Self-Repairable Silicon Anodes Using a Multifunctional Binder for High-Performance Lithium-Ion Batteries.

Despite of extremely high theoretical capacity of Si (3579 mAh g-1 ), Si anodes suffer from pulverization and delamination of the electrodes induced by large volume change during charge/discharge cycles. To address those issues, herein, self-healable and highly stretchable multifunctional binders, polydioxythiophene:polyacrylic acid:phytic acid (PEDOT:PAA: PA, PDPP) that provide Si anodes with self-healability and excellent structural integrity is designed. By utilizing the self-healing binder, Si anodes self-repair cracks and damages of Si anodes generated during cycling. For the first time, it is demonstrated that Si anodes autonomously self-heal artificially created cracks in electrolytes under practical battery operating conditions. Consequently, this self-healable Si anode can still deliver a reversible capacity of 2312 mAh g-1 after 100 cycles with remarkable initial Coulombic efficiency of 94%, which is superior to other reported Si anodes. Moreover, the self-healing binder possesses enhanced Li-ion diffusivity with additional electronic conductivity, providing excellent rate capability with a capacity of 2084 mAh g-1 at a very high C-rate of 5 C.

Self-Healable and Stretchable Ionic-Liquid-Based Thermoelectric Composites with High Ionic Seebeck Coefficient.

The advancement of wearable electronics, particularly self-powered wearable electronic devices, necessitates the development of efficient energy conversion technologies with flexible mechanical properties. Recently, ionic thermoelectric (TE) materials have attracted great attention because of their enormous thermopower, which can operate capacitors or supercapacitors by harvesting low-grade heat. This study presents self-healable, stretchable, and flexible ionic TE composites comprising an ionic liquid (IL), 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium trifluoromethanesulfonate (EMIM:OTf); a polymer matrix, poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP); and a fluoro-surfactant (FS). The self-healability of the IL-based composites originates from dynamic ion-dipole interactions between the IL, the PVDF-HFP, and the FS. The composites demonstrate excellent ionic TE properties with an ionic Seebeck coefficient (Si ) of ≈38.3 mV K-1 and an ionic figure of merit of ZTi  = 2.34 at 90% relative humidity, which are higher than the values reported for other IL-based TE materials. The IL-based ionic TE composites developed in this study can maintain excellent ionic TE properties under harsh conditions, including severe strain (75%) and multiple cutting-healing cycles.

Cost-effective method for fabricating carbon nanotube network transistors by reusing a 99% semiconducting carbon nanotube solution.

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are one-dimensional materials that have been proposed to replace silicon semiconductors and have been actively studied due to their high carrier mobility, high current density, and high mechanical flexibility. Specifically, highly purified, pre-separated, and solution-processed semiconducting CNTs are suitable for mass production. These CNTs have advantages, such as room-temperature processing compatibility, while enabling a fast and straightforward manufacturing process. In this paper, CNT network transistors were fabricated on a total of five 8 inch wafers by reusing a highly purified and pre-separated 99% semiconductor-enriched CNT solution. The results confirmed that the density of semiconducting CNTs deposited on the five selected wafers was notably uniform, even though the CNT solution was reused up to four times after the initial CNT deposition. Moreover, there was no significant degradation in the key CNT network transistor metrics. Therefore, we believe that our findings regarding this CNT reuse method may provide additional guidance in the field of wafer-scale CNT electronics and may contribute strongly to the development of practical device applications at an ultralow cost.

Wafer-scale carbon nanotube network transistors.

Highly purified, preseparated semiconducting carbon nanotubes (CNTs) hold great potential for high-performance CNT network transistors due to their high electrical conductivity, high mechanical strength, and room-temperature processing compatibility. In this paper, we report our recent progress on CNT network transistors integrated on an 8-inch wafer. We observe that the key device performance parameters of CNT network transistors at various locations on an 8-inch wafer are highly uniform and that the device yield is impressive. Therefore, this work validates a promising path toward mass production and will make a significant contribution to the future field of wafer-scale CNT electronics.

Oxidatively stable polyaniline:polyacid electrodes for electrochemical energy storage.

