When visiting the dentist, you might remember being poked and prodded by a thin metal instrument to check your teeth and gums. This technique, called periodontal probing, is used to look for signs of gum disease. Now, researchers publishing in ACS Sensors report a toothbrush-shaped ultrasound transducer that can provide a less invasive screening for gum disease. In proof-of-concept demonstrations on animal tissues, the device produced measurements similar to those of a manual probe.

Co-packaged optics (CPO) technology requires reliable laser sources, either integrated or external, for operation. Since integrated laser sources are associated with reliability challenges, researchers are increasingly exploring CPO systems with external sources. Recently, polymer waveguides fabricated on glass-epoxy substrates have emerged as a reliable solution for transmitting laser signals from external sources to photonic circuits. Researchers from Japan have now demonstrated the suitability of these waveguides for use in CPO systems.

A visible-light-driven postfunctionalization method developed by researchers from Japan enables the incorporation of phosphonate esters into polymers, expanding the possibilities for creating fire-resistant and temperature-responsive materials. This reaction technique offers a sustainable way to add useful functional groups to precursor polymer chains without altering their molecular weight, transforming common polymers into high-value materials that are difficult to obtain through direct polymerization of functional monomers.

Nowadays, plastic wastes have seriously endangered human health and ecological safety. Recycling plastics is a promising ap-proach to achieve multiple uses of carbon resources. In this review, photocatalysis is introduced for the conversion of plastics into various valuable chemicals. The state-of-the-art photocatalytic techniques for plastics conversion are divided into two categories of direct and indirect photoconversion. Researchers summarize in detail the photocatalytic small organic molecules conversion from polyeth-ylene terephthalate (PET), polylactic acid (PLA) and polyethylene (PE) through the alkaline-assistant and hydrothermal pretreat-ments. Then, they overview the effective strategies of direct photoconverting PE, PLA and polyvinyl chloride into chemicals via the two-step process, amination strategy, and single reactive oxygen species-assistant strategy. Finally, they present some outlooks of the current challenges and propose some potential solutions in the future.