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SCIENTISTS DEVELOPED A SMART

reactions to be performed
during continuous flow. The PILLOW THAT TRACKS YOUR SLEEP
tubing is clear, allowing
light from an LED to reach
the catalysts and activate
them.
Although recent research suggests that
“The idea is to have the
catalyst coating a tube, so 7 hours is the ideal sleep time for adults,
you can flow your reaction many people find it difficult to get even
through the tube while the
catalyst stays put. In that that much on a regular basis.
way, you never get the
catalyst ending up in the Fortunately, scientists are disease, as well as mental To construct this new say. For example, the
product, and you can also working on the problem, health issues. Those smart pillow, the re- system could monitor
get a lot higher efficiency,” and one of the ways is interested in getting a searchers formulated a patients with diseases
Liu says. through better monitoring better handle on what’s flexible, porous polymer that affect the movement
of sleep. A new self-pow- happening to them at triboelectric layer. Move- of the head, such as the
The catalysts could also ering smart pillow that night have two primary ment between the head degenerative neck disor-
be used to coat magnet- tracks the position of the options. They can take a and this layer changes der cervical spondylosis.
ic beads, making them head could help. sleep test conducted in the electric field around What’s more, the smart
easier to pull out of a a medical facility, or they nearby electrodes, gen-
solution once the reac- The human body needs can use an app through erating a current. They pillow could be adapted
tion is finished, or to coat sleep as much as it needs a smartphone or smart strung together several to offer an early warning
reaction vials or textiles. food and water. Yet many watch — a much more of these self-powering system for those at risk
The researchers are now people fail to get enough, convenient, but less accu- sensors to create a flexi- of falling out of bed, they
working on incorporating a causing both mind and rate choice. Recognizing ble and breathable TENG say.
wider variety of catalysts body to suffer. People the need, many groups (FB-TENG) array that can
into their polymers, and on who struggle for shut- have begun developing be placed atop an ordi- Reference: “Smart Pillow
engineering the polymers eye could benefit from new sleep monitoring nary pillow. This system Based on Flexible and
to optimize them for differ- monitoring their sleep, systems using triboe- could generate voltage Breathable Triboelectric
ent possible applications. but they have limited lectric nanogenerators that corresponded to Nanogenerator Arrays
options for doing so. In a (TENGs). These self-pow- the amount of applied for Head Movement
Reference: “Solution-pro- new study in ACS Applied ering systems have taken pressure, and it could Monitoring during Sleep”
cessable microporous Materials & Interfaces, the form of eye masks, track the movement of a by Haiying Kou, Haiming
polymer platform for one team describes belts, patches, and even finger tracing out letters. Wang, Renwei Cheng,
heterogenization of diverse a potential solution: a bed sheets. Ding Li, The FB-TENG also could
photoredox catalysts” by self-powering smart Zhong Lin Wang, and capture the pressure Yanjun Liao, Xue Shi,
Richard Y. Liu, Sheng Guo, pillow that tracks the their colleagues wanted distribution of a fake Jianjun Luo, Ding Li and
Shao-Xiong Lennon Luo position of the head. to adapt this approach to human head as it shifted Zhong Lin Wang, 14 May
and Timothy M. Swager, 27 create a less restrictive, position. 2022, ACS Applied Mate-
May 2022, Nature Commu- Studies have linked more comfortable ver- rials & Interfaces.
nications. chronic lack of sleep to sion that focuses on the This smart pillow could
physical ailments, such movement of the head have uses beyond track- DOI: 10.1021/
as diabetes and heart during sleep. ing sleep, the scientists acsami.2c03056