Conjugated polymers, such as polyaniline, have been widely explored as sensors, electrodes, and conductive fillers. As an electrode material in electrochemical energy storage systems, polyaniline can be subject to irreversible oxidation that reduces cycle life and electrode capacity, thus, limiting its widespread application. Here we present a simple route to produce and prepare polyaniline-based electrodes that are oxidatively stable up to 4.5 V vs. Li/Li(+). The route uses a polyacid to stabilize the fully oxidized pernigraniline salt form of polyaniline, which is normally highly unstable as a homopolymer. The result is an organic electrode of exceptionally high capacity, energy density, power density, and cycle life. We demonstrate that the polyaniline:polyacid electrode stores 230 mA h g(-1) of polyaniline for over 800 cycles, far surpassing homopolymer polyaniline under equivalent conditions. This approach provides a highly stable, electrochemically reversible replacement for conventional polyaniline.

Improved photoluminescence efficiency in UV nanopillar light emitting diode structures by recovery of dry etching damage.

In this study, we have fabricated 375-nm-wavelength InGaN/AlInGaN nanopillar light emitting diodes (LED) structures on c-plane sapphire. A uniform and highly vertical nanopillar structure was fabricated using self-organized Ni/SiO2 nano-size mask by dry etching method. To minimize the dry etching damage, the samples were subjected to high temperature annealing with subsequent chemical passivation in KOH solution. Prior to annealing and passivation the UV nanopillar LEDs showed the photoluminescence (PL) efficiency about 2.5 times higher than conventional UV LED structures which is attributed to better light extraction efficiency and possibly some improvement of internal quantum efficiency due to partially relieved strain. Annealing alone further increased the PL efficiency by about 4.5 times compared to the conventional UV LEDs, while KOH passivation led to the overall PL efficiency improvement by more than 7 times. Combined results of Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) suggest that annealing decreases the number of lattice defects and relieves the strain in the surface region of the nanopillars whereas KOH treatment removes the surface oxide from nanopillar surface.

Self-healable polymer complex with a giant ionic thermoelectric effect.

In this study, we develop a stretchable/self-healable polymer, PEDOT:PAAMPSA:PA, with remarkably high ionic thermoelectric (iTE) properties: an ionic figure-of-merit of 12.3 at 70% relative humidity (RH). The iTE properties of PEDOT:PAAMPSA:PA are optimized by controlling the ion carrier concentration, ion diffusion coefficient, and Eastman entropy, and high stretchability and self-healing ability are achieved based on the dynamic interactions between the components. Moreover, the iTE properties are retained under repeated mechanical stress (30 cycles of self-healing and 50 cycles of stretching). An ionic thermoelectric capacitor (ITEC) device using PEDOT:PAAMPSA:PA achieves a maximum power output and energy density of 4.59 µW‧m-2 and 1.95 mJ‧m-2, respectively, at a load resistance of 10 KΩ, and a 9-pair ITEC module produces a voltage output of 0.37 V‧K-1 with a maximum power output of 0.21 µW‧m-2 and energy density of 0.35 mJ‧m-2 at 80% RH, demonstrating the potential for a self-powering source.

Enhanced Chemical and Electrochemical Stability of Polyaniline-Based Layer-by-Layer Films.

Polyaniline (PANI) has been widely used as an electroactive material in various applications including sensors, electrochromic devices, solar cells, electroluminescence, and electrochemical energy storage, owing to PANI's unique redox properties. However, the chemical and electrochemical stability of PANI-based materials is not sufficiently high to maintain the performance of devices under many practical applications. Herein, we report a route to enhancing the chemical and electrochemical stability of PANI through layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly. PANI was assembled with different types of polyelectrolytes, and a comparative study between three different PANI-based layer-by-layer (LbL) films is presented here. Polyacids of different acidity and molecular structure, i.e., poly(acrylic acid) (PAA), polystyrene sulfonate (PSS), and tannic acid (TA), were used. The effect of polyacids' acidity on film growth, conductivity, and chemical and electrochemical stability of PANI was investigated. The results showed that the film growth of the LbL system depended on the acidic strength of the polyacids. All LbL films exhibited improved chemical and electrochemical stability compared to PANI films. The doping level of PANI was strongly affected by the type of dopants, resulting in different chemical and electrochemical properties; the strongest polyacid (PSS) can provide the highest conductivity and chemical stability of conductive PANI. However, the electrochemical stability of PANI/PAA was found to be better than all the other films.

