Breathable, Moisturizing, Anti-Oxidation SSD-PG-PVA/KGM Fibrous Membranes for Accelerating Diabetic Wound Tissue Regeneration

Diabetic wound tissue repair and regeneration is a multi-step process that includes cell proliferation and migration, gas and moisture management, and inflammatory responses. However, current wound dressing designs lack consideration of the wound microenvironment of diabetic patients, making diabetic wound tissue repair a challenge. Here, we report a wound dressing (SSD-PG-PVA/KGM) with a porous structure and anti-oxidant properties for promoting diabetic wound tissue repair. First, the porous structure created by electrospinning technology encourages cell proliferation and migration in the wound while also providing breathability and moisture retention. Second, adding natural polyphenols (PG) and saikosaponins (SSDs) to the wound reduced reactive oxygen species levels and oxide stress. In vitro cell experiments showed that SSD-PG-PVA/KGM had good biocompatibility. Due to the biocompatibility, anti-oxidation ability, breathability, and moisturizing, SSD-PG-PVA/KGM could effectively promote the repair of diabetic wound tissue (the wound closure rate was 95.6% at 14 days)

Stability and Cleansing Function Enhancement of Organic Shampoo by a Vortex Fluidic Device

Natural cosmetic products have attracted significant attention due to their eco-friendliness compared to synthetic products. The development of more benign production methods for these products not only increases the functionality and stability but also aligns them with the principles of green chemistry and organic standards. One such method uses the vortex fluidic device (VFD), which is an efficient thin-film device that utilizes a rapidly rotating tube to implement high shear forces, overcoming the mixing and heat transfer limitations of traditional batch processing. Herein, the stability and cleansing functions of a predeveloped organic shampoo are improved by incorporating the VFD processing without clogging problems. Shampoo processed by VFD in a standard 20 mm diameter tube inclined at 45° and rotating at 4500 rpm showed the most decrease in particle size and an improvement in both viscosity and storage time. The processed shampoo remained unseparated even after 30 days under 50 °C heating. In addition, the foaming and cleansing function of the processed shampoo increased, making it easier to remove dirt from hair compared to the nonprocessed product. Overall, the VFD processing technology demonstrates a green, one-step technique for value-added natural cosmetic products such as organic shampoo

SERS and NMR Studies of Typical Aggregation-Induced Emission Molecules

Over recent decades, aggregation-induced emission (AIE) molecules have attracted increasing attention. Restriction of intramolecular rotation (RIR) has been widely accepted as the cause of the emission when AIE molecules aggregate into clusters. The intramolecular rotation of AIE molecules can be monitored by molecular vibration spectra such as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), infrared, and Raman, especially surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) which has high sensitivity down to a single molecule. We employed SERS and NMR to study the AIE emission mechanism and compared experimental results with simulation data to monitor the RIR. Interestingly, we found that intramolecular rotation was also restricted for individual AIE molecules loaded onto SERS substrate surfaces due to the laid-down configuration

Porous Hydrogel Photothermal Conversion Membrane to Facilitate Water Purification

Solar water purification technology is one of the most potent methods to obtain freshwater due to its low cost and non-polluting characteristics. However, the purification efficiency is limited by the high ion concentration, organic pollution, and biological pollution during the actual water purification process. Here, we report a porous hydrogel membrane (Fe/TA-TPAM) for the purification of high ion concentration and contaminated water. The hydrogel membrane exhibits good light absorption and photothermal conversion ability, which shows high evaporation rates (1.4 kg m–2 h–1) and high solar efficiency for seawater. Furthermore, with the introduction of tannic acid (TA) and Ti3C2 MXenes, the Fe/TA-TPAM hydrogel membrane exhibits satisfied purification properties for organic-contaminated and biologically contaminated water. The excellent purification effect of Fe/TA-TPAM under light not only confirms the rationality of the hydrogel porous design and in situ generation of photosensitizer in improving the photothermal performance but also provides a novel strategy for designing advanced photothermal conversion membranes for water purification

DataSheet1_Collecting Microplastics in Gardens: Case Study (i) of Soil.docx

As an emerging contaminant, microplastic is receiving increasing attention. However, the contamination source is not fully known, and new sources are still being identified. Herewith, we report that microplastics can be found in our gardens, either due to the wrongdoing of leaving plastic bubble wraps to be mixed with mulches or due to the use of plastic landscape fabrics in the mulch bed. In the beginning, they were of large sizes, such as > 5 mm. However, after 7 years in the garden, owing to natural degradation, weathering, or abrasion, microplastics are released. We categorize the plastic fragments into different groups, 5 mm–0.75 mm, 0.75 mm–100 μm, and 100–0.8 μm, using filters such as kitchenware, meaning we can collect microplastics in our gardens by ourselves. We then characterized the plastics using Raman image mapping and a logic-based algorithm to increase the signal-to-noise ratio and the image certainty. This is because the signal-to-noise ratio from a single Raman spectrum, or even from an individual peak, is significantly less than that from a spectrum matrix of Raman mapping (such as 1 vs. 50 × 50) that contains 2,500 spectra, from the statistical point of view. From the 10 g soil we sampled, we could detect the microplastics, including large (5 mm–100 μm) fragments and small (<100 μm) ones, suggesting the degradation fate of plastics in the gardens. Overall, these results warn us that we must be careful when we do gardening, including selection of plastic items for gardens.</p

