A time-saving approach to gelatin-based hydrogels with versatile properties is highly desirable. Herein, we report the rapid fabrication of new gelatin-containing hydrogels with favorable mechanical properties, biocompatibility and antibacterial capability. Frontal polymerization (FP) of acrylic acid (AA), acrylamide (AM), hydroxypropyl acrylate (HPA) with gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) enables the rapid formation of multifunctional hydrogels within 7 min, providing a highly efficient route for gelatin-based hydrogel fabrication. The effect of GelMA content on FP features and hydrogel properties was systematically investigated. The resultant hydrogels show attractive collective properties with tensile strength up to 101.3 kPa, elongation at break up to 227.7%, cell viability of 96% after 24 h, and antibacterial activity against S. aureus (92.2%). In addition, the FP of the hydrogels with use of forsythia-derived carbon dots (F-CDs) as bioactive nanofillers is explored, conferring the hydrogels with enhanced mechanical performance and biocompatibility, demonstrating the applicability of this FP strategy upon incorporating functional additives. This work provides a simple and effective approach for the rapid preparation of gelatin-containing hydrogels with versatile functions promising for biomedical applications such as wound healing and tissue engineering.

This study systematically investigates the damage characteristics of tunnels under reverse fault dislocation through the establishment of a three-dimensional finite element model for fault-surrounding rock-tunnel interaction, employing non-uniform seismic motion input. The research focuses on analyzing the influence of dislocation displacement, fault zone width, and fault dip angle on damage evolution patterns. The results indicate that: (1) Tunnel damage is predominantly concentrated in the fault core zone, with stress concentration frequently occurring at the haunch areas. Fault displacement constitutes the primary causative factor for tunnel damage. (2) Increased dislocation displacement exacerbates structural damage, exhibiting asymmetric propagation along the axial direction from the fault core; (3) Fault zone width affects stiffness transition gradients, where greater width enhances deformation coordination capacity and mitigates overall lining failure; (4) Under high-dip-angle conditions, particular attention must be paid to axial deformation failure in tunnel structures. The study proposes a novel input methodology, with results providing theoretical references for seismic design of cross-fault tunnels.

Pore structures and interface issues have long impeded significant improvements in the thermal conductivity of biphasic composites. This work introduced a calendering technique, adapted from the traditional papermaking industry, to address these challenges in hexagonal boron nitride/tempo-oxidized cellulose nano-fiber (h-BN/ TOCNF) composites. Calendering effectively reduced porosity, enhanced compactness, and improved the interface between the two phases. The results indicated that without calendering, the thermal conductivity of the composites increased with higher h-BN loading. At 50 wt% h-BN content, the through-plane thermal conductivity reached 0.82 W/m center dot K, which was 116% higher than that of a pure TOCNF film (0.38 W/mK). Contrary to expectations, higher calendering pressure did not yield better performance. The optimal balance was achieved with the composites containing 30 wt% h-BN processed at 2 MPa (h-BN30/TOCNF-2 composites), achieving a high thermal conductivity of 0.71 W/m center dot K coupled with the highest mechanical strength (40.21 MPa). This synergistic enhancement was attributed to the molecular slippage of TOCNF and preferential orientation of h-BN induced by appropriate calendering pressure, leading to tighter bonding and the formation of a "brick-mortar-brick" structure conductive to phonon transfer and mechanical reinforcement. This work demonstrates that calendering, a simple and scalable post-processing technique, can effectively engineer the microstructure of biphasic composites, leading to simultaneous enhancement in thermal and mechanical properties.

