Publications

In smart logistics, traditional manual sorting and sorting systems based on rigid manipulators limit the warehousing development and damage the goods. Here, a nondestructive sorting method based on bionic soft fingers is proposed. This method is implemented by the soft robotic gripper (SRG) for grasping of the breakable objects, the triboelectric sensor (TES) for size sorting of the objects, and the signal processing module. In the fabrication of SRG, the silicon rubber is prepared by controlling the material synthesis process, and its Young's modulus is 600.91 kPa, which is comparable to the Young's modulus of skin tissue. Also, the maximum input pressure of SRG is 71.4 kPa. The TES has a linear relationship between pulse number and sliding displacement, and its resolution is 3 mm. It induces pulse signal sequences to quantify the SRG bending state and thus realize the size sorting of objects. Additionally, a nondestructive sorting system based on TES and SRG has been developed for fruit sorting (e.g., apples, oranges), enabling nondestructive grasping and accurate sorting. Its sorting range is 70-120 mm, and the sorting accuracy rate is up to 95%. This work also provides a way for the application of SRG and triboelectric sensors in the sorting field.

Abstract Engineered nanozymes have been developed to catalyze the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) for cancer therapy, but currently, the ROS generation efficiency is still far from optimistic. In this study, a human self‐driven electrical stimulation enhanced catalytic system based on wearable triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) and fully π‐conjugated covalent organic framework nanocages (hCOF) for improving cancer therapy is created. The fully π‐conjugated hCOF nanocage with high electron mobility under the self‐generated electric field can not only rearrange the local electric field for optimizing energy utilization, but also facilitates the access of electrolytes to optimize the utilization of the electric field. With the self‐powered wearable TENG, the peroxidase‐like activity of hCOF increased by 2.44‐fold and has electricity‐responsive doxorubicin delivery capacity for enhancing the therapeutic outcomes. The high‐efficient self‐driven electrical stimulation enhanced nanocatalytic system provides a new optimized model for the catalytic energy supply of nanozymes.

Abstract Precious metals are core assets for the development of modern technologies in various fields. Their scarcity poses the question of their cost, life cycle and reuse. Recently, an emerging catalysis employing contact-electrification (CE) at water-solid interfaces to drive redox reaction, called contact-electro-catalysis (CEC), has been used to develop metal free mechano-catalytic methods to efficiently degrade refractory organic compounds, produce hydrogen peroxide, or leach metals from spent Li-Ion batteries. Here, we show ultrasonic CEC can successfully drive the reduction of Ag(ac), Rh 3+ , [PtCl 4 ] 2- , Ag + , Hg 2+ , Pd 2+ , [AuCl 4 ] - , and Ir 3+ , in both anaerobic and aerobic conditions. The effect of oxygen on the reaction is studied by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy and ab-initio simulation. Combining measurements of charge transfers during water-solid CE, EPR spectroscopy and gold extraction experiments help show the link between CE and CEC. What’s more, this method based on water-solid CE is capable of extracting gold from synthetic solutions with concentrations ranging from as low as 0.196 ppm up to 196 ppm, reaching in 3 h extraction capacities ranging from 0.756 to 722.5 mg g −1 in 3 h. Finally, we showed CEC is employed to design a metal-free, selective, and recyclable catalytic gold extraction methods from e-waste aqueous leachates.

Discovering renewable and sustainable power sources is indispensable for the development of green electronics and sensor networks. In this paper, we present origami triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) using paper as the starting material, with a high degree of flexibility, light weight, low cost, and recyclability. Slinky- and doodlebug-shaped TENGs can be easily fabricated by properly folding printer papers. The as-fabricated TENGs are capable of harvesting ambient mechanical energy from various kinds of human motions, such as stretching, lifting, and twisting. The generated electric outputs have been used to directly light-up commercial LEDs. In addition, the as-fabricated TENGs can also serve as self-powered pressure sensors.

Retraction of ‘He-Wei granules (HWKL) combat cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity and myelosuppression in rats by inhibiting oxidative stress, inflammatory cytokines and apoptosis’ by Zehai Song et al. , RSC Adv. , 2017, 7 , 19794–19807, https://doi.org/10.1039/C7RA02830J.

Abstract Due to the thermionic emission effect, the electron transferred to dielectric surface can be released into vacuum after the contact electrification (CE). Therefore, triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) cannot maintain effective electrical output under high temperature conditions. In order to obtain high thermal charge stability, polyimide is modified with strong electron withdrawing groups like trifluoromethyl (CF 3 ) and sulfone group (SO 2 ) in backbone. The fluorinated polyimides (F‐PI) with a big band gap can provide a tribocharge density of 170 µC m −2 (4 times of common Kapton film) and become more negative than polytetrafluoroethylene in triboelectric series. In addition, BaTiO 3 nanoparticles are doped in F‐PI film for inducing deep traps and interfacial polarizations for CE, which can further enhance the charge density (200 µC m −2 ) and thermal charge stability. Finally, a flutter‐driven TENG (FD‐TENG) is designed based on this BaTiO 3 ‐doped F‐PI film to harvest wind energy and sense wind velocity. This FD‐TENG can maintain 32% of its output performance at 200 °C in comparison with room temperature, which is the highest thermal charge stability reported for triboelectric polymers. Therefore, this BaTiO 3 ‐doped F‐PI has great application prospects for energy generation and motion detection in hot wind tunnel and many other harsh environments.

Power dissipation is a fundamental issue for future chip-based electronics. As promising channel materials, two-dimensional semiconductors show excellent capabilities of scaling dimensions and reducing off-state currents. However, field-effect transistors based on two-dimensional materials are still confronted with the fundamental thermionic limitation of the subthreshold swing of 60 mV decade-1 at room temperature. Here, we present an atomic threshold-switching field-effect transistor constructed by integrating a metal filamentary threshold switch with a two-dimensional MoS2 channel, and obtain abrupt steepness in the turn-on characteristics and 4.5 mV decade-1 subthreshold swing (over five decades). This is achieved by using the negative differential resistance effect from the threshold switch to induce an internal voltage amplification across the MoS2 channel. Notably, in such devices, the simultaneous achievement of efficient electrostatics, very small sub-thermionic subthreshold swings, and ultralow leakage currents, would be highly desirable for next-generation energy-efficient integrated circuits and ultralow-power applications.