Inkjet‐Printed Organic Electrodes for Bottom‐Contact Organic Field‐Effect Transistors

A graphite thin film was investigated as the drain and source electrodes for bottom‐contact organic field‐effect transistors (BC OFETs). Highly conducting electrodes (10² S cm^?1) at room temperature were obtained from pyrolyzed poly(l,3,4‐oxadiazole) (PPOD) thin films that were prepatterned with a low‐cost inkjet printing method. Compared to the devices with traditional Au electrodes, the BC OFETs showed rather high performances when using these source/drain electrodes without any further modification. Being based on a graphite‐like material these electrodes possess excellent compatibility and proper energy matching with both p‐ and n‐type organic semiconductors, which results in an improved electrode/organic‐layer contact and homogeneous morphology of the organic semiconductors in the conducting channel, and finally a significant reduction of the contact resistance and enhancement of the charge‐carrier mobility of the devices is displayed. This work demonstrates that with the advantages of low‐cost, high‐performance, and printability, PPOD could serve as an excellent electrode material for BC OFETs.     

A Catalytic and Positively Thermosensitive Molecularly Imprinted Polymer

A catalytic and positively thermosensitive molecularly imprinted polymer is reported. This unique imprinted polymer was composed of 4‐nitrophenyl phosphate‐imprinted networks that exhibited a thermosensitive interpolymer interaction between poly(2‐trifluoromethylacrylic acid) (PTFMA) and poly(1‐vinylimidazole) (PVI), which contains catalytically active sites. At a relatively low temperature (such as 20 °C), this imprinted polymer did not demonstrate significant catalytic activity for the hydrolysis of 4‐nitrophenyl acetate due to the interpolymer complexation between PVI and PTFMA, which blocked access to the active sites of PVI and caused shrinking of the polymer. Conversely, at higher temperatures (such as 40 °C), this polymer showed significant catalytic activity resulting from the dissociation of the interpolymer complexes between PVI and PTFMA, which facilitated access to the active sites of PVI and inflated the polymer. Unlike previously reported poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide)‐based molecularly imprinted polymers, which demonstrated decreased molecular recognition and catalytic activity with increased temperatures, i.e., negatively thermosensitive molecular recognition and catalysis abilities, this imprinted polymer exploits the unique interpolymer interaction between PVI and PTFMA, enabling the reversed thermal responsiveness.     

A Zipper‐Like On/Off‐Switchable Molecularly Imprinted Polymer

A zipper‐like on/off‐switchable molecularly imprinted polymer is reported. This unique imprinted polymer was composed of template‐imprinted polymeric networks that incorporate zipper‐like interactions between poly(acrylamide) (PAAm) and poly(2‐acrylamide‐2‐methyl propanesulfonic acid) (PAMPS). This polymer showed marginal recognition ability towards the imprint species under low temperature conditions, due to the interpolymer interaction between PAAm and PAMPS, which inhibited access to the imprinted networks. In contrast, at relatively high temperatures (such as 40 °C), the polymer demonstrated significant molecular recognition ability towards the imprint species resulting from the dissociation of the interpolymer complexes of PAAm and PAMPS, which enabled access to the imprint networks. Unlike previously reported PNIPAm‐based imprinted polymers, which demonstrate alterable molecular recognition simply because of the thermosensitive hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity of PNIPAm, this polymer employed a zipper‐like supramolecular architecture between PAAm and PAMPS, thereby enabling switchable molecular recognition.     

Electrochemical Synthesis of Magnetostrictive Fe–Ga/Cu Multilayered Nanowire Arrays with Tailored Magnetic Response

Arrays of nanowires are fabricated with alternating segments of the magnetostrictive alloy Fe_1–xGa_x and Cu using electrochemical deposition in nanoporous anodic aluminium oxide (AAO) templates. The difficult nature of Ga‐alloy electrochemistry is overcome by controlling mass‐transfer and hydrodynamic conditions using novel rotating disk electrode templates to obtain highly uniform segment lengths throughout the arrays. Extensive structural characterization by XRD, EBSD and TEM reveals a strong <110> textured Fe_1–xGa_x growth. Furthermore, using vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM), we demonstrate that control of magnetization reversal processes is possible once uniform aspect ratios are obtained for both the Fe–Ga and Cu segments.     

