Hydrated Bi-Ti-Bimetal Ethylene Glycol: A New High-Capacity and Stable Anode Material for Potassium-Ion Batteries

Potassium-ion batteries have emerged not only as low-cost alternatives to lithium-ion batteries, but also as high-voltage energy storage systems. However, their development is still encumbered by the scarcity of high-performance electrode materials that can endure successive potassium-ion uptake. Herein, a hydrated Bi-Ti bimetallic ethylene glycol (H-Bi-Ti-EG) compound is reported as a new high-capacity and stable anode material for potassium storage. H-Bi-Ti-EG possesses a long-range disordered layered framework, which helps to facilitate electrolyte ingress into the entire Bi nanoparticles. A suite of spectroscopic analyses reveals the in situ formation Bi nanoparticles within the organic polymer matrix, which can alleviate stresses caused by the huge volume expansion/contraction during deep cycles, thereby maintaining the superior structural integrity of H-Bi-Ti-EG organic anode. As expected, H-Bi-Ti-EG anode exhibits a high capacity and superior long-term cycling stability. Importantly for potassium storage, it can be cycled at current densities of 0.1, 0.5, 1, and 2 Ag⁻¹ for 800, 700, 1000, and even 6000 cycles, retaining charging capacities of 361, 206, 185, and 85.8 mAh g⁻¹, respectively. The scalable synthetic method along with the outstanding electrochemical performance of hydrated Bi-Ti-EG, which is superior to other reported Bi-based anode materials, places it as a promising anode material for high-performance potassium storage.     

Formation Theory and Printability of Photocurable Hydrogel for 3D Bioprinting

Bio-ink has gradually transited from ionic-crosslinking to photocrosslinking due to photocurable bio-hydrogel having good formability and biocompatibility. It is very important to understand and quantify the crosslinking process of photocurable hydrogels, otherwise, bioprinting cannot be standardized and scalable. However, there are few studies on hydrogel formation process and its photocrosslinking behavior which cannot be accurately predicted. Herein, the photoinitiated radical polymerized bio-hydrogels are taken as an example to establish the formation theory. Three typical crosslinking reactions are first distinguished. It is further proposed that not all double-bonds consumed during crosslinking contributeequally to polymerization. Then the concept of effective double-bond conversion (EDBC) is elicited. Deriving from EDBC, several important formation indices are defined. According to theory, it is predicted that slow crosslinking can improve the crosslinking degree. Furthermore, based on the slow crosslinking effect, a new strategy of projection-based 3D printing (PBP) is proposed, which significantly improved printing quality and efficiency. Overall, this work will fill the gap in hydrogel's formation theory, making it possible to accurately quantify the formation process.     

High-Efficiency Organic Solar Cells Enabled by Chalcogen Containing Branched Chain Engineering: Balancing Short-Circuit Current and Open-Circuit Voltage,Enhancing Fill Factor

The elaborate balance between the open-circuit voltage (V_OC) and the short-circuit current density (J_SC) is critical to ensure efficient organic solar cells (OSCs). Herein, the chalcogen containing branched chain engineering is employed to address this dilemma. Three novel nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs), named BTP-2O , BTP-O-S , and BTP-2S , featuring different peripheral chalcogen containing branched chains are synthesized. Compared with symmetric BTP-2O and BTP-2S grafting two alkoxy or alkylthio branched chains, the asymmetric BTP-O-S grafting one alkoxy and one alkylthio branched chains shows mediate absorption range, applicable miscibility, and favorable crystallinity. Benefiting from the enhanced π–π stacking and charge transport, an optimal power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 17.3% is obtained for the PM6: BTP-O-S -based devices, with a good balance between V_OC (0.912 V) and J_SC (24.5 mA cm⁻²), and a high fill factor (FF) of 0.775, which is much higher than those of BTP-2O (16.1%) and BTP-2S -based (16.4%) devices. Such a result represents one of the highest efficiencies among the binary OSCs with V_OC surpassing 0.9 V. Moreover, the BTP-O-S -based devices fabricated by using green solvent yield a satisfactory PCE of 17.1%. This work highlights the synergistic effect of alkoxy and alkylthio branched chains for high-performance OSCs by alleviating voltage loss and enhancing FF.     

