High Durable,Biocompatible, and Flexible Piezoelectric Pulse Sensor Using Single‐Crystalline III‐N Thin Film

Flexible pulse sensors that can detect subtle skin surface deformation caused by arterial pulses are key components for developing non‐invasive continuous pulse waveform monitoring systems that provide vital health status parameters. Piezoelectric pulse sensors (PPSs) offer a promising solution for flexible pulse sensors due to their relatively high sensitivity and stability, and low power consumption, when compared with conventional active pulse sensors. However, the reported high‐performance PPSs contain toxic lead, which limits their practical applications. In this study, a highly sensitive and flexible PPS that detects surface deflections on the micrometer scale is fabricated with single‐crystalline group III‐nitride thin film. This biocompatible flexible PPS is sensitive enough to detect pulse waveform with detailed characteristic peaks from most arterial pulse sites when attached to the skin surface without applying external pressure. Useful physiological parameters such as the pulse rate, artery augmentation index, and pulse wave velocity can be drawn from the as‐acquired pulse waveforms. The flexible PPS can also be used to continuously monitor the arterial pulse waveform.     

Thermoresponsive Semiconducting Polymer Nanoparticles for Contrast‐Enhanced Photoacoustic Imaging

Photoacoustic (PA) agents with biomarker‐activated signals are developed to enhance the signal‐to‐background ratios (SBRs) for in vivo imaging; however, their SBRs still heavily rely on the concentration difference of biomarkers between diseased and normal tissues. By contrast, external stimuli can provide a remote way to noninvasively control the signal generation from the PA agents and in turn enhance SBR, which are less exploited. This study reports the development of thermoresponsive semiconducting polymer brush with poly(N,N‐dimethylacrylamide)‐r‐(hydroxypropyl acrylate) (PDMA‐r‐HPA) grafts for contrast‐enhanced in vivo imaging. Such a polymer is amphiphilic and can self‐assemble into the nanoparticle (termed as SPNph1) in an aqueous medium, and has lower critical solution temperatures (LCSTs) at 48 °C. Thus, SPNph1 not only has higher photothermal conversion efficiency than the control polymer without PDMA‐r‐HPA grafts, but also can undergo phase separation to form large nanoparticles, leading to enhanced PA signals above LCST. The thermoresponsive PA property of SPNph1 enables in situ remote manipulation of PA signals by photoirradiation to further enhance the tumor SBR. Thus, this study introduces a new generation of organic PA agents with thermoresponsive signal for high‐contrast in vivo imaging.     

Conducting‐Polymer Nanomaterials for High‐Performance Sensor Applications: Issues and Challenges

Owing to their promising applications in electronic and optoelectronic devices, conducting polymers have been continuously studied during the past few decades. Nevertheless, only limited progress had been made in conducting‐polymer‐based sensors until nanostructured conducting polymers were demonstrated for high‐performance signal transducers. Significant advances in the synthesis of conducting‐polymer nanomaterials have been recently reported, with enhanced sensitivity relative to their bulk counterparts. Today, conducting‐polymer nanomaterials rival metal and inorganic semiconductor nanomaterials in sensing capability. However, there are still several technological challenges to be solved for practical sensor applications of conducting‐polymer nanomaterials. Here, the key issues on conducting‐polymer nanomaterials in the development of state‐of‐the‐art sensors are discussed. Furthermore, a perspective on next‐generation sensor technology from a materials point of view is also given.     

Ultrasensitive Specific Stimulant Assay Based on Molecularly Imprinted Photonic Hydrogels

Taking theophylline and (1R,2S)‐(−)‐ephedrine as template molecules, two imprinted photonic‐hydrogel films are prepared by a combination of colloidal‐crystal and molecular‐imprinting techniques. This paper shows a new approach for rapid and handy stimulant detection with high sensitivity and specificity. One film is proposed for analogous molecule assay, another one for chiral recognition. The key point of this approach is that the imprinted photonic polymer (IPP) consists of a three‐dimensional (3D), highly‐ordered and interconnected macroporous array with a thin hydrogel wall, where nanocavities complementary to analytes in shape and binding sites are distributed. This special, bicontinuous, hierarchical structure enables this polymer to report quickly, easily, sensitively and directly a molecular recognition event without any transducers and treatments for analytes (label‐free). The inherent affinity of the nanocavities, deriving from molecular imprinting, makes these sensors highly specific to analytes, even if in a competitive environment. Their sensitive and specific responses to stimulants in buffer are determined by Bragg diffractive shifts due to the lattice change of their 3D ordered macroporous arrays resulting from their preferential rebinding to the target molecules. The measurements show that the prepared hydrogel films exhibit high sensitivity in such a 0.1 fM concentration of analytes and specificity even in a competitive urinous buffer. The reported method provides a rapid and handy approach for stimulant assay and drug analysis in athletic sports.     

