Thermoelectric conversion directly converts heat into electricity and offers a sustainable, solid-state pathway for energy harvesting, holding particular promise for next-generation wearable electronics. Beyond conventional thin-film and bulk configurations, the advent of fiber-shaped thermoelectric materials has opened new horizons by combining flexibility, breathability, and seamless textile compatibility. These merits make thermoelectric fibers particularly attractive for constructing distributed, body-conformal, and self-sustaining electronic systems. Herein, recent progress in inorganic, organic, and hybrid thermoelectric fibers is systematically reviewed, with particular emphasis on materials design, scalable fabrication strategies, and device engineering. Subsequently, their integration into wearable systems is elaborated, encompassing diverse applications in personalized healthcare and human–machine interfaces. Finally, we critically discuss the key challenges, including performance enhancement, long-term durability, and seamless system-level integration. This discussion aims to provide insights and guidance for advancing thermoelectric fibers toward intelligent, sustainable, and fully autonomous wearable technologies.
Traditional textile dyeing and printing processes are usually accompanied by severe environmental pollution, high water consumption, and heavy metal discharge, which pose a great threat to ecological sustainability and human health. To address these problems, the development of eco-friendly structural coloration strategies has become an urgent demand in modern textile engineering. Inspired by nature, animals and plants display diverse structural colors to fulfill survival, communication, and reproduction needs. This unique coloration enables tunable and vivid hues without relying on chemical dyes or pigments, which has spurred the rapid development of optical materials featuring structural color in fields such as color display, anti-counterfeiting, and smart sensing. Photonic crystals (PCs), a type of material that produces structural colors through the interaction between microstructure and light, have demonstrated significant potential in the field of textile green coloring. This is attributed to their straightforward preparation process, environmental friendliness, and excellent fading resistance. PC materials provide a brand-new and promising idea for clean coloring of textiles; however, there are few reviews in this field. Distinct from the previous reviews, we present an overview of the advancements in PCs structural color materials and emphasize their recent developments within the textile field. First, the chromogenic mechanism, definition, classification of PCs, and their current representative applications are introduced. Second, the utilization of PCs structural color materials in the textile field is examined, encompassing structural color fibers, yarns, and fabrics. Third, the current challenges faced by structural color fabrics are sorted out and analyzed in a problem-oriented manner, including the colorfastness, preparation efficiency, patterning and functionalization. The challenges and developmental prospects encountered by structural color textiles are comprehensively summarized. We envision that this review will guide the advancement of PC-based structural colors in textiles and inspire interdisciplinary research and practical applications across colloid chemistry, bionics, materials science, optics, and textile engineering.
Bone defects combined with extensive periosteal stripping often result in delayed union or non-union, posing a significant challenge in orthopedic surgery. Inspired by the natural periosteum and the physicochemical properties of bone tissue, we developed a novel dual-layer piezoelectric bionic periosteum (DPBP) membrane via electrospinning, aiming to reconstruct the periosteal–bone interface microenvironment and actively promote bone repair. Designed with a hierarchical structure, the DPBP features a dense outer layer serving as a crucial protective barrier, while its biomineralized porous inner layer provides a scaffold for cell attachment. In synergy with ultrasound (US), the inner layer’s piezoelectricity generates endogenous electrical stimulation, promoting stem cell proliferation and osteogenic differentiation by triggering calcium influx and subsequently activating the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. Furthermore, in vitro studies demonstrated that the DPBP effectively promoted angiogenesis, indicating a synergistic enhancement of osteo-angiogenic coupling. In vivo, in a rat calvarial defect model, the DPBP significantly promoted bone regeneration, enhanced neovascularization, and exhibited beneficial immunomodulatory capabilities. This study presents a bioinspired periosteum substitute that effectively delivers integrated physicochemical signals to actively enhance bone regeneration, offering a promising strategy for challenging clinical applications.
Epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) materials exhibit unique electromagnetic responses when approaching plasma frequency, attracting considerable attention for advanced wave manipulation. However, achieving ENZ characteristics in the radio frequency (RF) range is often hindered by pronounced dielectric dispersion and limited material design approaches. Herein, we demonstrate a rationally engineered metacomposite that simultaneously delivers RF ENZ response and record-low dispersion. The material is fabricated by 3D printing a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix embedded with in situ self-assembled FeCoNi nanoparticles and nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes, which is denoted as FeCoNi-N-CNTs. This gives rise to a metacomposite showing a smooth transition of the real permittivity (ε′) from –27.5 at 1 MHz to 1.5 at 110 MHz, with a zero-crossing point at 53 MHz. Remarkably, the variation in ε′ (Δε′) is only 29 across this 110-fold frequency span, representing the lowest dispersion reported to date among RF ENZ systems. Hall-effect measurements indicate preserved high carrier mobility, a key factor in dispersion suppression. Mechanistic analyses reveal that FeCoNi and N doping induce band flattening, increasing the electron effective mass and reducing carrier density. This study not only establishes a new design strategy for low-dispersion ENZ metacomposites but also paves the way for innovative RF applications such as compact antennas, sensitive sensors, and reconfigurable metamaterial equipment.
Human respiration, perspiration, and skin evaporation continuously release moisture, making humidity a promising self-sustainable energy source for wearable electronics. However, conventional film-type moisture-enabled electric generators suffer from limitations in flexibility and integration with wearable platforms. Here, we report an Ag polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) nanofiber core-spun yarn (APNCY) with moisture-enabled electric generation fabricated via conjugate electrospinning, where a sandwich structure composed of a zinc core electrode, a PVA/LiCl nanofiber hygroscopic layer, and a sprayed silver shell enables efficient harvesting of ambient humidity. The LiCl concentration critically affects fiber morphology and moisture affinity, with the APNCY fabricated using 0.2 wt.% LiCl achieving optimal performance, delivering approximately 0.75 V and 0.034 mA at 95% RH while maintaining stable operation for over 10000 s. Benefiting from its yarn architecture, the device can readily interface with the human body for signal acquisition. Combined with deep learning algorithms and t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) feature space analysis, the device enables high-accuracy recognition of multiple breathing patterns and supports self-powered wireless abnormality warnings, demonstrating strong potential for smart textiles, passive physiological monitoring, and self-powered wearable healthcare applications.
Capacitive deionization (CDI) is a promising desalination technology for relieving freshwater shortage. However, designing and fabricating high mass-loading and high-performance CDI electrodes, so as to meet the practical demand (~ 10 mg cm−2) and to improve the areal capacity of CDI devices, still remain challenging. Herein, we propose a current collector-structuring strategy to fabricate MnO2@CSA and BiOCl@CSA electrodes, via pre-constructing highly ordered porous carbon nanosheet arrays on carbon fibers (CSA) and then depositing MnO2 or BiOCl. It was demonstrated that compared with conventional planar current collector, the surface nanostructuring of carbon fibers can effectively reduce the thickness of the active material layer by approximately 26-fold at high mass loadings (> 20 mg cm−2), thereby greatly shortening both ion and electron transport distances. Meanwhile, the open 3D array network of MnO2@CSA and BiOCl@CSA electrodes endows them with fast kinetics for ion diffusion and adsorption. Consequently, with an overall mass loading of approximately 24 mg cm−2, the MnO2@CSA||BiOCl@CSA cell delivers impressive areal and gravimetric salt adsorption capacities (0.72 mg cm−2 and 30.8 mg g−1), along with excellent cycling stability. Our study reveals that rational design of the current collector microstructure can significantly enhance the mass-loading and desalination performance of CDI electrodes, thereby better meeting practical requirements and offering great promise for CDI applications.
Electronic textiles have emerged as a critical platform for flexible electronics due to their excellent wearability. However, achieving multifunctionality typically involves layering various functional components, which compromises comfort and interface stability. Here, we present a radiative cooling triboelectric textile (RCTT) that simultaneously addresses self-powered sensing and personal thermal management through photonic-engineered structural design. The textile is fabricated via electrospinning of styrene–butene–styrene (SEBS)/polyethylene-polypropylene glycol (F127) composite, followed by TiO2 nanoparticle coupling, fluorosilanization, and liquid metal alloying. The resulting RCTT demonstrates a power density of 328 mW·m−2 with sustained performance over 5100 cycles, enabling self-powered operation as both an energy harvester and motion sensor for human body monitoring. Through engineered photonic design, the textile exhibits a solar reflectance of 92% and an infrared emissivity of 96%. This enables sub-ambient temperature reductions of 2.0 °C and 1.1 °C under sunny and cloudy conditions, respectively, with a corresponding daytime cooling power of 78.5 W·m−2. Furthermore, the material retains ultra-stretchability, super-hydrophobicity, and excellent air/moisture permeability alongside robust mechanical stability. This integrated approach represents a significant advancement in multifunctional wearable electronics, offering a viable strategy for developing self-powered textiles with enhanced thermal comfort for outdoor applications.
