Search

This paper proposes an effective numerical method to predict welding distortion for large welded structures. To predict welding distortions, inherent strain-based methods are computationally efficient and widely used in engineering fields. However, there are some drawbacks such as the generation of undesirable longitudinal forces and the use of vector-type input variables. Equivalent loads are derived through finite element formulation considering orthotropic thermal expansion conditions. Unlike previous methods, the proposed method predicts transverse shrinkage and angular distortion accurately, removing the undesirable longitudinal forces. In addition, scalar-type input variables are employed, which results in a convenient design procedure. The performance of the proposed method is verified through various examples including complex and large welded structures.

Despite the promise of pyrenetetrone derivatives as insoluble organic cathode compounds for lithium-ion batteries, there is limited information on their electrochemical characteristics. Herein, a highly reliable computational protocol is employed to systematically explore the redox properties and theoretical performances of pyrenetetrone derivatives. This comprehensive analysis reveals that the electrochemical redox properties of pyrenetetrone derivatives at fully charged states are determined by complementary contributions from key factors, such as dopant electronegativity, electrostatic potential of the central backbone, and interatomic electronic flow. In contrast, dopant electronegativity becomes a dominant factor for tuning the redox behaviors of these organic compounds during the Li-involved discharging process, indicating the potential of boron-doped compounds for high-performance cathodes. Further investigation highlights that the entire discharging process can be summarized as Li-induced continuous reduction in electron affinity terminated by a sudden increase in solvation energy (depending on dopant electronegativity), which emphasizes the importance of solvation energy in determining cathodic deactivation.

In this study, we evaluated the possibility of replacing existing perfluorocarbon gas with C7F14, which can be recovered in its liquid state from room-temperature air. We performed plasma etching of SiON films using the CF4 + X + O2 mixed gas, where X = CHF3, C4F8, or C7F14, and examined the etching characteristics of the films (e.g., etching rate, etching profile, and selectivity over Si). Using contact angle goniometry, atomic force microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, we analyzed the physicochemical changes in the etched SiON film surface. Moreover, optical emission spectroscopy and double Langmuir probe measurements were carried out for plasma diagnosis. Compared with the conventional CHF3 and C4F8 mixed plasma, the C7F14 mixed plasma exhibited a more perpendicular etching profile with higher SiON/Si selectivity and a smoother surface.

Whilst copper and silver are the conductors of choice for myriad current and emerging applications, patterning these metals is a slow and costly process. We report the remarkable finding that an extremely thin (∼10 nm) printed layer of specific organofluorine compounds enables selective deposition of copper and silver vapour, with metal condensing only where the organofluorine layer is not. This unconventional approach is fast, inexpensive, avoids metal waste and the use of harmful chemical etchants, and leaves the metal surface uncontaminated. We have used this approach to fabricate thin films of these metals with 6 million apertures cm−2 and grids of ∼1 μm lines, through to 10 cm diameter apertures. We have also fabricated semi-transparent organic solar cells in which the top silver electrode is patterned with a dense array of 2 μm diameter apertures, which cannot be achieved by any other scalable means directly on an organic electronic device.

Three conjugated polymers (CPs) were synthesized to obtain CPs with the same backbone but with different compositions of repeat units (phenylene and benzoselenadiazole (BSD)). The dominant composition of phenylene units and a smaller amount of BSD in the CP backbone enabled the CPs to emit different fluorescence colors according to their condition (solution or solid), which was caused by the difference in intermolecular electron transfer between CP backbones. Inspired by this, we fabricated polymer dots (Pdots) with various sizes using the CPs to control the number of CP chains within a spherical Pdot. This implied that smaller Pdots, where the chance of intermolecular electron transfer would be at a minimum, would accommodate fewer polymer chains than larger ones. The minimum chance for intermolecular electron transfer resulted in a short-wavelength emission, which was the identical emission color encountered in liquid CP solution. A more frequent intermolecular electron transfer was expected in larger Pdots, exhibiting long-wavelength emission, which was the same as observed in solid CPs. White-light-emitting Pdots that showed Commission Internationale de 1'Eclairage (CIE) coordinates of (0.34, 0.31) were fabricated simply by controlling the Pdot size.

Description, Nanocomplex immobilized scaffold effects on anti-inflammation, antibacterial activity, angiogenesis, and bone regeneration., Biodegradable polymers have been used with various systems for tissue engineering. Among them, poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid (PLGA) has been widely used as a biomaterial for bone regeneration because of its great biocompatibility and biodegradability properties. However, there remain substantial cruxes that the by-products of PLGA result in an acidic environment at the implanting site, and the polymer has a weak mechanical property. In our previous study, magnesium hydroxide (MH) and bone extracellular matrix are combined with a PLGA scaffold (PME) to improve anti-inflammation and mechanical properties and osteoconductivity. In the present study, the development of a bioactive nanocomplex (NC) formed along with polydeoxyribonucleotide and bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP2) provides synergistic abilities in angiogenesis and bone regeneration. This PME hybrid scaffold immobilized with NC (PME/NC) achieves outstanding performance in anti-inflammation, angiogenesis, and osteogenesis. Such an advanced PME/NC scaffold suggests an integrated bone graft substitute for bone regeneration.

