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Next generation on-skin electrodes will require soft, flexible, and gentle materials to provide both high-fidelity sensing and wearer comfort. However, many commercially available on-skin electrodes lack these key properties due to their use of rigid hardware, harsh adhesives, uncomfortable support structures, and poor breathability. To address these challenges, this work presents a new device paradigm by joining biocompatible electrospun spider silk with printable liquid metal to yield an incredibly soft and scalable on-skin electrode that is strain-tolerant, conformable, and gentle on-skin. These electrodes, termed silky liquid metal (SLiM) electrodes, are found to be over five times more breathable than commercial wet electrodes, while the silk's intrinsic adhesion mechanism allows SLiM electrodes to avoid the use of harsh artificial adhesives, potentially decreasing skin irritation and inflammation over long-term use. Finally, the SLiM electrodes provide comparable impedances to traditional wet and other liquid metal electrodes, offering a high-fidelity sensing alternative with increased wearer comfort. Human subject testing confirmed the SLiM electrodes ability to sense electrophysiological signals with high fidelity and minimal irritation to the skin. The unique properties of the reported SLiM electrodes offer a comfortable electrophysiological sensing solution especially for patients with pre-existing skin conditions or surface wounds., (© 2023 The Authors. Advanced Healthcare Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) is considered to be one of the most pivotal multifunctional biomass platform chemicals. This Review discusses recent advances in catalytic oxidation of HMF towards high-value products. The reaction mechanism of different noble metals and the path of HMF oxidation to high-value products have been deeply investigated in the noble metal catalytic system. The reaction mechanisms of different noble metals and HMF conversion paths were compared in detail. Moreover, the factors affecting the performance of different noble metal catalysts were summarized. Finally, effective strategies were put forward to improve the catalytic performance of noble metal catalysts. The purpose is to provide a valuable reference for the academic research on the preparation of oxidation products from biomass-based HMF and the industrial application of noble metal catalysts., (© 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Biodegradable bi-functional cellulose derivatives were synthesized to remove widespread underground water cations such as; Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ , Fe 2+ , Pb 2+ , and Cu 2+ . Firstly, graft copolymerization of cellulose with binary monomers such as acrylic acid (AA), and 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid (AMPS) with acrylamide (Am) were achieved using potassium persulfate as initiator. Then, cellulose/clay composites were prepared by graft copolymerization of cellulose using different montmorillonite concentrations such as 3, 6 and 9% weight/cellulose weight. The obtained Biodegradable grafted cellulose and their composites were used as adsorbents for the removal of Ca, Mg, Fe, Pb, and Cu ions individually from aqueous solutions. A possible reaction mechanism was deduced and the products were characterized by Fourier transfer infrared (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and thermal degradation by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The results obtained from this study revealed that as the content of clay increases, the uptake of cations increasing and the removal order of the composites were Pb 2+  > Mg 2+  > Fe 2+  > Cu 2+  > Ca 2+ . The biodegradability of grafted cellulose was increased by the addition of clay., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Aqueous phase hydrodeoxygenation of lignin pyrolysis oil and related model compounds were investigated using four noble metals supported on activated carbon. The hydrodeoxygenation of guaiacol has three major reaction pathways and the demethylation reaction, mainly catalyzed by Pd, Pt and Rh, produces catechol as the products. The presence of catechol and guaiacol in the reaction is responsible for the coke formation and the catalysts deactivation. As expected, there was a significant decrease in the specific surface area of Pd, Pt and Rh catalysts during the catalytic reaction because of the coke deposition. In contrast, no catechol was produced from guaiacol when Ru was used so a completely hydrogenation was accomplished. The lignin pyrolysis oil upgrading with Pt and Ru catalysts further validated the reaction mechanism deduced from model compounds. Fully hydrogenated bio-oil was produced with Ru catalyst., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)