Flexible sensors with multi-mode sensing capability are highly desired for wearable health monitoring; meanwhile, electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding is also needed for the special health care of pregnant women and children. Herein, inspired by the helical structure of natural ivy, multifunctional double-spiral gel fibers are developed through a facial wet spinning-intertwining method. The conducting polymer-incorporated sodium polyacrylate polymer matrix serves as the adhesive and conductive hydrogel substrate, while different conductive fillers of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and silver nanowires (AgNWs) are composited in each fiber for mutual synergistic effect. Due to the combined electrical conducting behaviors of CNTs and AgNWs, remarkable strain-sensing performance (sensitivity approximately 70.12) for single double-spiral fibers and effective EMI shielding property (total shielding effectiveness approximately 21.9 dB) for woven textiles are achieved. Because of differentiated triboelectric polarities of CNTs and AgNWs, the double-spiral fibers can also be used as a noncontact triboelectric nanogenerator sensor (sensitivity approximately -4.6 mV mm−1). The practicality of the developed multifunctional double-spiral gel fibers is comprehensively demonstrated to detect various body joint and limb motions, monitor chest and wrist electrocardiogram signal, recognize nearby object material type with the help of artificial intelligence, and shield EMI from Bluetooth headset.
Conventional polymeric fibrous sponges, as universal passive acoustic control materials, provide a sustainable approach to noise mitigation. However, addressing the narrow effective acoustic bandwidth and inherent flammability remains challenging. Here, a fire-resistant hybrid fibrous sponge (HYFS) featuring broadband acoustic absorption is fabricated by the strategy of spontaneous hollowing and sacrificial template-assisted dynamic hybridization. The hierarchical phase separation within a solution jet enables the concurrent hollowing and three-dimensional self-assembly of ultrafine fibers in one step. Subsequently, a continuous inorganic sheath induced by template sacrifice was generated on the hollow fibers, forming a dynamically evolved multi-scale structural regulatory system, ranging from the microtubular fibers with hollow channels and nanoscale surface roughness to macroscopic fibrous assemblies with open inter-fiber porosity. Thus, the prepared HYFS demonstrates a remarkable noise-reduction coefficient of 0.62 at 270 g/m2, along with the broadband sound absorption of effective bandwidth up to 5.5 kHz (sound absorption coefficient > 0.90). Moreover, it demonstrates outstanding fire retardancy with a peak heat release rate of 7 kW/m2, representing a 75% reduction compared to the prepared polyimide sponges. This work sheds light on a novel avenue to the scalable fabrication of ultralight, fire-safe, and highly efficient broadband acoustic absorbers for practical applications.
The growing global demand for energy for temperature regulation underscores the urgency of developing advanced personal thermal management textiles. However, current radiative cooling/heating materials often lack dynamic adaptability, efficient moisture management, diverse coloration, and satisfactory wearing comfort. Herein, we present colorful Janus metafabrics (CJMs) engineered via scalable solution-dyeing electrospinning, featuring a dual-gradient structure for radiative cooling and solar heating, and directional sweat transport. The metafabric consists of a hydrophobic carbon black/polyurethane (CB/PU) heating layer and a superhydrophilic aluminum oxide (Al2O3)/pigment-doped PU cooling layer. The cooling side exhibits approximately 95% MIR emittance, > 85% NIR reflectance, and 86% solar reflectance (yellow) due to synergistic Al2O3 scattering and dyeing (67%–86%), compensating for the limitations of conventional dyes. The heating side achieves around 95% solar absorptance for efficient photothermal conversion. Outdoor tests demonstrate significant cooling ΔT = 17.6 °C and heating ΔT = 13.3 °C effects compared to bare simulated skin. Asymmetric wrinkles enhance optical properties and facilitate rapid directional moisture transport, with a one-way transfer index reaching 1163%. CJMs are ultralight, flexible (153%–175% strain), soft, and feature Janus textures, ensuring wearing comfort. This work provides a versatile design integrating energy efficiency, physiological comfort, and aesthetic diversity, offering a promising pathway toward next-generation smart textiles.