In this article, a layered shell element-based, elastic finite element method for predicting welding distortion in multi-pass welding is developed. The welding distortion generated in each pass can be predicted by employing layer-by-layer equivalent plastic strains as thermal expansion coefficients and using the heat-affected zone (HAZ) width as the mesh size. The final distortion can be expressed as the sum of the distortions for each pass. This study focuses on extraction of the equivalent plastic strain and HAZ width through 3D thermal elastic plastic analysis (TEPA) for each pass. The input variables extracted from each pass can be converted and added to simulate the final distortion of the multi-pass welding. A 10 mm thick, multi-pass butt-welded joint, subjected to three passes, is simulated via the proposed method. The predicted welding distortion is compared with the 3D TEPA results and the measured experimental data. The outcome indicates that good agreement can be obtained.

Achieving well-defined multilayer structure is a key to improve device performance of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), especially in solution-processed OLEDs. Use of cross-linkable hole-transporting materials (HTMs) is therefore gaining much attention to achieve such multilayer structures. One of representative solution-processable HTM is TFB, poly[(9,9-dioctylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl)-co-(4,4'-(N-(4-sec-butylphenyl)diphenylamine)], but it does not have any cross-linkable units in its chemical structures. In this work, we performed basic physical characterization of a new cross-linkable HTM, HL-X026, and we also investigated its OLED characteristics. Actual solvent resistance by varying the thermal curing temperatures was measured. The thermally cross-linkable HL-X026 showed better device performances than simple TFB with higher luminance and efficiencies.

Biporous structures at the nano–microscale are promising candidates for controlling phase change heat transfer, through their enhanced capillary wicking and fluid transportation. However, existing methods for fabricating biporous structures involve complex process which is not suitable for small-scale thermal devices such as heat pipes, owing to their confined and non-flat inner structures. Herein, we report the biporous structures inside copper-sintered heat pipes, enabled by layer-by-layer (LbL) assembled multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT)-polyethyleneimine (PEI) coating for enhanced thermal performance. The repetitive filling and removing of the oppositely charged solutions with MWCNT-PEI and carboxylic-functionalized MWCNTs assembled the nanoporous MWCNT-PEI coatings (10, 20, and 40 bilayers) on the microporous copper-sintered inner surfaces. The fiber-like MWCNT networks structurally manipulated morphology and thickness of biporous structures, while the hydrophilic PEI shells chemically optimized wettability. A reduced thermal resistance (∼14.3%) was observed for MWCNT-PEI coating in 10 bilayers, due to the enhanced capillary wicking, interfacial contact areas, and bubble dynamics, whereas the 40 bilayers did not exhibit improved thermal performance owing to the redundant nanoporous layers causing reduced volume of microporous structures and increased thermal resistance. The LbL-assembled MWCNT-PEI coatings would act as functional layers to improve the performance of miniaturized and thin-film-based thermal devices.

Silver nanowire networks can offer exceptionally high performance as transparent electrodes for stretchable sensors, flexible optoelectronics, and energy harvesting devices. However, this type of electrode suffers from the triple drawbacks of complexity of fabrication, instability of the nanowire junctions, and high surface roughness, which limit electrode performance and utility. Here, a new concept in the fabrication of silver nanowire electrodes is reported that simultaneously addresses all three of these drawbacks, based on an electrospun nanofiber network and supporting substrate having silver vapor condensation coefficients of one and near‐zero, respectively. Consequently, when the whole substrate is exposed to silver vapor by simple thermal evaporation, metal selectively deposits onto the nanofiber network. The advantage of this approach is the simplicity, since there is no mask, chemical or dry metal etching step, or mesh transfer step. Additionally, the contact resistance between nanowires is zero and the surface roughness is sufficiently low for integration into organic photovoltaic devices. This new concept opens the door to continuous roll‐to‐roll fabrication of high‐performance fused silver nanowire electrodes for myriad potential applications.\ud \ud

The study of InP etching kinetics as well as the evaluation of InP etching mechanism in HBr + Cl2 + Ar inductively coupled plasma were carried out. Experiments on the measurements of the etching rates for InP, SiO2, and SiNx as well as plasma diagnostics using Langmuir probes and optical emission spectroscopy were conducted at a fixed total gas pressure (10 mTorr, or 1.33 Pa), input power (800 W), and bias power (200 W), and the variable parameter was the HBr/Cl2 mixing ratio. Zero-dimensional (global) plasma modeling provided data regarding the densities of the plasma active species as well as on the particle and energy fluxes to the etched surface. An increase in the Cl2 fraction in the feed gas yielded a non-monotonic InP etching rate with a maximum of ~120 nm/min at 35% Cl2. Model-based analysis of the InP etching kinetics revealed that 1) the InP etching process is mainly provided by the chemical etching pathway; 2) the non-monotonic change in the InP etching rate cannot be explained by the chemical effects of Br and Cl atoms; and 3) the HCl molecules may have sufficiently contributed to the chemical etching pathway.

