Disordered Topography Mediates Filopodial Extension and Morphology of Cells on Stiff Materials

In cell–material interactions, cells use filopodia to sense external biochemical and mechanical cues, and subsequently dictate their survival. In an effort toward understanding how disordered topography of stiff materials influences filopodial recognition, diamond films with grain sizes varying from nano‐ to micrometers are fabricated for the investigation of osteoblast filopodial extension. Interestingly, straight filopodia with pronounced cell–substrate adhesion are observed on a nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) region, whereas filopodia on a microcrystalline diamond (MCD) surface only adhere to, and get deflected by, large diamond grains. More importantly, filopodia on NCD keep propagating with a constant velocity, whereas the same process takes place in a slow and intermittent manner on MCD. A theoretical model is also developed and it suggests that the contact between the disordered topography and the filopodial tip plays a key role in altering filopodial growth dynamics. In particular, it is predicted that large surface asperities can block the movement of the filopodial tip, delay its extension, and cause bending of the structure, in quantitative agreement with experimental observations. These findings reveal previously underappreciated effects of random, stiff topographies on the response of cells, and hence can provide new insights for the design of future implant biomaterials.     

Al掺杂ZnO薄膜原子力显微图像的多重分形研究

用原子力显微镜观察溶胶-凝胶法制备Al掺杂znO薄膜的表面形貌,运用多重分形理论研究Al掺杂ZnO薄膜的原子力显微图像,多重分形谱可以很好地定量表征薄膜的表面形貌.结果显示:Al掺杂量为0.5 at.%的ZnO薄膜经550℃退火处理后,rms粗糙度为1.817,Al掺杂量为1.0 at.%的ZnO薄膜经600℃退火处理后,rms粗糙度增大到4.625,相应的分形谱宽△α从0.019增大到0.287,分形参数△f由-0.075变为0.124.     

Balancing Intermolecular Interactions between Acceptors and Donor/Acceptor for Efficient Organic Photovoltaics

Promoted by uninterrupted materials and device innovation, organic solar cells have achieved impressive development. However, the complicated intermolecular interactions inside active layers are less understood. Herein, the intermolecular interactions are studied from the dual perspectives of acceptor/acceptor (A/A) and donor/acceptor (D/A), and how these interactions synergistically control the final efficiencies. Three small molecular acceptors (SMAs) are designed with different end-caps, which manipulate the crystallinity and electrostatic potential (ESP) distributions of acceptors, and accordingly, the A/A and D/A intermolecular interactions. The results show that SMA LA17 with low A/A interactions exhibits inferior performance around 12%, owing to its strong D/A interaction with donor PM6, which shapes too miscible morphology and increases charge recombination. Instead, LA16 with strong A/A interactions and moderate D/A interactions delivers improved bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) networks, and therefore, enhances charge transport and diminishes geminate or trap-assisted charge recombination. Consequently, PM6:LA16 records the competitive efficiency of up to 13.74% among the three systems. Therefore, this study deepens the synergistic or balancing effect of the D/A and A/A interactions on BHJ blends for efficient organic solar cells.     

A Molecular Brush Approach to Enhance Quantum Yield and Suppress Nonspecific Interactions of Conjugated Polyelectrolyte for Targeted Far‐Red/Near‐Infrared Fluorescence Cell Imaging

A red‐fluorescent conjugated polyelectrolyte (CPE, P2 ) is grafted with dense poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) chains via click chemistry and subsequently modified with folic acid to form a molecular brush based cellular probe ( P4 ). P4 self‐assembles into a core–shell nanostructure in aqueous medium with an average size of 130 nm measured by laser light scattering. As compared to P2 , P4 possesses not only a substantially higher quantum yield (11%), but also reduced nonspecific interactions with biomolecules in aqueous medium due to the shielding effect of PEG. In conjunction with its high photostability and low cytotoxicity, utilization of P4 as a far‐red/near‐infrared cellular probe allows for effective visualization and discrimination of MCF‐7 cancer cells from NIH‐3T3 normal cells in a high contrast, selective, and nonviral manner. This study thus demonstrates a flexible molecular brush approach to overcome the intrinsic drawbacks of CPEs for advanced bioimaging applications.     

