Low-temperature chemical solution methods to prepare crystalline metal oxide thin films and to integrate them with flexible substrates are shown.

Poly(octanediol-co-citrate) elastomers containing high loading of lidocaine were synthesized at temperatures below 100 °C by means of using deep eutectic mixtures of 1,8-octanediol and lidocaine. The preservation of lidocaine integrity resulted in high-capacity drug-eluting elastomers.

Three-dimensional microchannelled nanocomposite electrodes fabricated by ice-segregation induced self-assembly of chitosan-dispersed multiwall carbon nanotubes are shown to provide a scaffold for growth of electroactive bacteria for use as acetate-oxidizing bioanodes in bioelectrochemical systems. The hierarchical structure provides a conductive surface area available for G. sulfurreducens colonization, with a flow through configuration along the electrode providing a substrate for bacterial colonization and bio-electrochemical processes. This configuration, whilst resulting in sub-monolayer biofilm coverage over the three-dimensional surface, is capable of providing acetate oxidation current densities of up to 24.5 A m⁻², equating to a volumetric current density of 19 kA m⁻³, in the flow-through configuration. Such bioanodes, when operated in non-optimized flow-through microbial fuel cell configuration, provide a maximum power density of 2.87 W m⁻², which is equivalent to 2.0 kW m⁻³ volumetric power density.

Deep Eutectic Solvents (DESs) formed between Acrylic Acid (AA) and Choline Chloride (CCl) exhibit certain properties of ionic liquids (e.g. high viscosity) that make them suitable for frontal polymerization (FP). The use of DESs not only as a monomer but also as the solvent prevents the use of additional solvents (i.e. typically of organic nature) and offers a green tool for the synthesis of functional composites. We have recently explored this approach for the preparation of poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) and poly(methacrylic acid). In this work, we have taken advantage of the outstanding capability of DESs to solubilize and/or disperse a number of substances to incorporate – in a homogeneous fashion – carbon nanotubes (in this particular case, N-doped MWCNT – CNxMWCNTs) in the polymerizable DES. Interestingly, CNxMWCNTs also played the role of an inert filler in FP. The resulting PAA–CNxMWCNT composites exhibited some distinct features as compared to previous PAA also obtained via DES-assisted FP. For instance, PAA–CNxMWCNT composites can undergo swelling depending on the pH, as bare PAA. However, the presence of CNxMWCNTs allows the formation of a macroporous structure after submission to a freeze-drying process, the achievement of which was not possible in bare PAA. The combination of structural (e.g. macroporosity) and functional (e.g. stimuli responsive) properties exhibited by these materials besides an eventually high biocompatibility – coming from the green character of the DES-assisted synthesis – should make the resulting macroporous PAA–CNxMWCNT composites excellent candidates for their future application as biomaterials.