Publications

This study demonstrates that a dynamic hydrogel composite can release cellular-size granules in the physiological environments for regenerative medicine and bioelectronics, which has been long sought in the development of hydrogel-based artificial cells21. A monolithic-to-focal evolving process allows the composite to harness the properties and functions of both monolithic and focal biointerfaces. The hydrogel composites use gelatin and chitosan as the hydrogel matrix to respond to biological environments while also facilitating macroscopic material shaping and manipulation.

We designed a soil-inspired chemical system that consists of nanostructured minerals, starch granules and liquid metals. The soil-inspired material possesses chemical, optical and mechanical responsiveness to yield write–erase functions in electrical performance. The composite can also modulate bacterial growth both in vitro and in vivo, such as enriches gut bacteria diversity, rectifies tetracycline-induced gut microbiome dysbiosis and ameliorates dextran sulfate sodium-induced rodent colitis symptoms within rodent models.

In this work, we show that the periplasm, an underappreciated subcellular region in materials research, can offer a nongenetic pathway for biomineralization of metastable semiconductor nanoclusters. Under light stimulation, the metastable semiconductor nanoclusters could couple with the electron transport chain to increase ATP levels and enhance malate production in the living hybrids. Using the E. coli strain as a model, the current system to develop periplasmic biointerface for enhanced solar-to-chemical production might be extended to other bacterial cells to potentially endow additional sustainability level to the bioremediation applications

We developed a cost-competitive and environmentally friendly approach that is promising for sustainable and scalable production of semiconductor biohybrids towards solar-driven chemical production utilizing multiple pollutants in wastewater. Compared with fossil-fuels refining and sugar-based bacterial fermentation, the wastewater-derived biohybrid system shows lower carbon emission and production cost. We believe wastewater-based hybrid fermentation will provide an alternative for both sustainable biomanufacturing and environmental remediation.

Nanowired human cardiac organoids significantly augment the therapeutic potential of hPSC-CMs for heart repair. While cardiac organoids have been used for cardiac tissue engineering applications, this study reveals e-SiNWs as a class of biocompatible, conductive nanomaterials that facilitate contractile and noncontractile benefits in hPSC-CM transplantation. Given the emerging clinical applications of hPSC-CMs to treat infarcted hearts, these results have direct translational impacts for conductive nanomaterials in cardiac cell therapy and implications in other conductive tissues (e.g., skeletal muscle and neuronal tissues).

In this work, we showed that a porosity-based heterojunction, a largely overlooked system in materials science, can yield an efficient photoelectrochemical response from the semiconductor surface.

In this review, we explored the fundamental chemical roles and principles involved in designing these interfaces, such as the (bio)chemical evolution of adaptive or buffer zones. We proposed a soft–hard interaction framework and use it to discuss soft–hard interfacial processes in multiple systems and across several spatiotemporal scales, focusing on tissue-like materials and devices.

In this work, we reported a strategy incorporating neutralizing antibodies conjugated to the surface of a photothermal nanoparticle (NP) to capture and inactivate SARS-CoV-2.

In this work, we showed that functionalized nanoparticles, termed “Nanotraps,” completely inhibited SARS-CoV-2 infection by blocking the interaction between the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 and the ACE2 of host cells.

In this work, we identified several soft- hard composite designs in naturally occurring systems, and we use these designs to categorize the existing bioelectric interfaces and to suggest future opportunities in bioelectric studies.

In this review, we systematically summarize the attributes, fabrication methods, and applications of gallium-based liquid metal particles. Existing challenges and future opportunities regarding liquid metal particles are discussed herein.

In this work, we demonstrated that cellular-scale hydrated starch granules, an underexplored component in materials science, could turn conventional hydrogels into tissue-like materials when composites were formed.

We designed a liquid metal based composite that can change from non-conductive states to fully conductive states with mechanical pressure. Therefore, we can simply use a pen to create arbitrary conductive circuits on a soft substrate.

We demonstrated that sonication of gallium or gallium-based liquid metals in an aqueous solution of vinyl monomers could lead to rapid free radical polymerization, without the need for conventional molecular initiators.

Here, we presented a detailed study on the effects of NaCl concentration and the grafting density and molecular weight on the stability of PAA brushes during incubation in 0.1 M ethanolamine buffer (pH 9.0) solutions.

We presented a completely soft, stretchable silicone composite doped with thermochromic pigments and innervated with liquid metal. The ability to deform the liquid metal couples geometric changes to Joule heating, thus enabling tunable thermo-mechanochromic sensing of touch and strain.

In this work, we conducted an in situ investigation of phase behavior for gallium-based liquid metal nanoparticles and discover the unprecedented coexistence of solid particles in spherical liquid metal shells without the support of a crystalline substrate.

In this work, we experimentally demonstrated strong UV plasmonic resonances of eutectic gallium-indium liquid-metal alloy nanoparticles suspended in ethanol. We rationalise experimental results through a theoretical model based on Mie theory.

In this work, we showed the development of a vapor cavity generating ultrasonic platform for nebulizing liquid metal within aqueous media for the one-step production of stable and functional liquid metal NPs.

We developed a strategy to graft polymeric coating on liquid metal nanoparticles and the resulting nanoparticles can remain stable in biological buffers for at least 60 days without noticeable oxidation.

We designed a liquid metal based composite that can change from non-conductive states to fully conductive states with mechanical pressure. Therefore, we can simply use a pen to create arbitrary conductive circuits on a soft substrate.

We reported visualization of mechanochemically assisted degrafting of surface-tethered poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) brushes in a basic aqueous buffer at nanometer to micrometer length scale by monitoring changes in local etching of silicon substrates.

We studied the stability of diblock copolymer brushes featuring a bottom neutral block, poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) or poly(poly(ethylene glycol) methacrylate) (PPEGMA), and a top poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) block on flat silicon substrate

We developed a super facile way to pattern liquid metal into complicated microstructures with branches and dead-ends. The process only took less than 1 minute.

We injected liquid metal into the core of hollow and extremely stretchable elastomeric fibers and the resulting fibers could be intertwined into a helix to fabricate capacitive sensors of torsion, strain, and touch.

We described here a light-fueled liquid-metal transformer for effective endosomal escape-facilitated cargo delivery via a chemical-mechanical process. Such liquid metal transformer could absorb and convert photoenergy to drive the simultaneous phase separation and morphological transformation from nanospheres to hollow nanorods to promote endosomal escape of payloads.

We designed a liquid metal based composite that can change from non-conductive states to fully conductive states with mechanical pressure. Therefore, we can simply use a pen to create arbitrary conductive circuits on a soft substrate.

We explored an extremely facile method to fabricate metallic wires at room temperature.

We have developed a new liquid metal-based drug delivery platform for anticancer therapy. The liquid-metal nanomedicines are able to fuse for promoting drug release and eventually degrade under a mild acidic environment.

We designed a liquid metal based composite that can change from non-conductive states to fully conductive states with mechanical pressure. Therefore, we can simply use a pen to create arbitrary conductive circuits on a soft substrate.

We could tune the liquid metal microparticles size in a flow-focusing device through applying a small voltage to change the liquid metal surface tension.

We developed a facile way to synthesize metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) rapidly at room-temperature.

We demonstrate a novel method for controlling the flow of liquid metal in microchannels simply by applying a modest voltage to the metal relative to a counter electrode placed in the outlet.

In this work, we fabricate soft conductive wires composed of liquid metal and elastomer, and such wires could be stretched to more than 10 times of original lengths, without losing their conductivity.