Conductive polymers are exceptionally promising for modular electrochemical applications including chemical sensors, bioelectronics, redox-flow batteries, and photo-electrochemical systems due to considerable synthetic tunability and ease of processing. Despite well-established structural heterogeneity in these systems, conventional macroscopic electroanalytical methods – specifically cyclic voltammetry – are typically used as the primary tool for structure-property elucidation. This work presents an alternative correlative multi-microscopy strategy; data from laboratory and synchrotron-based micro-spectroscopies, including conducting-atomic force microscopy and synchrotron nanoscale infrared spectroscopy, is combined with potentiodynamic movies of electrochemical fluxes from scanning electrochemical cell microscopy (SECCM) to reveal the relationship between electrode structure and activity. A model conductive polymer electrode system of tailored heterogeneity is investigated, consisting of phase-segregated domains of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) surrounded by contiguous regions of insulating poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), representing an ultramicroelectrode array. Isolated domains of P3HT are shown to retain bulk-like chemical and electronic structure when blended with PMMA, and possess approximately equivalent electron-transfer rate constants compared to pure P3HT electrodes. The nanoscale electrochemical data are used to model and predict multiscale electrochemical behavior, revealing that macroscopic cyclic voltammograms should be much more kinetically facile than observed experimentally. This indicates that parasitic resistances rather than redox kinetics play a dominant role in macroscopic measurements in these conducting polymer systems. SECCM further demonstrates that the ambient degradation of the P3HT electroactivity within P3HT/PMMA blends is spatially heterogeneous. This work serves as a roadmap for benchmarking the quality of conductive polymer films as electrodes, emphasizing the importance of nanoscale electrochemical measurements in understanding macroscopic properties.\ud \ud

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) require both high efficiency and good long-term stability if they are to be commercialized. It is crucial to finely optimize the energy level matching between the perovskites and hole-transporting materials to achieve better performance. Here, we synthesize a fluorene-terminated hole-transporting material with a fine-tuned energy level and a high glass transition temperature to ensure highly efficient and thermally stable PSCs. We use this material to fabricate photovoltaic devices with 23.2% efficiency (under reverse scanning) with a steady-state efficiency of 22.85% for small-area (~0.094 cm2) cells and 21.7% efficiency (under reverse scanning) for large-area (~1 cm2) cells. We also achieve certified efficiencies of 22.6% (small-area cells, ~0.094 cm2) and 20.9% (large-area, ~1 cm2). The resultant device shows better thermal stability than the device with spiro-OMeTAD, maintaining almost 95% of its initial performance for more than 500 h after thermal annealing at 60 °C. Interfacial losses between device layers play a key role in determining characteristics of solar cells. Jeon et al. address this in perovskite solar cells by synthesizing a hole-transporting layer that is better matched to the surrounding layers, and show high-efficiency and high-stability devices.

We report an influence of abnormal mixing effect of host systems having undesirable energy level and transport level in the emission layer (EML). Rather, we focused on their device performance and stability (e.g. driving lifetime) when it was prepared by solution-process. The resultant green phosphorescent organic light emitting diodes (s-OLEDs) showed reasonable device performance and interesting photo-physical properties, which revealed that we can achieve good performance if an appropriate compromise between the factors which govern a charge transport and an energy transfer processes can be realized albeit the EML has undesirable host systems with both bad energy level matching (e.g., HOMO, LUMO levels) and charge transport properties. In this study, a high performance of the s-OLEDs by controlling photo-physical pathways such as exciton quenching process (e.g. triplet-triplet annihilation). Besides, such kind of change in photo-physical pathway may be optimized by controlling the charge balance (i.e. carrier transport behaviour) where we intentionally selected N- and P-type host materials (denote NH and PH, respectively) with abnormal HOMO and LUMO energy levels.

Simple but exceptionally efficient 4-diphenylaminocarbazole host material, 4-DPACz, is presented and compared with its positional isomer, 1-DPACz. The shift of diphenylamino substituent from the 1-position to 4-position of carbazole resulted in an increase in the HOMO energy level as well as an increase in triplet energy level. Having a high triplet energy level (2.76 eV) and well-matched HOMO energy level (−5.61 eV), 4-DPACz showed reduced driving voltage and higher efficiencies for solution-processed green PhOLEDs compated to PVK as well as 1-DPACz. Maximum luminous, power, and external quantum efficiencies reaching to 47.9 cd A–1, 25.2 lm W–1, and 14.3%, respectively, were achieved with a device configuration of [ITO/PEDOT:PSS/4-DPACz:Ir(mppy)3/TPBi/CsF/Al]. Additional enhancement of efficiencies of 4-DPACz was verified when incorporating another dopant, Ir(Si-bppy)2(acac), resulting in 59.1 cd A–1, 29.5 lm W–1, and 15.8%. Furthermore, reduced efficiency roll-off was clearly observed for 4-DPACz compar...

Solution processing, especially printing of OLEDs is an issue of current research. Among various types of printing, nozzle printing does not require complicated experimental procedures, and therefo...

The deposition of SiOC thin films via remote plasma atomic layer deposition was investigated. Octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (OMCTS) and O2, Ar, H2 plasmas were respectively used as a precursor and reactants during the deposition process at 400 °C. Plasma and deposition temperatures had a significant effect on the physical and electrical characteristics of the films. When Ar and H2 plasma was respectively used during the deposition process, films exhibited low dielectric constants while incorporating carbon; however, O2 plasma yielded carbon free SiO2 films. Low dielectric constants resulted in low film densities and the presence of carbon within the films. When Ar and H2 plasma was used as the reactant gas, pores within the films with loose structures and Si C bonds served to lower the dielectric constant. As a result, Ar and H2 plasma conditions exhibited low dielectric constants of 2.7 and 3.1 at 100 °C, respectively. Meanwhile, the presence of carbon and low film densities caused leakage paths within the films. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy supported analyses demonstrating the bonding characteristics of Si, C, O components.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of layer-by-layer (LbL) assembled carbon nanotube (CNT) coatings on dropwise condensation heat transfer under steam–air mixture conditions. To promote dropwise condensation, an additional hydrophobic coating was added to the LbL-assembled CNT coatings, which resulted in a 16% enhanced condensation heat transfer coefficient (HTC) compared to that of the bare surface under saturated steam conditions. Despite the existence of the nanostructures on the CNT-layered surface, the larger droplet size was observed from the high-speed images than that of the bare surface due to flooding condensation phenomenon. Considering that the HTC was enhanced without smaller droplet size, it is evident that this enhancement was mainly attributed to the reduced constriction resistance driven by the high thermal conductivity of the CNT layers. A new HTC model for dropwise condensation incorporating constriction resistance was developed to better predict the measured condensation HTC. Although the enhancement of the condensation HTC on the LbL-assembled CNT coatings was diminished with the air mass fraction, this work reports a new perspective to enhance the dropwise condensation heat transfer performance by controlling the constriction resistance using a highly thermally conductive coating.

