Numerical Investigation of Polymer Coated Nanoporous Gold

Self-Driven Fluid Imbibition of Salt Solutions into Mesoporous Films

Fluid water imbibition into nanoscale porous materials is important in nature and technology and has been shown to follow the Lucas-Washburn behavior. Looking at drop imbibition into nanoscale porous films, the imbibition reaches a steady state governed by capillary imbibition and evaporation, which is reflected in a constant imbibition length. This imbibition length in a steady state depends on the porous structure as well as on the material's wettability and the fluid evaporation rate, for example. As the presence of salts affects these parameters, the imbibition length is expected to be influenced by the solutes present in the drop. Here, we show the influence of salt presence, salt concentration, and ion type on the fluid imbibition of an aqueous salt solution into mesoporous silica films. We observe that salts affect the Lucas-Washburn imbibition occurring directly after drop positioning on mesoporous films. Interestingly, the presence of salts also causes a continuous increase of the characteristic imbibition length at longer time scales, preventing the formation of a steady state after the initial Lucas-Washburn-like imbibition. We identified a self-amplified fluid pumping mechanism using mesoporous silica films. We attribute this continuous fluid pumping and, thus, the continuous increase of the imbibition length to the increasing osmotic pressure within mesoporous materials upon constant fluid flow and fluid evaporation. Understanding aqueous salt solution imbibition into mesoporous films is an important aspect, e.g., in the context of material exchange between drops through mesoporous films.

Materials and Structural Designs toward Motion Artifact-Free Bioelectronics

Bioelectronics encompassing electronic components and circuits for accessing human information play a vital role in real-time and continuous monitoring of biophysiological signals of electrophysiology, mechanical physiology, and electrochemical physiology. However, mechanical noise, particularly motion artifacts, poses a significant challenge in accurately detecting and analyzing target signals. While software-based "postprocessing" methods and signal filtering techniques have been widely employed, challenges such as signal distortion, major requirement of accurate models for classification, power consumption, and data delay inevitably persist. This review presents an overview of noise reduction strategies in bioelectronics, focusing on reducing motion artifacts and improving the signal-to-noise ratio through hardware-based approaches such as "preprocessing". One of the main stress-avoiding strategies is reducing elastic mechanical energies applied to bioelectronics to prevent stress-induced motion artifacts. Various approaches including strain-compliance, strain-resistance, and stress-damping techniques using unique materials and structures have been explored. Future research should optimize materials and structure designs, establish stable processes and measurement methods, and develop techniques for selectively separating and processing overlapping noises. Ultimately, these advancements will contribute to the development of more reliable and effective bioelectronics for healthcare monitoring and diagnostics.

Effect of Nanoscale Confinement on Polymer-Infiltrated Scaffold Metal Composites

Most research on polymer composites has focused on adding discrete inorganic nanofillers to a polymer matrix to impart properties not found in polymers alone. However, properties such as ion conductivity and mechanical reinforcement would be greatly improved if the composite exhibited an interconnected network of inorganic and polymer phases. Here, we fabricate bicontinuous polymer-infiltrated scaffold metal (PrISM) composites by infiltrating polymer into nanoporous gold (NPG) films. Polystyrene (PS) and poly(2-vinylpyridine) (P2VP) films are infiltrated into the ∼43 nm diameter NPG pores via capillary forces during thermal annealing above the polymer glass transition temperature (T_g). The infiltration process is characterized in situ using spectroscopic ellipsometry. PS and P2VP, which have different affinities for the metal scaffold, exhibit slower segmental dynamics compared to their bulk counterparts when confined within the nanopores, as measured through T_g. The more attractive P2VP shows a 20 °C increase in T_g relative to its bulk, while PS only shows a 6 °C increase at a comparable molecular weight. The infiltrated polymer, in turn, stabilizes the gold nanopores against temporal coarsening. The broad tunability of these polymer/metal hybrids represents a unique template for designing functional network composite structures with applications ranging from flexible electronics to fuel cell membranes.

Giant electrochemical actuation in a nanoporous silicon-polypyrrole hybrid material

The absence of piezoelectricity in silicon makes direct electromechanical applications of this mainstream semiconductor impossible. Integrated electrical control of the silicon mechanics, however, would open up new perspectives for on-chip actuorics. Here, we combine wafer-scale nanoporosity in single-crystalline silicon with polymerization of an artificial muscle material inside pore space to synthesize a composite that shows macroscopic electrostrain in aqueous electrolyte. The voltage-strain coupling is three orders of magnitude larger than the best-performing ceramics in terms of piezoelectric actuation. We trace this huge electroactuation to the concerted action of 100 billions of nanopores per square centimeter cross section and to potential-dependent pressures of up to 150 atmospheres at the single-pore scale. The exceptionally small operation voltages (0.4 to 0.9 volts), along with the sustainable and biocompatible base materials, make this hybrid promising for bioactuator applications.

A Review of Experimentally Informed Micromechanical Modeling of Nanoporous Metals: From Structural Descriptors to Predictive Structure-Property Relationships

Nanoporous metals made by dealloying take the form of macroscopic (mm- or cm-sized) porous bodies with a solid fraction of around 30%. The material exhibits a network structure of "ligaments" with an average ligament diameter that can be adjusted between 5 and 500 nm. Current research explores the use of nanoporous metals as functional materials with respect to electrochemical conversion and storage, bioanalytical and biomedical applications, and actuation and sensing. The mechanical behavior of the network structure provides the scope for fundamental research, particularly because of the high complexity originating from the randomness of the structure and the challenges arising from the nanosized ligaments, which can be accessed through an experiment only indirectly via the testing of the macroscopic properties. The strength of nanoscale ligaments increases systematically with decreasing size, and owing to the high surface-to-volume ratio their elastic and plastic properties can be additionally tuned by applying an electric potential. Therefore, nanoporous metals offer themselves as suitable model systems for exploring the structure-property relationships of complex interconnected microstructures as well as the basic mechanisms of the chemo-electro-mechanical coupling at interfaces. The micromechanical modeling of nanoporous metals is a rapidly growing field that strongly benefits from developments in computational methods, high-performance computing, and visualization techniques; it also benefits at the same time through advances in characterization techniques, including nanotomography, 3D image processing, and algorithms for geometrical and topological analysis. The review article collects articles on the structural characterization and micromechanical modeling of nanoporous metals and discusses the acquired understanding in the context of advancements in the experimental discipline. The concluding remarks are given in the form of a summary and an outline of future perspectives.