Phospholipid Bilayer Inspired Sandwich Structural Nanofibrous Membrane for Atmospheric Water Harvesting and Selective Release.

Atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) has been broadly exploited to meet the challenge of water shortage. Despite the significant achievements of AWH, the leakage of hydroscopic salt during the AWH process hinders its practical applications. Herein, inspired by the unique selective permeability of the phospholipid bilayer, a sandwich structural (hydrophobic-hydrophilic-hydrophobic) polyacrylonitrile nanofibrous membrane (San-PAN) was fabricated for AWH. The hydrophilic inner layer loaded with LiCl could capture water from the air. The hydrophobic microchannels in the outer layer could selectively allow the free transmission of gaseous water molecules but confine the hydroscopic salt solution in the hydrophilic layer, achieving continuous and recyclable water sorption/desorption. As demonstrated, the as-prepared AWH devices presented high-efficient adsorption kinetics from 1.66 to 4.08 g g-1 at 30% to 90% relative humidity. Thus, this work strengthens the understanding of the water transmission process along microchannels and provides insight into the practical applications of AWH.

Biodegradable Dual-Network Cellulosic Composite Bioplastic Metafilm for Plastic Substitute.

With the escalating environmental and health concerns over petroleum-based plastics, sustainable and biodegradable cellulosic materials are a promising alternative to plastics, yet remain unsatisfied properties such as fragility, inflammability and water sensitivity for practical usage. Herein, we present a novel dual-network design strategy to address these limitations and fabricate a high-performance cellulosic composite bioplastic metafilm with the exceptional mechanical toughness (23.5 MJ m-3 ), flame retardance, and solvent resistance by in situ growth of cyclotriphosphazene-bridged organosilica network within bacterial cellulose matrix. The phosphorus, nitrogen-containing organosilica network, verified by the experimental and theoretical results, plays a triple action on significantly enhancing tensile strength, toughness, flame retardance and water resistance of composite bioplastic metafilm. Furthermore, cellulosic bioplastic composite metafilm demonstrates a higher maximum usage temperature (245 °C), lower thermal expansion coefficient (15.19 ppm °C-1 ), and better solvent resistance than traditional plastics, good biocompatibility and natural biodegradation. Moreover, the composite bioplastic metafilm have a good transparency of average 74 % and a high haze over 80 %, which can serve as an outstanding substrate substitute for commercial polyethylene terephthalate film to address the demand of flexible ITO films. This work paves a creative way to design and manufacture the competitive bioplastic composite to replace daily-used plastics.

Recent Advances in Thermoregulatory Clothing: Materials, Mechanisms, and Perspectives.

Personal thermal management (PTM) is a promising approach for maintaining the thermal comfort zone of the human body while minimizing the energy consumption of indoor buildings. Recent studies have reported the development of numerous advanced textiles that enable PTM systems to regulate body temperature and are comfortable to wear. Herein, recent advancements in thermoregulatory clothing for PTM are discussed. These advances in thermoregulatory clothing have focused on enhancing the control of heat dissipation between the skin and the localized environment. We primarily summarize research on advanced clothing that controls the heat dissipation pathways of the human body, such as radiation- and conductance-controlled clothing. Furthermore, adaptive clothing such as dual-mode textiles, which can regulate the microclimate of the human body, as well as responsive textiles that address both thermal performance (warming and/or cooling) and wearability are discussed. Finally, we include a discussion on significant challenges and perspectives in this field, including large-scale production, smart textiles, bioinspired clothing, and AI-assisted clothing. This comprehensive review aims to further the development of sustainably manufactured advanced clothing with superior thermal performance and outstanding wearability for PTM in practical applications.

Self-driven super water vapor-absorbing calcium alginate-based bionic leaf for Vis-NIR spectral simulation.

