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Volume 6 Issue 11, November 2014

Research Highlight

  • Recently, a new class of artificial materials known as metamaterials has emerged to manipulate light at the nanoscale. Contrary to natural materials, the physical properties of optical metamaterials are primarily dependent on the material structures rather than their chemical constituents. The structures forming the building blocks of the metamaterials are much smaller than the wavelength of light. By tailoring both effective electric permittivity and the magnetic permeability of metamaterials from a positive to a negative value, one can create negative refractive index metamaterials (NIMs).1 Various 3D NIM structures have been previously reported,2 but they are limited to small-scale samples of less than 1 mm. The unprecedented properties of metamaterials and their potential revolutionary applications, such as superlens imaging,3 remain a challenge to implement in practice due to the lack of innovative large-scale manufacturing methods. As a result, a scalable scheme that enables the large-area fabrication of 3D nanostructures must be developed.

    • Yuan Wang
    • Xiang Zhang
    Research Highlight Open Access

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Original Article

  • Highly porous star-shaped polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) hybrid films were synthesized using POSS as the starting core followed by polycaprolactone (PCL) extension and polyurethane (PU) cross-linking. The unique three-dimensional nanotopography of these films is conducive for cell growth. The combination of favorable factors such as high porosity, reactive surface topography, excellent biocompatibility and biphasic degradation makes the star-shaped POSS-PCL-PU film a great candidate as a tissue engineering scaffold biomaterial.

    • Choon Peng Teng
    • Khine Yi Mya
    • Ming-Yong Han
    Original Article Open Access
  • Undercoordinated indium (In*) is found to be an intrinsic defect that acts as a strong electron trap in amorphous InGaZnO4. Conduction electrons couple with the under-coordinated In* via Coulomb attraction, which is the driving force for the formation of an In*–M (M=In, Ga, or Zn) bond. The new structure is stable in the electron-trapped (2–) charge state, and we designate it as an intrinsic (In*–M)2− center in amorphous InGaZnO4. The (In*–M)2− centers are preferentially formed in heavily n-doped samples, resulting in a doping limit. They are also formed by electrical/optical stresses, which generate excited electrons, resulting in a metastable change in their electrical properties.

    • Ho-Hyun Nahm
    • Yong-Sung Kim
    Original Article Open Access
  • We presented the novel concept of a hybrid-seawater fuel cell, comprising a closed-negative electrode, a NASICON solid electrolyte, and an open-seawater positive electrode. Hard carbon and a Sn-C nanocomposite were successfully applied as alternative anode materials for this hybrid-seawater fuel cell, presenting a highly stable cycling performance and reversible capacities exceeding 110 mAh g−1 and 300 mAh g−1 for hard carbon and Sn-C, respectively. Particularly, in the case of the Sn-C anode, the performance was substantially enhanced by the almost infinite supply of sodium ions using the open system seawater-based positive electrode. Thus, in addition to the simplicity of the overall concept, the utilization of redox processes in seawater represents a new and very promising approach for cost efficient and environmental friendly large-scale energy storage devices.

    • Jae-Kwang Kim
    • Franziska Mueller
    • Youngsik Kim
    Original Article Open Access
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