As a classic mechanical fastening system, zippers are widely used in applications ranging from daily life to biomedicine. Conventional zippers, however, have limited deformation compatibility due to their unidirectional zipping and nonstretchable interlocking mechanism, highlighting their insufficient structural adaptability in scenarios involving cross-connections or multi-directional dynamic deformation. Here, we report a crossed stretchable zipper that enables zipping in overlapping areas via a cross adapter, prevents structural failure through latch-slot and suture-joint mechanisms, and closes separated fabrics while maintaining stretchability. This design allows a two-dimensional mesh configuration without compromising the inherent stretching performance of the zipper, significantly enhancing flexibility and adaptability. In hemiplegia rehabilitation wearables, modularity based on the crossed stretchable zipper offers advantages in personalized deployment and conformability, highlighting its potential for the personalized and widespread development of wearable systems.

Hollow architectures offer significant advantages in achieving simultaneous weight reduction and efficient electromagnetic (EM) wave absorption; however, their practical application is often constrained by inherent structural limitations. In this study, Zn_1-xCo_2-yNi_xFe_yO₄ composites were synthesized through an integrated self-sacrificing templating and ion-doping approach. Specifically, mixed zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) were utilized as sacrificial templates to fabricate hollow dodecahedral nanocages. Subsequent ion doping was facilitated by the chelating effect of tannic acid, followed by oxidative annealing in a tube furnace. Interestingly, the introduction of hetero-metal ions disturbed the original spinel lattice structure, leading to the extensive precipitation of a secondary ZnO phase. This spontaneous phase separation generated a high density of heterogeneous interfaces, which significantly enhanced interfacial polarization and thereby improved overall EM wave attenuation performance. These structural and compositional features enable the material to exhibit excellent microwave absorption capabilities even at low filler loadings. The hollow architecture not only reduces the intrinsic density of spinel ferrites but also extends the effective absorption bandwidth by optimizing impedance matching characteristics. As a result, a minimum reflection loss of -57.6 dB and an effective absorption bandwidth of 10.27 GHz were achieved with a filler content as low as 30 wt.%. This work presents a new strategy for the rational design of high-performance EM absorbers through the synergistic optimization of structural architecture and compositional modulation.

Magnetic soft robots are emerging as biomedical tools for minimally invasive interventions. They synergize remote magnetic actuation with the compliance of soft materials to ensure safe navigation and therapy within delicate anatomical structures, such as the gastrointestinal tract, blood vessels, and urinary system. This review analyzes material-tissue toxicity and mechanical interactions and summarizes material innovations in magnetic hydrogels, elastomers, ferrofluids, and responsive composites. Organ-specific material and structural designs for clinical applications are discussed, showcasing advances of soft medical robots in targeted drug delivery, thrombus extraction, tissue sampling, thermal therapy, and in situ sensing. Furthermore, we focus on key translational challenges, including long-term biostability of materials, adaptive closed-loop control, and multifunctional system integration, which must be addressed to reach the full potential of magnetic soft robots for clinical applications.

Real-time and accurate respiratory monitoring is crucial in extreme conditions, such as high-altitude aviation, critical care, and hazardous occupations, where subtle respiratory changes may rapidly escalate into life-threatening events. However, existing respiratory support systems are often cumbersome, insensitive to nuanced breathing patterns, or susceptible to environmental interference. Herein, we introduce a highly sensitive, plasma-modified triboelectric textile sensor integrated into an oxygen mask for real-time respiratory dynamics monitoring. By engineering nanoscale surface roughness and surface modification via plasma treatment, the sensor achieves a remarkable 420% enhancement in output voltage, yielding high sensitivity (2.02 V·kPa^-1), rapid response (96 ms), and excellent stability (over 95% signal retention after 90 days). Integrated with a machine learning-assisted classifier, the system achieves 97.2% accuracy in respiratory pattern recognition, while automatically discriminating authentic breathing signals from artifacts. With a customized electronic circuit and an application terminal, the on-mask intelligent system provides immediate feedback for adaptive oxygen regulation. This capability is of paramount importance for improving oxygen-management efficiency and safeguarding the lives of personnel operating under extreme conditions.

