Virgilio Mattoli

• Researcher at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia

A platform for converting near-infrared (NIR) laser power modulation into the self-mixing (SM) signal of a quantum cascade laser (QCL) operating at terahertz (THz) frequencies is introduced. This approach is based on laser feedback interferometry (LFI) with a THz QCL using a metal-coated silicon nitride trampoline membrane resonator as both the ext...

Furan/maleimide dynamic covalent chemistry has been extensively used to fabricate re-workable and self-healing thermosets. Understanding the relationship between crosslinker structure, network dynamics, and material final properties, however, remains a challenge. This study introduces self-healing and shape-memory thermosets derived from furan-func...

The oral pathway is the preferred drug administration route in pharmaceutical sciences, however, the most employed ‘highly active’ drug candidates suffer from poor water solubility. The aim of this study was to develop repaglinide (RL)-loaded chitosan-grafted mesoporous silica material (MSM) to enhance drug dissolution. Such enhanced dissolution wa...

The development of functional microsystems and microrobots that have characterized the last decade is the result of a synergistic and effective interaction between the progress of fabrication techniques and the increased availability of smart and responsive materials to be employed in the latter. Functional structures on the microscale have been re...

Cancer, as the leading cause of death worldwide, has been constantly increasing in mortality every year. Among several therapeutics, nanoscale compounds showed promising results in overcoming cancer diseases. There are numerous types of research on the paramagnetic nanoparticles of iron oxide, which cause apoptosis and cancer cell death. In this st...

The possibility of generating regions with different electronic properties within the same organic semiconductor thin film could offer novel opportunities for designing and fabricating organic electronic devices and circuits. This study introduces a new approach based on a novel type of highly processable polymer precursor that can yield two differ...

Heparin is a negatively charged polysaccharide with various chain lengths and a hydrophilic backbone. Due to its fascinating chemical and physical properties, nontoxicity, biocompatibility, and biodegradability, heparin has been extensively used in different fields of medicine, such as cardiovascular and hematology. This review highlights recent an...

Organic electronics is an emerging technology that enables the fabrication of devices with low‐cost and simple solution‐based processes at room temperature. In particular, it is an ideal candidate for the Internet of Things since devices can be easily integrated in everyday objects, potentially creating a distributed network of wireless communicati...

Citation: Racchi, O.; Baldassari, R.; Araya-Hermosilla, E.; Mattoli, V.; Minei, P.; Pozio, A.; Pucci, A. Polyketone-Based Anion-Exchange Membranes for Alkaline Water Electrolysis. Polymers 2023, 15, 2027. Abstract: Anion-exchange membranes (AEMs) are involved in a wide range of applications, including fuel cells and water electrolysis. A straightfo...

Driven by regulatory authorities and the ever‐growing demands from industry, various artificial tissue models have been developed. Nevertheless, there is no model to date that is capable of mimicking the biomechanical properties of the skin whilst exhibiting the hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity properties of the skin layers. As a proof‐of‐concept stud...

Micro‐nano‐fabrication on objects with complex surfaces is essential for the development of technologies in the growing fields of flexible electronics and photonics. Various strategies are devised to extend the fabrication from conventional planar substrates to curved ones, however, significant challenges still exist, especially in the framework of...

Conformable electronics has emerged in recent years as an innovative research field and the ability of conformable devices to monitor human physiological signals has been extensively explored. Therefore, in this study, the possibility of using conformable electronics as active devices capable of providing stimuli to the human body is investigated....

Peripheral intravenous catheters are administered for various purposes, such as blood sampling or the infusion of contrast agents and drugs. Extravasation happens when the catheter is unintentionally directed outside of the vein due to movement of the intravascular catheter, enhanced vascular permeability, or occlusion of the upstream vein. In this...

The continuously increasing interest in flexible and integrated photonics requires new strategies for device manufacturing on arbitrary complex surfaces and with smallest possible size, respectively. Terahertz (THz) technology can particularly benefit from this achievement to make compact systems for emission, detection and on-demand manipulation o...

