ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
·
2018
·Vol. 28
·期 52
·1806340
·
IF 13.325
Yabin Zhang,Kai Yan,Fengtong Ji,Li Zhang
The increasing accumulation of heavy metal ions in our surroundings is posing a serious threat to living systems. Adsorption means based on a variety of micro/nanomaterials and micro/nanomanipulation are being employed for fast and highly efficient removal of various pollutants. Here, a kind of biohybrid adsorbents is developed through in situ growing magnetic Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles on hydrothermally-treated fungi spores. Such organic/inorganic porous spore@Fe 3 O 4 biohybrid adsorbents (PSFBAs) can effectively adsorb and remove heavy metal ions due to porous structuring and high-adsorbing components. Once combined with a magnetically-driven microrobotic technique, magnetic PSFBAs in controllably collective motion show enhanced adsorption capacity and shorter removal time for multiple heavy metal ions compared to nonmotile counterparts. The corresponding magnetic actuation of collective PSFBAs swarming into a narrow fluidic channel is demonstrated. When utilizing these adsorbents together with magnetically-propelled swarming microrobotic technique, lead ions in contaminated water are rapidly removed from 5 ppm down to 0.9 ppm, superior to untreated and static counterparts. Furthermore, such magnetically-propelled PSFBAs can be reused after facile separation and post-treatment, which is demonstrated by four consecutive cycles. The combination of biological entities and swarming microrobotic techniques would provide a promising avenue for the decontamination of pollutants in environmental remediation.
研究领域:
环境科学
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材料科学
·
生物学
✓ 已验证
DOI
高影响因子
JOURNAL OF COLLOID AND INTERFACE SCIENCE
·
2022
·
IF 9.965
Tian-Ying Liu,Fan Jia,Qian Li,Li Liu,Jian-Ye Gao,Dong-Dong Li,Qian Wang,Jing Liu
Hypothesis The high surface tension of liquid metal (LM) causes interface incompatibility and poor bonding strength with many substrates. Fine adjustment towards the properties of the surface area is sufficient to introduce strong bonding. Hence, we hypothesize that the interlocking structure using hydrophilic polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a “bridge” should be helpful for tight interfacial bonding of LM with polymeric substrates, thus achieving high-performance LM/polymer membranes, which have wide applications in the field of soft sensors and robotics. Experiments The bulk EGaIn was fabricated into LM nanoparticles (LMNPs@PVA) solution. Then, PVA molecules were “doped” into the surface crosslink of the plasma treated polymer substrate by an interfacial penetrating method. Afterward, the solution was evenly dropped on the surface of the treated substrate to obtain the LMNP/polymer membrane after the water evaporated. Photothermal actuators were fabricated based on the membranes. Findings During the interlocking structure, PVA macromolecules could be doped and trapped onto the top surfaces of various polymer substrates as binding “bridges” between the LMNPs and the matrix materials. The achieved LMNP membrane exhibites satisfactory bonding strength, durability and water-assisted erase-reprint, which can be used as soft photothermal actuators with remote laser control.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
机械工程
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机器人技术
·
传感器
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
ACS Sensors
·
2025
·
IF 9.1
Yanchao Zhao,Wei Xu,Weichao Guo,Xinjun Sheng
Tactile sensing arrays play a crucial role in human-machine interaction, robotics, and artificial intelligence by enabling the perception of physical stimuli on robotic surfaces or human skin. However, skin-attachable sensor arrays still suffer from strain interference and signal crosstalk under stretching or bending, particularly on curved or deformable surfaces. Here, we present a stretchable tactile array that is both strain-insensitive and crosstalk-suppressed, achieved via a hierarchically segmented design that mitigates lateral and vertical deformations synergistically. By tessellating hard and compliant elements within encapsulation layers, stretch deformation in the sensing region is reduced by 79%, and the overall mean stress is decreased by over 90%. Multilevel segmented spacers are proposed to provide vertical support while maintaining stretchability. These synergistic designs achieve comprehensive strain insensitivity (75% stretching insensitivity and bending insensitivity) and ultralow crosstalk (31.82 dB). Furthermore, iontronic porous foams are introduced to endow sensing pixels with high linearity (R2 = 0.985) and sensitivity (2.812 kPa–1). We demonstrate accurate tactile information acquisition on soft, curved human fingers and showcase the array’s potential for multi-attribute object recognition.
