Membranes for the life sciences and their future roles in medicine

Since the global outbreak of COVID-19,membrane technology for clinical treatments,including extracorporeal membrane oxygenation(ECMO)and protective masks and clothing,has attracted intense research attention for its irreplaceable abilities.Membrane research and applications are now playing an increasingly important role in various fields of life science.In addition to intrinsic properties such as size sieving,dissolution and diffusion,membranes are often endowed with additional functions as cell scaffolds,catalysts or sensors to satisfy the specific requirements of different clinical applications.In this review,we will introduce and discuss state-of-the-art membranes and their respective functions in four typical areas of life science:artificial organs,tissue engineering,in vitro blood diagnosis and medical support.Emphasis will be given to the description of certain specific functions required of membranes in each field to provide guidance for the selection and fabrication of the membrane material.The advantages and disadvantages of these membranes have been compared to indicate further development directions for different clinical applications.Finally,we propose challenges and outlooks for future development.

3D Prussian blue/Pt decorated carbon nanofibers based screen-printed microchips for the ultrasensitive hydroquinone biosensing

Nowadays,water pollution has become more serious,greatly affecting human life and healthy.Electrochemical biosensor,a novel and rapid detection technique,plays an important role in the realtime and trace detection of water pollutants.However,the stability and sensitivity of electrochemical biosensors remain a great challenge for practical detections in real samples to the strong interferences derived from complex components and coagulation effects.In this work,we reported a novel threedimensional architecture of Prussian blue nanoparticles(PBNPs)/Pt nanoparticles(PtNPs)composite film,using 3 D interweaved carbon nanofibers as a supporting matrix,for the construction of screenprinted microchips-based biosensor.PtNPs with diameters of-2.5 nm was highly dispersed on the carbon nanofibers(CNFs)to build a 3 D skeleton nanostructure through a solvothermal reduction.Subsequently,uniform PBNPs were in-situ self-assembled on this skeleton to construct a 3 D architecture of PB/Pt-CNF composite film.Due to the synergistic effects derived from this special feature,the as-prepared hydroquinone(HQ)biosensor chips can synchronously promote both surface area and conductivity to greatly enhance the electrocatalysis from enzymatic reaction.This biosensor has exhibited a high sensitivity of 220.28μA·L·mmol^(-1)·cm^(-2) with an ultrawide linear range from 2.5μmol·L^(-1) to 1.45 mmol·L^(-1) at a low potential of 0.15 V,as well as the satisfactory reproducibility and usage stability.Besides,its accuracy was also verified in the assays of real water samples.It is highly expected that the 3 D PB/Pt-CNF based screen-printed microchips will have wide applications in dynamic monitoring and early warning of analytes in the various practical fields.