Pub Date : 2024-06-24DOI: 10.1038/s41528-024-00324-0
Jin Xu, Ke Du, Feng Peng, Zhenzhong Sun, Zhiming Zhong, Weiji Feng, Lei Ying
Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) offer the advantage of flexibility; however, the use of traditional transparent anode ITO limits further extension of their flexible characteristics. In this study, we propose employing an polymer polybenzodifuranedione (PBFDO) as a flexible transparent anode instead of the rigid ITO. To address the issue encountered during the PBFDO solution spin-coating process, we introduced n-butanol into the PBFDO conductive solution to reduce its viscosity and freezing point by modulating intermolecular hydrogen bonding interactions. Consequently, high-quality PBFDO films with high conductivity, superior transmittance, and low surface roughness were successfully obtained via spin-coating. Moreover, due to its proper work function, regular molecular stacking, and low refractive index properties, PBFDO electrode facilitate efficient carrier injection and transport as well as photon extraction. The resulting device utilizing a PBFDO anode combined with Super Yellow as the light-emitting layer exhibited excellent performance characteristics including a normal threshold voltage of 2.6 V and a maximum luminous efficiency of 12.8 cd A−1 comparable to that device based on the ITO electrode. Furthermore, flexible device also achieved satisfactory performance (7.7 cd A−1) when using the PEN substrate.
有机发光二极管（OLED）具有柔性优势，但传统透明阳极 ITO 的使用限制了其柔性特性的进一步扩展。在本研究中，我们建议使用聚合物聚苯二呋二酮（PBFDO）作为柔性透明阳极，以取代刚性 ITO。为了解决 PBFDO 溶液旋涂过程中遇到的问题，我们在 PBFDO 导电溶液中引入了正丁醇，通过调节分子间氢键相互作用来降低其粘度和凝固点。因此，通过旋涂工艺成功获得了具有高导电率、优异透射率和低表面粗糙度的高质量 PBFDO 薄膜。此外，由于具有适当的功函数、规则的分子堆积和低折射率特性，PBFDO 电极可促进载流子的高效注入和传输以及光子萃取。利用 PBFDO 阳极和 Super Yellow 作为发光层的器件具有优异的性能特征，包括 2.6 V 的正常阈值电压和 12.8 cd A-1 的最大发光效率，与基于 ITO 电极的器件相当。此外，当使用 PEN 基底时，柔性器件也达到了令人满意的性能（7.7 cd A-1）。
{"title":"Highly conductive polymer electrodes for polymer light-emitting diodes","authors":"Jin Xu, Ke Du, Feng Peng, Zhenzhong Sun, Zhiming Zhong, Weiji Feng, Lei Ying","doi":"10.1038/s41528-024-00324-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41528-024-00324-0","url":null,"abstract":"Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) offer the advantage of flexibility; however, the use of traditional transparent anode ITO limits further extension of their flexible characteristics. In this study, we propose employing an polymer polybenzodifuranedione (PBFDO) as a flexible transparent anode instead of the rigid ITO. To address the issue encountered during the PBFDO solution spin-coating process, we introduced n-butanol into the PBFDO conductive solution to reduce its viscosity and freezing point by modulating intermolecular hydrogen bonding interactions. Consequently, high-quality PBFDO films with high conductivity, superior transmittance, and low surface roughness were successfully obtained via spin-coating. Moreover, due to its proper work function, regular molecular stacking, and low refractive index properties, PBFDO electrode facilitate efficient carrier injection and transport as well as photon extraction. The resulting device utilizing a PBFDO anode combined with Super Yellow as the light-emitting layer exhibited excellent performance characteristics including a normal threshold voltage of 2.6 V and a maximum luminous efficiency of 12.8 cd A−1 comparable to that device based on the ITO electrode. Furthermore, flexible device also achieved satisfactory performance (7.7 cd A−1) when using the PEN substrate.","PeriodicalId":48528,"journal":{"name":"npj Flexible Electronics","volume":" ","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":12.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41528-024-00324-0.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141448062","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-06-15DOI: 10.1038/s41528-024-00322-2
Ya Lu, Yuanyuan Chen, Haoyu Sun, Fang Deng, Changtong Mei, Xinwu Xu, Qinglin Wu, Huining Xiao, Yiying Yue, Jingquan Han
Electroluminescent (EL) devices are of great significance for expanding the application range of optoelectronics. However, the realization of EL devices with environment-tolerance, stretchability, mechanical cycling stability, self-adhesion, biocompatibility, and high dielectric constant still remains a challenge. Herein, a type of EL device with enhanced comprehensive performances composing of a chlorinated barium titanate/phosphor/polydimethylsiloxane (Cl-BT/phosphor/PDMS) luminescent layer sandwiched between two silver nanowire-cellulose nanocrystal with II crystalline allomorph/Triton X-100 modified polydimethylsiloxane (AgNW-CNC II/TX-PDMS) electrodes fabricated through a full solution-processing strategy is proposed. Environmentally-friendly CNC II with high transmittance acts as an antioxidant, dispersant and film-former for AgNWs. The hydrophilic modification of TX to PDMS imparts the electrodes with self-adhesion, high stretchability, as well as strong interfacial bonding between TX-PDMS and AgNW-CNC II. The electrodes achieve skin-like modulus by adjusting TX content, endowing the EL devices with a high compliance (186 kPa of Young’s modulus). The luminescent layer with Cl-BT exhibits a high dielectric constant (19) and luminance (up to 72 cd m−2). The assembled EL device with excellent cyclic stability (luminance retention 85% after 400 cycles), durability (luminance retention >94% after 400 min) and stretchability (88% luminance at 200% strain) can work properly at broad temperatures (−20 ~ 70 °C) and underwater. This biocompatible and self-adhesive EL device demonstrates great potential for implantable biomedical devices and wearable displays under harsh environments.
