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Two novel two-dimensional organic-inorganic hybrid vanadium tellurites M(phen)V2TeO8(M=Cu, Ni ) is hydrothermally amalgamated and characterized with the help of elemental analyses, IR spectra, EPR spectrum, XPS spectra, TG analyses, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction.

Chromatography is a classical technique for protein separation. However, the chromatography column is filled with tightly packed separation materials and requires an additional pressurizing pump to propel the flow of fluidic samples, largely restraining their applications. Here, we combine heterostructured porous particles with paper strips, realizing spontaneous separation of similarly sized proteins. The interconnected nanofibrous structure and good hydrophility of paper strips enable the spontaneous flow of the liquid sample, and the heterostructured porous particles provide versatile tools for protein separation via electrostatic interaction. The fabricated paper strips are inexpensive, user-friendly, and disposable and exhibit good separation performance. This work may offer a new avenue for fabricating on-site bioseparation tools and purifying various biomacromolecules.

Bioinspired superwettable surfaces have been widely harnessed in diverse applications such as self-cleaning, oil/water separation, and liquid transport. So far, only a little work is focused on scalephobic capability of those superwettable surfaces. However, the troublesome scale deposition will inevitably be observed in our daily production and life, greatly reducing heat transfer efficiency and inhibiting the liquid transport. To address this annoying problem, as the emerging strategy, specific barrier layers are introduced onto superwettable surfaces to reduce or even avoid the direct contact between scale and the surfaces. In this feature article, we first provide the basic concept of bioinspired scalephobic surfaces with specific barrier layers. Then, we briefly introduce the typical fabrication methods of scalephobic surfaces. Later, we summarize recent progress of bioinspired scalephobic surfaces with specific barrier layers. Furthermore, we point out the guiding theory and criteria for the stability of barrier layers. Finally, we put forward the forecast on the existing problems and future direction in bioinspired scalephobic surfaces.

A one-pot synthetic method for indole/pyrrole-fused 1,4-diazepanone scaffolds has been developed. This method involves a sequential amide coupling/intramolecular aza-Michael addition of 1 H -indole/pyrrole-2-carboxylic acids with Morita-Baylis-Hillman-derived allylamines. The readily available starting materials, good stereoselectivity, and gram-scale synthesis make this method valuable for the construction of highly substituted fused heterocycles containing the 1,4-diazepanone moiety.

Water pollution arising from pharmaceuticals has raised great concerns about the potential risks for biosphere and human health. However, rapid and efficient removal of pharmaceutical contaminants from water remains challenging. Wood sawdust, a byproduct of the wood-processing industry, is an abundant, cost-effective, and sustainable material with a unique hierarchically porous microstructure. These features make wood sawdust quite interesting as a filtration material. Here, we report a novel cross-flow filtration composite based on β-cyclodextrin-polymer-functionalized wood sawdust (β-CD/WS) in which the pharmaceutical contaminant water flows through the sawn-off vessel channels and the micropores on the surface of the cell walls, generating the turbulence. Such water flow characteristics ensure full contact between pharmaceutical pollutants and β-CD grafted on the cellulose backbone of wood sawdust, thereby enhancing the water treatment efficiency. Consequently, the β-CD/WS filter device shows a high removal efficiency of over 97.5% within 90 s for various pharmaceutical contaminants including propranolol, amitriptyline, chlortetracycline, diclofenac, and levofloxacin, and a high saturation uptake capacity of 170, 156, 257, 159, and 185 mg g -1 , respectively. The high-performance wood-sawdust-based cross-flow filtration opens new avenues for solving the global water pollution issues, especially those caused by pharmaceutical contaminants.

