Pushing bacterial cellulose into a transformative product for wearable sensor applications! Our biosynthesised nanocellulose is used here for the first time as a substrate enabling the screen printing of electrochemical sensors for real-time, non-invasive alcohol monitoring in sweat. The bacterial cellulose sweat alcohol sensor has a highly linear response to alcohol concentration in human sweat, with a minimum detection concentration of 5mM and excellent reproducibility. In addition to sustainability, it shows excellent biocompatibility and self-adhesion. The sensor’s bidirectional functionality also opens new avenues for innovative sweat-sensing system designs.

Eco-Friendly Conformal and Self-Adhesive Electrochemical Sensors for Sweat Monitoring is a new paper by NN researchers Xiaohe Wang, Muling Zeng, Mabel Torrens, Martí Gich, and Anna Roig. It has been published in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. This research was done in close collaboration with Pengfei Niu (Tianjin University) and César Fernández Sánchez (IMB-CNM and CIBER-BBN).

Naureen Khanam, Nico Dix, Ana Vila Costa and Martí Gich have co-authored a new paper in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS). The study demonstrates a new strategy for synthesising high-aspect-ratio ε-Fe₂O₃ nanorods using rare-earth silicates as high-temperature surfactants. This approach allows precise control of the nanocrystals’ shape and growth, overcoming limitations of previous methods and opening new possibilities to explore the magnetic properties of this metastable iron oxide phase.

This article has been written in close collaboration with other ICMAB colleagues: Zheng Ma, Sergi Ortiz Ropero, Judit Oró-Solé, José Luis García-Muñoz, and Jordi Faraudo.

Anna Roig and Juan Pellico have published an editorial article in Frontiers in Chemistry. The editorial is titled Magnetic nanoparticles for biomedical imaging and therapy applications. The editorial has been written with Juan Gallo, from the Advanced Magnetic Theranostic Nanostructures Lab (INL) and Graeme J. Stasiuk, from the Department of Imaging Chemistry and Biology (King’s College London).

Xuesong Zhang and Pablo Guardia have published a new paper in the journal Advanced Science. The study presents Cu/Co-based nanoheterostructures synthesised via a microwave-assisted method. These nanocatalysts enable efficient hydrogen production through alcohol oxidation, outperforming traditional oxygen evolution reactions. This research has been conducted in collaboration with other ICMAB researchers, Jaume Gázquez and Dino Tonti, as well as Arturo Pajares from the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO).