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Two experimental methods to estimate the electrochemically active surface area (EASA) of microelectrodes are investigated. One method is based on electrocapacitive measurements and depends significantly on the surface roughness as well as on other parameters. The other method is based on faradaic current measurements and depends on the geometric surface area. The experimental results are supplemented with numerical modeling of electrodes with different surface roughness. A systematic study reveals a strong influence of the scale and arrangement of the surface roughness, the measurement potential and the electrolyte concentration on the EASA of microelectrodes estimated from the electrocapacitive measurements. The results show that electrocapacitive measurements should not be used to estimate the faradaic EASA of microelectrodes with a non-negligible surface roughness.

The potential of conjugated polymers to compete with inorganic materials in the field of semiconductor is conditional on fine-tuning of the charge carriers mobility. The latter is closely related to the material morphology, and various studies have shown that the bottleneck for charge transport is the connectivity between well-ordered crystallites, with a high degree of pi-pi stacking, dispersed into a disordered matrix. However, at this time there is a lack of theoretical descriptions accounting for this link between morphology and mobility, hindering the development of systematic material designs. Here we propose a computational model to predict charge carriers mobility in conducting polymer PEDOT depending on the physicochemical properties of the system. We start by calculating the morphology using molecular dynamics simulations. Based on the calculated morphology we perform quantum mechanical calculation of the transfer integrals between states in polymer chains and calculate corresponding hopping rates using the Miller-Abrahams formalism. We then construct a transport resistive network, calculate the mobility using a mean-field approach, and analyze the calculated mobility in terms of transfer integrals distributions and percolation thresholds. Our results provide theoretical support for the recent study [Noriega et al., Nat Mater 12, 1038 (2013)] explaining why the mobility in polymers rapidly increases as the chain length is increased and then saturates for sufficiently long chains. Our study also provides the answer to the long-standing question whether the enhancement of the crystallinity is the key to designing high-mobility polymers. We demonstrate, that it is the effective pi-pi stacking, not the long-range order that is essential for the material design for the enhanced electrical performance. This generic model can compare the mobility of a polymer thin film with different solvent contents, solvent additives, dopant species or polymer characteristics, QC 20181213

A recently synthesized self-doped conducting oligomer, salt of bis[3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene]3thiophene butyric acid, ETE-S, is a novel promising material for green energy applications. Recently, it has been demonstrated that it can polymerize in vivo, in plant systems, leading to a formation of long-range conducting wires, charge storage and supercapacitive behaviour of living plants. Here we investigate the morphology of ETE-S combining the experimental characterisation using Grazing Incidence Wide Angle X-ray Scattering (GIWAXS) and atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The GIWAXS measurements reveal a formation of small crystallites consisting of π–π stacked oligomers (with the staking distance 3.5 Å) that are further organized in h00 lamellae. These experimental results are confirmed by MD calculations, where we calculated the X-ray diffraction pattern and the radial distribution function for the distance between ETE-S chains. Our MD simulations also demonstrate the formation of the percolative paths for charge carriers that extend throughout the whole structure, despite the fact that the oligomers are short (6–9 rings) and crystallites are thin along the π–π stacking direction, consisting of only two or three π–π stacked oligomers. The existence of the percolative paths explains the previously observed high conductivity in in vivo polymerized ETE-S. We also explored the geometrical conformation of ETE-S oligomers and the bending of their aliphatic chains as a function of the oligomer lengths., Funding agencies: Swedish Energy Agency [38332-1]; Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation; Marie Sklodowska Curie Individual Fellowship (MSCA-IF-EF-ST) [702641]

Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) is the most studied and explored mixed ion-electron conducting polymer system. PEDOT:PSS is commonly included as an electroactive conductor in various organic devices, e.g., supercapacitors, displays, transistors, and energy-converters. In spite of its long-term use as a material for storage and transport of charges, the fundamentals of its bulk capacitance remain poorly understood. Generally, charge storage in supercapacitors is due to formation of electrical double layers or redox reactions, and it is widely accepted that PEDOT:PSS belongs to the latter category. Herein, experimental evidence and theoretical modeling results are reported that significantly depart from this commonly accepted picture. By applying a two-phase, 2D modeling approach it is demonstrated that the major contribution to the capacitance of the two-phase PEDOT:PSS originates from electrical double layers formed along the interfaces between nanoscaled PEDOT-rich and PSS-rich interconnected grains that comprises two phases of the bulk of PEDOT:PSS. This new insight paves a way for designing materials and devices, based on mixed ion-electron conductors, with improved performance.