Oxidative damage and infection can prevent or delay tissue repair. Moreover, infection reinforces reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation, which makes the wound's condition even worse. Therefore, the need for antioxidant and antibacterial agents is felt for tissue regeneration. There are emerging up‐and‐coming biomaterials that recapitulate both pr...

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) acts as a physical/biochemical barrier that protects brain parenchyma from potential hazards exerted by different xenobiotics found in the systemic circulation. This barrier is created by "a lipophilic gate" as well as a series of highly organized influx/efflux mechanisms. The BBB bottleneck adversely affects the effic...

Bio-responsive nanocomposites with facile fabrication and rational design are of great importance in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Herein, the combination of bioimaging due to the presence of QD and controlled drug delivery via nanogel was employed for cancer treatment. To this aim, we fabricated a traceable and bioresponsive fluorescent ac...

Bioinspired functional surfaces are attracting increasing interest in surface engineering, mostly in the field of wettability. The Salvinia‐effect is a remarkable example of superficial air retention and drag force reduction caused by selective chemical coating (super‐hydrophobic wax and hydrophilic dead cells) and peculiar 3D hierarchical morpholo...

The COVID-19 pandemic has further confirmed to the community that direct contact with contaminated surfaces and objects represents an important source of pathogen spreading among humans. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to design effective germicidal paints to ensure a rapid and potent disinfectant action of surfaces. In this work, we desig...

The design and development of multifunctional injectable hydrogels with high photothermal antibacterial activity and shape adaptability to accelerate bacteria-infected wound healing is of critical importance in clinical applications. In this study, a hybrid hydrogel composed of gelatin, iron, and MnO2 nanosheets was prepared by multiple interaction...

In this study, we present a thermoplasmonic transparent ink based on a colloidal dispersion of indium tin oxide (ITO) nanoparticles, which can offer several advantages as anti-counterfeiting technology. The custom ink could be directly printed on several substrates, and it is transparent under visible light but is able to generate heat by absorptio...

MXenes (viz., transition metal carbides, carbonitrides, and nitrides) have emerged as a new subclass of 2D materials. Due to their outstanding physicochemical and biological properties, MXenes have gained much attention in the biomedical field in recent years, including drug delivery systems, regenerative medicine, and biosensing. Additionally, the...

Anthropogenic toxic vapour and gases are a worldwide threat for human health and to the environment. Therefore, it is crucial to develop highly sensitive devices that guarantee their rapid detection. Here, we prepared redox-switchable colloids by the in-situ reduction of 2,3,5-triphenyl-2H-tetrazolium (TTC) into triphenyl formazan (TF) stabilised w...

Poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene, P(VDF-TrFE)) and P(VDF-TrFE)/barium titanate nanoparticle (BTNP) films are prepared and tested as substrates for neuronal stimulation through direct piezoelectric effect. Films are characterized in terms of surface, mechanical, and piezoelectric features before in vitro testing on SH-SY5Y cells. In partic...

Direct laser writing (DLW) is an innovative technology based on two‐photon polymerization processes which allow the 3D printing of architectures with arbitrary complexity at the (sub)micrometer scale. While most of the research interest in this field relies on additive manufacturing, subtractive approaches can be extremely helpful in nano/microfabr...

Rapid self-healing materials are highly demanded to contract plastic pollution and increase the materials service life. In this work, we designed a self-healing thermo-responsive nanocomposite containing homogeneously dispersed indium tin...

Nature contains abundant systems that can significantly alter their structures and properties to adapt to the surrounding environment. Through natural selection and unceasing evolution, hierarchical architectures and sophisticated strategies have been created by nature to achieve optimally adapted materials for biomedical applications. The developm...

Cancer is one of the top life-threatening dangers to the human survival, accounting for over 10 million deaths per year. Bioactive glasses have developed dramatically since their discovery 50 years ago, with applications that include therapeutics as well as diagnostics. A new system within the bioactive glass family, mesoporous bioactive glasses (M...

