Bioinspired Superhydrophobic All-In-One Coating for Adaptive Thermoregulation.

The development of scalable and passive coatings that can adapt to seasonal temperature changes while maintaining superhydrophobic self-cleaning functions is crucial for their practical applications. However, the incorporation of passive cooling and heating functions with conflicting optical properties in a superhydrophobic coating is still challenging. Herein, an all-in-one coating inspired by the hierarchical structure of a lotus leaf that combines surface wettability, optical structure, and temperature self-adaptation is obtained through a simple one-step phase separation process. This coating exhibits an asymmetrical gradient structure with surface-embedded hydrophobic SiO2 particles and subsurface thermochromic microcapsules within vertically distributed hierarchical porous structures. Moreover, the coating imparts superhydrophobicity, high infrared emission, and thermo-switchable sunlight reflectivity, enabling autonomous transitions between radiative cooling and solar warming. The all-in-one coating prevents contamination and over-cooling caused by traditional radiative cooling materials, opening up new prospects for the large-scale manufacturing of intelligent thermoregulatory coatings.

Twisted moiré conductive thermal metasurface.

Extensive investigations on the moiré magic angle in twisted bilayer graphene have unlocked the emerging field-twistronics. Recently, its optics analogue, namely opto-twistronics, further expands the potential universal applicability of twistronics. However, since heat diffusion neither possesses the dispersion like photons nor carries the band structure as electrons, the real magic angle in electrons or photons is ill-defined for heat diffusion, making it elusive to understand or design any thermal analogue of magic angle. Here, we introduce and experimentally validate the twisted thermotics in a twisted diffusion system by judiciously tailoring thermal coupling, in which twisting an analog thermal magic angle would result in the function switching from cloaking to concentration. Our work provides insights for the tunable heat diffusion control, and opens up an unexpected branch for twistronics -- twisted thermotics, paving the way towards field manipulation in twisted configurations including but not limited to fluids.

Intelligent health and sport: An interplay between flexible sensors and basketball.

Basketball, as one of the most popular sports in the world, has millions of followers and massive economic value. Basketball evolves so fast that it requires teams with smarter strategies, better skills, and stronger players. However, the competition strategies and training methods in basketball are still experience-based, lacking precise data to drive for more efficient training and strategies. On the other hand, flexible sensors, as a new class of sensors, have been a hotspot for scientific research and widely applied in various fields. Due to their excellent characteristics of flexibility, wearing comfort, convenience, and response speed, integrating flexible sensors into basketball has the potential to greatly promote all aspects of the sport. This paper aims to bring more fusion between basketball and flexible sensors. In this perspective, we first perform a review of the history of sensing technologies in the basketball sport and discuss mechanisms of flexible sensors applied on basketball players. Then specific scenarios for flexible sensors applied in basketball were elaborated on in detail. Finally, we envision the potential applications of flexible sensors in basketball and present our views on future development directions. We hope this paper can depict how flexible sensing technology is integrated into basketball systems and point out the future development of basketball with the help of flexible sensors.

Magnetic soft microfiberbots for robotic embolization.

Cerebral aneurysms and brain tumors are leading life-threatening diseases worldwide. By deliberately occluding the target lesion to reduce the blood supply, embolization has been widely used clinically to treat cerebral aneurysms and brain tumors. Conventional embolization is usually performed by threading a catheter through blood vessels to the target lesion, which is often limited by the poor steerability of the catheter in complex neurovascular networks, especially in submillimeter regions. Here, we propose magnetic soft microfiberbots with high steerability, reliable maneuverability, and multimodal shape reconfigurability to perform robotic embolization in submillimeter regions via a remote, untethered, and magnetically controllable manner. Magnetic soft microfiberbots were fabricated by thermal drawing magnetic soft composite into microfibers, followed by magnetizing and molding procedures to endow a helical magnetic polarity. By controlling magnetic fields, magnetic soft microfiberbots exhibit reversible elongated/aggregated shape morphing and helical propulsion in flow conditions, allowing for controllable navigation through complex vasculature and robotic embolization in submillimeter regions. We performed in vitro embolization of aneurysm and tumor in neurovascular phantoms and in vivo embolization of a rabbit femoral artery model under real-time fluoroscopy. These studies demonstrate the potential clinical value of our work, paving the way for a robotic embolization scheme in robotic settings.

