Self‐Powered,Room‐Temperature Electronic Nose Based on Triboelectrification and Heterogeneous Catalytic Reaction

Herein, a self‐powered electronic nose strategy with highly selective gas detection is described. The electronic nose is a two‐dimensional microarray based on the triboelectrification between ZnO nanowires and the dielectric layers, and the heterogeneous catalytic reaction occurring on the nanowires and on the NiO nanoparticles. These electronic noses show the ability to distinguish between four volatile organic compound (VOC) gases (methanol, ethanol, acetone, and toluene) with a detection limit of 0.1% at room temperature using no external power source.     

Direct Transfer Printing with Metal Oxide Layers for Fabricating Flexible Nanowire Devices

A direct printing method for fabricating devices by using metal oxide transfer layers instead of conventional transfer media such as polydimethylsiloxane is presented. Metal oxides are not damaged by organic solvents; therefore, electrodes with gaps less than 2 μm can be defined on a metal oxide transfer layer through photolithography. In order to determine a suitable metal oxide for use as transfer layer, the surface energies of various metal oxides are measured, and Au layers deposited on these oxides are transferred onto polyvinylphenol (PVP). To verify the feasibility of our approach, Au source–drain electrodes on transfer layers and Si nanowires (NWs) addressed by the dielectrophoretic (DEP) alignment process are transferred onto rigid and flexible PVP‐coated substrates. Based on transfer test and DEP process, Al₂O₃ is determined to be the best transfer layer. Finally, Si NWs field effect transistors (FETs) are fabricated on a rigid Si substrate and a flexible polyimide film. As the channel length decreases from 3.442 to 1.767 μm, the mobility of FET on the Si substrate increases from 127.61 ± 37.64 to 181.60 ± 23.73 cm² V^?1 s^?1. Furthermore, the flexible Si NWs FETs fabricated through this process show enhanced electrical properties with an increasing number of bending cycles.     

Spontaneous Formation of Liquid Crystals in Ultralarge Graphene Oxide Dispersions

A novel process is developed to synthesize graphene oxide sheets with an ultralarge size based on a solution‐phase method involving pre‐exfoliation of graphite flakes. Spontaneous formation of lyotropic nematic liquid crystals is identified upon the addition of the ultralarge graphene oxide sheets in water above a critical concentration of about 0.1 wt%. It is the lowest filler content ever reported for the formation of liquid crystals from any colloid, arising mainly from the ultrahigh aspect ratio of the graphene oxide sheets of over 30 000. It is proposed that the self‐assembled brick‐like graphene oxide nanostructure can be applied in many areas, such as energy‐storage devices and nanocomposites with a high degree of orientation.     

Facile Preparation of PbTiO3 Nanodot Arrays: Combining Nanohybridization with Vapor Phase Reaction Sputtering

A facile route is presented for the fabrication of spherical PbTiO₃ (PTO) nanodot arrays on platinized silicon substrates using PbO vapor phase reaction sputtering on micellar monolayer films of polystyrene‐block‐poly(ethylene oxide) (PS‐b‐PEO) loaded with TiO₂ sol–gel precursor. Short exposure to PbO transforms the amorphous TiO₂ into polycrystalline PTO, while keeping the inherent size and periodicity of TiO₂ nanodots. HRTEM images show that the spherical PTO nanodots, with an average size and height of 63 nm and 40 nm, respectively, are fixed on the Pt supported by residual carbon. XPS narrow scan spectra of Ti 2p and O 1s strongly verify the evolution of chemical identity and the reduction of the Ti‐O binding energy from TiO₂ to PTO. The amplitude and phase images of piezoelectric force microscopy (PFM) confirm a multidomain structure attributed by the crystalline orientation of the PTO nanodots. Furthermore, the discrete PTO nanodots show remarkable switching properties due to the low strain field induced by the small lateral size, and the absence of domain pinning effects by grain boundary.     

Cooperative Hybrid‐ARQ Protocols: Unified Frameworks for Protocol Analysis

Cooperative hybrid‐automatic repeat request (HARQ) protocols, which can exploit the spatial and temporal diversities, have been widely studied. The efficiency of cooperative HARQ protocols is higher than that of cooperative protocols because retransmissions are only performed when necessary. We classify cooperative HARQ protocols as three decode‐and‐forward‐based HARQ (DF‐HARQ) protocols and two amplified‐and‐forward‐based HARQ (AF‐HARQ) protocols. To compare these protocols and obtain the optimum parameters, two unified frameworks are developed for protocol analysis. Using the frameworks, we can evaluate and compare the maximum throughput and outage probabilities according to the SNR, the relay location, and the delay constraint. From the analysis we can see that the maximum achievable throughput of the DF‐HARQ protocols can be much greater than that of the AF‐HARQ protocols due to the incremental redundancy transmission at the relay.     

