IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v16y2025i1d10.1038_s41467-025-61993-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Eliminating lead-exposure in nebulization therapy by lead-free piezoelectric

Author

Listed:
  • Fang-Zhou Yao

    (Wuzhen Laboratory
    Yangtze Delta Region Institute of Tsinghua University)

  • Wenying Fan

    (Wuzhen Laboratory)

  • Yunfan Zhang

    (Peking University School and Hospital of Stomatology)

  • Bing Han

    (Peking University School and Hospital of Stomatology)

  • Zimin Feng

    (Wuzhen Laboratory)

  • Binjie Chen

    (Wuzhen Laboratory)

  • Zhongshang Dou

    (Wuzhen Laboratory)

  • Jia Jiang

    (Shanghai Sixth People’s Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine)

  • Ziyun Li

    (Shanghai Sixth People’s Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine)

  • Haihan Gao

    (Shanghai Sixth People’s Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine)

  • Chaofeng Wu

    (Tongxiang Tsingfeng Technology Co. Ltd)

  • Naixin Liang

    (Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College)

  • Yan Wei

    (Peking University School and Hospital of Stomatology)

  • Ke Wang

    (Wuzhen Laboratory
    Tsinghua University)

  • Xin Ma

    (Shanghai Sixth People’s Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine)

  • Wen Gong

    (Wuzhen Laboratory
    Tongxiang Tsingfeng Technology Co. Ltd)

Abstract

Present main-stream medical ultrasonic nebulizers contain Pb(Zr,Ti)O3-based piezoceramics, which could expose the patients to toxic lead when the acidic liquid medicine, compounded with ultrasonic vibration, corrodes the piezoceramics. Enormous amount of lead ions up to 150 ppm can be extracted when lead-containing piezoceramics were exposed to typical acidic liquid medicines. Thus, a series of nebulization in a course of treatment could easily raise a child’s blood lead level well above the blood lead reference value of 0.035 ppm, causing adverse and likely irreversible health effects. Herein, we introduce the lead-free medical ultrasonic nebulizers based on high-performance (K,Na)NbO3-based lead-free piezoceramics. It’s designed for facile and safe at-home treatment, offering a healthy, safe, and lead-free solution for patients. It also marks the first commercialization of (K,Na)NbO3-based lead-free piezoceramics as a replacement for Pb(Zr,Ti)O3, helping expedite the lead-removing process of piezoelectric materials in general, in line with sustainable development goals worldwide.