Pump-Free Glass-Based Capillary Microfluidic Immuno-Assay Chip for Electrochemical Detection of Prostate-Specific Antigen.

Immuno-assay is one of diagnostic methods that usually measures biomarkers associated with cancers. However, this method is complex and take a long time to analyze. To overcome these disadvantages, many immuno-sensing chips have been designed and developed. However, these devices still require an external pump or electrical source. In this study, our group fabricated a capillary microfluidic device using glass and adhesive polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film, which were designed by simply patterning and cutting to make the microfluidic capillary channels. Using capillary force alone, glass microfluidic chip can control the speed of fluid-flow and the flow sequence by adjusting the width of the channel and design. In addition, each flow can push out other flow without mixing. The glass-based capillary microfluidic chip (GCMC) can automatically perform immunoassay in regular order without external devices and it provide an electrochemical signal analysis in an average of 2 min. The concentration of the prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a biomarker of prostate cancer, was measured by cyclic voltammetry (CV). In conclusion, GCMC can detect between a range of 100 pg/ml to 1 µg/ml of PSA and provide high selectivity to PSA.

Recent developments in bio-monitoring via advanced polymer nanocomposite-based wearable strain sensors.

Recent years, an explosive growth of wearable technology has been witnessed. A highly stretchable and sensitive wearable strain sensor which can monitor motions is in great demand in various fields such as healthcare, robotic systems, prosthetics, visual realities, professional sports, entertainments, etc. An ideal strain sensor should be highly stretchable, sensitive, and robust enough for long-term use without degradation in performance. This review focuses on recent advances in polymer nanocomposite based wearable strain sensors. With the merits of highly stretchable polymeric matrix and excellent electrical conductivity of nanomaterials, polymer nanocomposite based strain sensors are successfully developed with superior performance. Unlike conventional strain gauge, new sensing mechanisms include disconnection, crack propagation, and tunneling effects leading to drastically resistance change play an important role. A rational choice of materials selection and structure design are required to achieve high sensitivity and stretchability. Lastly, prospects and challenges are discussed for future polymer nanocomposite based wearable strain sensor and their potential applications.

Detection of thioredoxin-1 using ultra-sensitive ELISA with enzyme-encapsulated human serum albumin nanoparticle.

Many methods for early diagnosis of the disease use biomarker tests, which measure indicators of biological state in body fluids or blood. However, a limitation of these methods is their low sensitivity to biomarkers. In this study, human serum albumin (HSA) based nanoparticles capable of encapsulating excess horseradish peroxidase (HRP) are synthesized and applied to the development of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit with ultra-high sensitivity. The size of the nanoparticles and the amount of encapsulated enzyme are controlled by varying the synthesis conditions of pH and protein concentration, and the surface of the nanoparticles is modified with protein A (proA) to immobilize antibodies to the nanoparticles by self-assembly. Using the synthesized nanoparticles, the biomarker of breast cancer, thioredoxin-1, can be measured in the range of 10 fM to 100 pM by direct sandwich ELISA, which is 105 times more sensitive than conventional methods.

Ultrastretchable Conductive Polymer Complex as a Strain Sensor with a Repeatable Autonomous Self-Healing Ability.

