Triarylium–solphonium salt, the chemical component of the SU-8 photo resist, has been proved as an effective n-doping source for graphene. In this reported work, a study has been made of the effects of SU-8 on single walled carbon nanotube networks. The results indicate that SU-8 behaves as an electrons donor and causes an upward shift in the Fermi level. The cross-linking property of the SU-8 resembles an efficient isolator from the oxygen of the ambient. This leads to ambient-stability of this doping technique. In addition, the doping technique shows negligible defects on the CNT surface and then higher transconductance is expected to be achieved. The temperature dependence of the Raman spectra of the CNT network observed a downshift in the G-band with increasing temperature. Finally, since SU-8 is an e-beam sensitive resist as well as a photo resist, it was used to selectively dope CNTs within the substrate area.

A high-stability living battery that uses a metallic catalyst for glucose oxidation instead of enzymes is investigated. In this battery, glucose in insect haemolymph is oxidised by a gold nanoparticle (AuNP)-modified electrode, which is utilised as the anode of the battery. The AuNP-modified electrode was fabricated by sputtering gold onto a carbon cloth in a low-vacuum state. First, the oxidation performance values of glucose were evaluated and the oxidation current of glucose was obtained by the AuNP-modified electrode from cockroach haemolymph (CHL). Then, the electrocatalytic stability of the AuNP-modified electrode was compared with an enzymatic electrode. Furthermore, a glucose biofuel cell consisting of the AuNP-modified electrode and a bilirubin oxidase-modified electrode was constructed; the respective power densities obtained from 100 mM glucose solution and CHL were 22.4 and 15.1 µW/cm², respectively. It is concluded that AuNPs are a useful catalyst for living batteries.

This Letter investigates the effect of crystallographic orientation on tensile fractures of silicon microstructures. Specimens 5 μm wide and 5 μm thick were fabricated on (100) and (110) wafers with 〈100〉, 〈110〉, and 〈111〉 tensile axes. To explore the effects of different surface orientations and morphologies, these specimens were patterned from (100) and (110) silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers using the Bosch process under identical fabrication conditions, while other specimens were fabricated from (110) wafers under different conditions. Tensile tests of specimens prepared under the identical fabrication conditions showed that (100) specimens had lower strength than (110) specimens along the 〈100〉 and 〈110〉 axes; the average strength decreased from 3.62 to 3.14 GPa for 〈110〉. This decrease in strength is related to differences in damage that ultimately causes fractures. While (110) specimens fractured due to fabrication damage at top corners, fractures of (100) specimens were due to pit-like defects on bottom surfaces. Since these defects were introduced during SOI bonding processes, the fractures of (100) specimens were dominated by intrinsic SOI defects rather than damage introduced during specimen fabrication processes. To realise higher-strength structures on SOI wafers, both the damage caused during fabrication and the intrinsic defects need to be controlled.

There are several accepted methods used for X-ray diffraction analysis on graphene layers and sample's stacking height L_C . The Scherrer equation is avoided since the layers in the graphene samples are non-uniformly distributed and therefore the samples have non-uniform thickness. Instead, a model that includes thickness distribution is used to calculate the average number of layers and then the stacking height. The analysis was performed on 12 graphene samples produced by high-temperature electrolysis in molten salts. Another method that was used to calculate the number of layers and hence the samples’ stacking height, was Raman spectra C-peak position method. It served as a control model for the analysed samples, since for four samples the corresponding parts of the Raman spectra were not usable due to the very low-frequency region. However, the obtained results of both methods were in agreement, and indicate that studied graphene samples are few layered.

Three-dimensional V₂O₅ nanoflowers (V₂O₅-NFs) have been synthesised by a simple two-step process, with a water bath method and thermal treatment. Each NF with the size of 2–3 μm is assembled by about 2000 nanorods and the diameter of each nanorod is around 80 nm. As cathode material for lithium-ion batteries, the V₂O₅-NFs exhibit high reversible capacities of 293 and 272 mAh g⁻¹ at current densities of 30 and 100 mA g⁻¹. Even at 600 mA g⁻¹, they display a reversible capacity of 105 mAh g⁻¹ with a capacity loss of 0.39% per cycle. The enhanced electrochemical properties are attributed to the self-assemble nanostructure that allows for the reversible transport of Li⁺ without the disintegration of the structure.