Most bionic leaves cannot autonomously absorb water and maintain high water content like plant leaves, causing the low Vis-NIR spectral similarity to plant leaves. Herein, inspired by the transpiration of plant leaves, a self-driven water vapor-absorbing bionic leaf was prepared by the crosslinking between hygroscopic CaCl2 and sodium alginate (SA) on the visible spectral simulating materials (VSSM). Based on the synergistic effect of the hygroscopicity of CaCl2 and the hydrophilia of calcium alginate (CaAlg), the bionic leaf automatically absorbed water vapor from the air according to ambient humidity and temperature. The water vapor-absorbing property of the bionic leaf was adjusted by changing the CaCl2 concentration (5 wt%-40 wt%), and stable water content of 9.0 %-43.3 % can be obtained in relative humidity of 40-80 %. The CaAlg-based bionic leaf embodied a high spectral correlation coefficient (rm ~ 0.987) for the Vis-NIR spectral simulation of plant leaves. The self-driven water vapor absorbing bionic leaves prepared by CaAlg and CaCl2 provide new insights for the application of bionics, water harvesting from the air, environmental humidity management, and camouflage.

Cellulose-based aerogel beads for efficient adsorption- reduction- sequestration of Cr(VI).

The reduction and sequestration of toxic Cr(VI) via a one-step process in an aqueous solution is critical to eliminate its environmental risk. In this study, amine functionalized cellulose-based aerogel beads (CGP) was developed for simultaneous and efficient adsorption- reduction- sequestration of Cr(VI). CGP showed a maximum Cr(VI) adsorption capacity of 386.40 mg/g at 25 °C due to its strong electrostatic attraction towards Cr(VI). The simultaneous Cr(VI) adsorption- reduction- sequestration performance of CGP over a wide Cr(VI) concentration range was examined. The mechanism was investigated in-depth via the analysis of adsorption kinetics, XPS spectra, and FTIR spectra. Moreover, the Cr immobilization stability of CGP after adsorption was evaluated in simulated neutral, acidic, and alkaline conditions. The effect of pH, temperature, ionic strength and the presence of interfering ions on CGP adsorption performance were investigated by batch adsorption experiments. Fixed-bed column adsorption study was performed to explore the application potential of CGP beads in a wastewater treatment process.

Advanced Zinc Anode with Nitrogen-Doping Interface Induced by Plasma Surface Treatment.

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) are one of the most ideal candidates for grid-scale energy storage applications due to their excellent price and safety advantages. However, formation of Zn dendrites and continuous side reactions during cycling result in serious instability problems for ZIBs. In this work, the authors develop a facile and versatile plasma-induced nitrogen-doped Zn (N-Zn) foil for dendrite-free Zn metal anode. Benefitting from the uniform nucleation sites and enhanced surface kinetics, the N-Zn anode exhibits exceptionally low overpotential (around 23 mV) at 1 mA cm-2 and can be cycled for over 3000 h under 1 mA cm-2 because of the enhanced interface behavior. The potential application of N-Zn anode is also confirmed by introducing a full Zn/MnO2 battery with outstanding capacity stability for 2000 cycles at 1 A g-1 . Overall, this work offers new fundamental insights into homogenizing Zn electrodeposition processes by pre-introduced active nucleation sites and provides a novel direction of interface design engineering for ultra-stable Zn metal anode.

Long-life zinc electrodes achieved by oxygen plasma functionalization.

A facile oxygen plasma treatment strategy is proposed to promote zinc dendrite inhibition by modifying the surface oxygen functional groups. The plasma-treated zinc electrodes achieved an extended working lifespan of 3800 h with an average Coulombic efficiency of over 99% for 1000 cycles when applied in full batteries. This work provides great prospects for the fabrication of long-life zinc batteries for grid systems.

Programmable Asymmetric Nanofluidic Photothermal Textile Umbrella for Concurrent Salt Management and In Situ Power Generation During Long-Time Solar Steam Generation.