Enrichment and enhancement are two important aspects of ultratrace biomolecule recognition in complex biological samples. Here we integrate acoustic aggregation of modified Au nanorods with Raman enhancement for all-in-one ultratrace rapid biomolecule detection in one microliter solution. Arising from the interaction between individual nanoparticles and the acoustic field, the aggregation of Au nanorods results in rapid migration of specifically modified Au nanorods toward pressure node in a few seconds and accompanies the enrichment of specific biomolecular. As a proof concept, rapid and sensitive surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) detection of nucleic acids (10 -13 M) in microliter-scale (10 -6 L) sample is achieved. Such an approach integrates ultrasonic aggregation-induced enrichment (uAIE) with Raman enhancement, holding considerable promise for efficient, sensitive, and rapid on-chip detection of ultratrace biomarkers in a clinical sample solution.

Directional droplet transportation without extra energy input remains a challenge in microfluidic biochips for clinical detections. Herein, inspired by the water-collecting behaviors on the cactus spine, we fabricate nanomaterial-based superwettable microspine (SMS) chips. The bioinspired SMS chips are capable of spontaneous and directional droplet transportation by synergistically combining geometric asymmetry and surface superhydrophilicity. Based on theoretical models, the gradient of the Laplace pressure arising from the geometric asymmetry of the SMS chip can dominate the directional transportation of the droplet, and the superhydrophilicity of the nanomaterial-based microspine can also contribute to the droplet self-transportation. The multimicrochannel SMS chips provide a simple and energy efficient technology to realize accurate detection of serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) from prostate cancer patients, showing great potential as a biosensing platform for clinical applications. We believe that our bioinspired superwettable two-dimensional conical surface will offer effective means for the design of smart microfluidic devices and have great potential applications in multicomponent biosensing and clinical detection.

A Zn(OTf) 2 -catalyzed formal [3 + 3] cascade annulation strategy for the synthesis of functionalized chromeno[2,3- b ]pyridines has been developed using propargylic alcohols and 2-aminochromones as the substrates. The protocol provides a convenient and atom-economical method of accessing a broad range of chromeno[2,3- b ]pyridine derivatives in excellent yields with good functional-group tolerance. The method is also effective on the gram scale, which highlights the inherent practicality of this synthetic transformation.

A nickel-catalyzed electrochemical cross-coupling reaction of aryl bromides with dialkyl phosphites, ethyl phenylphosphinate, and diphenylphosphine oxide has been developed. This reaction utilizes a simple undivided cell with inexpensive carbon electrodes to synthesize aryl phosphonates, aryl phosphinates, and arylphosphine oxides at room temperature. This protocol provides a mild and efficient route for the construction of C-P bond in moderate to high yields with broad substrate scope.

Mimicking the structures and functions of biological systems is considered as a promising approach to construct artificial materials, which have great potential in energy, the environment, and health. Here, we demonstrate a conceptually distinct design by synergistically combining a kidney-inspired porous membrane and natural sponge-inspired heterostructured nanoporous particles to fabricate a bioinspired biomolecule cleaning device, achieving highly efficient biomolecule cleaning spanning from small molecules to macromolecules. The bioinspired biomolecule cleaning device is a two-layer microfluidic device that integrates a polyamide porous membrane and heterostructured nanoporous poly(acrylic acid)-poly(styrene divinylbenzene) particles. The former as a filtration membrane isolates the upper sample liquid and the latter fixed onto the bottom of the underlying channel acts as an active sorbent, particularly enhancing the clearance of macromolecules. As a proof-of-concept, we demonstrate that typical molecules, including urea, creatinine, lysozyme, and β2-microglobulin, can be efficiently cleaned from simulant liquid and even whole blood. This study provides a method to fabricate a bioinspired biomolecule cleaning device for highly efficient biomolecule cleaning. We believe that our bioinspired synergistic design may expand to other fields for the fabrication of integrated functional devices, creating opportunities in a wide variety of applications.

