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Molecular chirality is represented as broken mirror symmetry in the structural orientation of constituent atoms and plays a pivotal role at every scale of nature. Since the discovery of the chiroptic property of chiral molecules, the characterization of molecular chirality is important in the fields of biology, physics, and chemistry. Over the centuries, the field of optical chiral sensing was based on chiral light–matter interactions between chiral molecules and polarized light. Starting from simple optics-based sensing, the utilization of plasmonic materials that could control local chiral light–matter interactions by squeezing light into molecules successfully facilitated chiral sensing into noninvasive, ultrasensitive, and accurate detection. In this Review, the importance of plasmonic materials and their engineering in chiral sensing are discussed based on the principle of chiral light–matter interactions and the theory of optical chirality and chiral perturbation; thus, this Review can serve as a milestone for the proper design and utilization of plasmonic nanostructures for improved chiral sensing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: To our best knowledge, no experimental study has previously investigated the simultaneous effects of adding Fe powder for the decrease of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in biogas and the removal of phosphate (PO4‐P) in continuous anaerobic digestion (AD). This study investigated the effects of iron (Fe) powder (5 g L−1) in AD to remove H2S and PO4‐P. A comparative experiment was conducted using two semi‐continuous‐flow anaerobic digesters treating primary sludge at decreasing hydraulic retention times (HRTs) of 20 to 10 days. RESULTS: The addition of Fe powder to AD removed > 98% of H2S at all HRTs, and removed 64–72% of PO4‐P, with the highest removal efficiency at HRT = 10 d. The addition of Fe powder to AD had no noticeable effect on biogas production or pH, but it increased the CH4 content (62.7–66.0% in Fe‐treated vs 58.2–60.4% in the Control) partly due to the greater presence of Methanoregulaceae. The relative abundance of the microbial groups was more affected by HRT than by the addition of Fe powder. The presence of Fe powder notably increased the abundance of Spirochaetaceae and Syntrophaceae. CONCLUSION: As shown, the addition of Fe powder can improve the management of both H2S in the biogas and PO4‐P in the digested sludge in the AD system. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry (SCI). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous approaches have employed the SCOR model for evaluating supply chain management, and in particular, have focused on cash-to-cash cycle time (C2C). This paper reviews the Supply Chain Index (SCI) developed by Supply Chain Insight LLC, which evaluates supply chain performance based on balance, strength, and resiliency. The main aim of this study is to review SCI as a new methodology to measure performance management, as well as to apply C2C for a case study of Korean firms, to compare and present differences for further complementary application.

Electricity generation using the piezoelectric effect is an important energy harvesting method. In this study, a solar radiation pressure‐driven crater‐shaped light pressure electric generator (LPEG) device with a Pb(Zr0.52, Ti0.48)O3 (PZT) piezoelectric layer and grained Ag layer is fabricated on GaAs(100) wafer. The electrical output of the device is improved by adsorbing Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) on the Ag layer with the surface of closely connected Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs). By controlling the size and concentration of the AuNPs, a maximum power density of 867.5 µW cm−2 is obtained under a solar simulator (AM 1.5G), which represents a 151.7% improvement over the case without AuNP adsorption. The results of Raman spectra, finite‐difference time‐domain (FDTD) simulations, and COMSOL Multiphysics demonstrate that the newly formed hotspots between AgNPs─AuNPs and AuNPs─AuNPs enhance the electric field of the incident light significantly and extend the region where the electric field is maximally amplified to 600–800 nm, resulting in increased solar radiation pressure on the PZT piezoelectric layer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Implantable strain sensors that reliably detect various biomechanical signals in vivo are essential electronic devices for advanced biomedical and bioengineering technologies. However, it is a challenge to prepare soft implantable strain sensors with high linear sensitivity, good mechanical/chemical stability, and proper biological compatibility. Here, we report the preparation, mechanics, and applications of soft and implantable cracked reduced graphene oxide-based electro-mechanical strain sensors for monitoring internal tissue or organ dynamics that also address the aforementioned limitations. These skin-like strain sensors are composed of a high-quality microwaved reduced graphene oxide multilayer and a microcracked polymer substrate. By adopting both prestrain and hybrid reduction strategies, we successfully developed novel implantable graphene strain sensors that exhibit a set of unique properties, including high strain linear sensitivity (∼876.7 GF over a range of 0% to 30% strain), excellent mechanical durability (10 000 strain cycles at a strain of 20%) and chemical stability in biological fluids (a saline solution for 7 days), and excellent in vitro and in vivo biocompatibility. We also demonstrated the use of our implantable sensors for reliably measuring the strain associated with in vivo dynamic cardiac activity and for assessing preclinical cardiovascular drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interfaces with surrounding materials, where charged impurities and surface roughness are present, have a significant impact on the electrical and optical properties of 2D materials. In the change of the phonon modes of MoS2 accompanied by thickness variation, the portion caused by intrinsic factors and the portion caused by the interface effect are separated by examining the result of encapsulation with hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). For instance, the frequency of the A1g peak of MoS2 supported by SiO2 decreases by ≈4 cm−1 in air for a thickness reduction from ten layers to monolayer. Of this decrease, roughly 2 cm−1 is attributable to the weakening of the van der Waals interlayer interaction, while the remaining 2 cm−1 is due to the interface effect. The interface state, that is, the types and concentrations of impurities at the interface, between MoS2 and SiO2 is estimated to be similar to that between MoS2 and air because the Raman properties when one surface of MoS2 is in contact with SiO2 and with air are identical within the measurement error. When entirely encapsulated with hBN, the width of the A1g peak of few‐layer MoS2 is significantly reduced, becoming comparable or equal to that of bulk MoS2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]