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Self-driven anti-gravity water transport has attracted extensive attention in the fields. Herein, inspired by the multiple structures of trees, we propose a self-driven ultra-long-distance anti-gravity water transport device with a core-shell structure in the radial direction and a twofold hierarchical structure in the axial direction. The core and the shell of the device are composed of a hydrophilic ordered nanofiber bundle and a glass tube respectively, which can provide powerful capillary driving force and low flow/evaporation resistance for spontaneous water lifting. The core is equipped with a bottom-up decreasing pore size and non-uniformly distributed carbon nanotubes to form an axial twofold hierarchical structure, offering Laplace pressure difference and negative pressure as extra driving forces for water transport. The device achieves a significant breakthrough in ultra-long-distance water transport of 1070 mm (one order of magnitude higher than existing materials), which also exhibits long-term transport stability for over 30 days. The tree-inspired novel structural design of the device will provide new insights into the energy-free transport of fluids.

Energy harvesting and power transmission is a significant challenge for the self-powered technologies towards mobile electronic devices. Here, we propose a hybridized energy harvester to complement each other’s strengths for simultaneously scavenging multiple types of energy and then wirelessly transmit the power. The harvester consists of electromagnetic-triboelectric nanogenerator units for collecting rotational energy and a commercial water-proof flexible solar cell. At a rotation rate of 500 rpm, the output current of electromagnetic-triboelectric nanogenerator units can reach about 630 mA through energy management. Moreover, the power harvested by hybridized energy harvester can be wirelessly transmitted up to a distance of about 100 cm in real time to charge mobile phone, anemometer, and hygrometer based on self-resonant coils. The hybridized energy harvester with wireless power transmission has potential applications in large-scale energy collection, long-distance wireless power transmission and sustainably driving mobile electronic devices.

Along with the unceasing growth of worldwide economic and the associated issues on resources, energy and environment, clean energy generating technologies that are based on recyclable materials, if possible, may become the future trend of development. Here, we report the design of a cheap, lightweight, and recyclable single-electrode triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) that utilizes waste paper as the triboelectric material. Under the current strategy, we successfully developed green energy machines without vastly increasing the mining of various critical minerals around the world. The as-designed TENG could not only collect and convert mechanical energy into electricity with sound efficiency, but also has the merit for continuous reuse and quick construction. The maximum output power density is as high as 171 mW·m−2 at a resistance of 130 MΩ and could be integrated into a book for monitoring reading actions, thus providing a new approach to the low-cost, green and sustainable self-powered electronic systems.

Triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) has been proved as a promising energy harvester in recent years, but the challenges of exploring economically triboelectric materials still exist and have aroused interests of many researchers. In this paper, chitosansilk fibroin-airlaid paper composite film (CSA film) was fabricated and then the CSA film based-triboelectric nanogenerator (CSA-TENG) was constructed, which presents an opportunity for natural polymers to be applied in triboelectric materials. Due to the excellent electron donating ability of CSA film, the CSA-TENG can harvest environmental energy with a high efficiency. More importantly, the as-designed CSA film based dual-electrode triboelectric nanogenerator (CSA-D-TENG) is successfully assembled into hand clapper and trampoline to harvest mechanical energies generated by human bodies, it is also capable of monitoring human movement while harvesting biomechanical energies. This work provides a simple and environmental-friendly way to develop TENG for biomechanical energies harvesting and human motion monitoring.

The fast-spreading of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been sweeping arount the globe and brought heavy casualties and economic losses, which creats dire needs for technological solutions into medical preventive actions. In this work, triboelectric nanogenerator for respiratory sensing (RS-TENG) has been designed and integrated with facemask, which endows the latter with respiratory monitoring function. The output of RS-TENG for respiratory flow can reach up to about 8 V and 0.8 μA respectively although it varies with different respiratory status, which proves the high sensitivity of RS-TENG for respiratory monitoring. An apnea alarm system can be constructed by combining the smart facemask with circuit modules so that timely alarm can be transmitted after people stop breathing. Furthermore, RS-TENG can be used to control household appliances, which brings convenience to the life of the disabled people. Considering its incomparable advantages such as small volume, easy fabrication, simple installation and economical applicability, such design is helpful for developing multifunctional health monitoring gadgets during the COVID-19 pandemic., Graphical abstract This TENG-based facemask not only can real-time monitor human breath sensitively and accurately, but also can combine with different circuit module to realize different functions, such as control electric appliances by breath or apneal alarm. The research has proved that this facemask has a good prospect in the fields of wearable device, smart medical care systems and respiratory monitoring.