电致发光（EL）器件对于扩大光电子学的应用范围具有重要意义。然而，如何实现具有环境耐受性、拉伸性、机械循环稳定性、自粘性、生物相容性和高介电常数的电致发光器件仍然是一个挑战。本文提出了一种综合性能更强的电致发光器件，该器件由氯化钡钛酸酯/磷/聚二甲基硅氧烷（Cl-BT/磷/PDMS）发光层和夹在两个银纳米线-纤维素纳米晶体（具有 II 结晶异构体）/Triton X-100 改性聚二甲基硅氧烷（AgNW-CNC II/TX-PDMS ）电极之间的电致发光层组成，该电极是通过全溶液加工策略制造的。具有高透光率的环保型 CNC II 可作为 AgNW 的抗氧化剂、分散剂和成膜剂。TX 对 PDMS 的亲水改性使电极具有自粘性、高拉伸性，以及 TX-PDMS 和 AgNW-CNC II 之间的强界面结合力。通过调整 TX 的含量，电极可达到类肤模量，从而使 EL 器件具有很高的顺应性（杨氏模量为 186 kPa）。含有 Cl-BT 的发光层具有很高的介电常数（19）和亮度（高达 72 cd m-2）。组装好的电致发光器件具有出色的循环稳定性（400 次循环后亮度保持率为 85%）、耐用性（400 分钟后亮度保持率为 94%）和拉伸性（200% 应变时亮度保持率为 88%），可在宽温（-20 ~ 70 °C）和水下正常工作。这种具有生物兼容性和自粘性的 EL 器件在恶劣环境下的可植入生物医学设备和可穿戴显示器方面显示出巨大的潜力。
{"title":"Resilient, environment tolerant and biocompatible electroluminescent devices with enhanced luminance based on compliant and self-adhesive electrodes","authors":"Ya Lu, Yuanyuan Chen, Haoyu Sun, Fang Deng, Changtong Mei, Xinwu Xu, Qinglin Wu, Huining Xiao, Yiying Yue, Jingquan Han","doi":"10.1038/s41528-024-00322-2","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41528-024-00322-2","url":null,"abstract":"Electroluminescent (EL) devices are of great significance for expanding the application range of optoelectronics. However, the realization of EL devices with environment-tolerance, stretchability, mechanical cycling stability, self-adhesion, biocompatibility, and high dielectric constant still remains a challenge. Herein, a type of EL device with enhanced comprehensive performances composing of a chlorinated barium titanate/phosphor/polydimethylsiloxane (Cl-BT/phosphor/PDMS) luminescent layer sandwiched between two silver nanowire-cellulose nanocrystal with II crystalline allomorph/Triton X-100 modified polydimethylsiloxane (AgNW-CNC II/TX-PDMS) electrodes fabricated through a full solution-processing strategy is proposed. Environmentally-friendly CNC II with high transmittance acts as an antioxidant, dispersant and film-former for AgNWs. The hydrophilic modification of TX to PDMS imparts the electrodes with self-adhesion, high stretchability, as well as strong interfacial bonding between TX-PDMS and AgNW-CNC II. The electrodes achieve skin-like modulus by adjusting TX content, endowing the EL devices with a high compliance (186 kPa of Young’s modulus). The luminescent layer with Cl-BT exhibits a high dielectric constant (19) and luminance (up to 72 cd m−2). The assembled EL device with excellent cyclic stability (luminance retention 85% after 400 cycles), durability (luminance retention >94% after 400 min) and stretchability (88% luminance at 200% strain) can work properly at broad temperatures (−20 ~ 70 °C) and underwater. This biocompatible and self-adhesive EL device demonstrates great potential for implantable biomedical devices and wearable displays under harsh environments.","PeriodicalId":48528,"journal":{"name":"npj Flexible Electronics","volume":" ","pages":"1-13"},"PeriodicalIF":14.6,"publicationDate":"2024-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41528-024-00322-2.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141329458","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-06-14DOI: 10.1038/s41528-024-00323-1
Xueyang Ren, Wen Bai, Shisheng Chen, Yuehui Yuan, Xiaodong Shao, Xuefei Zhu, Li Wang, Qin Jiang, Benhui Hu
Implantable neural probes, essential for brain electrophysiological research, have advanced with ultra-flexible designs to mitigate immune responses and postoperative complications. Strategies of shuttle-assisted implantation and temporary stiffening address issues in penetrating these probes into the target region, avoiding undesired bending. However, the risk of intraoperative bleeding remains due to these implants’ necessary rigidity during insertion. Here, we describe a neural probe with mechanical compliance accompanying self-implantation along the principal axis in the absence of bleeding. Crucial to the behavior is its anisotropic relaxation, which is dominated by the cross-sectional in-plane deformation inhibition due to interchain interactions between the parallel backbones in the globally aligned polymer system. We observed the ensured upright insertion of the probe into the brain while avoiding angiorrhexis with a two-photon microscope and a high-speed camera. The probes permit electrophysiological studies with minimal foreign body responses and imageological compatibility, underscoring their clinical potential.
