Haitian Chen

Preparation and characterization of flexible asymmetric supercapacitors based on transition-metal-oxide nanowire/single-walled carbon nanotube hybrid thin-film electrodes.

In the work described in this paper, we have successfully fabricated flexible asymmetric supercapacitors (ASCs) based on transition-metal-oxide nanowire/single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) hybrid thin-film electrodes. These hybrid nanostructured films, with advantages of mechanical flexibility, uniform layered structures, and mesoporous surface morphology, were produced by using a filtration method. Here, manganese dioxide nanowire/SWNT hybrid films worked as the positive electrode, and indium oxide nanowire/SWNT hybrid films served as the negative electrode in a designed ASC. In our design, charges can be stored not only via electrochemical double-layer capacitance from SWNT films but also through a reversible faradic process from transition-metal-oxide nanowires. In addition, to obtain stable electrochemical behavior during charging/discharging cycles in a 2 V potential window, the mass balance between two electrodes has been optimized. Our optimized hybrid nanostructured ASCs exhibited a superior device performance with specific capacitance of 184 F/g, energy density of 25.5 Wh/kg, and columbic efficiency of approximately 90%. In addition, our ASCs exhibited a power density of 50.3 kW/kg, which is 10-fold higher than obtained in early reported ASC work. The high-performance hybrid nanostructured ASCs can find applications in conformal electrics, portable electronics, and electrical vehicles.

Large-scale complementary macroelectronics using hybrid integration of carbon nanotubes and IGZO thin-film transistors

Carbon nanotubes and metal oxide semiconductors have emerged as important materials for p-type and n-type thin-film transistors, respectively; however, realizing sophisticated macroelectronics operating in complementary mode has been challenging due to the difficulty in making n-type carbon nanotube transistors and p-type metal oxide transistors. Here we report a hybrid integration of p-type carbon nanotube and n-type indium-gallium-zinc-oxide thin-film transistors to achieve large-scale (>1,000 transistors for 501-stage ring oscillators) complementary macroelectronic circuits on both rigid and flexible substrates. This approach of hybrid integration allows us to combine the strength of p-type carbon nanotube and n-type indium-gallium-zinc-oxide thin-film transistors, and offers high device yield and low device variation. Based on this approach, we report the successful demonstration of various logic gates (inverter, NAND and NOR gates), ring oscillators (from 51 stages to 501 stages) and dynamic logic circuits (dynamic inverter, NAND and NOR gates).

Hierarchical silicon nanowires-carbon textiles matrix as a binder-free anode for high-performance advanced lithium-ion batteries

Toward the increasing demands of portable energy storage and electric vehicle applications, the widely used graphite anodes with significant drawbacks become more and more unsuitable. Herein, we report a novel scaffold of hierarchical silicon nanowires-carbon textiles anodes fabricated via a facile method. Further, complete lithium-ion batteries based on Si and commercial LiCoO2 materials were assembled to investigate their corresponding across-the-aboard performances, demonstrating their enhanced specific capacity (2950 mAh g−1 at 0.2 C), good repeatability/rate capability (even >900 mAh g−1 at high rate of 5 C), long cycling life, and excellent stability in various external conditions (curvature, temperature, and humidity). Above results light the way to principally replacing graphite anodes with silicon-based electrodes which was confirmed to have better comprehensive performances.

Screen printing as a scalable and low-cost approach for rigid and flexible thin-film transistors using separated carbon nanotubes.

