Ultra-Robust Flexible Electronics by Laser-Driven Polymer-Nanomaterials Integration

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is the most widely used polymer in the world. For the first time, the laser-driven integration of aluminum nanoparticles (Al NPs) into PET to realize a laser-induced graphene/Al NPs/polymer composite, which demonstrates excellent toughness and high electrical conductivity with the formation of aluminum carbide into the polymer is shown. The conductive structures show an impressive mechanical resistance against >10000 bending cycles, projectile impact, hammering, abrasion, and structural and chemical stability when in contact with different solvents (ethanol, water, and aqueous electrolytes). Devices including thermal heaters, carbon electrodes for energy storage, electrochemical and bending sensors show this technology's practical application for ultra-robust polymer electronics. This laser-based technology can be extended to integrating other nanomaterials and create hybrid graphene-based structures with excellent properties in a wide range of flexible electronics’ applications.     

A simple improvement of a tip loss model for actuator disc simulations

The loading of a wind turbine decreases towards the blade tip because of the velocities induced by the tip vortex. This tip loss effect has to be taken into account when performing actuator disc simulations, where the single blades of the turbine are not modeled. A widely used method applies a factor on the axial and tangential loading of the turbine. This factor decreases when approaching the blade tip. It has been shown that the factor should be different for the axial and tangential loading of the turbine to model the rotation of the resulting force vector at the airfoil sections caused by the induced velocity. The present article contains the derivation of a simple correction for the tangential load factor that takes this rotation into account. The correction does not need any additional curve fitting but just depends on the local airfoil characteristics and angle of attack. Actuator disc computations with the modified tip loss correction show improved agreement with results from actuator line, free wake lifting line, and blade element momentum simulations.     

PNET “ONDM 2019” special issue

Photonic Network Communications -     

Engineering Biofunctional Enzyme-Mimics for Catalytic Therapeutics and Diagnostics

The applications of nanomaterial-based enzyme-mimics (Enz-Ms) in biocatalytically therapeutic and diagnostic fields have attracted extensive attention. The regulation of the biocatalytic performances and biofunctionalities of Enz-Ms are essential research objectives, including the rational design and synthesis of Enz-Ms with desired biofunctional molecules and nanostructures, especially at the level of molecules and even single atoms. Here, this timely progress report provides pivotal advances and comments on recent researches on engineering biofunctional Enz-Ms (BF/Enz-Ms), particularly chemical synthesis, functionalization strategies, and integration of diverse enzyme-mimetic catalytic activities of BF/Enz-Ms. First, the definitions and catalogs of BF/Enz-Ms are briefly introduced. Then, detailed comments and discussions are provided on the fabrication protocols, biocatalytic properties, and therapeutic/diagnostic applications of engineered BF/Enz-Ms via hydrogels, nanogels, metal–organic frameworks, metal–polyphenol networks, covalent–organic frameworks, functional cell membranes, bioactive molecules and polymers, and composites. Finally, the future perspectives and challenges on BF/Enz-Ms are outlined and thoroughly discussed. It is believed that this progress report will give a chemical and material overview on the state-of-the-art designing principles of BF/Enz-Ms, thus further promoting their future developments and prosperities for a wide range of applications.     

Adenine adsorption on Au(1 1 1) and Au(1 0 0) electrodes: Characterisation, surface reconstruction effects and thermodynamic study

Adsorption of adenine on Au(1 1 1) and Au(1 0 0) electrodes is studied by cyclic voltammetry, impedance and chronoamperometric measurements in 0.1 M and 0.01 M KClO₄ and in 0.5 M NaF solutions. The experiments performed with flame-annealed electrodes at different contact potentials, scan potential limits and scan rates, suggest different adsorption behaviour on the unreconstructed and reconstructed surface domains. This is confirmed by comparing the results obtained with electrochemically annealed unreconstructed and with flame-annealed reconstructed surfaces. In both cases the initial electrode surface state is characterised by the E_pzc values. The adsorption on reconstructed surfaces takes place at more positive potentials than on the unreconstructed surfaces and induces the lifting of the reconstruction.The thermodynamic analysis is performed on the chronoamperometric data for adenine desorption on well characterised unreconstructed Au(1 1 1) surfaces. To this end a new methodology of the chronoamperometric experiments is introduced. Quantitative thermodynamic adsorption parameters such as surface tension, Gibbs surface excess, Gibbs energy of adsorption, potential versus Gibbs excess slope and electrosorption valency are determined. Weak chemisorption of adenine is inferred with a molecular orientation independent on the coverage and on the electrode potential. It is proposed that adsorbed adenine molecules adopt a tilted orientation at the surface to facilitate the coordination to the gold atoms.     