{"title":"Uniaxial extending neural probes for bleeding-absent implantation","authors":"Xueyang Ren, Wen Bai, Shisheng Chen, Yuehui Yuan, Xiaodong Shao, Xuefei Zhu, Li Wang, Qin Jiang, Benhui Hu","doi":"10.1038/s41528-024-00323-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41528-024-00323-1","url":null,"abstract":"Implantable neural probes, essential for brain electrophysiological research, have advanced with ultra-flexible designs to mitigate immune responses and postoperative complications. Strategies of shuttle-assisted implantation and temporary stiffening address issues in penetrating these probes into the target region, avoiding undesired bending. However, the risk of intraoperative bleeding remains due to these implants’ necessary rigidity during insertion. Here, we describe a neural probe with mechanical compliance accompanying self-implantation along the principal axis in the absence of bleeding. Crucial to the behavior is its anisotropic relaxation, which is dominated by the cross-sectional in-plane deformation inhibition due to interchain interactions between the parallel backbones in the globally aligned polymer system. We observed the ensured upright insertion of the probe into the brain while avoiding angiorrhexis with a two-photon microscope and a high-speed camera. The probes permit electrophysiological studies with minimal foreign body responses and imageological compatibility, underscoring their clinical potential.","PeriodicalId":48528,"journal":{"name":"npj Flexible Electronics","volume":" ","pages":"1-12"},"PeriodicalIF":14.6,"publicationDate":"2024-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41528-024-00323-1.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141326804","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The precise, simultaneous, and rapid detection of essential biomarkers in human tears is imperative for monitoring both ocular and systemic health. The utilization of a wearable colorimetric biochemical sensor exhibits potential in achieving swift and concurrent detection of pivotal biomarkers in tears. Nevertheless, challenges arise in the collection, interpretation, and sharing of data from the colorimetric sensor, thereby restricting the practical implementation of this technology. To overcome these challenges, this research introduces an artificial intelligence-assisted wearable microfluidic colorimetric sensor system (AI-WMCS) for rapid, non-invasive, and simultaneous detection of key biomarkers in human tears, including vitamin C, H+(pH), Ca2+, and proteins. The sensor consists of a flexible microfluidic epidermal patch that collects tears and facilitates the colorimetric reaction, and a deep-learning neural network-based cloud server data analysis system (CSDAS) embedded in a smartphone enabling color data acquisition, interpretation, auto-correction, and display. To enhance accuracy, a well-trained multichannel convolutional recurrent neural network (CNN-GRU) corrects errors in the interpreted concentration data caused by varying pH and color temperature in different measurements. The test set determination coefficients (R2) of 1D-CNN-GRU for predicting pH and 3D-CNN-GRU for predicting the other three biomarkers were as high as 0.998 and 0.994, respectively. This correction significantly improves the accuracy of the predicted concentration, enabling accurate, simultaneous, and quick detection of four critical tear biomarkers using only minute amounts of tears ( ~ 20 μL). This research demonstrates the powerful integration of a flexible microfluidic colorimetric biosensor and deep-learning algorithm, which holds immense potential to revolutionize the fields of health monitoring.
