Roadmap on energy harvesting materials

Ambient energy harvesting has great potential to contribute to sustainable development and address growing environmental challenges. Converting waste energy from energy-intensive processes and systems (e.g. combustion engines and furnaces) is crucial to reducing their environmental impact and achieving net-zero emissions. Compact energy harvesters will also be key to powering the exponentially growing smart devices ecosystem that is part of the Internet of Things, thus enabling futuristic applications that can improve our quality of life (e.g. smart homes, smart cities, smart manufacturing, and smart healthcare). To achieve these goals, innovative materials are needed to efficiently convert ambient energy into electricity through various physical mechanisms, such as the photovoltaic effect, thermoelectricity, piezoelectricity, triboelectricity, and radiofrequency wireless power transfer. By bringing together the perspectives of experts in various types of energy harvesting materials, this Roadmap provides extensive insights into recent advances and present challenges in the field. Additionally, the Roadmap analyses the key performance metrics of these technologies in relation to their ultimate energy conversion limits. Building on these insights, the Roadmap outlines promising directions for future research to fully harness the potential of energy harvesting materials for green energy anytime, anywhere

Flavin-functionalized amphiphilic block copolymer gela

The synthesis of flavin-containing amphiphilic block copolymers using atom transfer radical polymerisation (ATRP) is described. In these systems, a flavin moiety is engineered into the ATRP initiator unit as an environmental probe and is subsequently used to produce three block copolymers featuring a hydrophobic methacrylate block and a DMAEM block. The dimethylamino unit of the latter is converted to a trimethylammonium unit to afford three amphiphilic block copolymers. Rheological measurements show that these materials form gels in dilute aqueous solution that can be disrupted upon irradiation with ultrasound. The disruption of the gel can be conveniently monitored by exploiting the solvatochromic nature of the S0–S2 absorption in the UV-vis spectrum in response to its changing environment

Controlled and Sustained Release of Drugs from Dendrimer-Nanoparticle Composite Films

A dendrimer-nanoparticle hybrid scaffold based on robust dithiocarbamate formation provides a controlled drug delivery system. These composite films are nontoxic and can incorporate a variety of guests, providing sustained drug release over multiple uses. The system is highly modular: the release process can be easily tuned by altering the dendrimer generation and the size of the AuNPs, generating a versatile delivery system

Chemically Directed Immobilization of Nanoparticles onto Gold Substrates for Orthogonal Assembly Using Dithiocarbamate Bond Formation

Dithiocarbamate-mediated bond formation combined with soft lithography was used for the selective immobilization of amine-functionalized silica nanoparticles on gold substrates. The available amine groups on the upper surface of the immobilized silica nanoparticles were further utilized for postdeposition of additional materials including particles, dyes, and biomolecules. The robustness of dithiocarbamate-mediated immobilization enables orthogonal assembly on surfaces via selective removal of the masking thiol ligands using iodine vapor etching followed by further functionalization

Inkjet-Printed Gold Nanoparticle Surfaces for the Detection of Low Molecular Weight Biomolecules by Laser Desorption/Ionization Mass Spectrometry

Effective detection of low molecular weight compounds in matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry (MS) is often hindered by matrix interferences in the low m/z region of the mass spectrum. Here, we show that monolayer-protected gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) can serve as alternate matrices for the very sensitive detection of low molecular weight compounds such as amino acids. Amino acids can be detected at low fmol levels with minimal interferences by properly choosing the AuNP deposition method, density, size, and monolayer surface chemistry. By inkjet-printing AuNPs at various densities, we find that AuNP clusters are essential for obtaining the greatest sensitivity