Advanced Materials Interfaces最新文献

Surface functionalization is essential for improving polymer properties like wettability and wear resistance. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is widely used due to its flexibility, biocompatibility and ease of fabrication. Soft lithography—based on molding and replication—is the most common approach to tailor its wettability, but producing high-quality molds remains complex and time-consuming, calling for faster, cost-effective and reproducible alternatives. In this work, a novel femtosecond laser-based technique is presented for the rapid and precise fabrication of aluminum molds for PDMS replication. By tuning hatch distance and scan number as key process parameters, the resulting surface morphology of the PDMS replicas is controlled. The samples are characterized morphologically and by profilometry; the reproducibility of the laser-engraved molds and the effect on the final PDMS surfaces is assessed, alongside wettability measurements as a function of the processing parameters, achieving superhydrophobic behavior under optimized conditions. Long-term testing over 4 months confirmed the stability and durability of the surface properties, highlighting their potential for applications in self-cleaning systems, droplet-based microfluidics and biomedical devices.

Epitaxial thin-film heterostructures of the strongly spin-orbit coupled Mott-insulator Sr₂IrO₄ (SIO) and the cuprate high temperature superconductor YBa₂Cu₃O_{7 − δ} (YBCO) are grown with pulsed laser deposition (PLD). A high crystalline quality is confirmed with X ray diffraction. The magnetic order of single SIO layers is studied with dc magnetization and low-energy muon spin rotation measurements and resembles that of the bulk material with a canted antiferromagnetic order. The electronic normal state and superconducting properties of YBCO (10, 12, or 14 nm)–SIO (20 nm) and inversely stacked SIO (20nm)–YBCO (10, 12, or 14 nm) bilayers are studied with dc resistivity measurements and found to be strongly dependent on the sequence of the layer stacking. The YBCO–SIO bilayers with d(YBCO) = 14nm, 12 nm, and 10 nm are all metallic and superconducting with an onset temperature around 85K and zero resistivity below 65K. To the contrary, for the inversely stacked SIO–YBCO bilayers a metallic and superconducting response occurs only at d(YBCO) = 14 nm, whereas $��d�\left(�\mathrm{YBCO}�\right)�=�12��\mathrm{nm}�$ and 10 nm are electronic insulators. This highlights that a long-ranged localization and/or depletion of the YBCO charge carriers occurs at the SIO–YBCO interface that is very anomalous and remains to be understood.

Carbon-based films are widely used in technologies requiring surfaces with controlled wettability. These films can be synthesized by depositing carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) onto substrates intermittently inserted into rich premixed flames, where thermophoresis drives particle capture. Depending on flame conditions, this method yields either hydrophilic films (from incipient sooting flames) or superhydrophobic films (from fully sooting flames). However, under incipient sooting conditions, the low concentration and small size of CNPs result in slow deposition, limiting practical applications. This study explores Electric Field-Assisted Thermophoretic Flame Synthesis (E-ThFS) as a strategy to enhance deposition. Rich ethylene/air flames are used, and the effect of an external electric field is investigated. UV–vis spectroscopy, profilometry, and contact angle measurements show that applying a −3 kV electric field accelerates deposition up to fivefold and alters surface morphology, producing more heterogeneous textures. The hydrophilic character of films from incipient sooting flames is preserved, although it may be preceded by a brief metastable superhydrophobic state whose duration decreases as voltage increases. In fully sooting flames, the electric field similarly enhances deposition and roughness while maintaining superhydrophobicity. These findings demonstrate the potential of E-ThFS as a scalable, one-step method for creating carbon coatings with tunable wettability and morphology.

Surface design aimed at regulating the behavior of endothelial cells is currently a key research direction in cardiovascular interventional/implantable materials. This review focuses on three primary regulatory strategies in material biology: direct regulation, protein-mediated regulation, and biological factor regulation. These strategies aim to promote the recovery of endothelial cell function by optimizing the interaction between materials and blood, cells, and tissues. Furthermore, these surfaces also exhibit diverse effects in vivo on different types of cells. It is precisely due to the complex factors and diverse effects in the pathological environment that these macro-to-micro regulation strategies exhibit opposing states on the material-tissue efficacy interface. Therefore, this series of design ideas still faces challenges in practical applications, including time-sequential functional changes after implantation, how to maintain protein activity in complex pathological environments, and how to accurately control the release of biological factors. The study concludes by emphasizing that the endothelialization surface modification of stent materials is moving towards multidimensionality, including exploring the synergistic effects of these strategies and how to achieve optimal therapeutic outcomes under various pathological conditions, in order to develop more effective and safer vascular stent materials and provide new solutions for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases.

