Fabrication of a planar water gated organic field effect transistor using a hydrophilic polythiophene for improved digital inverter performance

A planar water gated OFET (WG-OFET) structure is fabricated by patterning gate, source and drain electrodes on the same plane at the same time. Transistor output characteristics of this novel structure employing commercial regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) (rr-P3HT) as polymer semiconductor and deionized (DI) water as gate dielectric show successful field effect transistor operation with an on–off current ratio of 43 A/A and transconductance of 2.5 μA/V. These output characteristics are improved using P3HT functionalized with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) (P3HT-co-P3PEGT), which is more hydrophilic, leading to on–off ratio of 130 A/A and transconductance of 3.9 μA/V. Utilization of 100 mM NaCl solution instead of DI water significantly increases the on–off ratio to 141 A/A and transconductance to 7.17 μA/V for commercial P3HT and to 217 A/A and to 11.9 μA/V for P3HT-co-P3PEGT. Finally, transistors with improved transconductances are used to build digital inverters with improved characteristics. Gain of the inverters employing P3HT and P3HT-co-P3PEGT are measured as 2.9 V/V and 10.3 V/V, respectively, with 100 mM NaCl solution.     

Efficient,Selective, and Reversible SO2 Capture with Highly Crosslinked Ionic Microgels via a Selective Swelling Mechanism

SO₂ capture through physisorption is a promising environmental benign technology to eliminate the emission of SO₂. However, designing an efficient adsorption material with high capacity and selectivity of SO₂ as well as excellent reversibility remains challenging. Here, a class of highly crosslinked nonporous poly(ionic liquid)s (PILs) xerogels is prepared with high ionic density by photopolymerization of Gemini IL monomers and a microfluidic technology is further explored to prepare the corresponding monodisperse PIL microgels with uniform and controllable sizes at the diameter range from 43 to 250 µm. This kind of novel dense nonporous ionic xerogels/microgels completely exclude the adsorption of common gases (CO₂, CH₄, etc.), but exhibit very high SO₂ adsorption capacity (498 mg g^?1) via selective swelling mechanism. Unprecedented SO₂/CO₂ and SO₂/CH₄ uptake selectivities with the value up to 614 and 1992, respectively, are achieved. The selective swelling mechanism is validated by optical microscope and differential scanning calorimetry measurements. More importantly, these kinds of xerogels show excellent reversibility in adsorption–desorption cycles. Column breakthrough experiments confirm the excellent performance of these PIL xerogels in SO₂ capture. This work demonstrates that designing a nonporous material that has specific swelling interactions with certain molecules can be an effective strategy for realizing extremely high selectivity.     

一种采用斩波稳零技术的16位,96kHz带宽Σ-Δ AD转换器

介绍了一个16位精度Σ-Δ型模拟数字转换器.它由一个模拟的调制器和一个数字降采样滤波器组成.调制器采用了传统的单环两阶的结构,在第一阶调制器中采用了斩波稳零技术来消除电路的闪烁噪声.数字的降采样器包括多相梳状滤波器和波数字滤波器,功耗低,面积小.实验结果表明转换器获得了92dB的动态范围和96kHz的带宽.整个芯片由0.18μm六层金属CMOS工艺制造,芯片面积为2.68mm2,功率消耗仅为15.5mW.     

Thermoreversible Siloxane Networks: Soft Biomaterials with Widely Tunable Viscoelasticity

Polysiloxane elastomers represent a widely utilized soft material with excellent rubber‐like elasticity, biocompatibility, and biodurability; however, there is a lack of an effective and straightforward approach to manipulate the material's viscoelastic response. A facile hydrosilylation reaction is employed to integrate ureidopyrimidinone hydrogen‐bonding side‐groups into linear and crosslinked siloxane polymers to achieve biocompatible soft materials with a highly tunable viscoelastic relaxation timescale. Stacking of H‐bonded moieties is avoided in the designed macromolecular architectures with tight, side‐groups substituents. The obtained siloxane network features the presence of both covalent crosslinks and truly thermoreversible crosslinks, and can be formulated across a broad material design space including elastic solids, recoverable viscoelastic solids, and viscous liquids. The elastomers exhibit unique temperature‐dependent shape‐memory capability and show good cytocompatibility. Importantly, a deformed material's shape‐recovery occurs regardless of external triggering, and through manipulation of network formulations, the shape‐recovery timescale can be easily tuned from seconds to days, opening new possibilities for biomedical, healthcare, and soft material applications.     

Thermoresponsive Hydrogels as Microniches for Growth and Controlled Release of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

The recently emerging stem-cell artificial niche engineering in induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSCs) 3D cultures has provided enormous opportunities to fully utilize the potential of these cells in biomedical applications. Although a fully chemically defined niche environment can supply cells with desirable safety for clinical use, establishing an artificial degradable niche environment for the controlled release of proliferated cells under mild conditions is still a big challenge. Here, an advanced controlled releasable iPSC 3D artificial niche is reported based on dendritic polyglycerol and poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-co-polyethylene glycol polymers via a physical–chemical cogelation strategy. Benefiting from the chemically defined synthetic materials and their precise cooperation by covalent cross-linking and physical phase transition, the cogelation-based artificial niche system can be adjusted with optimal parameters and owns high cell biocompatibility to support the robust production of high quality iPSCs with an excellent expansion efficiency. Moreover, the expanded cells can be released out of their niche environment controllably only by adjusting the temperature. Overall, this controlled release hydrogel scaffold shows great promise in iPSC 3D culture for downstream applications.     