The monitoring of phenolic compounds in wastewaters in a simple manner is of great importance for environmental control. Here, a novel screen printed laccase-based microband array for in situ, total phenol estimation in wastewaters and for water quality monitoring without additional sample pre-treatment is presented. Numerical simulations using the finite element method were utilized for the characterization of micro-scale graphite electrodes. Anodization followed by covalent modification was used for the electrode functionalization with laccase. The functionalization efficiency and the electrochemical performance in direct and catechol-mediated oxygen reduction were studied at the microband laccase electrodes and compared with macro-scale electrode structures. The reduction of the dimensions of the enzyme biosensor, when used under optimized conditions, led to a significant improvement in its analytical characteristics. The elaborated microsensor showed fast responses towards catechol additions to tap water – a weakly supported medium – characterized by a linear range from 0.2 to 10 μM, a sensitivity of 1.35 ± 0.4 A M−1 cm−2 and a dynamic range up to 43 μM. This enhanced laccase-based microsensor was used for water quality monitoring and its performance for total phenol analysis of wastewater samples from different stages of the cleaning process was compared to a standard method., Funding agencies: Swedish research council Formas [245-2010-1062]; research centre Security Link [VINNOVA 2009-00966]; Norrkopings fond for Forskning och Utveckling; VINNOVA

The monitoring of phenolic compounds in raw waters and wastewaters is of great importance for environmental control. Use of biosensors for rapid, specific and simple detection of phenolic compounds is a promising approach. A number of biosensors have been developed for phenol detection. A general drawback of previously reported biosensors is their insufficient detection limits for phenols in water samples. One way to improve the detection limit is by the use of microelectrodes. Microband design of the microelectrodes combines convergent mass transport due to the microscale width and high output currents due to the macroscopic length. Among the various techniques available for microband electrode fabrication, we have chosen screen-printing which is a cost-effective production method. In this study, we report on the development of a laccase-based microscale biosensor operating under a convergent diffusion regime. Screen-printing followed by simple cutting was utilized for the fabrication of graphite microbands as a platform for further covalent immobilization of laccase. Numerical simulations, utilizing the finite element method with periodic boundary conditions, were used for modeling the voltammetric response of the developed microband electrodes. Anodization followed by covalent immobilization was used for the electrode modification with laccase. Direct and mediated laccase bioelectrocatalytic oxidation of phenols was studied on macro- and microscale graphite electrodes. Significant enhancement of the analytical performance was achieved by the establishment of convergent diffusion in the microscale sensor. Finally, the developed microsensor was utilized to monitor phenolic compounds in real waste water.

We study spin polarization in a split-gate quantum wire focusing on the effect of a realistic smooth potential due to remote donors. Electron interaction and spin effects are included within the density functional theory in the local spin density approximation. We find that depending on the electron density, the spin polarization exhibits qualitatively different features. For the case of relatively high electron density, when the Fermi energy EF exceeds a characteristic strength of a long-range impurity potential Vdonors, the density spin polarization inside the wire is practically negligible and the wire conductance is spin-degenerate. When the density is decreased such that EF approaches Vdonors, the electron density and conductance quickly become spin polarized. With further decrease of the density the electrons are trapped inside the lakes (droplets) formed by the impurity potential and the wire conductance approaches the pinch-off regime. We discuss the limitations of the density functional theory in the local spin density approximation in this regime and compare the obtained results with available experimental data., Original publication: M. Evaldsson, S. Ihnatsenka, and I. V. Zozoulenko, Spin polarization in modulation-doped GaAs quantum wires, 2008, Physical Review B, (77), 165306. http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.77.165306. Copyright: The America Physical Society, http://prb.aps.org