Wearable strain sensors are essential for the realization of applications in the broad fields of remote healthcare monitoring, soft robots, and immersive gaming, among many others. These flexible sensors should be comfortably adhered to the skin and capable of monitoring human motions with high accuracy, as well as exhibiting excellent durability. However, it is challenging to develop electronic materials that possess the properties of skin-compliant, elastic, stretchable, and self-healable. This work demonstrates a new regenerative polymer complex composed of poly(2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid), polyaniline, and phytic acid as a skin-like electronic material. It exhibits ultrahigh stretchability (1935%), repeatable autonomous self-healing ability (repeating healing efficiency >98%), quadratic response to strain ( R2 > 0.9998), and linear response to flexion bending ( R2 > 0.9994), outperforming current reported wearable strain sensors. The deprotonated polyelectrolyte, multivalent anion, and doped conductive polymer, under ambient conditions, synergistically construct a regenerative dynamic network of polymer complex cross-linked by hydrogen bonds and electrostatic interactions, which enables ultrahigh stretchability and repeatable self-healing. Sensitive strain-responsive geometric and piezoresistive mechanisms of the material owing to the homogeneous and viscoelastic nature provide excellent linear responses to omnidirectional tensile strain and bending deformations. Furthermore, this material is scalable and simple to process in an environmentally friendly manner, paving the way for the next-generation flexible electronics.

Nanostructured porous graphene and its composites for energy storage applications.

Graphene, 2D atomic-layer of sp2 carbon, has attracted a great deal of interest for use in solar cells, LEDs, electronic skin, touchscreens, energy storage devices, and microelectronics. This is due to excellent properties of graphene, such as a high theoretical surface area, electrical conductivity, and mechanical strength. The fundamental structure of graphene is also manipulatable, allowing for the formation of an even more extraordinary material, porous graphene. Porous graphene structures can be categorized as microporous, mesoporous, or macroporous depending on the pore size, all with their own unique advantages. These characteristics of graphene, which are further explained in this paper, may be the key to greatly improving a wide range of applications in energy storage systems.

Design of Hybrid Electrochromic Materials with Large Electrical Modulation of Plasmonic Resonances.

We present a rational approach to fabricating plasmonically active hybrid polymer-metal nanomaterials with electrochemical tunability of the localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) of noble metal nanostructures embedded in an electroactive polymer matrix. The key requirement for being able to significantly modulate the LSPR band position is a close overlap between the refractive index change [Δn(λ)] of a stimuli-responsive polymeric matrix and the intrinsic LSPR bands. For this purpose, gold nanorods with a controlled aspect ratio, synthesized to provide high refractive index sensitivity while maintaining good oxidative stability, were combined with a solution-processable electroactive and electrochromic polymer (ECP): alkoxy-substituted poly(3,4-propylenedioxythiophene) [PProDOT(CH2OEtHx)2]. Spectral characteristics of the ECP, in particular the Δn(λ) variation, were evaluated as the material was switched between oxidized and reduced states. We fabricated ultrathin plasmonic electrochromic hybrid films consisting of gold nanorods and ECP that exhibited a large, stable, and reversible LSPR modulation of up to 25-30 nm with an applied electrical potential. Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations confirm a good match between the experimentally measured refractive index change in the ECP and the plasmonic response during electrochemical modulations.

Spray-On Polyaniline/Poly(acrylic acid) Electrodes with Enhanced Electrochemical Stability.

Polyaniline (PANI)-based electrodes are promising candidates for energy storage, but their cycle life remains poor. Recent work suggests that secondary interactions may enhance polyaniline's electrochemical stability and cycle life, but evidence to date is not conclusive. Here, we investigate spray-assisted layer-by-layer assemblies containing polyaniline nanofibers (PANI NFs) or conventional PANI and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA), which provides hydrogen bonding and electrostatic interactions. This spray-on approach may be suitable for the deposition of PANI onto a variety of surfaces. The effects of PANI type, PAA pH, and PAA molecular weight on the growth behavior, conductivity, and electrochemical performance are examined. It is shown that LbL films with PANI NFs, higher molecular weight PAA, and lower PAA pH yield the thickest films, whereas the thinnest films come from conventional PANI assembled under similar conditions. Electron microscopy imaging and density measurements show that LbL films containing PANI NFs are very porous, whereas those containing conventional PANI are very dense (0.28 vs 1.33 g/cm(3), respectively). The difference in density dramatically affects the electrochemical properties in terms of capacity and long-term cycling behavior. Upon extended cycling, PANI NFs alone rapidly lose their electrochemical activity. On the other hand, PANI NF-based LbL films exhibited somewhat enhanced stability, and PANI-based LbL films were exceptionally stable, maintaining 94.7% of their capacity after 1000 cycles when cycled up to 4.2 V vs Li/Li(+). These results show that secondary interactions from PAA enhance stability, as does the selection of PANI type and the electrode's density.