Mesoporous Silicon‐PLGA Composite Microspheres for the Double Controlled Release of Biomolecules for Orthopedic Tissue Engineering

In this study, poly(dl ‐lactide‐co‐glycolide)/porous silicon (PLGA/pSi) composite microspheres, synthesized by a solid‐in‐oil‐in‐water (S/O/W) emulsion method, are developed for the long‐term controlled delivery of biomolecules for orthopedic tissue engineering applications. Confocal and fluorescent microscopy, together with material analysis, show that each composite microsphere contained multiple pSi particles embedded within the PLGA matrix. The release profiles of fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)‐labeled bovine serum albumin (FITC‐BSA), loaded inside the pSi within the PLGA matrix, indicate that both PLGA and pSi contribute to the control of the release rate of the payload. Protein stability studies show that PLGA/pSi composite can protect BSA from degradation during the long term release. We find that during the degradation of the composite material, the presence of the pSi particles neutralizes the acidic pH due to the PLGA degradation by‐products, thus minimizing the risk of inducing inflammatory responses in the exposed cells while stimulating the mineralization in osteogenic growth media. Confocal studies show that the cellular uptake of the composite microspheres is avoided, while the fluorescent payload is detectable intracellularly after 7 days of co‐incubation. In conclusion, the PLGA/pSi composite microspheres offer an additional level of controlled release and could be ideal candidates as drug delivery vehicles for orthopedic tissue engineering applications.     

Rationally Engineered Electrodes for a High‐Performance Solid‐State Cable‐Type Supercapacitor

Wire‐shaped electrodes for solid‐state cable‐type supercapacitors (SSCTS) with high device capacitance and ultrahigh rate capability are prepared by depositing poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene) onto self‐doped TiO₂ nanotubes (D‐TiO₂) aligned on Ti wire via a well‐controlled electrochemical process. The large surface area, short ion diffusion path, and high electrical conductivity of these rationally engineered electrodes all contribute to the energy storage performance of SSCTS. The cyclic voltammetric studies show the good energy storage ability of the SSCTS even at an ultrahigh scan rate of 1000 V s^?1, which reveals the excellent instantaneous power characteristics of the device. The capacitance of 1.1 V SSCTS obtained from the charge–discharge measurements is 208.36 µF cm^?1 at a discharge current of 100 µA cm^?1 and 152.36 µF cm^?1 at a discharge current of 2000 µA cm^?1, respectively, indicating the ultrahigh rate capability. Furthermore, the SSCTS shows superior cyclic stability during long‐term (20 000 cycles) cycling, and also maintains excellent performance when it is subjected to bending and succeeding straightening process.     

Effect of the fabrication method on the electrical properties of poly(acrylonitrile-co-butadiene-co-styrene)/carbon black composites

Poly(acrylonitrile-co-butadiene-co-styrene) (ABS), an engineering plastic, was combined with carbon black (CB) to increase its conductivity. The ABS/CB composites were prepared using two different methods: dissolution of ABS in Butan-2-one and manual mixing of the constituent materials. These fabrication methods led to different microstructures, which led to vastly different electrical properties. The microstructures were acquired using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and optical microscopy, while the electrical conductivity was obtained using impedance spectroscopy. The percolation threshold of the composites fabricated using the manual mixing method was found to be much lower (0.0054 vol.% CB) than that of the composites fabricated using the dissolution method (2.7 vol.% CB).     

Photothermally Sensitive Poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide)/Graphene Oxide Nanocomposite Hydrogels as Remote Light‐Controlled Liquid Microvalves

A photothermally sensitive poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide)/graphene oxide (PNIPAM/GO) nanocomposite hydrogel can be synthesized by in situ γ‐irradiation‐assisted polymerization of an aqueous solution of N‐isopropylacrylamide monomer in the presence of graphene oxide (GO). The colors and phase‐transition temperatures of the PNIPAM/GO hydrogels change with different GO doping levels. Due to the high optical absorbance of the GO, the nanocomposite hydrogel shows excellent photothermal properties, where its phase transitions can be controlled remotely by near‐infrared (NIR) laser irradiation, and it is completely reversible via laser exposure or non‐exposure. With a higher GO loading, the NIR‐induced temperature of the nanocomposite hydrogel increases more quickly than with a lower doping level and the temperature can be tuned effectively by the irradiation time. The nanocomposite hydrogel with its excellent photothermal properties will have great applications in the biomedical field, especially as microfluidic devices; this has been demonstrated in our experiments by way of remote microvalves to control fluidic flow. Such an “easy” and “clean” synthetic procedure initiated by γ‐irradiation can be extended for the efficient synthesis of other nanocomposite materials.     

π共轭聚吡咯衍生物非线性响应时间的测量

合成一种新型π共轭聚吡咯衍生物———聚吡咯 { 2 ,5 二 [(对硝基 )苯甲烯 ]} (PPNB) ,制备了该高分子的N 甲基 2 吡咯烷酮 (NMP)溶液和聚乙烯醇 (PVA)复合薄膜。用 5 32nm ,8ns脉冲激光作抽运光源 ,氦氖激光 (6 32 8nm ,CW)为探测光源 ,测量了该高分子的非线性光学响应过程 ,测得PPNB/NMP溶液和PPNB/PVA薄膜的激光诱导折射率的建立时间分别为 4μs和 5 μs,恢复时间分别为 30ms和 5ms。引起这种非线性效应的机制可能主要是热光非线性效应。