Sorption-based atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) holds promise for on-demand water supply, yet combining high yield with fast kinetics remains challenging. Here, we present a hollow-fiber textile-supported composite sorbent and an integrated solar-powered water harvester. The composite sorbent is fabricated by embedding LiCl into a three-dimensionally oriented channel textile constructed from hollow Calotropis gigantea fibers. An airflow-assisted yarn assembly strategy is employed to form hollow-fiber yarns and further construct a three-dimensional textile with vertically aligned pore arrays. After LiCl integration, efficient water vapor sorption and rapid desorption are achieved. The sorbent attains water uptakes of 0.88, 1.39, and 2.34 g g−1 at relative humidities of 15%, 30%, and 60%, respectively. The harvester integrates power generation, heating, and condensation. When coupled with a multicycle sorption–desorption strategy, it yields about 64 g day−1 (5.19 gwater g−1sorbent day−1). The operation forms an energy-autonomous loop where daytime solar electricity is generated and stored, powering nighttime desorption and condensation. This work establishes a textile-based platform that integrates structural advantages with solar energy utilization, enabling efficient and scalable AWH systems.
To achieve multifunctional integration in textiles, a Janus structure has been extensively incorporated into fabrics. However, the mass production of these materials remains constrained due to complex fabrication processes. We have developed a nebulization-assisted enzymatic catalysis (NAEC) strategy for the efficient fabrication of Janus fabrics. Herein, the microdroplets act as microreactors, enhancing the efficiency of laccase-catalyzed dopamine polymerization due to the improved enzyme conformation and increased local concentration at the droplet interface. Furthermore, this microdroplet-driven dynamic reaction facilitates the formation of a unique Janus structure on the fabric’s surface. This Janus structure can also function as a template to drive the directional deposition of zinc oxide nanoparticles, attributed to the excellent metal-chelating properties of polydopamine (PDA). Ultimately, the composite fabric develops a distinctive nanoscale gradient interface along its thickness, endowing it with excellent water transport, photothermal conversion, and antibacterial properties. The final composite fabric achieves an impressive water evaporation rate of 0.1 kg m−2 h−1 and enables rapid sterilization within 30 min under simulated sunlight conditions. Notably, the fabric exhibits remarkable machine washability and UV resistance. This innovative microdroplet-driven material finishing method is anticipated to pave the way for environmentally friendly design approaches in developing a new generation of multifunctional Janus textiles.
Fiber-based wearable sensors have garnered significant interest in next-generation wearable electronics, owing to their remarkable tensile performance and braidability. Nevertheless, achieving multifunctionality and wearer comfort in such sensors remains a challenge. Here, inspired by the unique structure of polar bear fur, we developed a biomimetic fiber featuring a hollow porous architecture that enables continuous production. This innovative fiber serves as a multifunctional platform, integrating capabilities in thermal management, energy harvesting, and strain sensing. Leveraging the hollow and porous structure, the biomimetic fiber-based textiles exhibit excellent thermal insulation performance, maintaining temperature differentials of 31.8 °C and 57.4 °C under ambient temperatures of 80 °C and 120 °C, respectively. The single-electrode triboelectric nanogenerator assembled with the biomimetic fibers exhibits high electrical output performance and good output stability. Moreover, the fiber-based strain sensor achieves a ultralow detection limit (0.01%), a ultra-wide sensing range (628%), and a high sensitivity (GF = 90874 at a strain range of 582%–628%), enableing real-time human motion monitoring and precise control of robotic arm movements. When integrated with machine learning algorithms, it also proves effective in collecting biological signals and recognizing multiple hand gestures, showing great potential for future intelligent gesture-based interaction systems.
Thermocell (TEC), as economical, simple, and stable-output ionic thermoelectric (i-TE) systems, provides a reliable solution for the effective utilization of low-grade heat and direct conversion to continuous electricity. However, prevalent issues in TEC, such as electrolyte leakage, low tensile toughness, and limitations in the fabrication of series/parallel planar devices, have restricted its practical applicability. Herein, a quasi-solid, fiber-shaped 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (EMIM BF4)-liquid crystal elastomer (E-LCE) based TEC is obtained by impregnation with I2/KI/EMIM BF4 solution, leveraging the chaotropic effect of BF4− and the interaction of EMIM+-I3− to expand the entropy and potential differences between the hot and cold electrodes, achieving a thermopower of −1.2 mV K−1. Furthermore, combining traditional weaving techniques and three-dimensional structural embedding design, an E-LCE-based TEC wristband is woven by integrating the TEC into an LCE ribbed textile, achieving accurate monitoring of the wearer’s body temperature, broadening the application scenarios of TEC and paving the way for its commercial applications in wearable devices and biomonitoring fields.
