In a paper published in Polymer Science & Technology, an international team of scientists developed a multifunctional conductive hydrogel (P-EPL/CCT) hydrogel flexible sensor using a physical-chemical dual cross-linking approach involving poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), gallic acid grafted chitosan (CS−GA), tannic acid (TA), eggshell membrane (ESM), lysozyme, and 4am-PEG-MAL for emergency cooling and wound healing following fire-works-related skin burns. The organohydrogel sensor exhibits impressive mechanical properties, such as a maximum stress of 2.15 MPa and an elongation of 605%, along with antifreeze resistance down to −39.5 °C, antimicrobial properties with bacterial inhibition exceeding 96.5%, and cytocompatibility. Additionally, serving as strain sensor with high sensitivity (GF = 1.14 at 100% strain) and rapid response times, it can effectively monitor human movement signals. The developed organohydrogel demonstrates the ability to accelerate skin healing, promote angiogenesis, and reduce scarring. Moreover, it is utilized for monitoring finger joint injuries and employing machine learning-assisted electrical signals for intelligent wound healing monitoring and protection. This study introduces a flexible device that combines multiple functionalities, showing promise for diverse applications in the biomedical field. This study is led by Chuang Du (Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, China), Weiwei Liu (Stomatological Hospital, Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China) and Lei Wang (Key Laboratory of Molecular Enzymology and Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Life Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun 130023, China).

Combustion instability, which causes dangerous pressure oscillations in combustors, arises from complex feedback between heat release, acoustics, and flow. Now, researchers from Japan have applied network science to spray combustion instability, shedding light on the dynamics of ‘turbulence networks.’ By identifying critical regions, they found a way to suppress combustion instability. This method offers a novel mathematical approach to stabilizing the combustion state in various combustors.

A research team led by Dr. Dirk Henkensmeier at the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Research Center of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST, President Sang-Rok Oh) has developed a novel membrane material for water electrolysis that operates stably and has significantly higher conductivity under low alkalinity conditions than existing systems. The newly developed membrane maintains high hydrogen production performance even in low-concentration alkaline environments, providing a technological foundation for low-alkalinity water electrolysis.

A review paper by scientists from Tianjin University presented light on brain-on-a-chip interfaces (BoCIs)—a groundbreaking technology that fuses lab-grown biological neural networks with electronic systems to enable bidirectional information exchange.