Flexible organic transistors and circuits with extreme bending stability

Flexible electronic circuits are an essential prerequisite for the development of rollable displays, conformable sensors, biodegradable electronics and other applications with unconventional form factors. The smallest radius into which a circuit can be bent is typically several millimetres, limited by strain-induced damage to the active circuit elements. Bending-induced damage can be avoided by placing the circuit elements on rigid islands connected by stretchable wires, but the presence of rigid areas within the substrate plane limits the bending radius. Here we demonstrate organic transistors and complementary circuits that continue to operate without degradation while being folded into a radius of 100 μm. This enormous flexibility and bending stability is enabled by a very thin plastic substrate (12.5 μm), an atomically smooth planarization coating and a hybrid encapsulation stack that places the transistors in the neutral strain position. We demonstrate a potential application as a catheter with a sheet of transistors and sensors wrapped around it that enables the spatially resolved measurement of physical or chemical properties inside long, narrow tubes.     

Self-organized Ce(1-x)Gd(x)O(2-y) nanowire networks with very fast coarsening driven by attractive elastic interactions

Assembling arrays of ordered nanowires is a key objective for many of their potential applications. However, a lack of understanding and control of the nanowires' growth mechanisms limits their thorough development. In this work, an appealing new path towards self-organized epitaxial nanowire networks produced by high-throughput solution methods is reported. Two requisites are identified to generate the nanowires: a thermodynamic driving force for an unrestricted elongated equilibrium island shape, and a very fast effective coarsening rate. These requirements are met in anisotropically strained Ce(1-x)Gd(x)O(2-y) nanowires with the (011) orientation grown on the (001) surface of LaAlO(3) substrates. Nanowires with aspect ratios above ≈100 oriented along two mutually orthogonal axes are obtained leading to labyrinthine networks. A very fast effective nanowire growth rate (≈60 nm min(-1)) for ex-situ thermally annealed nanostructures derives from simultaneous kinetic processes occurring in a branched network. Ostwald ripening and anisotropic dynamic coalescence, both promoted by strain-driven attractive nanowire interaction, and rapid recrystallization, enabled by fast atomic diffusion associated with a high concentration of oxygen vacancies, contribute to such an effective growth rate. This bottom-up approach to self-organized nanowire growth has a wide potential for many materials and functionalities.     

Nanogeometry matters: unexpected decrease of capillary adhesion forces with increasing relative humidity

The sticking effect between hydrophilic surfaces occurring at increasing relative humidity (RH) is an everyday phenomenon with uncountable implications. Here experimental evidence is presented for a counterintuitive monotonous decrease of the capillary adhesion forces between hydrophilic surfaces with increasing RH for the whole humidity range. It is shown that this unexpected result is related to the actual shape of the asperity at the nanometer scale: a model based on macroscopic thermodynamics predicts this decrease in the adhesion force for a sharp object ending in an almost flat nanometer-sized apex, in full agreement with experiments. This anomalous decrease is due to the fact that a significant growth of the liquid meniscus formed at the contact region with increasing humidity is hindered for this geometry. These results are relevant in the analysis of the dynamical behavior of nanomenisci. They could also have an outstanding value in technological applications, since the undesirable sticking effect between surfaces occurring at increasing RH could be avoided by controlling the shape of the surface asperities at the nanometric scale.     

Nanofabrication of 30 nm devices incorporating low resistance magnetic tunnel junctions

In this paper the electron-beam lithography conditions and the nanofabrication process are described for current-perpendicular-to-plane (CPP) pillar devices with 30 nm critical dimensions. This work combines a RAITH-150 tool with a negative e-beam resist (AR-7520) so that dense nanopillar arrays are patterned fast into large area samples. The resist dilution and coating conditions are optimized, aiming at its thickness reduction down to 80 nm. The exposure parameters are tuned for different geometries and dimensions, so that features down to 30 nm are exposed with good accuracy (+/- 1.9 nm) and reproducibility. The complete integration of these nanoelements into CPP devices involved electron beam lithography, ion milling for pattern transfer and chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP). Results on devices incorporating very low resistance-area (R x A) MTJ films deposited by Ion beam assisted deposition are shown, for MTJ stacks with R x A down to 0.8 omega x microm2. Device characterization includes electrical measurement of the pillar resistance and the transfer curves under dc magnetic fields (TMR up to 40%).     

Facile method for the preparation of the WS2 nanoparticles

A facile and simple synthetic route was proposed for the synthesis of WS2 nanoparticles. The as-prepared WS2 nanoparticles can be characterized with X-ray diffraction spectrum (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). The average particle size of the product is about 85 nm that was calculated from XRD pattern by the Debye-Scherrer formula.     

