Extremely durable electrical impedance tomography-based soft and ultrathin wearable e-skin for three-dimensional tactile interfaces.

In the rapidly evolving field of human-machine interfaces (HMIs), high-resolution wearable electronic skin (e-skin) is essential for user interaction. However, traditional array-structured tactile interfaces require increased number of interconnects, while soft material-based computational methods have limited functionalities. Here, we introduce a thin and soft e-skin for tactile interfaces, offering high mapping capabilities through electrical impedance tomography (EIT). We employed an organic/inorganic hybrid structure with simple, cost-effective fabrication processes, ensuring flexibility and stability. The conductive and stretchable sensing domain includes a micropatterned multiwall carbon nanotube and elastomer composite. The skin-like tactile interface effectively detects pressure-induced conductivity changes, offering superior spatiotemporal resolution with fewer interconnects (pixel/interconnects >57). This EIT-based tactile interface discerns external pressures to a submillimeter degree and vertical deformations of a few hundred micrometers. It sustains stable functions under external damage or environmental changes, confirming its suitability for persistent wearable use. We demonstrate practical applications in real-time HMIs: handwriting recognition and drone control.

Monolayer, open-mesh, pristine PEDOT:PSS-based conformal brain implants for fully MRI-compatible neural interfaces.

Understanding brain function is essential for advancing our comprehension of human cognition, behavior, and neurological disorders. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) stands out as a powerful tool for exploring brain function, providing detailed insights into its structure and physiology. Combining MRI technology with electrophysiological recording system can enhance the comprehension of brain functionality through synergistic effects. However, the integration of neural implants with MRI technology presents challenges because of its strong electromagnetic (EM) energy during MRI scans. Therefore, MRI-compatible neural implants should facilitate detailed investigation of neural activities and brain functions in real-time in high resolution, without compromising patient safety and imaging quality. Here, we introduce the fully MRI-compatible monolayer open-mesh pristine PEDOT:PSS neural interface. This approach addresses the challenges encountered while using traditional metal-based electrodes in the MRI environment such as induced heat or imaging artifacts. PEDOT:PSS has a diamagnetic property with low electrical conductivity and negative magnetic susceptibility similar to human tissues. Furthermore, by adopting the optimized open-mesh structure, the induced currents generated by EM energy are significantly diminished, leading to optimized MRI compatibility. Through simulations and experiments, our PEDOT:PSS-based open-mesh electrodes showed improved performance in reducing heat generation and eliminating imaging artifacts in an MRI environment. The electrophysiological recording capability was also validated by measuring the local field potential (LFP) from the somatosensory cortex with an in vivo experiment. The development of neural implants with maximized MRI compatibility indicates the possibility of potential tools for future neural diagnostics.

Bionic artificial skin with a fully implantable wireless tactile sensory system for wound healing and restoring skin tactile function.

Tactile function is essential for human life as it enables us to recognize texture and respond to external stimuli, including potential threats with sharp objects that may result in punctures or lacerations. Severe skin damage caused by severe burns, skin cancer, chemical accidents, and industrial accidents damage the structure of the skin tissue as well as the nerve system, resulting in permanent tactile sensory dysfunction, which significantly impacts an individual's daily life. Here, we introduce a fully-implantable wireless powered tactile sensory system embedded artificial skin (WTSA), with stable operation, to restore permanently damaged tactile function and promote wound healing for regenerating severely damaged skin. The fabricated WTSA facilitates (i) replacement of severely damaged tactile sensory with broad biocompatibility, (ii) promoting of skin wound healing and regeneration through collagen and fibrin-based artificial skin (CFAS), and (iii) minimization of foreign body reaction via hydrogel coating on neural interface electrodes. Furthermore, the WTSA shows a stable operation as a sensory system as evidenced by the quantitative analysis of leg movement angle and electromyogram (EMG) signals in response to varying intensities of applied pressures.

Ultrahigh Sensitive Au-Doped Silicon Nanomembrane Based Wearable Sensor Arrays for Continuous Skin Temperature Monitoring with High Precision.