Inverted Organic Solar Cells with Sol–Gel Processed High Work‐Function Vanadium Oxide Hole‐Extraction Layers

For large‐scale and high‐throughput production of organic solar cells (OSCs), liquid processing of the functional layers is desired. We demonstrate inverted bulk‐heterojunction organic solar cells (OSCs) with a sol–gel derived V₂O₅ hole‐extraction‐layer on top of the active organic layer. The V₂O₅ layers are prepared in ambient air using Vanadium(V)‐oxitriisopropoxide as precursor. Without any post‐annealing or plasma treatment, a high work function of the V₂O₅ layers is confirmed by both Kelvin probe analysis and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS). Using UPS and inverse photoelectron spectroscopy (IPES), we show that the electronic structure of the solution processed V₂O₅ layers is similar to that of thermally evaporated V₂O₅ layers which have been exposed to ambient air. Optimization of the sol gel process leads to inverted OSCs with solution based V₂O₅ layers that show power conversion efficiencies similar to that of control devices with V₂O₅ layers prepared in high‐vacuum.     

Organic Light‐Emitting Diode Sensing Platform: Challenges and Solutions

The organic light‐emitting diode (OLED)‐based sensing platform is gaining momentum due to unique attributes of the compact OLEDs that are used as excitation sources. This paper, however, points to issues related to this sensing platform that will affect many (bio)chemical sensing applications, in particular in photoluminescence (PL)‐based sensors operated in the advantageous time domain, where pulsed OLEDs are utilized. The issues are related to the post‐pulse electroluminescence (EL) profile, i.e., transient EL, which depends on the OLED materials and structure, and to the long‐wavelength tail of the typically broad‐band EL spectrum. Depending on materials and device structure, the transient EL may exhibit spikes peaking at ～100–200 ns and μs‐long tails. As shown, these interfere with the determination of PL decay times (that are related to analyte concentrations) of sensing elements. The results also indicate that the long‐wavelength tail of the EL spectrum contributes to the interfering post‐pulse μs‐long EL tail. Hence, it is shown that the choice of OLED materials, the use of microcavity (μC) OLEDs with tunable, narrower EL bands, and the use of UV OLEDs alleviate these issues, resulting in more reliable data analysis. Furthermore, a 2‐D uniform 2 μm‐pitch microlens array that was previously used for improving light extraction from the OLEDs (J.‐M. Park et al., Optics Express 2011 , 19, A786) is used for directional PL scattering toward the photodetector, which leads to a ～2.1–3.8 fold enhancement of the PL signal. This behavior is shown for oxygen sensing, which is the basis for sensing of bioanalytes such as glucose, lactate, ethanol, cholesterol, and uric acid.     

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.     

Spectrum sensing scheduling for group spectrum sharing in cognitive radio networks

This paper addresses the issues on spectrum sharing in a cognitive radio network consisting of a primary user and a group of cognitive users. Each cognitive user may occupy a non‐overlapped sub‐band of the primary spectrum, but it needs to perform spectrum sensing independently before accessing the sub‐band. To reduce the complexity of spectrum sensing and thus energy consumption, this paper proposes a scheduled spectrum sensing scheme. First, we consider a single spectrum sensing scenario where only one cognitive user is elected to perform spectrum sensing, and then it broadcasts its sensing results to the other cognitive users. The scheduled spectrum sensing scheme works in both network‐centric and user‐centric ways. Next, the scheduled spectrum sensing scheme is further generalized to work in a multiple spectrum sensing scenario. The results show the effectiveness of the proposed schemes compared with the traditional schemes where all cognitive users may perform spectrum sensing at the same time. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.