Ferroelectric-Driven Performance Enhancement of Graphene Field-Effect Transistors Based on Vertical Tunneling Heterostructures.

A vertical graphene heterostructure field-effect transistor (VGHFET) using an ultrathin ferroelectric film as a tunnel barrier is developed. The heterostructure is capable of providing new degrees of tunability and functionality via coupling between the ferroelectricity and the tunnel current of the VGHFET, which results in a high-performance device. The results pave the way for developing novel atomic-scale 2D heterostructures and devices.

Efficient and stable perovskite solar cells prepared in ambient air irrespective of the humidity.

Poor stability of organic-inorganic halide perovskite materials in humid condition has hindered the success of perovskite solar cells in real applications since controlled atmosphere is required for device fabrication and operation, and there is a lack of effective solutions to this problem until now. Here we report the use of lead (II) thiocyanate (Pb(SCN)2) precursor in preparing perovskite solar cells in ambient air. High-quality CH3NH3PbI3-x(SCN)x perovskite films can be readily prepared even when the relative humidity exceeds 70%. Under optimized processing conditions, we obtain devices with an average power conversion efficiency of 13.49% and the maximum efficiency over 15%. In comparison with typical CH3NH3PbI3-based devices, these solar cells without encapsulation show greatly improved stability in humid air, which is attributed to the incorporation of thiocyanate ions in the crystal lattice. The findings pave a way for realizing efficient and stable perovskite solar cells in ambient atmosphere.

Graphene/sulfur hybrid nanosheets from a space-confined "sauna" reaction for high-performance lithium-sulfur batteries.

A space-confined "sauna" reaction system is introduced for the simultaneous reduction and functionalization of graphene oxide to unique graphene-sulfur hybrid nanosheets, in which thin layers of amorphous sulfur are tightly anchored on the graphene sheet via strong chemical bonding. Upon being used as the cathode material in lithium-sulfur batteries, the as-synthesized composite shows an excellent electrochemical performance.

Electrospun bismuth ferrite nanofibers for potential applications in ferroelectric photovoltaic devices.

Bismuth ferrite (BFO) nanofibers were synthesized via a sol-gel-based electrospinning process followed by thermal treatment. The influences of processing conditions on the final structure of the samples were investigated. Nanofibers prepared under optimized conditions were found to have a perovskite structure with good quality of crystallization and free of impurity phase. Ferroelectric and piezoelectric responses were obtained from individual nanofiber measured on a piezoelectric force microscope. A prototype photovoltaic device using laterally aligned BFO nanofibers and interdigital electrodes was developed and its performance was examined on a standard photovoltaic system. The BFO nanofibers were found to exhibit an excellent ferroelectric photovoltaic property with the photocurrent several times larger than the literature data obtained on BFO thin films.

Flexible organic electrochemical transistors for highly selective enzyme biosensors and used for saliva testing.

Flexible organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) are successfully used as high-performance enzyme biosensors, such as uric acid (UA) and cholesterol sensors. The sensitivity and selectivity of the sensors can be simultaneously enhanced by co-modifying the gate electrodes with positively/negatively charged bilayer polymer films and enzymes. These OECT-based UA sensors are successfully utilized for non-invasive UA detection in human saliva.

Stable 4 V-class bicontinuous cathodes by hierarchically porous carbon coating on Li3V2(PO4)3 nanospheres.

A high performance, durable cathode material for lithium ion batteries is achieved by incorporating ∼50 nm Li3V2(PO4)3/C core-shell nanospheres into a porous carbon framework. The Li3V2(PO4)3/C nanocomposite delivers an initial discharge capacity of 130 mA h g(-1), approaching its theoretical limit (133 mA h g(-1)). At a high current rate (10 C), the nanocomposite displays an impressive long cycle life and remarkable capacity retention (90% after 1200 cycles). Notably, the Coulombic efficiency is above 99% during the course of cycling. The remarkable power capability and cycle stability derived from our simple and scalable synthesis suggests that this 4 V-class material could be one of the most promising candidates for future batteries.

Quantitative SERS detection of low-concentration aromatic polychlorinated biphenyl-77 and 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene.

