SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-026-4377-9
Continuous molecular monitoring on dynamic biological tissues demands electrochemical interfaces that maintain charge transport and reactivity under large mechanical strain. Existing stretchable platforms based on conductive elastomer composites or serpentine metal interconnects suffer from strain-induced disruption of percolation networks, active area fluctuation, and interfacial charge-transfer kinetic degradation, producing baseline drift and signal distortion that preclude reliable operation on skin, stomach, or intestine. Xu et al. (Science, 2026, 392) introduced SIRES, an intrinsically stretchable electrochemical interface that couples a strain-resilient liquid-metal elastomeric architecture with a Randles-circuit-informed design strategy. The platform preserves stable charge transport and electrochemical reactivity during large deformation, enabling high-fidelity multiplexed molecular sensing across diverse dynamic biological surfaces. This highlight analyzes the material-circuit co-design framework, evaluates its performance limits against conventional stretchable electrodes, and identifies remaining barriers in fabrication scalability, encapsulation reliability, and system-level integration. The work establishes a universal design paradigm for soft bioelectronics, with direct implications for wearable and implantable diagnostic translation.
SCIENCE CHINA Materials•2026•DOI: 10.1007/s40843-026-4235-6
Fluorite-structured oxides (HfO2, ZrO2) are promising for resistive random-access memory (RRAM) due to their scalability and tunable properties. However, achieving high resistive switching on/off ratios remains challenging. Here, we report a collaborative strategy combining Hf/Zr ratio optimization and Lu3+ doping to regulate band structure and oxygen vacancy concentration in Hf0.4Zr0.6O2 (LHZO) thin films. The resulting LHZO devices exhibit a resistive switching ratio of 8.4 × 10^4, two orders of magnitude higher than that of ZrO2 (1.2 × 10^3). Electrical characterization and synchrotron radiation photoemission spectroscopy reveal that Lu doping widens the bandgap to 4.95 eV, downshifts the valence band, and introduces defect states, collectively suppressing p-type conductivity and reducing off-state leakage current. Simultaneously, Lu3+ doping enriches oxygen vacancies, stabilizing ohmic conductive filaments in the on-state. This co-optimization of band structure and oxygen vacancies effectively enhances insulating properties in the high-resistance state and ohmic conductivity in the low-resistance state, leading to superior resistive switching performance with robust retention (>10^4 s). Our findings establish a fundamental strategy for tailoring electronic properties of doped HfZrO2 thin films toward high-performance RRAM applications.
Chinese Journal of Environmental Engineering•2026•DOI: 10.12030/j.cjee.202509049
This study systematically compared three virus enrichment and concentration methods—polyethylene glycol (PEG) precipitation, aluminum salt coagulation, and centrifugal ultrafiltration—for detecting SARS-CoV-2 in high-turbidity, high-strength wastewater from inbound flights. The aluminum salt coagulation method exhibited the best overall performance, achieving an average recovery rate of 25.95% for SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus, significantly higher than PEG precipitation (12.91%) and centrifugal ultrafiltration (0.22%) (P<0.05). Its detection limit reached 10 copies·mL⁻¹, whereas centrifugal ultrafiltration suffered severe membrane fouling, limiting detection to 1,000 copies·mL⁻¹. Considering the high pH buffering of flight wastewater, the aluminum salt method was optimized by adjusting pH to 6.00±0.4, employing rapid magnetic stirring, and reducing mixing time to 1 minute, yielding an average recovery of 27.56% (not significantly different from the original 25.95%, P>0.05). An automated enrichment device was developed based on the optimized method, reducing processing time per sample from 115 min to 60 min while maintaining comparable recovery and improved repeatability. Applied to 1,309 wastewater samples from inbound flights between January 2024 and May 2025, the average detection rate of SARS-CoV-2 was 45.45%, with trends consistent with national COVID-19 epidemiological data. The automated device demonstrates suitability for routine surveillance, providing technical support for port epidemic prevention.