Advanced Materials Interfaces最新文献

Metal Printing

In article 2400256, Daren J. Caruana and co-workers develop a single step method for depositing silver and copper tracks on a variety of dielectrics using an atmospheric pressure plasma jet. Particle free aqueous based metal salts are required as inks, which are reduced by the action of the plasma electrons and sintered. The resulting highly conductive and adhesive tracks may be deposited on glass, ceramics, polymeric materials, and even biological surfaces with zero damage to the substrates.

Lung diseases are one of the leading causes of global mortality. Advances in induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) differentiation have enabled the creation of bronchiolar and alveolar lung organoids, advancing research on lung conditions. Traditional Matrigel encapsulation, reliant on the spontaneous assembly and propagation of cells with limited external intervention, often results in variability and low reproducibility. The absence of hyaluronic acid (HA) in Matrigel, a key lung extracellular matrix component, limits bronchiolar and alveolar cell differentiation, reducing the efficacy and reproducibility of iPSC-derived organoid generation. To address this, a novel hybrid hydrogel combining HA and 23% Matrigel, inspired by the natural lung environment, is developed. This hydrogel offers improved biochemical support and viscoelastic properties, significantly accelerating organoid development. Within eight days, the hydrogel produces uniformly sized organoids containing both bronchiolar and alveolar epithelial cells. Increased levels of active mechanosensors and transducers, including PIEZO1, Integrin, and Myosin, suggest that the hydrogel's altered viscoelasticity triggers a mechanotransduction cascade. This bioinspired hydrogel provides a robust, fast model for biomedical research, facilitating rapid drug screening, respiratory disease treatment studies, and surfactant trafficking investigations. Furthermore, it enables the exploration of underlying biomechanical mechanisms to enhance the controllability of organoid generation and maturation.

Fabrication and characterization of solar cells based on multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) thin films are described and synthesized from low-cost soda-lime glass (SLG). The aluminothermic redox reaction of the silicon oxide in SLG during low-temperature annealing at 600 – 650 °C leads to an mc-Si thin film with large grains of lateral dimensions in the millimeter range, and moderate p-type conductivity with an average Al acceptor concentration between 5 × 10¹⁶ and 1.2 × 10¹⁷ cm⁻³ in the bulk. A residual composite layer of mainly alumina and unreacted Al forms beneath the mc-Si thin film as the second product of the crystalline silicon synthesis (CSS) process, which can be used as rear contact in a vertical solar cell design. The mc-Si absorber (≈10 µm) is thin enough that the diffusion length given by a minority carrier lifetime of ≈1 µs exceeds the path length to the top contact several times. Homojunction and heterojunction diodes have been fabricated on the mc-Si thin films and show great potential of CSS for the realization of high-performance solar cells.

Nanotopographic surfaces are a powerful tool for studying and controlling cell behavior. However, the fabrication of nanotopographic master patterns using conventional photolithography is expensive, which limits the range of designs that can be explored. In this study, a method is demonstrated for the photoreshaping of large-area patterns of nanoridges. The original master pattern is created using conventional lithography, and an azopolymer replica is prepared using soft lithography. The manipulation of the nanoridges is achieved by projecting light with specific polarizations and exposure times, resulting in controllable widening, buckling, or removal of the ridges. The reprogrammed azopolymer master patterns can then be replicated, creating reproducible new nanotopographies that can be transferred into other materials using a molding procedure. Diffraction can be used for in situ monitoring of the reprogramming during exposure. Image-analysis methods are used to characterize buckled ridges as a function of exposure time. The response of MCF10A epithelial cells are investigated to buckled nanoridges. A substantial impact of buckling on the dynamics and location of actin polymerization, as well as on the distribution and lengths of contiguous polymerized regions is also observed.

GiLD Immunoassays

The cover image of article 2400211 by Suk Joong Lee, Hyon Bin Na, and co-workers depicts the growth of antibody-conjugated Au nanoparticles. The grown nanoparticles “gild” the microplate by extinction, acting as signal transducers in immunoassays. They offer a straightforward signal for quantitative detection, facilitated by the gradual development of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR).

The cysteine and alkanethiol adsorption on Au(111) surfaces is investigated using density functional theory (DFT) and classic molecular dynamics (MD). Understanding the S–Au interaction across different scales poses major challenges. DFT provides atomic-level precision but it hardly provides insight on nanosecond scale dynamics of this interface. Alternatively, MD, although it enables modeling larger systems for longer periods, its accuracy heavily relies on the parameterization of the force fields (FF). To address this, an MD potential is fitted using DFT calculations, bridging the gap in accuracy and efficiency. At the DFT level, it is found that PBE with DFT-D3 reproduces complex approaches at a fraction of the computational cost. Separating PBE and DFT-D3 contributions reveals consistent PBE energy across molecules (chemisorption), while dispersion varies (physisorption). Thus, the interaction energy of cysteine and two short-chain alkanethiols is calculated to parameterize both Morse and Lennard–Jones (LJ) potentials. The parameterization improves the potential energy in the preferred adsorption sites: the threefold hcp and fcc with respect to the previous proposals in the literature. Furthermore, the transferability is here demonstrated. At last, these results show that LJ potentials outperform more complex Morse potentials. The procedure is general, and the codes and supporting inputs are publicly available, allowing swift generation of potential energy surfaces (PES) at the DFT level, and fitted LJ or Morse potentials to any molecular interface.

2D transition metal dichalcogenide materials have attracted increasing attention as active surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) platforms. In this study, the influence of n- and p-type doping of exfoliated MoS₂ (exMoS₂) hybrids on the SERS performance is investigated, employing Rhodamine 6G (R6G) as a probe molecule. It is demonstrated that n-doped exMoS₂ hybrids (exMoS₂ mixed with C₆₀, graphene, and sodium dodecyl sulfate) exhibit enhanced SERS intensities, while p-doping (exMoS₂ mixed with TCNQ) resulted in inhibited SERS enhancement. A key discovery is the linear relationship between Raman enhancement of MoS₂/dopant hybrids and the difference in their LUMO energy levels, which dictate the degree and direction of charge transfer. Interestingly, MC₆₀-4, a C₆₀-doped hybrid, deviates from the linear relationship, displaying remarkable SERS enhancement owing to its chemical interaction and unique Raman scattering activity. The findings provide critical insights into the SERS enhancement behavior of doped MoS₂, facilitating precise tuning of SERS intensities by manipulating the MoS₂ doping state.

The combination of the phase transition in thermochromic vanadium dioxide (VO₂) with plasmonic nanoparticles paves the way for applications in various fields, including optical sensing, advanced coatings, and dynamic optical devices. This study presents a simple fabrication method to control both the size and surface coverage of NPs combined with VO₂. First, a thermochromic VO₂ coating with a phase transition at 68 °C is synthesized using reactive magnetron sputtering. Then, monodisperse 30 nm diameter gold NPs are bonded to the VO₂ surface using (3-aminopropyl)trimethoxysilane (APTMS) linkers, examining the effect of immersion duration on surface coverage. Two platforms are developed: a VO₂ thin film with a monolayer of NPs and a configuration with NPs between two VO₂ films. The temperature-dependent plasmonic response of these platforms is measured by extinction spectroscopy, showing a significant wavelength resonance shift of approximately 10 nm for the first platform and 20 nm for the second. Optical simulations analyze this shift over various geometries, from isolated NPs to fully covered NPs, achieving a 60 nm shift for NPs embedded in a thin VO₂ film. This study demonstrates an effective approach to synthesizing thermochromic VO₂ coatings with gold NPs, offering insights into the plasmonic properties of hybrid platforms.