Wearable and interactive multicolored photochromic fiber display.

Endowing flexible and adaptable fiber devices with light-emitting capabilities has the potential to revolutionize the current design philosophy of intelligent, wearable interactive devices. However, significant challenges remain in developing fiber devices when it comes to achieving uniform and customizable light effects while utilizing lightweight hardware. Here, we introduce a mass-produced, wearable, and interactive photochromic fiber that provides uniform multicolored light control. We designed independent waveguides inside the fiber to maintain total internal reflection of light as it traverses the fiber. The impact of excessive light leakage on the overall illuminance can be reduced by utilizing the saturable absorption effect of fluorescent materials to ensure light emission uniformity along the transmission direction. In addition, we coupled various fluorescent composite materials inside the fiber to achieve artificially controllable spectral radiation of multiple color systems in a single fiber. We prepared fibers on mass-produced kilometer-long using the thermal drawing method. The fibers can be directly integrated into daily wearable devices or clothing in various patterns and combined with other signal input components to control and display patterns as needed. This work provides a new perspective and inspiration to the existing field of fiber display interaction, paving the way for future human-machine integration.

Fibration of powdery materials.

Non-destructive processing of powders into macroscopic materials with a wealth of structural and functional possibilities has immeasurable scientific significance and application value, yet remains a challenge using conventional processing techniques. Here we developed a universal fibration method, using two-dimensional cellulose as a mediator, to process diverse powdered materials into micro-/nanofibres, which provides structural support to the particles and preserves their own specialties and architectures. It is found that the self-shrinking force drives the two-dimensional cellulose and supported particles to pucker and roll into fibres, a gentle process that prevents agglomeration and structural damage of the powder particles. We demonstrate over 120 fibre samples involving various powder guests, including elements, compounds, organics and hybrids in different morphologies, densities and particle sizes. Customized fibres with an adjustable diameter and guest content can be easily constructed into high-performance macromaterials with various geometries, creating a library of building blocks for different fields of applications. Our fibration strategy provides a universal, powerful and non-destructive pathway bridging primary particles and macroapplications.

Controllable-morphology polymer blend photonic metafoam for radiative cooling.

Incorporating radiative cooling photonic structures into the cooling systems of buildings presents a novel strategy to mitigate global warming and boost global carbon neutrality. Photonic structures with excellent solar reflection and thermal emission can be obtained by a rational combination of different materials. The current preparation strategies of radiative cooling materials are dominated by doping inorganic micro-nano particles into polymers, which usually possess insufficient solar reflectance. Here, a porous polymer metafoam was prepared with polycarbonate (PC) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) using a simple thermally induced phase separation method. The metafoam exhibits strong solar reflectivity (97%), superior thermal emissivity (91%), and low thermal conductivity (46 mW m-1 K-1) due to the controllable morphology of the randomly dispersed light-scattering air voids. Cooling tests demonstrate that the metafoam could reduce the average temperature by 5.2 °C and 10.2 °C during the daytime and nighttime, respectively. In addition, the simulation of a cooling energy system of buildings indicates that the metafoam can save 3.2-26.7 MJ m-2 per year in different cities, which is an energy-saving percentage of 14.7-41%. The excellent comprehensive performances, including the passive cooling property, thermal insulation and self-cleaning of the metafoam makes it appropriate for practical outdoor applications, exhibiting its great potential as an energy-saving building cooling material.

Clinical applications of smart wearable sensors.