Although solar-driven seawater desalination affords a highly promising strategy for freshwater-electricity harvesting by employing abundant solar energy and ocean resources, the inevitable salt crystallization on the surface of evaporators causes a sharp decline in evaporation performance and the poor electricity output of most coupled inflexible evaporation-power generation devices limits the scalability and durability in long-time practical applications. Herein, we report a simple programmable nanofluidic photothermal textile umbrella by asymmetrically depositing MoS2 nanosheets on cotton textiles, which allows for controllable gravity-assisted edge-preferential salt crystallization/harvesting via self-manipulated saline solution transportation in the wet umbrella and simultaneous drenching-induced electrokinetic voltage generation (0.535 V)/storage (charging a capacitor to 12.2 V) in over 120 h of the nonstop solar desalination process (with 7.5 wt % saline solution). Notably, the morphology and salt crystallization areas can be managed via the programmed umbrellas. Moreover, the asymmetric textile umbrellas possess admirable sewable features for large-scale integration to enhance the evaporation and voltage output efficiency. Importantly, this textile umbrella evaporator shows excellent output stability and durability even after 40 times of washing. This work may pave a scalable way to design programmable solar evaporators for sustainable seawater desalination with scalabilities of zero-waste discharge, valuable resource recovery, and energy harvesting.

Unidirectionally Driving Nanofluidic Transportation via an Asymmetric Textile Pump for Simultaneous Salt-Resistant Solar Desalination and Drenching-Induced Power Generation.

Solar-driven seawater desalination provides a promising technology for sustainable water energy harvesting. Although tremendous efforts have been dedicated to developing efficient evaporators, the challenge of preventing salt accumulation while simultaneously realizing high-performance steam-electricity cogeneration remains to be addressed. In this work, inspired by the water and solute transportation in plants via the wicking mechanism, a one-way asymmetric nanofluidic photothermal evaporator fabricated by disproportionately depositing photothermal MXene nanosheets on a hydrophilic cotton textile is reported for simultaneous freshwater and power production. By unidirectionally driving dynamic saline transportation via this photothermal cotton textile pump, this evaporator not only enables self-operating salt rejection for stable steam generation but also affords continuous electric power generation induced by the formation of an asymmetric double electrode layer within MXene nanochannels under the drenching state. Specifically, the solar-driven evaporation rate and voltage generation reach 1.38 kg/m2/h (with a conversion efficiency of 83.1%) and 363 mV under 1 sun irradiation, respectively. Notably, this designed nanofluidic system suffers negligible performance depreciation after 30 h of operation and washing 15 times, which indicates its outstanding stability and reusability. This facile design of the asymmetric nanofluidic photothermal system may provide prospective opportunities for scaling up sustainable freshwater and electric power production.

Ultrathin MXene/Polymer Coatings with an Alternating Structure on Fabrics for Enhanced Electromagnetic Interference Shielding and Fire-Resistant Protective Performances.

Wearable electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding fabrics are highly desirable with the rapid development of electronic devices and wireless communications where electromagnetic pollution is a great concern for human health and the reliability of precision equipment. The balance between EMI shielding efficiency (SE) and the flexibility of fabric is still challenging because of the generally opposite requirements for coating thickness. In this work, MXene/insulative polymer coating with an alternating structure is fabricated via a stepwise assembly technique to judiciously combine excellent shielding elements, a reasonable structure, and high nanofiller content together in the coating. Owing to this novel strategy, the coating with nanoscale thickness (∼500 nm) has realized the commercial requirement for EMI SE and well retained the flexibility and air permeability of the fabric. Compared with the corresponding pure MXene coating, such multilayered coating demonstrates 138.95% enhancement of EMI SE due to the improved dielectrical properties and intensive multiple reflections of electromagnetic waves. Additionally, this hybrid coating also acts as an excellent fire-resistant barrier for the inner flammable fabric to protect human beings and electronic devices in case of accidental fire. This work provides new insights into the rational design of shields with nanometer thickness to realize high EMI shielding performance and good fire resistance for new-generation portable and wearable EMI shielding products.