Background: The ability to fabricate components capable of performing actuation in a reliable and controlled manner is one of the main research topics in the field of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). However, the development of these technologies can be limited in many cases by 2D lithographic techniques employed in the fabrication process. D...

Background: The ability to fabricate components capable of performing actuation in a reliable and controlled manner is one of the main research topics in the field of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). However, the development of these technologies can be limited in many cases by 2D lithographic techniques employed in the fabrication process. D...

Antimicrobial Ionic Liquids The antimicrobial effect of ionic liquids (positive and negative charge) could be tuned by tailoring their structural features. In article number 2104148, Eric Lichtfouse, Franklin R. Tay, Pooyan Makvandi, and co-workers comprehensively discuss the antibacterial activity of ionic liquids in biomedical applications such a...

Recent advancements in the field of electronics have paved the way to the development of new applications, such as tattoo electronics, where the employment of ultraconformable devices is required, typically achievable with a significant reduction in their total thickness. Organic materials can be considered enablers, owing to the possibility of dep...

Quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) represent a most promising compact source at terahertz (THz) frequencies, but efficiency of their continuous wave (CW) operation still needs to be improved to achieve large-scale exploitation. Here, we demonstrate highly efficient operation of a subwavelength microcavity laser consisting of two evanescently coupled whi...

Unwanted icing has major safety and economic repercussions on human activities, affecting means of transportation, infrastructures, and consumer goods. Compared to the common deicing methods in use today, intrinsically icephobic surfaces can decrease ice accumulation and formation without any active intervention from humans or machines. However, su...

Humans are exposed to nanoscopical nanobiovectors (e.g. coronavirus SARS-CoV-2) as well as abiotic metal/carbon-based nanomaterials that enter cells serendipitously or intentionally. Understanding the interactions of cell membranes with these abiotic and biotic nanostructures will facilitate scientists to design better functional nanomaterials for...

Excessive and unwarranted administration of antibiotics has invigorated the evolution of multidrug-resistant microbes. There is, therefore, an urgent need for advanced active compounds. Ionic liquids with short-lived ion-pair structures are highly tunable and have diverse applications. Apart from their unique physicochemical features, the newly-dis...

Polypyrrole is an example of inherently electrically conductive polymers that is employed in the biomedical arena because of its low cost, excellent electroconductive properties, and good biocompatibility. Because many body tissues respond to electrical fields, polypyrrole-based nanocomposites have become an important class of bio-conductive materi...

Antimicrobial activities of ionic liquids have fascinated biochemists, microbiologists, and medical scientists. The antimicrobial effect of ionic liquids could be tuned by tailoring their structural features. This work comprehensively discusses the antibacterial mechanism and structure-properties relationship of ionic liquids on their bactericidal...

The antibacterial properties of #ionic_liquids are attributed to: I) #Adsorption: ionic liquids are attracted to the cell membranes; II) #Electrostatic interaction: the deactivation of membrane proteins and interaction of the ionic liquid with membrane phospholipids; III) #Penetration: disorganization and disintegration of the phospholipid bila...

Non-spherical metal nanomaterials such as noble metal or transition metal dichalcogenides and MXenes have been employed in different biomedical facets. Because the biological properties of these nanocompounds are governed by their architecture and composition, such factors should be considered prior to their adoption for clinical use. The architect...

Microneedle (MN) patches consisting of miniature needles have emerged as a promising tool to perforate the stratum corneum and translocate biomolecules into the dermis in a minimally invasive manner. Stimuli-responsive MN patches represent emerging drug delivery systems that release cargos on-demand as a response to internal or external triggers. I...

The cover shows a self‐adhering, ultraconformable, organic electrode assembly measuring surface potentials on a Venus flytrap as studied by Fabian Meder, Virgilio Mattoli, Barbara Mazzolai and co‐workers (article number 2001182). The electrodes are easy‐to‐apply, light‐weight, and long‐term‐performing. Utilizable to record and bidirectionally stimu...

