Advanced Fiber Materials最新文献

Face masks are no longer just passive barriers against pathogens. By integrating flexible electronics, biosensors, and fluidic systems, they are becoming intelligent wearable platforms capable of continuous health monitoring. In a recent study published in Science, Gao et al. introduced “EBCare”, a wearable smart mask that achieves real-time in situ analysis of exhaled breath condensate (EBC). This work presents a comprehensive solution for on-body collection, transport, and detection of multiple breath-derived biomarkers using passive cooling, capillary-driven microfluidics, and multiplexed biosensing, establishing a versatile platform for respiratory diagnostics and personalized medicine.

Sunlight-driven catalysis has been recognized as a prospective strategy to achieve efficient wastewater purification, but its widespread adoption is hampered by persistent challenges, including unsatisfactory catalytic performance and difficult recovery of powdery catalysts. Addressing these limitations, we present a self-floating S-scheme Bi₄O₅Br₂/C₃N₄/carbon fiber cloth (BiBr/CN/CC) heterojunction-a robust, recyclable photocatalyst engineered for safe and efficient degradation of aquaculture antibiotics. This hierarchical architecture features a conductive carbon fiber cloth (CC) core enveloped by Bi₄O₅Br₂/C₃N₄ (BiBr/CN) nanosheets, synergistically combining buoyancy, practical recoverability, and superior photocatalytic performance. The S-scheme configuration between Bi₄O₅Br₂ and C₃N₄ directs photogenerated electrons from BiBr to CN via a robust internal electric field (IEF), preserving optimal redox capacities, contributing to abundant ROS generation for photoreactions. Accordingly, BiBr/CN/CC displays the exceptional photocatalytic activity for oxytetracycline (OTC) destruction, with an OTC destruction rate of (0.0120 min^‒1), significantly exceeding BiBr/CC (0.0085 min^‒1) and CN/CC (0.0051 min^‒1) by 0.4 and 1.4 times, respectively. More significantly, BiBr/CN/CC manifests excellent practicality due to its effortless recovery and operation, excellent robustness, and good environmental adaptability. Furthermore, the OTC decomposition process and intermediates’ eco-toxicity, along with the photocatalysis mechanism are thoroughly explored. This research underscores the significance of devising self-floating, recyclable and high-performance photocatalysts for water decontamination.

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A floatable macroscopic Bi₄O₅Br₂/C₃N₄/carbon fiber cloth heterojunction was engineered to address the critical challenges of unsatisfactory catalytic performance and recyclability in photocatalytic water purification. This innovative architecture integrates Bi₄O₅Br₂ nanosheets and C₃N₄ layers onto a carbon cloth, synergizing the advantages of a hierarchical structure, built-in buoyancy, and S-scheme charge transfer dynamics. This fabric manifests intriguing prospects for practical application, advancing the design of recyclable S-scheme heterojunctions for environmental remediation

Enhancing the mechanical performance of synthetic fibers is pursued in aerospace, wearable devices, and protective textiles. However, current reinforcement methods rely on the chemical modification of polymer stock, introducing greater complexity and processing challenge. In this work, the mechanical properties of different aramid fibers and their composite fibers are improved through a cool spinning strategy. By reducing the coagulation temperature to –25 °C, the interactions between polymer chains and solvent molecules are substantially enhanced, thereby improving the drawability of the polymer solution. The draw ratio markedly increases typically from 200% to 380%, leading to optimized oriented and crystalline structures. Consequently, the tensile strength, Young’s modulus and toughness of large-diameter heterocyclic para-aramid fibers increase by 112%, 123% and 118%, respectively. The cool spinning proposal is further applied to 36-μm-thick heterocyclic para-aramid/graphene oxide composite fibers, realizing elevated tensile strength, Young’s modulus and toughness of 6.28 GPa, 119.62 GPa and 172.7 MJ⋅m⁻³, respectively. This strategy is also applicable to meta-aramid fibers, where tensile strength increases up to 1.35 GPa. The simple and universal cool spinning approach opens an avenue towards the preparation of high-performance fibers and composite fibers for structural and functional applications.

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A new cool spinning strategy for aramid fibers is proposed by reducing the coagulation temperature. This strategy dramatically enhances the interactions between polymer and solvent molecules, thereby increasing the draw ratio. It enables the preparation of different high-performance aramid fibers and their composite fibers with substantially improved tensile strength, Young’s modulus, and toughness.