研究领域:
触觉传感
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柔性电子学
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人机交互
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机器人技术
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人工智能
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材料科学
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传感器技术
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
Science Robotics
·
2025
·Vol. 10
·期 103
·
IF 27.5
Haidong Yu,Xurui Liu,Yabin Zhang,Jie Shen,Xijun Liu,Shubo Liu,Xiangyu Wang,Bonan Sun,Huihui Du,Lin Xu,Bingsuo Zou,Jianning Ding,Qingsong Xu,Li Zhang,Ben Wang
Microrobotic techniques are promising for treating biofilm infections located deep within the human body. However, the presence of highly viscous pus presents a formidable biological barrier, severely restricting targeted and minimally invasive treatments. In addition, conventional antibacterial agents exhibit limited payload integration with microrobotic systems, further compromising therapeutic efficiency. In this study, we propose a photocatalytic microrobot through a magnetically guided, optical fiber–assisted therapeutic platform specifically designed to treat bacterial infections in deep mucosal cavities. The microrobots comprising copper (Cu) single atom–doped bismuth oxoiodide (BiOI), termed CBMRs, can be guided and tracked by real-time x-ray imaging. Under external magnetic actuation, the illuminated region from the magnetically guided optical fiber synchronously follows the CBMR swarm, enabling effective antibacterial action at targeted infection sites. Upon continuous visible-light irradiation, the resultant photothermal effect substantially reduces the viscosity of pus on inflamed mucosal tissues, enhancing the penetration capability of the CBMR swarm by more than threefold compared with baseline conditions. Concurrently, atomic-level design of CBMRs facilitates robust generation of reactive oxygen species, enabling efficient biofilm disruption and reductions in bacterial viability. We validated the effectiveness of this integrated optical fiber–assisted microrobotic platform in a rabbit sinusitis model in vivo, demonstrating its potential for clinically relevant infection therapy.
研究领域:
生物医学工程
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纳米技术
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微生物学
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机器人学
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材料科学
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医学成像
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光动力疗法
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
·
2023
·
IF 9.5
Jinhao Zhang,Xin Wang,Zhiwei Yang,Jian Wang,Jiacheng Cao,Qian Chen,Shilong Yu,Jian Zhang,Tianwen Guo,Hai Li,Xiao Huang
Eutectic gallium–indium alloy (EGaIn) is a biocompatible liquid metal, promising for wearable electronics. Through functionalization and formation of composites, EGaIn-based materials have shown potential in multifunctional sensing devices. Here, egg-shell EGaIn/Ag/ZnO ternary composite particles were prepared through an ultrasound-assisted displacement reaction combined with room-temperature hydrolysis. The composite was further constructed as a wearable sensor capable of both pressure and proximity detection. For pressure sensing, due to the decrease in the Young’s modulus of the egg-shell structure and the presence of the electrical double layers between Ag and ZnO, which enriched surface charges, the sensor showed excellent sensitivity at low pressures (2.17 KPa–1, <0.4 KPa) and thus the ability to sense body movements. For proximity sensing, the composite sensor was able to detect approaching objects that were up to 20 cm away. By combining and fitting the sensing curves for both the touchless and touching modes, the extracted parameters were used to create fingerprints for different objects, demonstrating the great potential of our sensor in the differentiation and identification of unknown objects for future robotics and artificial intelligence.
研究领域:
材料科学
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可穿戴技术
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传感器
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机器人技术
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人工智能
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产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
Journal of Materials Chemistry B
·
2020
·Vol. 9
·期 1
·176-186
·
IF 5.344
Xiaohua Zhang,Xuefeng Yang,Qiyuan Dai,Yichen Zhang,Haotian Pan,Chenxi Yu,Qi Feng,Shuangli Zhu,Hua Dong,Xiaodong Cao
Tough hydrogels with the ability to be repeatedly processed into various shapes as thermoplastics are highly desired in advanced medical devices and tissue engineering. Here, we have developed a kind of versatile supramolecular hydrogel with a network cross-linked by double hydrogen bonds from poly(N-acryloyl glycinamide) (PNAGA). The resulting PNAGA-30 hydrogels (30 wt% solid content) are tough, re-processable, and recyclable similar to thermoplastics. The hydrogels in the form of fragments can be easily re-processed into various shapes including sheet, filament, cylinder and other complex shapes by using simple stamping and injection methods. The mechanical properties of the re-programed hydrogels are comparable to the properties of the original hydrogels. The re-processability and robust mechanical properties of the PNAGA hydrogels are promising for practical applications in soft materials, tissue engineering and wearable devices. Furthermore, the PNAGA-30&LiCl ionic hydrogels can be fabricated by simply compositing LiCl into thermoplastic hydrogels. The PNAGA-30&LiCl hydrogels can function as multifunctional strain sensors to monitor large human movements and tiny vibrations, thereby showing great application potential in robotics, biomedical prosthetics, personal healthcare monitoring and so on.
