This paper describes an electrochemical sensor using the glassy carbon electrode modified with the Co3O4/graphene nanocomposite to detect uric acid (UA). The Co3O4/graphene nanocomposite was synthesized through a simple method by calcining cobalt-based zeolite imidazole framework (ZIF-12) doped with graphene and characterized through powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Meanwhile, the electrochemical performance of the Co3O4/graphene nanocomposite was investigated by differential pulse voltammetry and cyclic voltammetry. This proposed sensor exhibits high selectivity, with a wide linear range within the UA concentration range of 0.05–50.0 µmol·L−1. It also has an extremely low detection limit of 1.25×10−8 mol·L−1, attributed to its good electron transfer efficiency.
It is of practical significance to develop gas sensors with high sensitivity and high selectivity. In this study, ZnO nanoflakes were synthesized by hydrothermal synthesis, and Au/ZnO, Pd/ZnO, and Pt/ZnO nanoflakes were fabricated by uniformly loading small-sized Au, Pd, and Pt nanoparticles using an ultraviolet-assisted reduction. Gas-sensing performance tests revealed that Au/ZnO nanoflakes exhibited a higher response to isopropanol compared to Pd/ZnO, Pt/ZnO, and ZnO nanoflake sensors. At the working temperature of 225 °C, it demonstrated response of 132.2 to 100 ppm isopropanol, with 8 s response time and 12 s recovery time, and showed high selectivity, repeatability, and stability. Hydrogen sensing performance of Au/ZnO nanoflakes was also evaluated at the optimal operating temperature, yielding a response of 13.5 to 100 ppm hydrogen, with response time and recovery time of 17 and 21 s, respectively, and exhibiting a high concentration-dependent response. The material’s enhanced gas sensing performance is due to a synergistic effect. This effect combines abundant active sites on nanoflakes with inherent catalytic properties of gold nanoparticles.
To enhance the mechanical and thermal properties of three-dimensional printing photopolymer resins, acicular wollastonite (AW) was initially activated with dilute hydrochloric acid followed by surface-modification with KH570. The modification was confirmed via SEM, FTIR, XPS, TG, and contact angle measurements, proving its successful chemical grafting. The modified AW (i.e., MAAW) was then blended into photosensitive resin (PR) at the weight contents of 3%–20% to fabricate MAAW/PR composites. At the MAAW loading of 9 wt.%, the composite’s tensile strength, elongation at break, and impact strength reached 38 MPa, 19%, and 13.5 kJ·m−2, rising by 111%, 35%, and 170% compared with those of pure resin, respectively. Moreover, at the MAAW loading of 6 wt.%, the composite’s thermal decomposition and maximum decomposition temperatures were enhanced to 430.23 and 436.35 °C, respectively. This study demonstrates that such developed MAAW/PR composites exhibit outstanding strength, toughness, and thermal stability, offering a cost-effective and promising alternative to expensive carbon or glass fiber fillers in PR products.
This study presents a systematic approach for fabricating hydrophobic and superhydrophobic polymer surfaces using digital light processing (DLP) additive manufacturing. A commercially available water-washable resin was employed to improve the scalability and practical applicability of the method without modifying resin chemistry. Surface textures with varying feature height, dimension, spacing, and angle were fabricated and optimized using a central composite design (CCD). Wettability was evaluated through static water contact angle measurements. Statistical analysis revealed that texture spacing and angle were the most influential parameters, with spacing contributing to a 62% increase in contact angle. Optimized textures achieved contact angles up to 142° ± 2°. To further enhance hydrophobicity, a spray coating containing photo-resin, fumed silica, and alumina particles was applied, generating hierarchical micro-scale roughness and increasing the contact angle to 156° ± 2°, reaching the superhydrophobic regime. The results demonstrate that geometry-driven surface engineering combined with scalable coating techniques can effectively tailor wettability using commercially available DLP materials, offering strong potential for self-cleaning, anti-wetting, and microfluidic applications.
Bone tissue regeneration engineering aims to construct scaffolds with natural bone biological characteristics. Traditional autologous/allogeneic bone transplantation has limited donor sources and carries immunological risks. Stem cell injection, due to its minimally invasive nature and bone repair-promoting effects, has emerged as an alternative strategy. However, direct injection faces challenges such as cell migration and low survival rates. To address this, researchers have employed hydrogels and microspheres as delivery carriers. Among these, sodium alginate (ALG) microspheres, with their excellent biocompatibility and injectability, are widely used for cell encapsulation. Combining the osteogenic-promoting properties of black phosphorus (BP), this study utilized electrospray injection to prepare ALG-BP composite microspheres encapsulating MC3T3-E1 cells (ALG-BP@MC3T3-E1). The results showed that ALG-BP microspheres had no effect on the activity of MC3T3-E1 cells, while ALG-BP@MC3T3-E1 microspheres exhibited excellent bone healing promotion and osteoporosis inhibition capabilities, significantly reducing bone healing time. This hydrogel microsphere achieves a dual effect of stimulating endogenous cell secretion and providing exogenous cells, representing a cell tissue engineering strategy with promising application prospects.