This work uses Liquid Crystal Elastomer (LCE) as the substrate and employs I2/KI as the redox couple. The chaotropic effect of EMIM BF4 not only increases the entropy difference of the system but also serves as a supporting electrolyte to enlarge the potential difference, thereby synergistically improving the thermoelectric properties of the LCE based TEC. Finally, leveraging the mechanical advantages of the LCE material together with the stable and rapid voltage response of the LCE-based TEC, an LCE-based i-TE wristband was fabricated and applied for human body temperature monitoring.
Fiber-shaped zinc-ion batteries (FZIBs) are regarded as highly promising candidates for next-generation flexible wearable electronics owing to their excellent electrochemical properties, high safety and weavability. Although increasing the loading of active materials enhances the energy density of FZIBs, their effective utilization is still hindered by insufficient interfacial adhesion and wettability, an inadequate electrode conductive network, and obvious polarization, especially in meter-long devices. Herein, a fabrication strategy for 40-m-level fiber cathodes based on synergistic coupling of an elastic adhesive network structure with a three-dimensional conductive network is proposed. The produced fiber cathodes are endowed with enhanced hydrophilicity, mechanical flexibility, and interfacial adhesion. Simultaneously, efficient conductive pathways along radial and axial directions are established, resulting in a more uniform electric field and ion distribution. Benefiting from these characteristics, the FZIBs deliver a high specific capacity of 303.99 mAh g−1, ultrahigh volumetric energy density of 112.61 mWh cm−3, and outstanding flexibility while maintaining 80.37% of the initial capacity after 100,000 bending cycles. The energy storage textile unit, woven from 8-m-long FZIBs, achieves a capacity of 1 Ah and demonstrates excellent environmental adaptability under conditions of −30 to 80 °C and negative pressure of −0.08 MPa. Moreover, a 4 Ah handbag assembled with four textile units is demonstrated to power various mobile devices, demonstrating promising potential for wearable electronics.
By employing an elastic bonding structure and a 3D conductive network strategy, fiber-shaped batteries exhibiting excellent mechanical flexibility and electrochemical performance are fabricated and assembled into a 4 Ah handbag. The elastic bonding structure enhances the interfacial adhesion of the fiber cathode and imparts superior bending durability, while the 3D conductive network improves electron transport and uniform ion distribution.
The increasing frequency of extreme weather events underscores the need for thermal management materials that enable energy-free temperature regulation across diverse environments. Phase-change materials offer effective thermal buffering through latent heat storage, but often suffer from leakage and limited adaptability when incorporated directly into fabrics. Here, we report a continuous electrospinning strategy to fabricate a Janus phase-change fabric that achieves simultaneous enhancement of radiative cooling and heating. The design integrates a radiative cooling layer, a phase-change layer, and a radiative heating layer, forming a dual-mode architecture with switchable thermal functionality. The phase-change layer exhibits a high latent heat of 137.7 J/g and reflectivity of 93.5%, contributing to an overall solar reflectivity of 95.1% on the cooling side and solar absorption of 88.5% on the heating side. These properties enable a cooling power of 119.0 W/m2 and a temperature rise of up to 18.5 °C above ambient. This synergistic integration of optical modulation and phase-change buffering provides a scalable and general approach for energy-free, all-weather thermal regulation, advancing the development of next-generation intelligent textiles.