具有柔性铰链的差式微位移放大机构

阐述了差式微位移放大机构的基本设计原理,分析了机构中位移损失的原因。研制的放大机构具有较好的放大效果,而且机构的位移输出线性特性也较好。采用片状柔性铰链成功地解决了由于机构中的位移干涉造成的机构内部反力太大的问题。     

A Bridge between Ceramics Electrolyte and Interface Layer to Fast Li+ Transfer for Low Interface Impedance Solid-State Batteries

Solid-state batteries (SSBs) are regarded as next generation advanced energy storage technology to provide higher safety and energy density. However, a practical application is plagued by large interfacial resistance, owing to solid-solid interface contact between ceramics electrolytes and Li anode. Introducing polymer-based coating between electrolytes and Li anode is a feasible strategy to solve this issue. Unfortunately, current polymer is hard to achieve intimate contact at the atomic scale and lacks of a bridge to transfer Li⁺ quickly between electrolytes and polymer coating. This gives rise to sluggish Li⁺ transfer dynamics, huge interface impedance and greatly limits the effectiveness of this strategy. Herein, Poly(lithium 4-styrenesulfonate)(PLSS) is introduced between Li_6.5La₃Zr_1.5Ta_0.5O₁₂ (LLZTO) electrolyte and Li anode. The theories and experiments prove the existence of strong coordinating interaction between  SO₃Li in PLSS and atoms on LLZTO surface. This interaction structures a bridge to migrate Li⁺ fast across LLZTO/PLSS interface and hence interface impedance is as low as 9 Ω cm². Moreover, the electron-blocking feature of PLSS can prevent electrons from tunneling the LLZTO/PLSS interface and combining with Li⁺ to form dendrite within LLZTO. PLSS-base cells show improved long-life cycling for 4700 h at 0.1 mA cm⁻² at room temperature.     

Dispersion-Enabled Symmetry Switching of Photonic Angular-Momentum Coupling

Photonic spin-orbit interactions describe the interactions between spin angular momentum and orbital angular momentum of photons, which play essential roles in subwavelength optics. However, the influence of frequency dispersion on photonic angular-momentum coupling is rarely studied. Here, by elaborately designing the contribution of the geometric phase and waveguide propagation phase, the dispersion-enabled symmetry switching of photonic angular-momentum coupling is experimentally demonstrated. This notion may induce many exotic phenomena and be found in enormous applications, such as the spin-Hall effect, optical calculation, and wavelength division multiplexing systems. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, two metadevices, a multi-channel vectorial vortex beam generator and a phase-only hologram, are applied to experimentally display optical double convolution, which may offer additional degrees of freedom to accelerate computing and a miniaturization configuration for optical convolution without collimation operation. These results may provide a new opportunity for complex vector optical field manipulation and calculation, optical information coding, light-matter interaction manipulation, and optical communication.     

A Low-Hysteresis and Highly Stretchable Ionogel Enabled by Well Dispersed Slidable Cross-Linker for Rapid Human-Machine Interaction

Ionic conductive soft materials for mimicking human skin are a promising topic since they can be thought of as a possible basis for biomimetic sensing. In pursuit of devices with a long working range and low signal delay, conductive materials with low hysteresis and good stretchability are highly demanded. To overcome the challenges of highly stretchable conductive materials with good resilience, herein a chemical design is proposed where polyrotaxanes act as topological cross-linkers to enhance the stretchability by sliding-induced reduced stress concentration while the compatible ionic liquid is introduced as a dispersant for low hysteresis. The obtained ionogels exhibit versatile properties more than low hysteresis (residual strain = 7%) and good stretchability (550%), and also anti-fatigue, biocompatibility, and good adhesion. The low hysteresis is attributed to lower energy dissipation from the well-dispersed polyrotaxanes by compatible ionic liquids. The mechanism provides a new insight in fabricating highly stretchable and low-hysteresis slide-ring materials. Furthermore, the conductivity of the ionogels and their responses to strains and temperatures are measured. Benefiting from the good conductivity and low hysteresis, the ionogel is applied to develop a wireless communication system to realize rapid human-machine interactions.     

多参考光合成孔径DMIPH术的细胞相位重构

为了克服传统光学显微术无法直接提取相位信息的不足而能更准确记录物体高频和低频信息的合成,采用多参考光合成孔径数字显微像面全息系统,并结合角谱算法和最小二乘解包裹算法实现了细胞的相位重构。选取活体细胞组织等相位型生物进行作为实验样本,对其进行定量观察和有效测量。结果表明,多参考光合成孔径数字显微像面全息系统可以有效地应用于3维物体显微结构的振幅和相位重构,能显著地提高记录系统的高频和低频信息在全息图上的合成度,并实现超出系统的衍射极限12.8lp/mm的分辨率。该系统可以有效地实现数字全息系统的超分辨率成像,从而获得细胞显微结构的3维形貌信息和准确的相位分布。