Cancer remains a major challenge in clinical treatment, and related therapeutic strategies are continuously evolving. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a promising tumor treatment modality that induces tumor cell death through reactive oxygen species generated upon the light activation of photosensitizers. Oxygen-deficient molybdenum oxide (MoOx) stands out among numerous inorganic nanomaterials due to its unique oxygen-deficient structure, which endows it with stronger adsorption and activation capabilities toward molecules such as O2 and H2O. This paper systematically reviews the physicochemical properties, synthesis methods, surface functional modification, and application progress of oxygen-deficient molybdenum oxide in PDT and multimodal combination therapy. It also evaluates the biocompatibility and biosafety of the materials, and discusses the current challenges and future development directions in combination with the trends of artificial intelligence-aided design, imaging diagnosis, and personalized therapy. This review aims to provide a reference for the research and development and clinical translation of oxygen-deficient molybdenum oxide-based nanophotosensitizers.
Highly conductive carbon nanotube (CNT) networks offer strong dielectric attenuation but often exhibit excessive permittivity and impedance mismatch, limiting broadband microwave absorption. Here, CNT film strips supported on polyethylene terephthalate nonwoven substrates were assembled into multilayer absorbers through multilevel structural regulation. Low-permittivity interlayers and repeating CNT-containing layers are first introduced to balance electromagnetic-wave entry and internal attenuation along the thickness direction. The CNT-covered area in the CNT layer is then reduced from 100% to approximately 67% and 50%. Full coverage of CNTs in such layers provides strong attenuation but unfavorable impedance matching, whereas 50% coverage improves wave entry but produces insufficient broadband dissipation. Among the investigated coverage levels, an intermediate CNT coverage of approximately 67% provided the most favorable compromise between the calculated input-impedance condition and dielectric attenuation. Two complementary patterns with the same fraction of coverage are subsequently alternately stacked to reduce the through-thickness alignment of CNT-free regions and redistribute the CNT-rich regions. The optimized absorber achieves reflection loss below −10 dB over the entire 2–18 GHz range, corresponding to a continuous effective absorption bandwidth of 16.0 GHz. These results demonstrate that broadband absorption in highly conductive CNT systems can be realized through macroscopic spatial engineering without altering the functional material composition.
Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) are a class of inorganic materials characterized by unique layered structures and tunable chemical compositions, demonstrating considerable application potential in the biomedical field. Through various synthesis strategies, their morphology, size, and interlayer chemical environment can be precisely controlled, thereby enabling the efficient loading and responsive release of drugs or genes, reducing systemic toxicity, and enhancing local therapeutic effects. However, LDHs still face key challenges in clinical translation, including long-term biosafety, degradation behavior in vivo, and surface functionalization strategies. This article provides a systematic review of the synthesis methods, classification, and surface functionalization strategies for LDHs, and outlines their biomedical applications — ranging from drug delivery and bioimaging to biosensing and therapy — with a particular emphasis on their therapeutic effects in representative diseases such as cancer, bone disorders, and eye diseases. Furthermore, the article discusses the key challenges currently facing this material and its future development directions, aiming to provide a comprehensive reference for further research and development of LDHs in the biomedical field.
Scarless wound healing represents the ideal regenerative process, restoring normal tissue architecture and function without fibrosis, a phenomenon predominantly observed in fetal development. This stands in stark contrast to the fibrotic scarring typical of adult wound healing, which can lead to significant functional and aesthetic impairments. This review provides a comprehensive analysis of the cellular, molecular, and genetic mechanisms that underpin scarless healing, highlighting key differences across the hemostasis, inflammatory, proliferative, and remodeling phases compared to scar-forming pathways. The critical roles of immune-regulatory cells, mesenchymal stem cells, and fibroblasts, which are governed by a distinct molecular environment characterized by modulated transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) signaling and organized extracellular matrix remodeling, are detailed here. Furthermore, the review explores emerging therapeutic strategies including regenerative medicine approaches like stem cell-derived exosomes, targeted molecular therapies, and advanced drug delivery systems inspired by these mechanisms to promote scarless repair in adult tissues. Finally, this work discusses the significant challenges in clinical translation, such as the limitations of animal models and patient heterogeneity, and outlines future directions for research aimed at achieving scar-free wound care.