3D and 4D printing are cutting-edge technologies for precise and expedited manufacturing of objects ranging from plastic to metal. Recent advances in 3D and 4D printing technologies in dentistry and maxillofacial surgery enable dentists to custom design and print surgical drill guides, temporary and permanent crowns and bridges, orthodontic applian...

Injectable materials have shown great potential in tissue engineering applications. However, bacterial infection is one of the main challenges in using these materials in the field of regenerative medicine. In this study, biogenically synthesized silver nanoparticle-decorated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (Ag/MWCNTs) were deployed for adorning biog...

Micro/nano electro-mechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS) are constantly attracting an increasing attention for their relevant technological applications in fields ranging from biology, medicine, ecology, energy to industry. Most of the performances of micro-nanostructured devices rely on both the design and the intrinsic properties of the constituent mate...

In the sphere of liver tissue engineering (LTE), 3D bioprinting has emerged as an effective technology to mimic the complex in vivo hepatic microenvironment, enabling the development of functional 3D constructs with potential application in the healthcare and diagnostic sector. This review gears off with a note on the liver's microscopic 3D archite...

The electrical signals in plant's physiological processes are of great interest in biology, biohybrid robotics, and sensors for interfacing the living organisms with an electronic readout and control. This paper reports on the application of conformable, self‐adhering surface electrodes for the measurement and bidirectional stimulation of electrica...

Factors affecting microneedle insertion into skin are reviewed.The use of artificial and computational skin models for the simulation of needle insertion is summarized.Skin structures and models, as well as mechanical analyses, used to determine transdermal microneedle ability to insert into skin are highlighted in the review. Factors affecting mic...

Conformable electronics is an emerging and innovative research field investigating functional materials and electronic devices capable of adhering and conforming to non-planar surfaces such as the human skin. Conformable devices find applications of high economical and scientific interest in healthcare, human-machine interfaces, wearable electronic...

The development of dry, ultra-conformable and unperceivable temporary tattoo electrodes (TTEs), based on the ink-jet printing of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) on top of commercially available temporary tattoo paper, has gained increasing attention as a new and promising technology for electrophysiological record...

A novel tattooable, ultrathin, green organic light‐emitting diode (OLED) fabricated on top of commercial temporary tattoo paper, is demonstrated. The transfer mechanism relies on dissolution of the sacrificial layer typically incorporated in paper‐tattoos. The ready‐to‐use device can be stored on the tattoo substrate and released on the target surf...

Among smart materials, self-healing is one of the most studied properties. A self-healing polymer can repair the cracks that occurred in the structure of the material. Polyketones, which are high-performance thermoplastic polymers, are a suitable material for a self-healing mechanism: a furanic pendant moiety can be introduced into the backbone and...

Organic printed electronics has proven its potential as an essential enabler for applications related to healthcare, entertainment, energy, and distributed intelligent objects. The possibility of exploiting solution‐based and direct‐writing production schemes further boosts the benefits offered by such technology, facilitating the implementation of...

For large-scale graphene applications, such as the production of polymer-graphene nanocomposites, exfoliated graphene oxide (GO) and its reduced form (rGO) are presently considered to be very suitable starting materials, showing enhanced chemical reactivity with respect to pristine graphene, in addition to suitable electronic properties (i.e., tuna...

3D and 4D printing are cutting-edge technologies for precise and expedited manufacturing of objects ranging from plastic to metal. Recent advances in 3D and 4D printing technologies in dentistry and maxillofacial surgery enable dentists to custom design and print surgical drill guides, temporary and permanent crowns and bridges, orthodontic applian...

Development of dry, ultra-conformable and unperceivable temporary tattoo electrodes (TTEs), based on the ink-jet printing of PEDOT:PSS on top of commercially available temporary tattoo paper, has gained increasing attention as a new and promising technology for electrophysiological recordings on skin. In this work we present a TTEs epidermal sensor...

