A transmission surface plasmon resonance image (TSPRi) obtained with a plasmonic grating structure was investigated in combination with a smartphone camera. A substrate of a gold-coated CYTOP grating/glass slide showed the TSPR excitation wavelength of 675 nm at the incident light angle of 30°. The TSPRi acquired from a smartphone camera assembled with liquid crystal tunable filters corresponded with spectroscopic results. The sensitivity of this technique was 282/RIU. Due to changes in the sensitivity of the TSPRi intensity to the refractive index of the environment, this technique can be further developed for portable devices for sensor applications.

This work focuses on the functionalization of agave xylan-type hemicellulose functionalized with trimethoxysilylpropylmethacrylate and crosslinked with N-vinylcaprolactam to obtain a thermoresponsive material for potential applications in drug delivery. The hydrogels showed an interconnected and porous architecture with a lower critical solution temperature (LCST) close to poly(N-vinylcaprolactam)’s (PNVCL) LCST. These materials showed a good capacity to load ciprofloxacin (in the range 9.5 × 10−3–8.4 × 10−3 mg/mL), above the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC ≤ 0.004 × 10−3–0.5 × 10−3 mg/mL) for gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. The hybrid hydrogel inhibited the growth of Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Porphyrins absorb light to initiate photocatalytic activity. The complex, asymmetric structures of natural porphyrins such as heme, chlorophyll, and their derivatives hold unique interest. A platform for biosynthesis of porphyrins in Escherichia coli is developed with the aim of producing a variety of porphyrins for examining their photocatalytic properties within a porous material. Bioderived protoporphyrin IX is tethered inside the highly porous metal-organic framework (MOF) NU-1000 via solvent-assisted ligand incorporation. This MOF catalyzes the photocatalytic oxidation of 2-chloroethyl ethyl sulfide with improved performance over an expanded range of the visible spectrum when compared to unmodified NU-1000.

Transparent conductive oxides and amorphous oxide semiconductors are important materials for many modern technologies. Here, we explore the ternary indium zinc tin oxide (IZTO) using combinatorial synthesis and spatially resolved characterization. The electrical conductivity, work function, absorption onset, mechanical hardness, and elastic modulus of the optically transparent (>85%) amorphous IZTO thin films were found to be in the range of 10–2415 S/cm, 4.6–5.3 eV, 3.20–3.34 eV, 9.0–10.8 GPa, and 111–132 GPa, respectively, depending on the cation composition and the deposition conditions. This study enables control of IZTO performance over a broad range of cation compositions.

The synthesis of egg-white (EW) capped silver nanoparticles (NPs) was carried-out in a one-step reaction using crude EWs, which is a reagent that can be easily found. These NPs were applied for the colorimetric detection of Hg2+ ions in solution. The results showed a blue shift of the surface plasmon absorption due to the decrease in Ag NP size upon incorporating Hg through the formation of an Ag–Hg amalgam shell. The probe was used for the selective determination of Hg2+ ions in tap water with excellent selectivity and sensitivity with a detection limit of about 300 nM.

This work reports the growth of crystalline SrHf x Ti1−x O3 (SHTO) films on Ge (001) substrates by atomic layer deposition. Samples were prepared with different Hf content x to explore if strain, from tensile (x = 0) to compressive (x = 1), affected film crystallization temperature and how composition affected properties. Amorphous films grew at 225 °C and crystallized into epitaxial layers at annealing temperatures that varied monotonically with composition from ~530 °C (x = 0) to ~660 °C (x = 1). Transmission electron microscopy revealed abrupt interfaces. Electrical measurements revealed 0.1 A/cm2 leakage current at 1 MV/cm for x = 0.55.

Using detailed information on the spectrum of shear transformation dynamics previously obtained from low-strain, quasi-static anelastic relaxation in a metallic glass, the corresponding response to a cyclic force is calculated, and prevailing analysis approaches are evaluated. It is shown that the time–temperature superposition principle does not resolve the distribution of activation energies for shear transformations. The distribution of shear transformation zone sizes explains the microscopic mechanisms of both slow (α) and fast (β) relaxations, and the fact that the former are irreversible. These results suggest the need to re-evaluate past interpretations of dynamic behavior of glasses.

This paper presents thermal properties’ characterization of calcium chloride hexahydrate as a phase change material (PCM) combined with boron nitride nanoparticles (BNNPs), leading to efficient thermal management. BNNPs have high-thermal conductivity up to 200 W/m K. Therefore, the thermal conductivity of PCM could be remarkably enhanced by adding BNNPs to improve the heat transfer performance. In this study, 0.5 wt% of BNNPs were dispersed in the molten PCM. It has been found that the BNNPs could enhance the thermal conductivity of PCM by 71.9%, while reduce the latent heat of fusion and specific heat of PCM by 11.1% and 60.9%, respectively.

We analyze phosphorus (P)- and boron (B)-doped silicon nanocrystals (Si NCs) with various compositions of silicon-rich oxide using atom probe tomography. By creating Si iso-concentration surfaces, it is confirmed that there are two types of Si NC networks depending on the amount of excess Si. A proximity histogram shows that P prefers to locate inside the Si NCs, whereas B is more likely to reside outside the Si NCs. We discuss the difference in a preferential location between P and B by a segregation coefficient.

In this paper, we reviewed recent research in the field of capillary suspensions and highlight a variety of applications in the field of smart materials. Capillary suspensions are liquid–liquid–solid ternary systems where only one liquid is present in a few percent and induces a strong, capillary-induced particle network. These suspensions have a large potential for exploitation, particularly in the production of porous materials since the paste itself and the properties of the final material can be adapted. We also discussed the rheological properties of the suspension and network structure to highlight the various ways these systems can be tuned.