Human Pulse Diagnosis for Medical Assessments Using a Wearable Piezoelectret Sensing System

Real‐time and continuous monitoring of physiological signals is essential for mobile health, which is becoming a popular tool for efficient and convenient medical services. Here, an active pulse sensing system that can detect the weak vibration patterns of the human radial artery is constructed with a sandwich‐structure piezoelectret that has high equivalent piezoelectricity. The high precision and stability of the system result in possible medical assessment applications, including the capability to identify common heart problems (such as arrhythmia); the feasibility to conduct pulse palpation measurements similar to well‐trained doctors in Traditional Chinese Medicine; and the possibility to measure and read blood pressure.     

Rationally Designed Donor–Acceptor Random Copolymers with Optimized Complementary Light Absorption for Highly Efficient All‐Polymer Solar Cells

Most of the high‐performance all‐polymer solar cells (all‐PSCs) reported to date are based on polymer donor and polymer acceptor pairs with largely overlapped light absorption properties, which seriously limits the efficiency of all‐PSCs. This study reports the development of a series of random copolymer donors possessing complementary light absorption with the naphthalenediimide‐based polymer acceptor P(NDI2HD‐T2) for highly efficient all‐PSCs. By controlling the molar ratio of the electron‐rich benzodithiophene (BDTT) and electron‐deficient fluorinated‐thienothiophene (TT‐F) units, a series of polymer donors with BDTT:TT‐F ratios of 1:1 (P1), 3:1 (P2), 5:1 (P3), and 7:1 (P4) are prepared. The synthetic control of polymer composition allows for precise tuning of the light absorption properties of these new polymer donors, enabling optimization of light absorption properties to complement those of the P(NDI2HD‐T2) acceptor. Copolymer P1 is found to be the optimal polymer donor for the fullerene‐based solar cells due to its high light absorption, whereas the highest power conversion efficiency of 6.81% is achieved for the all‐PSCs with P3, which has the most complementary light absorption with P(NDI2HD‐T2).     

Artificial Antibodies for Bioanalyte Detection—Sensing Viruses and Proteins

Molecular imprinting has become an increasingly popular method for the design of artificial antibodies against a variety of analytes, and especially as a method for detecting viruses and proteins. Self‐assembly of a virus on a stamp enables us to generate patterns on a polymer. Combined with mass‐sensitive transducers, the reinclusion of viruses, such as the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), the human rhinovirus (HRV), and the parapox ovis virus (PPOV), into the patterned polymer layer can be followed directly. Recognition is favored by a geometrical fit between the analyte and the patterned layer, as well as by noncovalent interactions; the former can be observed by the highly selective enrichment of rod‐shaped TMV and globular HRV on their respective imprints, showing only negligible cross‐sensitivity. The latter is demonstrated by the selective incorporation of different HRV serotypes (HRV‐1a and HRV‐16) that have the same geometric dimensions but nonetheless are clearly distinguished from each other. Similar behavior is observed with protein molecules that are about one order of magnitude smaller than viruses, having molecular dimensions of a few nanometers. When using proteins for imprinting, the resulting materials usually preferably incorporate into their own template.     

一种频率可调超声波发生器设计

不同清洗物所需的清洗频段不同,需要接入的超声波换能器也不同。为了提高超声波发生器对不同频段换能器的适应性,设计了一种由上位机进行频率给定、锁相环电路进行频率跟踪的闭环控制系统。整个系统由STM32主控制器产生脉冲宽度调制(PWM)脉冲信号,控制EXB841优化驱动电路,驱动高频全桥逆变电路;通过阻抗匹配和输出电流的检测,保证作用于换能器输出的功率值最大。同时对于不同频段的超声波换能器,需要调整给定输入,保持发生器在频率基准值的一定范围内进行频率跟踪。超声波换能器测试样机工作频率点为28.8 kHz,最大功率1 500 W,将本系统接入后谐振频率保持在28.8 kHz左右,输出功率近似为最大值。经测试,该系统对于工作频率点为20~40 kHz的超声波换能器都具有较好的适应性。     

Fast and Accurate Imaging of Lymph Node Metastasis with Multifunctional Near‐Infrared Polymer Dots