{"title":"An artificial intelligence-assisted microfluidic colorimetric wearable sensor system for monitoring of key tear biomarkers","authors":"Zihu Wang, Yan Dong, Xiaoxiao Sui, Xingyan Shao, Kangshuai Li, Hao Zhang, Zhenyuan Xu, Dongzhi Zhang","doi":"10.1038/s41528-024-00321-3","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41528-024-00321-3","url":null,"abstract":"The precise, simultaneous, and rapid detection of essential biomarkers in human tears is imperative for monitoring both ocular and systemic health. The utilization of a wearable colorimetric biochemical sensor exhibits potential in achieving swift and concurrent detection of pivotal biomarkers in tears. Nevertheless, challenges arise in the collection, interpretation, and sharing of data from the colorimetric sensor, thereby restricting the practical implementation of this technology. To overcome these challenges, this research introduces an artificial intelligence-assisted wearable microfluidic colorimetric sensor system (AI-WMCS) for rapid, non-invasive, and simultaneous detection of key biomarkers in human tears, including vitamin C, H+(pH), Ca2+, and proteins. The sensor consists of a flexible microfluidic epidermal patch that collects tears and facilitates the colorimetric reaction, and a deep-learning neural network-based cloud server data analysis system (CSDAS) embedded in a smartphone enabling color data acquisition, interpretation, auto-correction, and display. To enhance accuracy, a well-trained multichannel convolutional recurrent neural network (CNN-GRU) corrects errors in the interpreted concentration data caused by varying pH and color temperature in different measurements. The test set determination coefficients (R2) of 1D-CNN-GRU for predicting pH and 3D-CNN-GRU for predicting the other three biomarkers were as high as 0.998 and 0.994, respectively. This correction significantly improves the accuracy of the predicted concentration, enabling accurate, simultaneous, and quick detection of four critical tear biomarkers using only minute amounts of tears ( ~ 20 μL). This research demonstrates the powerful integration of a flexible microfluidic colorimetric biosensor and deep-learning algorithm, which holds immense potential to revolutionize the fields of health monitoring.","PeriodicalId":48528,"journal":{"name":"npj Flexible Electronics","volume":" ","pages":"1-11"},"PeriodicalIF":14.6,"publicationDate":"2024-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41528-024-00321-3.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141315534","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Efficient thermal management has become one of the most critical issues of electronics because of the high heat flux generated from highly integrated, miniaturized, and increased power. Here we report highly flexible composites with aligned and overlapping interconnected boron nitride nanosheets (BNNSs) assembled in wrinkle structures. Besides high in-plane thermal conductivity of more than 26.58 W m−1 K−1, such structure rendered enhanced through-plane conduction along with increasing pre-stain. As thermal interface materials (TIMs) of both rigid and flexible devices, the composites revealed an outstanding thermal cooling capability outperforming some commercial TIMs. During a record-long bending process of more than 3000 cycles, the maximum temperature fluctuation of the flexible device with 100%-prestrained composite was only within 0.9 °C, less than one-third of that with commercial thermal pad. Moreover, the composite revealed a superior impermeability for flexible seals. Our results illustrate that the composites could be an ideal candidate for the thermal management of emerging flexible electronics.
由于高度集成化、微型化和功率增加所产生的高热流量，高效热管理已成为电子产品最关键的问题之一。在此，我们报告了以皱纹结构组装的、排列整齐且相互重叠的氮化硼纳米片（BNNSs）高柔性复合材料。除了超过 26.58 W m-1 K-1 的高面内热导率外，这种结构还增强了面间传导，同时增加了预沾污。作为刚性和柔性器件的热界面材料（TIMs），这种复合材料显示出优于某些商用 TIMs 的出色散热能力。在超过 3000 次的创纪录的长时间弯曲过程中，使用 100% 约束复合材料的柔性器件的最大温度波动仅在 0.9 °C 以内，不到使用商用导热垫的三分之一。此外，该复合材料还显示出对柔性密封件的优异抗渗性。我们的研究结果表明，复合材料可以成为新兴柔性电子器件热管理的理想候选材料。
{"title":"Flexible yet impermeable composites with wrinkle structured BNNSs assembling for high-performance thermal management","authors":"Guilei Guo, Yijie Liu, Yafei Ding, Wenjie Liu, Guimei Zhu, Xiaoli Hao, Xingyi Huang, Jianfei Xia, Baowen Li, Tong-Yi Zhang, Bin Sun","doi":"10.1038/s41528-024-00320-4","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41528-024-00320-4","url":null,"abstract":"Efficient thermal management has become one of the most critical issues of electronics because of the high heat flux generated from highly integrated, miniaturized, and increased power. Here we report highly flexible composites with aligned and overlapping interconnected boron nitride nanosheets (BNNSs) assembled in wrinkle structures. Besides high in-plane thermal conductivity of more than 26.58 W m−1 K−1, such structure rendered enhanced through-plane conduction along with increasing pre-stain. As thermal interface materials (TIMs) of both rigid and flexible devices, the composites revealed an outstanding thermal cooling capability outperforming some commercial TIMs. During a record-long bending process of more than 3000 cycles, the maximum temperature fluctuation of the flexible device with 100%-prestrained composite was only within 0.9 °C, less than one-third of that with commercial thermal pad. Moreover, the composite revealed a superior impermeability for flexible seals. Our results illustrate that the composites could be an ideal candidate for the thermal management of emerging flexible electronics.","PeriodicalId":48528,"journal":{"name":"npj Flexible Electronics","volume":" ","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":14.6,"publicationDate":"2024-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41528-024-00320-4.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141185245","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-05-29DOI: 10.1038/s41528-024-00318-y
Kang-Ning Wang, Zi-Zhan Li, Ze-Min Cai, Lei-Ming Cao, Nian-Nian Zhong, Bing Liu, Kan Zhou, Fang-Yi Huo, Bo Cai, Lin-Lin Bu
