Allelopathic effect of rhubarb extracts on the growth of Microcystis aeruginosa.

With its advantages of ecological safety, environmental affinity, and high selectivity, allelopathic technology has been widely developed for algae inhibition. However, obtaining effective allelochemicals and realizing their mechanism are difficult. In this paper, a Chinese herbal medicine, namely, Rheum palmatum L. (Chinese rhubarb), was utilized as a source of allelopathic substances for the first time. Four units of rhubarb organic extracts were collected to study the inhibition of growth, photosynthesis, proteins, and algal toxin of Microcystis aeruginosa. Results showed that the ethyl acetate, n-butanol, and aqueous phases of the rhubarb extracts have notable inhibitory effects. After a 16-day treatment, the four extracts reduced M. aeruginosa by 64.1%, 59.3%, 61.9%, and 7.2% with disruption of algal photosynthesis and protein synthesis and reduction of algal toxin.

Viscoelastic blood coagulation testing system enabled by a non-contact triboelectric angle sensor.

Thromboelastography (TEG) remains a convenient and effective viscoelastic blood coagulation testing device for guiding blood component transfusion and assessing the risk of thrombosis. Here, a TEG enabled by a non-contact triboelectric angle sensor (NTAS) with a small size (∼7 cm3) is developed for assessing the blood coagulation system. With the assistance of a superelastic torsion wire structure, the NTAS-TEG realizes the detection of blood viscoelasticity. Benefiting from a grating and convex design, the NTAS holds a collection of compelling features, including accurate detection of rotation angles from -2.5° to 2.5°, high linearity (R 2 = 0.999), and a resolution of 0.01°. Besides, the NTAS exhibits merits of low cost and simplified fabrication. Based on the NTAS-TEG, a viscoelastic blood coagulation detection and analysis system is successfully constructed, which can provide a graph and parameters associated with clot initiation, formation, and stability for clinicians by using 0.36 mL of whole blood. The system not only validates the feasibility of the triboelectric coagulation testing sensor, but also further expands the application of triboelectric sensors in healthcare.

Flexible Sensor for Real-Time Monitoring of Motion Artifacts in Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

In recent years, magnetic resonance imaging has been widely used in the medical field. During the scan, if the human body moves, then there will be motion artifacts on the scan image, which will interfere with the diagnosis and only be found after the end of the scan sequence, resulting in a waste of manpower and resources. However, there is a lack of technology that halts scanning once motion artifacts arise. Here, we designed a real-time monitoring sensor (RMS) to dynamically perceive the movement of the human body and to pause in time when the movement exceeds a certain amplitude. The sensor has an array structure that can accurately sense the position of the human body in real time. The selection of the RMS ensures that there is no additional interference with the scanning results. Based on this design, the RMS can achieve the monitoring function of motion artifact generation.

Dual-sensory fusion self-powered triboelectric taste-sensing system towards effective and low-cost liquid identification.

Infusing human taste perception into smart sensing devices to mimic the processing ability of gustatory organs to perceive liquid substances remains challenging. Here we developed a self-powered droplet-tasting sensor system based on the dynamic morphological changes of droplets and liquid-solid contact electrification. The sensor system has achieved accuracies of liquid recognition higher than 90% in five different applications by combining triboelectric fingerprint signals and deep learning. Furthermore, an image sensor is integrated to extract the visual features of liquids, and the recognition capability of the liquid-sensing system is improved to up to 96.0%. The design of this dual-sensory fusion self-powered liquid-sensing system, along with the droplet-tasting sensor that can autonomously generate triboelectric signals, provides a promising technological approach for the development of effective and low-cost liquid sensing for liquid food safety identification and management.

Multidiscipline Applications of Triboelectric Nanogenerators for the Intelligent Era of Internet of Things.

In the era of 5G and the Internet of things (IoTs), various human-computer interaction systems based on the integration of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) and IoTs technologies demonstrate the feasibility of sustainable and self-powered functional systems. The rapid development of intelligent applications of IoTs based on TENGs mainly relies on supplying the harvested mechanical energy from surroundings and implementing active sensing, which have greatly changed the way of human production and daily life. This review mainly introduced the TENG applications in multidiscipline scenarios of IoTs, including smart agriculture, smart industry, smart city, emergency monitoring, and machine learning-assisted artificial intelligence applications. The challenges and future research directions of TENG toward IoTs have also been proposed. The extensive developments and applications of TENG will push forward the IoTs into an energy autonomy fashion.

Multifunctional Coaxial Energy Fiber toward Energy Harvesting, Storage, and Utilization.

Fibrous energy-autonomy electronics are highly desired for wearable soft electronics, human-machine interfaces, and the Internet of Things. How to effectively integrate various functional energy fibers into them and realize versatile applications is an urgent need to be fulfilled. Here, a multifunctional coaxial energy fiber has been developed toward energy harvesting, energy storage, and energy utilization. The energy fiber is composed of an all fiber-shaped triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), supercapacitor (SC), and pressure sensor in a coaxial geometry. The inner core is a fibrous SC by a green activation strategy for energy storage; the outer sheath is a fibrous TENG in single-electrode mode for energy harvesting, and the outer friction layer and inner layer (covered with Ag) constitute a self-powered pressure sensor. The electrical performances of each energy component are systematically investigated. The fibrous SC shows a length specific capacitance density of 13.42 mF·cm-1, good charging/discharging rate capability, and excellent cycling stability (∼96.6% retention). The fibrous TENG shows a maximum power of 2.5 µW to power an electronic watch and temperature sensor. The pressure sensor has a good enough sensitivity of 1.003 V·kPa-1 to readily monitor the real-time finger motions and work as a tactile interface. The demonstrated energy fibers have exhibited stable electrochemical and mechanical performances under mechanical deformation, which make them attractive for wearable electronics. The demonstrated soft and multifunctional coaxial energy fiber is also of great significance in a sustainable human-machine interactive system, intelligent robotic skin, security tactile switches, etc.

Experimental study on cyanide-contaminated soil (China) treatment by leaching and decomposition.

The removal of cyanide compounds in soil by leaching was investigated in flask and column tests. All the experiments were conducted under alkaline conditions to prevent loss of hydrogen cyanide. Results showed that leaching progressed rapidly when the leaching temperature or the initial cyanide concentration was high. The obtained cyanide data in the flask test fitted an inner diffusion process, as described by a shrinking core model. In the batch column test, the cyanide concentration decreased from 44.06 to 9.86 mg/kg when the leaching intensity was 79 L/(m2 h) after 23.8 h leaching. The leaching process for the cyanide compounds was divided into two stages according to the batch column test despite the decrease in the leaching velocity as the cyanide concentration in soil declined. Cyanide removal in the batch column test was better than that in the flask test due to the higher gradient of cyanide concentration. The aqueous solution containing cyanide compounds was decomposed effectively by the hybrid process of ozone and UV rays. Furthermore, the leaching and decomposition of the soil and leaching wastewater were performed with a continuous column test with circulating leaching liquid. The cyanide compounds in the soil and wastewater were removed effectively.