We synthesized a novel wide bandgap polymer, PDTFBT, forming a weak donor (WD)-weak acceptor (WA) structure for use in organic photodetectors (OPDs) and organic solar cells (OSCs). The fluorination in the D unit and the alkoxy substitution in the A unit induced WD and WA properties, respectively. The WD-WA structure of PDTFBT effectively broadened the bandgap compared to typical D-A structures, and the S-F and S-O dipole-dipole interactions induces a highly planar backbone structure with excellent π-π stacking in the vertical direction. In OPDs, conformationally less disordered PDTFBT polymer retained the constant responsivity and significantly improved the detectivity of PDTFBT:PC71BM devices even with a thick active layer of 470 nm, contrary to the variation in the responsivity of P3HT:PC61BM devices depending on the thickness. In OSCs, the deep HOMO energy level (−5.57 eV) of PDTFBT led to high Voc of 0.92 V in PDTFBT:PC71BM devices, which was 0.3 eV higher than that of P3HT:PC61BM devices (0.62 V), resulting in 1.8-fold enhanced power conversion efficiency. We demonstrated that the WD-WA structure with S-F and S-O interactions is highly promising strategy to make wide bandgap polymers for organic photodetectors and for the bottom cell of tandem architecture.

The role of a Ti nano-layer embedded in TaO x -based devices operating with conductive filaments consisting of oxygen vacancies was investigated. The Ti nano-layer was embedded in three different positions: the top interface (Au/TaO x ), bottom interface (TaO x /TiN), and both interfaces. The embedded Ti nano-layer serves as not only an oxygen reservoir but also a tunneling barrier in the case of the top interface. The position of the Ti nano-layer and its thickness play important roles in the resistive switching behaviors. In addition, the effect of the current compliance on the resistive switching behaviors was evaluated. The different resistive switching behaviors were investigated using current-voltage sweep measurements and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The non-linear behavior of the low resistance state could be controlled by the top interface and current compliance. The current of the high resistance state could be controlled by the bottom interface. It is noteworthy that only 1.5-nm-thick Ti nano-layer can adjust the non-linear behavior of the low resistance state at top interface and the current of the high resistance state at bottom interface.

We synthesized the conjugated polymers PT2OBT, PVT2OBT, and PFBT2OBT for use in organic photodetecting devices. An octyloxy benzothiadiazole (OBT) moiety was used as a weak electron-accepting building block in the polymer system to cause the dominant absorption in the green-light region via weakening the intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) interactions between adjacent electron-donating moieties. In particular, indirect X-ray detection using a scintillator requires a low leakage current; thus, we focused on designing a molecular structure that can enhance the detectivity. The difluorobenzene-incorporated PFBT2OBT polymer showed a strong edge-on orientation both in the pristine film and in the blend film; however, PT2OBT and PVT2OBT have no preferred molecular orientation in the blend film. In the edge-on structure, the alkyl side chains of PFBT2OBT align on the surface of the electrode, forming an insulating layer, which decreases the tunneling leakage current, whereas in the latter cases, the interface between the semiconducting polymer backbone and PC70BM can come into contact with the electrode, forming a pathway for the leakage current. Consequently, the PFBT2OBT:PC70BM devices showed promising detectivities of over 1013 Jones over a wide range of reverse biases of up to −2 V, resulting from their low dark current density of less than 2.3 × 10−9 A cm−2.

It is widely considered that charge carrier extraction in bulk‐heterojunction organic photovoltaics (BHJ OPVs) is most efficient when the area of contact between the semiconductor layers and the electrodes is maximized and the electrodes are electrically homogeneous. Herein, it is shown that ≈99% of the electrode surface can in fact be insulating without degrading the efficiency of charge carrier extraction, provided the spacing of the conducting areas is less than or equal to twice the optimal thickness of the BHJ layer. This striking result is demonstrated for BHJ OPVs with both conventional and inverted device architectures using two different types of BHJ OPVs, namely, PCDTBT:PC70BM and the ternary blend PBDB‐T:ITIC‐m:PC70BM. This finding opens the door to the use of a large pallet of materials for optical spacers and charge transport layers, based on a low density of conducting particles embedded in a wide bandgap insulating matrix.

A single layer of the bifunctional molecule 3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane is shown to be remarkably effective at improving the stability of optically thin silver film electrodes towards spontaneous morphological change and oxidation by airborne sulfur. Inclusion of this layer in the novel transparent electrode; WO3 (30 nm) / silver (13 nm) / sol-gel ZnO (27 nm), at the silver / ZnO interface improves the efficiency of organic photovoltaic devices using this electrode by 20%, such that the power conversion efficiency is very close to that achievable using a conventional indium-tin oxide glass electrode; 9.6 % ± 0.2 % vs 10.0 % ± 0.3 %, with the advantage that the silver electrode has a sheet resistance one third that of the ITO glass (4 Ohms sq-1). The mercaptosilane monolayer is also shown to retard silver diffusion into the ZnO layer whilst imparting a favorable 400 meV reduction in electrode work function. In addition to its utility inside the device, this molecular layer is shown to be useful for improving the stability of the silver film electrodes in top-illuminated semi-transparent photovoltaics, since it can be deposited directly onto a completed device from the vapor phase.

