电喷印刷柔性传感器

柔性传感器因其在弯折、扭曲、拉伸等大变形条件下具有稳定的传感性能,所以在软体机器人、可穿戴电子和生物医疗等领域具有潜在的应用前景,受到了国内外研究者的广泛关注。与传统光刻技术相比,印刷技术制造作为增材制造,具有绿色、低成本和可大面积制造的优势,被广泛应用于柔性电子器件制备。其中,电流体动力喷墨打印(电喷印)技术因其具有多种功能材料的兼容性,被认为最有可能替代传统的光刻技术,实现柔性传感器高分辨率和跨规模制造。近年来,电喷印技术在微型化柔性传感器制造领域显示出广泛的应用潜力。本综述重点介绍了电喷印刷柔性传感器的工艺、材料和应用的最新研究进展。首先,详细介绍了电流体动力喷墨打印技术的工作原理,总结了用于电喷印的各种功能性墨水材料,然后,介绍了电喷印刷中墨水和柔性基底间表界面调控的问题。随后,综述了电喷印方法在柔性压力传感器、柔性气体传感器和柔性电化学传感器等柔性传感器制造的应用进展。最后,总结讨论了下一代电喷印刷技术在柔性传感器领域的机遇与挑战。     

Lignin as a Partial Polyol Replacement in Polyurethane Flexible Foam

This study was focused on evaluating the suitability of a wide range of lignins, a natural polymer isolated from different plant sources and chemical extractions, in replacing 20 wt.% of petroleum-based polyol in the formulation of PU flexible foams. The main goal was to investigate the effect of unmodified lignin incorporation on the foam’s structural, mechanical, and thermal properties. The hydroxyl contents of the commercial lignins were measured using phosphorus nuclear magnetic resonance (³¹P NMR) spectroscopy, molar mass distributions with gel permeation chromatography (GPC), and thermal properties with differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) techniques. The results showed that incorporating 20 wt.% lignin increased tensile, compression, tear propagation strengths, thermal stability, and the support factor of the developed PU flexible foams. Additionally, statistical analysis of the results showed that foam properties such as density and compression force deflection were positively correlated with lignin’s total hydroxyl content. Studying correlations between lignin properties and the performance of the developed lignin-based PU foams showed that lignins with low hydroxyl content, high flexibility (low T_g), and high solubility in the co-polyol are better candidates for partially substituting petroleum-based polyols in the formulation of flexible PU foams intended for the automotive applications.     

Graphene screen‐printed radio‐frequency identification devices on flexible substrates

Despite the great promise of printed flexible electronics from 2D crystals, and especially graphene, few scalable applications have been reported so far that can be termed roll‐to‐roll compatible. Here we combine screen printed graphene with photonic annealing to realize radio‐frequency identification devices with a reading range of up to 4 meters. Most notably our approach leads to fatigue resistant devices showing less than 1% deterioration of electrical properties after 1000 bending cycles. The bending fatigue resistance demonstrated on a variety of technologically relevant plastic and paper substrates renders the material highly suitable for various printable wearable devices, where repeatable dynamic bending stress is expected during usage. All applied printing and post‐processing methods are compatible with roll‐to‐roll manufacturing and temperature sensitive flexible substrates providing a platform for the scalable manufacturing of mechanically stable and environmentally friendly graphene printed electronics.

     

柔性电子学中的表界面化学

柔性电子作为新兴的研究热点, 涉及材料、 化学、 物理等多个基础学科的交叉, 以及在生物医用、 可穿戴设备及人工智能等多个领域的应用. 柔性电子设备的制造加工过程中会用到弹性基底、 导电层、 功能层等多种性质各异的材料, 其互相之间的整合受到它们表面性质和界面结合力的限制; 器件的功能、 可靠性、 对环境的敏感性等也受到了器件表界面性质的影响; 因此, 对材料和器件表界面的处理在柔性电子学中具有重要作用. 本文对柔性电子学中常用的表界面化学过程分为3大类进行介绍: 表面电化学过程, 基于特定化合物反应产生的电流制备电化学传感器, 利用电流/电压控制表面负载化合物; 表面修饰, 通过表面改性提高材料的加工性能, 共价修饰分子层或其它材料赋予器件特殊功能性质或保护层; 不同材料之间的界面连接, 通过共价连接或化学反应辅助的物理交联实现不同材料的结合, 提高柔性器件的稳定性, 实现柔性设备的整合. 对各应用进行总结和举例后, 讨论了存在的问题, 并对未来的发展方向及前景进行了展望.     

Solid-phase Pd-catalysed cross-coupling methods for the construction of π-conjugated peptide nanomaterials

We describe the development of two procedures for the synthesis of peptides that are embedded with a variety of π-conjugated semi-conducting oligomers. These procedures utilise solid-phase variants of classical palladium-catalysed cross-couplings commonly used to prepare π-conjugated oligomers. The resulting peptide–π–electron hybrids are soluble in aqueous media and self-assemble to produce 1D nanostructures, simultaneously forming networks of π-stacked conduits. The procedures have allowed for the inclusion of complex chromophores including mixed aryl units, ethynylene linkers and sexithiophenes where the latter peptide's nanostructures demonstrated substantial conductivity when employed as an active layer in a field-effect transistor.     