This review thoroughly evaluates the advancements and applications of electrospun functional fiber-based pressure sensors in healthcare diagnostics. Electrospinning is a versatile technique for producing micro- and nanoscale fibers with high surface-to-volume ratios and tunable porosity, making it an excellent platform for highly sensitive, flexible, and wearable sensing structures. The survey focuses on integrating piezoelectric and piezoresistive materials into electrospun fiber mats. These materials are key to transduction mechanisms, converting mechanical pressure stimuli into electrical signals by varying charge or resistance. Key healthcare applications based on pressure are critically evaluated, including wearable vital sign monitors (pulse and respiration), body motion detection for rehabilitation, gait analysis, smart prosthetics, and real-time wound-healing assessment through pressure distribution mapping. Fiber-based sensors offer high sensitivity, lower detection limits, flexibility, biocompatibility, breathability, and adaptability to complex body contours. Findings reveal that the sensitivity of the multilayer sensor (996.7 kPa^-1) is far greater than that of the composite sensor (0.21 kPa^-1), enabling precise detection of pulse and joint movements. Several limitations have also been addressed, including signal stability and durability, ecological interference (including humidity and temperature), scalable manufacturing, and seamless integration with electronics for continuous monitoring. Future research directions are provided for developing novel, multifunctional, and self-powered materials that enhance environmental resilience, scalable fabrication, and wireless data transmission. Finally, it is concluded that electrospun fiber sensors are poised to transform personalized, non-invasive, and continuous health monitoring, advancing next-generation, innovative healthcare systems.

Four-dimensional (4D) printing couples additive manufacturing with stimuli-responsive materials to create soft microrobots that can be programmed to change their shape, properties, and functions in response to external cues. This review synthesizes the core blueprint for 4D-printed soft microrobots, encompassing printing technologies, smart materials, and stimulus modalities. It explores how these elements collectively design locomotion, manipulation, and sensing at the microscale, and investigates application frontiers including targeted drug delivery, tissue engineering, stents, sensing, and other applications. Despite rapid progress, key obstacles remain, such as resolution-throughput-multimaterial trade-offs, interlayer adhesion, long-term fidelity, limited force density, biocompatibility, near-body-temperature triggers, and closed-loop imaging and navigation. Our conclusion is that 4D printing provides a unifying platform for adaptive, reconfigurable soft microrobots, and coordinated advances in materials, manufacturing, modeling, and regulation are essential for unlocking reliable clinical and industry-relevant systems.

Tissue engineering offers promising regenerative alternatives to conventional medical treatments, particularly for tissues with limited self-healing capabilities such as bone and cartilage. Central to this field is three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting, an advanced fabrication technique that utilizes bio-inks to construct complex, patient-specific tissue structures. Among emerging bio-ink materials, nanocellulose and its derivatives have attracted considerable attention for their exceptional mechanical properties, biocompatibility, and biodegradability. Derived from natural cellulose, nanocellulose exists primarily as cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) and cellulose nanofibers (CNFs), each contributing unique structural and rheological characteristics. CNCs enhance scaffold stiffness and mechanical strength, while CNFs support intricate architectures conducive to cellular infiltration and tissue growth. This review highlights recent advances in nanocellulose-based bio-inks for 3D bioprinting, emphasizing their role in improving printability and scaffold functionality for bone and cartilage tissue engineering applications.

Carbon-based microwave-absorbing (MA) aerogel materials have emerged as a prominent research focus in recent years due to their three-dimensional (3D) interconnected conductive networks and diverse porous microstructures, which optimize impedance matching and dissipate microwaves through multiple loss effects. Guided by the research rationale of constructing carbon-based aerogels with diverse microstructures and corresponding unique electromagnetic response behaviors, this review systematically summarizes recent advances in carbon-based microwave-absorbing aerogels over the past five years, with particular emphasis on the rational design of carbon-based aerogels using different templating strategies. These include hard-template methods based on natural biomass and polymer foams, soft-template approaches such as isotropic and directional freeze-drying, and non-template techniques such as electrospinning and 3D printing. By discussing the mechanisms and advantages of these synthesis strategies in depth, the relationship between porous architecture and microwave response properties is elucidated, while also providing insights and perspectives on future carbon-based microwave-absorbing aerogels with synergistic performance and potential for large-scale production.