Graphene-based carbon nanostructures with nanometer dimensions have been of great interest due to the existence of a bandgap. So far, well-ordered edge structure and uniformly synthesized graphene quantum dots (GQDs) with a hexagonal single-crystalline structure have not been directly observed owing to the limited precision of current synthesis approaches. Herein, we report on a novel approach not just for the synthesis of the size-controlled single-crystalline GQDs with hexagonal shape but also for a new discovery on constructing 2D and 3D graphene single crystal structures from d-glucose via catalytic solution chemistry. With size-controlled single-crystalline GQDs, we elucidated the crucial role of edge states on luminescence from the correlation between their crystalline size and exciton lifetime. Furthermore, blue-emissive single-crystalline GQDs were used as an emitter on light-emitting diodes and exhibit stable deep-blue emission regardless of the voltage and doping level.

A novel approach to fabricate flexible organic solar cells is proposed without indium tin oxide (ITO) and poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) using junction‐free metal nanonetworks (NNs) as transparent electrodes. The metal NNs are monolithically etched using nanoscale shadow masks, and they exhibit excellent optoelectronic performance. Furthermore, the optoelectrical properties of the NNs can be controlled by both the initial metal layer thickness and NN density. Hence, with an extremely thin silver layer, the appropriate density control of the networks can lead to high transmittance and low sheet resistance. Such NNs can be utilized for thin‐film devices without planarization by conductive materials such as PEDOT:PSS. A highly efficient flexible organic solar cell with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 10.6% and high device yield (93.8%) is fabricated on PEDOT‐free and ITO‐free transparent electrodes. Furthermore, the flexible solar cell retains 94.3% of the initial PCE even after 3000 bending stress tests (strain: 3.13%).

Slab-like copper films with a thickness of 9 nm (∼70 atoms) and sheet resistance of ≤9 Ω sq−1 are shown to exhibit remarkable long-term stability toward air-oxidation when passivated with an 0. 8 nm aluminium layer deposited by simple thermal evaporation. The sheet resistance of 9 nm Cu films passivated in this way, and lithographically patterned with a dense array of ∼6 million apertures per cm2, increases by

A novel experimental technique for sidewall analysis of plasma-etched nano-patterns using tilted X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) combined with in-situ ion sputtering was investigated. Complete removal of the residue layer (on the mask surface) and the mask layer using in-situ ion sputtering in the XPS chamber was conducted to reveal the sidewall information of the plasma-etched hole in SiO2 in addition to the trench in Si, after anisotropic plasma etching. The influence of the measured profile depth changes after adjusting the take-off angle in the sidewall chemistry of the plasma-etched hole in SiO2 and the trench in Si was examined. To demonstrate the analysis results, the sidewall compositions of the plasma-etched hole in SiO2 with various oxygen contents in the plasma were comparatively analyzed using XPS and Auger electron spectroscopy. It was observed that fluorinated carbon polymer (C-Fx, x ≤ 3) and SixOy (x ≤ 2, y ≤ 3) residue layers were formed on the hole in SiO2 and trench in Si sidewalls after C4F8/CH2F2/O2/Ar and HBr/Cl2 plasma etching, respectively. Thus, changes in the chemical characteristics of these sidewall etching residues were realized, revealing their dependency on the pattern size and type, plasma gas chemistry, and mask material. In addition, effectiveness of the dry cleaning process was evaluated using the tilted XPS combined with in-situ Ar ion sputtering.

In this paper, we report flexible transparent conducting electrode (TCE) film using a silver grid (Ag grid)/silver nanowire (AgNW) hybrid structure (AG/NW-GFRHybrimer). The AG/NW-GFRHybrimer consists of an AgNW-embedded glass-fabric reinforced plastic film (AgNW-GFRHybrimer) and an electroplated Ag grid. The AgNW-GFRHybrimer is used as a flexible transparent substrate and a seed layer for electroplating. The Ag grid is fabricated via an all-solution-process; the grid pattern is formed using conventional photolithography, and Ag is deposited through electroplating. The AG/NW-GFRHybrimer exhibits excellent opto-electrical properties (transparency = 87%, sheet resistance = 13 Ω/□), superior thermal stability (250 °C for 720 min and 85 °C/85% RH for 100 h), and outstanding mechanical flexibility (bending radius = 1 mm for 2000 cycles). Finally, a touch-screen panel (four-wire resistive type) was fabricated using the AG/NW-GFRHybrimer to demonstrate its potential for use in actual optoelectronic applications.