Biomineralization is an important process in nature, by which living organisms participate in producing organic/inorganic hybrid materials and the resultant materials show sophisticated structures and excellent physical and chemical properties. Inspired by biomineralization, DNA-Cu 3 (PO 4 ) 2 hybrid nanoflowers (HNFs) were prepared, which exhibited high stability, a high surface-to-volume ratio, and good DNA encapsulation ability. A facile thread platform for microRNA (miRNA) detection was fabricated by employing DNA-Cu 3 (PO 4 ) 2 HNFs as captors, and the signal could be easily read out by a personal glucose meter. The fabricated biosensor could detect miRNA-21 quantitatively and a detection limit of 0.41 nM was achieved. Furthermore, miRNA in A549 cell lysate could also be detected without pretreatment. In this work, we achieved a fast, simple, low-cost method based on the bioinspired DNA-inorganic HNFs for the specific and sensitive detection of miRNA in both aqueous solution and biological samples, indicating its great promise in biomedical and clinical applications.

Inspired by natural ciliary movement, artificial cilia systems have recently been developed to transport microparticles and target biomolecules by the external stimuli-induced bend and twist. However, the directional transportation of cargo meets a major challenge. Here, we present an artificial asymmetric cilia array of dielectric elastomer and realize the cargo directional transportation under alternating-current (ac) electric field. Such a dielectric elastomer is composed of elastomer matrix and dielectric barium titanate (BaTiO 3 ) nanoparticles, which can be polarized under an ac electric field and results in the swinging of artificial elastomer cilia. The asymmetry of the cilia endows themselves with the capability of asymmetric recovery stroke, which is essential for directional transportation of cargo. Transporting performance is also optimized by adjusting the applied frequencies and voltages. This study may provide a new clue to construct functional "smart" devices in electromechanical systems and biomedicine.

In biomineralization and bioinspired mineralization, substrates and additives function synergistically in providing structural control of the mineralized layers including their orientation, polymorph, morphology, hierarchical architecture, etc. Herein, a novel type of granular aragonitic CaCO 3 -poly(acrylic acid) substrate guides the mineralization of prismatic CaCO 3 thin films of distinct morphology and polymorph in the presence of different additives including organic compounds and polymers. For instance, weakly charged amino acids lead to columnar aragonite overlayers, while their charged counterparts and organic acids/bases inhibit the overgrowth. Employment of several specific soluble polymer additives in overgrowth instead results in calcitic overlayers with distinct hierarchical architecture, good hardness/Young's modulus, and under-water superoleophobicity. Interestingly, self-organized patterns in the CaCO 3 -poly(l-glutamic acid) overlayer are obtained under proper mineralization conditions. We demonstrate that the granular seed comprised of mineralized and polymeric constituents is a versatile platform for obtaining prismatic CaCO 3 thin films, where structural control can be realized by the employment of different types of additives in overgrowth. We expect the methodology to be applied to a broad spectrum of bioinspired, prismatic-type crystalline products, aiming for the development of high-performance hybrids.

Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) driven by high-performance and low-cost electrocatalysts has been well-identified as one of the most promising technologies to explore sustainable power sources. In this work, the authors demonstrated a series of Fe-Mo selenide composite nanomaterials with adjustable HER catalytic activities by a simple one-step hydrothermal reaction. The heterostructured catalyst exhibited significant enhancement in HER activity compared to the pristine MoSe 2 and FeSe 2 catalysts. It is found that the optimized Mo-Fe selenide can drive the HER at a current density of 10 mA cm -2 by an overpotential of 86.9 mV in acidic solution. Also, it possesses outstanding kinetics (Tafel slope of 57.7 mV dec -1 ) of the electrochemical reaction. Besides the synergistic effect of different chemicals, the coupled Mo-Fe selenide achieved the electronic modulation of the heterointerface, where electrons were accelerated to transfer from dispersed FeSe 2 to the active edges on 1T-MoSe 2 and further activated the electrochemical performance.

