Despite much effort to improve the design of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrates, it remains a great challenge to develop a general substrate that can separate, enrich, and detect diverse targets in real environments. We demonstrate a novel three-dimensional (3D) superhydrophobic SERS substrate to detect polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) pollutants. The unique 3D superhydrophobic SERS substrate was produced by a galvanic replacement reaction between nickel foam and auric chloride acid, followed by modification with long-chain alkyl mercaptan molecules. Owing to the 3D micro-nanoscale hierarchical structure and long-chain alkyl mercaptan molecules, the as-prepared 3D Au nanoparticles/nickel foam (Au NPs/nickel foam) exhibited superhydrophobic properties, which may be used to detect PAHs due to the hydrophobic interactions. In SERS spectra with this substrate, pyrene could be detected at concentrations as low as 10⁻⁸ M. The enhancement factor of the 3D SERS substrate for pyrene detection was calculated to be about 1.2 × 10⁴. This 3D hydrophobic SERS substrate enables the ultrasensitive detection of various analytes with poor affinity for adsorption on conventional SERS substrates, making SERS a potential and more widely practical analytical technique. Moreover, such 3D hydrophobic SERS substrates could be applied as an oil–water separation system for the separation, enrichment and sensitive detection of pollutants in real environments.

The main purpose of this paper is to demonstrate a bionic design for the airfoil of wind turbines inspired by the morphology of Long-eared Owl’s wings. Glauert Model was adopted to design the standard blade and the bionic blade, respectively. Numerical analysis method was utilized to study the aerodynamic characteristics of the airfoils as well as the blades. Results show that the bionic airfoil inspired by the airfoil at the 50% aspect ratio of the Long-eared Owl’s wing gives rise to a superior lift coefficient and stalling performance and thus can be beneficial to improving the performance of the wind turbine blade. Also, the efficiency of the bionic blade in wind turbine blades tests increases by 12% or above (up to 44%) compared to that of the standard blade. The reason lies in the bigger pressure difference between the upper and lower surface which can provide stronger lift.

Due to huge demand in engineering, vibration control technology and related studies have always been at the frontiers of research. Although traditional vibration control methods are stable and reliable, they have obvious shortcomings. Through evolution and natural selection, certain body-parts of animals in the natural world have been cleverly constructed and well designed. This provides a steady stream of inspiration for the design of vibration control equipment. The prime objective of this review is to highlight recent advances in the bionic design of vibration control devices. Current bionic vibration control devices were classified, and their bionic principles were briefly described. One kind was the bionic device based on the brain structure of the woodpecker, which is mostly used to reduce vibration at high frequencies. Another kind of bionic device was based on animal leg structure and showed outstanding performance in low frequency vibration reduction. Finally, we briefly listed the problems that need to be solved in current bionic vibration control technology and gave recommendations for future research direction.