The small-strain damping ratio of soil is a critical parameter in seismic site response analysis and is typically determined through laboratory tests. However, laboratory tests are inherently limited to characterizing intrinsic material damping and fail to account for the scattering effects induced by the spatial variability of soil during seismic wave propagation. As a result, the use of laboratory-derived damping values often leads to an overestimation of site amplification. To address this issue, by applying seismic interferometry to four vertical arrays, the in-situ shear wave velocity profiles were extracted from earthquake records. Subsequently, the parameters of three widely-used damping models—namely, the constant damping model, the power-law damping model, and the Rayleigh damping model—were determined through a grid search to obtain the best match between observations and theoretical results from linear viscoelastic one-dimensional ground response analysis. A comparative analysis was then conducted to assess the performance of these damping models in both reproducing and predicting site responses. The results show that the use of in-situ shear wave velocity profiles, combined with the parameters of various damping models inverted from earthquake records, can effectively reproduce small-strain site response. On the other hand, significant discrepancies were observed in the predictive performance of different damping models. Specifically, the constant damping model outperformed the others, followed by the Rayleigh damping model, while the power-law damping model yielded the least satisfactory results. Based on these findings, it is recommended to prioritize the use of constant damping models in seismic site responses analysis.

The traditional methods of preparing aerogels exhibit some shortcomings, such as uncontrollable pore morphology, complex process, and poor mechanical properties, which greatly limit the application of aerogels in personal thermal management (PTM). Herein, we propose a microfluidic-blow-spinning strategy that leverages the confinement effect of microchannels to enhance the mixing efficiency of different components, thereby enabling efficient homogenization of multiple components in the microfluidic field. Meanwhile, due to the continuous flow characteristics inherent to microfluidic systems, dynamic regulation of fiber microstructure composition during the spinning process can be achieved. The as-prepared fiber aerogels exhibit an ultralow density of 8.6 mg/cm3, can withstand tensile stress up to 5000 times their own weight, and retain nearly negligible plastic deformation even after 1000 compression cycles. More importantly, these fiber aerogels possess multimodal cooling functionalities through polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)-mediated evaporative cooling and silica (SiO2)-endowed excellent infrared emissivity, achieving a temperature reduction of 6.5 °C under natural sunlight, thereby outperforming commercial down products. Ascribed to the above facile and scalable preparation process, these fiber aerogels demonstrate broad application prospects in personal thermal management under extreme environmental conditions.

Accurate characterization and simulation of the constitutive behavior of geomaterials remain a central challenge in soil mechanics. Classical plasticity-based models often rely on phenomenological assumptions that lead to complex formulations with limited generalizability, while purely data-driven approaches suffer from poor extrapolation capability and interpretability. To address these limitations, this study proposes a novel neural-symbolic thermodynamic modeler (NSTM) that integrates thermodynamics-informed neural networks (TINN) with physics-guided symbolic regression (phgSR). The framework cyclically refines the expressions for Helmholtz free energy and dissipation rate by combining numerical approximation with symbolic discovery, thereby incorporating first-order thermodynamic constraints that are typically absent in conventional TINNs. Validated through cyclic triaxial and cyclic simple shear tests conducted under varying drainage conditions, the NSTM demonstrates superior prediction accuracy and exceptional extrapolation capability compared to baseline models, offering a robust and physically consistent approach to constitutive modeling of geomaterials.

Molybdenum oxide (MoOx), commonly adopted as an HTL material, offers potential for solution-based processing. Precise control over the oxidation state of molybdenum (Mo) within the HTL is crucial for achieving optimal OSC performance. In this study, we present an n-type doping strategy for MoOx by incorporating highly conductive Ti3C2Tx as an n-type dopant. The surface functional groups of Ti3C2Tx MXene mediate an auxiliary reduction process, selectively converting a fraction of Mo(VI) to Mo(V) and thereby yielding n-doped MoOx. Leveraging the intrinsic high electrical conductivity of Ti3C2Tx MXene, the resulting Ti3C2Tx-MoOx composite exhibits markedly enhanced conductivity relative to pristine MoOx, ultimately enabling the fabrication of high-performance OSCs with robust interfacial stability. Devices featuring the optimized Ti3C2Tx-MoOx composite HTL achieve a champion power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 17.44%, outperforming control devices based on PEDOT:PSS (16.36%) or pristine MoOx (16.48%). The versatility of this composite HTL is further demonstrated by its effectiveness in boosting the PCE of OSCs based on both PM6:Py-DT and PBDB-T:ITIC active layers. This work represents a step toward mitigating the longstanding conductivity-processability trade-off in inorganic HTLs, offering a promising material design strategy to support the development of high-performance and stable OSCs.