Smart wearable sensors are electronic devices worn on the body that collect, process, and transmit various physiological data. Compared to traditional devices, their advantages in terms of portability and comfort have made them increasingly important in the medical field. This review takes a unique clinical physician's standpoint, diverging from conventional sensor-type-based classifications, and provides a comprehensive overview of the diverse clinical applications of wearable sensors in recent years. In this review, we categorize these applications according to different diseases, encompassing skin diseases and injuries, cardiovascular diseases, abnormal human motion, as well as endocrine and metabolic disorders. Additionally, we discuss the challenges and perspectives hindering the development of sensors for clinical use, emphasizing the critical need for interdisciplinary collaboration between medical and engineering professionals. Overall, this review would serve as an important reference for the future direction of sensor devices in clinical use.

Chalcogenide glass nanospheres with tunable morphology by liquid-phase template approach.

Chalcogenide glass (ChG) with unique material properties has been widely used in mid-infrared. Traditional ChG microspheres/nanospheres preparation usually uses a high-temperature melting method, in which it is difficult to accurately control the size and the morphology of the nanospheres. Here, we produce nanoscale-uniform (200-500 nm), morphology-tunable, and arrangement-orderly ChG nanospheres from the inverse-opal photonic crystal (IOPC) template by the liquid-phase template (LPT) method. Moreover, we refer to the formation mechanism of nanosphere morphology as the evaporation-driven self-assembly of colloidal dispersion nanodroplets within the immobilized template and find that the concentration of ChG solution and the pore size of IOPC are the key to control the morphology of the nanospheres. The LPT method is also applied to the two-dimensional microstructure/nanostructure. This work provides an efficient and low-cost strategy for the preparation of multisize ChG nanospheres with tunable morphology and is expected to find various applications in mid-infrared, optoelectronic devices.

Dual-Mode Fiber Strain Sensor Based on Mechanochromic Photonic Crystal and Transparent Conductive Elastomer for Human Motion Detection.

As an important component of wearable and stretchable strain sensors, dual-mode strain sensors can respond to deformation via optical/electrical dual-signal changes, which have important applications in human motion monitoring. However, realizing a fiber-shaped dual-mode strain sensor that can work stably in real life remains a challenge. Here, we design an interactive dual-mode fiber strain sensor with both mechanochromic and mechanoelectrical functions that can be applied to a variety of different environments. The dual-mode fiber is produced by coating a transparent elastic conductive layer onto photonic fiber composed of silica particles and elastic rubber. The sensor has visualized dynamic color change, a large strain range (0-80%), and a high sensitivity (1.90). Compared to other dual-mode strain sensors based on the photonic elastomer, our sensor exhibits a significant advantage in strain range. Most importantly, it can achieve reversible and stable optical/electrical dual-signal outputs in response to strain under various environmental conditions. As a wearable portable device, the dual-mode fiber strain sensor can be used for real-time monitoring of human motion, realizing the direct interaction between users and devices, and is expected to be used in fields such as smart wearable, human-machine interactions, and health monitoring.

Radiative cooling for passive thermal management towards sustainable carbon neutrality.

Photonic structures at the wavelength scale offer innovative energy solutions for a wide range of applications, from high-efficiency photovoltaics to passive cooling, thus reshaping the global energy landscape. Radiative cooling based on structural and material design presents new opportunities for sustainable carbon neutrality as a zero-energy, ecologically friendly cooling strategy. In this review, in addition to introducing the fundamentals of the basic theory of radiative cooling technology, typical radiative cooling materials alongside their cooling effects over recent years are summarized and the current research status of radiative cooling materials is outlined and discussed. Furthermore, technical challenges and potential advancements for radiative cooling are forecast with an outline of future application scenarios and development trends. In the future, radiative cooling is expected to make a significant contribution to global energy saving and emission reduction.

Advanced functional nanofibers: strategies to improve performance and expand functions.

