Stabilizing gas in aqueous liquids with metal-organic frameworks for persistent acoustic transduction

Trapping gas inside designed microporous metal-organic framework (MOF) nanocrystals stabilizes aqueous-phase gas and enables reversible, non-destructive ultrasound-driven oscillations with sustained acoustic amplification over millions of cycles.

• Why it matters: Gas is efficient for acoustic energy but is thermodynamically unstable in water, making ultrasound-biological interfacing transient and limiting long-term, non-invasive coupling.
• What they did: The team confined gas within MOF nanocrystals and used ultra-high-speed digital image correlation (DIC) to measure spatiotemporal oscillation dynamics, linking structure to programmable acoustic transduction.
• The result: The aqueous gas nanotransducers maintained sustained amplification for millions of excitation cycles and stayed functional after prolonged storage (>2 years) under physiological conditions, enabling long-term ultrasound imaging and sustained neuromodulation in vitro and in vivo.

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