A facile approach to producing silver (Ag) microspheres with a porous structure via a one-pot synthesis is described. The success of this work relies on the use of Cu²⁺ to mediate the reduction of silver chloride by oleylamine. The type of additives, amount of copper(II) chloride, type of Ag precursor and reaction temperature were systematically investigated to reveal their roles in the formation of the unique porous structure. The method described provides a convenient route for fabricating porous Ag micro/nanocrystals and could be potentially extended to similar synthesis of other noble metals.

Influence of vacancies on the relaxation properties of graphene nanoribbons has been investigated by molecular dynamics simulation in several nanometre sizes. Moreover, three factors including vacancy size, number and distribution are taken into consideration. The results show graphene nanoribbons present different kinds of deformation at different sites with various vacancy distributions. The effects of vacancy distributions on the relaxation properties of graphene nanoribbons are discussed.

PM2.5 is classified as particles with radii <2.5 μm. It is evident that the continuous inhalation of such particles results in respiratory diseases such as lung cancer. Therefore, more effective adsorption of PM2.5 becomes crucial to comb the problem and the recent development of nanomaterials could provide a means to absorb and store PM2.5. In this reported work, a multi-scale modelling is used to investigate the storage of PM2.5, in particular carbon monoxide (CO), sulphur dioxide (SO₂) and nitrogen monoxide (NO) inside doubly-layered graphene sheets. While the molecular adsorption is modelled by a modified equation of states in the adsorption regime, the interactions between molecules are captured using a mean field theory. The maximum gravimetric uptake for CO, SO₂ and NO between the graphene of separation 20 Å is shown to be 19.45, 26.64 and 24.32 wt%, respectively, where the validity of the current model is confirmed by the case of hydrogen molecules with other experimental and simulations results. For higher temperatures, stronger pressure is needed to reach the same maximum uptakes as given at T = 77 K. The current model possesses the merit of rapid computational speed and is ready to be applied for other nanomaterials without conceptual difficulties. This graphene could be incorporated into an air purification system so as to raise the system's capacity in PM2.5 adsorption.

Although ferroelectric materials are attractive due to their non-volatility originating from their spontaneous polarisation, advances in integrated density of these materials are required. To overcome the poor integration density compared with silicon integrated circuits, the concept of multi-bit memory has arisen. Previous ferroelectric multi-bit memory devices were developed through the realisation of a framework of two laterally neighbouring capacitors, in which both capacitors have different thicknesses for individual switching in different voltage ranges. However, a reliability issue with regard to limiting the additional scale down of these materials to the sub-100 nm level arose due to self-crosstalk, which was defined as a protrusion of the electric fringing field when a logic state was written in a multi-bit memory device. Here, self-crosstalk by simulating an electric field distribution in a multi-bit memory cell based on an actual sample fabricated with a ferroelectric polymer, after which they suggest a new three-dimensional structure of the ferroelectric multi-bit memory device to eliminate self-crosstalk.

A two-dimensional (2D) serpentine mixer was made of alumina using centrifuge-assisted micromoulding. Concentrated aqueous alumina slurry was filled into microstructured polydimethylsiloxane micromoulds with the aid of centrifugation to form green micromixers, which were then sintered to obtain the final products. In contrast to the micromixer fabricated by micromoulding (filling without the aid of centrifugation), it is found that using centrifugation significantly improved the structural integrity of the green micromixer. Straight and serpentine microchannels with rectangular cross-sections were precisely fabricated. After sintering at 1600^oC, defect-free alumina micromixer with a relative density of 98.7%, linear shrinkage of about 18%, hardness of 20.9 GPa, flexural strength of 328.2 MPa and roughness of 143.9 nm was attained. The results show that ceramic microdevices with complex-shaped 2D microchannels (with diameters ≤ 100 μm and aspect ratios ≤ 2) can be reliably fabricated by centrifuge-assisted micromoulding.

For the first time, a distinctive approach to design and investigate double-gate Schottky Barrier MOSFET (DG SB-MOSFET) using gate engineering is reported. Three isolated gates (one Control gate and two N-gates) of different work-functions on both sides of the gate oxides have been used. In the proposed device, without the need of doping, n-type region is formed at the source/drain contact-channel interfaces by inducing electron in the ultrathin intrinsic silicon channel using appropriate work-function metal N-gates. Using N-gates, the Schottky barrier height and tunnelling barrier width have been modulated to enhance the carrier injection similar to conventional dopant segregated (DS) SB-MOSFET. Moreover, the proposed DG SB-MOSFET behaves such as a conventional DS SB-MOSFET. The proposed device is expected to be free from variability caused by random dopant fluctuations. Furthermore, it offers simplified process flow with relaxing the need of doping to form dopant segregation layer and increased immunity to device variability.