Biomarkers reflect physiological states and disease progression in the human body. Their precise detection is crucial for accurate and effective diagnosis. Functional hybrid microbeads (FHMBs) with electrical, magnetic, and/or optical responsiveness have emerged as versatile platforms for signal amplification, transduction, and conversion. This review summarizes recent advances in microfluidic strategies for producing FHMBs, with emphasis on incorporating functional nanoparticles (NPs) into microdroplets. We discuss the advantages of microfluidics in generating monodisperse droplets, controlling composition, encapsulating functional NPs, and forming FHMBs through solidification processes. Key droplet-generation strategies are summarized, encompassing passive and active mechanisms, as well as both on-chip and off-chip approaches, followed by an overview of solidification methods driven by physical or chemical processes. We classify FHMBs into four functional categories: electrical, optical, magnetic, and mixed response, based on their material composition, fabrication methods, and practical applications. Finally, we discuss the current challenges and suggest future research directions to advance the development of improved platforms for FHMBs production.

Bioparticle manipulation is vital for diagnostics, therapeutics, and biological research. Microfluidic technology provides high throughput and precise control, yet traditional methods using Newtonian fluids face challenges like cell damage due to high flow rates, and inefficient submicron sorting. To address these limitations, the introduction of viscoelastic fluids enables scale-dependent particle sorting without external fields. Nevertheless, unitary viscoelastic flow systems fail to meet clinical-grade bioparticle manipulation requirements due to limitations such as poor focusing stability, inadequate adaptability to complex biological samples, and low cross-scale sorting efficiency. To overcome these issues, a sheath-assisted strategy is employed to regulate fluid interfaces via a multiflow laminar flow mechanism. In this process, the sheath-assisted elasto-inertial effect compresses particle migration paths and enhances micro/nanoscale particle manipulation efficiency. This review systematically elucidates the core principles and advantages of sheath-assisted viscoelastic microfluidics through theoretical modeling, parametric analysis, mechanistic elucidation of interfacial effects, and biomedical application cases. It would pave the way for breakthroughs in precision diagnostics, nanomedicine, and personalized therapeutics, ultimately unlocking unprecedented insights into life from microscale to nanoscale.

Porous superhydrophobic (SHP) membranes are gaining considerable attention due to their excellent underwater absorption and drag reduction properties. They exploit the Cassie‒Baxter state of wetting to remove the bubble in a fast and reliable manner. Despite advancements in the understanding of droplets, the interaction of bubbles in such systems is not well understood. In the present study, we explore the impact dynamics of bubbles on a completely immersed porous SHP membrane. We focused on its bubble absorption capabilities under practically relevant variations in the impact angle and hydrostatic loading. Furthermore, wettability is also considered by exposing the material to oxygen plasma without changing the underlying physical structure. Concurrent with the fundamental investigation, we also propose a novel and efficient bubble absorption configuration using the same system. This scenario poses an inverse problem to the droplet spreading on solid surfaces with analogous implications and bear far-reaching consequences in domains ranging from biomedical engineering to underwater collection of hydrocarbons.

Water transport across lipid bilayers is a fundamental biological process, but most model systems fail to capture the molecular complexity of biological cell membranes. As a result, the extent to which the membrane composition choreographs its permeability and how it is modulated by small molecules is poorly understood. Here, we use droplet interface bilayers (DIBs) formed using either synthetic 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC) or biologically sourced phosphatidylcholine (PC) and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) lipids to examine how lipid biomimicry influences passive water permeability. We also study the effect of two “membrane-active” molecules: cholesterol, which in our membranes should reduce permeability, and niacin, which has been reported to enhance membrane permeability. We find that biomimetic PC/PE membranes exhibit an approximately eightfold higher baseline water permeability than synthetic DOPC membranes. The presence of cholesterol reduces water permeability in both types of membranes, while niacin has an opposing effect, increasing water permeability in a concentration-dependent manner. However, only synthetic membranes show full recovery and overshoot of baseline levels of water permeability with the addition of niacin, whereas biomimetic membranes display limited recovery. Our work shows that the use of biologically relevant phospholipid mixtures in model membranes is essential to accurately capture the behavior of the membrane with respect to water permeability.

Dried biofluid droplets contain complex physicochemical information, yet their diagnostic potential remains largely limited due to the absence of an accessible, end-to-end analytical pipeline. This study presents a generalizable, high-throughput pipeline that, for the first time, seamlessly integrates image acquisition in three steps, namely (i) automated droplet detection and cropping, (ii) quantitative texture analysis, and (iii) interpretable machine learning for disease classification. The label-free workflow operates with minimal user intervention, adaptable across imaging modalities and various biofluids, and experimental environments. Robustness of this pipeline is demonstrated on biofluids from both mice and humans, identifying disease-specific morphological signatures of influenza and diabetes directly from dried droplet patterns. As prior studies have not characterized dried droplet morphologies for these diseases, this work establishes a foundational benchmark for image-based diagnostic screening. By transforming endpoint morphologies into reproducible biomarkers, the pipeline enables rapid disease detection from blood dried patterns and is readily extendable to other biofluids, including saliva, sweat, and urine. Its simplicity, scalability, and cross-species applicability make it ideally suited for point-of-care diagnostics, particularly in resource-limited settings. To ensure reproducibility and facilitate broad adoption, open-access analytical tools with a graphical user interface for droplet region selection are provided, promoting translation to diagnostic, veterinary, and biotechnological applications.

