Orlando Auciello

Electrically Conductive Ultrananocrystalline Diamond-Coated Natural Graphite-Copper Anode for New Long Life Lithium-Ion Battery

Y.-W. Cheng, C.-P. Liu Department of Materials Science and Engineering National Cheng Kung University No. 1, University Road Tainan 70101 , Taiwan C.-K. Lin, A. Abouimrane, Z. Chen Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division Argonne National Laboratory 9700 South Cass Avenue, Argonne IL 60439–4837 , USA Y.-C. Chu, Prof. Y. Tzeng Institute of Microelectronics Department of Electrical Engineering National Cheng Kung University No. 1, University Road Tainan 70101 , Taiwan E-mail: tzengyo@mail.ncku.edu.tw Y. Ren X-Ray Science Division Argonne National Laboratory 9700 South Cass Avenue, Argonne IL 60439–4837 , USA Orlando Auciello Materials Science & Eng Department and Bioengineering Department University of Texas-Dallas 800 W. Campbell Rd., RL10 Richardson , TX 75080–3021 , USA E-mail: orlando.auciello@utdallas.edu

Hetero-epitaxial BiFeO3/SrTiO3 nanolaminates with higher piezoresponse performance over stoichiometric BiFeO3 films

In this research, BiFeO3 (BFO) films are integrated into BFO/SrTiO3 (STO)/BFO nanolaminates (BSB-NLs) featuring nanometer-scale thickness of BFO and STO layers. By introducing the STO layer in between two BFO layers, the leakage current density is reduced by two orders of magnitude with respect to relatively high leakage currents of current single BFO layers, i.e., from 10−5u2009A/cm2 to 10−7 A/cm2. The BSB-NL also shows very high piezoelectric response, which is ∼5 times higher than that of the pure BFO with the same thickness. The highly strained state of the BFO layers concurrently with the chemical/crystallographic state of the interfaces between the BFO and STO layers contribute to the very high values of piezoresponse and very low leakage current observed in the BSB-NLs.

Biokinetics and tissue response to ultrananocrystalline diamond nanoparticles employed as coating for biomedical devices

Although Ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD) has been proposed as a coating material for titanium biomedical implants, the biological effects and toxicity of UNCD particles that could eventually detach have not been studied to date. The biokinetics and biological effects of UNCD compared to titanium dioxide (TiO2 ) nanoparticles was evaluated in vivo using Wistar rats (nu2009=u200930) i.p. injected with TiO2 , UNCD or saline solution. After 6 months, blood, lung, liver, and kidney samples were histologically analyzed. Oxidative damage by membrane lipidperoxidation (thiobarbituric acid reactive substances-TBARS), generation of reactive oxygen species (superoxide anion- O2-), and antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase-SOD, catalase-CAT) was evaluated in lung and liver. Histologic observation showed agglomerates of TiO2 or UNCD in the parenchyma of the studied organs, though there were fewer UNCD than TiO2 deposits. In addition, TiO2 caused areas compatibles with foci of necrosis in the liver and renal hyaline cylinders. Regarding UNCD, no membrane damage (TBARS) or mobilization of enzymatic antioxidants was observed either in lung or liver samples. No variations in O2- generation were observed in lung (Co: 35.1u2009±u20094.02 vs. UNCD: 48u2009±u20099.1, pu2009>u20090.05). Conversely, TiO2 exposure caused production of O2- in alveolar macrophages and consumption of catalase (p < 0.05). The studied parameters suggest that UNCD caused neither biochemical nor histological alterations, and therefore may prove useful as a surface coating for biomedical implants.

Atom-Probe Tomography of Meteoritic Nanodiamonds.

1 Robert A. Pritzker Center for Meteoritics and Polar Studies, The Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, USA. E-mail: prheck@fieldmuseum.org 2 Chicago Center for Cosmochemistry, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. 3 Northwestern University Center for Atom-Probe Tomography, Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA. 4 Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, USA. 5 Department of the Geophysical Sciences, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. 6 Enrico Fermi Institute, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. 7 Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, USA. 8 Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Department of Bioengineering, University of Texas-Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA. 9 Energy Systems Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, USA. 10 CAMECA Instruments, Inc., Madison, WI, USA. (* E-mail: prheck@fieldmuseum.org)

Polycrystalline Diamond Films produced by Hot-Filament Chemical Vapor Deposition

1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA 2. Departamento de Investigación en Física, Universidad de Sonora, Rosales y Luis Encinas, Hermosillo, Sonora, 83000, México. 3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX 75080, USA 4. Department of Bioengineering, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX 75080, USA

On the integration of ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD) with CMOS chip

A low temperature deposition of high quality ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD) film onto a finished Si-based CMOS chip was performed to investigate the compatibility of the UNCD deposition process with CMOS devices for monolithic integration of MEMS on Si CMOS platform. DC and radio-frequency performances of the individual PMOS and NMOS devices on the CMOS chip before and after the UNCD deposition were characterized. Electrical characteristics of CMOS after deposition of the UNCD film remained within the acceptable ranges, namely showing small variations in threshold voltage Vth, transconductance gm, cut-off frequency fT and maximum oscillation frequency fmax. The results suggest that low temperature UNCD deposition is compatible with CMOS to realize monolithically integrated CMOS-driven MEMS/NEMS based on UNCD.

Review of the Science and Technology for Low- and High-Density Nonvolatile Ferroelectric Memories

The new millennium has witnessed the coming to age of one of the major fields of research of the twentieth century, i.e., the field of ferroelectrics. Major advances occurred in the last two decades in research related to the science and technology of ferroelectric (high permittivity) and related metallic and metal-oxide thin films and their integration into layered heterostructures for application to the development of nonvolatile ferroelectric memories (FeRAMs). The high dielectric permittivities of perovskite-type materials can be advantageously used in dynamic random access memories (DRAM) [1], while the large values of switchable remanent polarization of ferroelectric materials are suitable for nonvolatile ferroelectric random access memories (FeRAM) [2–16]. The research performed during the last two decades focused on developing both the scientific and technological bases of ferroelectric films and layered heterostructures and their integration into ever evolving device architectures and the development of new device architectures for high-performance FeRAMs [1–10, 14–17].