Silk Sericin As a Green Adhesive to Fabricate a Textile Strain Sensor with Excellent Electromagnetic Shielding Performance.

Although flexible textile-based electronics and lightweight electromagnetic shielding materials have attracted increasing attention due to their wide application, the seamless integration of textile sensors and electromagnetic shielding materials is still a challenge. Herein, we designed a simple, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly method to fabricate nickel-plated acetate fabrics coated with carbon nanotubes, using silk sericin to disperse carbon nanotubes in water and adsorb abundant nickel ions easily on the surface of carbon nanotubes via hydroxyl groups without other additives. The as-prepared composites exhibited excellent conductivity and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shield effectiveness (>30 dB) at X-band with around 0.8 mm thickness. The low-loading carbon nanotubes could offer more loss mechanism and had a positive effect upon EMI. The conductive textiles had higher tensile strength and negative relative resistance changes in strain, and had a great potential as wearable sensors in response to finger folding and wrist bending. Silk sericin as a green adhesive and dispersant provides an alternative strategy to large-scale produce multifunctional conductive wearable textiles for applications in EMI shielding and/or human-machine interaction.

Multifunctional and Ultrasensitive-Reduced Graphene Oxide and Pen Ink/Polyvinyl Alcohol-Decorated Modal/Spandex Fabric for High-Performance Wearable Sensors.

Sensitive and flexible sensors capable of monitoring physiological signals of human body for healthcare have been developed in recent years. It is still a challenge to fabricate a wearable sensor-integrated multifunctional performances and a good fit to human body. Here, an rGO and pen ink/PVA-layered strain-humidity sensor based on MS fabric is prepared through a cost-effective and scalable solution process. The conductive fabric as a strain sensor has a workable strain range (∼300%), ultrahigh sensitivity (maximum gauge factor of 492.8), great comfort, and long-term stability. Notably, a step increase in relative resistance variation will be achieved by controlling the coverage of an ink layer. Moreover, the reliable linear humidity-dependent resistance void of hysteresis and excellent repeatability renders conductive fabrics an opportunity as humidity sensors. Based on these superior multifunctions, the resultant conductive fabric can be applied to detect both human motions and skin humidity, showing potential in applications of wearable electronics for professional athletes.

Multifunctional Electromagnetic Interference Shielding Ternary Alloy (Ni-W-P) Decorated Fabric with Wide-Operating-Range Joule Heating Performances.

Flexible electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding textiles with wide-operating-range Joule heating performances are urgently indispensable in the application of artificial intelligence, communication industry, and wearable electronics. Herein, a simple and cost-effective approach is proposed to construct multifunctional textiles by electroless depositing a nickel-tungsten-phosphorus (Ni-W-P) ternary alloy on a polyamide (PA) fabric. The resultant fabric with a thickness of ∼117 µm exhibits a favorable EMI shielding effectiveness (SE) of 43.6 dB within 2-12.5 GHz. Particularly, finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulation was introduced to investigate the effects of the PA fabric mesh number and Ni-W ratio on the EMI SE value, which was validated by experimental results. In addition, the conductive fabric demonstrates excellent heating efficiency (up to 140 °C under 2 V within 60 s), a wide operating range (from 40 to 140 °C), and simultaneously, satisfactory reproducibility by undergoing dozens of heating and cooling cycles. Notably, EMI SE of the multifunctional fabric remains unchanged even after a series of durability measurements including 180 °C heating, ultrasonication treatment, and repetitive peeling tests, respectively. Therefore, the prepared Ni-W-P coated PA fabric with prominent chemical stability and mechanical robustness endows enormous potential in multi-scene applications.

A novel and ultrasensitive nonenzymatic glucose sensor based on pulsed laser scribed carbon paper decorated with nanoporous nickel network.