A major challenge in thermal camouflage is maintaining consistent performance under both day–night conditions. Conventional low-emissivity materials are invariably plagued by a fundamental compromise: they are either highly reflective, causing specular glare, or excessively absorptive, leading to solar heating. To overcome this, we draw inspiration from dielectric-metal-dielectric multilayers, widely used in energy-saving glazing for their “high visible transparency and high near-infrared reflection”. We pivot this “spectral-division” concept toward a distinctly different goal: instead of transmitting visible light, we aim for moderate visible reflection to avert glare, while preserving high near-infrared reflection to suppress heating, and ultimately achieving ultralow mid-/long-wave infrared emission for thermal invisibility. Accordingly, we report a flexible titanium oxide (TiO2)–silver (Ag)–TiO2 (TAT) sandwich structure that achieves spectrally selective properties—suppressing visible reflection (39.2%), enhancing near-infrared reflectance (85.9%) to reduce solar absorption (0.33), and retaining ultralow infrared emissivity (3.8%). This design effectively resolves the “spectral trilemma” of day–night camouflage within a single passive architecture. Given the increasing threat of multispectral detection in modern applications, integrating additional functionalities such as electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding is highly desirable. The continuous Ag layer in our TAT structure not only ensures ultralow IR emissivity but also provides excellent electrical conductivity, endowing the material with efficient EMI shielding as an added advantage—with an absorption-dominated mechanism that minimizes secondary reflection. When laminated onto fabric, the TAT film achieved outstanding thermal camouflage (ΔT = 0.5 °C on a 36.5 °C platform) and high EMI shielding effectiveness of 54.7 dB. An alternative direct-sputtering approach yielded a wearable metafabric with excellent camouflage (ΔT = 0.6 °C) and substantial shielding (32.2 dB), without compromising comfort. Our study establishes a new design framework for all-weather, multifunctional stealth materials that integrate day–night thermal camouflage with absorption-dominated EMI shielding.
Engineering vascularized high-cell-density (HCD) tissues is pivotal for recapitulating the physiological functions of biomimetic constructs in vitro. However, traditional strategy that directly mix high-density cells with polymeric hydrogels remain challenging. To address these bottlenecks, might we move beyond the traditional strategy of mixing high-density cells with dense polymer hydrogels? Instead, could the self-sustained proliferation of basic cells together with endothelial vascularization be harnessed to construct vascularized HCD tissues exhibiting structural developmental reinforcement? Here, by integrating fiber-inducing factors from natural cell-extracellular matrix (ECM) structures with porous matrices, we propose a model where biomimetic structural units are directly mixed with a specific quantity of basic cells to construct a porous structural carrier that confines cells to two-dimensional constraints within microfibers. The two-dimensional constraint method using microfiber units eliminates the confining constraints of traditional hydrogel networks on cells, providing ample physiological space for rapid extension, migration, and proliferation. Meanwhile, the strategy of combining microfiber units with porous hydrogels significantly enhances structural porosity while ensuring structural integrity and strength, preventing collapse. Within this porous biomimetic microfiber system, basic cells proliferate continuously, strengthening intercellular interactions and reinforcing the structure’s overall mechanical properties and stability. Furthermore, the microfibrillar framework provides ECM-like cues that promote ordered expansion and spontaneous vascular formation. Introducing human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) enables paracrine pro-angiogenic signaling to stimulate endothelial proliferation and migration. The synergistic effect of spatial structural induction and biological signaling stimulation significantly promotes the generation and maturation of vascular-like structures within the system. The tissue engineering strategy of mixing biomimetic microfiber units with a specific quantity of basic cells overcomes the limitations of traditional methods involving direct mixing of dense polymer hydrogels with large numbers of cells. This approach offers a novel solution for constructing vascularized, HCD tissues with physiological strength.
Polyacrylonitrile-based solid polymer electrolytes (PAN-SPEs) have emerged as promising candidates for lithium-metal batteries owing to their advantages of safety, processability, and oxidative stability. However, ultrathin PAN-SPEs (<30 μm) still suffer from low ionic conductivity and poor mechanical strength. Herein, a strategy combining dipole-dipole interactions and doping with inorganic particles is proposed to construct continuous lithium ion (Li+) transport channels. The nitrile groups in PAN facilitate Li+ transport via Lewis acid-base interactions while inhibiting anion migration. Additionally, a soft exterior/rigid interior architecture was constructed through hot pressing and solution casting, achieving an ultrathin thickness of 27.8 μm with outstanding mechanical robustness. As a result, the designed PAN-SPEs demonstrate high ionic conductivity (4.42×10-4 S cm-1) together with a large elongation at break (168.5%). Leveraging these synergistic advantages, the symmetric cell exhibits excellent dendrite suppression for over 1200 hours, and the Li||SPEs||LiFePO4 cells deliver capacity retentions of 81.0% at 0.5C and 73.3% at 2C. This work provides a design paradigm for developing high-performance PAN-SPEs for lithium metal batteries.
