3D Printed Gallium Battery with Outstanding Energy Storage: Toward Fully Printed Battery-on-the-Board Soft Electronics.

The last decade observed rapid progress in soft electronics. Yet, the ultimate desired goal for many research fields is to fabricate fully integrated soft-matter electronics with sensors, interconnects, and batteries, at the ease of pushing a print button. In this work, an important step is taken toward this by demonstrating an ultra-stretchable thin-film Silver-Gallium (Ag-Ga) battery with an unprecedented combination of areal capacity and mechanical strain tolerance. The Biphasic Gallium-Carbon anode electrode demonstrates a record-breaking areal capacity of 78.7 mAh cm-2, and an exceptional stretchability of 170%, showing clear progress over state-of-the-art. The exceptional theoretical capacity of gallium, along with its natural liquid phase self-healing, and its dendrite-free operation permits excellent electromechanical cycling. All composites of the battery including liquid-metal-based current collectors, and electrodes are sinter-free and digitally printable at room temperature, enabling the use of a wide range of substrates, including heat-sensitive polymer films. Consequently, it is demonstrated for the first time multi-layer, and multi-material digital printing of complex battery-on-the-board stretchable devices that integrate printed sensor, multiple cells of printed battery, highly conductive interconnects, and silicone chips, and demonstrate a tailor-made patch for body-worn electrophysiological monitoring.

Removal of metal ions using a new magnetic chitosan nano-bio-adsorbent; A powerful approach in water treatment.

In this study, a magnetic chitosan/Al2O3/Fe3O4 (M-Cs) nanocomposite was developed by ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) functionalization to enhance its adsorption behavior for the removal of Cd(II), Cu(II) and Zn(II) metal ions from aqueous solution. The results revealed that the EDTA functionalization of M-Cs increased its adsorption capacity ~9.1, ~5.6 and ~14.3 times toward Cu, Cd and Zn ions. The maximum adsorption capacity followed the order of Cd(II) > Cu(II) > Zn(II) and the maximum adsorption efficiency was achieved at pH of 5.3 with the removal percentage of 99.98, 93.69 and 83.81 %, respectively, for the removal of Cu, Cd and Zn ions. The metal ions adsorption kinetic obeyed pseudo-second-order equation and the Langmuir isothermal was found the most fitted model for their adsorption isothermal experimental data. In addition, the thermodynamic study illustrated that the adsorption process was exothermic and spontaneous in nature.

Electrochemical Sensors, a Bright Future in the Fabrication of Portable Kits in Analytical Systems.

Analysis of food, pharmaceutical, and environmental compounds is an inevitable issue to evaluate quality of the compounds used in human life. Quality of drinking water, food products, and pharmaceutical compounds is directly associated with human health. Presence of forbidden additives in food products, toxic compounds in water samples and drugs with low quality lead to important problems for human health. Therefore, attention to analytical strategy for investigation of quality of food, pharmaceutical, and environmental compounds and monitoring presence of forbidden compounds in materials used by humans has increased in recent years. Analytical methods help to identify and quantify both permissible and unauthorized compounds present in the materials used in human daily life. Among analytical methods, electrochemical methods have been shown to have more advantages compared to other analytical methods due to their portability and low cost. Most of big companies have applied this type of analytical methods because of their fast and selective analysis. Due to simple operation and high diversity of electroanalytical sensors, these types of sensors are expected to be the future generation of analytical systems. Therefore, many scientists and researchers have focused on designing and fabrication of electroanalytical sensors with good selectivity and high sensitivity for different types of compounds such as drugs, food, and environmental pollutants. In this paper, we described the mechanism and different examples of DNA, enzymatic and electro-catalytic methods for electroanalytical determination of drug, food and environmental compounds.

Modeling of adsorptive removal of azithromycin from aquatic media by CoFe2O4/NiO anchored microalgae-derived nitrogen-doped porous activated carbon adsorbent and colorimetric quantifying of azithromycin in pharmaceutical products.

Herein, it was aimed to optimize the removal process of Azithromycin (Azi) from the aquatic environment via CoFe2O4/NiO nanoparticles anchored onto the microalgae-derived nitrogen-doped porous activated carbon (N-PAC), besides developing a colorimetric method for the swift monitoring of Azi in pharmaceutical products. In this study, the Spirulina platensis (Sp) was used as a biomass resource for fabricating CoFe2O4/NiO@N-PAC adsorbent. The pores of N-PAC mainly entail mesoporous structures with a mean pore diameter of 21.546 nm and total cavity volume (Vtotal) of 0.033578 cm3. g-1. The adsorption studies offered that 98.5% of Azi in aqueous media could remove by CoFe2O4/NiO@N-PAC. For the cyclic stability analysis, the adsorbent was separated magnetically and assessed at the end of five adsorption-desorption cycles with a negligible decrease in adsorption. The kinetic modeling revealed that the adsorption of Azi onto the CoFe2O4/NiO@N-PAC was well-fitted to the second-order reaction kinetics, and the highest adsorption capacity was found as 2000 mg. g-1 at 25 °C based on the Langmuir adsorption isotherm model at 0.8 g. L-1 adsorbent concentration. The Freundlich isotherm model had the best agreement with the experimental data. Thermodynamic modeling indicated the spontaneous and exothermic nature of the adsorption process. Moreover, the effects of pH, temperature, and operating time were also optimized in the colorimetric Azi detection. The blue ion-pair complexes between Azi and Coomassie Brilliant Blue G-250 (CBBG-250) reagent followed Beer's law at wavelengths of 640 nm in the concentration range of 1.0 µM to 1.0 mM with a 0.94 µM limit of detection (LOD). In addition, the selectivity of Azi determination was verified in presence of various species. Furthermore, the applicability of CBBG-250 dye for quantifying Azi was evaluated in Azi capsules as real samples, which revealed the acceptable recovery percentage (98.72-101.27%). This work paves the way for engineering advanced nanomaterials for the removal and monitoring of Azi and assures the sustainability of environmental protection and public health.