Developing low-cost and highly efficient nanobiochips are important for liquid biopsies, real-time monitoring, and precision medicine. By in situ growth of silica nanowires on a commercial frosted slide, we develop a biochip for effective circulating tumor cells (CTCs) detection after modifying epithelial cell adhesion molecule antibody (anti-EpCAM). The biochip shows the specificity and high capture efficiency of 85.4 ± 8.3% for prostate cancer cell line (PC-3). The microsized frosted slides and silica nanowires allow enhanced efficiency in capture EpCAM positive cells by synergistic topographic interactions. And the capture efficiency of biochip increased with the increase of silica nanowires length on frosted slide. The biochip shows that micro/nanocomposite structures improve the capture efficiency of PC-3 more than 70% toward plain slide. Furthermore, the nanobiochip has been successfully applied to identify CTCs from whole blood specimens of prostate cancer patients. Thus, this frosted slide-based biochip may provide a cheap and effective way of clinical monitoring of CTCs.

Underwater superoleophobic surfaces have attracted great attention due to their broad applications such as anti-oil adhesion, oil capture and transportation, and oil/water separation. However, it is often fairly complex and time-consuming, involved in the construction of micro/nanostructures and the regulation of chemical compositions; there is an urgent need to develop new strategies to conquer these problems. Inspired by the strong anchoring capability and easy accessibility of plant polyphenols, we can readily and rapidly fabricate tannic acid (TA) coated copper surfaces with the excellent underwater super oil-repellent property. To achieve the optimal condition for TA modification, the influence of immersion time, TA concentration, and pH value on underwater-oil wettability and adhesion has been systematically explored. Furthermore, the underwater super oil-repellent feature can be widely achieved for different oils and on various metal sheets, suggesting the potential applications for plenty of fields such as anti-oil pollution.

Bioinspired lubricating materials are great challenge toward artificial joints. In this contribution, we synthesize a bioinspired hydrogel by combining a thixotropic supramolecular network and polymer double network, exhibiting a unique shear-responsive lubricating property. The disassembly of the N-fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl-l-tryptophan supramolecular network triggered by shear force will endow lubricating function to the hydrogel; meanwhile PAAm and PVA double network acts as the supporting skeleton with high mechanical property. This work will bring new insight on the design of artificial lubricating joint.

Like their biogenic counterparts, synthetic minerals with hierarchical architectures should exhibit multiple structural functions, which nicely bridge the boundaries between engineering and functional materials. Nevertheless, design of bioinspired mineralization approaches to thin coatings with distinct micro/nanotextures remains challenging in the realm of materials chemistry. Herein, a general morphosynthetic method based on seeded mineralization was extended to achieve prismatic-type thin CaCO 3 coatings on fibrous substrates for oil/water separation applications. Distinct micro/nanotextures of the overlayers could be obtained in mineralization processes in the presence of different soluble (bio)macromolecules. These hierarchical thin coatings therefore exhibit multiple structural functions including underwater superoleophobicity, ultralow adhesion force of oil in water, and comparable stiffness/strength to the prismatic-type biominerals found in mollusk shells. Moreover, this controllable approach could proceed on fibrous substrates to obtain robust thin coatings, so that a modified nylon mesh could be employed for oil/water separation driven by gravity. Our bioinspired approach based on seeded mineralization opens the door for the deposition of hierarchical mineralized thin coatings exhibiting multiple structural functions on planar and fibrous substrates. This bottom-up strategy could be readily extended for the syntheses of advanced thin coatings with a broad spectrum of engineering and functional constituents.

Bioinspired superwettable micropatterns that combine two extreme states of superhydrophobicity and superhydrophilicity with the ability to enrich and absorb microdroplets are suitable for versatile and robust sensing applications. Here we introduce a superwettable microchip that integrates superhydrophobic-superhydrophilic micropatterns and a nanodendritic electrochemical biosensor toward the detection of prostate cancer biomarkers. On the superwettable microchip, the superhydrophobic area could confine the microdroplets in superhydrophilic microwells; such behavior is extremely helpful for reducing the amount of analytical solution. In contrast, superhydrophilic microwells exhibit a high adhesive force toward microdroplets, and the nanodendritic structures can improve probe-binding capacity and response signals, thus greatly enhancing the sensitivity. Sensitive and selective detection of prostate cancer biomarkers including miRNA-375, miRNA-141, and prostate-specific antigen on a single microchip is also achieved. Such a superwettable microchip with high sensitivity, low sample volume, and upside-down detection capability in a single microdroplet shows great potential to fabricate portable devices toward complex biosensing applications.