Methods that allow polymer film to be carried out in a heterogeneous structure and scalable manner are highly desirable in materials science. Herein, a planar frontal polymerization (FP) strategy is presented that enables sustainable and scalable fabrication of heterogeneous films. Gravitational/buoyancy-oriented assembly of optical microspheres ensures vertically graded photonic heterostructure. Meanwhile, FP eliminates the sustaining energy supply while achieving precise spatial immobilization of the heterostructure. The resultant films demonstrate structure and dimensional effects associated with optical responsiveness. It is shown that the heterogeneous film coupling with high-crystallinity colloid photonic crystal exhibits high solar reflectance ( R ¯ s o l a r ≈ 0.96 ${\bar R_{solar}} \approx 0.96$ ), enhanced infrared emissivity ( ε ¯ L W I R ≈ 0.98 ${\bar \varepsilon _{LWIR}} \approx 0.98$ ) and tunable structural colors. Notably, the cooling performance of this colored hybrid coating surpasses that of most state-of-the-art cooling designs with ≈7.0 °C sub-ambient daytime cooling. Strikingly, this planar FP strategy offers feasibility and convenience for the scalable production of heterogeneous films, ensuring widespread applicability in industrialization for building envelopes.

The rapid industrialization has generated substantial amounts of oily wastewater, posing direct risks to human health, and ecosystems. Environmental-friendly and high-efficiency purification technology is highly desirable. Herein, we designed dual-functional polyvinylidene fluoride/polyacrylonitrile/ZIF-8-MXene (PVDF/PAN/ZIF-8MXene) nanofiber membrane towards high-efficiency oil-water separation. Specially, ZIF-8 is continuously fabricated via microfluidics, where the channel diameter and solution flow rate could be precisely controlled to optimize the synthesis of ZIF-8 nanocrystals, overcoming drawbacks of long reaction times and broad size distribution in traditional methods. By continuously microfluidic electrospinning and spraying, PVDF/PAN/ZIF-8MXene nanofiber membrane was fabricated, which exhibit dual functionality (hydrophilic oil-blocking and adsorption capture). The hydrophilic MXene layer forms a dense hydrated barrier, which significantly enhances water flux and mitigates membrane fouling. While ZIF-8 could capture tiny oil droplets, thereby efficiently improving oil-water separation efficiency. As expected, the composite membrane demonstrates excellent separation flux (6783 similar to 9634 L m(-2) h(-1)), superior separation efficiency (>99.5%) and outstanding recyclability in diverse oil-in-water emulsions. This work provides an efficient membrane for oil-water system purification, which gives a new insight into design of high-performance separation materials.

Real near-fault pulse-like ground-motion records are scarce and unevenly distributed over magnitude, rupture distance, and site conditions, limiting the use of generative artificial intelligence for pulse-like time-history generation. This study proposes a two-stage generative framework for near-fault pulse-like velocity histories. Complete velocity records are decomposed into pulse and residual components and modeled separately in the wavelet-packet domain. In Stage 1, pulse center time, dominant period, local energy, and pulse peak velocity are predicted from magnitude, rupture distance, and , and a conditional variational autoencoder generates the local pulse wavelet-packet patch. In Stage 2, a conditional diffusion model learns residual wavelet-packet coefficients, with non-pulse residual pretraining followed by pulse-residual fine-tuning to improve stability under limited samples. Complete velocity histories are then reconstructed through pulse-arrival alignment, pulse–residual energy-ratio matching, and screening based on pulse-identification criteria. Experiments using 201 near-fault pulse-like velocity records from the NGA-West2 database show that the proposed method reproduces pulse parameters and outperforms traditional simulation methods in amplitude attenuation, energy accumulation, response spectra, and Fourier spectral characteristics. Under both testing-set mrv conditions and randomly sampled mrv conditions, the generated motions satisfy pulse-identification criteria and exhibit reasonable nonstationary acceleration, velocity, and displacement histories. These results indicate that the proposed framework provides an effective data-driven approach for generating near-fault pulse-like ground motions when recorded pulse-like data are limited.