研究领域:
材料科学
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生物医学工程
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组织工程
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可穿戴技术
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机器人技术
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健康监测
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
ACS Nano
·
2023
·
IF 17.1
Shengshun Duan,Qiongfeng Shi,Jianlong Hong,Di Zhu,Yucheng Lin,Yinghui Li,Wei Lei,Chengkuo Lee,Jun Wu
Electronic skin (e-skin), mimicking the physical–chemical and sensory properties of human skin, is promising to be applied as robotic skins and skin-attachable wearables with multisensory functionalities. To date, most e-skins are dedicated to sensory function development to mimic human skins in one or several aspects, yet advanced e-skin covering all the hyper-attributes (including both the sensory and physical–chemical properties) of human skins is seldom reported. Herein, a water-modulated biomimetic hyper-attribute-gel (Hygel) e-skin with reversible gel–solid transition is proposed, which exhibits all the desired skin-like physical–chemical properties (stretchability, self-healing, biocompatibility, biodegradability, weak acidity, antibacterial activities, flame retardance, and temperature adaptivity), sensory properties (pressure, temperature, humidity, strain, and contact), function reconfigurability, and evolvability. Then the Hygel e-skin is applied as an on-robot e-skin and skin-attached wearable to demonstrate its highly skin-like attributes in capturing multiple sensory information, reconfiguring desired functions, and excellent skin compatibility for real-time gesture recognition via deep learning. This Hygel e-skin may find more applications in advanced robotics and even skin-replaceable artificial skin.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
机器人技术
·
生物医学工程
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可穿戴技术
·
人工智能
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
·
2021
·
IF 9.229
Weinan Chen,Xi Chen,Mingxuan Yang,Shishi Li,Xinjian Fan,Hao Zhang,Hui Xie
Active targeted therapy for bowel cancer using untethered microrobots has attracted extensive attention. However, traditional microrobots face challenges, such as issues of mobility, biocompatibility, drug loading, sustained-release capabilities, and targeting accuracy. Here, we propose an untethered triple-configurational magnetic robot (TCMR) that is composed of three geometrically nested parts: actuation and guarding, anchoring and seeding, and drug release part. A targeting magnetic driving system actuates the TCMR along the predetermined trajectory to the target position. The pH-sensitive actuation and guarding part formed by electrodeposition is degraded in the intestinal environment and separates from the two other parts. A majority of magnetic nanoparticles encapsulated in this part are retrieved. The anchoring and seeding part anchors the lesion area and seeds the drug release part in the gaps of intestinal villi by hydrolysis. Ultimately, the drug release part containing the therapeutic completes the sustained release to prolong the duration of the therapeutic agent. Cytotoxicity and therapeutic tests reveal that TCMRs are biocompatible and suitable for targeted therapy and have good therapeutic performance. The newly designed TCMR will provide new ideas for targeted therapy, thus expanding the application scope of robotics technology in the biomedical field.
研究领域:
机器人技术
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生物医学工程
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药学
·
癌症治疗
✓ 已验证
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
Journal of Materials Chemistry B
·
2020
·Vol. 9
·期 4
·1030-1039
·
IF 5.344
Weinan Chen,Yongbing Wen,Xinjian Fan,Mengmeng Sun,Chenyao Tian,Mingxuan Yang,Hui Xie
Small intestine-targeted drug delivery by oral administration has aroused the growing interest of researchers. In this work, the child-parent microrobot (CPM) as a vehicle protects the child microrobots (CMs) under a gastric acid environment and releases them in the small intestinal environment. The intelligent hydrogel-based CPMs with sphere, mushroom, red blood cell, and teardrop shapes are fabricated by an extrusion-dripping method. The CPMs package uniform CMs, which are fabricated by designed microfluidic (MF) devices. The fabrication mechanism and tunability of CMs and CPMs with different sizes and shapes are analyzed, modeled, and simulated. The shape of CPM can affect its drug release efficiency and kinetic characteristics. A vision-feedback magnetic driving system (VMDS) actuates and navigates CPM along the predefined path to the destination and continuously releases drug in the simulated intestinal fluid (SIF, a low Reynolds number (Re) regime) using a new motion control method with the tracking-learning-detection (TLD) algorithm. The newly designed CPM combines the advantages of powerful propulsion, good biocompatibility, and remarkable drug loading and release capacity at the intestinal level, which is expected to be competent for oral administration of small intestine-targeted therapy in the future.