Nanofibers have a wide range of applications in many fields such as energy generation and storage, environmental sensing and treatment, biomedical and health, thanks to their large specific surface area, excellent flexibility, and superior mechanical properties. With the expansion of application fields and the upgrade of application requirements, there is an inevitable trend of improving the performance and functions of nanofibers. Over the past few decades, numerous studies have demonstrated how nanofibers can be adapted to more complex needs through modifications of their structures, materials, and assembly. Thus, it is necessary to systematically review the field of nanofibers in which new ideas and technologies are emerging. Here we summarize the recent advanced strategies to improve the performances and expand the functions of nanofibers. We first introduce the common methods of preparing nanofibers, then summarize the advances in the field of nanofibers, especially up-to-date strategies for further enhancing their functionalities. We classify these strategies into three categories: design of nanofiber structures, tuning of nanofiber materials, and improvement of nanofibers assemblies. Finally, the optimization methods, materials, application areas, and fabrication methods are summarized, and existing challenges and future research directions are discussed. We hope this review can provide useful guidance for subsequent related work.

Fabric computing: Concepts, opportunities, and challenges.

With the advent of the Internet of Everything, people can easily interact with their environments immersively. The idea of pervasive computing is becoming a reality, but due to the inconvenience of carrying silicon-based entities and a lack of fine-grained sensing capabilities for human-computer interaction, it is difficult to ensure comfort, esthetics, and privacy in smart spaces. Motivated by the rapid developments in intelligent fabric technology in the post-Moore era, we propose a novel computing approach that creates a paradigm shift driven by fabric computing and advocate a new concept of non-chip sensing in living spaces. We discuss the core notion and benefits of fabric computing, including its implementation, challenges, and future research opportunities.

Imperceptible, designable, and scalable braided electronic cord.

Flexible sensors, friendly interfaces, and intelligent recognition are important in the research of novel human-computer interaction and the development of smart devices. However, major challenges are still encountered in designing user-centered smart devices with natural, convenient, and efficient interfaces. Inspired by the characteristics of textile-based flexible electronic sensors, in this article, we report a braided electronic cord with a low-cost, and automated fabrication to realize imperceptible, designable, and scalable user interfaces. The braided electronic cord is in a miniaturized form, which is suitable for being integrated with various occasions in life. To achieve high-precision interaction, a multi-feature fusion algorithm is designed to recognize gestures of different positions, different contact areas, and different movements performed on a single braided electronic cord. The recognized action results are fed back to varieties of interactive terminals, which show the diversity of cord forms and applications. Our braided electronic cord with the features of user friendliness, excellent durability and rich interaction mode will greatly promote the development of human-machine integration in the future.

Flexible and robust low-loss selenium-based multimaterial infrared fibers towards CO2 laser ablation.

A small-scale delivery medium for CO2 laser energy with stable performance, flexibility, and high-strength is crucial in extreme laser processing environments, especially for minimally invasive surgery in high-humidity, twisty and narrow channels. Here, flexible and robust multimaterial infrared fibers made of selenium-based chalcogenide glasses and thermoplastic polymer were developed with a low loss of 7.18 dB/m at 10.6 µm. The resulting fibers were capable of stably delivering single-mode CO2 laser with 0.42 W average power. Moreover, to achieve precise control over the fibers in the practical clinical environment, customized co-polymers of polyphenylene sulfone resin and polyvinylidene fluoride were used as the fiber built-in jackets. Consequently, the fibers exhibited hydrophobicity, thermostability, high tensile strength, and low bending stiffness. The results demonstrated that the fibers can be used to deliver CO2 laser energy for fabric cutting and bio-tissues ablation, making them attractive for CO2 laser material processing and minimally invasive laser surgery.

Multifunctional Fiber-Enabled Intelligent Health Agents.