Solar-driven interfacial evaporation by gel-based materials stands as a promising strategy to alleviate freshwater scarcity. However, the conventional monolithic gel constituted with randomly oriented polymeric walls significantly increases the diffusion/transfer resistance of water and contained matters. Here, we demonstrate a gel-granule ensemble evaporator, featuring programmatically assembled structures and functionalities, for enhanced solar evaporation and synergistic applications. Unlike the nano-microchannels inherent in monolithic gels, the microfluidic-directed ensemble of photothermal gel-granules, assembled through self-healing forces, creates unique interconnected gaps that facilitate efficient light absorption, thermal management, and mass transfer, leading to a higher content of intermediate water and a reduced evaporation enthalpy. A 3D ensemble evaporator attains an evaporation rate of 3.2 kg m-2 h-1 under 1 sun, and demonstrates exceptional salt resistance thanks to powerful capillary action and compensatory flows driven by the Marangoni effect. By substituting photothermal components with functional materials, photocatalysis, fluorescence, and structural colors are readily customized, expanding the in situ practical application of solar evaporators. This work not only brings new inspiration for the design of high-performance solar evaporators, but also fosters the advancements of microfluidic techniques in efficiently constructing multifunctional, sustainable energy conversion materials.

Temporal energy distribution strongly affects nonlinear structural response and cumulative damage. We propose a multi-conditional diffusion framework for ground motion synthesis that simultaneously matches temporal energy evolution and target response spectra. Wavelet packet decomposition provides the signal representation and enables direct waveform reconstruction via orthogonal filter banks. A Transformer-based conditional encoder with cross-attention integrates heterogeneous conditions, including spectral ordinates, Arias intensity, temporal parameters, and Husid curves. The framework adopts the Elucidating Diffusion Model (EDM) with second-order Heun sampling to improve inference efficiency without sacrificing quality. Tests on the NGA-West2 database show that explicit temporal-energy constraints markedly improve control of energy onset and significant duration while preserving spectrum matching and maintaining stable diversity sampling. The framework yields spectrum-compatible motions with realistic energy evolution and supports uncertainty quantification via conditional diversity sampling.

Conventional microfluidic chips, fabricated from rigid polymers like polydimethylsiloxane, fail to recapitulate the dynamic and compliant nature of the native extracellular matrix (ECM), limiting their broader applications in biomedicine. In contrast, hydrogel-based microfluidic chips offer a promising alternative. However, their fabrication remains challenging due to the structural fragility, often requiring multi-step processes and secondary bonding. Here, we report a paradigm-shifting strategy for the monolithic fabrication of hydrogel-based microfluidic chips by leveraging the unique spatiotemporal control of aqueous frontal polymerization (FP). We employ 3D-printed polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a sacrificial template, which is encapsulated and preserved within a propagating polymerization front. The Transient reaction zonerapidly solidifies the hydrogel matrix within minutes,enabling the sacrificial template in its pristine statewithout significant deformation. Subsequent removal of the template yields complex, high-fidelity, and leak-free microchannels, avoiding post-fabrication bonding. The resulting hydrogel chip exhibits robust mechanical properties, anti-swelling capacity, antibacterial activity, and superior biocompatibility, providing great potentials for biomedical applications. This FP-directed fabrication method provides great convenience for precise control over channel geometries and sizes, paving a new avenue for creating next-generation all- hydrogel biomimetic microfluidic platforms.

Polyether Ether Ketone (PEEK) is a commonly used implant for bone defect reconstruction surgery. However, postoperative infection remains a critical complication because PEEK lacks antibacterial properties, and conventional detection methods lack sensitivity, speed, and real-time capability, risking delayed diagnosis and even the need for a second surgery. Herein, we report an electrochemical aptamer-based PEEK biosensing system for early detection of wound infections. Due to the non-conductive nature of PEEK and its inability to sense the surrounding environment, the PEEK surface was rendered conductive by laser ablation and electrodeposited with gold nanoparticles, followed by the immobilization of thiolated aptamers specific to Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus through Au-S bonds, thereby forming a three-electrode system. This biosensor enables rapid, real-time detection of single or mixed bacterial infections with high sensitivity (LOD: 5.776 CFU mL-1 for E. coli and 11.254 CFU mL-1 for S. aureus), a wide linear range (10-10⁸ CFU mL-1), and excellent selectivity. Biocompatibility tests verified that the functionalized PEEK induces no additional inflammatory response. In murine wound models, the system accurately monitored bacterial infections throughout the healing process. By converting non-conductive PEEK into an intelligent sensing platform, this work affords a promising strategy for real-time postoperative infection monitoring, enabling early diagnosis and personalized wound management. This approach is expected to provide new insights into reducing postoperative wound infections.