Dental, oral, and craniofacial diseases jeopardize health and reduce the quality of life. Accessing disease-related signals in advance is beneficial to prevent the occurrence or progression of those diseases. However, the inconvenience of periodical in-hospital examinations and the difficulty of sustaining daily health monitoring challenge personal compliance and possibly lead to limited prevention or treatment. Medical flexible electronics are electric devices fabricated on soft and extensible substrates to fit the human skin and enable non-invasive continuous monitoring of biophysical/biochemical signals. They provide the possibility of long-term, continuous, comfortable, and wireless healthcare monitoring and are expected to alleviate time and economic consumption by avoiding in-hospital examinations and treatment. Therefore, flexible electronics have emerged for early diagnosis and disease monitoring in stomatology. It is noteworthy that special biophysical/biochemical characteristics and the environment of dental, oral, and craniofacial areas bring distinct challenges that flexible electronics need to address ingeniously to ensure their stability, selectivity, and sensitivity. This review summaries flexible electronics and their specificity when used in dental, oral, and craniofacial applications, including monitoring saliva or cavity-gas related biosignals, sensing the mechanical fluctuation from facial muscle/respiratory activities or orthodontic forces, and executing special functions in the prevention or postoperative recovery of relevant diseases. Furthermore, after analyzing current challenges and proposing potential solutions, the “5I” principles of imperceptibility, intelligence, individualization, integration, and inexpensiveness are presented to help guide the future development of flexible electronics and promote their commercialization for dental, oral, and craniofacial medicine.
{"title":"The applications of flexible electronics in dental, oral, and craniofacial medicine","authors":"Kang-Ning Wang, Zi-Zhan Li, Ze-Min Cai, Lei-Ming Cao, Nian-Nian Zhong, Bing Liu, Kan Zhou, Fang-Yi Huo, Bo Cai, Lin-Lin Bu","doi":"10.1038/s41528-024-00318-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41528-024-00318-y","url":null,"abstract":"Dental, oral, and craniofacial diseases jeopardize health and reduce the quality of life. Accessing disease-related signals in advance is beneficial to prevent the occurrence or progression of those diseases. However, the inconvenience of periodical in-hospital examinations and the difficulty of sustaining daily health monitoring challenge personal compliance and possibly lead to limited prevention or treatment. Medical flexible electronics are electric devices fabricated on soft and extensible substrates to fit the human skin and enable non-invasive continuous monitoring of biophysical/biochemical signals. They provide the possibility of long-term, continuous, comfortable, and wireless healthcare monitoring and are expected to alleviate time and economic consumption by avoiding in-hospital examinations and treatment. Therefore, flexible electronics have emerged for early diagnosis and disease monitoring in stomatology. It is noteworthy that special biophysical/biochemical characteristics and the environment of dental, oral, and craniofacial areas bring distinct challenges that flexible electronics need to address ingeniously to ensure their stability, selectivity, and sensitivity. This review summaries flexible electronics and their specificity when used in dental, oral, and craniofacial applications, including monitoring saliva or cavity-gas related biosignals, sensing the mechanical fluctuation from facial muscle/respiratory activities or orthodontic forces, and executing special functions in the prevention or postoperative recovery of relevant diseases. Furthermore, after analyzing current challenges and proposing potential solutions, the “5I” principles of imperceptibility, intelligence, individualization, integration, and inexpensiveness are presented to help guide the future development of flexible electronics and promote their commercialization for dental, oral, and craniofacial medicine.","PeriodicalId":48528,"journal":{"name":"npj Flexible Electronics","volume":" ","pages":"1-14"},"PeriodicalIF":14.6,"publicationDate":"2024-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41528-024-00318-y.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141165069","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Light therapies have been applied to millions of patients for treating many kinds of diseases, especially superficial ones. Currently, mainstream light therapies utilize the combined effects of photosensitizers and light to either remove disordered tissue or promote the growth of healthy tissue. Adverse effects of light therapy, including metabolic burden caused by circulatory photosensitizer and skin damage induced by high irradiance light, are yet to be addressed. This study provides a Miniaturized all-in-one Light therapy Device (MiLD). All components required for light therapy, including dual-function microneedles, LED array, control circuit, and battery are integrated together to form a miniaturized portable device with 2 cm in length, 1.7 cm in width, 1.2 cm in height, and 3.6 g in weight. The all-in-one design and patch-to-cure operation of MiLD enables the successful demonstration of point-of-care light therapy. Satisfactory therapeutic effects have been verified in mice on both types of light therapy. Meanwhile, transdermally co-delivering both photosensitizer and light in situ fully avoids photosensitizer accumulation in blood and remarkably reduces the irradiance of light, therefore significantly alleviating metabolic burden and light-induced skin damage. Overall, the MiLD lays the technical foundation of point-of-care light therapy with its miniaturized all-in-one design, simple patch-to-cure operation, satisfactory therapeutic effects, and minimum adverse effects.
