Collectively Exhaustive Electrodes Based on Covalent Organic Framework and Antagonistic Co‐Doping for Electroactive Ionic Artificial Muscles

In this study, high‐performance ionic soft actuators are developed for the first time using collectively exhaustive boron and sulfur co‐doped porous carbon electrodes (BS‐COF‐Cs), derived from thiophene‐based boronate‐linked covalent organic framework (T‐COF) as a template. The one‐electron deficiency of boron compared to carbon leads to the generation of hole charge carriers, while sulfur, owing to its high electron density, creates electron carriers in BS‐COF‐C electrodes. This antagonistic functionality of BS‐COF‐C electrodes assists the charge‐transfer rate, leading to fast charge separation in the developed ionic soft actuator under alternating current input signals. Furthermore, the hierarchical porosity, high surface area, and synergistic effect of co‐doping of the BS‐COF‐Cs play crucial roles in offering effective interaction of BS‐COF‐Cs with poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS), leading to the generation of high electro‐chemo‐mechanical performance of the corresponding composite electrodes. Finally, the developed ionic soft actuator based on the BS‐COF‐C electrode exhibits large bending strain (0.62%), excellent durability (90% retention for 6 hours under operation), and 2.7 times higher bending displacement than PEDOT:PSS under extremely low harmonic input of 0.5 V. This study reveals that the antagonistic functionality of heteroatom co‐doped electrodes plays a crucial role in accelerating the actuation performance of ionic artificial muscles.     

Investigation of Alkali‐Ion (Li,Na, and K) Intercalation in KxVPO4F (x ∼ 0) Cathode

This work compares the intercalation of K, Na, and Li in K_xVPO₄F (x ～ 0). The K_xVPO₄F (x ～ 0) cathode delivers reversible capacities of ≈90–100 mAh g^?1 in K, Na, and Li cells, at an average voltage of ≈4.33 V for K, ≈3.98 V for Na, and ≈3.96 V for Li. This is so far the highest average voltage known for a K‐intercalation cathode. The lower voltage of Li insertion compared to Na is attributable to undercoordinated Li ions in the K_xVPO₄F (x ～ 0) framework. While the material shows high rate capability for all the alkali ions, Li migration in K_xVPO₄F (x ～ 0) is more difficult than with Na and K. This work suggests that a large cavity is not always good for insertion of alkali ions and cathode materials need to be suitably tailored to each intercalating ion species.     

Anisotropic Hybrid Hydrogels with Superior Mechanical Properties Reminiscent of Tendons or Ligaments

Mimicking the hierarchically anisotropic structure and excellent mechanical properties of natural tissues, such as tendons and ligaments, using biomaterials is challenging. Despite recent achievements with anisotropic hydrogels, limitations remain because of difficulties in achieving both structural and mechanical characteristics simultaneously. A simple approach for fabricating hybrid hydrogels with a hierarchically anisotropic structure and superior mechanical properties that are reminiscent of tendons or ligaments is proposed. Alginate–polyacrylamide double‐network (DN) hydrogels incorporated with high aspect ratio mesoporous silica microparticles are stretched and fixed via subsequent drying and ionic crosslinking to achieve multiscale structures composed of an anisotropically aligned polymer network embedded with aligned microparticles. The mechanical properties of hydrogels can be further controlled by the degree of stretching, quantities, and functional groups of inorganic microparticles, and types of crosslinking cations. The subsequent reswelling results in a high water content (>80%) similar to that of natural tendons while high strength, modulus, and toughness are maintained. The optimized anisotropic hybrid hydrogel exhibits a tensile modulus of 7.2 MPa, strength of 1.3 MPa, and toughness of 1.4 MJ m^?3 even in the swollen state, which is 451‐, 27‐, and 2.2 times higher than that observed in the non‐swollen tough DN hydrogel. This study suggests a new strategy for fabricating anisotropic hydrogels with superior mechanical properties to develop new biomaterials for artificial tendons or ligaments.     

Solution‐Processable,High‐Performance Flexible Electroluminescent Devices Based on High‐k Nanodielectrics

Flexible alternating‐current electroluminescent (ACEL) devices have attracted considerable attention for their ability to produce uniform light emission under bent conditions and have enormous potential for applications in back lighting panels, decorative lighting in automobiles, and panel displays. Nevertheless, flexible ACEL devices generally require a high operating bias, which precludes their implementation in low power devices. Herein, solution‐processed La‐doped barium titanate (BTO:La) nanocuboids (≈150 nm) are presented as high dielectric constant (high‐k) nanodielectrics, which can enhance the dielectric constant of an ACEL device from 2.6 to 21 (at 1 kHz), enabling the fabrication of high‐performance flexible ACEL devices with a lower operating voltage as well as higher brightness (≈57.54 cd m^?2 at 240 V, 1 kHz) than devices using undoped BTO nanodielectrics (≈14.3 cd m^?2 at 240 V, 1 kHz). Furthermore, a uniform brightness across the whole panel surface of the flexible ACEL devices and excellent device reliability are achieved via the use of uniform networks of crossaligned silver nanowires as highly conductive and flexible electrodes. The results offer experimental validation of high‐brightness flexible ACELs using solution‐processed BTO:La nanodielectrics, which constitutes an important milestone toward the implementation of high‐k nanodielectrics in flexible displays.     