Biomimetic Solid-Liquid Transition Structural Dye-Doped Liquid Crystal/Phase-Change-Material Microcapsules Designed for Wearable Bistable Electrochromic Fabric.

A novel polymer microcapsule-filled dye-doped liquid crystal (DDLC) and phase-change material (PCM) system inspired by biological materials was first proposed, which was further encapsulated into a calcium alginate substrate by wet spinning for making an electrochromic fiber with both bistable electric-optical capability and knitting characteristics. Results show that the optical appearance of the optimized microcapsules and fiber can be reversibly changed between colored and colorless states according to the electric field by switching the DDLCs between isotropic (I) and anisotropic (A) states. Moreover, both I and A states can remain stable for more than 1 week after removing the electric field, due to the synergy of the greatly increased spatial hindrance of the PCM with core loading of 22.58% and the confinement effect from the polymer microcapsule shell material. Aside from the long-term optical stability, the high content of the densely packed DDLCs also endows the electrochromic fiber with a satisfactory driving voltage of 9.7 V, which is below the human safe voltage, showing great potential in a wide range of applications, such as flexible displays, energy-saving smart windows, and wearable advanced textiles.

Slippery Antifouling Polysiloxane-Polyurea Surfaces with Matrix Self-Healing and Lubricant Self-Replenishing.

The inferior mechanical properties and the difficulty in repairing damaged substrates and lubricant films of slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces significantly hampered their practical applications. To solve this problem, we fabricated a polysiloxane-polyurea slippery elastomer with lubricant self-replenishing and matrix self-healing properties by encapsulating silicone oil into the thermoplastic elastomers. By optimizing the chemical compositions and molecular interactions, the obtained slippery elastomer exhibits unique mechanical properties with a maximum breaking strength of 0.12 MPa, elongation of 1600%, and self-healing efficiency of 98%. Moreover, the lubricant stored in the capsule of the slippery elastomer can be controlled released under mechanical stimulation, further realizing surfaces' self-lubricating and liquid manipulation switching between slippery and pinning states. Furthermore, the textile-reinforced slippery elastomer with superior mechanical strength also exhibited liquid repellency, anti-biofouling, and drag reduction properties. Therefore, this textile-reinforced omniphobic surface with high mechanical property, matrix self-healing, and lubricant self-replenishing property shows a broad application prospect in surface protection, underwater antifouling, and drag reduction.

Bistable Elastic Electrochromic Ionic Gels for Energy-Saving Displays.

The diversification of electrochromic materials greatly expands the application fields of electrochromic devices. However, highly flexible electrochromic materials remain challenging due to the inherent limitations associated with the existing electrochromic processes. Inspired by the hydrogen bonding effect in the hydrogel structure, a highly elastic and bistable electrochromic ionic gel based on a hydrogen bonding cross-linking network is prepared by solution polymerization having excellent tensile resilience, uniform coloring, reversible switching (≤24.3 s), maximum transmittance change (≥80%), bistability (54 h), reversibility (>500 cycles), and coloration efficiency (≥85.3 cm2·C-1). This method has been used to develop bistable electrochromic displays. The unconventional exploration of the bistable design principle may provide a new idea for the realization of bistable electrochromic devices.

Bioinspired Electro-Responsive Multispectral Controllable Dye-Doped Liquid Crystal Yolk-Shell Microcapsules for Advanced Textiles.

Liquid crystal microcapsules have attracted increasing attention due to their sophisticated structures and adjustable multifunctional features. However, the synthesis of a microscale substrate with wide electromagnetic waveband modulation characteristics and good photoelectric stabilization is still limited and challenging. Herein, a new breed of microcapsules containing dye-doped liquid crystals in a yolk-shell configuration with VTES (vinyl-trim-ethyl-silane)-modified Fe3O4@SiO2 is created. It exhibits an unexpected color enhancement effect, reversible electrochromic performance, and excellent magnetically controllable characteristics. Additionally, a multispectral (visible light, near-infrared light, and high-frequency electromagnetic wave) electro-responsive fabric based on the proposed microcapsules was developed to explore its application in wearable sensors. The present work opens an avenue toward the fabrication of microscale microencapsulated soft materials with a continuous and stable yolk-shell structure. Moreover, it will expand the application regimes of liquid crystal materials in smart windows and advanced textiles.

