Jinyou Shao

Highly Efficient Flexible Perovskite Solar Cells Using Solution-Derived NiOx Hole Contacts

A solution-derived NiOx film was employed as the hole contact of a flexible organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cell. The NiOx film, which was spin coated from presynthesized NiOx nanoparticles solution, can extract holes and block electrons efficiently, without any other post-treatments. An optimal power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 16.47% was demonstrated in the NiOx-based perovskite solar cell on an ITO-glass substrate, which is much higher than that of the perovskite solar cells using high temperature-derived NiOx film contacts. The low-temperature deposition process made the NiOx films suitable for flexible devices. NiOx-based flexible perovskite solar cells were fabricated on ITO-PEN substrates, and a preliminary PCE of 13.43% was achieved.

Self-powered flexible pressure sensors with vertically well-aligned piezoelectric nanowire arrays for monitoring vital signs

Human vital signs such as the heartbeat and respiration are important physiological parameters for public health care. Precisely monitoring these very minute and complex time-dependent signals in a simple, low-cost way is still a challenge. This study shows a novel fabrication of vertically well-aligned piezoelectric nanowire arrays with preferential polarization orientation as highly sensitive self-powered sensors for monitoring vital signs. The process realizes in situ poling of the P(VDF-TrFE) nanowires within the nanopores of the anodized aluminium oxide (AAO) template to yield a preferential alignment of both nanowires and the polymer chains required for superior sensitivity in one step. The resulting self-powered flexible sensor shows high sensitivity, good stability and strong power-generating performance. Under bending conditions, the device exhibits a maximum voltage of ∼4.8 V and a current density of ∼0.11 μA cm−2. The fabricated self-powered sensor shows a linear relationship of output voltage versus compressive force with a high sensitivity, and the piezoelectric voltage of the P(VDF-TrFE) nanowire array is enhanced 9 times that of conventional spin-coated bulk films. Furthermore, the highly sensitive vertically well-aligned nanowire array can be applied as a self-powered sensor for detecting some tiny human activities including breath, heartbeat pulse, and finger movements, which may possibly serve for medical diagnostics as sensors, robotics and smart electronic devices.

Numerical Characterization of Electrohydrodynamic Micro- or Nanopatterning Processes Based on a Phase-Field Formulation of Liquid Dielectrophoresis

The electrohydrodynamic patterning of polymer is a unique technique for micro- and nanostructuring where an electric voltage is applied to an electrode pair consisting of a patterned template and a polymer-coated substrate either in contact or separated by an air gap to actuate the deformation of the rheological polymer. Depending on the template composition, three processes were proposed for implementing the EHDP technique and have received a great amount of attention (i.e., electrostatic force-assisted nanoimprint, dielectrophoresis-electrocapillary force-driven imprint, and electrically induced structure formation). A numerical approach, which is versatile for visualizing the full evolution of micro- or nanostructures in these patterning processes or their variants, is a desirable critical tool for optimizing the process variables in industrial applications of this structuring technique. Considering the fact that all of these processes use a dielectric and viscous polymer (behaving mechanically as a liquid) and are carried out in ambient air, this Article presents a generalized formulation for the numerical characterization of the EHDP processes by coupling liquid dielectrophoresis (L-DEP) and the phase field of the air-liquid dual phase. More importantly, some major scale effects, such as the surface tension, contact angle, liquid-solid interface slip, and non-Newtonian viscosity law are introduced, which can impact the accuracy of the numerical results, as shown experimentally by our electrical actuation of a dielectric microdroplet as a test problem. The numerical results are in good agreement with or are well explained by experimental observations published for the three EHDP processes.

Fabrication of Well-Defined Mushroom-Shaped Structures for Biomimetic Dry Adhesive by Conventional Photolithography and Molding

Biomimetic dry adhesives have many attractive features, such as reversible and repeatable adhesion against various surfaces. This paper presents a method for the simple fabrication of biomimetic dry adhesives composed of a mushroom-shaped structure, which is based on conventional photolithography and molding. Firstly a masked and a maskless exposure are performed on the top and bottom of a photoresist, respectively, that generates microholes with an undercut after development. This structured photoresist is then used for molding, leading to mushroom-shaped structural features after sacrificing the photoresist. Because of the convenience of photolithography, the proposed method has the potential to fabricate various dry adhesives cost-efficiently.