Wearable Magnetoelectric Stimulation for Chronic Wound Healing by Electrospun CoFe₂O₄@CTAB/PVDF Dressings

Magnetoelectric stimulation is a promising therapy for various disorders due to its high efficacy and safety. To explore its potential in chronic skin wound treatment, we developed a magnetoelectric dressing, CFO@CTAB/PVDF (CCP), by electrospinning cetyltrimethylammonium bromide-modified CoFe2O4 (CFO) particles with polyvinylidene fluoride. Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) serves as a dispersion surfactant for CFO, with its quaternary ammonium cations imparting antibacterial and hydrophilic properties to the dressing. Electrospinning polarizes polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) molecules and forms a fibrous membrane with flexibility and breathability. With a wearable electromagnetic induction device, a dynamic magnetic field is established to induce magnetostrictive deformation of CFO nanoparticles. Consequently, a piezoelectric potential is generated on the surface of PVDF nanofibers to enhance the endogenous electrical field in the wound, achieving a cascade coupling of electric–magnetic–mechanical–electric effects. Bacteria and cell cultures show that 2% CTAB effectively balances antibacterial property and fibroblast activity. Under dynamic magnetoelectric stimulation, the CCP dressing demonstrates significant upregulation of TGF-β, FGF, and VEGF, promoting L929 cell adhesion and proliferation. Moreover, it facilitates the healing of diabetic rat skin wounds infected with Staphylococcus aureus within 2 weeks. Histological and molecular biology evaluations confirm the anti-inflammatory effect of CTAB and the accelerated formation of collagen and vessel by electrical stimulation. This work provides insights into the application of magnetoelectric stimulation in the healing of chronic wounds

Amplification of Activated Near-Infrared Afterglow Luminescence by Introducing Twisted Molecular Geometry for Understanding Neutrophil-Involved Diseases

Understanding the mechanism and progression of neutrophil-involved diseases (e.g., acute inflammation) is of great importance. However, current available analytical methods neither achieve the real-time monitoring nor provide dynamic information during the pathological processes. Herein, a peroxynitrite (ONOO–) and environmental pH dual-responsive afterglow luminescent nanoprobe is designed and synthesized. In the presence of ONOO– at physiological pH, the nanoprobes show activated near-infrared afterglow luminescence, whose intensity and lasting time can be highly enhanced by introducing the aggregation-induced emission (AIE) effect with a twisted molecular geometry into the system. In vivo studies using three diseased animal models demonstrate that the nanoprobes can sensitively reveal the development process of acute skin inflammation including infiltration of first arrived neutrophils and acidification initiating time, make a fast and accurate discrimination between allergy and inflammation, and rapidly screen the antitumor drugs capable of inducing immunogenic cell death. This work provides an alternative approach and advanced probes permitting precise disease monitoring in real time

Aggregation-Enhanced Emissions of Intramolecular Excimers in Disubstituted Polyacetylenes

Whereas chain aggregation commonly quenches light emission of conjugated polymers, we here report a phenomenon of aggregation-induced emission enhancement (AIEE): luminescence of polyacetylenes is dramatically boosted by aggregate formation. Upon photoexcitation, poly(1-phenyl-1-alkyne)s and poly(diphenylacetylene)s emit blue and green lights, respectively, in dilute THF solutions. The polymers become more emissive when their chains are induced to aggregate by adding water into their THF solutions. The polymer emissions are also enhanced by increasing concentration and decreasing temperature. Lifetime measurements reveal that the excited species of the polymers become longer-lived in the aggregates. Conformational simulations suggest that the polymer chains contain n = 3 repeat units that facilitate the formation of intramolecular excimers. The AIEE effects of the polymers are rationalized to be caused by the restrictions of their intramolecular rotations by the aggregate formation

Synthesis and Curing of Hyperbranched Poly(triazole)s with Click Polymerization for Improved Adhesion Strength

We successfully synthesized hyperbranched poly(triazole)s by in situ click polymerization of diazides 1 and triyne 2 monomers on different metal surfaces (copper, iron, and aluminum) and characterized their adhesive properties. Optimizations were performed to obtain high adhesive strength at different temperatures by analyzing the effects of curing kinetics, annealing temperature and time, catalyst, monomer ratio, surface conditions, alkyl chain length of diazides 1, etc. The adhesive bonding strength with metal substrate is 2 orders of magnitude higher than similar hyperbranched poly(triazole)s made by click polymerization and clearly higher than some commercial adhesives at elevated temperatures. With the same conditions, adhesives prepared on aluminum and iron substrates have higher adhesive strength than those prepared on copper substrate, and an excess of triyne 2 monomer in synthesis has greater adhesive strength than an excess of diazide 1 monomer. Tof-SIMS experiment was employed to understand these phenomena, and the existence of an interphase between the polymer and metal surface was found to be critical for adhesive bonding with thicker interphase (excess of triyne 2 monomer) and the higher binding energy between polymer atoms and substrate atoms (e.g., aluminum substrate) generating the higher bonding strength. In addition, the light-emitting property of synthesized polymers under UV irradiation can be used to check the failure mode of adhesive bonding