Hydrogels

Scientists from Trinity College Dublin have taken inspiration from nature to create luminescent, self-healing gels with a suite of potential applications ranging from bank note counterfeiting to next-gen bio-sensing and imaging. Crucially, the scientists have been able to introduce guanosine (a mole more

The “smart skin” developed by Anna Maria Coclite is very similar to human skin. It senses pressure, humidity and temperature simultaneously and produces electronic signals. More sensitive robots or more intelligent prostheses are thus conceivable. The skin is the largest sensory organ and at the sam more

The United Nations’ most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report paints a bleak picture for the world’s water supply: Of the 7.8 billion people on Earth, about 4 billion do not have access to sufficiently clean water for at least a month every year. While several water purification s more

In recent years, it is heartening to witness that carbon quantum dots (CQDs), a rising star in the family of carbon nanomaterials, have displayed tremendous applications in bioimaging, biosensing, drug delivery, optoelectronics, photovoltaics and photocatalysis. However, the investigations toward se more

Materials, Vol. 11, Pages 1069: Boron Nitride Nanosheets/PNIPAM Hydrogels with Improved Thermo-Responsive Performance Materials doi: 10.3390/ma11071069 Authors: Shishan Xue Yuanpeng Wu Jiemin Wang Meiling Guo Dan Liu Weiwei Lei Thermo-responsive hydrogel is an important smar more

Coiled-coil peptides have proven useful in a range of materials applications ranging from the formation of well-defined fibrils to responsive hydrogels. The ability to design from first principles their oligomerization and subsequent higher order assembly offers their expanded use in producing new m more