Load-bearing, mechanically active tissues are routinely subjected to nonlinear mechanical deformations. Consequently, these tissues exhibit complex mechanical properties and unique tissue organizations. Successful engineering of mechanically active tissues relies on the integration of the mechanical sensing mechanism found in the native tissues into polymeric scaffolds. Intelligent biomaterials that closely mimic the structural organizations and multi-scale responsiveness of the natural extracellular matrices, when strategically combined with multipotent cells and dynamic culture devices that generate physiologically relevant physical forces, will lead to the creation of artificial tissues that are mechanically robust and biologically functional.

The chemical diversity of organic semiconductors coupled with the kinetic nature of film formation make it challenging to tune the structure of active-layer thin films in organic electronics across multiple length scales. We review techniques to tune aspects of film structure within a framework that accounts for the competition between the time available for structural development and the time required by the organic semiconductors to order, defined by a dimensionless time, τ, that describes the ratio of these two quantities. By considering these two competing time scales, we propose general guidelines to tune the film structure accordingly.

This paper presents experimental results supporting a theory that electric fields accelerate the growth of tin (Sn) whiskers. We have rapidly (within one week) grown long (~100 µm) and dense (~300 mm−2) whiskers on thin Sn films. Humidity and an applied electric field are found to have a strong effect when applied together, making whiskers orders of magnitude longer and denser. An evidence of explosive whisker development is presented.

Conventional computed tomography (CT) remains the workhorse of cross-sectional medical imaging. But dual- and multi-energy CT allows for more specific material decomposition, enabling distinct advantages in the clinical setting. In this review, we describe the basic principles behind material decomposition in dual- and multi-energy CT, outline the techniques used to acquire images, and explore how enhanced material decomposition leads to improved patient care. We also explore areas of active research and future directions, including photon-counting CT, that have the potential to revolutionize CT in clinical use.

The Cu2O homojunction was formed by epitaxially growing a manganese-doped Cu2O (Cu2O:Mn) thin film on thermally oxidized polycrystalline p-type sodium-doped Cu2O (p-Cu2O:Na) sheets by electrochemical deposition. A significant improvement of photovoltaic properties was achieved in solar cells fabricated by inserting a Cu2O:Mn thin film between an Al-doped ZnO (AZO) transparent electrode and p-Cu2O:Na sheets. The photovoltaic properties obtained in AZO/Cu2O:Mn/p-Cu2O:Na solar cells were controlled by changing the Mn content doped into the Cu2O:Mn thin film. An efficiency of 4.21% was obtained in an AZO/Cu2O:Mn/p-Cu2O:Na solar cell fabricated with a Cu2O:Mn thin film that was identified as an i-type semiconductor.

This paper demonstrates the application of Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools to explore large libraries of documents and to correlate heuristic associations between text descriptions in figure captions with interpretations of images and figures. The use of visualization tools based on NLP methods permits one to quickly assess the extent of the research described in the literature related to a specific topic. The authors demonstrate how the use of NLP methods on only the figure captions without having to navigate the entire text of a document can provide an accelerated assessment of the literature in a given domain.

A process for bioconjugation of an IgG antibody and silicon quantum dots (Si-QDs) having the luminescence in the near-infrared (NIR) range was developed. For the bioconjugation, the surface of water-soluble all-inorganic Si-QDs was functionalized by using silane-coupling agents. In amino-functionalized Si-QDs, successful conjugation was achieved without strongly affecting the luminescence property. Detailed analyses revealed that Si-QDs are bound covalently to both the light and heavy chains of an IgG antibody. It was also confirmed that the binding property of an IgG antibody with antigen nucleoprotein was not ruined by the process. The successful conjugation of an IgG antibody and NIR luminescent Si-QDs paves the way for designing environmentally friendly bio-sensing and -imaging processes.

Recent observations on strength and deformation of small metals containing microstructures, including dislocation patterns, grain boundaries, and second-phase precipitates are reviewed. These microstructures impose an internal length scale that may interplay with the extrinsic length scale due to the specimen size to affect strength and deformation in an intricate manner. For micro-crystals containing pre-existing dislocations, Taylor work-hardening may dictate the dependence of strength on specimen size. The presence of grain boundaries in a small specimen may lead to effects far from the conventional Hall–Petch behavior. Precipitate–dislocation interactions in a small specimen may lead to an interesting weakest-size behavior.

We employed ab initio global structural prediction algorithms to obtain the ground-state structure of CuBO2 This is a very promising p-type transparent conductive oxide that was synthesized recently, and thought to belong to the delafossite family. We proved that the true ground state is certainly not the delafossite structure, and that the most promising candidate is a low symmetry monoclinic phase. This is still a layered structure, but with boron and copper having a different coordination with respect to the delafossite phase.

Molecular semiconductors synergize a variety of uniquely advantageous properties such as excellent absorption and emission properties, soft and deformable mechanical properties, and mixed ionic and electrical conduction. Over the past two decades, this outstanding set of features has put molecular semiconductors in the spotlight for a variety of optoelectronics and sensing applications. When it comes to mass-market adaptation, however, a challenge in these soft and van der Waals-bonded materials remains their electrical as well as environmental stability and degradation. This Prospective will summarize some of our current understanding of why organic semiconductors degrade with a strong emphasis put on the quintessential role played by water in this process. Furthermore, it will be revisited by which mechanisms water-related stability shortcomings might be addressed in the future and how these lessons can be translated to relevant hybrid systems such as perovskites and carbon nanotubes. Throughout this discussion, some parallels and key differences between organic and hybrid materials will be highlighted, and it will be elaborated on how this affects the associated device stability.