High-Gain Chemically Gated Organic Electrochemical Transistor

Organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) have exhibited promising performance as transducers and amplifiers of low potentials due to their exceptional transconductance, enabled by the volumetric charging of organic mixed ionic/electronic conductors (OMIECs) employed as the channel material. OECT performance in aqueous electrolytes as well as the OMIECs’ redox activity has spurred a myriad of studies employing OECTs as chemical transducers. However, the OECT's large (potentiometrically derived) transconductance is not fully leveraged in common approaches that directly conduct chemical reactions amperometrically within the OECT electrolyte with direct charge transfer between the analyte and the OMIEC, which results in sub-unity transduction of gate to drain current. Hence, amperometric OECTs do not truly display current gains in the traditional sense, falling short of the expected transistor performance. This study demonstrates an alternative device architecture that separates chemical transduction and amplification processes on two different electrochemical cells. This approach fully utilizes the OECT's large transconductance to achieve current gains of 10³ and current modulations of four orders of magnitude. This transduction mechanism represents a general approach enabling high-gain chemical OECT transducers.     

Adaptive Ionogel Paint from Room-Temperature Autonomous Polymerization of α-Thioctic Acid for Stretchable and Healable Electronics

Development of a universal stretchable ionic conductor coating on insulating substrates, irrespective of surface chemistry and substrate shapes, is of immense interest for compliant and integrative large-area electronics but has proved to be extremely challenging. Existing methods relying either on the concurrent deposition of polymerizing precursors or on divided formulation and painting processes both suffer from several limitations in terms of adhesion, dehydration, processability, and surface pre-treatment. Here an ionogel paint that is readily prepared from the concentration-induced autonomous ring-opening polymerization of a natural small molecule—α-thioctic acid (TA) at ambient conditions is reported. The presence of ionic liquid prevents polyTA from further depolymerization via forming COOH···OS hydrogen bonds, resulting in ultra-stretchable ionogels with widely tunable mechanical and conductive properties, self-healability, as well as tissue-like strain adaptability. Moreover, owing to its universal adhesion and adjustable rheology, the ionogel paint can be directly coated on diverse substrates with arbitrary shapes (including porous materials, 3D printed frames, and elastic threads) to render them ionic conductivity. Applications of the ionogel-coated substrates as skin-like highly sensitive and durable large-strain sensors are further demonstrated, suggesting the ionogel paint's great potential in the emerging soft and stretchable electronics.     

Stability and sintering of MgO as a substrate material for Lanthanum Tungstate membranes

The performance of ceramic gas separation membranes can be increased by reducing their thickness. To maintain the mechanical stability of the membrane, a supporting structure is needed. In this work magnesium oxide (MgO) is identified as support material for H₂-separation membranes made of La_6-xWO_12-δ (LaWO). Therefore MgO is tested under application-related conditions in a water-gas-shift (WGS) catalytic membrane reactor for hydrogen production and shows a good stability. The sequential tape casting serves as the manufacturing method for the preparation of the asymmetric membrane structures. To show the compatibility of the two materials, detailed investigations of the sintering behaviour and stability tests are performed and show the well-matching properties of the two materials. Microstructural analyses reveal the inter-diffusion between LaWO and MgO.     

福建沿海某区域10kV架空绝缘导线失效分析

通过宏观拍照、傅立叶变换红外光谱(FTIR)、热重(TG)分析和扫描电子显微镜(SEM)等方法详细分析了福建省沿海某区域雷击烧蚀的部分失效样品,使用有限元分析方法分析了绝缘子负荷侧的受力情况。结果表明,失效样品主要表现出断链,氧化老化较少。炭黑量过多会使绝缘层过早失效。绝缘子负荷侧存在最大的应力和应力变形,使得设计上"先天不足"架空绝缘导线在电弧电流产生的堆积热量和应力作用下力学性能降低,产生大量裂纹。绝缘材料本身避免"绝缘薄弱处"是从根本上真正提高架空绝缘导线寿命的关键。     

Ultra‐Lightweight and Highly Adaptive All‐Carbon Elastic Conductors with Stable Electrical Resistance

The rapid development of wearable electronics needs flexible conductive materials that have stable electrical properties, good mechanical reliability, and broad environmental tolerance. Herein, ultralow‐density all‐carbon conductors that show excellent elasticity and high electrical stability when subjected to bending, stretching, and compression at high strains, which are superior to previously reported elastic conductors, are demonstrated. These all‐carbon conductors are fabricated from carbon nanotube forms, with their nanotube joints being selectively welded by amorphous carbon. The joint‐welded foams have a robust 3D nanotube network with fixed nodes and mobile nanotube segments, and thus have excellent electrical and mechanical stabilities. They can readily scale up, presenting a new type of nonmetal elastic conductor for many possible applications.     

Phase Equilibria of BaO-R2O3-CuO z Systems (R = Y and Lanthanides) under CO2-free Conditions

For applications ranging from phase equilibria to the processing of second-generation high T _c superconductor-coated-conductors, phase diagrams constructed under carbonate-free conditions are needed. Subsolidus phase equilibria of BaO-R₂O₃-CuO _z (R = Ho) have been investigated at (810°C), 21 kPa (875°C) and 0.1 MPa (850 and 930°C) by applying controlled atmosphere methods to minimize the presence of carbonate and CO₂ and H₂O contamination. Under carbonate-free conditions, most of these phase diagrams are different from those reported in the literature. In this paper, we also review and compare the phase diagrams of ten BaO-R₂O₃-CuO _z systems (R = Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Dy, Y, Ho, Er, Tm and Yb) that were previously determined in this laboratory under Among these diagrams, a distinct trend of phase formation and tie-line relationships is observed.     

Discrete Conjugated Porphyrin Tapes with an Exceptionally Small Bandgap

An Ag^I‐promoted meso–meso coupling reaction has been extended to prepare discrete 100 nm long linear arrays of porphyrins. Oxidation of the resulting phenyl end‐capped meso–meso linked porphyrins using a combination of 2,3‐dichloro‐5,6‐dicyano‐1,4‐benzoquinone (DDQ) and Sc^III(OTf)₃ directly produces fully π‐conjugated fused porphyrin arrays (porphyrin tapes) of 10 nm molecular size. This research news article presents their synthesis, X‐ray crystal structures, and optical and electronic properties. Among these, the extremely small highest occupied molecular orbital–lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (HOMO–LUMO) optical gaps that reach into the infrared region suggest many applications of these compounds in materials science.