Suggested Citation

  • Fang-Zhou Yao & Wenying Fan & Yunfan Zhang & Bing Han & Zimin Feng & Binjie Chen & Zhongshang Dou & Jia Jiang & Ziyun Li & Haihan Gao & Chaofeng Wu & Naixin Liang & Yan Wei & Ke Wang & Xin Ma & Wen Go, 2025. "Eliminating lead-exposure in nebulization therapy by lead-free piezoelectric," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-8, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-61993-7
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-61993-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-61993-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-025-61993-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Qian Wang & Yusheng Zhang & Haoyue Xue & Yushun Zeng & Gengxi Lu & Hongsong Fan & Laiming Jiang & Jiagang Wu, 2024. "Lead-free dual-frequency ultrasound implants for wireless, biphasic deep brain stimulation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.
    2. Peng Tan & Xiaolin Huang & Yu Wang & Bohan Xing & Jiajie Zhang & Chengpeng Hu & Xiangda Meng & Xiaodong Xu & Danyang Li & Xianjie Wang & Xin Zhou & Nan Zhang & Qisheng Wang & Fei Li & Shujun Zhang & H, 2024. "Deciphering the atomistic mechanism underlying highly tunable piezoelectric properties in perovskite ferroelectrics via transition metal doping," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    3. Bo Wu & Huijing Zheng & Yan-Qi Wu & Zhicheng Huang & Hao-Cheng Thong & Hong Tao & Jian Ma & Chunlin Zhao & Ze Xu & Yi-Xuan Liu & Zhipeng Xing & Naixin Liang & Fang-Zhou Yao & Chao-Feng Wu & Ke Wang & , 2024. "Origin of ultrahigh-performance barium titanate-based piezoelectrics: Stannum-induced intrinsic and extrinsic contributions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    4. He Qi & Tengfei Hu & Shiqing Deng & Hui Liu & Zhengqian Fu & Jun Chen, 2023. "Giant dynamic electromechanical response via field driven pseudo-ergodicity in nonergodic relaxors," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    5. Shuai Yang & Jinglei Li & Yao Liu & Mingwen Wang & Liao Qiao & Xiangyu Gao & Yunfei Chang & Hongliang Du & Zhuo Xu & Shujun Zhang & Fei Li, 2021. "Textured ferroelectric ceramics with high electromechanical coupling factors over a broad temperature range," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-10, December.
    6. Ji Zhang & Zhao Pan & Fei-Fei Guo & Wen-Chao Liu & Huanpo Ning & Y. B. Chen & Ming-Hui Lu & Bin Yang & Jun Chen & Shan-Tao Zhang & Xianran Xing & Jürgen Rödel & Wenwu Cao & Yan-Feng Chen, 2015. "Semiconductor/relaxor 0–3 type composites without thermal depolarization in Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3-based lead-free piezoceramics," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 6(1), pages 1-10, May.
    7. Gobinda Adhikary & Anil Adukkadan & Gudeta Jafo Muleta & Monika & Ram Prakash Singh & Digvijay Narayan Singh & Harvey Luo & Getaw Abebe Tina & Luke Giles & Stefano Checchia & John Daniels & Rajeev Ran, 2025. "Longitudinal strain enhancement and bending deformations in piezoceramics," Nature, Nature, vol. 637(8045), pages 333-338, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xuexin Li & Jinglei Li & Yang Li & Xuechen Liu & Shuai Yang & Jie Wu & Dingwei Hou & Jinjing Zhang & Haijun Wu & Yang Zhang & Xiangdong Ding & Jun Sun & Shujun Zhang & Hongliang Du & Fei Li, 2025. "High performance relaxor ferroelectric textured ceramics for electrocaloric refrigeration," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-10, December.
    2. Qian, Suxin & Yao, Sijia & Wang, Yao & Yuan, Lifen & Yu, Jianlin, 2022. "Harvesting low-grade heat by coupling regenerative shape-memory actuator and piezoelectric generator," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 322(C).
    3. Yongke Yan & Liwei D. Geng & Hairui Liu & Haoyang Leng & Xiaotian Li & Yu U. Wang & Shashank Priya, 2022. "Near-ideal electromechanical coupling in textured piezoelectric ceramics," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    4. Peng Tan & Xiaolin Huang & Yu Wang & Bohan Xing & Jiajie Zhang & Chengpeng Hu & Xiangda Meng & Xiaodong Xu & Danyang Li & Xianjie Wang & Xin Zhou & Nan Zhang & Qisheng Wang & Fei Li & Shujun Zhang & H, 2024. "Deciphering the atomistic mechanism underlying highly tunable piezoelectric properties in perovskite ferroelectrics via transition metal doping," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    5. Wenbin Liu & Ting Zheng & Zhangyang Zhou & Yi Ding & Yue Qin & Zhengqian Fu & Xuezheng Ruan & Zhipeng Gao & Xiang Lv & Jiagang Wu, 2025. "Ultrahigh piezoelectricity and temperature stability in piezoceramics by synergistic design," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-9, December.
    6. Ah-Hyoung Lee & Jihun Lee & Vincent Leung & Lawrence Larson & Arto Nurmikko, 2024. "Patterned electrical brain stimulation by a wireless network of implantable microdevices," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.
    7. Changhao Zhao & Andreja Benčan & Matthias Bohnen & Fangping Zhuo & Xiaolong Ma & Goran Dražić & Ralf Müller & Shengtao Li & Jurij Koruza & Jürgen Rödel, 2024. "Impact of stress-induced precipitate variant selection on anisotropic electrical properties of piezoceramics," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    8. Xiaowei Wei & Kun Zeng & Xiaoming Shi & Gengguang Luo & Zhengqian Fu & Houbing Huang & Guangzu Zhang & Bing Li & Xiang Lv & Jiagang Wu, 2025. "Multiscale-engineered ferroelectric ceramics exhibiting superior electrocaloric performance," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-10, December.
    9. Bo Wu & Hong Tao & Kui Chen & Zhipeng Xing & Yan-Qi Wu & Hao-Cheng Thong & Lin Zhao & Chunlin Zhao & Ze Xu & Yi-Xuan Liu & Fang-Zhou Yao & Tianhang Zhou & Jian Ma & Yan Wei & Ke Wang & Shujun Zhang, 2025. "Giant intrinsic electrocaloric effect in ferroelectrics by local structural engineering," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-10, December.
    10. Qian Wang & Yusheng Zhang & Haoyue Xue & Yushun Zeng & Gengxi Lu & Hongsong Fan & Laiming Jiang & Jiagang Wu, 2024. "Lead-free dual-frequency ultrasound implants for wireless, biphasic deep brain stimulation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-61993-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.