Monitoring the body temperature with high accuracy provides a fast, facile, yet powerful route about the human body in a wide range of health information standards. Here, the first ever ultrasensitive and stretchable gold-doped silicon nanomembrane (Au-doped SiNM) epidermal temperature sensor array is introduced. The ultrasensitivity is achieved by shifting freeze-out region to intrinsic region in carrier density and modulation of fermi energy level of p-type SiNM through the development of a novel gold-doping strategy. The Au-doped SiNM is readily transferred onto an ultrathin polymer layer with a well-designed serpentine mesh structure, capable of being utilized as an epidermal temperature sensor array. Measurements in vivo and in vitro show temperature coefficient of resistance as high as -37270.72 ppm °C-1 , 22 times higher than existing metal-based temperature sensors with similar structures, and one of the highest thermal sensitivity among the inorganic material based temperature sensors. Applications in the continuous monitoring of body temperature and respiration rate during exercising are demonstrated with a successful capture of information. This work lays a foundation for monitoring body temperature, potentially useful for precision diagnosis (e.g., continuous monitoring body temperature in coronavirus disease 2019 cases) and management of disease relevance to body temperature in healthcare.

Enhanced photocatalytic activity in composites of TiO2 nanotubes and CdS nanoparticles.

A new composite consisting of TiO(2) nanotubes and CdS nanoparticles, where CdS particles bind covalently to the titania surface through a bifunctional organic linker, was successfully fabricated; this titania nanotube-based composite shows enhanced photocatalytic activity under visible-light irradiation.

Growth of FePt nanocrystals by a single bimetallic precursor [(CO)3Fe(mu-dppm)(mu-CO)PtCl2].

A new single source approach was developed to synthesize face-centered tetragonal (fct) FePt nanoparticles using bimetallic compound (CO)3Fe(mu-dppm)(mu-CO)PtCl2, which has been characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction and was used as the precursor to ensure the accurate stoichiometry of the final FePt product; the ability of the molecular complex to act as a single source precursor for the formation of fct FePt nanocrystals with an average diameter of 3.2 nm has been demonstrated.

Analysis of mutations and the association between polymorphisms in the cerebral dopamine neurotrophic factor (CDNF) gene and Parkinson disease.

Neurotrophic factors support the survival of dopaminergic neurons. The cerebral dopamine neurotrophic factor (CDNF) is a novel neurotrophic factor with strong trophic activity on dopaminergic neurons comparable to that of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF). To investigate whether rare or common variants in CDNF are associated with Parkinson disease (PD), we performed mutation analysis of CDNF and a genetic association study between CDNF polymorphisms and PD. We screened 110 early-onset Parkinson disease (EOPD) patients for CDNF mutations. Allelic and genotype frequencies of 3 CDNF single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (rs1901650, rs7094179, and rs11259365) were compared in 215 PD patients and age- and sex-matched controls. We failed to identify any mutations in CDNF among the EOPD patient sample population. We observed a trend towards increased risk for PD in patients carrying the C allele of SNP rs7094179 (odds ratio (OR)=1.27, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.96-1.67). Patients carrying the C allele were susceptible to PD in both dominant (CC+CA vs. AA; OR=7.20, 95% CI 0.88-59.1) and recessive (CA+AA vs. CC; OR=0.64, 95% CI 0.41-0.99) models. Genotype and allele frequencies of SNPs rs1901650 and rs11259365 did not differ between PD patients and controls. Our study suggests that the C allele of an intronic CDNF SNP (rs7094179) might be an allele for susceptibility to PD. Further studies with larger sample size are required to confirm our results.

(CuI)3P4S4: preparation, structural, and NMR spectroscopic characterization of a copper(I) halide adduct with beta-P4S4.

(CuI)(3)P(4)S(4) is obtained by reaction of stoichiometric amounts of CuI, P, and S in evacuated silica ampoules. The yellow compound consists of monomeric beta-P(4)S(4) cage molecules that are separated by hexagonal columns of CuI. (CuI)(3)P(4)S(4) crystallizes isotypic to (CuI)(3)P(4)Se(4) in the hexagonal system, space group P6(3)cm (no. 185) with a=19.082(3), c=6.691(1) A, V=2109.9(6) A(3), and Z=6. Three of the four phosphorus atoms are bonded to copper, whereas no bonds between copper and sulfur are observed. The two crystallographically distinct copper sites are clearly differentiated by (65)Cu magic-angle spinning (MAS) NMR spectroscopy. Furthermore, an unequivocal assignment of the (31)P MAS-NMR spectra is possible on the basis of homo- and heteronuclear dipole-dipole and scalar interactions. Dipolar coupling to the adjacent quadrupolar spins (63, 65)Cu generates a clear multiplet structure of the peaks attributable to P1 and P2, respectively. Furthermore, the utility of a newly developed two-dimensional NMR technique is illustrated to reveal direct connectivity between P atoms based on ((31)P-(31)P) scalar interactions.