Intelligent wearable technologies are advancing toward higher portability, multifunctionality, and autonomy, yet their widespread deployment is constrained by the limited endurance of conventional power sources and the growing energy demands of distributed sensor networks. The human body provides a continuous source of low-frequency biomechanical energy, offering a sustainable basis for self-powered wearables. Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs), leveraging the coupling of contact electrification and electrostatic induction, have therefore emerged as an enabling platform capable of harvesting biomechanical energy while simultaneously performing self-powered sensing, effectively addressing bottlenecks in energy supply and signal acquisition. In this perspective, we systematically review TENG-based intelligent wearable technologies, highlighting technical advances and application examples in physiological signal monitoring, biomedical applications, and human-machine interaction. Finally, we outline future directions in enhancing energy output, operational stability, and intelligent multifunctional integration, providing guidance for practical deployment and scalable development of TENG-based wearable technologies.

Polymer-based elastomeric dielectrics have demonstrated significant application prospects in flexible electronic skins, dielectric actuators, and energy harvesting and storage due to their light weight, tunable structures, and mechanical flexibility. A key focus in developing polymer-based dielectric elastomers is the simultaneous enhancement of dielectric constant and breakdown strength, along with the reduction of dielectric loss, without compromising mechanical flexibility. This review summarizes recent advances in the design and preparation of high-dielectric-constant (high-k) polymer-based elastomeric dielectrics, with special emphasis on strategies for balancing and improving both dielectric and mechanical properties. Finally, we summarize and provide an outlook on the application fields of polymer-based elastic dielectric materials.

Metal halide perovskites (MHPs) have emerged as highly promising optoelectronic materials due to their high absorption coefficients, tunable bandgaps, long carrier diffusion lengths, and low exciton binding energies. In addition, their unique polar structures enable electric polarization-related properties, such as ferroelectricity, opening new avenues for integrating light-responsive and ferroelectric functionalities in next-generation electronic devices. Despite the exciting progress achieved in MHPs-based optoelectronic devices, compositing MHPs with polymers or metal-organic frameworks not only improves their mechanical flexibility, stability, and optoelectronic performance, but also extends their functions to multi-energy harvesting and multifunctional sensing. Herein, we highlight the structural diversity, tunability, and rich physics of MHPs, and focus on strategies for structural design, optimization of optical and ferroelectric properties, as well as functional implementation across diverse applications of MHPs-based composites in sensors, energy harvesters, solar cells, and photocatalysts. Finally, we conclude with perspectives on the prospects of MHPs-based composites, emphasizing their significant potential to advance the development of highly stable, efficient, low-cost, and multifunctional flexible optoelectronic devices.

As a non-invasive and information-rich diagnostic biofluid, sweat offers a promising alternative to conventional blood analysis, circumventing issues of invasiveness, patient discomfort, and complex laboratory processing. Wearable optical patches for non-invasive sweat sensing are emerging as a transformative platform in personalized and preventive healthcare, enabling real-time, continuous monitoring of metabolic and electrolyte biomarkers. This review comprehensively summarizes recent advances in wearable flexible optical sweat sensors, focusing on the following primary optical mechanisms: colorimetry, surface-enhanced Raman scattering, fluorescence, electrochemiluminescence and other optical approaches. First, we discuss the integration of these sensing modalities with soft, stretchable substrates, such as hydrogels, textiles, paper, and polymer films, and highlight key innovations in sweat collection, fabrication techniques, adhesion, and encapsulation that enable robust wearable operation. Second, we examine performance metrics, current challenges, and future perspectives for translating these technologies from laboratory prototypes to clinical and commercial applications. Finally, the challenges and future perspectives of the next-generation wearable optical platforms for continuous sweat analysis and personalized health monitoring are discussed.

