An artificial ionic mechanotransducer skin with an unprecedented sensitivity over a wide spectrum of pressure by fabricating visco-poroelastic nanochannels and microstructured features, directly mimicking the physiological tactile sensing mechanism of Piezo2 protein is demonstrated. This capability enables voice identification, health monitoring, daily pressure measurements, and even measurements of a heavy weight beyond capabilities of human skin.

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Sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) (S-PEEK) with 40% of degree of sulfonation was studied using full atomistic molecular dynamics simulation in order to investigate the nanophase-segregated structures, focusing on the sulfonate group and water phase at various water contents such as 10, 13, and 20 wt %. By analyzing the pair correlation function, it is found that as the water solvation of sulfonate groups proceeds more with increasing water content, the distance between sulfonate groups is increased from 4.4 Å (10 wt %) to 4.8 Å (13 wt %) to 5.4 Å (20 wt %), and the hydronium ions (H3O+) become farther apart from the sulfonate groups. The water coordination number for water and the water diffusion are enhanced with increasing water content because the internal structure of the water phase in S-PEEK approaches that of bulk water. Compared to the Nafion and Dendrion membranes, the S-PEEK membrane shows less internal structure in the water phase and smaller water diffusion, indicating that the S-PEEK has less nanophase segregation than the Nafion and Dendrion membranes.

Boron-doped graphene quantum dots (BGQDs) have been synthesized by a one-step, facile and low temperature method through the hydrothermal treatment for the efficient metal-free electrocatalyst toward the oxygen reduction reaction.

In the synthesis of the microporous metal-organic framework copper 1,4-benzenedicarboxylate [Cu(BDC)], solvent exchange with methanol prior to recrystallization lowers the desolvation temperature to 160°C and produces more crystalline Cu(BDC). The solution to the crystal structure of Cu(BDC) has been determined by using ab initio quantum molecular calculations and refinement with synchrotron Xray powder diffraction data. This solution is in the P1 space group with a = 5.25 Å, b = 9.67 Å, c = 10.77 Å, α = 90.29°, β = 91.06°, γ = 92.413°, and V = 546.04 Å 3 . The Brunauer-