3D printing technology combined with electrochemical nano-structuring and HA modification is a promising approach for the fabrication of Ti implants with improved osseointegration.

No abstract

Ocean acidification is considered detrimental to marine calcifiers based on laboratory studies showing that increased seawater acidity weakens their ability to build calcareous shells needed for growth and protection. In the natural environment, however, the effects of ocean acidification are subject to ecological and evolutionary processes that may allow calcifiers to buffer or reverse these short‐term negative effects through adaptive mechanisms. Using marine snails inhabiting a naturally CO2‐enriched environment over multiple generations, it is discovered herein that they build more durable shells (i.e., mechanically more resilient) by adjusting the building blocks of their shells (i.e., calcium carbonate crystals), such as atomic rearrangement to reduce nanotwin thickness and increased incorporation of organic matter. However, these adaptive adjustments to future levels of ocean acidification (year 2100) are eroded at extreme CO2 concentrations, leading to construction of more fragile shells. The discovery of adaptive mechanisms of shell building at the nanoscale provides a new perspective on why some calcifiers may thrive and others collapse in acidifying oceans, and highlights the inherent adaptability that some species possess in adjusting to human‐caused environmental change.

Increasing carbon emissions not only enrich oceans with CO 2 but also make them more acidic. This acidifying process has caused considerable concern because laboratory studies show that ocean acidification impairs calcification (or shell building) and survival of calcifiers by the end of this century. Whether this impairment in shell building also occurs in natural communities remains largely unexplored, but requires re-examination because of the recent counterintuitive finding that populations of calcifiers can be boosted by CO 2 enrichment. Using natural CO 2 vents, we found that ocean acidification resulted in the production of thicker, more crystalline and more mechanically resilient shells of a herbivorous gastropod, which was associated with the consumption of energy-enriched food (i.e. algae). This discovery suggests that boosted energy transfer may not only compensate for the energetic burden of ocean acidification but also enable calcifiers to build energetically costly shells that are robust to acidified conditions. We unlock a possible mechanism underlying the persistence of calcifiers in acidifying oceans.

The mechanical stability of metallic nanomaterials has been intensively studied due to their unique structures and promising applications. Although extensive investigations have been carried out on the deformation behaviors of metallic nanomaterials, the atomic-scale deformation mechanism of metallic nanomaterials with unconventional hexagonal structures remains unclear because of the lack of direct experimental observation. Here, we conduct an atomic-resolution in situ tensile-straining transmission electron microscopy investigation on the deformation mechanism of gold nanoribbons with the 4H (hexagonal) phase. Our results reveal that plastic deformation in the 4H gold nanoribbons comprises three stages, in which both full and partial dislocations are involved. At the early deformation stage, plastic deformation is governed by full dislocation activities. Partial dislocations are subsequently activated in regions that have undergone full dislocation gliding, leading to phase transformation from the 4H phase to the face-centered cubic (FCC) phase. At the last stage of the deformation process, the volume fraction of the FCC phase increases, and full dislocation activities in the FCC regions also play an important role.

Driven by the overuse of antibiotics, pathogenic infections, dominated by the rapid emergence of antibiotic resistant bacteria, have become one of the greatest current global health challenges. Thus, there is an urgent need to explore novel strategies that integrate multiple antibacterial modes to deal with bacterial infections. In this work, a Co­(Ni,Ag)/Fe­(Al,Cr)2O4 composite duplex coating was fabricated using template-free sputtering deposition technology. The phase constitution of the coating was estimated to be 79 wt % Fe­(Al,Cr)2O4 phase and 21 wt % of an Ag-containing metallic phase. The composite coating consisted of a ∼10 μm-thick porous outer-layer and a ∼6 μm-thick compact inner-layer, in which the outer-layer is composed of a densely stacked array of microscale cones. After exposure to ambient air for 14 days, the composite coating showed a wettability transition from a superhydrophilic nature to exhibit adhesive superhydrophobic behavior with a water contact angle of 142° ± 2.8°, but it reverted to its initial superhydrophilic state after annealing in air at 200 °C for 5 h. The absorption rate of the as-received composite coating exceeds 99% in a broad band spanning both the visible and NIR regions and showed a high photothermal efficiency to convert photon energy into heat. Similarly, the composite coating showed microwave absorption behavior with a minimum reflection loss value of 38 dB at 4.4 GHz. In vitro antibacterial tests were used to determine the antibacterial behavior of the composite coating against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus after 60 min of visible light irradiation. After this exposure, the as-prepared composite coating exhibited nearly 100% bactericidal efficiency against these bacteria. The antibacterial behavior of the coating was attributed to the synergistic effects of the superhydrophilic surface, the release of Ag+ ions, and the photothermal effect. Therefore, this composite coating may be a promising candidate to efficiently combat medical device-associated infections.

A CrCoNi medium entropy alloy thin film is fabricated using magnetron sputtering. It exhibits a unique hierarchical nanostructure, featuring (1) a high density of planar defects (mostly stacking faults plus a small number of twin boundaries), (2) a dual-phase configuration (a mix of face-centred-cubic and hexagonal-close-packed), and (3) vertically aligned, textured nanocolumns, each with a width of ∼100 nm. The hierarchical nanostructure in this study is original, especially for its dual phase combination, since the bulk CrCoNi medium entropy alloy generally presents a single phase face-centred-cubic structure. The CrCoNi film shows a hardness quadruple that of its face-centred-cubic structured counterpart. The formation and its role of the hierarchical nanostructure in producing such mechanical strength are discussed.

The physiological effect of simulated acid rain sprayed on carmine spider mite Tetranychus cinnabarinus (Boisduvals) and host plant, were measured in a series of laboratory trials. We examined potential changes in three kinds of protective enzymes [peroxidase (POD), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT)] and three hydrolases [acid phosphatase (ACP), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and carboxylesterase (CarE)] in response to changes in pH values of simulated acid rain at different time of exposure. POD, SOD and CAT activities increased significantly with the increase in the acidity of the acid rain, reaching the highest levels at pH 4.0 or 3.0, and then declined. Changes in ACP activity were similar to those observed in the protective enzymes. The increasing extent of the activities of these four enzymes after 30 and 45 days treatment became smaller than that after 15 days treatment. ALP activities decreased as pH value declined. There were no significant changes in CarE activities after 15 and 45 days, but that in pH 4.0 and 3.0 decreased after 30 days. The enhanced anti-oxidation enzyme levels (POD, SOD and CAT) and ACP activities in pH 4.0 and 3.0 reduced the effects of these toxic products on mites, resulting in the strengthening of the defensive power, and increase in survival and reproductive power of the mites, thus leading to an increase in the density of mites on host plant. From these results, we inferred that POD, SOD, CAT and ACP might be relevant to population changes of mites under acid rain pressure.