Parkinson’s disease (PD) affects tens of millions of people globally, yet current clinical management remains fragmented, relying on subjective assessments and episodic laboratory measurements that fail to capture disease dynamics in real-world settings. Here, we present a smart textile-integrated multimodal interface (STMI) that seamlessly combines tremor quantification with real-time therapeutic drug monitoring through a wearable wristband platform. The system integrates an array of enhanced triboelectric nanogenerators with optimized bead-on-string nanofiber architecture for sensitive tremor detection, coupled with fiber-based electrochemical sensors for simultaneous monitoring of levodopa (LD), pH, and sodium levels in sweat. By leveraging deep learning algorithms (bidirectional LSTM), the STMI achieves accurate discrimination between healthy controls, prodromal Parkinson’s patients, and PD patients—including early detection of prodromal stages currently undetectable by standard imaging. Longitudinal tracking in PD patients demonstrates real-time correlation between tremor suppression and LD pharmacokinetics, enabling quantitative assessment of medication efficacy and identification of wearing-off phenomena. The textile-based form factor ensures ergonomic wearability and mechanical robustness for continuous monitoring, while the integrated multimodal sensing paradigm establishes a new standard for personalized PD management. This work demonstrates how intelligent wearable systems can bridge the gap between motor symptom assessment and pharmacological profiling, transforming PD care from episodic clinical visits to continuous, data-driven therapeutic optimization.
The advancement of wearable electronics, especially smart clothing, is limited by the rigidity and bulkiness of conventional power sources, highlighting the need for sustainable energy solutions. Textile-based triboelectric nanogenerators (T-TENGs) offer a promising approach for harvesting biomechanical energy and enabling self-powered sensing. However, traditional planar or simple 3D T-TENG structures often struggle to adapt efficiently to complex human motions, resulting in reduced electrical output and stability. In this study, we present a mechano-intelligent auxetic triboelectric textile (MIA-TENG) that integrates auxetic structures into the fabric to actively enhance contact and separation dynamics at the triboelectric interface. The MIA-TENG, fabricated from a composite of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and nylon fabric, leverages the negative Poisson’s ratio effect of auxetic structures to enhance output performance with wearing comfort. Experimental results show that the MIA-TENG achieves a peak power output of 3610 mW m−2 and maintains excellent durability and washability, with a stable performance after 10 washing cycles and 60,000 mechanical tests. The device can power portable electronics and is suitable for both large-joint protection and high-fidelity gesture sensing. Combined with machine learning algorithms, the system enables accurate gesture recognition, offering an integrated platform for advanced applications in motion capture, health monitoring, and smart sports.
Myocardial infarction (MI) remains a severe threat to global health. The loss of cardiomyocytes and structural damage to the ventricles following MI lead to cardiac dysfunction. Current myocardial repair scaffolds promote tissue regeneration by mimicking the natural structure of myocardial tissue, yet suffer from the limitation of focusing on a single dimension of repair, failing to address the complex pathological microenvironment after MI characterized by ischemia, inflammation, and stress mismatch. To overcome this, our study has developed a multiscale bionic fibrous scaffold. The scaffold combines directional freezing with electrospinning technology. While constructing oriented channels that mimic natural myocardial tissue, it embeds nanofibers into the channel walls to form synapse-like microstructures. In vivo and in vitro experiments demonstrate that this scaffold synergistically promotes myocardial repair through multiple mechanisms: providing mechanical support, promoting angiogenesis, and regulating macrophage polarization. It significantly improves cardiac ejection function and inhibits ventricular remodeling. This repair mechanism results from the nanofiber synapse structure activating downstream intracellular signaling networks through its integrin binding sites, thereby regulating cellular behavior. In summary, this study provides a novel strategy for developing myocardial repair materials that synergistically regulate multicellular tissues and match complex pathological microenvironments.