The application of wearable devices is promoting the development toward digitization and intelligence in the field of health. However, the current smart devices centered on human health have disadvantages such as weak perception, high interference degree, and unfriendly interaction. Here, an intelligent health agent based on multifunctional fibers, with the characteristics of autonomy, activeness, intelligence, and perceptibility enabling health services, is proposed. According to the requirements for healthcare in the medical field and daily life, four major aspects driven by intelligent agents, including health monitoring, therapy, protection, and minimally invasive surgery, are summarized from the perspectives of materials science, medicine, and computer science. The function of intelligent health agents is realized through multifunctional fibers as sensing units and artificial intelligence technology as a cognitive engine. The structure, characteristics, and performance of fibers and analysis systems and algorithms are reviewed, while discussing future challenges and opportunities in healthcare and medicine. Finally, based on the above four aspects, future scenarios related to health protection of a person's life are presented. Intelligent health agents will have the potential to accelerate the realization of precision medicine and active health.

Optimizing Evanescent Efficiency of Chalcogenide Tapered Fiber.

Evanescent wave absorption-based mid-infrared chalcogenide fiber sensors have prominent advantages in multicomponent liquid and gas detection. In this work, a new approach of tapered-fiber geometry optimization was proposed, and the evanescent efficiency was also theoretically calculated to evaluate sensing performance. The influence of fiber geometry (waist radius (Rw), taper length (Lt), waist deformation) on the mode distribution, light transmittance (T), evanescent proportion (TO) and evanescent efficiency (τ) is discussed. Remarkably, the calculated results show that the evanescent efficiency can be over 10% via optimizing the waist radius and taper length. Generally, a better sensing performance based on tapered fiber can be achieved if the proportion of the LP11-like mode becomes higher or Rw becomes smaller. Furthermore, the radius of the waist boundary (RL) was introduced to analyze the waist deformation. Mode proportion is almost unchanged as the RL increases, while τ is halved. In addition, the larger the micro taper is, the easier the taper process is. Herein, a longer waist can be obtained, resulting in larger sensing area which increases sensitivity greatly.

Optical fiber with homogeneous material by side-array cladding.

Optical fibers are the core elements for various fiber-optic applications in communication, lasers, sensors, tweezers, quantum optics, and bio-photonics. Current optical fibers are based on a core-cladding structure with different refractive indices and are mainly fabricated using the stack-draw method. However, such a traditional fabrication method limits the realization of fibers with various advanced optical materials, thereby restricting the utilization of excellent optical properties offered by these materials. In this study, a novel structure for side-array cladding by laser drilling on the side of the fiber with homogeneous material is proposed. Accordingly, the confinement loss, mode characteristics, birefringence, and dispersion of the side-array cladding fiber are investigated based on the numerical simulation performed via the finite element method. Subsequently, an optimal fiber structure is obtained by taking the crystal material as an example. Essentially, our proposed side-array cladding fiber can eliminate the mismatch problem of core-cladding materials in the current stack-draw fabrication method. Potentially, the proposed approach can serve as a standard design and fabrication method of optical fibers with homogeneous material, by utilizing the rapid development of laser processing. In other words, a large number of advanced optical materials can be fabricated into optical fibers with the proposed technique, thus maximizing their technical advantages for different applications.

Flexible thermochromic fabrics enabling dynamic colored display.

Color-changeable fibers can provide diverse functions for intelligent wearable devices such as novel information displays and human-machine interfaces when woven into fabric. This work develops a low-cost, effective, and scalable strategy to produce thermochromic fibers by wet spinning. Through a combination of different thermochromic microcapsules, flexible fibers with abundant and reversible color changes are obtained. These color changes can be clearly observed by the naked eye. It is also found that the fibers exhibit excellent color-changing stability even after 8000 thermal cycles. Moreover, the thermochromic fibers can be fabricated on a large scale and easily woven or implanted into various fabrics with good mechanical performance. Driven by their good mechanical and physical characteristics, applications of thermochromic fibers in dynamic colored display are demonstrated. Dynamic quick response (QR) code display and recognition are successfully realized with thermochromic fabrics. This work well confirms the potential applications of thermochromic fibers in smart textiles, wearable devices, flexible displays, and human-machine interfaces.