To improve the efficiency of cobalt-based catalysts for water electrolysis, tremendous efforts have been dedicated to tuning the composition, morphology, size, and structure of the materials. We report here a facile preparation of orthorhombic CoTe 2 nanocrystals embedded in an N-doped graphitic carbon matrix to form a 3D architecture with a size of ∼500 nm and abundant mesopores of ∼4 nm for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The hybrid electrocatalyst delivers a small overpotential of 300 mV at 10 mA cm -2 , which is much lower than that for pristine CoTe 2 powder. After cycling for 2000 cycles or driving continual OER for 20 h, only a slight loss is observed. The mesoporous 3D architecture and the strong interaction between N-doped graphitic carbon and CoTe 2 are responsible for the enhancement of the electrocatalytic performance.

Nonaqueous, ionic liquid-based aluminum chloride-graphite batteries (AlCl 3 -GBs) are a highly promising post-Li-ion technology for low-cost and large-scale storage of electricity because these batteries feature exclusively highly abundant chemical elements and simple fabrication methods. In this work, we demonstrate that synthetic kish graphite, which is a byproduct of steelmaking, can be used as a cathode in AlCl 3 -GB and exhibits high capacities of ≤142 mAh g -1 . The comprehensive characterization of kish graphite flakes and other forms of graphite by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area analysis provides solid evidence that the exceptional electrochemical behavior of kish graphite flakes is mainly determined by the high structural order of carbon atoms, a low level of defects, and a unique "crater morphology". In view of the nonrocking chair operation mechanism of AlCl 3 -GB, we have tested the achievable energy densities as a function of the composition of chloroaluminate ionic liquid (AlCl 3 content) and have obtained energy densities of up to 65 Wh kg -1 . In addition, the kish graphite flakes can rapidly charge and discharge, offering high power densities of up to 4363 W kg -1 .

Control of stem cell behaviors at solid biointerfaces is critical for stem-cell-based regeneration and generally achieved by engineering chemical composition, topography, and stiffness. However, the influence of dynamic stimuli at the nanoscale from solid biointerfaces on stem cell fate remains unclear. Herein, we show that electrochemical switching of a polypyrrole (Ppy) array between nanotubes and nanotips can alter surface adhesion, which can strongly influence mechanotransduction activation and guide differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). The Ppy array, prepared via template-free electrochemical polymerization, can be reversibly switched between highly adhesive hydrophobic nanotubes and poorly adhesive hydrophilic nanotips through an electrochemical oxidation/reduction process, resulting in dynamic attachment and detachment to MSCs at the nanoscale. Multicyclic attachment/detachment of the Ppy array to MSCs can activate intracellular mechanotransduction and osteogenic differentiation independent of surface stiffness and chemical induction. This smart surface, permitting transduction of nanoscaled dynamic physical inputs into biological outputs, provides an alternative to classical cell culture substrates for regulating stem cell fate commitment. This study represents a general strategy to explore nanoscaled interactions between stem cells and stimuli-responsive surfaces.

Dental materials often cause bacterial adhesion and promote bacterial biofilm formation, which brings a series of long-standing and significant problems in oral health. However, the current development of antibacterial research in dental devices is limited by the lack of materials endowed with good antibacterial properties against oral bacteria. Here, we present a new strategy for reducing the initial adhesion of bacterial on dental biomaterials by chemically bonding long-chain polyethylene glycol. Our work represents an important step toward solving the problem of bacterial accumulation on dental devices.