研究领域:
生物医学工程
·
药学
·
机器人技术
✓ 已验证
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
Journal of Materials Chemistry C
·
2020
·Vol. 9
·期 3
·1044-1050
·
IF 7.059
Bo Li,Lei Kan,Chao Li,Wei Li,Yihan Zhang,Rui Li,Hao Wei,Xinyue Zhang,Ning Ma
There is a challenge to prepare a hydrogel devoted to fabricate a form of multi-responsive skin-like sensors piggybacking on tactile controlled robots, which could grab the soft and fragile items at subzero temperatures. Herein, we demonstrate a supramolecular ionic liquid hydrogel wherein ureidopyrimidinone (UPy) containing hydrophilic polyurethane (PU) was employed as the network while the aqueous solution of imidazolium ionic liquid acted as a free phase. Combining the advantages of hydrophilic PEG segments, hydrophobic UPy moieties, and the imidazolium ionic liquid, this supramolecular hydrogel exhibited high water content (∼86%), swelling ratio (∼400%), elongation (∼750%), low resistivity (∼0.51 kΩ cm) and excellent transparency (∼98%). Moreover, the most striking characteristic was that the supramolecular hydrogel maintained its outstanding mechanical and thermal sensitivity at subzero temperatures, e.g., −20 °C. The supramolecular ionic liquid hydrogel was utilized to fabricate E-skin for the intelligent robot to realize pressure feedback and thermal recognition. This line of research not only demonstrates that anti-freezing stimuli-responsive hydrogels are a promising candidate for E-skins used in harsh conditions, but also contribute to the design and application of supramolecular polymer-based hydrogel sensors for future artificial intelligence applications.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
机器人技术
·
生物医学工程
·
化学
✓ 已验证
DOI
高影响因子
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
·
2022
·
IF 10.383
Zhuo Chen,Yang Zhang,Bin Zhu,Yigen Wu,Xiaohui Du,Liwei Lin,Dezhi Wu
Tactile pressure sensing over a wide operation range (>1 MPa) is challenging for a variety of applications in fields such as aviation, oceanography, and biomedicine. Recently, innovative strategies have been utilized to improve the performances of tactile sensors using specially designed structures, dielectric layers, and electrodes. Here, a hierarchical structural design based on ionic gel films has been utilized to build iontronic pressure sensors with ultrahigh sensitivities and broad operation ranges. Sculptured patterns made by a controlled CO2 laser scanning process have been produced on polyimide films to achieve two kinds of protrusion structures for high specific surface areas and strength to withstand high pressure. The iontronic sensor has been constructed by adding two screen-printed electrodes of high surface areas to achieve an ultrahigh sensitivity of 2593 kPa–1 and a wide pressure range from 0 Pa to 3.36 MPa. The prototype device also has a fast response and recovery time of 26 and 13 ms, respectively, and an excellent mechanical durability in the endurance test of over 2700 repeated loading and unloading cycles under a pressure of 1 MPa. Several application examples have been demonstrated, including the detection of physiological signals on human volunteers, the feedback control of intelligent robots, the grasping operation of underwater soft grippers, and the environmental wind-speed monitoring. As such, this work demonstrates a versatile and economical methodology to produce high-performance flexible sensors for various potential applications.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
传感器技术
·
生物医学工程
·
机器人技术
·
环境监测
✓ 已验证
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
Advanced Intelligent Systems
·
2024
·
IF 6.8
Xingcheng Ou,Yu Sheng,Jiaqi Huang,Dantong Huang,Xiaohong Li,Ran Bi,Guoliang Chen,Weijie Hu,Shuang-Zhuang Guo
Inspired by the efficient swimming capabilities of swordfish, a novel wireless soft swordfish-like robot with programmable magnetization has been developed, integrating direct-ink-writing (DIW) 3D printing and assembly technology. This 20 mm long robot features a streamlined form and magnetically programmable movements, enabling biomimetic locomotion patterns such as straight-line swimming and turning swimming. The robot includes a silicone-based torso (body, abdomen, and pectoral fin) and a crescent-shaped tail fin made from a magnetically programmable polymer embedded with neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) particles. The tail fin, fabricated by multi-material alternating printing to achieve a gradient magnetism distribution, is controlled by an external magnetic field to mimic the rapid oscillation of a swordfish's tail, achieving a swimming speed of 0.51 BL/ s. The tail fin's asymmetric oscillation amplitudes, adjusted by magnetic field control, allow the robot to transition seamlessly from high-speed straight swimming to agile turning. The robot can perform tracking swimming along specific planned paths, such as “C” and “Z” shaped trajectories. Potential applications include environmental monitoring and targeted drug release. The multi-material 3D printing technology enhances the robot's efficiency and sensitivity in simulating natural biological movements, extending to the design and development of various flexible devices and soft robots.
研究领域:
机器人技术
·
生物医学工程
·
材料科学
·
仿生学
✓ 已验证
DOI
高影响因子
危险品化学品经营许可证（带存储）