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We demonstrated the sensing properties and adsorption mechanism of NO2 molecules of monolayer graphene and multilayer graphene encapsulated ZnO QDs for NO2 gas adsorption. The gas response value of ZnO-multilayer graphene (ZMLG) QDs was approximately 23 % and 7.2 and 25.5 times higher than that with ZnO-monolayer graphene (ZG) and ZnO QDs, respectively. The surface potential change of ZMLG QDs increased up to 14.25 times compared to ZnO QDs and 6.33 times increased compared to ZG QDs. We proposed an accurate adsorption mechanism for the improvement of the detection behavior that is occured by covering the graphene shells into ZnO QDs by the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and SKPM measurement. These results are expected to increase the accuracy of gas sensor characteristic analysis.

Resistive RAM (ReRAM), which uses the anion-based resistive switching characteristic of transition metal oxide, is one of the strong candidates for next-generation non-volatile memory. The resistance switching characteristics depend on oxygen defects and their electrochemical migration. This study systematically investigated the Y3+ doping effect in CeO2 resistive switching behavior to control oxygen vacancy. The resistive switching devices of Ce1-xYxO2-y (CYO) (x = 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, and 0.2) were fabricated by the photochemical metal-organic deposition method, which could successfully obtain directly patterned CYO films. The XRD pattern and Raman spectrum confirmed that the lattice shrink and structural distortion was induced and increased gradually by increasing the oxygen vacancy concentration with yttrium content. All the CYO devices showed bipolar filament-type resistive switching, and both resistance of the pristine state and forming voltage decreased with increasing Y content from an increase in oxygen vacancy concentration. And the on/off ratio decreased with increasing Y content because of reduced HRS resistance, even after the recovered insulation oxide region by HRS switching, due to fixed defect sites with trapped electrons formed by yttrium. And with a SPEM experiment, we found that ceria loses 24% oxygen for LRS resistive switching, which induced a resistance change of about five orders of magnitude.

The outstanding multifunctionality of ferroelectric oxides has opened up new fields in microelectronics. However, the high crystallization temperature of the ferroelectric oxides limits their integ...

Although knowledge of the physical state of aerosol particles is essential to understand atmospheric chemistry model and measurements, information on the viscosity and physical state of aerosol particles consisting of organic and inorganic salts is still rare. Herein, we quantified viscosities at 293 ± 1 K upon dehydration for the binary systems, sucrose–H2O and ammonium sulfate (AS)–H2O, and the ternary systems, sucrose–AS–H2O for organic-to-inorganic dry mass ratios (OIRs) = 4:1, 1:1, and 1:4 using bead-mobility and poke-and-flow techniques. Based on the viscosity value of the aerosol particles, we defined the physical states of the total aerosol particles studied in this work. For binary systems, the viscosity of sucrose–H2O particles gradually increased from ∼ 4 × 10−1 to > ∼ 1 × 108 Pa s when the relative humidity (RH) decreased from ∼ 81 % to ∼ 24 %, ranging from liquid to semisolid or solid state, which agrees with previous studies. The viscosity of AS–H2O particles remained in the liquid state (< 102 Pa s) for RH > ∼ 50 %, while for RH ≤∼ 50 %, the particles showed a viscosity of > ∼ 1 × 1012 Pa s, corresponding to a solid state. In case of the ternary systems, the viscosity of organic-rich particles (OIR = 4:1) gradually increased from ∼ 1 × 10−1 to ∼ 1 × 108 Pa s for a RH decrease from ∼ 81 % to ∼ 18 %, similar to the binary sucrose–H2O particles. This indicates that the sucrose–AS–H2O particles range from liquid to semisolid or solid across the RH. In the ternary particles for OIR = 1:1, the viscosities ranged from less than ∼ 1 × 102 for RH > 34 % to > ∼ 1 × 108 Pa s at ∼ 27 % RH. The viscosities correspond to liquid for RH > ∼ 34 %, semisolid for ∼ 34 % < RH < ∼ 27 %, and semisolid or solid for RH < ∼ 27 %. Compared to the organic-rich particles, in the inorganic-rich particles (OIR = 1:4), drastic enhancement in viscosity was observed as RH decreased; the viscosity increased by approximately 8 orders of magnitude during a decrease in RH from 43 % to 25 %, resulting in liquid to semisolid or solid in the RH range. Overall, all particles studied in this work were observed to exist as a liquid, semisolid, or solid depending on the RH. Furthermore, we compared the measured viscosities of ternary systems with OIRs of 4:1, 1:1, and 1:4 to the predicted viscosities using the Aerosol Inorganic–Organic Mixtures Functional groups Activity Coefficients Viscosity model (AIOMFAC-VISC) predictions with the Zdanovskii–Stokes–Robinson (ZSR) organic–inorganic mixing model, with excellent model–measurement agreement for all OIRs.