To address the dual challenges of high-fidelity data dependency and unphysical generalization in data-driven constitutive modeling, this study introduces a reverse thermodynamics-informed neural network (Re-TINN). The framework innovatively establishes mappings between internal variables and both translational and dissipative stress to predict stress-strain responses while incorporating dynamic origin position information as memory variables to characterize the evolution of soil fabrics. By retroactively deriving the Helmholtz free energy and dissipation rate, the constraints imposed by the first and second laws of thermodynamics are enforced, thereby significantly improving the predictive performance in scenarios lacking experimental free energy or dissipation rate data. The model is extended to drained and undrained conditions, with validation against synthetic and experimental datasets demonstrating (1) superior accuracy compared with conventional data-driven models for noisy-data scenarios and (2) an enhanced ability to capture complex physics for path-dependent loading through the integration of dynamic reference states, as evidenced from the perspectives of variable independence, variable importance analysis, and ablation experiments.

Developing passive cooling materials with dual functionality of high-performance thermal management and aesthetic appeal remains a critical challenge for sustainable development. Here, we present a hydrophobic force-driven assembly strategy to construct crack-free colloidal photonic crystals (CPCs) for colored passive daytime cooling (PDC) textiles. Monodispersed poly(styrene-hydroxypropyl acrylate-hexafluorobutyl methacrylate) (P(St-HPA-HFBMA)) colloidal particles with low surface energy (9 mN/m) and high monodispersity (PDI < 0.05) are synthesized via soap-free emulsion polymerization. The hexafluorobutyl terminal groups (C3F6) enable robust hydrophobicity (water contact angle: 124 degrees), facilitating crack-free CPC assembly through hydrophobic driving force. By integrating the CPCs with SiO2 aerogel-embedded polyethylene oxide (PEO/SiO2 aerogel) fiber scaffold based on microfluidic spinning technology, a colored hybrid composite film is fabricated, achieving 0.76 solar reflectance and 0.84 thermal emissivity in the atmospheric window (8-13 mu m). Outdoor evaluations demonstrate a sub-ambient cooling temperature of 4.1 degrees C under 732 W/m(2) solar intensity, reaching the desirable level of PDC materials. The hybrid composite film also exhibits angle-independent structural colors, mechanical robustness (tensile strength: 1.86 MPa), and scalable manufacturability. This work provides a paradigm for multifunctional PDC systems combining aesthetic versatility with sustainable cooling performance. (c) 2025 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Chinese Chemical Society and Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.

The need for spectrum-compatible ground motions in structural seismic design has driven the development of artificial seismic waveform generation techniques. This study proposes a Conditional Variational Autoencoder with Generative Adversarial Networks (CVAE-GAN) framework to generate artificial accelerograms conditioned on acceleration response spectra, addressing the demand for spectrum-compatible ground motions in earthquake engineering. Utilizing Japan's K-NET and KiK-net seismic records, preprocessed with PhaseNet for P-wave detection, the model generates diverse accelerograms that preserve the temporal and spectral characteristics of real earthquakes. Validation on a test set (4.5 <= M-w <= 7.5) demonstrates that over 99 % of the generated spectra achieve an R-2 above 0.8 with an RMSE below 0.1 m/s(2), confirming its high accuracy and realism. Furthermore, the model exhibits generalizability to out-of-range magnitudes (M-w < 4.5 or M-w > 7.5).

