Assessing the reinforced molecular/mechanical behaviors of GOs@Mo-MOFs films deposited via electrophoresis onto microdevices: Experimental and theoretical perspectives.

One of the primary hurdles in microdevice fabrication lies in ascertaining the most impactful tactics for adapting metal surfaces. Through a one-pot tackle and distinct mechanochemical reactions evoked by 15 min aqueous wet sand-milling (SM-15), we successfully grafted Mo-based metal-organic frameworks (Mo-MOFs) onto graphene oxides (GOs). Following this, a convenient and readily scalable methodology of electrophoretic deposition was implemented to create controllable thickness of SM-15 GOs@Mo-MOFs lubricating films, achieving considerable enhancements of 143% and 91% in hardness and Young's modulus, respectively, when compared to those of SM-15 Mo-MOFs. The successful synthesis of SM-15 GOs@Mo-MOFs was corroborated using strategies such as x-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and field emission scanning electron microscopy. Analyses using the micro-tribotester indicated that the new film exhibited a lowest friction coefficient of roughly 0.5 when imposed with a load of 5 N and sliding speed of 8 mm/s. In addition, the optical profiler nano-indentation in situ scanning probe microscope revealed that SM-15 GOs@Mo-MOFs films had smaller and shallower scratches and grooves compared to SM-15 Mo-MOFs ones. The calculated results of key descriptors (EHOMO, ELUMO, ΔE, etc.) in density functional theory quantitatively disclosed the interaction mechanisms between GOs@Mo-MOFs molecules and microdevices. We first scrutinized the innate properties of molecule adsorption energy and frictional mechanical behaviors using synergetic cross-scale simulations, such as Monte Carlo and finite element methods. The expectation was that this process would motivate a valuable technique for shielding in the thriving micromanufacturing.

A novel ultrasonic-electric-based microsystem for the investigation of mechanical aging on lipid membranes.

Aging cells experience a gradual degeneration of their chemical and physical characteristics, resulting in the declining body functions that are commonly observed in old age. In this paper, we propose a novel microsystem that utilizes acoustics and electricity to investigate the effects of mechanical cyclic loading on cellular aging. Our study is the first to examine how mechanical loading influences the physicochemical characteristics of lipid bilayer at the subcellular level. By providing a new method for understanding the mechanism of cellular aging and aging-related diseases, our microsystem has significant implications for the development of treatments and therapies.Clinical Relevance- This ultrasonic-electric-based microsystem, as an in vitro model with sensitive quantitative capabilities, could have significant clinical implications in terms of understanding cellular responses to mechanical forces, elucidating the pathogenesis of aging-related diseases, and developing therapeutic strategies.

A Supported Lipid Bilayer-Based Lab-on-a-Chip Biosensor for the Rapid Electrical Screening of Coronavirus Drugs.

With the rapid spread and multigeneration variation of coronavirus, rapid drug development has become imperative. A major obstacle to addressing this issue is adequately constructing the cell membrane at the molecular level, which enables in vitro observation of the cell response to virus and drug molecules quantitatively, shortening the drug experiment cycle. Herein, we propose a rapid and label-free supported lipid bilayer-based lab-on-a-chip biosensor for the screening of effective inhibition drugs. An extended gate electrode was prepared and functionalized by an angiotensin-converting enzyme II (ACE2) receptor-incorporated supported lipid bilayer (SLB). Such an integrated system can convert the interactions of targets and membrane receptors into real-time charge signals. The platform can simulate the cell membrane microenvironment in vitro and accurately capture the interaction signal between the target and the cell membrane with minimized interference, thus observing the drug action pathway quantitatively and realizing drug screening effectively. Due to these label-free, low-cost, convenient, and integrated advantages, it is a suitable candidate method for the rapid drug screening for the early treatment and prevention of worldwide spread of coronavirus.

An intelligent face mask integrated with high density conductive nanowire array for directly exhaled coronavirus aerosols screening.

The current ongoing outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has globally affected the lives of more than one hundred million people. RT-PCR based molecular test is recommended as the gold standard method for diagnosing current infections. However, transportation and processing of the clinical sample for detecting virus require an expert operator and long processing time. Testing device enables on-site virus detection could reduce the sample-to-answer time, which plays a central role in containing the pandemic. In this work, we proposed an intelligent face mask, where a flexible immunosensor based on high density conductive nanowire array, a miniaturized impedance circuit, and wireless communication units were embedded. The sub-100 nm size and the gap between the neighbored nanowires facilitate the locking of nanoscale virus particles by the nanowire arrays and greatly improve the detection efficiency. Such a point-of-care (POC) system was demonstrated for coronavirus 'spike' protein and whole virus aerosol detection in simulated human breath. Detection of viral concentration as low as 7 pfu/mL from the atomized sample of coronavirus aerosol mimic was achieved in only 5 min. The POC systems can be readily applied for preliminary screening of coronavirus infections on-site and may help to understand the COVID-19 progression while a patient is under prescribed therapy.

Composites, Fabrication and Application of Polyvinylidene Fluoride for Flexible Electromechanical Devices: A Review.