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) represent promising cell-free therapeutics for the regeneration of aged bone defects. Mechanical stimulation is critical in bone regeneration and significantly influences both EV secretion and cargo composition. Despite this, translating mechanically programmed EVs to clinically relevant doses remains a significant challenge. Most current scalable bioreactor systems has achieved high yields through high-density cell culture and fluid flow, yet they do not provide programmable or spatially consistent mechanical stimulation. In this study, an electrospun scaffold-enabled bioreactor was developed to integrate high-density three-dimensional macrophage culture with programmable cyclic stretching, enabling simultaneous EV scale-up and cargo programming. The interconnected fiber junction network transmits boundary-applied strain with enhanced spatial consistency, while the highly porous scaffold supports dense cell seeding and efficient EV release and collection. This approach increases EV yield by 13.8-fold compared to conventional two-dimensional culture. Fiber-mediated mechanical conditioning activates Piezo1-dependent Ca2+ signaling and integrin-associated mechanotransduction, promotes Yes-associated protein (YAP) nuclear translocation, and remodels EV cargo composition. The resulting mechanically stimulated EVs (ms-EVs) demonstrate concurrent pro-regenerative activities, including cellular rejuvenation, vascular repair, and osteogenic enhancement, and perform favorably compared to canonical interleukin-4 (IL-4)-polarized M2 macrophage-derived extracellular vesicles (M2-EVs). In aged rat femoral defects, ms-EV-functionalized scaffolds increase bone volume fraction by approximately 1.7-fold at 8 weeks, reduce p16+ senescent cells, and enhance CD31+ neovascularization. These findings establish electrospun scaffolds as scalable mechanobiological manufacturing substrates for the production of functionally programmed EV therapeutics.
Flexible multi-functional yarn plays a significant role in the development of flexible wearable devices. In this work, the influence of the components of silver nanowires (AgNWs) with two different lengths, their assembly methods with polyurethane (TPU), the spraying volume of AgNWs and the pre-stretching process on the sensing performance were systematically investigated to develop TPU/AgNWs strain sensing yarn (TASY). The synchronous optimization of multi-functions was achieved by establishing Janus asymmetric conductive networks. The Janus composite nanofiber membrane showed an outstanding electromagnetic interference shielding performance with around 40 dB and high shielding efficiency of 99.99%. The strain range of TASY can reach 122%, and the gauge factor within the linear interval of 0–80% was 37.34 with the high linearity of 0.984. Meanwhile, bending and twisting deformations can also be effectively detected. In addition, TASY can reach a temperature of 108 ℃ at a low voltage of 1.4 V. The linear relationship between temperature and the square of voltage was as high as 0.998. The power density was greater than 4500 W/m2. The high stability was achieved for Joule heating and strain sensing. The excellent comprehensive performance can provide support to develop the multi-functional wearable electronics.
The engineering of durable small-diameter vascular grafts remains constrained by the challenge of simultaneously achieving mechanical robustness, controlled degradation, and instructive scaffold architecture. Here, we report a programmable dual-crosslinked metallo-elastomer platform, poly(1,3-propylene itaconate-co-2,2′-bipyridine-5,5′-dicarboxylate-co-succinate-co-sebacate) (M-PBIS), that integrates dynamic metal–ligand coordination with covalent crosslinking to enable orthogonal control over network mechanics, time-dependent viscoelastic behavior, and processability. PBIS polymers were synthesized by modular step-growth polyesterification, allowing independent tuning of backbone composition, bipyridine ligand density for metal coordination, and alkene (C = C) content for covalent crosslinking. This multidimensional design space allowed systematic tuning of tensile elastic modulus (0.06–3.2 MPa), extensibility (53%–491%), toughness (66–1339 kJ m−3), creep resistance, and self-healing behavior, while maintaining controlled hydrolytic degradation and low physiological swelling (< 7%). Rheological analysis established a processing window supportive of conventional melt- and flow-based fabrication methods. To elucidate the role of scaffold architecture in vascular remodeling, M-PBIS was fabricated into small-diameter grafts using either poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)-templated porous structures or electrowritten circumferentially-biased, helically wound fibers. In a rat carotid artery interposition model, electrowritten Zn-PBIS grafts maintained patency and dimensional stability through 21 weeks, supporting organized endothelialization, circumferential smooth muscle alignment, and structured extracellular matrix deposition. In contrast, PMMA-templated porous grafts underwent progressive dilation and structural instability during remodeling. These results demonstrate that dual-crosslinked metallo-elastomers combined with biomimetic circumferentially-biased fiber architecture enable mechanically resilient, biologically adaptive vascular grafts and establish M-PBIS as a manufacturable platform for resorbable small-diameter arterial reconstruction and other load-bearing soft-tissue applications.