Single‐Molecule Sensing of Environmental pH—an STM Break Junction and NEGF‐DFT Approach

Sensors play a significant role in the detection of toxic species and explosives, and in the remote control of chemical processes. In this work, we report a single‐molecule‐based pH switch/sensor that exploits the sensitivity of dye molecules to environmental pH to build metal–molecule–metal (m‐M‐m) devices using the scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) break junction technique. Dyes undergo pH‐induced electronic modulation due to reversible structural transformation between a conjugated and a nonconjugated form, resulting in a change in the HOMO–LUMO gap. The dye‐mediated m‐M‐m devices react to environmental pH with a high on/off ratio (≈100:1) of device conductivity. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations, carried out under the non‐equilibrium Green’s function (NEGF) framework, model charge transport through these molecules in the two possible forms and confirm that the HOMO–LUMO gap of dyes is nearly twice as large in the nonconjugated form as in the conjugated form.     

HOMO Stabilisation in π‐Extended Dibenzotetrathiafulvalene Derivatives for Their Application in Organic Field‐Effect Transistors

Three new organic semiconductors, in which either two methoxy units are directly linked to a dibenzotetrathiafulvalene (DB‐TTF) central core and a 2,1,3‐chalcogendiazole is fused on the one side, or four methoxy groups are linked to the DB‐TTF, have been synthesised as active materials for organic field‐effect transistors (OFETs). Their electrochemical behaviour, electronic absorption and fluorescence emission as well as photoinduced intramolecular charge transfer were studied. The electron‐withdrawing 2,1,3‐chalcogendiazole unit significantly affects the electronic properties of these semiconductors, lowering both the HOMO and LUMO energy levels and hence increasing the stability of the semiconducting material. The solution‐processed single‐crystal transistors exhibit high performance with a hole mobility up to 0.04 cm² V^?1 s^?1 as well as good ambient stability.     

Oligosiloxane Functionalized with Pendant (1,3‐Bis(9‐carbazolyl)benzene) (mCP) for Solution‐Processed Organic Electronics

A new oligosiloxane derivative (ODCzMSi) functionalized with the well‐known 1,3‐bis(9‐carbazolyl)benzene (mCP) pendant moiety, directly linked to the silicon atom of the oligosiloxane backbone, has been synthesized and characterized. Compared to mCP, the attachment of the oligosiloxane chain significantly improves the thermal and morphological stabilities with a high decomposition temperature (T_d=540 °C) and glass transition temperature (T_g=142 °C). The silicon–oxygen linkage of ODCzMSi disrupts the backbone conjugation and maintains a high triplet energy level (E_T=3.0 eV). A phosphorescent organic light‐emitting diode (PhOLED) using iridium bis(4,6‐difluorophenyl)pyridinato‐N,C² picolinate (FIrpic) as the emitter and ODCzMSi as the host shows a relatively low turn‐on voltage of 5.0 V for solution‐processed PhOLEDs, maximum external quantum efficiency of 9.2 %, and maximum current efficiency of 17.7 cd A^?1. The overall performance of this device is competitive with the best reported solution‐processed blue PhOLEDs. Memory devices using ODCzMSi as an active layer exhibit non‐volatile write‐once read‐many‐times (WORM) characteristics with high stability in retention time up to 10⁴ s and a low switch on voltage. This switching behaviour is explained by different stable conformations of ODCzMSi with high or low conductivity states which are obtained under the action of electric field through a π–π stacking alignment of the pendant aromatic groups. These results with both PhOLEDs and memory devices demonstrate that this oligosiloxane–mCP hybrid structure is promising and versatile for high performance solution‐processed optoelectronic applications.     

Tuning Thiophene with Phosphorus: Synthesis and Electronic Properties of Benzobisthiaphospholes

1,4‐Dimercapto‐2,5‐diphosphinobenzene and 3,6‐bis(hexyloxy)‐1,4‐dimercapto‐2,5‐diphosphinobenzene were synthesized and combined with various acid chlorides to obtain a series of benzobisthiaphospholes. Electrochemical and photophysical properties of the substituted benzobisthiaphospholes have been evaluated, and the observed reductions are more facile than the related benzothiaphospholes and 2,6‐diphenylbenzobisthiazole. A benzobisthiaphosphole with C₆H₄‐p‐CN substituents was reduced at E_1/2=?1.08 V (vs. saturated calomel electrode (SCE)). X‐ray diffraction data for several of these phosphorus heterocycles has been obtained, and DFT calculations at the B3LYP level have been performed.     

Orientation‐Controlled Single‐Molecule Junctions

The conductivity of a single aromatic ring, perpendicular to its plane, is determined using a new strategy under ambient conditions and at room temperature by a combination of molecular assembly, scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) imaging, and STM break junction (STM‐BJ) techniques. The construction of such molecular junctions exploits the formation of highly ordered structures of flat‐oriented mesitylene molecules on Au(111) to enable direct tip/π contacts, a result that is not possible by conventional methods. The measured conductance of Au/π/Au junction is about 0.1 G_o , two orders of magnitude higher than the conductance of phenyl rings connected to the electrodes by standard anchoring groups. Our experiments suggest that long‐range ordered structures, which hold the aromatic ring in place and parallel to the surface, are essential to increase probability of the formation of orientation‐controlled molecular junctions.