As a robust radioanalytical method for tracking carbonaceous particulates in vivo, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from diesel exhaust were labeled with a radioactive-iodine-tagged pyrene analogue. Single-photon emission computed tomography and biodistribution studies showed high uptake and slow clearance of this matter in the respiratory system, which may underlie its severe toxicity.

The demand for high-performance two-dimensional gas barrier materials is increasing owing to their potential for application in optoelectronic devices. These materials can help the devices maintain their properties over a long period. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the gas barrier performance of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) monolayers grown on copper foils via electrochemical polishing (ECP). The ECP treatment helped reduce the surface roughness of the copper foils. As a result, the nucleation density was reduced and highly crystalline h-BN monolayers were produced. The gas barrier performance of h-BN monolayers on copper foils with ECP was comparable to that of graphene. Our finding demonstrates the potential of monolayer h-BN as a high-performance and economical gas barrier material for organic-based optoelectronic devices.

The lacking of laboratory black carbon (BC) samples have long challenged the corresponding toxicological research, furthermore, the toxicity tests of engineered carbon nanoparticles were unable to reflect atmospheric BC. As a simplified approach, we have synthesized artificial BC (aBC) for the purpose of representing atmospheric BC. Surface chemical properties of aBC were controlled by thermal treatment, without transforming its physical characteristics, thus, we were able to examine the toxicological effects on A549 human lung cells arising from aBC with varying oxidation surface properties. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, as well as Raman and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, verified the presence of increased amounts of oxygenated functional groups on the surface of thermally-treated aBC, indicating aBC oxidization at elevated temperatures, aBC with increased oxygen functional group content displayed increased toxicity to A549 cells, specifically by decreasing cell viability to 45% and elevating reactive oxygen species levels up to 294% for samples treated at 800 °C.

Exposure to particulate matter (PM) is related to various respiratory diseases, and this affects the respiratory immune system. Alveolar macrophages (AMs), which are defenders against pathogens, play a key role in respiratory inflammation through cytokine production and cellular interactions. Coconut oil demonstrates antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, and it is consumed worldwide for improved health. However, reports on the protective effects of coconut oil on the PM-induced respiratory immune system, especially in AMs, are limited. In this study, we generated artificial PM (APM) with a diameter approximately of 30 nm by controlling the temperature, and compared its cytotoxicity with diesel exhaust particles (DEP). We also investigated the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of coconut oil in APM– and DEP–stimulated AMs, and the underlying molecular mechanisms. Our results showed that APM and DEP had high cytotoxicity in a dose-dependent manner in AMs. In particular, APM or DEP at 100 μg/mL significantly decreased cell viability (p < 0.05) and significantly increased oxidative stress markers such as reactive oxygen species (p < 0.01); the GSSH/GSH ratio (p < 0.01); and cytokine production, such as tumor necrosis factor-α (p < 0.001), interleukin (IL)-1β (p < 0.001), and IL-6 (p < 0.001). The expression of the genes for chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand-1 (p < 0.05) and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (p < 0.001); and the proteins toll-like receptor (TLR) 4 (p < 0.01), mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (p < 0.001), p38 (p < 0.001); and extracellular receptor-activated kinase (p < 0.001), were also upregulated by PM. These parameters were reversed upon treatment with coconut oil in APM– or DEP–stimulated AMs. In conclusion, coconut oil can reduce APM– or DEP–induced inflammation by regulating the TLR4/MAPK pathway in AMs, and it may protect against adverse respiratory effects caused by PM exposure.

Biosensors that can analyze a single drop of biological fluid can overcome limitations such as extraction volume from humans or animals, ethical problems, time, and cost. In this work, we have developed a highly sensitive electrochemical (EC) biosensor based on a nanowell array (NWA) for the detection of alkaline phosphatase (ALP), a serum indicator of bone formation. The size of the electrode is 2 × 1 mm

Chemiresistive electronic nose (CEN) composed of villi-like nanostructures (VLNs) of SnO2 and WO3, and Au-functionalized VLNs was fabricated by applying electron-beam evaporation in a glancing angle deposition mode. The VLNs-based CEN with a back-heater (212 °C) shows high responses with low detection limits of parts per billion (ppb)-levels for NO and NH3 vapors at 80% relative humidity atmosphere. The enhanced sensitivities in a high humidity condition turn out to be attributed to the spillover effect by the Au nanoparticles and a large surface-to-volume ratio in porous VLNs. Employing Au NPs on VLNs leads to the increase of O− ions via the spillover effect which impedes the adsorption of water molecules, maintaining the enhanced responses against environmental humidity. Consequently, high responses for NO and NH3 vapors maintain even in the high humidity condition. Herein, with the principal component analysis (PCA), we demonstrate highly selective detection of NO and NH3 vapors against C2H5OH, CO, C7H8, C6H6, and CH3COCH3 vapors. These results open up wide applications of the VLNs-based CEN as an inexpensive and non-invasive diagnostic tool for asthma and kidney disorder.