Most bionic leaves cannot autonomously absorb water and maintain high water content like plant leaves, causing the low Vis-NIR spectral similarity to plant leaves. Herein, inspired by the transpiration of plant leaves, a self-driven water vapor-absorbing bionic leaf was prepared by the crosslinking between hygroscopic CaCl

Close attention has been paid to the impact of data security in international contexts, and the inherent risks generated for international companies. Currently, many international companies are migrating to cloud-based data storage and control solutions. Given this trend, it is important to determine key factors that reduce cloud security risks for these companies, and to understand the extent to which risk profiles differ between national cultures. This study contrasted the cloud-based data risk perceptions of survey respondents from Irish and Chinese companies. Findings identified security as a major perceived risk factor when using cloud storage services in both Irish and Chinese companies, and found no statistically different risk factors between the two groups. This suggested an alignment of cloud risk perceptions between people working in disparate cultures. The paper concludes by considering some cultural and organisational risk factors which potentially influence the adoption of cloud-based data storage and control systems, and outlines some broad implications for systems research, development and international stability.

For the past few years, triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have been demonstrated as an unprecedented method as self-powered, power generation and blue energy. The materials and electrodes used to fabricate TENGs are usually polymer materials and metals. The article demonstrates a new TENG that use entirely bio- and environmental degradable materials. The basic ingredients of the TENG are wheat bread and vegetable leaves for fabricating a sandwich structured TENG (S-TENG). The maximum voltage and current of this S-TENG can reach about 15 V and 3 μA, respectively, when it works in the single electrode mode under the optimal conditions. Additionally, the effects of linear motor frequency, different triboelectric layers, and the area of triboelectric layers on the output of S-TENG were investigated in this work. Several application experiments have confirmed that the S-TENG is capable of driving commercial LED and initiating an alarm apparatus. This work provides a new prospect for the extensiveness of power objects and proves the potential of natural materials applied to the aspect of environmental-friendly power sources and harvesting the green energy.

Although azobenzene disperse dyes with planar structures and alkali-resistant (AR) stability are recently reported, those with easily hydrolyzed groups and twisted molecular structures and their related effective design strategies are not yet explored. Herein, sterically hindered and planar benzyl group is introduced into the adjacent location of cyano to deeply explore the AR stability of the dyes. These designed dyes, with the final fixation higher than 98% and final fixation difference between conventional and alkali condition smaller than 1%, are further applied on one-step dyeing of PET fabrics, which reduce of 60% water consumption, 40% energy and 60% wastewater. Careful analysis of their alkali-hydrolysis behavior and crystal structures confirmed that benzyl group can lead to diverse intermolecular interactions. The strong intermolecular interactions result in compact molecular arrangement and actually beneficial for the AR stability by preventing the nucleophilic reagent. Incorporating an understanding of these packing structures into the design of organic colorants can assist in developing high-performance chemicals.

One-dimensional semiconductors can be combined with functional molecules to form planar van der Waals heterojunctions whose charge transport behavior is influenced by the heterojunction geometry, providing a new degree of freedom to engineer device functions. Here, we proposed a Schottky contacted single ZnO micro/nanowire sensor for detecting protein kinases activity in this paper. Protein kinases activity was investigated recur to the specific identification of ZnO to phosphorylated peptide and piezotronic effect on the performance of the phosphorylated peptide sensor with different compressive strain. The strain-induced piezoelectric polarization charges can adjust the Schottky barrier height, which can effectively enhance the overall performance of the designed device. Under the positive bias, the relative current changes at phosphorylated peptide concentrations of 10 nM enhanced from 3% to 66%, respectively, as the applied compressive strain increased from 0.00% to 0.72%. This work provides a promising piezotronically enhanced Schottky contacted single ZnO micro/nanowire-based protein kinases sensor. A detailed understanding of how the electrostatics affect charge transport in nanowire/molecule heterojunctions inform the design of future van der Waals heterojunction detectors and transistors, which is relevant in the design of nanowire applications.