As the most frequent wound complication, infection has become a major clinical challenge in wound management. To overcome the “Black Box” status of the wound‐healing process, next‐generation wound dressings with the abilities of real‐time monitoring, diagnosis during early stages, and on‐demand therapy has attracted considerable attention. Here, by combining the emerging development of bioelectronics, a smart flexible electronics‐integrated wound dressing with a double‐layer structure, the upper layer of which is polydimethylsiloxane‐encapsulated flexible electronics integrated with a temperature sensor and ultraviolet (UV) light‐emitting diodes, and the lower layer of which is a UV‐responsive antibacterial hydrogel, is designed. This dressing is expected to provide early infection diagnosis via real‐time wound‐temperature monitoring by the integrated sensor and on‐demand infection treatment by the release of antibiotics from the hydrogel by in situ UV irradiation. The integrated system possesses good flexibility, excellent compatibility, and high monitoring sensitivity and durability. Animal experiment results demonstrate that the integrated system is capable of monitoring wound status in real time, detecting bacterial infection and providing effective treatment on the basis of need. This proof‐of‐concept research holds great promise in developing new strategies to significantly improve wound management and other pathological diagnoses and treatments.
After a decade of intensive research on two-dimensional (2D) materials inspired by the discovery of graphene, the field of 2D electronics has reached a stage with booming materials and device architectures. However, the efficient integration of 2D functional layers with three-dimensional (3D) systems remains a significant challenge, limiting device performance and circuit design. In this review, we investigate the experimental efforts in interfacing 2D layers with 3D materials and analyze the properties of the heterojunctions formed between them. The contact resistivity of metal on graphene and related 2D materials deserves special attention, while the Schottky junctions formed between metal/2D semiconductor or graphene/3D semiconductor call for careful reconsideration of the physical models describing the junction behavior. The combination of 2D and 3D semiconductors presents a form of p-n junctions that have just marked their debut. For each type of the heterojunctions, the potential applications are reviewed briefly.
Flexible electronics are a very promising technology for various applications. Several types of flexible devices have been developed, but there has been limited research on flexible electromechanical systems (MEMS). Surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices are not only an essential electronic device, but also are the building blocks for sensors and MEMS. Here we report a method of making flexible SAW devices using ZnO nanocrystals deposited on a cheap and bendable plastic film. The flexible SAW devices exhibit two wave modes - the Rayleigh and Lamb waves with resonant frequencies of 198.1 MHz and 447.0 MHz respectively, and signal amplitudes of 18 dB. The flexible devices have a high temperature coefficient of frequency, and are thus useful as sensitive temperature sensors. Moreover, strong acoustic streaming with a velocity of 3.4 cm/s and particle concentration using the SAW have been achieved, demonstrating the great potential for applications in electronics and MEMS.
Here we demonstrate a magnetic resonance coupling based wireless triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) and fully self-powered wireless sensors. By integrating a microswitch and an inductor with the TENG, the pulsed voltage output is converted into a sinusoidal voltage signal with a fixed frequency. This can be transmitted wirelessly from the transmit coil to the resonant-coupled receiver coil with an efficiency of 73% for a 5 cm distance between the two coils (10 cm diameter). Analytic models of the oscillating and coupled voltage signals for the wireless energy transfer are developed, showing excellent agreement with the experimental results. A TENG of 40 × 50 mm2 can wirelessly light up 70 LEDs or charge up a 15 μF capacitor to 12.5 V in ~90 s. The system is further utilized for two types of fully self-powered wireless chipless sensors with no microelectronic components. The technologies demonstrate an innovative strategy for a wireless ‘green’ power source and sensing.
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