Multicolor and Multistage Response Electrochromic Color-Memory Wearable Smart Textile and Flexible Display.

Electrochromic materials have great application in soft displays and devices, but the application of ideal electrochromic textiles still faces challenges owing to the inconvenience of a continuous power supply. Here, electrochromic color-memory microcapsules (ECM-Ms-red, -yellow, and -blue) with a low drive voltage (2.0 V), coloration efficiency (921.6 cm2 C-1), a practical response rate (34.4 s-1), multistage response discoloration, and good color-memory performance (>72 h) and reversibility (≥1000 cycles) are developed. The color-memory performance is controlled by the energy difference of oxidation-reduction reactions. A multicolor and multistage response electrochromic color-memory wearable smart textile and flexible display are developed that are convenient and energy-efficient for application. The design philosophy of color-memory based on controllable energy difference of reactions has great potential application in sensors and smart textiles.

Cost-effective resource utilization for waste biomass: A simple preparation method of photo-thermal biochar cakes (BCs) toward dye wastewater treatment with solar energy.

Waste biomass and dye wastewater pollution have been the serious environmental problems. The interfacial solar-steam generation technology is an effective and sustainable method for the water purification. However, the complex preparation process, high economic cost and probably secondary environmental pollution of traditional photo-thermal materials restricted their practical large-scale application. Herein, the biochar cakes (BCs) deriving from waste biomass were prepared, and the granular and schistose MgO coatings were dressed on the surface of carbonized fiber to improve their hydrophilicity. The BCs with high solar absorbance and super-hydrophilicity were applied in the photo-thermal purification of dye wastewater with solar energy. The highest evaporation rate of dye wastewater with BCs reached 2.27 kg m-2 h-1, and the corresponding conversion efficiency of solar to steam generation was 78.98% under the simulated solar irradiation (1846.0 w/m2). The collected clean water from the solar-steam evaporators reached the emission standards of EU Water Framework Directive (91/271/EEC). Considering the simple and economical preparation method, this process made the practical large-scale application of photo-thermal BCs on dye wastewater treatment a reality, and also provided a cost-effective management strategy for the waste biomass.

Liquid-repellent and self-repairing lubricant-grafted surfaces constructed by thiol-ene click chemistry using activated hollow silica as the lubricant reservoir.

The development of robust, stain-resistant, and self-healing liquid-repellent surfaces is a common aspiration of both consumer and industrial applications, but the existing methods suffer from limitations, such as complicated procedures, weak mechanical durability and substrate dependency. In this work, a lubricant-grafted slippery surface (LGSS) was prepared by grafting vinyl-terminated polydimethylsiloxane (Vi-PDMS) onto various substrates coated with sulfhydryl-modified hollow mesoporous silica (SH-HMS) through a thiol-ene click reaction. The uniform and intact lubricant layer can effectively decrease the absorption of the polysaccharide and protein, exhibiting superior antifouling properties. Notably, the hollow structure of SH-HMS could significantly increase the oil grafting capacity of the slippery surface from 0.013 g/cm2 to 0.027 g/cm2 compared with the surface constructed by solid silica. By virtue of the strong covalent bond forces between the lubricant oil and surfaces, the obtained LGSS exhibited robust liquid repellency when subjected to high/low temperature, ultraviolet irradiation and water impact. Moreover, the liquid-repellent LGSS exhibited good self-repairing performance owing to the directional migration of the Vi-PDMS chain segment from the hollow capsule to the surface through the mesoporous channels under heating treatment. Therefore, such a newly developed strategy for constructing liquid-repellent coatings on various substrates with self-repairing properties has the potential to promote the advancement of interfacial antifouling materials and exhibit tremendous potential for consumer and industrial applications.