Millimeter‐Wave High‐Linear CMOS Low‐Noise Amplifier Using Multiple‐Gate Transistors

A millimeter‐wave (mm‐wave) high‐linear low‐noise amplifier (LNA) is presented using a 0.18 µm standard CMOS process. To improve the linearity of mm‐wave LNAs, we adopted the multiple‐gate transistor (MGTR) topology used in the low frequency range. By using an MGTR having a different gate‐source bias at the last stage of LNAs, third‐order input intercept point (IIP3) and 1‐dB gain compression point (P_1dB) increase by 4.85 dBm and 4 dBm, respectively, without noise figure (NF) degradation. At 33 GHz, the proposed LNAs represent 9.5 dB gain, 7.13 dB NF, and 6.25 dBm IIP3.     

Sub‐Nanometer Level Size Tuning of a Monodisperse Nanoparticle Array Via Block Copolymer Lithography

The fabrication and catalytic application of a size‐tunable monodisperse nanoparticle array enabled by block copolymer lithography is demonstrated. Highly uniform vertical cylinder nanodomains are achieved in poly(styrene‐block‐4‐vinylpyridine) (PS‐b‐P4VP) diblock copolymer thin‐films by solvent annealing. The prominent diffusion of the anionic metal complexes into the protonated P4VP cylinder nanodomains occurs through specific electrostatic interactions in a weakly acidic aqueous solution. This well‐defined diffusion with nanoscale confinement enables preparation of the laterally ordered monodisperse nanoparticle array with sub‐nanometer level precise size tuning. The controlled growth of monodisperse nanoparticle arrays is proven by their catalytic use for vertical carbon nanotube (CNT) growth via plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). Since the size of the catalyst particles is the decisive parameter for the diameters and wall‐numbers of CNTs, the highly selective growth of double‐walled or triple‐walled CNTs could be accomplished using monodisperse nanoparticle arrays.     

Comparison of thin epitaxial film silicon photovoltaics fabricated on monocrystalline and polycrystalline seed layers on glass

We fabricate thin epitaxial crystal silicon solar cells on display glass and fused silica substrates overcoated with a silicon seed layer. To confirm the quality of hot‐wire chemical vapor deposition epitaxy, we grow a 2‐µm‐thick absorber on a (100) monocrystalline Si layer transfer seed on display glass and achieve 6.5% efficiency with an open circuit voltage (V_OC) of 586 mV without light‐trapping features. This device enables the evaluation of seed layers on display glass. Using polycrystalline seeds formed from amorphous silicon by laser‐induced mixed phase solidification (MPS) and electron beam crystallization, we demonstrate 2.9%, 476 mV (MPS) and 4.1%, 551 mV (electron beam crystallization) solar cells. Grain boundaries likely limit the solar cell grown on the MPS seed layer, and we establish an upper bound for the grain boundary recombination velocity (S_GB) of 1.6x10⁴ cm/s. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Development of a‐SiOx:H solar cells with very high Voc × FF product

In this study, deposition conditions for making a‐SiO_x:H are investigated systematically in order to obtain a high band gap material. We found that at given optical band gap, a‐SiO_x:H with favorable opto‐electronic properties can be obtained when deposited using low CO₂ flow rates and deposition pressures. We also found that a low radio frequency power density is required in order to limit the effect of ion bombardment on the material properties of i‐a‐SiO_x:H and thereby the solar cell performance. In addition, by decreasing the heater temperature from 300 to 200°C when making the i‐a‐SiO_x:H, the V_oc can be increased. We employed optimized p‐doped and n‐doped a‐SiO_x:H films into the p‐i‐n solar cells, and as a consequence, a high V_oc of over 1 V and high fill factor (FF) are obtained. When depositing on texture‐etched ZnO:Al substrates, a high efficiency a‐SiO_x:H single junction solar cell having a high V_oc × FF product of 0.761 (V_oc: 1.042 V, J_sc: 10.3 mA/cm², FF: 0.73, efficiency: 7.83%) was obtained. The a‐SiO_x:H solar cell shows comparable light degradation characteristics to standard a‐Si:H solar cells. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.