Traditional electronic skin (e-skin) with single micro-nano structures has a limited capacity to optimize the comprehensive sensing properties, which greatly hinders the intellectualization process. Herein, cocklebur-inspired bionic e-skin consisting of the “branch-seed-spininess” three-dimensional hierarchical structure, namely the P(VDF-TrFE) fiber-TiO 2 pillar-TiO 2 thorn structure (FPTS), is proposed. Benefiting from the hierarchical characteristics of the FPTS, the e-skin exhibits a high sensitivity of 0.163 kPa −1 (<20 kPa), wide pressure sensing range of 0–200 kPa, and ultrafast response/relaxation time of < 5.6 ms. In light of these salient features , versatile intelligent perception applications are explored. First, robot fingers are equipped with the FPTS e-skins and realize the traditional Chinese medicine pulse diagnosis of the radial artery in different positions and pressing degrees. Second, a flexible perception array with 100 FPTS e-skin units enables the spatial pressure mapping of flat/curved surfaces and the perception of different Braille characters. Most importantly, by making full use of the FPTS e-skin with a five-layer deep neural network , an intelligent gesture perception system is developed for accurate recognition (average accuracy: 98.33%) of sign language and precise control of the robot hand, which is of great significance for the development of intelligent sign language translation in artificial intelligence.
Nerve guidance conduits (NGCs) are considered as promising treatment strategy and frontier trend for peripheral nerve regeneration, while their therapeutic outcomes are limited by the lack of controllable drug delivery and available physicochemical cues. Herein, novel aligned piezoelectric nanofibers derived hydrogel NGCs with ultrasound (US)-triggered electrical stimulation (ES) and controllable drug release for repairing peripheral nerve injury are proposed. The inner layer of the NGCs is the barium titanate piezoelectric nanoparticles (BTNPs)-doped polyvinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene [BTNPs/P(VDF-TrFE)] electrospinning nanofibers with improved piezoelectricity and aligned orientation. The outer side of the NGCs is the thermoresponsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) hybrid hydrogel with bioactive drug encapsulation. Such NGCs can not only induce neuronal-oriented extension and promote neurite outgrowth with US-triggered wireless ES, but also realize the controllable nerve growth factor release with the hydrogel shrinkage under US-triggered heating. Thus, the NGC can positively accelerate the functional recovery and nerve axonal regeneration of rat models with long sciatic nerve defects. It is believed that the proposed US-responsive aligned piezoelectric nanofibers derived hydrogel NGCs will find important applications in clinic neural tissue engineering.