Semiconducting single-wall carbon nanotubes are very promising materials in printed electronics due to their excellent mechanical and electrical property, outstanding printability, and great potential for flexible electronics. Nonetheless, developing scalable and low-cost approaches for manufacturing fully printed high-performance single-wall carbon nanotube thin-film transistors remains a major challenge. Here we report that screen printing, which is a simple, scalable, and cost-effective technique, can be used to produce both rigid and flexible thin-film transistors using separated single-wall carbon nanotubes. Our fully printed top-gated nanotube thin-film transistors on rigid and flexible substrates exhibit decent performance, with mobility up to 7.67 cm2 V(-1) s(-1), on/off ratio of 10(4)∼10(5), minimal hysteresis, and low operation voltage (<10 V). In addition, outstanding mechanical flexibility of printed nanotube thin-film transistors (bent with radius of curvature down to 3 mm) and driving capability for organic light-emitting diode have been demonstrated. Given the high performance of the fully screen-printed single-wall carbon nanotube thin-film transistors, we believe screen printing stands as a low-cost, scalable, and reliable approach to manufacture high-performance nanotube thin-film transistors for application in display electronics. Moreover, this technique may be used to fabricate thin-film transistors based on other materials for large-area flexible macroelectronics, and low-cost display electronics.

High-Performance Single-Crystalline Arsenic-Doped Indium Oxide Nanowires for Transparent Thin-Film Transistors and Active Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode Displays

We report high-performance arsenic (As)-doped indium oxide (In(2)O(3)) nanowires for transparent electronics, including their implementation in transparent thin-film transistors (TTFTs) and transparent active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) displays. The As-doped In(2)O(3) nanowires were synthesized using a laser ablation process and then fabricated into TTFTs with indium-tin oxide (ITO) as the source, drain, and gate electrodes. The nanowire TTFTs on glass substrates exhibit very high device mobilities (approximately 1490 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1)), current on/off ratios (5.7 x 10(6)), steep subthreshold slopes (88 mV/dec), and a saturation current of 60 microA for a single nanowire. By using a self-assembled nanodielectric (SAND) as the gate dielectric, the device mobilities and saturation current can be further improved up to 2560 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) and 160 microA, respectively. All devices exhibit good optical transparency (approximately 81% on average) in the visible spectral range. In addition, the nanowire TTFTs were utilized to control green OLEDs with varied intensities. Furthermore, a fully integrated seven-segment AMOLED display was fabricated with a good transparency of 40% and with each pixel controlled by two nanowire transistors. This work demonstrates that the performance enhancement possible by combining nanowire doping and self-assembled nanodielectrics enables silicon-free electronic circuitry for low power consumption, optically transparent, high-frequency devices assembled near room temperature.

Review of carbon nanotube nanoelectronics and macroelectronics

Carbon nanotubes have the potential to spur future development in electronics due to their unequalled electrical properties. In this article, we present a review on carbon nanotube-based circuits in terms of their electrical performance in two major directions: nanoelectronics and macroelectronics. In the nanoelectronics direction, we direct our discussion to the performance of aligned carbon nanotubes for digital circuits and circuits designed for radio-frequency applications. In the macroelectronics direction, we focus our attention on the performance of thin films of carbon nanotube random networks in digital circuits, display applications, and printed electronics. In the last part, we discuss the existing challenges and future directions of nanotube-based nano- and microelectronics.

Bulk synthesis of crystalline and crystalline core/amorphous shell silicon nanowires and their application for energy storage.

Silicon nanowires (NWs) have stimulated significant interest and found numerous applications; however, many applications will require a bulk quantity of nanowires to be synthesized in a reliable way. In this paper, we report the bulk synthesis of silicon nanowires on millimeter scale Al(2)O(3) spheres with a thermal chemical vapor deposition system (CVD) via the vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) growth mechanism. The spherical substrates enable the realization of Si nanowire synthesis on three-dimensional surfaces in comparison with the synthesis on a planar, two-dimensional wafer substrate. By modifying temperature in the recipe of synthesis, both single-crystalline and crystalline core/amorphous shell Si nanowires were obtained with this nanowire-on-spherical-support method. Conspicuous distinction in crystallinity of the nanowires was revealed by transmission electron microscopy characterization. The crystalline core/amorphous shell Si nanowires were utilized to form the anode of Li-ion battery half-cells with the traditional slurry method. Galvanostatic measurement demonstrated that the maximum power capacity achievable by the electrodes was 3500 mAh/g and capacity sustained at 1100 mAh/g after 60 cycles of charging and discharging.