The bio-immobilization efficiency of single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) thin films treated in NH3/Ar/N2 inductively coupled plasmas with different Ar/N2 gas mixing ratios was studied. The plasma parameters as well as the densities and fluxes of the plasma active species were controlled using both plasma diagnostics (Langmuir probes, optical emission spectroscopy) and modeling. The surface morphology of the SWCNT thin films was observed by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The structural changes on the treated surfaces were detected by Raman spectroscopy. The changes in atomic composition for plasma-treated and pristine SWCNT film surfaces were analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Fluorescence analysis of the plasma-functionalized SWCNT surfaces was performed with green fluorescent proteins (GFPs). It was found that the transition from NH3/Ar to NH3/N2 gas system at other constant processing conditions resulted in increasing the CNT surface roughness, the degree of structural defects, the number of NH2-functional groups connected to the CNT surface and the bio-immobilization capability. It was proposed that all these effects are connected to the chemical etching and modification of SWCNTs due to the increased flux of NHx (x

Organic photovoltaic Cells (OPVs) have been considered to be a next-generation energy source to overcome exhaustion of resources. Currently, OPVs are developed based on two types of donor material with polymer and small molecule. Polymeric donor materials have shown better power conversion efficiency (PCE) than small molecular donor materials, since it's easy to control the morphology of photoactive film. However, the difficulty in synthetic reproducibility and purification of polymeric donor were main drawback to overcome. And then, recently small molecule donor materials have been overcome bad morphology of OPVs film by using appropriate alkyl substituents and relatively long conjugation system. In this study, we designed and synthesized D-A-D-A-D type small molecular donor materials containing alternatively linked benzodithiophene (BDT) and diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) units. Also, we studied on the effect of photovoltaic performance of prepared small molecular D-A-D-A-D type donor with variation of thiophene links and with/without hexyl substituent. Our small molecular donors showed HOMO energy levels from -5.26 to -5.34 eV and optical bandgaps from 1.70 to 1.87 eV by CV (cyclic voltammetry) and UV/Vis spectroscopy, respectively. Finally, 3.4% of PCE can be obtained using a mixture of BDT(DPP)2-T2 and PCBM as an active layer with a Voc of 0.78 V, a Jsc of 9.72 mA/cm2, and a fill factor of 0.44 under 100 mW/cm2 AM 1.5G simulated light. We will discuss the performance of D-A-D-A-D type small molecular donor based OPVs with variation of both terminal substituents.

Small molecular donor, DTDCTB achieved a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) value of 6.6 ± 0.2% in vacuum-deposited planar mixed heterojunction (PMHJ) structure. However, the same material just recorded PCE of 0.34% in solution processed small molecule based bulk heterjunction (BHJ) organic photovoltaic cells. For the improvement of organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs), In this study, we designed and synthesized several D-A-A (donor-acceptor-acceptor) type molecular electron donating materials. Ditolylaminothienyl moiety as an electron donating group connected to 1,2,5-benzothiadiazole as a conjugated electron accepting unit, simultaneously with an electron accepting terminal group such as cyano alkyl acetate and N-alkyl rhodanine. The thermal, photophysical, and electrochemical properties of prepared small molecules were investigated by DSC, UV/Vis spectroscopy and Cyclic Voltametry, respectively. As a result, 0.89% of PCE can be obtained from OPV using a mixture of DTATBTER and PCBM as an active layer with a Voc of 0.87 V, a Jsc of 3.20 mA/cm2, and a fill factor of 31.9%.

A coupling interaction between localised surface plasmon resonance of metal nanoparticles (NPs) and emitting materials has been shown to improve the internal quantum efficiency in organic light-emitting diodes. In this research, Ag NPs were introduced into blue polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs), which suffer from low efficiency. Ag NPs were attached to the indium tin oxide (ITO) surface through a ligand-exchange process, which guarantees well-dispersed Ag NPs, to maximise resonant coupling and to prevent optical and electrical side effects. Mercaptoacid molecules not only function as a coupling agent between ITO and Ag NPs, but also aid the transfer of holes by increasing the work function of ITO, as confirmed by tests on hole-only devices and by ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy. Maximum current efficiencies of blue PLEDs improved by 25% with thioglycolic acid (TGA) only and by 48% with 0.302 nM Ag NPs attached to TGA. We confirmed from time-resolved photoluminescence spectra and normalised electroluminescence spectra that the enhancement mechanism is the resonant interaction between Ag NPs and the blue light-emitting polymer, SPB-02T.

Nanostructured heterojunction semiconductor/metal oxide electrodes are desired for use in efficient photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. We introduced a mesoscopic IO (meso-IO) structure and sensitized the TiO2 IO structure using a CdSe/CdS nanoparticle bilayer for use as PEC water splitting electrodes. The CdS nanoparticle shell was deposited on the IO surface using successive ionic layer absorption and reaction and subsequently, the CdSe layer was grown by chemical bath deposition. The CdSe/CdS double layer sensitization revealed the extension of visible light absorption up to 680 nm. The meso-IO structures provide an ideal geometry for highly compact composite materials; the CdSe/CdS meso-IO TiO2 structure produced a highly compact film with a volume fraction of approximately 82%. Thus, upon application as a PEC water splitting electrode, due to this highly compact structure, the CdSe/CdS meso-IO TiO2 electrodes exhibit a high volumetric photocurrent density of 1.95 mA cm−2 μm−1, which was higher than any previous reports in the literature. Moreover, we obtained improved long-term stability during water splitting: the CdSe/CdS meso-IO TiO2 electrode that was decorated using 3 at% iridium oxide colloidal particles displayed a photocurrent of 98% of the initial photocurrent for 2 h.

