Three-dimensional (3D) microstructures created by microfabrication and additive manufacturing have demonstrated value across a number of fields, ranging from biomedicine to microelectronics. However, the techniques used to create these devices each have their own characteristic set of advantages and limitations with regards to resolution, material compatibility, and geometrical constraints that determine the types of microstructures that can be formed. We describe a microfabrication method, termed StampEd Assembly of polymer Layers (SEAL), and create injectable pulsatile drug-delivery microparticles, pH sensors, and 3D microfluidic devices that we could not produce using traditional 3D printing. SEAL allows us to generate microstructures with complex geometry at high resolution, produce fully enclosed internal cavities containing a solid or liquid, and use potentially any thermoplastic material without processing additives.

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water electrolyzers performed in acidic media, such as lower cost cell components, which has led to their commercialization at the megawatt level. [1] In addition, performing electrolysis under alkaline conditions can improve the purity of the generated hydrogen gas, [2] and, importantly, the less corrosive environment allows the use of most nonplatinum group metal catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). [3] However, commercial AWS electrolyzers operate at relatively low current densities (<400 mA cm −2) and voltage efficiencies (<80%), [4] compared to PEM electrolyzers. Therefore, increasing the operational current density and voltage

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), with their exceptional electrical properties, chemical stability, and mechanical strength, have attracted a great deal of attention. This makes the material attractive for a wide range of applications, including composite materials, 1 battery electrode materials, 2 nanoelectronics, 3,4 and nanoscale sensors. 5 However, the properties of CNTs are highly dependent on their structure and size. Such sensitivity to size and structure imposes a potential barrier to the realization of the novel properties of CNTs in many applications. In the growth of CNTs by chemical vapor deposition (CVD), the diameters of CNTs are determined by the sizes of catalysts. 6 One way to obtain CNTs with fewer chiral arrangements is to use smaller catalyst particles. Thus, CNTs with smaller diameters, for example less than 2 nm, are most likely to be single-walled with fewer geometrical arrangements. This should limit the band gap range and allow the possibility of having all metallic or all semiconducting CNTs from a given growth. Moreover, such small-diameter nanotubes have larger band gaps, which minimize off-state leakage, thereby increasing the transistor on/off current ratio in transistor applications. 7 Significant progress has been made in driving catalyst size, and thus nanotube diameters, down

Mechanoresponsive polymers hold great technological potential in drug delivery, 'smart' optical systems and microelectromechanical systems. However, hysteresis and fatigue (associated with large-scale polymer chain rearrangement) are often problematic. Here, we describe a polyarylamide film that contains s-dibenzocyclooctadiene (DBCOD), which can generate unconventional and completely reversible thermal contraction under low-energy stimulation. The films exhibit a giant negative thermal expansion coefficient of approximately -1,200 ppm K(-1) at ambient or near-ambient temperatures, much higher than any known negative-thermal-expansion materials under similar operating conditions. Mechanical characterization, calorimetry, spectroscopic analysis and density-functional theory calculations all point to the conformational change of the DBCOD moiety, from the thermodynamic global energy minimum (twist-boat) to a local minimum (chair), as the origin of this abnormal thermal shrinkage. This newly identified, low-energy-driven, thermally agile molecular subunit opens a new pathway to creating near-infrared-based macromolecular switches and motors, and for ambient thermal energy storage and conversion.

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Currently, it is of interest to improve the oral absorption of poorly water soluble therapeutic agents using supersaturating formulations. Understanding crystallization kinetics of supersaturated drug solutions is central to the design and evaluation of such formulations. Bile salts have drawn increasing attention in this context as they serve important roles in biorelevant dissolution media, in vivo, and have been shown to slow down the crystallization of active pharmaceutical ingredients. The goal of this study was to evaluate the impact of bile salt monomers and micelles on the crystallization of telaprevir, a poorly water soluble drug, from aqueous solution. To better describe the crystallization driving force in the presence of the bile salts, a side-by-side diffusion cell was used to evaluate telaprevir mass flow rate, and hence solute activity, in the absence and presence of different bile salts. The effectiveness of monomeric and miceller bile salts as crystallization inhibitors was then evaluated by performing crystallization induction time experiments at constant, activity-based supersaturation. The six most abundant biologically relevant bile salts were investigated (sodium taurocholate, sodium taurodeoxycholate, sodium taurochenodeoxycholate, sodium glycocholate, sodium glycodeoxycholate, and sodium glycochenodeoxycholate). All six bile salts exhibited nucleation inhibition properties in both homogenous supersaturated telaprevir solutions and highly supersaturated telaprevir solutions containing a second phase. The ability to retard telaprevir nucleation, however, varied amongst the bile salts and also depended on the aggregation state. Monomeric bile salts were found to be effective crystallization inhibitors. At higher bile salt concentrations, trihydroxy bile salts showed better inhibition compared to dihydroxy bile salts. These results highlight the importance of considering the composition of the test medium used to evaluate product performance, in particular in the context of evaluating crystallization kinetics.

We report a method of fabricating nanotextured Ag surfaces using a template of self-assembled inorganic-containing block copolymer, polystyrene-b-polyferrocenylsilane. The Ag surfaces with periodically ordered nanoscale features created by the self-organized block copolymer are capable of producing enhanced Raman signals. Using benzenethiol as a probe molecule, an enhancement factor of up to 106 has been observed. More importantly, the enhancement is very uniform; less than 10% Raman signal variation has been obtained. Furthermore, since the size and spacing of the nanostructures can be adjusted by tailoring the polymer chain length, the electromagnetic field can potentially be tuned to achieve even higher surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) activity. This inorganic-containing block copolymer template approach not only provides a simple and straightforward method to fabricate SERS active substrates but also offers a means to experimentally examine the SERS mechanism.