Hollow-structured nanomaterials are presented as an outstanding sensing platform because of their unique combination of high porosity in both the micro- and nanoscale, their biocompatibility, and flexible template applicability. Herein, we introduce a bacterial skeleton method allowing for cost-effective fabrication with nanoscale precision. As a proof-of-concept, we fabricated a hollow SnO2 hemipill network (HSHN) and a hollow Pt-functionalized SnO2 hemipill network (HPN). A superior detecting capability of HPN toward acetone, a diabetes biomarker, was demonstrated at low concentration (200 ppb) under high humidity (RH 80%). The detection limit reaches 3.6 ppb, a level satisfying the minimum requirement for diabetes breath diagnosis. High selectivity of the HPN sensor against C6H6, C7H8, CO, and NO vapors is demonstrated using principal component analysis (PCA), suggesting new applications of HPN for human-activity monitoring and a personal healthcare tool for diagnosing diabetes. The skeleton method can...

We report on InGaZnO (IGZO) thin film transistors (TFTs)-based bio-chemical sensors which can detect the chemical/biological species. As novel sensing platform, the IGZO TFT with Ag nanowire (NW) mesh showed pronounced output voltage changes responding to all analytes of H 2 O 2 , b- d -glucose, d -glucono-1,5-Lactione, and lactic acid, which are reproducible and reversible. Herein, porous Ag NW-functionalized top gate electrode plays a major role in sensing platform for enhanced sensing capability in aqueous medium. Moreover, these top gate geometry serve as a stable backplane for electrical modulation. As a result, analytes solutions become acidic or basic and such pH alterations induce significant turn-on voltage shifts on our devices. For implementation of a resistive load inverter, the output sensing voltage signals can be directly extracted, and such signals are reproducible and reversible. The proposed IGZO TFTs with Ag NW mesh top gate electrode based sensing platform pave the way for development of portable and reusable real-time non-destructive label-free chemical/biological sensors.

We report the highly sensitive and selective downsized gas sensors for the IoT application. Sensing areas of Pt-interdigitated electrodes (IDEs) were varied to investigate the relation between sensing materials and electrodes. In2O3 nanocolumns were deposited on the pre-patterned Pt IDEs using glancing angle deposition (GLAD). The effect of the interface resistance between electrodes and sensing materials, and the intergrain resistance between nanocolumns is analyzed by linear regression at different sensing area and incident angle of GLAD. In2O3 (angle: 85°, sensing area: 0.3 mm × 0.3 mm) nanocolumns with double Schottky barriers show the highest response and selectivity with fast response time of 10 s to VOCs among the samples fabricated in this study. The analysis reveals that the intrinsic response of In2O3 (angle: 85°, sensing area: 0.3 mm × 0.3 mm) nanocolumns are dominantly affected by intergrain resistance, resulting in a high response. Our demonstration for the fundamental aspect of downsizing gas sensor makes an important contribution to the chemical sensor field with broad interest.

Vanadium dioxide (VO 2 ) as strong correlated oxide has been intensively studied due to the unique properties accompanied by metal-insulator transition (MIT) near room temperature. Their extrinsic electrical and optical transformations on MIT have been greatly attracted in many potential applications. In this study, we propose to apply an intrinsic electrical property of VO 2 in metallic phase as doping agent of chemiresistive sensor. Self-doped nanocoulmnar vanadium oxides (SNVO) thin films are simply fabricated by glancing angle deposition without any template and chemical additives. The nanocolumnar VO 2 thin films were deposited by e-beam evaporator, and then the SNVO with residual VO 2 in V 2 O 5 nanocolums were synthesized by an air atmosphere annealing, which are composed of dominant oxidized V 2 O 5 which plays a sensing role on the surface and the residual VO 2 with self-doping effect inside nanocolumns. Especially at low temperature (150 °C), SNVO sensor shows an ultra-high performance (R gas /R air > 100) to NO 2 (5 ppm) gas. It is supposed that the residual VO 2 which shows metallic properties above Mott transition temperature (∼67 °C) acts as an intrinsic electron donor by pseudo-free electron, which helps adsorption of oxygen ions on the surface and extends the depletion region of few nanometers of narrow necks between nanocolumns.

