With extensive investigations involving liquid metals (LMs), Ga-based LMs have attracted increasing attention from biomedical researchers because of their good biocompatibility, ideal fluidity, and high thermal conductivity. LMs employed in cancer treatment suffer from high surface tension, thereby yielding unstable nanoparticles (NPs). Here, ZrO₂ is coated onto LM NPs to form a stable core–shell nanostructure. In particular, LM NPs coated with ZrO₂ and modified by PEG (LM@pZrO₂ NPs) still maintain favorable flexibility, which is beneficial for cellular uptake. With regard to the photothermal properties of LM, LM@pZrO₂ NPs rapidly warm up and emit the requisite amount of heat under NIR laser radiation. It is confirmed that LM@pZrO₂ NPs are more effectively internalized by cells and are beneficial for tumor photothermal therapy. This research provides a coating strategy to fabricate a stable and flexible core–shell LM nanostructure, making it a promising vehicle for nanotheranostics.

As a new member in two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) family, platinum diselenium (PtSe ₂ ) has many excellent properties, such as the layer-dependent band gap, high carrier mobility, high photoelectrical coupling, broadband response, etc, thus it shows good promising application in room temperature photodetectors, broadband photodetectors, transistors and other fields. Furthermore, compared with other TMDCs, PtSe ₂ is chemical inert in ambient, showing nano-devices potential with higher performance and stability. However, up to now, the synthesis and its device applications are in its early stage. This review systematically summarized the state of the art of PtSe ₂ from its structure, property, synthesis and potential application. Finally, the current challenges and future perspectives are outlined for the applications of 2D PtSe ₂ .

The electrocardiogram (ECG) electrode, as a sensor, is an important part of the wearable ECG monitoring device. Natural leather is rarely used as the electrode substrate. In this paper, wearable flexible silver electrodes based on cowhide were prepared by sputtering and brush-painting. A signal generator, oscilloscope, impedance test instrument, and ECG monitor were used to build the test platform evaluating the performance of electrodes with six subjects. The lossless waveform transmission can be achieved with our electrodes. Therefore, the Pearson’s correlation coefficient calculated with input waveform and output waveform of the electrodes based on the top grain layer (GLE) and the split layer (SLE) of cowhide were 0.997 and 0.998 at 0.1 Hz respectively. The skin electrode impedance (Z) was tested, and the parameters of the equivalent circuit model of the skin electrode interface were calculated by a fitting method, indicating that the Z of the prepared electrodes was comparable with the standard gel electrode when the skin is moist enough. The signal-to-noise ratio of the ECG of the GLE and the SLE were 1.148 and 1.205 times that of the standard electrode in the standing posture, which meant the ECG measured by our electrodes was basically consistent with that measured by the standard electrode.