The technological development of piezoelectric materials is crucial for developing wearable and flexible electromechanical devices. There are many inorganic materials with piezoelectric effects, such as piezoelectric ceramics, aluminum nitride and zinc oxide. They all have very high piezoelectric coefficients and large piezoelectric response ranges. The characteristics of high hardness and low tenacity make inorganic piezoelectric materials unsuitable for flexible devices that require frequent bending. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and its derivatives are the most popular materials used in flexible electromechanical devices in recent years and have high flexibility, high sensitivity, high ductility and a certain piezoelectric coefficient. Owing to increasing the piezoelectric coefficient of PVDF, researchers are committed to optimizing PVDF materials and enhancing their polarity by a series of means to further improve their mechanical-electrical conversion efficiency. This paper reviews the latest PVDF-related optimization-based materials, related processing and polarization methods and the applications of these materials in, e.g., wearable functional devices, chemical sensors, biosensors and flexible actuator devices for flexible micro-electromechanical devices. We also discuss the challenges of wearable devices based on flexible piezoelectric polymer, considering where further practical applications could be.

Nanostrip flexible microwave enzymatic biosensor for noninvasive epidermal glucose sensing.

Microwave sensors based on microstrip antennas are promising as wearable devices because of their flexibility and wireless communication compatibility. However, their sensitivity is limited due to the reduced sensor size and the potential of biochemical monitoring needs to be explored. In this work, we present a new concept to enhance the microwave signals using nanostrip-based metamaterials. The introduction of the nanostrip structures was achieved by theory and simulations. Experiments prove their enhancement of the electric field and sensing response in the characteristic gigahertz (GHz) wave band. Ordered nanostrips were fabricated on a plastic substrate through a simple nanoscale printing approach. Glucose oxidase is directly doped into the nanostrips, which enables a flexible wearable enzymatic biosensor for glucose sensing. Sensing experiments demonstrated that the nanostrip biosensor gives excellent performance for glucose detection, including high sensitivity, fast response, low detection limit, high affinity, and low power consumption. The applicability of the nanostrip-based sensor as a wearable epidermal device for real-time noninvasive monitoring of glucose in sweat is verified as well.

Contactless and Simultaneous Measurement of Water and Acid Contaminations in Oil Using a Flexible Microstrip Sensor.

The assessment of the petroleum product quality often involves multiple indicators, among which water content and acid value are two major parameters. The complexity of an oil sample and the narrow space in pipeline transport make it difficult to monitor the oil quality in real-time. Considering the practical requirements, a new type of flexible microstrip sensor is proposed in this work. The shape and line width of the microstrip sensor are studied and optimized by theory and experiments. The proposed square spiral-based microstrip sensor has good water content detection resolution at high frequencies with less acid interference, and it can determine the acid value in the low-frequency band. The sensor surface is further passivated, protecting it from direct contact with the oil sample to enhance the electrochemical robustness, and still achieves good detection linearity and high sensitivity. After encapsulation on a flexible substrate, the proposed microstrip sensor realized the non-contact determination of the water content and acid value of oil at the same time, which is only a few millimeters in size and can conform to various tubing wall shapes. Due to the fact that the manufacture of the sensor is CMOS-compatible, we expect it to be readily applied to many other miniaturized chemical-sensing applications.

A micro potentiometric immunosensor for hemoglobin-A1c level detection based on mixed SAMs wrapped nano-spheres array.

A micro potentiometric immunosensor based on mixed SAMs wrapped nano-spheres array for the detection of hemoglobin-A1c level is presented in this paper. Nano-spheres array is prepared by wrapping nano-gold particle with mixed SAMs on the surface of micro immunosensor. Mixed SAMs make the nano-gold particles distribute uniformly without aggregation and render the signal less susceptible to noise. Based on this nano-spheres array, antibody is covalently immobilized on the immunosensor surface. The micro immunosensor, consisting of ISFET integrated chip and MEMS electrodes array is applied to measure hemoglobin-A1c level by detecting the concentration of hemoglobin-A1c and hemoglobin simultaneously. The responses of the immunosensor are linear over the concentration range of 166.7-570 ng/ml hemoglobin and 50-170.5 ng/ml HbA1c. Whole blood sample obtained from hospital was also examined using this immunosensor. The low relative deviation shows that this micro immunosensor may provide an alternative tool for the determination of HbA1c level.

A field effect transistor (FET)-based immunosensor for detection of HbA1c and Hb.

A field effect transistor (FET)-based immunosensor was developed for diabetes monitoring by detecting the concentrations of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and hemoglobin (Hb). This immunosensor consists of a FET-based sensor chip and a disposable extended-gate electrode chip. The sensor chip was fabricated by standard CMOS process and was integrated with signal readout circuit. The disposable electrode chip, fabricated on polyester plastic board by Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems (MEMS) technique, was integrated with electrodes array and micro reaction pool. Biomolecules were immobilized on the electrode based on self-assembled monolayer and gold nanoparticles. Experimental results showed that the immunosensor achieved a linear response to HbA1c with the concentration from 4 to 24 µg/ml, and a linear response to Hb with the concentration from 60 to 180 µg/ml.