Detection of gas-phase chemicals finds a wide variety of applications, including food and beverages, fragrances, environmental monitoring, chemical and biochemical processing, medical diagnostics, and transportation. One approach for these tasks is to use arrays of highly sensitive and selective sensors as an electronic nose. Here, we present a high performance chemiresistive electronic nose (CEN) based on an array of metal oxide thin films, metal-catalyzed thin films, and nanostructured thin films. The gas sensing properties of the CEN show enhanced sensitive detection of H2S, NH3, and NO in an 80% relative humidity (RH) atmosphere similar to the composition of exhaled breath. The detection limits of the sensor elements we fabricated are in the following ranges: 534 ppt to 2.87 ppb for H2S, 4.45 to 42.29 ppb for NH3, and 206 ppt to 2.06 ppb for NO. The enhanced sensitivity is attributed to the spillover effect by Au nanoparticles and the high porosity of villi-like nanostructures, providing a large surface-to-volume ratio. The remarkable selectivity based on the collection of sensor responses manifests itself in the principal component analysis (PCA). The excellent sensing performance indicates that the CEN can detect the biomarkers of H2S, NH3, and NO in exhaled breath and even distinguish them clearly in the PCA. Our results show high potential of the CEN as an inexpensive and noninvasive diagnostic tool for halitosis, kidney disorder, and asthma.

We report the facile synthesis and the chemoresistive performances of villi-like WO 3 nanostructures (VLWNs) which were fabricated by RF sputter with glancing angle deposition (GAD) mode. A fast deposition of GAD effectively forms self-assembled anisotropic nanostructures with high porosity and surface-to-volume ratio. The sensing tests were examined for NO 2 detection in dry air and a mixture of reducing gases. As a result, these sensors at 200 °C exhibit an highly selective and sensitive NO 2 detection down to 800 parts per trillion (ppt) level, and could also respond well to NO 2 in the concentration range of 0.2–1 parts per million (ppm) without the interference of gas mixture. These results show that the enhanced sensing properties to NO 2 are attributed to the highly efficient surface modulation by double potential barriers at nano-necks of WO 3 nanostructures.

Hollow-structured nanomaterials are presented as an outstanding sensing platform because of their unique combination of high porosity in both the micro- and nanoscale, their biocompatibility, and flexible template applicability. Herein, we introduce a bacterial skeleton method allowing for cost-effective fabrication with nanoscale precision. As a proof-of-concept, we fabricated a hollow SnO

We present a heterosensor array that exploits the collective recognition ability of a set of different gas sensors to identify individual chemical vapors. In contrast to the conventional sensing approach based on the "lock-and-key" design, the heterosensor array rely on the response patterns produced over the collection of different sensors. Diverse sensors with different operating principles are employed to provide as much chemical diversity as possible. We demonstrate that this platform provides a highly discriminative tool with single element precision.

As highly sensitive H2S gas sensors, Au- and Ag-catalyzed SnO2 thin films with morphology-controlled nanostructures were fabricated by using e-beam evaporation in combination with the glancing angle deposition (GAD) technique. After annealing at 500 °C for 40 h, the sensors showed a polycrystalline phase with a porous, tilted columnar nanostructure. The gas sensitivities (S = Rgas/Rair) of Au and Ag-catalyzed SnO2 sensors fabricated by the GAD process were 0.009 and 0.015, respectively, under 5 ppm H2S at 300 °C, and the 90% response time was approximately 5 s. These sensors showed excellent sensitivities compared with the SnO2 thin film sensors that were deposited normally (glancing angle = 0°, S = 0.48).

With the widespread use of wearable electronics, the flexible piezoelectric energy harvesting devices have been extensively studied to efficiently convert the physical motion of the human body into electrical energy. The major obstacles for realizing a flexible piezoelectric generator include the insufficient output power generation and the poor efficiency at the low-frequency regime. Here, we demonstrate a curved piezoelectric generator favorable for wearable applications, generating a high output power. The curved structure plays a key role to improve the power generation, by effectively distributing the applied force across the piezoelectric layer, as well as to allow operation at the low frequency vibration range. Accordingly, this generator produces � 120 V of peak output voltage and � 700 mA of peak output current during a cycle. Furthermore, our generator can operate at low frequencies below 50 Hz, generating � 55 V of output voltage and 250 mA of output current at 35 Hz, and it even works at frequencies as low as 1 Hz. With this generator, we successfully lit up 476 commercial LED bulbs. In addition, we experimentally demonstrate the possibility that the generator can be used in shoes, watches, and clothes as a power source. Our results will provide a framework to enhance the output power of conventional piezoelectric generators, and open a new avenue for realization of self-powered systems, such as wearable electronic devices.