A Visible and Near-Infrared Light-Fueled Omnidirectional Twist-Bend Crawling Robot

In recent years, although light-driven soft actuators have attracted intense scientific attention and achieved remarkable progress, the design and construction of an intelligent robotic system with maneuverability, self-adaptability, untethered control, and greater freedom of action, in particular the omnidirectional motion capability on a plane, remains challenging. Herein, four types of photo-thermal fillers and an unprecedented twist-bend actuation mode is introduced into a liquid crystal elastomer-based soft robot. The obtained twist-bend crawling robot not only exhibits in situ rotation, four-way turning, and four-way linear motion under light irradiation with four wavelength bands (520, 655, 808, and 980 nm), but also demonstrates the ability to avoid obstacles in complex geographical environments. This work may bring a new perspective for fabrication and development of soft robots that can adapt to dynamic and complex environmental conditions.     

A Sensing and Stretchable Polymer-Dispersed Liquid Crystal Device Based on Spiderweb-Inspired Silver Nanowires-Micromesh Transparent Electrode

Polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) devices are truly promising optical modulators for information display, smart window as well as intelligent photoelectronic applications due to their fast switching, large optical modulation as well as cost-effectiveness. However, realizing highly soft PDLC devices with sensing function remains a grand challenge because of the intrinsic brittleness of traditional transparent conductive electrodes. Here, inspired by spiderweb configuration, a novel type of silver nanowires (AgNWs) micromesh-based stretchable transparent conductive electrodes (STCEs) is developed to support the realization of soft PDLC device. Benefiting from the embedding design of AgNWs micromesh in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), the STCEs can maintain excellent electrical conductivity and transparency even in various extreme conditions such as bending, folding, twisting, stretching as well as multiple chemical corrosion. Further, STCEs with the embedded AgNWs micromesh endow the assembled PDLC device with excellent photoelectrical properties including rapid switching speed (<1 s), large optical modulation (69% at 600 nm), as well as robust mechanical stability (bending over 1000 cycles and stretching to 40%). Moreover, the device displays the pressure sensing function with high sensitivity in response to pressure stimulus. It is conceivable that AgNWs micromesh transparent electrodes will shape the next generation of related soft smart electronics.     

Three Potential Elements of Developing Nerve Guidance Conduit for Peripheral Nerve Regeneration

Autograft replaced by a nerve guidance conduit (NGC) is challenging in peripheral nerve injury because current NGC is still limited by precise conductivity and excellent biocompatibility in vivo, which influences the peripheral nerve repair even for a long lesion gap repair. Several particular elements have the potential function for nerve conductivity acceleration based on the traditional three factors of neural tissue engineering. The review aims to address three questions: 1) What is the superior factor for nerve conduction in the application? 2) How can a more conductive regenerative scaffold be constructed in vivo? 3) What is the next step in nerve regeneration for NGC? The bibliometrics analysis of NGC-related references is adopted to acquire that the conductive material, manufacturing technology of neural scaffold, and electrical stimulation (ES) play essential roles in the acceleration of nerve conduction. This review visually analyses the research status and summarizes the main types of conductive materials, the manufacturing technologies of neural scaffolds, and the characteristics of ES. The viewpoints and outlook of developing NGC are also discussed in this review. The proposed three elements are expected to improve the nerve conduction of NGC in vivo and even address the dilemma of long-distance peripheral nerve injury.     

基于动态门控特征融合的轻量深度补全算法

稠密深度图在自动驾驶和机器人等领域至关重要,但是现今的深度传感器只能产生稀疏的深度测量,所以有必要对其进行补全.在所有辅助模态中, RGB图像是常用且易得的信息.现今的许多方法都采用RGB和稀疏深度信息结合进行补全.然而它们绝大部分都是利用通道拼接或逐元素求和简单的对两种模态的信息进行融合,没有考虑到不用场景下不同模态特征的置信度.提出一种以输入深度稀疏分布为指导,结合双模态信息量的动态门控融合模块,通过动态产生融合权重的方式对两个模态特征进行更高效的结合.并且根据不同模态的数据特征设计了精简的网络结构.实验结果表明所提出模块和改进的有效性,提出的网络在两个有挑战性的公开数据集KITTI depth completion和NYU depth v2上,使用了很少的参数量达到了先进的结果,取得了性能和速度的优秀平衡.     