Cell-surface topographic interactions can direct the design of biointerfaces, which have been widely used in isolation of circulating tumor cells or fundamental cell biological research. By using three kinds of cancer cell-replicated surfaces with differentiated structures, we uncover that multiscale-cooperative topographic interactions (at both nanoscale and microscale) coupled with molecular recognition enable efficient and specific isolation of cancer cells. The cell replicas precisely inherit the structural features from the original cancer cells, providing not only preferable structures for matching with cancer cells but also a unique platform to interrogate whether certain cancer cells can optimally match with their own replicated surfaces. The results reveal that cancer cells do not show preferential recognitions to their respective replicas, while the capture agent-modified surfaces with hierarchical structures exhibit improved cancer cell capture efficiencies. Two levels of topographic interactions between cancer cells and cell replica surfaces exist. Nanoscale filopodia on cancer cells can topographically interact with different nanostructures on replica surfaces. In addition, microscale concave/convex on surfaces provide suitable sites for trapping cancer cells. This study may promote smart design of multiscale biofunctional materials that can specifically recognize cancer cells.

High surface area porous carbon frameworks exhibit potential advantages over crystalline graphite as an electrochemical energy storage material owing to the possibility of faster ion transport and up to double the ion capacity, assuming a surface-based mechanism of storage. When detrimental surface-related effects such as irreversible capacity loss due to interphase formation (known as solid-electrolyte interphase, SEI) can be mitigated or altogether avoided, the greatest advantage can be achieved by maximizing the gravimetric and volumetric surface area and by tailoring the porosity to accommodate the relevant ion species. We investigate this concept by employing zeolite-templated carbon (ZTC) as the cathode in an aluminum battery based on a chloroaluminate ionic liquid electrolyte. Its ultrahigh surface area and dense, conductive network of homogeneous channels (12 Å in width) render ZTC suitable for the fast, dense storage of AlCl 4 - ions (6 Å in ionic diameter). With aluminum as the anode, full cells were prepared which simultaneously exhibited both high specific energy (up to 64 Wh kg -1 , 30 Wh L -1 ) and specific power (up to 290 W kg -1 , 93 W L -1 ), highly stable cycling performance, and complete reversibility within the potential range of 0.01-2.20 V.

The construction of the Space Station provides a spaceflight laboratory, which enables us to accomplish tremendous short- and long-duration research such as astronomy, physics, material sciences, and life sciences in a microgravity environment. Continuous innovation and development of spaceflight laboratory prompted us to develop a facile detection approach to meet stringent requirements in a microgravity environment that traditional experimental approaches cannot reach. Here we introduce superhydrophilic microwells onto superhydrophobic substrates that are capable of capturing and transferring microdroplets, demonstrating a proof-of-concept study of a biosensing platform toward microgravity application. The capability of manipulating microdroplets originates from the capillary force of the nanoscale dendritic coating in superhydrophilic microwells. Based on theoretical modeling, capillary forces of the superhydrophilic microwells can dominate the behavior of microdroplets against the gravity. Direct naked-eye observation monitoring of daily physiological markers, such as glucose, calcium, and protein can be achieved by colorimetric tests without the requirement of heavy optical or electrical equipment, which greatly reduced the weight, and will bring a promising clue for biodetection in microgravity environments.

Cell adhesion behaviors of stimuli-responsive surfaces have attracted significant attention for their potential biomedical applications. Distinct from temperature and pH stimuli, photoswitching avoids the extra input of thermal energy or chemicals. Herein, we designed a novel reusable cyclodextrin (CD)-modified surface to realize photoswitched specific cell release utilizing host-guest interactions between CD and azobenzene. The azobenzene-grafted specific cell capture agent was assembled onto the CD-modified surface to form a smart surface controlling cell adhesion by light radiation. After UV light irradiation, the azobenzene switched from trans- to cis-isomers, and the cis-azobenzene was not recognized by CD due to the unmatched host-guest pairs; thus, the captured MCF-7 cells could be released. Light-triggered specific cancer cell release with high efficiency may afford a smart surface with significant potential applications for the isolation and analysis of circulating tumor cells.

