Myeong-Lok Seol

A Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) Sponge for the Selective Absorption of Oil from Water

We present a sugar-templated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) sponge for the selective absorption of oil from water. The process for fabricating the PDMS sponge does not require any intricate synthesis processes or equipment and it is not environmentally hazardous, thus promoting potential in environmental applications. The proposed PDMS sponge can be elastically deformed into any shape, and it can be compressed repeatedly in air or liquids without collapsing. Therefore, absorbed oils and organic solvents can be readily removed and reused by simply squeezing the PDMS sponge, enabling excellent recyclability. Furthermore, through appropriately combining various sugar particles, the absorption capacity of the PDMS sponge is favorably optimized.

Nature-Replicated Nano-in-Micro Structures for Triboelectric Energy Harvesting

Triboelectric nanogenerators with nature-replicated interface structures are presented. Effective contact areas of the triboelectric surfaces are largely enhanced because of the densely packed nano-in-micro hierarchical structures in nature. The enlarged contact area causes stronger triboelectric charge density, which results in output power increment. The interface engineering also allows the improved humidity resistance, which is an important parameter for the stable energy harvesting.

Effects of the oxygen vacancy concentration in InGaZnO-based resistance random access memory

Resistance random access memory (RRAM) composed of stacked aluminum (Al)/InGaZnO(IGZO)/Al is investigated with different gallium concentrations. The stoichiometric ratio (x) of gallium in the InGaxZnO is varied from 0 to 4 for intentional control of the concentration of the oxygen vacancies (VO), which influences the electrical characteristics of the RRAM. No Ga in the IGZO (x = 0) significantly increases the value of VO and leads to a breakdown of the IGZO. In contrast, a high Ga concentration (x = 4) suppresses the generation of VO; hence, resistive switching is disabled. The optimal value of x is 2. Accordingly, enduring RRAM characteristics are achieved.

Design strategy for a piezoelectric nanogenerator with a well-ordered nanoshell array.

The piezoelectric nanogenerator (PNG) has been spotlighted as a promising candidate for use as a sustainable power source in wireless system applications. For the further development of PNGs, structural optimization is essential, but the structural analysis progress in this area has been scant. In the present study, we proposed a PNG with a well-ordered nanoshell array structure. The nanoshell structure has been considered as an effective core nanostructure for PNGs due to its effective stress confinement effect but has not been experimentally introduced thus far due to the challenging fabrication method required. To produce a controllable nanoshell structure, a top-down silicon nanofabrication technique which involves advanced spacer lithography is introduced. A comprehensive design strategy to enhance the piezoelectric performance is proposed in terms of the nanoshell diameter and shell-to-shell space. Both simulated and measured data confirm that an extremely high density of a structure is not always the best answer to maximize the performance. The highest amount of power can be achieved when the shell diameter and shell-to-shell space are within their proper ranges. The structural design strategy studied in this work provides a guideline for the further structural developments of PNG.

Bio‐Inspired Complementary Photoconductor by Porphyrin‐Coated Silicon Nanowires

N The integration of nanophotonics and electronics can bring about enhanced performance in areas ranging from communication, interconnections, and computing to novel diagnostics. [ 1–9 ] A critical challenge for integrating photonics and electronics is the component size mismatch stemming from the micrometer scale of optical elements, i.e., photoconductors (or light detectors), versus the nanometer scale of modern electronic devices. [ 10 , 11 ] Thus, nanometer-scale photoconductors have predominantly been fabricated using II–VI or III–V compound semiconducting nanowires rather than silicon nanowires (SiNWs) to achieve enhanced light absorption, [ 12–14 ]

A nanoforest structure for practical surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrates.

A nanoforest structure for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) active substrates is fabricated and analyzed. The detailed morphology of the resulting structure can be easily controlled by modifying the process parameters such as initial gold layer thickness and etching time. The applicability of the nanoforest substrate as a label-free SERS immunosensor is demonstrated using influenza A virus subtype H1N1. Selective binding of the H1N1 surface antigen and the anti-H1 antibody is directly detected by the SERS signal differences. Simple fabrication and high throughput with strong in-plane hot-spots imply that the nanoforest structure can be a practical sensing component of a chip-based SERS sensing system.