面向样本扩充的新型风格迁移网络研究

全监督语义分割网络在训练时需要耗费大量的人力与时间成本来标注样本。所以减少人工标注样本的时间,同时提升语义分割效果,对于深度学习网络的快速部署和应用推广具有重要意义。提出一种基于改进图像风格迁移网络（CycleGAN-AD）的样本扩充方法。以CycleGAN为基础,在生成器中引入注意力机制并将深度残差网络改为密集连接卷积网络。利用计算机批量产生自带标签的模拟样本,使用CycleGAN-AD网络将模拟样本风格迁移成为真实样本风格（标签不变）,并用于扩充训练样本。对石墨电极的钢印字符进行语义分割的实验结果表明,采用CycleGAN-AD网络进行样本扩充后,其分割效果得到显著提升,MIoU值最高升至0.826 0。可见,提出的样本扩充方法有希望在显著减少人工标注工作量的同时,获得高质量的训练样本。     

抑制图像非语义信息的通用后门防御策略

目的 后门攻击已成为目前卷积神经网络所面临的重要威胁。然而,当下的后门防御方法往往需要后门攻击和神经网络模型的一些先验知识,这限制了这些防御方法的应用场景。本文依托图像分类任务提出一种基于非语义信息抑制的后门防御方法,该方法不再需要相关的先验知识,只需要对网络的输入进行编解码处理就可以达到后门防御的目的。方法 核心思想是在保持图像语义不改变的同时,尽量削弱原始样本中与图像语义不相关的信息,以此抑制触发器。通过在待保护模型前添加一个即插即用的U型网络(即信息提纯网络)来实现对图像非语义信息的抑制。其输入是干净的初始样本,输出命名为强化样本。具体的训练过程中,首先用不同的训练超参数训练多个结构不一的干净分类器,然后在保持强化样本被上述分类器正确分类的前提下,优化信息提纯网络使强化样本和原始样本之间的差异尽可能地大。结果 实验在MNIST、CIFAR10和Image Net10数据集上进行。实验结果显示,经过信息提纯网络编解码后,干净样本的分类准确率略有下降,后门攻击成功率大幅降低,带有触发器的样本以接近干净样本的准确率被正确预测。结论 提出的非语义信息抑制防御方法能够在不需要相关先验知识的...     

隐蔽图像后门攻击

目的 图像后门攻击是一种经典的对抗性攻击形式,后门攻击使被攻击的深度模型在正常情况下表现良好,而当隐藏的后门被预设的触发器激活时就会出现恶性结果。现有的后门攻击开始转向为有毒样本分配干净标签或在有毒数据中隐蔽触发器以对抗人类检查,但这些方法在视觉监督下很难同时具备这两种安全特性,并且它们的触发器可以很容易地通过统计分析检测出来。因此,提出了一种隐蔽有效的图像后门攻击方法。方法 首先通过信息隐藏技术隐蔽图像后门触发,使标签正确的中毒图像样本(标签不可感知性)和相应的干净图像样本看起来几乎相同(图像不可感知性)。其次,设计了一种全新的后门攻击范式,其中毒的源图像类别同时也是目标类。提出的后门攻击方法不仅视觉上是隐蔽的,同时能抵御经典的后门防御方法(统计不可感知性)。结果 为了验证方法的有效性与隐蔽性,在ImageN et、MNIST、CIFAR-10数据集上与其他3种方法进行了对比实验。实验结果表明,在3个数据集上,原始干净样本分类准确率下降均不到1%,中毒样本分类准确率都超过94%,并具备最好的图像视觉效果。另外,验证了所提出的触发器临时注入的任意图像样本都可以发起有效的后门攻击。结论 ...