Doxorubicin-loaded albumin nanoparticles: formulation and characterization

The purpose of the present study was to develop Doxorubicin (Dox) loaded albumin nanoparticles for regional drug release in solid tumours. Bovine serum albumin nanoparticles were prepared by coacervation method. The nanoparticles were characterized using various techniques: Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) technique and Laser Doppler Electrophoresis (LDE) method. The entrapment of Dox in albumin nanoparticles also found out and in vitro release of drug was studied. The results show that the size of albumin nanoparticles increases from Z average of 67 nm to 98 and 106 nm for two different methods; A and B of drug loading, respectively. The SEM results confirm the spherical shape of nanoparticles which made at 4 degrees C. The results show that the size of nanoparticles decreases by decreasing temperature in their production process.     

InSb focal plane array chemical imaging enables assessment of unit process efficiency for milling operation

In the dry milling of wheat flour, each unit process (roller mill, purifier, sifter, etc.) produces a mixture with varying amounts of wheat endosperm and non-endosperm byproducts. Chemical images with 82 000 pixels of each intermediate product stream issuing from an individual processing machine are readily analyzed in terms of the relative amount of endosperm and non-endosperm. Approximately three minutes is required to produce an image of each intermediate product stream. Applying partial least squares (PLS) chemometric software to identify individual pixels, which enables calculation of the relative amount of endosperm and non-endosperm, is not a time-limiting factor. When relative flow rates are known for each stream, mass balance can be calculated from each intermediate stream in terms of the product (endosperm content) and the lower value non-endosperm byproduct. Data is presented from a purifier in a commercial flour mill. Intermediate streams collected from a run with optimized operational parameters were compared to those of another run before adjustment. The endosperm (product) mass balance profile for each run enabled assessment of operational efficiency. The devised chemical imaging analysis system would be particularly useful in commissioning of a new mill or to optimize existing wheat milling systems. Also, when raw material differs from that for which previous optimization was established, a new optimization may be in order. The ability to acquire a large number of spectra from a specimen and apply multivariate statistics to identify each pixel and subsequently count pixels accommodates heterogeneity and reports the results from averaging a very large number of individual spectra. A second illustration of the utility of the imaging method is presented centering on streams from the first and second break unit operations at the beginning of the roller mill process.     

Biomimetic assembly of proteins into microcapsules on oil-in-water droplets with structural reinforcement via biomolecular-recognition-based cross-linking of surface peptides

By mimicking the stabilization of bacterial membranes with S-layer proteins, a novel process to fabricate highly stable protein microcapsules is introduced. In this strategy, engineered collagen peptides with site-specific biotinylation are assembled into microcapsules on the oil-in-water droplets, and the resulting microcapsules are reinforced by biomolecular-recognition-based cross-linking with the protein. Furthermore the microcapsules are shown to be versatile scaffolds for developing functionalized hierarchical colloidosomes for important biotechnological applications.     

Carbon composite microelectrodes fabricated by electrophoretic deposition

Single-walled carbon nanotubes were deposited on one end of the etched carbon fiber electrodes by an electrophoretic method. The carbon nanotube bundles formed a dense network on the carbon fiber surface. The electrochemical properties of the composite carbon electrodes were studied in the buffered neutral solutions. The results in cyclic voltammetry's characteristic indicate that the electrons on the electrodes transfer very fast. Furthermore, the redox reactions of dopamine (DA) on the composite electrodes show good sensitivity. When the DA concentration was 0.02 mM, the peak current in differential pulse technique reached 1.33 microA after performing the background subtraction. In addition, the simultaneous detection of DA and ascorbic acid (AA) showed that the interference effect was not observed. It was suggested that the carbon composite microelectrodes have potential applications as electrochemical sensors inside a single cell.     

Mechanism of cellular uptake of graphene oxide studied by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

The last few years have witnessed rapid development of biological and medical applications of graphene oxide (GO), such as drug/gene delivery, biosensing, and bioimaging. However, little is known about the cellular uptake mechanism and pathway of GO. In this work, surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy is employed to investigate the cellular internalization of GO loaded with Au nanoparticles (NPs) by Ca Ski cells. The presence of Au NPs on the surface of GO enables detection of enhanced intrinsic Raman signals of GO inside the cell. The SERS results reveal that GO is distributed inhomogeneously inside the cell. Furthermore, internalization of Au-GO into Ca Ski cells is mainly via clathrin-mediated endocytosis, and is an energy-dependent process.