In this study, novel peppermint oil-based organohydrogel (PORH) electrodes were developed for the electrochemical detection of CA-125 and CA 15-3 cancer biomarkers in serum and blood samples. The PORHs were synthesized using agar, glycerol, peppermint oil, and methylene bisacrylamide (MBA) or glutaraldehyde (GA) as cross-linking agents. The incorporation of peppermint oil improved the structural stability and electrochemical activity of the organohydrogel system due to its multifunctional natural components. The synthesized PORHs were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and swelling tests. The electrochemical performance of the fabricated electrodes was investigated using cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). Among the synthesized electrodes, PORH-5 exhibited the highest electrochemical response, showing current density of 1.45 mA/cm2 for CA-125 (1000 ng/mL) and 1.12 mA/cm2 for CA 15-3 (500 ng/mL). The developed sensor demonstrated linear detection ranges of 1–100 ng/mL for CA-125 and 0.5–150 ng/mL for CA 15-3. The limits of detection (LOD) were calculated as 0.38 µU/mL for CA-125 and 0.52 µU/mL for CA 15-3 (S/N = 3). In addition, interference studies confirmed the high selectivity of the PORH-5 electrode against common serum components. The results demonstrate that the peppermint oil-based PORH platform provides a simple, biocompatible, and sensitive electrochemical sensing system for the detection of cancer biomarkers without requiring complex nanomaterials or biological recognition elements.
To elucidate lattice damage evolution and material removal mechanisms during atomic-level polishing of diamond wafers under water-lubricated conditions, this study employs molecular dynamics simulations based on the LAMMPS platform. A coupled water–diamond–silicon oxide system is constructed using Lennard–Jones and Tersoff potentials. Dry friction is introduced as a reference condition to compare atomic-scale material response with and without interfacial water films. Surface force response, morphology evolution, dislocation behavior, and graphitization are analyzed to reveal the mechanisms governing atomic-scale structural integrity during processing. Results show that the interfacial water film prevents direct contact and mitigates local stress concentration, transforming material removal from random atomic exfoliation to ordered layer-by-layer removal. Meanwhile, interfacial stress is redistributed into a more uniform field, significantly reducing dislocation density and suppressing brittle fracture. Under water-lubricated conditions, subsurface damage thickness decreases from 5.8 nm to 4.2 nm, and the graphitization rate is reduced to 2
Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have emerged as promising photovoltaic devices owing to their high power conversion efficiency (PCE) and low-cost fabrication. In this work, a numerical investigation of a methylammonium (MA)-free mixed-halide PSC incorporating a two-dimensional (2D) MoS2 interfacial layer was performed to improve interface quality and device performance. The MoS2 layer enhanced energy level alignment at the absorber/hole transport layer interface, facilitating efficient charge extraction. Key device parameters, including absorber thickness, defect density, doping concentration, interfacial defect density, bandgap, electron affinity, operating temperature, and series resistance, were systematically optimized. In addition, a comprehensive investigation of a multiple electron and hole transport layer combination was carried out to identify the optimum charge transport layers. The baseline device without the MoS2 interlayer exhibited PCE of 16.02
The development of high-performance microwave absorbers is essential for mitigating electromagnetic pollution. M-type barium ferrite (BaFe12O19) exhibits excellent chemical stability and strong magnetic anisotropy; however, its application is hindered by poor impedance matching and low dielectric loss. Here we show that co-doping with Zn and Zr in BaZnxZrxFe12−2xO19, combined with coupled strain and defect engineering, effectively addresses these limitations. Co-doping induces lattice expansion, grain refinement, and the formation of point defects such as oxygen vacancies and Fe2+/Fe3+ redox pairs, which enhance interfacial polarization and ferromagnetic resonance. At x = 0.3, the material achieves optimal impedance matching and a high attenuation constant, with a minimum reflection loss of − 29.26 dB at 12.16 GHz and an effective absorption bandwidth of 3.64 GHz. This remarkable performance surpasses that of conventional single-dopant systems, resulting from the synergistic enhancement of defect-induced dipole polarization, grain-boundary-mediated interfacial polarization, and ferromagnetic resonance, collectively optimizing attenuation while preserving near-unity impedance matching. These findings establish Zn–Zr co-doping as a promising strategy for developing next-generation microwave absorbers with environmental stability.
Accurate In Situ determination of the effective transverse piezoelectric coefficient ( d_31 , eff ) in multilayer piezoelectric microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) remains challenging due to geometric sensitivity, interfacial effects, and measurement uncertainties. To address this, we propose a hybrid framework integrating an energy-based analytical model, COMSOL finite element analysis, and an XGBoost surrogate coupled with a genetic algorithm (GA) to identify cantilever geometries that minimize measurement uncertainty propagation into the extracted d_31 ,eff . A three-layer poly-Si/AlN/Al cantilever compatible with the PiezoMUMPs (piezoelectric multi-user MEMS processes) surface micromachining process is adopted as the test structure. Layer-specific Young’s moduli are extracted from first-order resonant frequencies via an Euler–Bernoulli beam model, and d_31 ,eff is computed from tip displacement under quasi-static actuation. Among five surrogate models trained on 5000 COMSOL simulations, XGBoost achieves the highest predictive accuracy (overall R^2 = 0.998 for d_31 ,eff ). The XGBoost surrogate coupled with a genetic algorithm identifies the optimal cantilever geometry parameters. Using laser Doppler vibrometry measurements from PiezoMUMPs-fabricated structures, our pipeline extracts d_31 ,eff = −2.271 pm/V consistent with the accepted AlN literature range (−2.0 to −2.5 pm/V). Monte Carlo uncertainty quantification (n = 1000) yields measurement uncertainty of ± 0.097 pm/V (4.2 d_31 ,eff extraction accuracy in multilayer piezoelectric MEMS.
