A Low-Hysteresis and Highly Stretchable Ionogel Enabled by Well Dispersed Slidable Cross-Linker for Rapid Human-Machine Interaction

Ionic conductive soft materials for mimicking human skin are a promising topic since they can be thought of as a possible basis for biomimetic sensing. In pursuit of devices with a long working range and low signal delay, conductive materials with low hysteresis and good stretchability are highly demanded. To overcome the challenges of highly stretchable conductive materials with good resilience, herein a chemical design is proposed where polyrotaxanes act as topological cross-linkers to enhance the stretchability by sliding-induced reduced stress concentration while the compatible ionic liquid is introduced as a dispersant for low hysteresis. The obtained ionogels exhibit versatile properties more than low hysteresis (residual strain = 7%) and good stretchability (550%), and also anti-fatigue, biocompatibility, and good adhesion. The low hysteresis is attributed to lower energy dissipation from the well-dispersed polyrotaxanes by compatible ionic liquids. The mechanism provides a new insight in fabricating highly stretchable and low-hysteresis slide-ring materials. Furthermore, the conductivity of the ionogels and their responses to strains and temperatures are measured. Benefiting from the good conductivity and low hysteresis, the ionogel is applied to develop a wireless communication system to realize rapid human-machine interactions.     

Highly Conductive MXene/PEDOT:PSS-Integrated Poly(N-Isopropylacrylamide) Hydrogels for Bioinspired Somatosensory Soft Actuators

Sophisticated sensing and actuation capabilities of many living organisms in nature have inspired scientists to develop biomimetic somatosensory soft robots. Herein, the design and fabrication of homogeneous and highly conductive hydrogels for bioinspired somatosensory soft actuators are reported. The conductive hydrogels are synthesized by in situ copolymerization of conductive surface-functionalized MXene/Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/poly(styrenesulfonate) ink with thermoresponsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) hydrogels. The resulting hydrogels are found to exhibit high conductivity (11.76 S m⁻¹), strain sensitivity (GF of 9.93), broad working strain range (≈560% strain), and high stability after over 300 loading–unloading cycles at 100% strain. Importantly, shape-programmable somatosensory hydrogel actuators with rapid response, light-driven remote control, and self-sensing capability are developed by chemically integrating the conductive hydrogels with a structurally colored polymer. As the proof-of-concept illustration, structurally colored hydrogel actuators are applied for devising light-driven programmable shape-morphing of an artificial octopus, an artificial fish, and a soft gripper that can simultaneously monitor their own motions via real-time resistance variation. This work is expected to offer new insights into the design of advanced somatosensory materials with self-sensing and actuation capabilities, and pave an avenue for the development of soft-matter-based self-regulatory intelligence via built-in feedback control that is of paramount significance for intelligent soft robotics and automated machines.     

Vapor Phase Dealloying Derived Nanoporous Co@CoO/RuO2 Composites for Efficient and Durable Oxygen Evolution Reaction (Adv. Funct. Mater. 17/2023)

The development of low-cost and effective oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts to expedite the slow kinetics of water splitting is crucial for increasing the efficiency of energy conversion from electricity to hydrogen fuel. Herein, 3D bicontinuous nanoporous Co@CoO/RuO₂ composites with tunable sizes and chemical compositions are fabricated by introducing vapor phase dealloying of cobalt-based alloys. The influence of physical parameters on the formation of nanoporous Co substrates with various feature ligament sizes is systematically investigated. The CoO/RuO₂ shell is constructed by integrating a thin layer of RuO₂ on the inner surface of nanoporous Co, where the CoO interlayer is formed by annealing oxidization. The composite catalyst delivers an ultralow overpotential of 198 mV at 10 mA cm⁻², Tafel slope of 57.1 mV dec⁻¹, and long-term stability of 50 h. The superior OER activity and fast reaction kinetics are attributed to charge transfer through the coupling of Co O Ru bonds at the interface and the excellent nanopore connectivity, while the durability originates from the highly stable CoO/RuO₂ interface.     

一种激光雷达探测模块控制电路的设计和制作

传统上使用机械旋钮调节光电倍增管 (PMT) 增益的方法不仅存在需要人为依据经验手动操作、准确性差等 弊端, 而且 PMT 增益易受温度影响, 需要根据环境温度动态调整 PMT 的高压, 这些局限性都不利于其在激光雷达系 统中的应用。为了便于对 PMT 进行增益调节并保持 PMT 增益的稳定, 设计了可用于激光雷达系统的 PMT 控制电路 板, 该电路可使用计算机实现增益调节和高压的温度自适应调节, 从而精简了信号探测系统的结构与体积, 提升了信 号的稳定性。本工作采用内置高压电源的 H10721-20 型 PMT, 并基于 STM32 单片机结合数模转换器 (DAC) 和外围 电路完成控制电路板的设计并进行实际制作。进一步对使用电位器调节的 PMT 和利用所提出的控制方法进行调节 的 PMT 进行了高压稳定性的对比实验, 并对使用 PMT 控制电路板的米散射激光雷达的性能进行了测试。实验结果 表明所提出的控制方法可实现更稳定的 PMT 增益控制, 设计的 PMT 控制电路板具有良好的可靠性。     

Improved DV-Hop based on parallel and compact whale optimization algorithm for localization in wireless sensor networks

Wireless Networks - Improving localization performance is one of the critical issues in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). As a range-free localization algorithm, Distance Vector-Hop(DV-Hop) is...     

Oscillatory singular integrals on and Hardy spaces

We consider boundedness properties of oscillatory singular integrals on and Hardy spaces. By constructing a phase function, we prove that boundedness may fail while boundedness holds for all . This shows that the theory and theory for such operators are fundamentally different.