Flexible omnidirectional reflective film for CO_(2)laser protection

In this Letter,we presented a flexible omnidirectional reflective film made of polymer substrates and multiple alternating layers of two chalcogenide glasses for full-angle CO_(2) laser protection.The structure parameters of the device were simulated for theoretical prediction of best device structure.The reflector was fabricated by alternate thermal evaporation of two chalcogenide glasses with large refractive index contrast.The reflectivity was greater than 78%at 10.6μm.The flexible reflective film can provide an effective solution for full-angle CO_(2) laser protection of the moving targets,such as laser operators and mobile optical components,with potential applications for wearable laser protective clothing.

Flexible thermochromic fabrics enabling dynamic colored display

Color-changeable fbers can provide diverse functions for intelligent wearable devices such as novel information displays and human-machine interfaces when woven into fabric.This work develops a low-cost,efective,and scalable strategy to produce thermochromic fbers by wet spinning.Through a combination of diferent thermochromic microcapsules,fexible fbers with abundant and reversible color changes are obtained.These color changes can be clearly observed by the naked eye.It is also found that the fbers exhibit excellent color-changing stability even after 8000 thermal cycles.Moreover,the thermochromic fbers can be fabricated on a large scale and easily woven or implanted into various fabrics with good mechanical performance.Driven by their good mechanical and physical characteristics,applications of thermochromic fbers in dynamic colored display are demonstrated.Dynamic quick response(QR)code display and recognition are successfully realized with thermochromic fabrics.This work well confrms the potential applications of thermochromic fbers in smart textiles,wearable devices,fexible displays,and human-machine interfaces.

Digital medical education empowered by intelligent fabric space

Medical education plays an important role in promoting the development of global medical science.Nevertheless,the intrinsic gap existing between institutional medical teaching and practical clinical tasks causes low education efficiency and students’weak initiative.Recent developments of sensing fabric and embedded computing,along with the advances in artificial intelligence(AI)and digital twin technology are paving the way for the transformation of medical research towards digitization.In this work,we present an intelligent fabric space based on novel functional fabric materials and digital twin networking enabled by 5G and internet of things(IoT)technologies.In this space,medical students can learn knowledge with collaborative mapping of the digital and real world,cyber-physical interaction and real-time tactile feedback.And the proposed service system will evaluate and feedback students’operational behaviors to improve their experimental skills.We provide four typical applications of intelligent fabric space for medical education,including medical education training,health and behavior tracking,operation playback and reproduction,as well as medical knowledge popularization.The proposed intelligent fabric space has the potential to promote innovative technologies for training cutting-edge medical students by effective and efficient ways.

Preface to the special issue on“Recent Advances in Functional Fibers”

Fiber is one of the most fundamental material forms seen in human life.Beftting from their long and bendable shape,fbers with diferent specialties and diferent dimensions are used in a multitude of applications,ranging from fabrics[1]to telecommunications[2],from generating laser[3]to sensing and actuating,etc.[4-6].In recent years,major breakthroughs were made,demonstrating that fbers have novel optical[7-9],electronic[10],acoustic[11,12]and cell interfacing[13,14]properties that enable new functionalities.Functional fbers and related application research are at the crossroads of many disciplines,including optics,materials science,device physics,nanotechnology,and fuid dynamics.