Metastasis to regional lymph nodes is a significant prognostic indicator for cancer progression. There is a great demand for rapid and accurate diagnosis of metastasis to the lymph nodes. In this work, folate receptor‐targeted trimodal polymer dots are designed for near‐infrared (NIR)/photoacoustic (PA)/magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of lymph node metastasis. Confocal microscopic analyses and flow cytometry show that pulmonary mucosa epithelial cell carcinoma NCI‐H292 with expression of the folate receptor is positive for folate‐functional polymer dots. In vivo and ex vivo NIR imaging results verify that prepared polymer dots show rapid and high uptake in the metastatic lymph nodes, can effectively distinguish metastatic and normal lymph nodes for 1 h postinjection, and have great potential in real‐time imaging‐guided surgery. Furthermore, ten metastatic lymph nodes from the tumor‐bearing mice are detected by NIR imaging via intratumoral injection of polymer dots. Moreover, in vivo PA and MR imaging confirm the enhanced PA and MR signals of polymer dots in the metastatic lymph nodes as well as enlarged lymph nodes in tumor‐bearing mice. The results of this study provide a unique approach using trimodal polymer dots for the rapid and precise diagnosis of lymph node metastasis in vivo.     

基于PVDF的可穿戴生理信号监测系统

呼吸、心率、鼾声反映了人体在睡眠时的大量信息，该文以聚偏氟乙烯(PVDF)作为敏感单元进行呼吸、脉搏、鼾声信号的监测。根据所采用的传感器特性分别进行了电荷放大电路、陷波电路及电压放大电路的设计。硬件电路通过聚合物锂电池进行供电，根据聚合物电池的特性分别为电池设计了充电电路、保护电路及放电电路，硬件电路整体集成在一块印制电路板(PCB)上。同时设计了基于Android 设备的APP，以可视化形式实时显示生理信号数据，并对其进行长期储存，便于后期医生进行睡眠呼吸病症的分析诊断。该研究的目的是能准确监测睡眠生理参数，提高被测试者的使用舒适感。     

Optimized Preparation of Elastically Soft,Highly Piezoelectric,Cellular Ferroelectrets from Nonvoided Poly(ethylene Terephthalate) Films

Electrically charged cellular polymer films can exhibit very high piezoelectric activity and are therefore more and more often employed in advanced electromechanical and electro‐acoustical transducers. In this paper, we report an optimized sequence of steps for preparing such ferroelectrets from commercial nonvoided poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PETP) films by means of foaming with CO₂, biaxial mechanical stretching, controlled void inflation, and bipolar electric charging. The nonvoided PETP films were foamed with supercritical CO₂ at a suitably high pressure and subsequently annealed for stabilization. The cellular foam structure was further optimized by means of well‐controlled biaxial stretching in a commercial stretcher and sometimes subsequent inflation in a pressure chamber. Bipolar electric charging of the internal voids was achieved through the application of high electric fields in an SF₆ atmosphere. The new optimized PETP ferroelectrets exhibit quite large piezoelectric coefficients up to almost 500 pC N^–1, for which unusually low elastic stiffnesses of only around 0.3 MPa are essential. The PETP‐foam ferroelectrets possess unclamped thickness‐extension resonance frequencies between approximately 120 and 250 kHz, and are thus highly suitable for several established as well as novel ultrasonic‐transducer applications.     

ADCP压电换能器及其校准方法研究进展

声学多普勒流速剖面仪(ADCP)在海洋学中应用广泛,是目前最主要的流速流量测量设备,其关键部件是压电换能器,用以发射和接收声学信号。该文结合ADCP仪器自身的发展,梳理了ADCP压电换能器及其阵列的研究进展,并对压电换能器及ADCP的校准方法进行简要概述。     

Flexible Piezoresistive Sensor Patch Enabling Ultralow Power Cuffless Blood Pressure Measurement

Noninvasive and real‐time cuffless blood pressure (BP) measurement realizes the idea of unobtrusive and continuous BP monitoring which is essential for diagnosis and prevention of cardiovascular diseases associated with hypertension. In this paper, a wearable sensor patch system that integrates flexible piezoresistive sensor (FPS) and epidermal electrocardiogram (ECG) sensors for cuffless BP measurement is presented. By developing parametric models on the FPS sensing mechanism and optimizing operational conditions, a highly stable epidermal pulse monitoring method is established and beat‐to‐beat BP measurement from the ECG and epidermal pulse signals is demonstrated. In particular, this study highlights the compromise between sensor sensitivity and signal stability. As compared with the current optical‐based cuffless BP measurement devices, the sensing patch requires much lower power consumption (3 nW) and is capable of detecting subtle physiological signal variations, e.g., pre and postexercises, thus providing a promising solution for low‐power, real‐time, and home‐based BP monitoring.     