Biomimetic Fabrication of Janus Fabric with Asymmetric Wettability for Water Purification and Hydrophobic/Hydrophilic Patterned Surfaces for Fog Harvesting.

The long-term shortage of freshwater resources has drawn increasing research attention for water purification and collection. This work reports a facile method to prepare Janus fabrics with asymmetric wettability for on-demand oil/water separation and hydrophobic/hydrophilic patterned fabrics for efficient fog harvesting. Here, the superhydrophobic fabric was prepared by in situ polymerization of polydivinylbenzene (PDVB) on cotton fabric. By regulating the polymerization time, the PDVB polymer content was changed, thereby achieving the regulation of the surface structure and wettability of the prepared fabric. Meanwhile, the superhydrophobic fabric exhibited excellent self-cleaning and antifouling performance, mechanical abrasion and chemical resistance, and environmental durability. Moreover, the photocatalytic degradation properties of PDVB were utilized to prepare the Janus fabric with asymmetric wettability. Water droplets could spontaneously penetrate from the hydrophobic side to the hydrophilic side, while not vice versa, achieving unidirectional transport of water. In addition, the prepared Janus fabric could be used for on-demand oil/water separation, including the heavy oil/water mixture and light oil/water mixture. The separation efficiency and collected oil purity of each mixture were higher than 99.00 and 99.94%, respectively. Furthermore, the hydrophobic/hydrophilic patterned fabrics were prepared by using the lithographic masks with different apertures under UV light irradiation. Based on the fog-capturing ability of the hydrophilic areas and the water transport performance of the hydrophobic regions, efficient fog harvesting was achieved. For the patterned fabric with larger hydrophobic/hydrophilic areas, the water collection rate reached 224.7 mg cm-2 h-1. Therefore, this simple strategy to achieve controllable gradient wettability by adjusting the surface structure and chemical composition of the fabric shows great potential in the filtration of purification of oily sewage and the efficient condensed collection of water.

Dual resource utilization for tannery sludge: Effects of sludge biochars (BCs) on volatile fatty acids (VFAs) production from sludge anaerobic digestion.

Resource utilization of organic matters in tannery sludge has drawn great attention. In this paper, the influences of sludge biochars (BCs) on volatile fatty acids (VFAs) production from the anaerobic digestion of sludge supernatant (SST) were investigated. Experimental results demonstrated that the VFAs yields improved in the presence of BCs with rich functional groups. The maximum yield of VFAs was 1037.5 mg/g SCOD with the addition of BC-1 biochar (zeta potential -50.42 mV). BCs decreased ammonia nitrogen concentration, thus reducing inhibition for bacteria during the anaerobic digestion. Microbial community analysis indicated that the BCs affected microbial community structures and contributed to a favorable environment for bacteria. Especially, the BC-1 biochar with rich functional groups enhanced the relative abundance of acid-forming bacteria (Clostridiales). A dual strategy was proposed to improve the resource utilization efficiency for tannery sludge.

Multicolor Electrochromic Dye-Doped Liquid Crystal Yolk-Shell Microcapsules.

A new system of yolk-shell microcapsules containing two types of dye-doped liquid crystals was prepared via seed emulsion polymerization in which the synthetic process was mimicking plant respiration. The resulting system demonstrated reversible low voltage-driven switching between multispectral colored and transparent states. Moreover, wearable multicolor electrochromic fibers based on calcium alginate were produced via wet spinning to expand the application of yolk-shell dye-doped liquid crystal microcapsules. In addition to its long-term optical stability, the proposed cells and fibers also have satisfactory driving voltage values of color change (4.8 and 9.0 V), which are far lower than the human body safety voltage (12 V). We believe that the prepared microcapsules and fibers are potentially widely applicable in smart windows, electronic paper, and military camouflage clothing.