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It is highly demanded to understand the confinement effect on nanoconfined polymers. Recent studies reported a strong perturbation of local dynamics and substantial alteration of glass transition temperature Tg at nanoscale. However, how confinement affects the mechanical properties of polymers is not fully understood. Here, we show that the modulus of thin polymer films could be remarkedly altered through a polymer–polymer interface. The modulus of a thin polystyrene (PS) film next to a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was determined from the PS–PDMS bilayer bulging test. A series of experiments show that the modulus of PS can be increased up to 37%, when the modulus of the neighboring PDMS varies from 1.04 to 4.88 MPa. The results demonstrate a strong sensitivity of mechanical properties of thin polymers to the hard/soft environment, which we attribute to the change of high-mobility layer by the polymer–polymer interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optimizing mechanical performance is crucial for the practical utilization of stimuli-responsive polymers, while complex viscous and elastic behavior hinders a deep understanding of functional polymers under external field excitation. Here, we demonstrate the in situ dynamic and static mechanical responses under electric stimuli of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) above glass transition temperature (Tg) by applying a direct current electric field vertically to the mechanical loading. The results show that the electro-mechanical response of PMMA is directly correlated to chain relaxation modes with different length scales: for local segments, polarization provides resistance for molecular motion, manifested by enhanced moduli, increased transient viscosity, and a wider linear viscoelastic range, whereas in a larger spatial range, polarization-induced conformation change causes faster relaxation, reduced elastic modulus, and a lowered modulus plateau. Moreover, flow viscosity is reduced because of weaker friction between chain segments under polarization. Our results suggest effective strategies for precisely tuning the viscoelastic behavior of polymers above Tg through electric stimuli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The demand for applications, such as coatings, separation filters, and electronic packaging, has greatly driven the research of polymer films. At nanometer scale, mechanical properties of thin polymer films can significantly deviate from bulk. Despite outstanding progresses, there still lack deep discussions on nonlinear viscoelastic–viscoplastic response and their interactions under nanoconfinement. In this work, by conducting measurements via the bubble inflation method and modelling using Schapery and Perzyna equations, we demonstrate nonlinear viscoelastic–viscoplastic properties of freely standing thin polystyrene (PS) films. The results show the unchanged glassy compliance and the rubbery stiffening phenomenon for thin PS films, where the lower rubbery plateau in rubbery stiffening may originate from the induced molecular orientation by plastic deformation. With decreasing film thickness, viscosity and yield stress in viscoplasticity increase in an exponential and a linear trend, respectively, indicating the significant role of nanoconfinement effect on viscoplastic properties. These findings may reveal that there are many properties from linear viscoelasticity to nonlinear viscoelasticity–viscoplasticity that need to be explored and unveiled for sufficient understanding of the nanoconfinement effect on altering mechanical behavior of polymers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the design and validation of an apparatus, which is developed based on micro-vibration in cyclic bulge and contraction, to determine dynamic mechanical properties of ultrathin polymer films. By controlling air pressure acting on a polymer membrane, the apparatus exerts simple harmonic or other type periodic stresses on the film, and the resultant real-time deformation of the freely standing film is recorded by using a high-speed CCD camera. From the image frame sequences and the gas pressure data, the real-time stress and strain of the polymer film are attained. Consequently, the dynamic mechanical properties, including biaxial storage and loss moduli, and loss factor can be determined for polymer films with thickness down to 20 nm. This apparatus could also be used to determine other mechanical properties such as fatigue and yield for nanoconfined films of soft matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphene p–n junctions hold great potential in the fields of electronic and optoelectronic devices. Here, we develop a scheme of the in situ growth of an epitaxial graphene (EG) lateral p–n junction on a semi-insulating SiC (0001) substrate with periodic boron ion implantation, and utilizing the advantages of EG, SiC, and p–n junctions in a two-terminal device