The Expression of Lipoprotein Receptors Is Increased in the Infarcted Area After Myocardial Infarction Induced in Rats With Cardiac Dysfunction

Left ventricular (LV) remodeling after myocardial infarction constitutes the structural basis for ventricular dysfunction and heart failure. The characterization underlying the expression of lipoprotein receptors in cardiac dysfunction is scarcely explored. The aim of this study was to analyze the status of lipoprotein receptors on the infarcted and noninfarcted areas of LV and to verify whether nanoparticles that mimic the lipid structure of low‐density lipoprotein (LDL) and have the ability to bind to LDL receptors (LDE) are taken up more avidly by the noninfarcted LV. 13 male Wistar rats with left coronary artery ligation (myocardial infarction [MI]) and 12 animals with SHAM operation (SHAM) were used in this study. 6 weeks after the procedure, the quantification of low‐density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR), LDL receptor‐related protein 1 (LRP1), scavenger receptor‐class B type I (SR‐BI) lipoprotein receptors, and PCNA proliferation marker, and tissue uptake of radioactively labeled LDE were performed. Immunohistochemistry and Western blot analysis showed that LDLR, LRP1, SR‐BI, and PCNA, expression in infarcted area of MI was remarkably higher than SHAM and noninfarcted subendocardial (SEN) and interstitial (INT) areas. In addition, in SEN noninfarcted area of MI, the presence of LDLR was about threefold higher than in SHAM SEN and INT noninfarcted areas. The LDE uptake of noninfarcted LV of MI group was about 30% greater than that of SHAM group. In conclusion, these findings regarding the status of lipoprotein receptors after MI induction could help to establish mechanisms on myocardial repairing. In conclusion, infarcted rats with LV dysfunction showed increased expression of lipoprotein receptors mainly in the infarcted area.     

Antimicrobial multiresistance in bacteria isolated from freshwater Chilean salmon farms

The intensive use of antimicrobial agents, mainly oxytetracycline, to prevent and control bacterial pathologies in Chilean salmon culture is a frequent practice. A total of 103 gram-negative oxytetracycline-resistant bacteria recovered from various sources of 4 Chilean freshwater salmon farms were identified and investigated for their susceptibility patterns to various antibacterial agents, by using an agar disk diffusion method. Antibacterial resistance patterns of isolates were not correlated with bacterial species or strain source. A high number of bacteria resistant to amoxicillin, ampicillin. erythromycin, and furazolidone, as well as an important frequency of bacterial resistance to florfenicol, chloramphenicol, cefotaxime and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole was found. On the contrary, the proportion of bacteria resistant to gentamicin, kanamycin, flumequine and enrofloxacin was rather low. Resistant microflora showed a high taxonomic variability and mainly consisted of non-fermenting bacteria (77.7%). These strains mainly belonged to the species Pseudomonas fluorescens (29), Aeromonas hydrophila (10), Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (6), isolated from salmon fingerlings, and Acinetobacter lwoffii (5) isolated from pelletized feed. The occurrence of simultaneous resistance to various antibacterials was frequent. We observe a high frequency of bacteria resistant to 6-10 antibacterials (74 strains), and antibiotic resistance index (ARI) values ranging from 0.38 to 0.48 for the four salmon farms studied. These results suggest that Chilean salmon farms might play a role as reservoirs of antibacterial multiresistant bacteria, thus prompting the necessity for a more restrictive attitude towards the intensive use of antibacterials in salmon farming.