This paper reports a simple label-free high-sensitive method for detecting low-concentration persistent organic pollutants and explosive materials. The proposed method combines surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and magnetomotive enrichment of the target molecules on the surface of Ag nanoparticles (NPs). This structure can be achieved through self-assembling integration of Ag NPs with ferromagnetic Fe3O4 microspheres, forming a hybrid SERS nanoprobe with both optical and magnetic properties. Moreover, the magnetic response of ferromagnetic Fe3O4 microspheres can be used to dynamically modulate the optical property of Ag NPs through controlling their geometric arrangement on the substrate by applying an external magnetic field. It is also demonstrated from the full-wave numerical simulation results that the maximum electromagnetic field enhancement can be greatly increased by shortening the distance of neighboring Ag NPs and therefore resulting in an improved SERS detecting limit. More importantly, by using the prepared substrate, the SERS signals from organic pollution substances, i.e. aromatic polychlorinated biphenyl-77 and 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, were quantitatively analyzed.

High performance relaxor-based ferroelectric single crystals for ultrasonic transducer applications.

Relaxor-based ferroelectric single crystals Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 (PMN-PT) have drawn much attention in the ferroelectric field because of their excellent piezoelectric properties and high electromechanical coupling coefficients (d33~2000 pC/N, kt~60%) near the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB). Ternary Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O3-Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 (PIN-PMN-PT) single crystals also possess outstanding performance comparable with PMN-PT single crystals, but have higher phase transition temperatures (rhombohedral to tetragonal Trt, and tetragonal to cubic Tc) and larger coercive field Ec. Therefore, these relaxor-based single crystals have been extensively employed for ultrasonic transducer applications. In this paper, an overview of our work and perspectives on using PMN-PT and PIN-PMN-PT single crystals for ultrasonic transducer applications is presented. Various types of single-element ultrasonic transducers, including endoscopic transducers, intravascular transducers, high-frequency and high-temperature transducers fabricated using the PMN-PT and PIN-PMN-PT crystals and their 2-2 and 1-3 composites are reported. Besides, the fabrication and characterization of the array transducers, such as phased array, cylindrical shaped linear array, high-temperature linear array, radial endoscopic array, and annular array, are also addressed.

Bifunctional Au@Pt core-shell nanostructures for in situ monitoring of catalytic reactions by surface-enhanced Raman scattering spectroscopy.

Optical probes of heterogeneous catalytic reactions are of great importance for in situ determination of the catalytic activity and monitoring of the reaction process. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy could be used as a sensitive optical probe for this purpose provided that plasmonic metal nanoparticles for Raman enhancement are properly integrated with catalytic metals to form a single entity. Herein we present a facile approach for synthesizing Au@Pt core-shell nanostructures with a controllable surface density of sub-5 nm Pt nanoparticles on the surface of Au nanorods. Systematic investigations on both SERS and catalytic activities of the hybrid nanostructures reveal an optimized surface coverage of Pt. More importantly, we demonstrate that, due to their dual functionalities, the hybrid nanostructures are able to track the Pt-catalysed reaction in real time by measuring the SERS signals of the reactant, intermediate and final products. This SERS-based synergy technique provides a novel approach for quantitatively studying catalytic chemical reaction processes and is suitable for many applications such as reduction and oxidation reactions in fuel cells and catalytic water splitting.

Microfluidic reactors for photocatalytic water purification.

Photocatalytic water purification utilizes light to degrade the contaminants in water and may enjoy many merits of microfluidics technology such as fine flow control, large surface-area-to-volume ratio and self-refreshing of reaction surface. Although a number of microfluidic reactors have been reported for photocatalysis, there is still a lack of a comprehensive review. This article aims to identify the physical mechanisms that underpin the synergy of microfluidics and photocatalysis, and, based on which, to review the reported microfluidic photocatalytic reactors. These microreactors help overcome different problems in bulk reactors such as photon transfer limitation, mass transfer limitation, oxygen deficiency, and lack of reaction pathway control. They may be scaled up for large-throughput industrial applications of water processing and may also find niche applications in rapid screening and standardized tests of photocatalysts.

Direct observation of carbon nanostructure growth at liquid-solid interfaces.

