Bioinspired Adaptive,Elastic,and Conductive Graphene Structured Thin-Films Achieving High-Efficiency Underwater Detection and Vibration Perception

Underwater exploration has been an attractive topic for understanding the very nature of the lakes and even deep oceans.In recent years,extensive efforts have been devoted to developing functional materials and their integrated devices for underwater information capturing.However,there still remains a great challenge for water depth detection and vibration monitoring in a high-efficient,controllable,and scalable way.Inspired by the lateral line of fish that can sensitively sense the water depth and environmental stimuli,an ultrathin,elastic,and adaptive underwater sensor based on Ecoflex matrix with embedded assembled graphene sheets is fabricated.The graphene structured thin film is endowed with favourable adaptive and morphable features,which can conformally adhere to the structural surface and transform to a bulged state driven by water pressure.Owing to the introduction of the graphene-based layer,the integrated sensing system can actively detect the water depth with a wide range of 0.3-1.8 m.Furthermore,similar to the fish,the mechanical stimuli from land(e.g.knocking,stomping)and water(e.g.wind blowing,raining,fishing)can also be sensitively captured in real time.This graphene structured thin-film system is expected to demonstrate significant potentials in underwater monitoring,communication,and risk avoidance.

Bioinspired Nanostructured Superwetting Thin-Films in a Self-supported form Enabled“Miniature Umbrella”for Weather Monitoring and Water Rescue

Two-dimensional(2D)soft materials,especially in their self-supported forms,demonstrate attractive properties to realize biomimetic morphing and ultrasensitive sensing.Although extensive efforts on design of self-supported functional membranes and integrated systems have been devoted,there still remains an unexplored regime of the combination of mechanical,electrical and surface wetting properties for specific functions.Here,we report a self-supported film featured with elastic,thin,conductive and superhydrophobic characteristics.Through a well-defined surface modification strategy,the surface wettability and mechanical sensing can be effectively balanced.The resulted film can function as a smart umbrella to achieve real-time simulated raining with diverse frequencies and intensity.In addition,the integrated umbrella can even response sensitively to the sunlight and demonstrate a positively correlation of current signals with the intensity of sun illumination.Moreover,the superhydrophobic umbrella can be further employed to realize water rescue,which can take the underwater object onto water surface,load and rapidly transport the considerable weight.More importantly,the whole process of loaded objects and water flow velocity can be precisely detected.The self-supported smart umbrella can effectively monitor the weather and realize a smart water rescue,demonstrating significant potentials in multifunctional sensing and directional actuation in the presence of water.