Transparent Electronic Skin Device Based on Microstructured Silver Nanowire Electrode

Transparent, flexible electronic skin holds a wide range of applications in robotics, humanmachine interfaces, artificial intelligence, prosthetics, and health monitoring. Silver nanowire are mechanically flexible and robust, which exhibit great potential in transparent and electricconducting thin film. Herein, we report on a silver-nanowire spray-coating and electrodemicrostructure replicating strategy to construct a transparent, flexible, and sensitive electronic skin device. The electronic skin device shows highly sensitive piezo-capacitance response to pressure. It is found that micropatterning the surface of dielectric layer polyurethane elastomer by replicating from microstructures of natural-existing surfaces such as lotus leaf, silk, and frosted glass can greatly enhance the piezo-capacitance performance of the device. The microstructured pressure sensors based on silver nanowire exhibit good transparency, excellent flexibility, wide pressure detection range （0-150 kPa）, and high sensitivity （1.28 kPa-1）.

Revisiting the electrode manufacturing: A look into electrode rheology and active material microenvironment

The microstructures on electrode level are crucial for battery performance, but the ambiguous understanding of both electrode microstructures and their structuring process causes critical challenges in controlling and evaluating the electrode quality during fabrication. In this review, analogous to the cell microenvironment well-known in biology, we introduce the concept of ‘‘active material microenvironment”(ME@AM)that is built by the ion/electron transport structures surrounding the AMs, for better understanding the significance of the electrode microstructures. Further, the scientific significance of electrode processing for electrode quality control is highlighted by its strong links to the structuring and quality control of ME@AM. Meanwhile, the roles of electrode rheology in both electrode structuring and structural characterizations involved in the entire electrode manufacturing process(i.e., slurry preparation, coating/printing/extrusion, drying and calendering) are specifically detailed. The advantages of electrode rheology testing on in-situ characterizations of the electrode qualities/structures are emphasized. This review provides a glimpse of the electrode rheology engaged in electrode manufacturing process and new insights into the understanding and effective regulation of electrode microstructures for future high-performance batteries.

Sandpaper-templated Stretchable Immunosensing Electrodes for Sub-picomolar Progesterone Detection

Female hormone detection,particularly non-invasive monitoring progesterone(P4)levels in body fluids,plays a critical role in female health management and disease diagnosis.However,the challenge still exists because of the ultralow abundance of P4(<100 pmol/L)in sweat and saliva,necessitating highly sensitive methods for wearable detection.Herein,we present a simple sandpaper-templated stretchable immunosensing electrode designed for ultra-sensitive detection of P4 at sub-picomolar level.A molding technique is employed to replicate the sandpaper textures to provide a microstructured elastomeric substrate for electrode preparation.Such microstructured surface coated with poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(4-styrenesulfonate)(PEDOT:PSS)/LiTFSI[LiTFSI=lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide]provided a stretchable polymer electrode with high conductivity,and further decoration with gold nanoparticles(AuNPs)enabled the immunosensing for P4 by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy(EIS)measurements.Through adjusting the AuNPs deposition conditions,ultrasensitive detection of P4 is realized with a low limit of detection(LOD)of ca.10 fmol/L and a tunable dynamic range up toµmol/L.Notably,the stretchable electrode exhibits stable electrochemical performance,enabling the detection of P4 at sub-picomolar levels even under mechanical strain of 30%.This innovative electrochemical sensor holds significant promise for non-invasive,on-site monitoring of P4 levels in healthcare,as well as hormone detection in food safety and environment surveillance.

Composites of sodium manganese oxides with enhanced electrochemical performance for sodium-ion batteries: Tailoring properties via controlling microstructure

Composites of Na_(0.44)Mn O_2, Na_(0.7)Mn O_(2.05), and Na_(0.91) Mn O_2 were synthesized by facile solid-state reaction, ball milling, and annealing methods. Two different composites of identical overall composition but drastically different morphologies and microstructures were synthesized. A composite of a hierarchical porous microstructure with primary and secondary particles(i.e., a "meatball-like" microstructure) achieved an excellent stable capacity of 126 m A h g^(-1) after 100 cycles. The rate capability of the composite could be dramatically enhanced by another round of high-energy ball milling and reannealing; subsequently, a composite that was made up of irregular rods was obtained, for which the capacity was improved by more than 230% to achieve ~53 m A h g^(-1) at a particularly high discharge rate of 50 C. This study demonstrated the feasibility of tailoring the electrochemical performance of electrode materials by simply changing their microstructures via facile ball milling and heat treatments, which can be particularly useful for optimizing composite electrodes for sodium-ion batteries.

Laser speckle grayscale lithography:a new tool for fabricating highly sensitive flexible capacitive pressure sensors

Achieving a high sensitivity for practical applications has always been one of the main developmental directions for wearable flexible pressure sensors.This paper introduces a laser speckle grayscale lithography system and a novel method for fabricating random conical array microstructures using grainy laser speckle patterns.Its feasibility is attributed to the autocorrelation function of the laser speckle intensity,which adheres to a first-order Bessel function of the first kind.Through objective speckle size and exposure dose manipulations,we developed a microstructured photoresist with various micromorphologies.These microstructures were used to form polydimethylsiloxane microstructured electrodes that were used in flexible capacitive pressure sensors.These-1 sensors exhibited an ultra-high sensitivity:19.76 kPa for the low-pressure range of 0-100 Pa.Their minimum detection threshold was 1.9 Pa,and they maintained stability and resilience over 10,000 test cycles.These sensors proved to be adept at capturing physiological signals and providing tactile feedback,thereby emphasizing their practical value.