ABSTRACT The persistent trade‐off between preserving the intrinsic thermal conductivity of fillers and minimizing interfacial thermal resistance remains a critical bottleneck in polymer‐based thermal interface materials (TIMs). Herein, we address this challenge through a “dual‐directional bridging” strategy using poly(benzimidazobenzophenanthroline) (BBL), a rigid ladder‐type conjugated polymer, as an interfacial mediator. Unlike conventional modifiers, BBL features an extended superplane architecture that concurrently establishes maximized π – π interlocking with the hexagonal boron nitride (h‐BN) basal plane and weaves dense hydrogen‐bonding networks with the TEMPO‐oxidized cellulose nanofiber (TOCNF) matrix. Combined spectroscopic analyses and solvent‐corrected DFT calculations support π ‐associated coupling between BBL and h‐BN together with hydrogen‐bonding interactions between BBL and TOCNF, increasing the calculated interfacial binding energy from 0.85 to 2.86 eV under an aqueous environment. Crucially, this creates a continuous “dual‐directional phonon bridge” that substantially mitigates interfacial thermal resistance and localized phonon scattering, all without disrupting the intrinsic h‐BN lattice. Consequently, the BBL@h‐BN/TOCNF film achieves in‐plane and through‐plane thermal conductivities of 8.78 and 1.18 W m −1 K −1 , outperforming standard commercial thermal silicone grease and demonstrating superior heat extraction in simulated high‐power CPU cooling. Overall, this work establishes a rational structural paradigm to unlock the macroscopic thermo‐mechanical potential of two‐dimensional (2D) composites for next‐generation electronics.

Achieving an optimal synergy between bulk and tensile strength presents a persistent challenge in high-yield pulping. This study addressed this trade-off in bamboo chemical thermomechanical pulp via a novel lowdosage sulfite/alkaline peroxide treatment (LSAPT). Integrated multi-scale characterization and Density Functional Theory/Independent Gradient Model (DFT/IGMH) calculations based on the Hirshfeld partition revealed that LSAPT transcended conventional limitations through a "lignin engineering" strategy. Unlike traditional delignification (which sacrificed bulk) or lignin retention (which limited strength), LSAPT used a "lignin engineering" strategy. This strategy preserved rigid C-C linkages (/i-/i', /i-5 ') to maintain high bulk (2.71 cm3/g) while introducing -COOH groups to form hydrogen-bonding networks, boosting tensile strength. The -COOH groups acted as molecular anchors, forming robust, directional hydrogen-bonding networks with cellulose and hemicellulose. This mechanism enhanced tensile strength by 28% compared to commercial benchmarks (20-30 N & sdot;m/g at 2.5-3.0 cm3/g bulk), thereby resolving the "strength-bulk" trade-off. Overall, this work established a paradigm shift by transforming residual lignin from an inert impurity into a functional structural component via a "lignin engineering" strategy, offering a sustainable pathway for non-wood fiber valorization.

Poly(butyleneadipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT), a highly promising biodegradable polymer, faces significant limitations in high-precision fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing owing to its low melt strength, inadequate thermal conductivity, and insufficient mechanical properties. This article describes the rapid synthesis of Zn-ion-doped carbon quantum dots (Zn-CDs) using an efficient magnetic induction heating method. Zn-CDs/PBAT composite materials were successfully prepared by melt blending Zn-CDs with PBAT through twin-screw extrusion. Empirical evidence indicates that incorporating 0.5 wt % Zn-CDs into the composite material resulted in a tensile strength of 32.01 MPa and an elongation at break of 1302.37%. These values represent increases of 23.03% and 46.59%, respectively, compared to those of pure PBAT. Notably, the incorporation of Zn-CDs substantially decreased the melt viscosity of PBAT at elevated shear rates and established an effective three-dimensional heat conduction network, thereby significantly enhancing the processing fluidity and thermal conductivity of the material. Based on these excellent processing characteristics, we successfully achieved high-precision molding of PBAT on industrial-grade particle 3D printers for the first time. The results of the printing tests indicated that the interlayer adhesion of the Zn-CDs/PBAT printed components was 44.6% superior to that of pure PBAT. This improvement effectively addresses the challenges of inadequate interlayer adhesion and the propensity for deformation in products manufactured through 3D printing with pure PBAT. This study introduces an efficient strategy for developing high-performance, biodegradable 3D printing materials and highlights the significant potential of functionalized carbon quantum dots in polymer processing and modification.