Polypyrrole Whelk‐Like Arrays toward Robust Controlling Manipulation of Organic Droplets Underwater

Whelk‐like polypyrrole (PPy) arrays film is successfully prepared by electropolymerization of pyrrole in the presence of low‐surface‐energy tetraethylammonium perfluorooctanesulfonate (TEAPFOS) as dopant. The underwater wettability of PPy whelk‐like arrays can be successfully tuned by electrical doping/dedoping of PFOS ions. Interestingly, CCl₄ droplets with microliter‐size as a representative sample are gathered together to form a larger droplet underwater at the potential of +0.8 V (vs Ag/AgCl), because PPy is in its PFOS‐doped states. Note that CCl₄ droplet can climb uphill successfully on the inclined whelk‐like arrays PPy film under the applied potential of ?1.0 V (vs Ag/AgCl), which may be attributed to wettability gradient derived from different oxidation states of PPy induced by electrochemical potential. These results may provide a simple strategy for on‐demand manipulation of organic droplets underwater at low voltage.     

Epitaxial growth of large-area and highly crystalline anisotropic ReSe<Subscript>2</Subscript> atomic layer

The anisotropic two-dimensional (2D) layered material rhenium disulfide (ReSe2) has attracted considerable attention because of its unusual properties and promising applications in electronic and optoelectronic devices.However,because of its low lattice symmetry and interlayer decoupling,anisotropic growth and out-of-plane growth occur easily,yielding thick flakes,dendritic structure,or flower-like structure.In this study,we demonstrated a bottom-up method for the controlled and scalable synthesis of ReSe2 by van der Waals epitaxy.To achieve controllable growth,a micro-reactor with a confined reaction space was constructed by stacking two mica substrates in the chemical vapor deposition system.Within the confined reaction space,the nucleation density and growth rate of ReSe2 were significantly reduced,favoring the large-area synthesis of ReSe2 with a uniform monolayer thickness.The morphological evolution of ReSe2 with growth temperature indicated that the anisotropic growth was suppressed at a low growth temperature (＜600 ℃).Field-effect transistors employing the grown ReSe2 exhibited p-type conduction with a current ON/OFF ratio up to 10s and a hole carrier mobility of 0.98 cm2/(V.s).Furthermore,the ReSe2 device exhibited an outstanding photoresponse to near-infrared light,with responsivity up to 8.4 and 5.1 A/W for 850-and 940-nm light,respectively.This work not only promotes the large-scale application of ReSe2 in high-performance electronic devices but also clarifies the growth mechanism of low-lattice symmetry 2D materials.     

Effects of temperature and dispersants on the phases and morphology of Ag–Cu nanoparticles

Ultrafine Ag–Cu nanoparticles (NPs) have been synthesized by a rapid one-step reduction within only 10 min. Effects of temperature and dispersants on the phases and morphology of Ag–Cu NPs were investigated. Results showed that citric acid exhibited an advantageous nature to avoid the formation of Cu₂O and form uniform morphology over PVP. The average particle size of the Ag–Cu NPs synthesized simply in ice-cubes bath could be controlled in 8.6 nm about a quarter of that synthesized at room temperature. The synthesized Ag–Cu NPs presented alloy states near the eutectic composition of 72:28. Due to the lower Ostwald ripening rate and citric acid protection, smaller Ag–Cu NPs were achieved in ice-cube bath. Results also showed that the ultrafine Ag–Cu NPs could be expected to sinter at about 330 °C which was much lower than the eutectic temperature (779 °C) of bulk Ag–Cu alloy. The ultrafine Ag–Cu NPs could be applied as potential die attach materials for SiC power devices.     

Synthesis of anisotropic NaNbO<Subscript>3</Subscript> seed crystals and fabrication of textured (K<Subscript>0.5</Subscript>Na<Subscript>0.5</Subscript>)NbO<Subscript>3</Subscript>-based ceramics

High aspect ratio patelike NaNbO₃ particles with pure perovskite structure have been successfully synthesized by topochemical microcrystal conversion (TMC) from plate-like precursor particles of the layer-structured Bi_2.5Na_3.5Nb₅O₁₈. By changing the Bi_2.5Na_3.5Nb₅O₁₈/Na₂CO₃ ratio, large and thin NaNbO₃ particles with a thickness of approximately 0.5 μm and a width of approximately 20 μm were obtained. The obtained NaNbO₃ particles is quite suitable for fabricating textured (K_0.5Na_0.5)NbO₃-based ceramics. Using the fine platelike NaNbO₃ particles as templates, dense <001> -oriented (K_0.5Na_0.5)NbO₃-0.5 mol %MnO₂ ceramics with high texture quality (Lotgering factor F ₀₀₁ = 87 %) and excellent piezoelectric properties were produced by templated grain growth. Compared with randomly oriented ceramics, textured samples show greatly enhanced properties. The room-temperature strain S, the piezoelectric coefficient d ₃₃ ^* and d ₃₃ reach up to 0.093 %, 233 pm/V and 195pC/N, respectively, which are all about 1.5 times larger than those of non-textured ceramics.