{"title":"Miniaturized all-in-one microneedle device for point of care light therapy","authors":"Huiting Zhao, Xu Wang, Jiyuan Xiong, Guomin Liang, Xin Wu, Jiyu Xi, Yu Zhang, Zixi Li, Xiaoming Hu, Zewen Wei","doi":"10.1038/s41528-024-00317-z","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41528-024-00317-z","url":null,"abstract":"Light therapies have been applied to millions of patients for treating many kinds of diseases, especially superficial ones. Currently, mainstream light therapies utilize the combined effects of photosensitizers and light to either remove disordered tissue or promote the growth of healthy tissue. Adverse effects of light therapy, including metabolic burden caused by circulatory photosensitizer and skin damage induced by high irradiance light, are yet to be addressed. This study provides a Miniaturized all-in-one Light therapy Device (MiLD). All components required for light therapy, including dual-function microneedles, LED array, control circuit, and battery are integrated together to form a miniaturized portable device with 2 cm in length, 1.7 cm in width, 1.2 cm in height, and 3.6 g in weight. The all-in-one design and patch-to-cure operation of MiLD enables the successful demonstration of point-of-care light therapy. Satisfactory therapeutic effects have been verified in mice on both types of light therapy. Meanwhile, transdermally co-delivering both photosensitizer and light in situ fully avoids photosensitizer accumulation in blood and remarkably reduces the irradiance of light, therefore significantly alleviating metabolic burden and light-induced skin damage. Overall, the MiLD lays the technical foundation of point-of-care light therapy with its miniaturized all-in-one design, simple patch-to-cure operation, satisfactory therapeutic effects, and minimum adverse effects.","PeriodicalId":48528,"journal":{"name":"npj Flexible Electronics","volume":" ","pages":"1-11"},"PeriodicalIF":14.6,"publicationDate":"2024-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41528-024-00317-z.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141165078","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The thickness of the scintillation films in indirect X−ray detectors can significantly influence their luminescence intensity. However, due to the scattering and attenuation of incoherent photons, thick scintillation films tend to reduce light yield. Herein, a highly transparent perovskite glass−ceramic scintillation film, in which the CsPbBr3 nanocrystals are in-situ grown inside a transparent amorphous polymer structure, is designed to achieve ultrastable and efficient X-ray imaging. The crystal coordination−topology growth and in−situ film formation strategy is proposed to control the crystal growth and film thickness, which can prevent light scattering and non−uniform distribution of CsPbBr3 nanocrystals while providing sufficient film thickness to absorb X−ray, thus enabling a high−quality glass−ceramic scintillator without agglomeration and Ostwald ripening. This glass−ceramic scintillation film with a thickness of 250 μm achieves a low detection limit of 326 nGyair s−1 and a high spatial resolution of 13.9 lp mm−1. More importantly, it displays remarkable scintillation stability under X−ray irradiation (radiation intensity can still reach 95% at 278 μGyair s−1 for 3600 s), water soaking (150 days), and high−temperature storage (150 days at 60 °C). Hence, this work presents a approach to construct ultrastable and flexible scintillation films for X−ray imaging with reduced light scattering and improved resolution.