Functional laser scribing carbon paper (LSCP) decorated with highly uniform Ni nanoparticles were constructed through a facile electroless plating. The nanocomposites were characterized by high resolution scanning electron microscope, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry. The results showed high electron transferring kinetics of this sensor, which can be ascribed to their excellent properties such as rich pore channels, excellent structural durability, and large surface area. These properties facilitated mass transfer and electron conductions. Notably, a systematical response surface methodology simulating-modeling-predicting-optimizing design was employed to simulate, model and optimize processing parameters to gain the optimal conductivity of 8.52 × 106 S m-1. The obtained sensor owned high electrochemical activity and wide linear responses (0.80 µM-2.50 mM and 4.50 mM-15.20 mM), low detection limit of 20 nM (S/N = 3) to the glucose detection. The glucose determination in human serum and perspiration samples are also successful. Therefore, LSCP/NN provides an excellent sensing platform towards flexible biosensors in monitoring physical conditions.

Enhanced X-Band Electromagnetic-Interference Shielding Performance of Layer-Structured Fabric-Supported Polyaniline/Cobalt-Nickel Coatings.

Despite tremendous efforts, fabrication of lightweight conductive fabrics for high-performance X-band electromagnetic-interference (EMI) shielding remains a daunting technical challenge. We herein report an ingenious and efficient strategy to deposit polyaniline/cobalt-nickel (PANI/Co-Ni) coatings onto lyocell fabrics that involves consecutive steps of in situ polymerization and electroless plating. The PANI-Co-Ni ternary-component system successfully induced a synergistic effect from EM wave-absorption and EM wave-reflection and, moreover, upgraded the match level between magnetic loss and dielectric loss. By the judicious control of polymerization cycles and plating time, low-weight fabric-supported PANI/Co-Ni composites (with PANI and Co-Ni loading of 2.86 and 3.99 mg·cm-2, respectively) were prepared, which displayed relatively high EMI shielding effectiveness (SE) (33.95-46.22 dB) when compared to their single peers (PANI-coated fabric and Co-Ni-coated fabric) or even the sum of them. Inspired by the so-called "1 + 1 > 2" phenomenon, here we demonstrated that there was an EMI SE enhancement effect in this conductive polymer/metal system that may be associated with interphase chemical and/or physical interactions. Further analysis revealed that this EMI SE enhancement effect was evident under circumstances of relatively low metal content and became weak with the increase of metal content. The mechanisms involved were interpreted through a series of fundamental measurements, including Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission-scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and vector network analysis (VNA). The linkage between PANI and Co-Ni coatings was in the form of Co-N/Ni-N, which mimics the atomic configuration occurring in cobalt porphyrins. The Co-N/Ni-N configuration strengthened the interphase adhesion and thus resulted in shielding fabrics with high durability for practical applications.

Use of real-time cellular analysis and Plackett-Burman design to develop the serum-free media for PC-3 prostate cancer cells.

In this study, we developed a rapid strategy to screen a serum-free medium for culturing the anchorage-dependent PC-3 prostate cancer cells, which was going to be prepared in large scale to generate GM-CSF/TNFα-surface-modified whole cell prostate cancer vaccine. Automated real-time cellular analysis as a rapid and non-invasive technology was used to monitor the growth of PC-3 cells in 16-well plates. At the same time, Plackett-Burman design was employed to identify the most influential formulation by integrating relevant information statistically. The effects of the 16 selected factors were evaluated during exponential cell growth and three medium constituents (EGF, FGF and linoleic acid) were identified to have significant effects on the cell growth. Subsequently, the response surface methodology with central composite design was applied to determine the interactions among the three factors so that these factors were optimized to improve cell growth. Finally, the prediction of the best combination was made under the maximal response to optimize cell growth by Design-Expert software 7.0. A total of 20 experiments were conducted to construct a quadratic model and a second-order polynomial equation. With the optimized combination validated by the stability test of serial passaging PC-3 cells, the serum-free medium had similar cell density and cell viability to the original serum medium. In summary, this high-throughput scheme minimized the screening time and may thus provide a new platform to efficiently develop the serum-free media for adherent cells.

Efficient production of sTNFRII-gAD fusion protein in large quantity by use of the modified CHO-S cell expression system.