We study the effect of the edge disorder on the conductance of the graphene nanoribbons (GNRs).We find that only very modest edge disorder is sufficient to induce the conduction energy gap inthe otherwise metallic GNRs and to lift any difference in the conductance between nanoribbonsof different edge geometry. We relate the formation of the conduction gap to the pronounced edgedisorder induced Anderson-type localization which leads to the strongly enhanced density of states atthe edges, formation of surface-like states and to blocking of conductive paths through the ribbons.

The authors demonstrate the triggering of surface plasmons at the interface of a metal grating and a photovoltaic bulk heterojunction blend of alternating polyfluorenes and a fullerene derivative. An increased absorption originating from surface plasmon resonances is confirmed by experimental reflection studies and theoretical modeling. Plasmonic resonances are further confirmed to influence the extracted photocurrent from devices. More current is generated at the wavelength position of the plasmon resonance peak. High conductivity polymer electrodes are used to build inverted sandwich structures with top anode and bottom metal grating, facilitating for triggering and characterization of the surface plasmon effects.

We study the propagation of TM- and TE-polarized light in two-dimensional arrays of silver nanorods of various diameters in a gelatin background. We calculate the transmittance, reflectance and absorption of arranged and disordered nanorod arrays and compare the exact numerical results with the predictions of the Maxwell–Garnett effective-medium theory. We show that interactions between nanorods, multipole contributions and formations of photonic gaps affect strongly the transmittance spectra that cannot be accounted for in terms of the conventional effective-medium theory. We also demonstrate and explain the degradation of the transmittance in arrays with randomly located rods as well as the weak influence of their fluctuating diameter. For TM modes we outline the importance of the skin effect, which causes the full reflection of the incoming light. We then illustrate the possibility of using periodic arrays of nanorods as high-quality polarizers.

We investigate coherent transport through open lateral quantum dots using recursive Green's function technique, incorporating exchange-correlation effects within the density functional theory (DFT) in the local spin-density approximation. At low electron densities the current is spin polarized and electron density in the dot shows a strong spin polarization. As the electron density increases the spin polarization in the dot gradually diminishes. These findings are consistent with available experimental observations. Results of our DFT-based modeling indicate that utilization of the simplified approaches that use phenomenological parameters and/or model Hamiltonians might not be always reliable for theoretical predictions as well as interpretations of the experiments.

We propose and analyze novel surface-state-based waveguides in bandgap photonic crystals. We discuss the surface-mode band structure, the field localization, and the effect of imperfections on the waveguiding properties of the surface modes. We demonstrate that surface-state-based waveguides can be used to achieve directional emission out of the waveguide. We also discuss the application of the surface-state waveguides as efficient light couplers for conventional photonic crystal waveguides.

We propose a device based on an antidot embedded in a narrow quantum wire in the edge-state regime, that can be used to inject and/or control spin-polarized current. The operational principle of the device is based on the effect of resonant backscattering from one edge state into another through localized quasibound states, combined with the effect of Zeeman splitting of the quasibound states in sufficiently high magnetic field. We outline the device geometry, present detailed quantum-mechanical transport calculations, and suggest a possible scheme to test the device performance and functionality.

We demonstrate that the magnetoconductance of small lateral quantum dots in the strongly coupled regime (i.e. when the leads can support one or more propagating modes) shows a pronounced splitting of the conductance peaks and dips which persists over a wide range of magnetic fields (from zero field to the edge-state regime) and is virtually independent of the magnetic field strength. Our numerical analysis of the conductance based on the Hubbard Hamiltonian demonstrates that this is essentially a many-body/spin effect that can be traced to a splitting of degenerate levels in the corresponding closed dot. The above effect in open dots can be regarded as a counterpart of the Coulomb-blockade effect in weakly coupled dots, with the difference, however, that the splitting of the peaks originates from interactions between electrons of opposite spin.