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Temperature monitoring with high-pressure resistance, precision, and sensitivity is crucial for temperature measurement in complex environments. Traditional temperature sensors are limited by the sensitivities and cannot meet the requirements for temperature sensing under high-pressure conditions. Here, we propose a straightforward method to modulate supramolecular interactions within ionic liquids by doping them with metal salts, thus achieving enhanced temperature sensitivity. Iron-ion doping in 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium dicyanamide ([BMIm][N(CN)2]) led to exceptional sensitivity (>20%/°C) and detection of minute temperature differences (0.01 °C). Besides, polyurethane swollen by ionic liquids successfully detected temperature changes under a high pressure of 2000 N. Importantly, the approach allows studying structure–property relationships and demonstrates the potential of ionic liquids in high-pressure temperature monitoring, catering to the temperature monitoring needs in various complex environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the existence of hydration layer at interfaces, the weak affinity between hydrogels and most hydrophobic materials routinely generates weak and brittle bonding, which has been a disadvantage of hydrogels when serving as coatings on solid substrates. Herein, a finding of substantial affinity is presented between polyacrylamide-based hydrogels and cellulose acetate (CA) without particular chemical and physical pretreatments. Besides understanding the mechanism behind it, this unusual finding motivates to make reversible adhesive hydrogel tapes. Learning from the commercial Scotch Magic Tape which typically paints a glue layer on polymer films to achieve appropriate adhesion on solid surfaces, the CA backlayer can be easily glued and firmly bonded to arbitrary solid surfaces without affecting the properties of hydrogel layer on the other side. This particular kind of hydrogel tape can be readily scaled up from laboratory synthesis to a roll-to-roll continuous production. Several applications of hydrogel tapes are succeeded in alarming hyperthermia, thermal dissipation, and serving as ultrasonic couplant. In terms of the advantages of low cost, green fabrication, convenient operation, sticky performance and ignorable residues, the hydrogel tape would be one of the desirable choices to be used as one-off healthcare material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transparent terbium aluminum garnet (TAG) ceramics were achieved by the vacuum sintering plus HIP post‐treating from the coprecipitated TAG nanoparticles. The influences of vacuum sintering temperature and sintering aid TEOS on the optical quality of the TAG ceramics were studied. The results show that with the increase of sintering temperature, the optical quality of TAG ceramics is improved gradually, and the in‐line transmittance of the TAG ceramics treated at 1720°C for 20 hours under vacuum and then HIP post‐treated at 1700°C for 3 hours under 200 MPa argon gas is 81.6% at 1064 nm. The sintering additive TEOS can improve the optical quality of TAG ceramics and inhibit the valence state change of Tb3+ ions to Tb4+ during the annealing process. The Verdet constant of the TAG ceramics at 632.8 nm is about −178 rad·T−1·m−1 at room temperature, which is 1.3 times that of the commercial TGG crystals (−134 rad·T−1·m−1). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 0.05 at.% Co:MgAl2O4 precursor was synthesized by the coprecipitation method from a mixed solution of magnesium, aluminum, and cobalt nitrates using ammonium carbonate as the precipitant. 0.05 at.% Co:MgAl2O4 transparent ceramics were successfully obtained via vacuum sintering and hot isostatic pressing (HIP) of 0.05 at.% Co:MgAl2O4 nanopowder calcined at 1100°C for 4 hours. The properties of powder and ceramics were comprehensively investigated. X‐ray diffraction (XRD) results showed that Co:MgAl2O4 nanopowder had a pure spinel phase. Also, the in‐line transmittances of the HIP posttreated Co:MgAl2O4 ceramics with the thickness of 1.2 mm were 82% at 400 nm and 84.7% at 900 nm. The average grain sizes of 0.05 at.% Co:MgAl2O4 ceramics before and after the HIP posttreatment were 11 and 28 μm, respectively. The calculated ground state absorption cross section of 0.05 at.% Co:MgAl2O4 ceramics was 2.9 × 10−19 cm2, indicating that this ceramics is a promising material applied as a saturable absorber for passive laser Q‐switches in the 1.3‐1.7 μm domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Room temperature vulcanized (RTV) silicone rubber is a type of anti-pollution flashover coating which has been widely used in China. Featuring good hydrophobicity and adhesive property, RTV coatings are applied to insulators to increase the pollution flashover voltage of insulator strings. However, compared with high temperature vulcanized (HTV) silicone rubber used in composite insulators, RTV coatings are less durable in field operation. In this paper, investigation and experiments were conducted on some RTV coated insulators from Shanxi province and Guangdong province respectively. All the insulators have been in operation for about 6 years and the RTV coatings applied are produced by the same manufacturer. It is found that the performances of RTV coated insulators in Shanxi province are much better than those in Guangdong province. Phenomena such as chalking, color fading and peeling off were observed on RTV coated insulators from Guangdong whereas only slight loss of adhesion property and hydrophobicity were observed on insulators from Shanxi province. Micro structural analysis and macro performance tests were conducted on different positions of collected insulators and it is concluded that operation environment, especially humidity, have great impact on the operation performance of RTV coated insulators. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The increasing need for ionic circuits has driven the demand for patterning methods with excellent wear resistance and ease of preparation. However, the traditional method of the circuits modified on the surface frequently suffers from wear and detachment during use. Herein, an interpenetrating network of poly(ionic liquid) and polyurethane is employed, creating a patternable ionic circuit that can resist the abrasion of sandpaper or taping. Hydrophobic ionic liquids are successfully polymerized inside the polyurethane to achieve a waterproof ionic circuit, simultaneously reducing the impact of environmental humidity. Additionally, this ionic circuit possesses the capability to perceive the multisignals of temperature, pressure, and pressing shapes with the assistance of artificial intelligence. The interpenetrating network provides a simple and practical solution for the fabrication of wear‐resistant and stable patterned ionic circuits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cardiac hypertrophy is a major risk factor for heart failure, which are among the leading causes of human death. Gastrodin is a small molecule that has been used clinically to treat neurological and vascular diseases for many years without safety issues. In the present study, we examined protective effect of gastrodin against cardiac hypertrophy and explored the underlying mechanism. Phenylephrine and angiotensin II were used to induce cardiac hypertrophy in a mouse model and a cultured cardiomyocyte model. Gastrodin was found to alleviate the cardiac hypertrophy in both models. Mechanistically, gastrodin attenuated the store-operated Ca 2+ entry (SOCE) by reducing the expression of STIM1 and Orai1, two key proteins in SOCE, in animal models as well as in cultured cardiomyocyte model. Furthermore, suppressing SOCE by RO2959, Orai1-siRNAs or STIM1-siRNAs markedly attenuated the phenylephrine-induced hypertrophy in cultured cardiomyocyte model. Together, these results showed that gastrodin inhibited cardiac hypertrophy and it also reduced the SOCE via its action on the expression of STIM1 and Orai1. Furthermore, suppression of SOCE could reduce the phenylephrine-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, suggesting that SOCE-STIM1-Orai1 is located upstream of hypertrophy.