间接 X 射线探测器中闪烁膜的厚度会极大地影响其发光强度。然而，由于非相干光子的散射和衰减，厚闪烁膜往往会降低光产率。本文设计了一种高透明度的闪烁体玻璃陶瓷薄膜，在透明的非晶聚合物结构中原位生长 CsPbBr3 纳米晶体，以实现超稳定和高效的 X 射线成像。提出了晶体配位拓扑生长和原位成膜策略来控制晶体生长和薄膜厚度，既能防止光散射和 CsPbBr3 纳米晶体的不均匀分布，又能提供足够的薄膜厚度来吸收 X 射线，从而实现无团聚和无奥斯特瓦尔德熟化的高质量玻璃陶瓷闪烁体。这种厚度为 250 μm 的玻璃陶瓷闪烁膜实现了 326 nGyair s-1 的低检测限和 13.9 lp mm-1 的高空间分辨率。更重要的是，它在 X 射线辐照（辐射强度为 278 μGyair s-1 时仍能达到 95%，持续 3600 秒）、水浸泡（150 天）和高温储存（60 °C 下储存 150 天）条件下均表现出卓越的闪烁稳定性。因此，这项研究提出了一种用于 X 射线成像的超稳定柔性闪烁膜的构建方法，可减少光散射并提高分辨率。
{"title":"Ultrastable and flexible glass−ceramic scintillation films with reduced light scattering for efficient X−ray imaging","authors":"Ruizi Li, Weiguo Zhu, Haoyang Wang, Yitong Jiao, Yuan Gao, Ruikun Gao, Riheng Wang, Hongxiao Chao, Aimin Yu, Xiaowang Liu","doi":"10.1038/s41528-024-00319-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41528-024-00319-x","url":null,"abstract":"The thickness of the scintillation films in indirect X−ray detectors can significantly influence their luminescence intensity. However, due to the scattering and attenuation of incoherent photons, thick scintillation films tend to reduce light yield. Herein, a highly transparent perovskite glass−ceramic scintillation film, in which the CsPbBr3 nanocrystals are in-situ grown inside a transparent amorphous polymer structure, is designed to achieve ultrastable and efficient X-ray imaging. The crystal coordination−topology growth and in−situ film formation strategy is proposed to control the crystal growth and film thickness, which can prevent light scattering and non−uniform distribution of CsPbBr3 nanocrystals while providing sufficient film thickness to absorb X−ray, thus enabling a high−quality glass−ceramic scintillator without agglomeration and Ostwald ripening. This glass−ceramic scintillation film with a thickness of 250 μm achieves a low detection limit of 326 nGyair s−1 and a high spatial resolution of 13.9 lp mm−1. More importantly, it displays remarkable scintillation stability under X−ray irradiation (radiation intensity can still reach 95% at 278 μGyair s−1 for 3600 s), water soaking (150 days), and high−temperature storage (150 days at 60 °C). Hence, this work presents a approach to construct ultrastable and flexible scintillation films for X−ray imaging with reduced light scattering and improved resolution.","PeriodicalId":48528,"journal":{"name":"npj Flexible Electronics","volume":" ","pages":"1-10"},"PeriodicalIF":14.6,"publicationDate":"2024-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41528-024-00319-x.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141079123","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-05-11DOI: 10.1038/s41528-024-00312-4
Yanling Hu, Fangfang Wang, Hui Ye, Jingai Jiang, Shengke Li, Baoying Dai, Jiahui Li, Jun Yang, Xuejiao Song, Junjie Zhang, Yannan Xie, Li Gao, Dongliang Yang
Wound infection is a worldwide health issue that not only brings large detrimental effects to people’s physical and mental health, but also causes substantial economic burdens to society. By using traditional surgical debridement and antibiotic therapy, patients generally suffer more pain and are at risk of recurring infections. Thus, the development of non-antibiotic treatment methods is desperately needed. Currently, the emerging of flexible wound dressings with physiological signal detection, inactivated infectious pathogen, and wound-healing promoting properties has exhibited immense potential for the treatment of infected wound. Among various dressings, MXene‐based flexible electronic materials as wound dressings with special electroactive, mechanical, photophysical, and biological performances possess a broad application prospect in healthcare. In this review, the challenges of infected wound management are introduced. Next, the types of MXene-based flexible materials and wound infection features are outlined. Then the recent advance of MXene-based flexible materials for infected wound detection and treatment is summarized. Lastly, the predicaments, prospects, and future directions of MXene-based flexible materials for infected wound management are discussed.