Thermometers are essential sensing devices for applications ranging from health monitoring to emergency management and industrial quality control. Despite their widespread use, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for low-cost, continuous, user-friendly, and reusable temperature sensors for symptoms detection and infection control. This presents here lightweight (m < 1 g), power-free, reusable, and paper-based temperature sensing interfaces that use biomaterial-based thermochromic inks. These inks, screen-printed onto various surfaces, undergo a visible color change with temperature shifts and can be paired with machine learning for continuous monitoring at a resolution of ΔT = 0.1 °C. Their affordability and adaptability to large, uneven surfaces make them a cost-effective alternative to thermal cameras for visualizing temperature distribution on a large scale.

Chiral plasmonic systems have gained significant interest due to their potential applications in advanced sensing, data storage, and optical devices. Here, it is demonstrated that photo- and thermoswitchability can be combined within a single chiral plasmonic composite. This approach enables the large-scale organization of plasmonic nanoparticles without the need for complex fabrication techniques, offering a practical route toward the advanced design of chiral nanostructures. Spiropyran derivatives form twisted helical fibers through gelation in organic solvents, creating a chiral scaffold that induces chiral assembly of nanoparticles, leading to plasmonic circular dichroism. Detailed spectroscopic and microscopic analyses confirmed the structural organization of the helical fibers. Exposure to temperature reversibly disruptes the helical fibers and modulates their plasmonic properties, whereas UV illumination led to a gradual decrease in CD signal intensity. This dynamic system demonstrates that controlled fiber disentanglement and nanoparticle aggregation can be reversibly achieved in response to thermal stimuli, offering a versatile platform for next-generation active chiral materials.

Repair of osteochondral defects remains a great challenge because of the complex interplay between cartilage and subchondral bone, each of which has distinct structural, biological, and mechanical properties. Here, the fabrication and of a novel 3D printed biphasic osteochondral scaffold composed of polycaprolactone/laponite (PL) is demonstrated for the bone layer and methylsulfonylmethane (MSM)-loaded polycaprolactone/chitosan (PC) for the cartilage layer. Comprehensive characterization of the scaffold revealed gradient mechanical properties, high biocompatibility, and hydrophilicity, replicating the structural requirements of native osteochondral tissue. In vitro biological assays demonstrated enhanced cell adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells for both cartilage and bone layers. The PL layer exhibited osteogenic capacity, while the MSM-loaded PC layer facilitated chondrogenesis. Additionally, the scaffold displayed controlled degradation and sustained release of MSM, further promoting extracellular matrix production. Altogether, the results suggest that the designed biphasic scaffold represents a promising platform for osteochondral tissue regeneration.

Clay minerals exhibit complex interactions with water that critically influence their functional properties, yet the anisotropic nature of water dynamics in smectite thin films remains underexplored. Here quasielastic neutron scattering (QENS) is employed on oriented sodium beidellite films to investigate water mobility across multiple timescales and orientations. Analysis reveals pronounced anisotropic water dynamics, characterized by confinement perpendicular to the clay layers and orientation-dependent diffusion coefficients and residence times. These dynamics correlate with structural features, including interlayer cation spacing and anomalies in the hydroxyl group absorbance. The findings elucidate directional transport and confinement phenomena in layered smectites, providing fundamental insights that can guide the design of clay-based materials with tailored transport and interfacial properties.

The crystal orientation uniformity of MoS₂ monolayers grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD) on sapphire substrates is investigated, and their integration with spin-coated WS₂ in a MoS₂/WS₂ heterostructure. Polarization-resolved second harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy reveals that the heterostructure exhibits an exceptionally consistent orientation across 180 × 180 µm² areas, with deviations of less than two degrees, despite the polycrystallinity of the WS₂ layer. The SHG response of the heterostructure seems to be dominated by the orientation of the underlying MoS₂ layer; only locally aligned WS₂ domains (if present) contribute marginally. These findings demonstrate the robustness of the MoS₂ crystal orientation and provide insights into interfacial alignment mechanisms and the orientation coherence achievable by ALD, providing a foundation for layer-selective studies of interfacial ordering in wafer-scale transition metal dichalcogenide heterostructures.

Zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) have emerged as a promising class of next-generation electrochemical energy storage devices due to their inherent advantages, including high safety, low cost, large theoretical capacity, and the abundance of zinc resources. However, their practical deployment remains hindered by critical challenges, such as cathodic materials dissolution, hydrogen evolution side reactions, and uncontrolled zinc dendrite growth. As the medium bridging the anode and cathode, electrolytes play a pivotal role in addressing these issues, particularly through the strategy of incorporating electrolyte additives. This review highlights the key limitations of current aqueous ZIBs, emphasizes the decisive influence of solvation structures on both interfacial and bulk behaviors, and summarizes recent advances in electrolyte additives design. Finally, forward-looking perspectives on electrolyte engineering are provided to accelerate the practical development of high-performance aqueous ZIBs.