Buchaiah Gollapelli

Conductive hydrogels, owing to their excellent stretchability, flexibility, and electrical conductivity, have emerged as promising materials for next-generation flexible electronics, wearable sensors, and energy harvesting devices. Herein, we report an ultrastretchable conductive hydrogel based on a polyacrylamide/sodium alginate (PAM/SA) dual-network matrix integrated with a synergistic hybrid conductive framework composed of Ti3C2Tx MXene and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanosheets. Benefiting from the complementary interfacial interactions and structural characteristics of the two-dimensional (2D) nanofillers, the resulting MXene/rGO hydrogel exhibits significantly enhanced stretchability and electrical conductivity compared to pristine and single-filler systems. The M15R5 hydrogel-based strain sensor offers a high fracture elongation of 1765%, excellent structural strength of 0.35 MPa, toughness of 3.0 MJ/m3, a high gauge factor (GF = 2.26) over an extensive strain range of 100–700%, a rapid response of approximately 290 ms, and retains excellent durability for beyond 1000 stretch–release cycles. The intrinsic interlayer slip characteristics and high aspect ratios of MXene and rGO, together with their surface-abundant hydrophilic functional groups, create a synergistic, interconnected conductive network that efficiently couples ionic and electronic transport under deformation. Furthermore, the developed hydrogel film was employed as a soft electrode material for triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) applications in mechanical energy harvesting. The synergistic interaction between ion migration and electron transport significantly enhanced the triboelectric energy conversion performance, delivering a high output voltage of 180 V and a power density of 3.21 W/m2. These results demonstrate the strong potential of the developed hydrogel as a high-performance sensing material and stretchable soft electrode for next-generation energy harvesting systems and flexible electronic devices.

Conductive hydrogels are emerging as key materials for next‐generation wearable and self‐powered sensing systems due to their intrinsic softness, high stretchability, and skin‐like mechanical compliance. However, achieving long‐term mechanical durability and stable electrical performance requires a balance between softness and tensile strength. Herein, we report a double‐crosslinked conductive hydrogel based on hydrophilic polymers, polyacrylamide, and sodium alginate (PAM/SA), integrated with zeolitic imidazolate framework‐8 (ZIF‐8) nanoparticles. For the first time, the multifunctional electromechanical role of ZIF‐8 is exploited within a PAM/SA hydrogel matrix, where hydrogen‐bonding interactions act as reversible physical crosslinks, enhancing conductivity, tensile strength, stretchability, and durability. The optimized 1 wt.% ZIF‐8@PAM/SA hydrogel exhibits an ultrahigh stretchability of 1864%, a toughness of 2940 kJ m ^{− 3} , and strain‐sensing performance with a gauge factor of 0.48. The hydrogel further functions as a soft electrode for triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs), delivering a power density of 1.16 W m ^{− 2} , sufficient to power approximately 60 light‐emitting diodes. In addition, the multifunctional hydrogel demonstrates excellent performance in tactile sensing, human motion monitoring, physiological signal detection, and handwriting recognition. Therefore, this work highlights the potential of the developed hydrogel for applications in wearable and self‐powered electronic systems.

This review highlights recent advancements in cholesteric liquid crystal emulsions, focusing on their preparation, anti-counterfeiting applications, and future prospects. It also covers their role in information storage and encryption techniques.

We report a novel highly sensitive bile acids (cholic acid and deoxycholic acid) biosensor based on PVA/SC₁₂S-stabilized cholesteric liquid crystal droplets. These CLC droplets are monodisperse in nature and are generated by fabricating a capillary microfluidic flow focusing device. The homeotropic-to-planar transition of the CLC droplets will be triggered during the competitive adsorption of bile acids at the surface of the CLC droplets. This sensor detects bile acids at a minimal cost and in a simple and quick manner. The detection limit of our method for CA is (1 μM) 80% lower and for DCA is 50% lower than that of the previously reported method using nematic droplets for detection. Furthermore, the response times and detection limits of these bile acids can be adjusted as a function of the pH, bile acid volume, and droplet size. Bile acids can be identified without the use of crossed polarizers using this novel method.

Liquid crystals are defined as the fourth state of matter forming between solid and liquid states. Earlier the applications of liquid crystals were confined to electronic instruments, but recent research findings suggest multiple applications of liquid crystals in biology and medicine. Here, the purpose of this review article is to discuss the potential biological impacts of liquid crystals in the diagnosis and prognosis of cancer along with the risk assessment. In this review, we also discussed the recent advances of liquid crystals in cancer biomarker detection and treatment in multiple cell line models. Cases reviewed here will demonstrate that cancer diagnostics based on the multidisciplinary technology and intriguingly utilization of liquid crystals may become an alternative to regular cancer detection methodologies. Additionally, we discussed the formidable challenges and problems in applying liquid crystal technologies. Solving these problems will require great effort and the way forward is through the multidisciplinary collaboration of physicists, biologists, chemists, material-scientists, clinicians, and engineers. The triumphant outcome of these liquid crystals and their applications in cancer research would be convenient testing for the detection of cancer and may result in treating the cancer patients non-invasively.