A theoretical and numerical investigation of travelling wave induction microfluidic pumping in a temperature gradient

The phenomenon of induction electrohydrodynamics (EHD) has recently received great attention as a promising driving mechanism for microfluidic pumping due to its miniaturization capability. To obtain a high working efficiency of induction micropumps, a vertical temperature gradient can be imposed along the depth of a pump channel. A travelling wave (TW) potential signal propagating along an electrode array at the channel substrate interacts with this conductive heat flux, resulting in a local free charge distribution inside the bulk fluid. The induced charge wave lags behind the voltage wave in the spatial phase, and this out-of-phase polarization based pumping effect exhibits a single structural dispersion at charge relaxation frequency of the dielectric system. The classical model of electrothermal flow has always been used to numerically obtain the flow field of TW pumps, but the effect of its small temperature gradient approximation has rarely been investigated. In this study, an enhanced treatment for induction EHD modelling is developed, in which the deflection of potential contour lines caused by large temperature gradients is successfully characterized by an advection–diffusion equation, and a more accurate expression of electrothermal body force is derived and introduced to fluid dynamics as a source term of electrical origin. For the calculation of a repulsion-type induction micropump, although both models present similar results in a small thermal gradient, the enhanced one can provide more exact frequency-dependence of the pump performance and spatial distribution of electrostatic force as well as the resulting velocity profile in an excessive heat flux. Furthermore, a model extension for Joule heating induced TW pumping is also presented, and surprisingly matches the unexpected nonlinear fluid flow behaviour at higher conductivities as reported in a pioneering literature. These results can provide valuable insights into induction pumping of lab-on-chip microfluidic samples.

Fabrication of high-aspect-ratio microstructures using dielectrophoresis-electrocapillary force-driven UV-imprinting

We propose a novel method for fabricating high-aspect-ratio micro-/nano-structures by dielectrophoresis-electrocapillary force (DEP-ECF)-driven UV-imprinting. The force of DEP-ECF, acting on an air–liquid interface and an air–liquid–solid three-phase contact line, is generated by applying voltage between an electrically conductive mold and a substrate, and tends to pull the dielectric liquid (a UV-curable pre-polymer) into the mold micro-cavities. The existence of DEP-ECF is explained theoretically and demonstrated experimentally by the electrically induced reduction of the contact angle. Furthermore, DEP-ECF is proven to play a critical role in forcing the polymer to fill into the mold cavities by the real-time observation of the dynamic filling process. Using the DEP-ECF-driven UV-imprinting process, high-aspect-ratio polymer micro-/nano-structures (more than 10:1) are fabricated with high consistency. This patterning method can overcome the drawbacks of the mechanically induced mold deformation and position shift in conventional imprinting lithography and maximize the pattern uniformity which is usually poor in capillary force lithography.

Electrically templated dewetting of a UV-curable prepolymer film for the fabrication of a concave microlens array with well-defined curvature.

This paper presents an economic method, based on electrically templated dewetting of a UV-curable prepolymer, for fabricating a concave microlens array (MLA) of high quality and high density. In our strategy, a voltage is applied to an electrode pair consisting of a conductive substrate coated with a UV-curable prepolymer film and a microhole-arrayed silicon template, sandwiching an air gap, to dewet the prepolymer film into a curved air-liquid interface. At or beyond a critical voltage, the curved prepolymer can be pulled quickly into contact with the protrusive underside of the silicon template. Contact of the prepolymer with the template can be detected by monitoring the leaky current in the polymer, followed by a UV curing of the prepolymer. Finally, by separating the mold from the solidified polymer, a concave MLA is obtained. The curvature of the MLA can be well-defined simply by changing the air gap between the mold and prepolymer film. Besides, the dewetting strategy results in a much smaller adhesion area between the mold and solidified polymer structures, which allows for easy separation of the mold from the MLA in a large-area operation.

