Durable and biocompatible superhydrophobic surfaces are of significant potential use in biomedical applications. Here, a nonfluorinated, elastic, superhydrophobic film that can be used for medical wound dressings to enhance their hemostasis function is introduced. The film is formed by titanium dioxide nanoparticles, which are chemically crosslinked in a poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) matrix. The PDMS crosslinks result in large strain elasticity of the film, so that it conforms to deformations of the substrate. The photocatalytic activity of the titanium dioxide provides surfaces with both self‐cleaning and antibacterial properties. Facile coating of conventional wound dressings is demonstrated with this composite film and then resulting improvement for hemostasis. High gas permeability and water repellency of the film will provide additional benefit for medical applications.

The concentrations of the redox pair hydrogen peroxide (HO) and oxygen (O) can promote or decelerate the progression and duration of the wound healing process. Although HO can reach critically high concentrations and prohibit healing, a sufficient O inflow to the wound is commonly desired. Herein, we describe the fabrication and use of a membrane that can contemptuously decrease HO and increase O levels. Therefore, hematite nanozyme particles were integrated into electrospun and cross-linked poly(vinyl alcohol) membranes. Within the dual-compound membrane, the polymeric mesh provides a porous scaffold with high water permeability and the nanozymes act as a catalyst with catalase-like activity that can efficiently convert HO into O, as shown by a catalase assay. When comparing the growth of fibroblasts at an HO concentration of 50 μM, the growth was largely enhanced when applying the nanozyme dressing. Thus, application of the nanozyme dressing can significantly reduce the harmful effect of higher HO concentrations. The described catalytic membranes could be used in the future to provide an improved environment for cell proliferation in wounds and thus applied as advanced wound healing dressings.

A three-component nanocapsule-based system allows monitoring the health cycle of coatings via autonomous visual highlighting of damages and reversible erasing through healing.

Superparamagnetism exists only in nanocrystals, and to endow micro/macro-materials with superparamagnetism, superparamagnetic nanoparticles have to be assembled into complex materials. Most techniques currently used to produce such assemblies are inefficient in terms of time and material. Herein, we used evaporation-guided assembly to produce superparamagnetic supraparticles by drying ferrofluid droplets on a superamphiphobic substrate in the presence of an external magnetic field. By tuning the concentration of ferrofluid droplets and controlling the magnetic field, barrel-like, cone-like, and two-tower-like supraparticles were obtained. These assembled supraparticles preserved the superparamagnetism of the original nanoparticles. Moreover, other colloids can easily be integrated into the ferrofluid suspension to produce, by co-assembly, anisotropic binary supraparticles with additional functions. Additionally, the magnetic and anisotropic nature of the resulting supraparticles was harnessed to prepare magnetically actuable microswimmers.