Flexible and Transparent Pressure Sensor Based on CNTs Film Microstructure

In recent years, capacitive flexible pressure sensors have been widely studied in electronic skin and wearable devices. The traditional capacitive pressure sensor has a higher production cost due to micro-nano machining technology such as lithography. This paper presents a flexible transparent capacitive pressure sensor based on a PDMS/CNT composite electrode, simple, transparent, flexible, and arrays without lithography. The sensitivity of the device has been tested to 0.0018 kpa -1 with a detection range of 0-30 kPa. The sensor is capable of rapidly detecting different pressures and remains stable after 100 load-unload tests.

Carbenoxolone as a Multifunctional Vehicle for Electrodeposition of Materials

This investigation describes for the first time the application of carbenoxolone for electrophoretic deposition (EPD) of different carbon materials, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and their composite films. Carbenoxolone is a versatile biosurfactant, which adsorbs on materials due to its amphiphilic structure and allows their charging and dispersion. Moreover, carbenoxolone exhibits film-forming properties, which are investigated in experiments on EPD of films using water and ethanol-water solvents. The new deposition process is monitored in situ and the deposition yield and film microstructure are analyzed at different conditions. The EPD mechanism of materials involves electrode reactions of the carbenoxolone surfactant. The data of potentiodynamic studies coupled with the results of impedance spectroscopy show that PTFE films can be applied to protect metals from corrosion. Electron microscopy, electrochemical techniques and modeling are used for analysis of the microstructure and porosity of films prepared at different conditions. Carbenoxolone is applied as a co-surfactant for the EPD of composites.

Hierarchical transitions and fractal wrinkling drive bacterial pellicle morphogenesis

Bacterial cells can self-organize into structured communities at fluid–fluid interfaces. These soft, living materials composed of cells and extracellular matrix are called pellicles. Cells residing in pellicles garner group-level survival advantages such as increased antibiotic resistance. The dynamics of pellicle formation and, more generally, how complex morphologies arise from active biomaterials confined at interfaces are not well understood. Here, using Vibrio cholerae as our model organism, a custom-built adaptive stereo microscope, fluorescence imaging, mechanical theory, and simulations, we report a fractal wrinkling morphogenesis program that differs radically from the well-known coalescence of wrinkles into folds that occurs in passive thin films at fluid–fluid interfaces. Four stages occur: growth of founding colonies, onset of primary wrinkles, development of secondary curved ridge instabilities, and finally the emergence of a cascade of finer structures with fractal-like scaling in wavelength. The time evolution of pellicle formation depends on the initial heterogeneity of the film microstructure. Changing the starting bacterial seeding density produces three variations in the sequence of morphogenic stages, which we term the bypass, crystalline, and incomplete modes. Despite these global architectural transitions, individual microcolonies remain spatially segregated, and thus, the community maintains spatial and genetic heterogeneity. Our results suggest that the memory of the original microstructure is critical in setting the morphogenic dynamics of a pellicle as an active biomaterial.

Enhancing Photoluminescence Quenching in Donor–Acceptor PCE11:PPCBMB Films through the Optimization of Film Microstructure

We show that a precise control of deposition speed during the fabrication of polyfullerenes and donor polymer films by convective self-assembly leads to an optimized film microstructure comprised of interconnected crystalline polymer domains comparable to molecular dimensions intercalated with similar polyfullerene domains. Moreover, in blended films, we have found a correlation between deposition speed, the resulting microstructure, and photoluminescence quenching. The latter appeared more intense for lower deposition speeds due to a more favorable structuring at the nanoscale of the two donor and acceptor systems in the resulting blend films.