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We propose the simple and novel ‘aqueous route’ for realizing oxide thin-film transistors (TFTs) at low annealing temperatures <200 °C with low cost. These results provide substantial progress toward solution-processed metal-oxide TFT through naturally born unique indium complex and post annealing. They exhibit acceptable electrical performance with good large-area uniformity at low temperature. The additional vacuum annealing facilitates the condensation reaction by effective removal of byproduct water molecule and activates the In2O3 TFT at low temperature, even with 100 °C annealing. Also, we have demonstrated the flexible and transparent oxide TFTs on a plastic substrate with good stability to the external gate bias stress.
Nanoscale graphene oxide (NGO) has emerged as extremely attractive nanomaterials for diagnostics and therapeutics. In this work, we present a systematic study on the in vivo distribution and pulmonary toxicity of NGO for up to 3 months after exposure. Radioisotope tracing and morphological observation demonstrated that intratracheally instilled NGO was mainly retained in the lung. NGO could result in acute lung injury (ALI) and chronic pulmonary fibrosis, which raises environmental concerns about the large-scale production of graphene oxide. Nevertheless, we also noted that the NGO-induced ALI was related to oxidative stress and could effectively be relieved with dexamethasone treatment.
Biological sensing with silicon nanowires has drawn much attention due to the enhanced sensitivity of these devices. However, both bottom-up and top-down fabrication techniques are thus far resistant to commercialization, mainly due to the incompatibility of the bottom-up methodology with mass production and the non-standard, top-down process complexity. We report on a specific, label-free, and real-time detection of femtomolar protein concentrations with a novel type of nanowire-based biosensor. The biosensor is based on an electrostatically formed nanowire that requires standard integrated circuit processes with relaxed fabrication requirements.
We demonstrate a single-domain photovoltaic switch based on lateral BiFeO3 channels, in which such photovoltaic switching is achieved by a coherent single-domain reversal with a short electrical pulse. We then provide visual evidence for such operations with a series of spatially and spectrally resolved short circuit photocurrent images. Specifically, it reveals that the sequential photovoltaic current images directly reflect the remanent polarization states of a single-domain channel. We also verify that, in multidomain channels, the diffusive switching characteristics is determined not only by the internal polarization vector within the domain but also by oxygen vacancy migration at the domain walls.
This paper reports a facile cyclic reduction–decomposition method for the aqueous-based synthesis of highly luminescent Ag nanoclusters (NCs) with tunable emissions. A reduction–decomposition–reduction cycle was used to modify the non-luminescent Ag NC intermediates with improved stability against subsequent etching by thiol ligands, which created a mild size-/structure-focusing (or etching) environment and produced highly luminescent Ag NCs with intense red (Ag16(SG)9) and green (Ag9(SG)6) emission. The highly luminescent Ag NCs also possessed superior antimicrobial properties against the multidrug-resistant bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa via generating a high concentration of intracellular reactive oxygen species.
Springtails, wingless arthropods, are adapted to cutaneous respiration in temporarily rain-flooded habitats by a hierarchically structured skin surface. A tunable polymer replication process was applied to dissect the contributions of different structural elements and surface chemistry to the omniphobic performance of the skin.
We report that single-layered and single-crystalline graphene flakes (GFs) with highly regular and hexagonal symmetric patterns can be grown on a liquid copper surface using a CH4 chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. Different morphologies of these GFs can be precisely tailored by varying the composition of inert gas/H2 carrier gas mixture, and the GF edges can be continuously tuned over the full spectrum from negative to zero to positive curvature in a controllable way. This study provides a well-behaved two-dimensional crystal growth system mimicking snowflakes, opening rich opportunities for engineering graphene patterns and studying graphene structure/property relationships.
Multilevel nonvolatile transistor memories were fabricated with inserted electret dielectric of star-shaped poly((4-diphenylamino)benzyl methacrylate). The devices could be controllably charged and retain the digital states even when the supply voltage was removed. The multilevel data storage characteristics by applying different gate voltages suggested novel ‘write-many-read-many memory’ behaviors.
Organic field-effect transistors with a self-doped (SD) polyaniline charge-trapping energy well structure exhibit outstanding nonvolatile memory characteristics. The charges generated by the field-effect operation are effectively stored in the SD poly(o-anthranilic acid) charge-trapping energy well layer so that the present memory transistor performs excellent data writing–reading–erasing functions with highly stable data retention characteristics.