at the same time, a high-performance UV-enhanced self-powered photodetector is prepared based on an EG p–n junction with a maximum Fermi level difference of about 210 mV. Moreover, when a 325-nm laser locally irradiates the p-terminal of the device, its responsivity is about six times higher than when the laser locally irradiates the n-terminal. This indicates that EG on SiC with a p-type modulated subsurface is conducive to designing efficient UV photodetectors in which SiC serves as the gain medium. All of these characteristics facilitate the growth of EG p–n junctions on a wafer scale and the fabrication of EG p–n junctions for optoelectronic and electronic devices using standard semiconductor synthesis procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Realizing the reliable modulation of the carrier type and density in graphene is a challenging task, especially for epitaxial graphene (EG) grown in situ on SiC via thermal decomposition. In this process, doping is seldom adopted for substrate pretreatment, and the residual carriers in EG are determined by the properties of the SiC substrate and the random defects in EG. Here, we demonstrate a simple and effective technique for hole doping in EG on the Si-face of SiC (0001) implanted with boron ions. P-type EG with a carrier concentration of approximately 1–2 × 1012 cm−2 and a room-temperature mobility of 100–300 cm2/V s was achieved at the boron ion dose of approximately 1 × 1015 cm−2 at a centroid depth of approximately 140 nm from the SiC surface. These transport properties are comparable with the data reported for unintentionally doped P-type EG on the Si-face of SiC [Tedesco et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 122102 (2009)], for which the Hall device size was 40 times smaller compared to our device. The formation of P-type EG on the Si-face of SiC (0001) in this study was attributed to the synergetic effects of boron doping in EG and the transfer of electrons from EG into SiC. The detailed mechanisms are studied and discussed in this paper. The method demonstrated herein can be universally applied to downshift the Fermi level of EG on SiC, regardless of the crystallization orientation or polytype. The developed method is also compatible with modern semiconductor procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bottom-gate bottom-contact (BGBC) organic thin film transistors (OTFTs) based on N,N′-ditridecyl perylene diimide exhibit electron mobility as high as 3.54 cm2 V-1 s-1 in nitrogen, higher than that (1 cm2 V-1 s-1) of bottom-gate top-contact devices. The better performance of BGBC configuration in N2 is attributed to lower contact resistance, which is further reduced by thermal annealing. After thermally annealing the BGBC OTFTs at 180 °C, electron mobility as high as 3.5 cm2 V-1 s-1, current on/off ratio of 106 and threshold voltage of 9 V are achieved in air, and the mobility retains above 1 cm2 V-1 s-1 after storage for two months in air. Thermal treatment enhanced crystalline grains, reduced grain boundaries, and suppressed the adsorption of H2O and O2, leading to excellent performance in air. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors reported organic phototransistors (PTs) with octadecyltrichlorosilane treated SiO2/Si substrate based on anthra[2,3-b]benzo[d]thiophene. The organic PTs show a high mobility of 0.4 cm2 V-1 s-1, a maximum photoresponsivity of about 1000 A/W, and photocurrent/dark-current ratio of around 800 under white light irradiation with 30 μW/cm2. The data are comparable with those of PTs based on amorphous silicon. Meanwhile, it is interesting to see that the devices show a high air-stable property and high photosensitivity via electric-field enhanced process. All these phenomena were attributed to the intrinsic optic-electronic property of the organic semiconductor and optic-electric field effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple optical-electronic device that possesses widescale adjustability in its performance is specially required for realizing multifunctional applications as in optical communication and weak signal detectors. Here, we demonstrate an epitaxial graphene (EG)/n-type SiC Schottky ultraviolet (UV) photodiode with extremely widescale adjustability in its responsivity and response speed. It is found that the response speed of the device can be modulated over seven orders of magnitude from tens of nanoseconds to milliseconds by changing its working bias from 0 to −5 V, while its responsivity can be varied by three orders of magnitude. A 2.18 A/W responsivity is observed at −5 V when a 325 nm laser is irradiated on, corresponding to an external quantum efficiency over 800% ascribed to the trap induced internal gain mechanism. These performances of the EG/SiC Schottky photodiode are far superior to those based on traditional metal/SiC and indicate that the EG/n-type SiC Schottky diode is a good candidate for application in UV photodetection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]