Calf thymus ds-DNA intercalation with pendimethalin herbicide at the surface of ZIF-8/Co/rGO/C3N4/ds-DNA/SPCE; A bio-sensing approach for pendimethalin quantification confirmed by molecular docking study.

Pendimethalin (PND) is a herbicide that is regarded to be possibly carcinogenic to humans and toxic to the environment. Herein, we fabricated a highly sensitive DNA biosensor based on ZIF-8/Co/rGO/C3N4 nanohybrid modification of a screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE) to monitor PND in real samples. The layer-by-layer fabrication pathway was conducted to construct ZIF-8/Co/rGO/C3N4/ds-DNA/SPCE biosensor. The physicochemical characterization techniques confirmed the successful synthesis of ZIF-8/Co/rGO/C3N4 hybrid nanocomposite, as well as the appropriate modification of the SPCE surface. The utilization of ZIF-8/Co/rGO/C3N4 nanohybrid as a modifier was analyzed using. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy results showed that the modified SPCE exhibited significantly lowered charge transfer resistance due to the enhancement of its electrical conductivity and facilitation of the transfer of charged particles. The proposed biosensor successfully quantified PND in a wide concentration range of 0.01-35 µM, with a limit of detection (LOD) value of 8.0 nM. The PND monitoring capability of the fabricated biosensor in real samples including rice, wheat, tap, and river water samples was verified with a recovery range of 98.2-105.6%. Moreover, to predict the interaction sites of PND herbicide with DNA, the molecular docking study was performed between the PND molecule and two sequence DNA fragments and confirmed the experimental findings. This research sets the stage for developing highly sensitive DNA biosensors that will be used to monitor and quantify toxic herbicides in real samples by fusing the advantages of nanohybrid structures with crucial knowledge from a molecular docking investigation.

Cyanazine herbicide monitoring as a hazardous substance by a DNA nanostructure biosensor.

Cyanazine is a beneficial herbicide in the triazines group that inhibits photosynthesis in plants and monitoring of this herbicide is so important for study agriculture products. The present researches have been focused on monitoring of cyanazine by a straightforward and fast electrochemical strategy. Herein, to monitor the cyanazine level, Pt and Pd doped CdO nanoparticle decorated SWCNTs composite (Pt-Pd-CdO/SWCNTs) has been synthesized as a conductive mediator and characterized by EDS, SEM and TEM techniques. The Pt-Pd-CdO/SWCNTs and ds-DNA have been used for modification of the gold electrode (GE). Moreover, the oxidation signal of guanine relative to ds-DNA at the surface of Pt-Pd-CdO/SWCNTs/ds-DNA/GE has been considered as an bioelectroanalytical issue to monitoring cyanazine for the first time. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopic (EIS) signals have confirmed that the inclusion of Pt-Pd-CdO/SWCNTs at the surface of the GE has lowered charge-transfer resistance by ca.1.54 times and created a highly conductive state for monitoring of cyanazine in nanomolar concentration. On the other hand, differential pulse voltammograms (DPV) of Pt-Pd-CdO/SWCNTs/ds-DNA/GE have indicated a linear dynamic range of 4.0 nM-70 µM with a detection limit of 0.8 nM to the monitoring of cyanazine. In addition, the molecular docking study has emphasized that cyanazine herbicide is capable of binding to ds-DNA preferably at the guanine-cytosine rich sequences, and confirmed experimental results. In the final step, Pt-Pd-CdO/SWCNTs/ds-DNA/GE has been successfully utilized for the monitoring of cyanazine herbicide in food and water samples.

A critical review on the use of potentiometric based biosensors for biomarkers detection.

Potentiometric-based biosensors have the potential to advance the detection of several biological compounds and help in early diagnosis of various diseases. They belong to the portable analytical class of biosensors for monitoring biomarkers in the human body. They contain ion-sensitive membranes sensors can be used to determine potassium, sodium, and chloride ions activity while being used as a biomarker to gauge human health. The potentiometric based ion-sensitive membrane systems can be coupled with various techniques to create a sensitive tool for the fast and early detection of cancer biomarkers and other critical biological compounds. This paper discusses the application of potentiometric-based biosensors and classifies them into four major categories: photoelectrochemical potentiometric biomarkers, potentiometric biosensors amplified with molecular imprinted polymer systems, wearable potentiometric biomarkers and light-addressable potentiometric biosensors. This review demonstrated the development of several innovative biosensor-based techniques that could potentially provide reliable tools to test biomarkers. Some challenges however remain, but these can be removed by coupling techniques to maximize the testing sensitivity.

A voltammetric sensor based on NiO/CNTs ionic liquid carbon paste electrode for determination of morphine in the presence of diclofenac.

A novel ionic liquid modified NiO/CNTs carbon paste electrode (IL/NiO/CNTCPE) had been fabricated by using hydrophilic ionic liquid 1-methyl-3-butylimidazolium chloride [MBIDZ]Cl as a binder. The cyclic voltammogram showed an irreversible oxidation peak at 0.61 V (vs. Ag/AgCl(sat)), which corresponded to the oxidation of morphine. Compared to common carbon paste electrode, the electrochemical response was greatly improved for morphine electrooxidation. This modified electrode exhibited a potent and persistent electron mediating behavior followed by well separated oxidation peaks of morphine and diclofenac. Detection limit of morphine was found to be 0.01 µM using square wave voltammetry (SWV) method. The proposed sensor was successfully applied for the determination of morphine in human urine and pharmaceutical samples.