A hierarchical assembled ITO nanowire array with both horizontal and vertical nanowire branches was fabricated as a new three-dimensional fractal nanobiointerface for efficient cancer cell capture. Comparing with ITO nanowire array without branches, this fractal nanobiointerface exhibited much higher efficiency (89% vs 67%) and specificity in capturing cancer cells and took shorter time (35 vs 45 min) to reach the maximal capture efficiency. As indicated by the immunofluorescent and ESEM images, this enhancement can be attributed to the improvement of topographical interaction between cells and the substrate. The introduction of horizontal and vertical nanowire branches makes the substrate topographically match better with cell filopodia and provides more binding sites for cell capture. The live/dead cell staining and proliferation experiments confirm that this fractal nanobiointerface displays excellent cyto-compatibility with an over 96% cell viability after capture. These results provide new insights and may open up opportunities in designing and engineering new cell-material interfaces for advanced biomedical applications.

The advanced nanobiochips have been widely employed in diagnosing some high incidence of diseases because of their portable, low-cost, and highly sensitive features. However, the subsequent disposal of these wastes remains unexposed, probably giving rise to serious environmental pollution and health risks similar to traditional biomedical waste. Here, we have presented a TiO2 nanosisal-like coating for disposing nanobiochip waste via the photoresponsive self-cleaning features of the nanobiochip, demonstrated by the nanochips of cancer detection. Moreover, the high specificity and sensitivity of nanochips can be maintained by integrating unique nanostructured coatings (i.e., nanosisal-like coating) with specific recognition molecules (i.e., anti-EpCAM). Therefore, this study will provide a promising strategy for the design and management of practical nanobiodevices, thereby eliminating the old path "pollute first, clean up later".

Due to their size and tailorable physicochemical properties, nanomaterials are an emerging class of structures utilized in biomedical applications. There are now many prominent examples of nanomaterials being used to improve human health, in areas ranging from imaging and diagnostics to therapeutics and regenerative medicine. An overview of these examples reveals several common areas of synergy and future challenges. This Nano Focus discusses the current status and future potential of promising nanomaterials and their translation from the laboratory to the clinic, by highlighting a handful of successful examples., Competing Interests: The authors declare the following competing financial interest(s): S.M. is a Scientific Advisor to Sebacia Inc. J.M.K. is part owner of and consultant to Gecko Biomedical.

Well-defined microdroplet generation has attracted great interest, which is important for the high-resolution patterning and matrix distribution for chemical reactions and biological assays. By sliding a droplet on a patterned superhydrophilic/superhydrophobic substrate, tiny microdroplet arrays low to femtoliter were achieved with uniform volume and composition. Using this method, cells were successfully isolated, resulting in a single cell array. The droplet-splitting method is facile, sample-effective, and low-cost, which will be of great potential for the development of microdroplet arrays for biological analysis as well as patterning system and devices.

We report a facile colloidal synthesis of tin-germanium (Sn-Ge) heterostructures in the form of nanorods with a small aspect ratio of 1.5-3 and a length smaller than 50 nm. In the two-step synthesis, presynthesized Sn nanoparticles act as a low-melting-point catalyst for decomposing the Ge precursor, bis[bis(trimethylsilyl)amido]Ge(II), and for crystallization of Ge via solution-liquid-solid growth mechanism. Creation of such Sn-Ge nanoheterodimers can serve as a well-controlled method of mixing these nearly immiscible chemical elements for the purpose of obtaining Sn-Ge nanocomposite electrodes for high-energy density Li-ion batteries. Comparable mass content of Sn and Ge leads to synergistic effects in electrochemical performance: high charge storage capacity above 1000 mAh g(-1) at a relatively high current density of 1 A g(-1) is due to high theoretical capacity of Ge, while high rate capability is presumably caused by the enhancement of electronic transport by metallic Sn. At a current density of 4 A g(-1), Sn-Ge nanocomposite electrodes retain up to 80% of the capacity obtained at a lower current density of 0.2 A g(-1). Temporally separated lithiation of both elements, Sn and Ge, at different electrochemical potentials is proposed as a main factor for the overall improvement of the cycling stability.