A series of novel carbazole-based materials, DPACz1 , DPACz2 and DPACz3 having diphenylamino moieties at 1- and 8-positions of carbazole have been synthesized and characterized for the first time. The introduction of diphenylamino substituents at 1- or 1,8-positions of carbazole resulted into increase of the band-gap compared with the previously reported 3,6- or 2,7-substituted ones. The HOMO levels increased from DPACz1 to DPACz2 with the addition of one additional diphenylamino unit, and further increased in case of DPACz3 , a dimer of DPACz1 having a benzidine moiety. The materials have high triplet energy levels of 2.68, 2.60 and 2.45 eV, respectively. Based on suitable HOMO levels and high triplet energies, the newly synthesized diphenylaminocabazoles were investigated for their potential as solution-processable host materials for green phosphorescent OLEDs with the device configuration, [ITO/PEDOT:PSS/Emitting layer/TPBi/CsF/Al]. All the devices emitted typical green light with high luminance and had low turn-on voltages along with good luminous efficiencies which were further improved by adjusting charge balance using PBD, as a co-host. The basic characteristics and the preliminary OLED results showed the usefulness of our new materials, and this kind of 1-/1,8-substitution of carbazole would open a new way of materials design.

The investigation of C4F8+O2 feed gas composition on both plasma parameters and plasma treated silicon surface characteristics was carried out. The combination of plasma diagnostics by Langmuir probes and plasma modeling indicated that an increase in O2 mixing ratio results in monotonically decreasing densities of CF(x) (x = 1-3) radicals as well as in non-monotonic behavior of F atom density. The surface characterization by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and contact angle measurements showed that the C4F8+O2 mixtures with less than 60% 02 result in modification of Si surfaces due to the deposition of the FC polymer films while the change of O2 mixing ratio in the range of 30%-60% provides an effective adjustment of the surface characteristics such as surface energy, contact angle, etc.

The effect of deposition pattern on the temperature and global distortion of Direct Metal Tooling (DMT) based Additive Manufactured (AM) is investigated through the experimental results of laser deposited SUS316. DMT is one of the Directed Energy Deposition (DED) processes. In situ temperature measurements were used to monitor the temperature of the substrates and global distortion patterns were analyzed using CMM (coordinate Measuring Machine) after the deposition. Six different patterns combining long raster and short raster patterns were considered for the case studies. The results showed that the deposition pattern affects the temperature gradient and that the peak temperature of each layer can increase or decrease according to the sequence of the deposition pattern. Also, the pattern of the first layer had a dominant influence on the longitudinal bending deflection that occurs. Based on these results, appropriate tool path schedule can be utilized to control not only the distortion but also the peak temperature of the DMT-based AM parts.

In this study, modified equivalent load method for welding distortion analysis is suggested to improve its accuracy. To avoid the excessive computational time for welding distortion analysis of large welded structures, shell element-based elastic analysis methods are widely used, applying the inherent deformation approach. Equivalent nodal forces are commonly used in common FE (Finite Element) codes to enter these inherent deformation values. However, the conventional method cannot estimate precise longitudinal bending following the conventional equation. In this study, the problem of the existing equivalent load method is analyzed by a case study, and the modified equivalent load method that can estimate angular distortion, transverse shrinkage, and longitudinal bending is presented based on the FEM principle. The results show that by applying the proposed method, the shell element-based elastic FE approach for the welding distortion analysis can be achieved with improved accuracy.

In this work, modified-release solid dosage forms were fabricated by adjusting geometrical properties of solid dosage forms through hot-melt 3D extrusion (3D HME). Using a 3D printer with air pressure driving HME system, solid dosage forms containing ibuprofen (IBF), polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP), and polyethylene glycol (PEG) were printed by simultaneous HME and 3D deposition. Printed solid dosage forms were evaluated for their physicochemical properties, dissolution rates, and floatable behavior. Results revealed that IBF content in the solid dosage form could be individualized by adjusting the volume of solid dosage form. IBF was dispersed as amorphous state with enhanced solubility and dissolution rate in a polymer solid dosage form matrix. Due to absence of a disintegrant, sustained release of IBF from printed solid dosage forms was observed in phosphate buffer at pH 6.8. The dissolution rate of IBF was dependent on geometric properties of the solid dosage form. The dissolution rate of IBF could be modified by merging two different geometries into one solid dosage form. In this study, the 3D HME process showed high reproducibility and accuracy for preparing dosage forms. API dosage and release profile were found to be customizable by modifying or combining 3D modeling.

Anisotropic Si nano-trench structures were fabricated using inductively coupled HBr + Cl2 plasmas for sidewall etching residue analysis. The sidewall etching residues formed inside the Si nano-trench patterns were analyzed via tilted X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The changes in the chemical composition and binding state of the etching residues formed on the Si nano-trench sidewalls were investigated with various gas mixing ratios in HBr + Cl2 plasma etching processes. The sidewall chemistry of the plasma-etched Si nano-trench patterns was examined at various take-off angles. SiO2 and suboxide groups (SixOy, x ≤ 2, y ≤ 3) were formed on the Si nano-trench sidewalls after the plasma etching. An increase in the chlorine content of the gas plasma resulted in the increased formation of SiO2 and suboxide residual groups on the Si nano-trench sidewalls. Additionally, the changes in the chemical states of the Si nano-trench sidewalls after a wet-cleaning process were examined using our designed experimental technique.