Controlling porosity in lignin-derived nanoporous carbon for supercapacitor applications.

Low-cost renewable lignin has been used as a precursor to produce porous carbons. However, to date, it has not been easy to obtain high surface area porous carbon without activation processes or templating agents. Here, we demonstrate that low molecular weight lignin yields highly porous carbon with more graphitization through direct carbonization without additional activation processes or templating agents. We found that molecular weight and oxygen consumption during carbonization are critical factors to obtain high surface area, graphitized porous carbons. This highly porous carbon from low-cost renewable lignin sources is a good candidate for supercapacitor electrode materials.

In situ one-step synthesis of hierarchical nitrogen-doped porous carbon for high-performance supercapacitors.

A hierarchically structured nitrogen-doped porous carbon is prepared from a nitrogen-containing isoreticular metal-organic framework (IRMOF-3) using a self-sacrificial templating method. IRMOF-3 itself provides the carbon and nitrogen content as well as the porous structure. For high carbonization temperatures (950 °C), the carbonized MOF required no further purification steps, thus eliminating the need for solvents or acid. Nitrogen content and surface area are easily controlled by the carbonization temperature. The nitrogen content decreases from 7 to 3.3 at % as carbonization temperature increases from 600 to 950 °C. There is a distinct trade-off between nitrogen content, porosity, and defects in the carbon structure. Carbonized IRMOFs are evaluated as supercapacitor electrodes. For a carbonization temperature of 950 °C, the nitrogen-doped porous carbon has an exceptionally high capacitance of 239 F g(-1). In comparison, an analogous nitrogen-free carbon bears a low capacitance of 24 F g(-1), demonstrating the importance of nitrogen dopants in the charge storage process. The route is scalable in that multi-gram quantities of nitrogen-doped porous carbons are easily produced.

Electric field induced morphological transitions in polyelectrolyte multilayers.

In this work, the morphological transitions in weak polyelectrolyte (PE) multilayers (PEMs) assembled from linear poly(ethylene imine) (LPEI) and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) upon application of an electric field were studied. Exposure to an electric field results in the creation of a porous structure, which can be ascribed to local changes in pH from the hydrolysis of water and subsequent structural rearrangements of the weak PE constituents. Depending on the duration of application of the field, the porous transition gradually develops into a range of structures and pore sizes. It was discovered that the morphological transition of the LbL films starts at the multilayer-electrode interface and propagates through the film. First an asymmetrical structure forms, consisting of microscaled pores near the electrode and nanoscaled pores near the surface in contact with the electrolyte solution. At longer application of the field the porous structures become microscaled throughout. The results revealed in this study not only demonstrate experimental feasibility for controlling variation in pore size and porosity of multilayer films but also deepens the understanding of the mechanism of the porous transition. In addition, electrical potential is used to release small molecules from the PEMs.

Charge storage in polymer acid-doped polyaniline-based layer-by-layer electrodes.

Polymeric electrodes that can achieve high doping levels and store charge reversibly are desired for electrochemical energy storage because they can potentially achieve high specific capacities and energies. One such candidate is the polyaniline:poly(2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid) (PANI:PAAMPSA) complex, a water-processable complex obtained via template polymerization that is known to reversibly achieve high doping levels at potentials of up to 4.5 V versus Li/Li+. Here, for the first time, PANI:PAAMPSA is successfully incorporated into layer-by-layer (LbL) electrodes. This processing technique is chosen for its ability to blend species on a molecular level and its ability to conformally coat a substrate. Three different polyaniline-based LbL electrodes comprised of PANI/PAAMPSA, PANI/PANI:PAAMPSA, and linear poly(ethylenimine)/PANI:PAAMPSA are compared in terms of film growth, charge storage, and reversibility. We found that the reversibility of PANI:PAAMPSA is retained within the LbL electrodes and that the PANI/PANI:PAAMPSA electrode exhibits the best performance in terms of capacity and cycle life. These results provide general guidelines for the assembly of PANI:PAAMPSA in LbL films and also demonstrate their potential as electrochemically active components in electrodes.