Hydrogels with good ionic conductivity and high stretchability hold great promise for flexible sensors, but are challenged by the low toughness and poor crack resistance, which severely limit their performance under complex mechanical conditions. Herein, we report an ionically conductive polyoxometalates (POMs)-composited hydrogel fabricated by incorporating chitosan oligosaccharide-modified silicotungstic acid (COS@SIW) nanocomplexes into a polyacrylamide (PAM) network. The incorporation of COS effectively enhances the interfacial bonding between COS@SIW and the PAM matrix through abundant electrostatic and hydrogen-bonding interactions among COS, SIW, and PAM chains, facilitating efficient stress transfer and energy dissipation. As a result, the obtained POM-composited hydrogel exhibits integrated mechanical properties, including ultrahigh stretchability (2,423%), high toughness (3.77 MJ·m^-3), and excellent crack resistance (fracture energy of 8.3 kJ·m^-2). Moreover, the hydrogel demonstrates a high ionic conductivity of 0.17 S·m^-1, attributed to the intrinsic proton mobility of SIW. The resulting hydrogels exhibit superior strain sensitivity with a wide working range, rapid response, and excellent reliability, enabling their application as wearable sensors for monitoring diverse human motions. Furthermore, the hydrogel can function as a bioelectrode for accurate and reliable detection of electrocardiogram signals. This work provides a new strategy for designing ionically conductive hydrogels with high stretchability, toughness, and superior crack resistance, offering promising opportunities for advanced wearable sensing platforms.

Ionogels are a class of soft materials comprising a three-dimensional network that immobilizes ionic liquids (ILs). They have drawn considerable attention due to a suite of exceptional and tunable physicochemical properties, such as nonvolatility, excellent thermal and electrochemical stability, adjustable mechanical strength and high ionic conductivity. Building upon these inherent properties and by leveraging the functions of selected ILs, research interest is increasingly shifting toward their biocompatible and biofunctional aspects. This review investigates the recent advances of ionogels in the biomedical field, particularly in the past five years, focusing on antibacterial agents, wound healing, drug delivery, tissue engineering, tumor therapy and bioadhesion. As a cutting-edge interdisciplinary field, ionogels present significant opportunities that require close collaboration among scientists to accelerate the transition from the laboratory to industrialization and bring revolutionary advances to human health.

High-entropy alloys (HEAs) have been recognized as a novel class of materials with significant potential in both science and technology. Conventional synthesis of HEAs often requires high-temperature and energy-intensive conditions, limiting scalability and material diversity. Liquid metal metallurgy offers an alternative route for constructing HEA systems under ambient or near-ambient conditions. In this strategy, Ga-, Bi-, and In-based liquid metal systems act as intermediate media that enable multicomponent alloying through relatively low-energy processes. Their fluidic nature supports efficient mixing and mass transport, provides a tunable reaction environment, and facilitates integration with soft matrices, thereby expanding the accessible design space and functional scope. This perspective summarizes recent progress in room-temperature liquid metals and discusses their role in enabling HEA construction via liquid metal-enabled routes. We further present a systematic blueprint covering material selection, processing strategies, and compositional design, and discuss key scientific challenges, including phase control, interfacial chemistry, and property prediction across liquid-to-solid transitions. Finally, we outline future directions, such as artificial intelligence-guided alloy discovery, interfacial reaction modeling, and emerging applications in smart materials, catalysis, and biocompatible electronics.

The combination of intelligent fibers (IFs) and self-powered technologies provides new opportunities for wearable systems to interface with precision organs such as the eye and brain. In contrast to conventional ophthalmic diagnostics, which typically rely on bulky, externally powered equipment and offer only intermittent measurements, IF-based wearable devices leverage inherent flexibility, biocompatibility, and multifunctionality to support the minimally invasive, long-term in vivo monitoring and neural modulation. From a clinical perspective, the coupling of fiber design with autonomous energy strategies is central to enabling closed-loop ophthalmic platforms that operate without continuous external support. In this review, we examine recent progress across fiber materials, structural design, power solutions, and system-level integration, with emphasis on breakthroughs that have enabled applications including dynamic intraocular pressure monitoring, tear fluid biochemical analysis, visual function restoration, and neural interfaces. We further discuss the remaining challenges and emerging trends related to biocompatibility, energy autonomy, scalable manufacturing, and clinical translation, providing a forward-looking perspective on the development of next-generation IF-based diagnostic and therapeutic platforms.