{"title":"MXene-based flexible electronic materials for wound infection detection and treatment","authors":"Yanling Hu, Fangfang Wang, Hui Ye, Jingai Jiang, Shengke Li, Baoying Dai, Jiahui Li, Jun Yang, Xuejiao Song, Junjie Zhang, Yannan Xie, Li Gao, Dongliang Yang","doi":"10.1038/s41528-024-00312-4","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41528-024-00312-4","url":null,"abstract":"Wound infection is a worldwide health issue that not only brings large detrimental effects to people’s physical and mental health, but also causes substantial economic burdens to society. By using traditional surgical debridement and antibiotic therapy, patients generally suffer more pain and are at risk of recurring infections. Thus, the development of non-antibiotic treatment methods is desperately needed. Currently, the emerging of flexible wound dressings with physiological signal detection, inactivated infectious pathogen, and wound-healing promoting properties has exhibited immense potential for the treatment of infected wound. Among various dressings, MXene‐based flexible electronic materials as wound dressings with special electroactive, mechanical, photophysical, and biological performances possess a broad application prospect in healthcare. In this review, the challenges of infected wound management are introduced. Next, the types of MXene-based flexible materials and wound infection features are outlined. Then the recent advance of MXene-based flexible materials for infected wound detection and treatment is summarized. Lastly, the predicaments, prospects, and future directions of MXene-based flexible materials for infected wound management are discussed.","PeriodicalId":48528,"journal":{"name":"npj Flexible Electronics","volume":" ","pages":"1-15"},"PeriodicalIF":14.6,"publicationDate":"2024-05-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41528-024-00312-4.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140907411","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The emerging wearable skin-like electronics require the ultra-flexible organic transistor to operate at low voltage for electrical safety and energy efficiency and simultaneously enable high field-effect mobility to ensure the carrier migration ability and the switching speed of circuits. However, the currently reported low-voltage organic transistors generally present low mobility, originating from the trade-off between molecular polarity and surface polarity of the dielectrics. In this work, the orientation polarization of the dielectric is enhanced by introducing a flexible quaternary ammonium side chain, and the surface polarity is weakened by the shielding effect of the nonpolar methyl groups on the polar nitrogen atom. The resulting antisolvent QPSU dielectric enables the high-dielectric constant up to 18.8 and the low surface polarity with the polar component of surface energy only at 2.09 mJ/m2. Such a synergistic polarization engineering between orientation polarization and surface polarity makes the solution-processed ultraflexible transistors present the ultralow operational voltage down to −3 V, the ultrahigh charge-carrier mobility up to 8.28 cm2 V−1 s−1 at 1 Hz, excellent cyclic operational stability and long-term air stability. These results combined with the ultrathin thickness of transistor as low as 135 nm, the ultralight mass of 0.5 g/m2, the conformal adherence capability on human skin and 1-μm blade edge, and the strong mechanical robustness with stable electrical properties for 30,000 bending cycles, open up an available strategy to successfully realize low-voltage high-mobility solution-processed organic transistor, and presents the potential application of QPSU dielectric for the next-generation wearable imperceptible skin-like electronics.
{"title":"Synergistic polarization engineering of dielectric towards low-voltage high-mobility solution-processed ultraflexible organic transistors","authors":"Mingxin Zhang, Xue Wang, Jing Sun, Yanhong Tong, Cong Zhang, Hongyan Yu, Shanlei Guo, Xiaoli Zhao, Qingxin Tang, Yichun Liu","doi":"10.1038/s41528-024-00316-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41528-024-00316-0","url":null,"abstract":"The emerging wearable skin-like electronics require the ultra-flexible organic transistor to operate at low voltage for electrical safety and energy efficiency and simultaneously enable high field-effect mobility to ensure the carrier migration ability and the switching speed of circuits. However, the currently reported low-voltage organic transistors generally present low mobility, originating from the trade-off between molecular polarity and surface polarity of the dielectrics. In this work, the orientation polarization of the dielectric is enhanced by introducing a flexible quaternary ammonium side chain, and the surface polarity is weakened by the shielding effect of the nonpolar methyl groups on the polar nitrogen atom. The resulting antisolvent QPSU dielectric enables the high-dielectric constant up to 18.8 and the low surface polarity with the polar component of surface energy only at 2.09 mJ/m2. Such a synergistic polarization engineering between orientation polarization and surface polarity makes the solution-processed ultraflexible transistors present the ultralow operational voltage down to −3 V, the ultrahigh charge-carrier mobility up to 8.28 cm2 V−1 s−1 at 1 Hz, excellent cyclic operational stability and long-term air stability. These results combined with the ultrathin thickness of transistor as low as 135 nm, the ultralight mass of 0.5 g/m2, the conformal adherence capability on human skin and 1-μm blade edge, and the strong mechanical robustness with stable electrical properties for 30,000 bending cycles, open up an available strategy to successfully realize low-voltage high-mobility solution-processed organic transistor, and presents the potential application of QPSU dielectric for the next-generation wearable imperceptible skin-like electronics.","PeriodicalId":48528,"journal":{"name":"npj Flexible Electronics","volume":" ","pages":"1-11"},"PeriodicalIF":14.6,"publicationDate":"2024-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41528-024-00316-0.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140907422","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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