Dithieno[3,2-b:2',3'-d]thiophene (DTT) has emerged as an important building block in the synthesis of a wide variety of optoelectronic materials. Two new DTT containing conjugated polymers, poly(dithieno[3,2-b:2',3'-d]thiophenevinylene-alt-9,9-diethylhexyl-2,7-fluorenediyl vinylene) (FLU-DTT) and poly(dithieno[3,2-b:2',3'-d]thiophenevinylene-alt-2-methoxy-5-(2-ethylhexyloxy)-p-phenylenevinylene) (MEH-DTT), were designed and synthesized. The photoluminescence (PL) spectra of FLU-DTT and MEH-DTT in film exhibit maximum emission peaks at 538 and 602 nm, respectively. The MEH-DTT polymer film showed far more red-shifted maximum electroluminescene (EL) emission at 650 nm. The photovoltaic device was also fabricated using MEH-DTT and PC71BM as active layer and it showed power conversion efficiency (PCE) for the polymer solar cell (PSC) as 0.59% under AM 1.5 G (100 mW/cm2) conditions.

We present a CdS nanoparticle-decorated TiO 2 inverse opal (IO) for use as an electrode for visible-light photoelectrochemical cells. A facile, low-temperature deposition of CdS nanoparticles is achieved via a sonochemical method. The use of TiO 2 IO structures enable the uniform deposition of CdS nanoparticles throughout the film. The quantity of deposited CdS nanoparticles is controlled by the concentration of the CdS precursor solution. The deposited layer of CdS nanoparticles sensitizes the TiO 2 surface to visible light; CdS-sensitized TiO 2 IO films demonstrate absorption of up to approximately 550 nm light, with enhanced absorption for increased CdS deposits. The CdS-sensitized TiO 2 IO film is employed as a photoanode for the PEC cell. We obtain a maximum photocurrent of 7.29 mA/cm 2 at the optimum CdS deposition of 39.33 ms%. The optimum amount of deposited CdS is defined by balancing the light harvesting rate against the charge recombination rate, both of which increase with increasing CdS deposition. The CdS-sensitized TiO 2 IO electrodes are compared with mesoporous TiO 2 nanoparticulate electrodes; higher photocurrent is obtained with the IO, due to the uniform pores of the IO structures.

Following the recent development of functional materials based on metal-containing conducting polymers, we designed and synthesized a series of bithiophene based N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) conducting polymers containing coinage metals (Cu, Ag, and Au). Absorption spectroscopy, NMR spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were used to analyze the monomers and the polymer thin films. The peak currents of the electrodeposited films on Pt-button electrodes increased proportionally with the scan rate, exhibiting the stability of the polymer thin films. Remarkably, in the electrochemical studies of the coinage metal complexes, the redox potential of Cu+/Cu2+ perfectly matched with the redox wave of quaterthiophene moieties of the polymer backbone. However, the redox potential of Ag/Ag+ did not match with the redox potential of the polymer backbone. During the oxidation process in the spectroelectrochemical studies, the conducting coinage metallopolymers exhibited a drastic color change from orange (reduced form) to dark green (oxidized form), and they can be envisioned in the applications of electrochromic materials.

In this study, structural variations and overlay errors caused by multiple patterning lithography techniques to print narrow parallel metal interconnects are investigated. Resistance and capacitance parasitic of the six lines of parallel interconnects printed by double patterning lithography (DPL) and triple patterning lithography (TPL) are extracted from a field solver. Wide parameter variations both in DPL and TPL processes are analyzed to determine the impact on signal propagation. Simulations of 10% parameter variations in metal lines show delay variations up to 20% and 30% in DPL and TPL, respectively. Monte Carlo statistical analysis shows that the TPL process results in 21% larger standard variation in delay than the DPL process. Crosstalk simulations are conducted to analyze the dependency on the conditions of the neighboring wires. As expected, opposite signal transitions in the neighboring wires significantly degrade the speed of signal propagation, and the impact becomes larger in the C-worst metals patterned by the TPL process compared to those patterned by the DPL process. As a result, both DPL and TPL result in large variations in parasitic and delay. Therefore, an accurate understanding of variations in the interconnect parameters by multiple patterning lithography and adding proper margins in the circuit designs is necessary.

Quantum dots (QDs) possess promising characteristics that are important to light harvesting, but their mesoscale size limits their application in the direct sensitization of TiO2 porous films for photo-electrochemical cells (PECs). Here, inverse opal (IO) TiO2 structures were sensitized by tetrapod-CdSe (tp-CdSe) QDs, which were used in visible-light PECs. Because of the interconnected macropores in the IO structure, tp-CdSe penetrated the entire film and deposited on its surface. In contrast, infiltration was limited to the surface of the conventional mesoporous TiO2 film. The amount of tp-CdSe deposited was dependent on the immersion time of the film in the tp-CdSe dispersion. Optimum deposition of tp-CdSe was observed at the highest photocurrent density. Light harvesting, thus the photocurrent, increased with increasing amounts of deposit, but there was a corresponding decrease in electron lifetime. The maximum photocurrent density per Cd mass was 0.474 mA cm−2, which is greater than previous results from experiments using QD-sensitized PECs. We thus believe that a combination of tetrapod QDs and the TiO2 IO film may provide a new platform for PEC electrodes.

We report a flexible high-performance conducting film using an embedded copper nanowire transparent conducting electrode; this material can be used as a transparent electrode platform for typical flexible optoelectronic devices. The monolithic composite structure of our transparent conducting film enables simultaneously an outstanding oxidation stability of the copper nanowire network (14 d at 80 °C), an exceptionally smooth surface topography (R(rms)2 nm), and an excellent opto-electrical performances (Rsh = 25 Ω sq(-1) and T = 82%). A flexible organic light emitting diode device is fabricated on the transparent conducting film to demonstrate its potential as a flexible copper nanowire electrode platform.