Ultrasmall Semiconducting Polymer Dots with Rapid Clearance for Second Near‐Infrared Photoacoustic Imaging and Photothermal Cancer Therapy

Phototheranostic agents in the second near‐infrared (NIR‐II) window (1000–1700 nm) are emerging as a promising theranostic platform for precision medicine due to enhanced penetration depth and minimized tissue exposure. The development of metabolizable NIR‐II nanoagents for imaging‐guided therapy are essential for noninvasive disease diagnosis and precise ablation of tumors. Herein, metabolizable highly absorbing NIR‐II conjugated polymer dots (Pdots) are reported for the first time for photoacoustic imaging guided photothermal therapy (PTT). The unique design of low‐bandgap D‐A π‐conjugated polymer (DPP‐BTzTD) together with modified nanoreprecipitation conditions allows to fabricate NIR‐II absorbing Pdots with ultrasmall (4 nm) particle size. Extensive experimental tests demonstrate that the constructed Pdots exhibit good biocompatibility, excellent photostability, bright photoacoustic signals, and high photothermal conversion efficiency (53%). In addition, upon tail‐vein intravenous injection of tumor‐bearing mice, Pdots also show high‐efficient tumor ablation capability with rapid excretion from the body. In particular, both in vitro and in vivo assays indicate that the Pdots possess remarkable PTT performance under irradiation with a 1064 nm laser with 0.5 W cm^?2, which is much lower than its maximum permissible exposure limit of 1 W cm^?2. This pilot study thus paves a novel avenue for the development of organic semiconducting nanoagents for future clinical translation.     

Carbonized Silk Nanofiber Membrane for Transparent and Sensitive Electronic Skin

Recent years have witnessed the explosive development of electronic skin. Highly sensitive pressure sensing is one of the primary abilities of electronic skin. To date, most of the reported skin‐like pressure sensors are based on nanomaterials and microstructured polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) films, limiting their wide practical applications due to the unknown biotoxicity and the redundant fabrication procedure. A cost‐effective, large‐area‐capable, and biocompatible approach for fabrication of high‐performance skin‐like pressure sensors is highly desired. Silk fibroin (SF) is a natural protein that has recently drawn great attention due to its application as the substrate for flexible electronics. Here, the fabrication of skin‐like pressure sensors is demonstrated using SF‐derived active materials. Flexible and conformal pressure sensors can be fabricated using transparent carbonized silk nanofiber membranes (CSilkNM) and unstructured PDMS films through a cost‐effective and large‐scale capable approach. Due to the unique N‐doped carbon nanofiber network structure of CSilkNM, the obtained pressure sensor shows superior performance, including ultrahigh sensitivity (34.47 kPa^?1) for a broad pressure range, an ultralow detection limit (0.8 Pa), rapid response time (<16.7 ms), and high durability (>10 000 cycles). Based on its superior performance, its applications in monitoring human physiological signals, sensing subtle touch, and detecting spatial distribution of pressure are demonstrated.     

Excitation of a V-antenna by a pulse electromagnetic field

In order to measure short electromagnetic field pulses in EMC problems, transducers in the form of strip line segments are used. Such transducers reproduce undistorted pulses within the time interval equal to a double run of the signal along the line. However, the strip line has a low sensitivity. The V-antenna seems to be reasonable for recording weak signals, since it is more sensitive when compared to a strip antenna. The equations of V-antenna excitation by a pulse electromagnetic field are derived from Maxwell's equations considered in a space-time domain. The role of the magnetic field of the wave as a source of excitation has been clarified. The transient response of a V-antenna is calculated as a function of the material of a dielectric interlayer between the electrodes, the antenna opening angle and the electromagnetic wave incidence angle. Based on a nonsymmetric version of the V-antenna, transducers were fabricated and experimentally investigated. The results of calculations and measurements are in good agreement with each other. It is shown that one can obtain a transient response of an approximate step shape by adding signals from two oppositely directed antennas. The antenna proposed allows nanosecond low-amplitude electromagnetic pulses to be detected     

Preparation of High‐Performance Conductive Polymer Fibers through Morphological Control of Networks Formed by Nanofillers