Numerical studies of electrically induced pattern formation by coupling liquid dielectrophoresis and two-phase flow.

Electrically induced patterning process, as a novel micro‐ or nano‐structuring approach for fabrication of various micro‐ or nano‐systems, is usually implemented by applying a voltage to an electrode pair consisting of a patterned or non‐patterned template and a polymer‐coated substrate separated in parallel by an air gap, followed by photo‐ or thermo‐curing of the fluidic and dielectric polymer. The analyses performed so far to characterize this patterning process have been based on linear thermodynamics for a thermally instable thin film perturbed by an electrostatically induced hydraulic pressure. For mathematical simplicity, these analyses were formulated only for a flat template and a flat film surface with infinite planar area, demonstrating the tendency of initial pattern growth on the polymer film, but being unable to visualize the dynamic evolution of micro‐ or nano‐structure growth throughout the patterning process for a real‐life template in practical applications. This paper attempts to provide another insight into this patterning process from a viewpoint of liquid dielectrophoresis (L‐DEP), by presenting an approach for numerical simulation of the patterning process based on a coupling of L‐DEP and two‐phase flow theories. First, a numerical analysis has been made for the electrocoalescence of a water droplet with bottom water in silicone oil to benchmark effectiveness of the proposed numerical approach against published experimental observations. More numerical results have then been provided to show effects of some process variables on the evolution of the polymer micro‐ or nano‐structures for this patterning process.

One-Dimensional Au–ZnO Heteronanostructures for Ultraviolet Light Detectors by a Two-Step Dielectrophoretic Assembly Method

One-dimensional ZnO decorated with metal nanoparticles has received much attention in the field of ultraviolet light detection because of its high photosensitivity and fast response, while how to form effective metal-ZnO heterostructures cost efficiently is still in development. We report an efficient and well-controlled method to form Au-ZnO heterostructures by two-step dielectrophoretic assembly. First, ZnO nanowires dispersed in deionized water were assembled dielectrophoretically in a planar microelectrode system. To control the number and position of assembled ZnO nanowires, a planar triangle-shaped microelectrode pair was imposed with a high-frequency ac voltage signal in this assembly process. Then a droplet of Au nanoparticle suspension was applied to decorate the preformed ZnO nanowire by another dielectrophoretic assembly process. The near-field dielectrophoretic force induced by the existence of ZnO nanowire spanning the electrode gap attracts Au nanoparticles onto the surface of ZnO nanowires and forms effective Au-ZnO heterostructures. After the adsorption of Au nanoparticles, the performances of Au-ZnO heteronanostructures in UV detection were studied. Experimental results indicate that the ratio of the photo-to-dark current of the Au-ZnO heteronanostucture-based detector was improved significantly, and the photoresponse was accelerated considerably. This kind of enhancement in performance can be attributed to the localized Schottky junctions on the surface of ZnO nanowire which improves the surface band bending.

Biomimetic Mushroom-Shaped Microfibers for Dry Adhesives by Electrically Induced Polymer Deformation

The studies on bioinspired dry adhesion have demonstrated the biomimetic importance of a surface arrayed with mushroom-shaped microfibers among other artificially textured surfaces. The generation of a mushroom-shaped microfiber array with a high aspect ratio and a large tip diameter remains to be investigated. In this paper we report a three-step process for producing mushroom-shaped microfibers with a well-controlled aspect ratio and tip diameter. First, a polymer film coated on an electrically conductive substrate is prestructured into a low-aspect-ratio micropillar array by hot embossing. In the second step, an electrical voltage is applied to an electrode pair composed of the substrate and another conductive planar plate, sandwiching an air clearance. The Maxwell force induced on the air-polymer interface by the electric field electrohydrodynamically pulls the preformed micropillars upward to contact the upper electrode. Finally, the micropillars spread transversely on this electrode due to the electrowetting effect, forming the mushroom tip. In this paper we have demonstrated a polymer surface arrayed with mushroom-shaped microfibers with a large tip diameter (3 times the shaft diameter) and a large aspect ratio (above 10) and provided the testing results for dry adhesion.