The Development of an IMU Integrated Clothes for Postural Monitoring Using Conductive Yarn and Interconnecting Technology.

Spinal disease is a common yet important condition that occurs because of inappropriate posture. Prevention could be achieved by continuous posture monitoring, but most measurement systems cannot be used in daily life due to factors such as burdensome wires and large sensing modules. To improve upon these weaknesses, we developed comfortable "smart wear" for posture measurement using conductive yarn for circuit patterning and a flexible printed circuit board (FPCB) for interconnections. The conductive yarn was made by twisting polyester yarn and metal filaments, and the resistance per unit length was about 0.05 Ω/cm. An embroidered circuit was made using the conductive yarn, which showed increased yield strength and uniform electrical resistance per unit length. Circuit networks of sensors and FPCBs for interconnection were integrated into clothes using a computer numerical control (CNC) embroidery process. The system was calibrated and verified by comparing the values measured by the smart wear with those measured by a motion capture camera system. Six subjects performed fixed movements and free computer work, and, with this system, we were able to measure the anterior/posterior direction tilt angle with an error of less than 4°. The smart wear does not have excessive wires, and its structure will be optimized for better posture estimation in a later study.

Laser Crystallization of Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Perovskite Solar Cells.

Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites attract enormous research interest for next generation solar energy harvest. Synergistic crystalline structures comprising organic and inorganic components enable solution processing of perovskite films. A reliable crystallization method for perovskites, compatible with fast continuous process over large-area flexible substrates, is crucial for high performance solar cell production. Here, we present laser crystallization of hybrid perovskite solar cells using near-infrared (NIR) laser (λ = 1064 nm). Crystalline morphology of CH3NH3PbI3 (MAPbI3) perovskite films are widely controllable with laser irradiation condition while maintaining film uniformity. Photothermal heating effectively assisted by interfacial photoconversion layers is critical for phase transformation without beam damage of multilayered device structures. Notably, laser crystallization attains higher device performances than conventional thermal annealing. Fast laser crystallization with manufacture level scan rate (1 m min(-1)) demonstrates inverted-type perovskite solar cells with 11.3 and 8.0% efficiencies on typical glass and flexible polymer substrates, respectively, without rigorous device optimization.

Synergistic concurrent enhancement of charge generation, dissociation, and transport in organic solar cells with plasmonic metal-carbon nanotube hybrids.

Plasmonic nanostructures are synthesized by decorating B- or N-doped carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with Au nanoparticles. While the plasmonic nanoparticles promote exciton generation and dissociation, the B- and N-doped CNTs enable charge-selective transport enhancement in the organic active layer. Such concurrent enhancements of all the principal energy-harvesting steps improve the device efficiency up to 9.98% for organic single-junction solar cells.

Semiconducting polymers with nanocrystallites interconnected via boron-doped carbon nanotubes.

Organic semiconductors are key building blocks for future electronic devices that require unprecedented properties of low-weight, flexibility, and portability. However, the low charge-carrier mobility and undesirable processing conditions limit their compatibility with low-cost, flexible, and printable electronics. Here, we present significantly enhanced field-effect mobility (µ(FET)) in semiconducting polymers mixed with boron-doped carbon nanotubes (B-CNTs). In contrast to undoped CNTs, which tend to form undesired aggregates, the B-CNTs exhibit an excellent dispersion in conjugated polymer matrices and improve the charge transport between polymer chains. Consequently, the B-CNT-mixed semiconducting polymers enable the fabrication of high-performance FETs on plastic substrates via a solution process; the µFET of the resulting FETs reaches 7.2 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1), which is the highest value reported for a flexible FET based on a semiconducting polymer. Our approach is applicable to various semiconducting polymers without any additional undesirable processing treatments, indicating its versatility, universality, and potential for high-performance printable electronics.

High performance organic photovoltaics with plasmonic-coupled metal nanoparticle clusters.

Performance enhancement of organic photovoltaics using plasmonic nanoparticles has been limited without interparticle plasmon coupling. We demonstrate high performance organic photovoltaics employing gold nanoparticle clusters with controlled morphology as a plasmonic component. Near-field coupling at the interparticle gaps of nanoparticle clusters gives rise to strong enhancement in localized electromagnetic field, which led to the significant improvement of exciton generation and dissociation in the active layer of organic solar cells. A power conversion efficiency of 9.48% is attained by employing gold nanoparticle clusters at the bottom of the organic active layer. This is one of the highest efficiency values reported thus far for the single active layer organic photovoltaics.

The role of N-doped multiwall carbon nanotubes in achieving highly efficient polymer bulk heterojunction solar cells.

This paper reports an improved solar cell performance of 8.6% by incorporation of N-doped multiwall carbon nanotubes (N-MCNTs) into BHJ solar cells composed of PTB7 and PC71BM. It was demonstrated for the first time that incorporation of N-MCNTs leads to not only increased nanocrystallite sizes but also smaller phase-separated domain sizes of both PTB7 copolymers and PC71BM from X-ray scattering study. The results show that N-MCNTs could serve as both exciton dissociation centers and charge transfer channels. The enhanced charge dissociation probabilities and effective charge carrier lifetime in the active layer material offer evidence to support the conclusion that N-MCNTs facilitated charge separation and transport.

Exciton dissociation and charge-transport enhancement in organic solar cells with quantum-dot/N-doped CNT hybrid nanomaterials.

The incorporation of InP quantum-dot/N-doped multiwalled carbon nanotube (QD:NCNT) nanohybrids in the active layer of poly(3-hexylthiophene)/indene-C60 bisadduct (P3HT/ICBA) bulk-heterojuction solar cells enhances V(OC) and J(SC) . The QDs encourage exciton dissociation by promoting electron transfer, while the NCNTs enhance the transport of the separated electrons and eventual charge collection. Such a synergistic effect successfully improves the power conversion efficiency (PCE) from 4.68% (reference cells) to 6.11%.

Flexible multilevel resistive memory with controlled charge trap B- and N-doped carbon nanotubes.

B- and N-doped carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with controlled workfunctions were successfully employed as charge trap materials for solution processable, mechanically flexible, multilevel switching resistive memory. B- and N-doping systematically controlled the charge trap level and dispersibility of CNTs in polystyrene matrix. Consequently, doped CNT device demonstrated greatly enhanced nonvolatile memory performance (ON-OFF ratio >10(2), endurance cycle >10(2), retention time >10(5)) compared to undoped CNT device. More significantly, the device employing both B- and N-doped CNTs with different charge trap levels exhibited multilevel resistive switching with a discrete and stable intermediate state. Charge trapping materials with different energy levels offer a novel design scheme for solution processable multilevel memory.