Glass fiber (GF), with exceptional mechanical properties and thermal stability, has garnered increasing attention in composite materials, electronics, aerospace, and other industries. The surface characteristics of GFs are crucial in determining their interfacial bonding within composites, environmental adaptability, and multifunctionality. Consequently, coating technologies designed to enhance the functionality of GFs have become essential for expanding their range of applications. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the latest advancements in surface coating engineering of GFs, focusing on various types of coating materials, including inorganic, organic, nano, and composite coatings. Through analyzing representative case studies, the review describes the diverse functionalities of these coating materials, such as enhanced interfacial bonding strength, improved flame retardancy, and the integration of multiple functions, including electromagnetic shielding, electrothermal properties, battery separators, and catalytic degradation. The application effectiveness and potential of each coating type are summarized. Finally, the review addresses the challenges and future development trends of surface coatings for GFs. This article aims to establish a theoretical foundation for future research on GF coatings and provides valuable insights for the innovative application of GFs in emerging fields.

Ammonia (NH₃) is the second-most-produced chemical worldwide and has numerous industrial applications. However, such applications pose significant risks, as evidenced by human casualties caused by NH₃ leaks or poisoning in confined environments. This highlights the critical need for highly portable and intuitive wearable NH₃ sensors. The chemiresistive sensors are widely employed in wearable devices due to their simple structure, high sensitivity, and short response times, but are prone to malfunctioning and inaccurate gas detection because of the corrosion or failure of the sensing material under the influence of humidity, high temperatures, and interfering gas species. Addressing these limitations, a gas-sensing platform with a polymer-based nanofiber structure has been developed, providing flexibility and facilitating efficient transport of NH₃ between the colorimetric (bromocresol-green-based) and chemiresistive (poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate)-based) sensing layers. This dual-mode design enables reliable NH₃ detection. The NH₃-sensing performance of each individual layer is comparable to that of the dual-mode gas-sensing platform, which operates effectively even when attached to human skin and in humid environments. Therefore, this study establishes a robust, selective, and reproducible NH₃ sensor for diverse applications and introduces an innovative sensor engineering paradigm.

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Nanocomposite technology is recognized as a general and effective strategy to enhance the performance of flexible energy storage devices. However, the enhancement of flexible batteries in nanocomposites is usually much lower than expected, which is mainly attributed to the poor interfacial interactions between active material and conductive substrate as well as sluggish Na⁺ diffusion kinetics and complex assembly techniques. It remains a huge challenge to simultaneously achieve good mechanical properties, excellent electrochemical performance, and high safety in flexible batteries. Here, we developed an interface engineering strategy to prepare a high-strength and high-toughness quasi-solid fiber battery using direct ink writing 3D printing, which was achieved by introducing borate ester dynamic crosslinking as bridging interaction with self-healing properties. This configuration exhibited a remarkably enhanced energy density (104 Wh kg⁻¹) and high power density (20.8 W kg⁻¹), with excellent strain (exceeding 25%) and outstanding thermal stability (200 °C), which exceeds those of previously reported. Density functional theory calculations further reveal the mechanism by which the interface engineering-based borate ester dynamic crosslinking affects the performance of fiber battery. Based on this excellent performance, fiber batteries are woven into a mobile phone pouch for wireless charging of wearable electronic devices. This work provides an effective route toward high-performance flexible energy storage devices for a broad range of applications.

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Firefighting clothing provides essential safeguards for firefighters while engaging in fire suppression and life rescue operations. However, the inability to actively detect hazardous gas and self-thermal degradation of conventional firefighting clothing induce critical safety threats to firefighters. Herein, we design a dual-mode perceptual sensor via programmable assembly of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and Ti₃C₂T_x MXene@MoS₂ nanocomposite in dual-mode triaxial structural aerogel fiber (DM-TSF) for both selective NH₃ and temperature monitoring. The DM-TSF is prepared through triaxial wet spinning, with an alternating p/n-type thermoelectric (TE) core, a signal decoupling aramid nanofibers layer, and an NH₃ sensing outer sheath. The TE core is composed of alternately interconnected p-type/SWCNT and n-type SWCNT/Polyethyleneimine, which exhibits high TE efficiency (8.44 μV K⁻¹ for p-segment, 7.44 μV K⁻¹ for n-segment) and wide-range (10–500 °C) temperature monitoring in DM-TSF. Furthermore, the abundant adsorption sites and high-density Schottky heterojunctions of the Ti₃C₂T_x MXene@MoS₂ nanocomposite in the outer sheath enabled DM-TSF to exhibit an outstanding sensitivity (3.14% ppm⁻¹@20 ppm) and high selectivity for NH₃. A portable wireless system based on DM-TSF was further developed and integrated into firefighting clothing for temperature and NH₃ monitoring, triggering alarms within 2 s and 28 s, respectively. This work sheds new light on the fabrication of intelligent multiplex hazard detection fibers that can respond to multi-hazard elements, thereby enhancing firefighters’ safety in complex fire scenarios.

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