Our TEM observation revealed that in a carbon-Pt3Co system, amorphous carbon first crystallized into nanoclusters at step-edges on melting Pt3Co surfaces before merging into graphene layers through a kinetic restructuring via oriented-attachment, leading to the final formation of few-layered graphene nanostructures. The result obtained from density-functional theory calculations further suggested that Co atoms rather than Pt atoms acted as initial nucleation centers.

Formation and healing of vacancies in graphene chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth.

The formation and kinetics of single and double vacancies in graphene chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth on Cu(111), Ni(111), and Co(0001) surfaces are investigated by the first-principles calculation. It is found that the vacancies in graphene on the metal surfaces are dramatically different from those in free-standing graphene. The interaction between the vacancies and the metal surface and the involvement of a metal atom in the vacancy structure greatly reduce their formation energies and significantly change their diffusion barriers. Furthermore, the kinetic process of forming vacancies and the potential route of their healing during graphene CVD growth on Cu(111) and Ni(111) surfaces are explored. The results indicate that Cu is a better catalyst than Ni for the synthesis of high-quality graphene because the defects in graphene on Cu are formed in a lower concentration and can be more efficiently healed at the typical experimental temperature. This study leads to a deep insight into the atomic process of graphene growth, and the mechanism revealed in this study can be used for the experimental design of high-quality graphene synthesis.

Time-variant 1D photonic crystals using flowing microdroplets.

In this paper we propose a time-variant photonic crystal, which can be formed by a stream of wave-length-scale microdroplets flowing through a microfluidic channel. The functionality stems from the photonic bandgap generated from the 1D periodic perturbation of refractive index. The periodicity, volume fraction and composition of both the dispersed and the continuous phases can be conveniently tuned in real time by hydrodynamic or pneumatic methods. By simulation, it is found that the time-variant nature of the proposed structure can induce an abnormal energy evolution, which is distinct from any existing photonic crystal structures. As a basic component for optofluidic systems, the droplet-based photonic crystal may find potential applications in light modulation and light confinement, and could be an ideal model for pursuing physical insights into time-variant optofluidic systems.

A structural stability diagram of multiple vacancies and defect self-healing in graphene.

Various types of multiple vacancies (MVs) in graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) and graphene are explored by quantum calculations. It is surprising that their relative stabilities highly depend on the width of the GNRs and thus is significantly different from those in graphene. A diagram of various MVs in GNRs is drawn and it is predicated that the hole in both GNRs and graphene can be annihilated. A new type of the MVs, which contains pentagon pairs and octagons (5/5|8), shows exceptional stability in GNRs. This study reveals the uniqueness of GNRs and a mechanism of defect self-healing in GNRs and graphene.

Microfluidic photoelectrocatalytic reactors for water purification with an integrated visible-light source.

This paper reports experimental studies using the photoelectrocatalytic effect to eliminate a fundamental limit of photocatalysis - the recombination of photo-excited electrons and holes. The fabricated reactor has a planar reaction chamber (10 × 10 × 0.1 mm(3)), formed by a blank indium tin oxide glass slide, an epoxy spacer and a BiVO(4)-coated indium tin oxide glass substrate. A blue light-emitting diode panel (emission area 10 × 10 mm(2)) is mounted on the cover for uniform illumination of the reaction chamber. In the experiment, positive and negative bias potentials were applied across the reaction chamber to suppress the electron/hole recombination and to select either the hole-driven or electron-driven oxidation pathway. The negative bias always exhibits higher performance. It is observed that under -1.8 V the degradation rate is independent of the residence time, showing that the accompanying electrolysis can solve the oxygen deficiency problem. The synergistic effect of photocatalysis and electrocatalysis is observed to reach its maximum under the bias potential of ± 1.5 V. The photoelectrocatalytic microreactor shows high stability and may be scaled up for high-performance water purification.

A strategy for simultaneously realizing the cubic-to-hexagonal phase transition and controlling the small size of NaYF4:Yb3+,Er3+ nanocrystals for in vitro cell imaging.

