Mini-Review: Mixed Ionic-Electronic Charge Carrier Localization and Transport in Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Nanomaterials

Morphological Electrical and Hardness Characterization of Carbon Nanotube-Reinforced Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU) Nanocomposite Plates

The impacts on the morphological, electrical and hardness properties of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) plates using multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as reinforcing fillers have been investigated, using MWCNT loadings between 1 and 7 wt%. Plates of the TPU/MWCNT nanocomposites were fabricated by compression molding from extruded pellets. An X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the incorporation of MWCNTs into the TPU polymer matrix increases the ordered range of the soft and hard segments. SEM images revealed that the fabrication route used here helped to obtain TPU/MWCNT nanocomposites with a uniform dispersion of the nanotubes inside the TPU matrix and promoted the creation of a conductive network that favors the electronic conduction of the composite. The potential of the impedance spectroscopy technique has been used to determine that the TPU/MWCNT plates exhibited two conduction mechanisms, percolation and tunneling conduction of electrons, and their conductivity values increase as the MWCNT loading increases. Finally, although the fabrication route induced a hardness reduction with respect to the pure TPU, the addition of MWCNT increased the Shore A hardness behavior of the TPU plates.

Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Materials and Interfaces With Mixed Ionic-Electronic Transport Properties: Advances in Experimental and Theoretical Approaches

The main goal of this mini-review is to provide an updated state-of-the-art of the hybrid organic-inorganic materials focusing mainly on interface phenomena involving ionic and electronic transport properties. First, we review the most relevant preparation techniques and the structural features of hybrid organic-inorganic materials prepared by solution-phase reaction of inorganic/organic precursor into organic/inorganic hosts and vapor-phase infiltration of the inorganic precursor into organic hosts and molecular layer deposition of organic precursor onto the inorganic surface. Particular emphasis is given to the advances in joint experimental and theoretical studies discussing diverse types of computational simulations for hybrid-organic materials and interfaces. We make a specific revision on the separately ionic, and electronic transport properties of these hybrid organic-inorganic materials focusing mostly on interface phenomena. Finally, we deepen into mixed ionic-electronic transport properties and provide our concluding remarks and give some perspectives about this growing field of research.

Biomimetic -mineralized multifunctional nanoflowers for anodic-stripping voltammetric immunoassay of rehabilitation-related proteins

C-reactive proteins (CRPs; an acute-phase protein) in patients with initial acute cerebral infarction neurological rehabilitation prediction have a significant correlation. In this work, a simple and sensitive anodic-stripping voltammetric (ASV) immunosensing system was innovatively designed for the quantitative screening of target CRPs using biomimetic-mineralized bifunctional antibody-Cu₃(PO₄)₂ nanoflowers as molecular tags. In this system, a monoclonal anti-CRP antibody-anchored microtiter plate was utilized to specifically capture target CRPs from the sample. For detection, a sandwiched immunoreaction mode was employed with the antibody-Cu₃(PO₄)₂ nanoflowers in the presence of analytes. Subsequent ASV measurement of copper ions (Cu²⁺) released under acidic conditions from the bifunctional nanoflowers was conducted at an in situ prepared mercury film electrode. The introduction of hybrid nanoflowers greatly increased the loading amount of copper ions on the molecular tag, thereby amplifying the detectable signal of electrochemical immunoassay. Meanwhile, factors influencing the analytical properties of the electrochemical immunoassay were investigated in detail. By combining the high-efficiency nanohybrids with signal amplification, the dynamic concentration range of electrochemical immunoassay spanned from 0.01 ng mL^-1 to 100 ng mL^-1 toward the target CRP. The limit of detection was calculated to be 0.0079 ng mL^-1 at 3S_blank criterion. Intra- and interassay imprecisions (relative standard deviations: RSDs) were less than or equal to 6.72%. Good anti-interference ability, long-term storage stability, and acceptable accuracy for the evaluation of human serum specimens were observed during a series of procedures to determine the target protein. In addition, the bifunctional nanoflower-based immunosensing system offers promise for the simple, cost-effective analysis of disease-related proteins.