Wearable sensors play a crucial role in biomedical applications, enabling real-time and long-term monitoring of physiological and metabolic signals that are essential for disease prevention and personalized healthcare. With excellent stretchability, biocompatibility, and self-healing capability, these novel devices continuously track human biophysical signals such as motion, respiration, and blood pressure, as well as chemical biomarkers including electrolytes, glucose, and lactate in body fluids. Recent advances in material design, sensing mechanisms, and integration technologies have greatly fueled the enhanced capabilities of wearable monitoring systems and their implementation in next-generation healthcare platforms. This review summarizes the key material properties required for reliable long-term monitoring, the main detectable physiological biomarkers, and the latest progress and challenges in sensor integration and communication.

Electrochemically anodized stainless steel (SS) shows promise as a free-standing electrode in flexible supercapacitors due to its low cost, eco-friendly nature, and binder-free characteristics. However, unsatisfactory cycling stability limits its practical use in wearable electronics. Herein, we introduce a conductive carbon film deposited on the surface of the anodized SS electrode as a protective layer via electron cyclotron resonance sputtering. By optimizing the deposition bias voltage and deposition time, the resulting flexible electrode exhibits a specific capacitance of 271.6 mF·cm^-2 at a current density of 1 mA·cm^-2, representing a 2.24-fold increase over the uncoated counterpart, with 88.7% capacitance retention after 8,000 cycles. The enhanced performance is closely related to the conductivity of the surface coating, which depends on the sp2/sp3 ratio (the relative proportion of graphitic to diamond-like carbon bonding). The carbon film-coated anodized SS electrode is combined with an activated carbon on carbon cloth electrode and a gel electrolyte to produce a flexible supercapacitor. The energy storage device exhibits a wide operating potential window of 1.8 V, a high energy density of 51.70 mWh·cm^-3, and a power density of 0.50 W·cm^-3, accompanied by robust flexibility and mechanical stability. These findings may pave the way for the development of high-performance, flexible, and cost-effective supercapacitors compatible with large-scale semiconductor device manufacturing.

The rapid, flexible, and non-injurious capture and sampling of live organisms in deep-sea high-pressure environments is a critical component for establishing environmental baselines prior to deep-sea development operations. Here, we propose and fabricate a bionic multi-fingered magnetically driven soft gripper (MSG) designed for underwater grasping tasks. The gripper adopts a modular, bioinspired multi-finger structure composed of portable magnetic field actuator and high-pressure-resistant silicone elastomer with integrated surface microneedle arrays for enhancing contact friction. Remote, non-contact actuation and programmable deformation are achieved through an external magnetic drive system. The fabrication process, mechanical and magnetic characterization, flow disturbance analysis, magneto-fluid-structure coupling simulations, and grasping experiments on five representative underwater targets were systematically investigated. Structural response, control efficiency, and operational performance were comprehensively validated. Experimental results demonstrate that the MSG can complete expansion-contraction movements within 1 s and achieve high grasping success rates across diverse underwater organisms, with reliable, rapid, and damage-free manipulation. This research establishes a novel technological pathway for soft robotic grasping in underwater applications, offering both engineering value and scientific significance.

Soft robots harness compliant materials and bio-inspired architectures to achieve safe, adaptive, and versatile functions in dynamic environments, enabling applications in minimally invasive surgery, wearable assistive devices, and confined-space exploration. Gallium-based liquid metals with metallic conductivity and liquid deformability constitute a transformative material platform for creating soft robots with enhanced performance and diverse manipulation strategies. Among them, magnetic manipulation is particularly attractive because it enables remote, non-contact, and energy-efficient control with high spatial precision. In this review, we summarize existing strategies for the preparation, integration, and patterning of magnetic liquid metals. We then illustrate the mechanisms of magnetic manipulation, including magnet and Lorentz force manipulation, and discuss the potential of multi-field manipulation. Furthermore, we systematically categorize the practical applications of magnetically actuated liquid metals in soft robotics into four types: droplet, slurry, particle, and composite, based on their composition and morphology. Finally, we highlight the key challenges in this field and provide perspectives on future research directions. This review aims to establish a systematic framework for understanding and advancing magnetically manipulated liquid metals in soft robotics, offering fundamental insights to stimulate interdisciplinary research and accelerate technological breakthroughs in this emerging field.