High Areal Capacitance of N‐Doped Graphene Synthesized by Arc Discharge

The lack of cost effective, industrial‐scale production methods hinders the widespread applications of graphene materials. In spite of its applicability in the mass production of graphene flakes, arc discharge has not received considerable attention because of its inability to control the synthesis and heteroatom doping. In this study, a facile approach is proposed for improving doping efficiency in N‐doped graphene synthesis through arc discharge by utilizing anodic carbon fillers. Compared to the N‐doped graphene (1–1.5% N) synthesized via the arc process according to previous literature, the resulting graphene flakes show a remarkably increased doping level (≈3.5% N) with noticeable graphitic N enrichment, which is rarely achieved by the conventional process, while simultaneously retaining high turbostratic crystallinity. The electrolyte ion storage of synthesized materials is examined in which synthesized N‐doped graphene material exhibits a remarkable area normalized capacitance of 63 µF cm^?2. The surprisingly high areal capacitance, which is superior to that of most carbon materials, is attributed to the synergistic effect of extrinsic pseudocapacitance, high crystallinity, and abundance of exposed graphene edges. These results highlight the great potentials of N‐doped graphene flakes produced by arc discharge in graphene‐based supercapacitors, along with well‐studied active exfoliated graphene and reduced graphene oxide.     

λ/64‐spaced compact ESPAR antenna via analog RF switches for a single RF chain MIMO system

In this study, an electronically steerable parasitic array radiator (ESPAR) antenna via analog radio frequency (RF) switches for a single RF chain MIMO system is presented. The proposed antenna elements are spaced at λ/64, and the antenna size is miniaturized via a dielectric radome. The optimum reactance load value is calculated via the beamforming load search algorithm. A switch simplifies the design and implementation of the reactance loads and does not require additional complex antenna matching circuits. The measured impedance bandwidth of the proposed ESPAR antenna is 1,500 MHz (1.75 GHz–3.25 GHz). The proposed antenna exhibits a beam pattern that is reconfigurable at 2.48 GHz due to changes in the reactance value, and the measured peak antenna gain is 4.8 dBi. The reception performance is measured by using a 4  4 BPSK signal. The measured average SNR is 17 dB when using the proposed ESPAR antenna as a transmitter, and the average SNR is 16.7 dB when using a four‐conventional monopole antenna.     

Photovoltaic Devices: Highly Conductive PEDOT:PSS Electrode with Optimized Solvent and Thermal Post‐Treatment for ITO‐Free Organic Solar Cells (Adv. Funct. Mater. 6/2011)

Highly conductive poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) films as stand‐alone electrodes for organic solar cells have been optimized using a solvent post‐treatment method. The treated PEDOT:PSS films show enhanced conductivities up to 1418 S cm^?1, accompanied by structural and chemical changes. The effect of the solvent treatment on PEDOT:PSS has been investigated in detail and is shown to cause a reduction of insulating PSS in the conductive polymer layer. Using these optimized electrodes, ITO‐free, small molecule organic solar cells with a zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc):fullerene C₆₀ bulk heterojunction have been produced on glass and PET substrates. The system was further improved by pre‐heating the PEDOT:PSS electrodes, which enhanced the power conversion efficiency to the values obtained for solar cells on ITO electrodes. The results show that optimized PEDOT:PSS with solvent and thermal post‐treatment can be a very promising electrode material for highly efficient flexible ITO‐free organic solar cells.     

Wide‐Band Fine‐Resolution DCO with an Active Inductor and Three‐Step Coarse Tuning Loop

This paper presents a wide‐band fine‐resolution digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) with an active inductor using an automatic three‐step coarse and gain tuning loop. To control the frequency of the DCO, the transconductance of the active inductor is tuned digitally. To cover the wide tuning range, a three‐step coarse tuning scheme is used. In addition, the DCO gain needs to be calibrated digitally to compensate for gain variations. The DCO tuning range is 58% at 2.4 GHz, and the power consumption is 6.6 mW from a 1.2 V supply voltage. An effective frequency resolution is 0.14 kHz. The phase noise of the DCO output at 2.4 GHz is –120.67 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset.     

Open‐Ended Waveguide Antenna Using a Single Split‐Ring Resonator

This letter proposes an open‐ended waveguide antenna with a single split‐ring resonator. In contrast to the waveguide antennas incorporating multiple rings reported in a previous study, which exhibited narrow bandwidth, the proposed antenna uses only one ring to achieve broader bandwidth while keeping the aperture small. A single ring has a relatively low quality factor compared to multiple rings. The simulated and measured fractional bandwidth was 4.13% and 4.03%, respectively, which is much broader than the fractional bandwidth of about 1% demonstrated in a previous study. This simple technique can be used in many applications that require small apertures including near‐field probes and array elements.