Frost and ice formation on a solid surface is governed by nanoscale liquid‒solid intermolecular interactions that manifest as macroscopic surface wettability. This study uses rigorous experiments and modeling approaches to develop a framework for condensation frosting incipience on surfaces having different wettabilities. The model employs a comprehensive statistical framework, considers the effect of surface wettability, and captures the stochastic nature of both nucleation dynamics for condensation and droplet growth during the subsequent freezing process. By introducing a statistical description of the active nucleation sites and droplet size distribution, we provide a reliable model that can predict the overall surface coverage fraction by frozen droplets. Our model shows that superhydrophilic and hydrophilic surfaces have much higher coverage fractions than superhydrophobic surfaces and demonstrates the connection between coverage and frost density and adhesion strength under different wettabilities. The developed framework provides insight into surface design for applications where frost and ice formation are important.

The friction (lateral adhesion) of a sliding droplet on a solid substrate remains underexplored and the solid-liquid-vapor composite interfaces on superhydrophobic surfaces make droplet friction more complicated. This is because the microscopic contact line of the sliding droplet is anisotropic and nonsynchronous, which behaves and interacts with the surface microstructures distinctly everywhere along the apparent droplet boundary. Here, we customize an experimental setup to simultaneously measure the dynamics of the apparent droplet shape, macro- and microscopic contact line, and the friction force of a sliding droplet on pillared superhydrophobic surfaces with systematically varying dimensions. Stemming from the energy consumed by the sliding contact line and the distorted liquid-vapor interface, we develop an analytical model to predict the droplet friction force relying only on the droplet volume and micropillar dimensions.

The efficiency of industrial electrocatalytic reactions depends not only on generating gaseous products but also on their detachment from the catalyst surface. Bubble adhesion at the solid-liquid interface blocks active sites, increases mass-transfer resistance, elevates overpotentials, and consumes extra energy, thereby slowing reactions and reducing economic viability. Conventional strategies, such as tailoring catalyst microstructures or optimizing reactor flow fields, control bubble behavior passively and lack adaptability to varying conditions. In contrast, external physical fields, including acoustic, magnetic, thermal, mechanical, and optical inputs, offer active regulation. They provide noncontact operation, rapid responsiveness, and low energy consumption. By modifying interfacial tension, inducing microflows, applying localized forces, or altering solution properties, these approaches lower the detachment barrier, enhance mass transport, and boost catalytic performance. This review summarizes advances in bubble management using external energy fields, emphasizing the underlying physicochemical coupling mechanisms. It compares the strengths and limitations of different fields and outlines future directions, including multi-field synergy and adaptive feedback control. Together, these insights provide a framework for designing efficient strategies for interfacial bubble regulation.

Against the backdrop of carbon neutrality, the demand for sustainable energy keeps growing. Among numerous new energy technologies, the triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) has garnered widespread attention in recent years due to its ability to harvest widely distributed tiny mechanical energy from the environment. With the advancement of TENG technology, solid‒liquid interface-based TENGs have not only enabled the recovery of mechanical energy from droplets but have also been utilized for self-powered sensing of liquid samples, demonstrating broad application potential. In recent years, in addition to research on triboelectric materials, the development of novel electrode structures has also been regarded as a crucial approach for enhancing the electrical output performance of solid‒liquid interface-based TENGs. In this review, we traced the developmental trajectory of electrode structures in solid‒liquid interface-based TENGs, and compiled the corresponding equivalent circuit diagrams and signal characteristics for devices featuring three representative electrode structures. Meanwhile, we summarized the representative applications of each electrode structure in energy conversion and self-powered sensing and discussed the suitable application scenarios for each electrode structure. We believe that this review guides the in-depth use of solid‒liquid interface-based TENGs in energy harvesting and self-powered sensing.

Pore condensation enables vapor-liquid transitions below saturation humidity, yet the microscopic dynamics of the embryo formation and cluster growth within the pore remain unresolved. Through molecular simulations on tunable-wettability surfaces (124°-90°), we discover that wettability influences condensation kinetics: reducing contact angles from 124° to 90° decreases the molecular displacement by ≈60% and the molecular potential energy by ≈10% for the condensed water molecules, increasing vapor capture tenfold. Pores enhance nucleation on hydrophobic surfaces (124°) by restricting molecular mobility, an effect attenuated with increasing wettability. Specifically, we identify four distinct cluster evolution modes: intra-pore (confined growth), on-plane, tumble (pore-to-pore migration), and bounce. Analysis of the above modes reveals that spatial confinement accelerates initial nucleation but suppresses later-stage coalescence. As a result, the cluster growth rate of the intra-pore mode can be initially higher than that of the flat reference but later drops below. This work establishes a microscopic mechanism for pore condensation.