This article describes a worm-like soft robot capable of operating in complicated tubular environments, such as the complex pipeline with different diameters, water, oil, and gas environments, or the clinical application in natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery. The robot is completely soft and robust, and consists of one multidegree of freedom (DoF) extension module and two clampers for locomotion and steering. The multi-DoF extension module is able to adjust the heading direction in the three-dimensional space. The clamper has a basic expansion module structure and detachable sucking module structure. The combined clamping principle for sticking to the inner wall can be reconfigurable to adapt the tubes with multiple tubular scales and super elastic materials. For fabrication of the mechanical structure, a low-cost and time-efficient method is proposed in this article. Based on our proposed robot, a series of phantom and application experiments are performed. The results demonstrate that the soft robot can freely bend and elongate with the entire soft body, and pass through tubes with changing diameters or branches, dry tubes, liquid environments, hard surfaces, and even soft deformable tubes. It has the ability to remove a load of >10 times its own weight. In addition, an additional visualization unit, biopsy, and electromagnetic sensor are mounted on the robot tip for the real-time image inspection, manipulation, and robot tracking. The proposed worm-like soft robot is compact, flexible-actuated, and sufficiently safe, as well as extensible. Its ability to move in the complex unstructured environment shows a great potential for search and medical applications.

A new magnetic mesoporous carbon composite (Fe3O4/C) was synthesized and characterized by XRD, nitrogen adsorption–desorption isotherms, FT-IR, TG, ζ potential, SEM, and TEM. The performance of using Fe3O4/C composite as an adsorbent for removal of antibiotics using ciprofloxacin (CIP) as a model was investigated. The Langmuir adsorption isotherm was applicable to fit the removal process. Kinetics of the CIP removal was found to follow a pseudo-second-order rate equation. The solution pH is critical for the adsorption of CIP on Fe3O4/C, and the maximum adsorption of CIP could be reached under neutral conditions. In addition, the Fe3O4/C adsorbent showed high magnetization and operational stability, and it could be readily separated from solution by applying an external magnetic field. After 10 recycle runs, over 85% of the adsorption capacity was retained. The high performance, low cost, and easily recyclable Fe3O4/C composite may become a promising adsorbent for water treatment.

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Here, we report a highly simple and general protocol for functionalization of the CoFe(2)O(4) NPs with chitosan polymers in order to make CoFe(2)O(4) NPs disperse and stable in solution. The functionalized CoFe(2)O(4) NPs (denoted as CF-CoFe(2)O(4) NPs) were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), thermogravimetric (TG), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and FT-IR spectra. It was found that the CoFe(2)O(4) NPs were successfully decorated and uniformly dispersed on the surface of chitosan without agglomeration. The CF-CoFe(2)O(4) NPs were found to increase greatly the radiation emitted during the CL oxidation of luminol by hydrogen peroxide. Results of ESR spin-trapping experiments demonstrated that the CF-CoFe(2)O(4) NPs showed catalytic ability to H(2)O(2) decomposition into ˙OH radicals. On this basis, a highly sensitive and rapid chemiluminescent method was developed for hydrogen peroxide in water samples and glucose in blood samples. Under optimum conditions, the proposed method allowed the detection of H(2)O(2) in the range of 1.0 × 10(-9) to 4.0 × 10(-6) M and glucose in the range of 5.0 × 10(-8) to 1.0 × 10(-5) M with detectable H(2)O(2) as low as 500 pM and glucose as low as 10 nM, respectively. This proposed method has been successfully applied to detect H(2)O(2) in environmental water samples and glucose in serum samples with good accuracy and precision.

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