suffer from poor sensitivity due to the insufficient resistance change of liquid metal to deformation. Herein, a nacre-inspired architecture composed of a biphasic pattern (liquid metal with Cr/Cu underlayer) as “bricks” and strain-sensitive Ag film as “mortar” is developed, which breaks the long-standing sensitivity bottleneck of liquid metal-based electronic skin. With 2 orders of magnitude of sensitivity amplification while maintaining wide (>85%) working range, for the first time, liquid metal-based strain sensors rival the state-of-art counterparts. This liquid metal composite features spatially regulated cracking behavior. On the one hand, hard Cr cells locally modulate the strain distribution, which avoids premature cut-through cracks and prolongs the defect propagation in the adjacent Ag film. On the other hand, the separated liquid metal cells prevent unfavorable continuous liquid-metal paths and create crack-free regions during strain. Demonstrated in diverse scenarios, the proposed design concept may spark more applications of ultrasensitive liquid metal-based electronic skins, and reveals a pathway for sensor development via crack engineering.     

Bioinspired Intervertebral Disc with Multidirectional Stiffness Prepared via Multimaterial Additive Manufacturing

Degenerative disc disease (DDD) has become a significant public health issue worldwide. This can result in loss of spinal function affecting patient health and quality of life. Artificial total disc replacement (A-TDR) is an effective approach for treating symptomatic DDD that compensates for lost functionality and helps patients perform daily activities. However, because current A-TDR devices lack the unique structure and material characteristics of natural intervertebral discs (IVDs), they fail to replicate the multidirectional stiffness needed to match physiological motions and characterize anisotropic behavior. It is still unclear how the multidirectional stiffness of the disc is affected by structural parameters and material characteristics. Herein, a bioinspired intervertebral disc (BIVD-L) based on a representative human lumbar segment is developed. The proposed BIVD-L reproduces the multidirectional stiffness needed for the most common physiological kinematic behaviors. The results demonstrate that the multidirectional stiffness of the BIVD-L can be regulated by structural and material parameters. The results of this research deepen knowledge of the biomechanical behavior of the human lumbar disc and may provide new inspirations for the design and fabrication of A-TDR devices for both engineering and functional applications.     

An Artificial Nocturnal Flower via Humidity‐Gated Photoactuation in Liquid Crystal Networks

Beyond their colorful appearances and versatile geometries, flowers can self‐shape‐morph by adapting to environmental changes. Such responses are often regulated by a delicate interplay between different stimuli such as temperature, light, and humidity, giving rise to the beauty and complexity of the plant kingdom. Nature inspires scientists to realize artificial systems that mimic their natural counterparts in function, flexibility, and adaptation. Yet, many of the artificial systems demonstrated to date fail to mimic the adaptive functions, due to the lack of multi‐responsivity and sophisticated control over deformation directionality. Herein, a new class of liquid‐crystal‐network (LCN) photoactuators whose response is controlled by delicate interplay between light and humidity is presented. Using a novel deformation mechanism in LCNs, humidity‐gated photoactuation, an artificial nocturnal flower is devised that is closed under daylight conditions when the humidity level is low and/or the light level is high, while it opens in the dark when the humidity level is high. The humidity‐gated photoactuators can be fueled with lower light intensities than conventional photothermal LCN actuators. This, combined with facile control over the speed, geometry, and directionality of movements, renders the “nocturnal actuator” promising for smart and adaptive bioinspired microrobotics.     

A comprehensive review on bioinspired solar photovoltaic cells

Researchers have derived inspiration from the biophotosynthetic structures in nature and have started to synthesize the modified bioinspired solar cells copying the evolved organic and inorganic material properties. One of the highlighted examples of bioinspired photo voltaic (PV) cells is the astonishing achievement of an increase in the absorption of integrated sunlight waves in unpatterned solar cells simulated from the wings of the butterfly. Further, deployment possibilities of incorporating flexible cells on flat or curved surfaces for optimizing performance are also under progress. This article mainly discusses the recent concepts of bioinspired solar cells at the research and development level with the prospects and challenges that lie ahead in the upcoming field of photovoltaic renewable energy cell technology. Different potential materials found suitable for bioinspired solar cells construction are reviewed with their particular challenges.     

Daytime Radiative Cooling: Artificial and Bioinspired Strategies

Traditional cooling systems have been posing a significant challenge to the global energy crisis and climate change due to the high energy consumption of the cooling process. In recent years, the emerging daytime radiative cooling provides a promising solution to address the bottleneck of traditional cooling technology by passively dissipating heat radiation to outer space without any energy consumption through the atmospheric transparency window(8～13μm). Whereas its stringent optical criteria require sophisticated and high cost fabrication producers, which hinders the applicability of radiative cooling technology. Many efforts have been devoted to develop high-efficiency and low-cost daytime radiative cooling technologies for practical application, including the nanophotonics based artificial strategy and bioinspired strategy. In order to systematically summarize the development and latest advance of daytime radiative cooling to help developing the most promising approach, here in this paper we will review and compare the two typical strategies on exploring the prospect approach for applicable radiative cooling technology. We will firstly sketch the fundamental of radiative cooling and summarize the common methods for construction radiative cooling devices. Then we will put an emphasis on the summarization and comparison of the two strategies for designing the radiative cooling device, and outlook the prospect and extending application of the daytime radiative cooling technology.     

仿蛛丝纤维集水进展

水资源短缺已经是21世纪全球性的重大问题,如何解决水资源短缺问题迫在眉睫.清晨挂满硕大水滴的蜘蛛网为解决水资源短缺问题提供了一个良好的思路.全面总结了仿蛛丝纤维集水领域的研究进展,重点介绍了仿蛛丝纤维的常见制备方法,包括瑞利不稳定法、电动力学技术和微流控法,详细划分了各类制备方法的子类,并对每一种方法的制备步骤、原理和优缺点进行了详细介绍.同时,详细介绍了仿蛛丝纤维集水的主要原理,包括拉普拉斯压力差、表面能梯度、滞后效应、悬挂能力和交叉结构受力原理,为集水工程与技术的开发和改进提供了理论基础.另外,介绍了单根仿蛛丝纤维集水、纤维交叉结构集水和大规模集水等仿蛛丝微纤维的集水行为.最后,对仿蛛丝纤维集水的未来发展方向进行了分析和展望.将有助于全面了解仿蛛丝纤维的制备方法、集水机理及集水行为,对集水效率的提高、油水分离、材料界面、流体控制和功能材料等领域的发展起到促进作用.