A transistor-based biosensor for the extraction of physical properties from biomolecules

An analytical technique is proposed that uses an asymmetric double-gate field-effect transistor (FET) structure to characterize the electrical properties of biomolecules, including their permittivity and charge density. Using a simple measurement with the proposed FET structure, we are able to extract the physical properties (i.e., permittivity and charge density) of biomolecules. A reliable analytical tool for the characterization of biomolecules can be provided by the proposed FET structure without a complex measurement system. It is expected that the proposed method will be expanded into a universal analysis technique for the electrical evaluation of biomolecules in applications beyond biosensing.

A pH sensor with a double-gate silicon nanowire field-effect transistor

A pH sensor composed of a double-gate silicon nanowire field-effect transistor (DG Si-NW FET) is demonstrated. The proposed DG Si-NW FET allows the independent addressing of the gate voltage and hence improves the sensing capability through an application of asymmetric gate voltage between the two gates. One gate is a driving gate which controls the current flow, and the other is a supporting gate which amplifies the shift of the threshold voltage, which is a sensing metric, and which arises from changes in the pH. The pH signal is also amplified through modulation of the gate oxide thickness.

Floating Oscillator-Embedded Triboelectric Generator for Versatile Mechanical Energy Harvesting.

A versatile vibration energy harvesting platform based on a triboelectricity is proposed and analyzed. External mechanical vibration repeats an oscillating motion of a polymer-coated metal oscillator floating inside a surrounding tube. Continuous sidewall friction at the contact interface of the oscillator induces current between the inner oscillator electrode and the outer tube electrode to convert mechanical vibrations into electrical energy. The floating oscillator-embedded triboelectric generator (FO-TEG) is applicable for both impulse excitation and sinusoidal vibration which universally exist in usual environment. For the impulse excitation, the generated current sustains and slowly decays by the residual oscillation of the floating oscillator. For the sinusoidal vibration, the output energy can be maximized by resonance oscillation. The operating frequency range can be simply optimized with high degree of freedom to satisfy various application requirements. In addition, the excellent immunity against ambient humidity is experimentally demonstrated, which stems from the inherently packaged structure of FO-TEG. The prototype device provides a peak-to-peak open-circuit voltage of 157 V and instantaneous short-circuit current of 4.6 μA, within sub-10 Hz of operating frequency. To visually demonstrate the energy harvesting behavior of FO-TEG, lighting of an array of LEDs is demonstrated using artificial vibration and human running.

Porphyrin-silicon hybrid field-effect transistor with individually addressable top-gate structure.

A conductance-controllable hybrid device that utilizes the photoinduced charge transfer behavior of a porphyrin in a field-effect transistor (FET) with a nanogap is proposed and analyzed. A conventional metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) structure is modified to form a nanogap in which the porphyrin can be embedded. The conductance of an inversion channel is controlled by the negatively charged, optically activated porphyrin molecules. The proposed nanogap-formed MOSFET structure solves the conventional dilemma that a top-gate cannot be used for an organic-inorganic hybrid device because the top-gate blocks an entire area of a channel where organic material should be immobilized. The top-gate structure has much practicality compared with the back-gate structure because each device can be controlled individually. Furthermore, the device is highly compatible with the chip-based integrated system because the fabrication process follows the standard complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology. The charge transfer mechanisms between silicon and porphyrin are analyzed using devices with different doping polarities and geometrical parameters. The results show that the influence of the negative charge of the porphyrin in the device is reversed when opposite doping polarities are used. The device characteristics can be comprehensively evaluated using the energy band diagram analysis and simulation. The possible application of the proposed device for nonvolatile memory is demonstrated using the optical charging and electrical discharging behavior of the porphyrins.