Aligned epitaxial SnO2 nanowires on sapphire: growth and device applications.

Semiconducting SnO2 nanowires have been used to demonstrate high-quality field-effect transistors, optically transparent devices, photodetectors, and gas sensors. However, controllable assembly of rutile SnO2 nanowires is necessary for scalable and practical device applications. Here, we demonstrate aligned, planar SnO2 nanowires grown on A-plane, M-plane, and R-plane sapphire substrates. These parallel nanowires can reach 100 μm in length with sufficient density to be patterned photolithographically for field-effect transistors and sensor devices. As proof-of-concept, we show that transistors made this way can achieve on/off current ratios on the order of 10(6), mobilities around 71.68 cm(2)/V·s, and sufficiently high currents to drive external organic light-emitting diode displays. Furthermore, the aligned SnO2 nanowire devices are shown to be photosensitive to UV light with the capability to distinguish between 254 and 365 nm wavelengths. Their alignment is advantageous for polarized UV light detection; we have measured a polarization ratio of photoconductance (σ) of 0.3. Lastly, we show that the nanowires can detect NO2 at a concentration of 0.2 ppb, making them a scalable, ultrasensitive gas sensing technology. Aligned SnO2 nanowires offer a straightforward method to fabricate scalable SnO2 nanodevices for a variety of future electronic applications.

Highly Scalable, Uniform, and Sensitive Biosensors Based on Top-Down Indium Oxide Nanoribbons and Electronic Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay

Nanostructure field-effect transistor (FET) biosensors have shown great promise for ultra sensitive biomolecular detection. Top-down assembly of these sensors increases scalability and device uniformity but faces fabrication challenges in achieving the small dimensions needed for sensitivity. We report top-down fabricated indium oxide (In2O3) nanoribbon FET biosensors using highly scalable radio frequency (RF) sputtering to create uniform channel thicknesses ranging from 50 to 10 nm. We combine this scalable sensing platform with amplification from electronic enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to achieve high sensitivity to target analytes such as streptavidin and human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) p24 proteins. Our approach circumvents Debye screening in ionic solutions and detects p24 protein at 20 fg/mL (about 250 viruses/mL or about 3 orders of magnitude lower than commercial ELISA) with a 35% conduction change in human serum. The In2O3 nanoribbon biosensors have 100% device yield and use a simple 2 mask photolithography process. The electrical properties of 50 In2O3 nanoribbon FETs showed good uniformity in on-state current, on/off current ratio, mobility, and threshold voltage. In addition, the sensors show excellent pH sensitivity over a broad range (pH 4 to 9) as well as over the physiological-related pH range (pH 6.8 to 8.2). With the demonstrated sensitivity, scalability, and uniformity, the In2O3 nanoribbon sensor platform makes great progress toward clinical testing, such as for early diagnosis of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).

Coaxial Si/anodic titanium oxide/Si nanotube arrays for lithium-ion battery anodes

Silicon (Si) has the highest known theoretical specific capacity (3,590 mAh/g for Li15Si4, and 4,200 mAh/g for Li22Si4) as a lithium-ion battery anode, and has attracted extensive interest in the past few years. However, its application is limited by poor cyclability and early capacity fading due to significant volume changes during lithiation and delithiation processes. In this work, we report a coaxial silicon/anodic titanium oxide/silicon (Si-ATO-Si) nanotube array structure grown on a titanium substrate demonstrating excellent electrochemical cyclability. The ATO nanotube scaffold used for Si deposition has many desirable features, such as a rough surface for enhanced Si adhesion, and direct contact with the Ti substrate working as current collector. More importantly, our ATO scaffold provides a rather unique advantage in that Si can be loaded on both the inner and outer surfaces, and an inner pore can be retained to provide room for Si volume expansion. This coaxial structure shows a capacity above 1,500 mAh/g after 100 cycles, with less than 0.05% decay per cycle. Simulations show that this improved performance can be attributed to the lower stress induced on Si layers upon lithiation/delithiation compared with some other recently reported Si-based nanostructures.Graphical abstract