A general method is described to prepare high‐performance conductive polymer fibers or tapes. In this method, bicomponent tapes/fibers containing two layers of conductive polymer composites (CPCs) filled with multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWNT) or carbon black (CB) based on a lower‐melting‐temperature polymer and an unfilled polymer core with higher melting temperature are fabricated by a melt‐based process. Morphological control of the conductive network formed by nanofillers is realized by solid‐state drawing and annealing. Information on the morphological and electrical change of the highly oriented conductive nanofiller network in CPC bicomponent tapes during relaxation, melting, and crystallization of the polymer matrix is reported for the first time. The conductivity of these polypropylene tapes can be as high as 275 S m^?1 with tensile strengths of around 500 MPa. To the best of the authors' knowledge, it is the most conductive, high‐strength polymer fiber produced by melt‐processing reported in literature, despite the fact that only ～5 wt.% of MWNTs are used in the outer layers of the tape and the overall MWNT content in the bicomponent tape can be much lower (typically ～0.5 wt.%). Their applications could include sensing, smart textiles, electrodes for flexible solar cells, and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding. Furthermore, a modeling approach was used to study the relaxation process of highly oriented conductive networks formed by carbon nanofillers.     

High‐Performance Solid Polymer Electrolytes Filled with Vertically Aligned 2D Materials

Solid state lithium metal batteries are the most promising next‐generation power sources owing to their high energy density and safety. Solid polymer electrolytes (SPE) have gained wide attention due to the excellent flexibility, manufacturability, lightweight, and low‐cost processing. However, fatal drawbacks of the SPE such as the insufficient ionic conductivity and Li⁺ transference number at room temperature restrict their practical application. Here vertically aligned 2D sheets are demonstrated as an advanced filler for SPE with enhanced ionic conductivity, Li⁺ transference number, mechanical modulus, and electrochemical stability, using vermiculite nanosheets as an example. The vertically aligned vermiculite sheets (VAVS), prepared by the temperature gradient freezing, provide aligned, continuous, run‐through polymer‐filler interfaces after infiltrating with polyethylene oxide (PEO)‐based SPE. As a result, ionic conductivity as high as 1.89 × 10^?4 S cm^?1 at 25 °C is achieved with Li⁺ transference number close to 0.5. Along with their enhanced mechanical strength, Li|Li symmetric cells using VAVS–CSPE are stable over 1300 h with a low overpotential. LiFePO₄ in all‐solid‐state lithium metal batteries with VAVS–CSPE could deliver a specific capacity of 167 mAh g^?1 at 0.1 C at 35 °C and 82% capacity retention after 200 cycles at 0.5 C.     

Hydrocarbons‐Driven Crystallization of Polymer Semiconductors for Low‐Temperature Fabrication of High‐Performance Organic Field‐Effect Transistors

While many high‐performance polymer semiconductors are reported for organic field‐effect transistors (OFETs), most require a high‐temperature postdeposition annealing of channel semiconductors to achieve high performance. This negates the fundamental attribute of OFETs being a low‐cost alternative to conventional high‐cost silicon technologies. A facile solution process is developed through which high‐performance OFETs can be fabricated without thermal annealing. The process involves incorporation of an incompatible hydrocarbon binder or wax into the channel semiconductor composition to drive rapid phase separation and instantaneous crystallization of polymer semiconductor at room temperature. The resulting composite channel semiconductor film manifests a nano/microporous surface morphology with a continuous semiconductor nanowire network. OFET mobility of up to about 5 cm² V^?1 s^?1 and on/off ratio ≥ 10⁶ are attained. These are hitherto benchmark performance characteristics for room‐temperature, solution‐processed polymer OFETs, which are functionally useful for many impactful applications.     

Anisotropy of Charge Transport in a Uniaxially Aligned and Chain‐Extended,High‐Mobility,Conjugated Polymer Semiconductor

Charge transport in the ribbon phase of poly(2,5‐bis(3‐alkylthiophen‐2‐yl)thieno[3,2‐b]thiophene) (PBTTT)—one of the most highly ordered, chain‐extended crystalline microstructures available in a conjugated polymer semiconductor—is studied. Ribbon‐phase PBTTT has previously been found not to exhibit high carrier mobilities, but it is shown here that field‐effect mobilities depend strongly on the device architecture and active interface. When devices are constructed such that the ribbon‐phase films are in contact with either a polymer gate dielectric or an SiO₂ gate dielectric modified by a hydrophobic, self‐assembled monolayer, high mobilities of up to 0.4 cm² V^?1 s^?1 can be achieved, which is comparable to those observed previously in terrace‐phase PBTTT. In uniaxially aligned, zone‐cast films of ribbon‐phase PBTTT the mobility anisotropy is measured for transport both parallel and perpendicular to the polymer chain direction. The mobility anisotropy is relatively small, with the mobility along the polymer chain direction being higher by a factor of 3–5, consistent with the grain size encountered in the two transport directions.