TNFα is one of the initial and important mediators to activate downstream signaling pathways by binding to trimerized TNFα receptors (TNFR), and thus is an ideal drug target for cancer therapy. Taking advantage of intrinsic homotimerization of the globular domain of adiponectin (gAD), we have developed a novel TNFα antagonist, the trimerized fusion protein named sTNFRII-gAD. However, our previously-used CHO expression system yielded less than 10 mg/L of sTNFRII-gAD. To produce large quantities of sTNFRII-gAD efficiently, we used a modified CHO-S cell expression system, which is based on a pMH3 vector with non-coding GC-rich DNA fragments for high-level gene expression. We obtained stable clones that produced 75 mg/L of sTNFRII-gAD in the 96-well plate, adapted the clones to 40 ml suspension serum-free batch culture, then optimized the culturing conditions to scale up the fed-batch culture in a 3 L shake-flask and finally in a 5 L AP30 bioreactor. We achieved a final yield of 52 mg/L of sTNFRII-gAD. The trimerized sTNFRII-gAD exhibited the higher affinity to TNFα with a dissociation constant (Kd) of 5.63 nM than the dimerized sTNFRII-Fc with a Kd of 13.4 nM, and further displayed the higher TNFα-neutralizing activity than sTNFRII-Fc (p<0.05) in a L929 cytotoxicity assay. Therefore, the strategy employed in this study may provide an efficient avenue for large-scale production of other recombinant proteins by use of the modified CHO-S cell expression system.

Antitumor effect of fructose 1,6-bisphosphate and its mechanism in hepatocellular carcinoma cells.

We aimed to investigate the antitumor effect and mechanism of fructose 1,6-bisphosphate (F1,6BP) in a hepatocellular carcinoma cell line. HepG2 cells were treated with different concentrations of F1,6BP alone or in combination with antioxidant N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) or catalase (CAT), and cell proliferation assays were performed. Nuclear morphology was observed by fluorescence microscopy after Hoechst staining, and apoptosis was measured with flow cytometry. Changes in reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels in HepG2 cells were detected by 2',7'-dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate (DCFH-DA) staining. A colorimetric assay was adopted to determine the percentage of oxidized glutathione in these cells. CAT and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) mRNA expression levels in HepG2 cells were measured by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR. HepG2 cell proliferation was significantly inhibited by F1,6BP, accompanied by an increase in intracellular ROS levels and oxidized glutathione. Upregulated apoptosis and characteristic nuclear morphological changes were observed, and the expression of CAT and GSH-Px mRNA was increased after F1,6BP treatment. The antitumor effect of F1,6BP was significantly decreased after pretreatment with NAC and CAT in HepG2 cells. In conclusion, F1,6BP can induce the apoptosis of HepG2 cells. The mechanism involved may be associated with the generation of ROS, especially the production of H2O2.

[Effect of pH value and fluoride ions on corrosion resistance of pure Ti and Ni-Cr-Ti alloy in artificial saliva].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of pH value and fluoride ions on the corrosion resistance of pure Ti and Ni-Cr-Ti alloy in the artificial saliva. METHODS: Electrochemical technique was used to measure the electric potential of corrosion (Ecorr), current density of corrosion (Icorr) and polarization resistance (Rp) of pure titanium and Ti-Ni-Cr alloy in the artificial saliva with different pH value and fluoride concentrations. After electrochemical analysis, microstructure and phase diffraction were examined by FSEM. RESULTS: With the lower pH value, the Ecorr and Icorr of pure titanium and Ti-Ni-Cr alloy increased, the Rp decreased, there was a significant difference (P<0.05). The Ecorr and Icorr increased markedly, the Rp significantly reduced in the artificial saliva containing 0.2% NaF (P<0.01). FSEM showed that pure titanium and Ti-Ni-Cr alloy surface corrosion, pure titanium in the artificial saliva containing 0.2% NaF was most serious. CONCLUSION: Lower pH value decreases the corrosion resistance of pure titanium and Ti-Ni-Cr alloy and the artificial saliva containing fluoride ions decreases the corrosion resistance of pure titanium.