Hexagonal-phase NaYF(4):Yb(3+),Er(3+) up-conversion nanocrystals (UCNCs) are synthesized by a combination of refluxing and hydrothermal treatment. This strategy leads to only a slight increase in particle size, from 4.5 to ca. 10 nm, during the cubic-to-hexagonal phase transition. The hexagonal UCNCs can be internalized by HeLa cells and exhibit visible emission in the cells under near-infrared excitation.

Piezo-phototronic effect-induced dual-mode light and ultrasound emissions from ZnS:Mn/PMN-PT thin-film structures.

Electric-field-controllable luminescence of a ZnS:Mn/PMN-PT system is demonstrated. The light-emission of ZnS:Mn is caused by the piezoelectric potential, resulting from the converse piezoelectric effect of the PMN-PT substrate. Simultaneous generation of light and ultrasound waves is observed in this single system, which offers great potential to develop a dual-modal source combing light and ultrasonic waves for various applications.

Solution-gated graphene field effect transistors integrated in microfluidic systems and used for flow velocity detection.

Solution-gated graphene field effect transistors (SGGT) were integrated in microfluidic systems. The transfer characteristics of a SGGT with an Ag/AgCl gate electrode shifted horizontally with the change of the ionic concentration of KCl solution in the microchannel and the relationship can be fitted with the Nernst equation, which was attributed to the change of the potential drop at the Ag/AgCl electrode. Therefore the gate electrode is one important factor for the ion sensitive property of the SGGT. Then SGGTs were used as flow velocity sensors, which were based on measuring the streaming potentials in microfluidic channels. A linear relationship between the shift of the transfer curve of the SGGT and the flow velocity was obtained, indicating that the SGGT is a promising transducer for measuring flow velocity in a microchip. Since the streaming potential is influenced by the three physical quantities, including the flow velocity, the ionic strength of the fluid and the zeta potential of the substrate, the device can be used for sensing any one of the three quantities when the other two were known. It is noteworthy that SGGTs have been used for various types of chemical and biological sensors. Array of the devices integrated in multichannel microchips are expected to find many important applications in the lab-on-a-chip systems in the future.

Highly sensitive dopamine biosensors based on organic electrochemical transistors.

Organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) based on poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonic acid) (PEDOT:PSS) with different gate electrodes, including graphite, Au and Pt electrode, etc., have been used as dopamine sensor for the first time. The sensitivity of the OECT to dopamine depends on its gate electrode and operation voltage. We find that the device with a Pt gate electrode characterized at the gate voltage of 0.6 V shows the highest sensitivity. The detection limit of the device to dopamine is lower than 5 nM, which is one order of magnitude better than a conventional electrochemical measurement with the same Pt electrode. It is expected that OECT is a good candidate for low cost and highly sensitive biosensor for the detection of dopamine.

Simultaneous synthesis and functionalization of water-soluble up-conversion nanoparticles for in-vitro cell and nude mouse imaging.

Water-solubility and biocompatibility are prerequisites for rare-earth up-converting nanophosphors applied to biological imaging. In this work, we have developed a facile and one-step synthesis technique, through which water-soluble NaYF(4): Yb(3+), Er(3+) nanoparticles (NPs) with functional groups including 3-mercaptopropionic acid, 6-aminocaproic acid and poly(ethylene glycol)methyl ether on their surface can be directly prepared without any further surface treatment. Some inorganic salts will be selected as starting materials, water and some low toxic organic agents have been used as reaction media, which differs from earlier works. Structural and up-converting fluorescence are characterized by a variety of techniques. Cell uptake and in-vitro imaging of the as-synthesized NPs have been investigated using a multiphoton con-focal laser scanning microscope with a near-infrared excitation source. Internalization of the bare and functionalized NPs in human lung carcinoma A549 and human cervical carcinoma HeLa cells are studied at a nanoparticle loading of 10 µg mL(-1) over an exposure period from 30 min to 24 h. The cytotoxicity of modified NPs in HeLa cells is found to be low. In addition, the feasibility of the NPs in animal imaging has been demonstrated by subcutaneously injecting these NPs into nude mouse. The results indicated that our directly synthesized NPs coated with various functional groups are promising as bio-imaging agents due to their easy uptake, long lasting, low cytotoxicity, emissive in various human carcinoma cell lines and small animals through up-conversion with near-infrared excitation.