In this work, the use of fluorescent molecular rotors such as 9-(2,2-dicyanovinyl)julolidine (DCVJ) and 2,3-bis(4-(phenyl(4-(1,2,2-triphenylvinyl) phenyl)amino)phenyl)fumaronitrile (TPETPAFN) was proposed for the real-time monitoring of polyurethane (PU) formation in a solution of dimethylacetamide starting with 4,4′-methylenediphenyl diisocyanate...

The lack of efficient targeting strategies poses significant limitations on the effectiveness of chemotherapeutic treatments. This issue also affects drug-loaded nanocarriers, reducing nanoparticles cancer cell uptake. We report on the fabrication and in vitro characterization of doxorubicin-loaded magnetic liposomes for localized treatment of live...

The perylene bisimide derivative Paliogen Black (P‐black) is proposed as a new chromogenic probe that shows visible (vis) and near‐infrared (NIR) responses after mechanical solicitations of host linear low‐density polyethylene (LLDPE) films. P‐black is reported to display strong absorption in the vis spectrum and unusual reflective and cooling feat...

The new emerging area of conformable electronics regards a class of materials and electronic devices that are able to adhere and conform to the skin or to other tissues and complex-shaped surfaces. Aim of this chapter is to review the main challenges, strategies and recent advancements in the field of conformable organic electronics. Principles and...

Organic printed electronics has proven its potential as an essential enabler for applications related to healthcare, entertainment, energy and distributed intelligent objects. The possibility of exploiting solution-based and direct-writing production schemes further boosts the benefits offered by such technology, facilitating the implementation of...

In this work, we prepared color-changing colloids by using the electrostatic self-assembly approach. The supramolecular structures are composed of a pH-responsive polymeric surfactant and the water-soluble porphyrin 5,10,15,20-tetrakis-(sulfonatophenyl)porphyrin (TPPS). The pH-responsive surfactant polymer was achieved by the chemical modification...

The increasing diffusion of portable and wearable technologies results in a growing interest in electronic devices having features such as flexibility, lightness‐in‐weight, transparency, and wireless operation. Organic electronics is proposed as a potential candidate to fulfill such needs, in particular targeting pervasive radio‐frequency (RF) appl...

In this work, we investigated the functionalization of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) with 2-(dodecen-1-yl) succinic anhydride (TPSA) to increase the rGO effective interactions with organic solvents both in liquid and vapor phases. Thermogravimetric analysis, STEM, XPS, FTIR-ATR, and Raman spectroscopy confirmed the effective functionalization of rGO...

In this work, we investigated the functionalization of polyketone 30 (PK30) with glycyl-glycine (Gly-Gly) via the Paal–Knorr reaction with the aim of homogenously dispersing two types of reduced graphene oxide (rGO, i.e., lrGO and hrGO, the former characterized by a lower degree of reduction in comparison to the latter) by non-covalent interactions...

Photoresponsive components for electric and electronic systems have received considerable attention, mainly due to the low cost of used materials and their manufacturing in mild conditions. Optically responsive materials have been prepared blending polymers with photochromic molecules to obtain systems with tuneable properties. Among photoresponsiv...

Direct laser writing methods based on two‐photon polymerization (2PP) are powerful tools for the on‐demand printing of precise and complex 3D architectures at the micro and nanometer scale. While much progress was made to increase the resolution and the feature size throughout the years, by carefully designing a material, one can confer specific fu...

Cerium oxide nanoparticles (nanoceria, NC) have attracted much attention in biomedicine due to their surface composition that confers interesting redox activities and regenerative properties. Studies have demonstrated that the application of nanoparticles in biomedicine can influence components of hemostatic system, inducing blood clotting, alterat...

Progress towards green and autonomous energy sources includes harnessing living systems and biological tissue. It is recently discovered that the cuticle‐cellular tissue bilayer in higher plant leaves functions as an integrated triboelectric generator conductor couple capable of converting mechanical stimuli into electricity. Here, it is investigat...