Graphene is a promising material for vapor sensor applications because of its potential to be functionalized for specific chemical gases. In this work, we present a graphene gas sensor that uses single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) molecules as its sensing agent. We investigate the characteristics of graphene field effect transistors (FETs) coated with different ssDNAs. The sensitivity and recovery rate for a specific gas are modified according to the differences in the DNA molecules’ Guanine (G) and Cytosine (C) content. ssDNA-functionalized devices show a higher recovery rate compared to bare graphene devices. Pattern analysis of a 2-by-2 sensor array composed of graphene devices functionalized with different-sequence ssDNA enables identification of NH3, NO2, CO, SO2 using Principle Component Analysis (PCA).

Arrays of partially selective chemical sensors have been the focus of extensive research over the past decades because of their potential for widespread application in ambient air monitoring, health and safety, and biomedical diagnostics. Especially, vapor sensor arrays based on functionalized nanomaterials have shown great promise with their high sensitivity by dimensionality and outstanding electronic properties. Here, we introduce experiments where individual vapors and mixtures of them are examined by different chemical sensor arrays. The collected data from those sensor arrays are further analyzed by a principal component analysis (PCA) and targeted vapors are recognized based on prepared database.

Piezoelectric materials capable of converting between mechanical and electrical energy have a great range of potential applications in micro- and nano-scale smart devices; however, their performance tends to be greatly degraded when reduced to a thin film due to the large clamping force by the substrate and surrounding materials. Herein, we report an effective method for synthesizing isolated piezoelectric nano-materials as means to relax the clamping force and recover original piezoelectric properties of the materials. Using this, environmentally friendly single-crystalline NaxK1-xNbO3 (NKN) piezoelectric nano-rod arrays were successfully synthesized by conventional pulsed-laser deposition and demonstrated to have a remarkably enhanced piezoelectric performance. The shape of the nano-structure was also found to be easily manipulated by varying the energy conditions of the physical vapor. We anticipate that this work will provide a way to produce piezoelectric micro- and nano-devices suitable for practical application and in doing so, open a new path for the development of complex metal-oxide nano-structures.

Recently, piezoelectric and triboelectric energy harvesting devices have been developed to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy. Especially, it is well known that triboelectric nanogenerators have a simple structure and a high output voltage. However, whereas nanostructures improve the output of triboelectric generators, its fabrication process is still complicated and unfavorable in term of the large scale and long-time durability of the device. Here, we demonstrate a hybrid generator which does not use nanostructure but generates much higher output power by a small mechanical force and integrates piezoelectric generator into triboelectric generator, derived from the simultaneous use of piezoelectric and triboelectric mechanisms in one press-and-release cycle. This hybrid generator combines high piezoelectric output current and triboelectric output voltage, which produces peak output voltage of ~370 V, current density of ~12 μA·cm−2 and average power density of ~4.44 mW·cm−2. The output power successfully lit up 600 LED bulbs by the application of a 0.2 N mechanical force and it charged a 10 μF capacitor to 10 V in 25 s. Beyond energy harvesting, this work will provide new opportunities for developing a small, built-in power source in self-powered electronics such as mobile electronics.

Highly sensitive and selective chemiresistive sensors based on graphene functionalized by metals and metal oxides have attracted considerable attention in the fields of environmental monitoring and medical assessment because of their ultrasensitive gas detecting performance and cost-effective fabrication. However, their operation, in terms of detection limit and reliability, is limited in traditional applications because of ambient humidity. Here, the enhanced sensitivity and selectivity of single-stranded DNA-functionalized graphene (ssDNA-FG) sensors to NH3 and H2S vapors at high humidity are demonstrated and their sensing mechanism is suggested. It is found that depositing a layer of ssDNA molecules leads to effective modulation of carrier density in graphene, as a negative-potential gating agent and the formation of an additional ion conduction path for proton hopping in the layer of hydronium ions (H3O+) at high humidity (>80%). Considering that selectively responsive chemical vapors are biomarkers associated with human diseases, the obtained results strongly suggest that ssDNA-FG sensors can be the key to developing a high-performance exhaled breath analyzer for diagnosing halitosis and kidney disorder.