Search

Nanostructural modification of two-dimensional (2D) materials has attracted significant attention for enhancing hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity. In this study, the nanostructure of TaS2 films was controlled by controlling the Ar/H2S gas ratio used in plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). At a high Ar/H2S gas ratio, vertically aligned TaS2 (V-TaS2) films were formed over a large-area (4 in) at a temperature of 250 °C, which, to the best of our knowledge, is the lowest temperature reported for PECVD. Furthermore, the plasma species formed in the injected gas at various Ar/H2S gas ratios were analyzed using optical emission spectroscopy to determine the synthesis mechanism. In addition, the 4 in wafer-scale V-TaS2 was analyzed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy, and the HER performance of the as-synthesized TaS2 fabricated with various Ar/H2S ratios was measured. The results revealed that, depending on the film structure of TaS2, the HER performance can be enhanced owing to its structural advantage. Furthermore, the excellent stability and robustness of V-TaS2 was confirmed by conducting 1000 HER cycles and post-HER material characterization. This study provides important insights into the plasma-assisted nanostructural modification of 2D materials for application as enhanced electrocatalysts.

Clean transfer of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) film is highly desirable, as intrinsic properties of TMDs may be degraded in a conventional wet transfer process using a polymer-based resist and toxic chemical solvent. Residues from the resists often remain on the transferred TMDs, thereby causing a significant variation in their electrical and optical characteristics. Therefore, an alternative to the conventional wet transfer method is needed—one in which no residue is left behind. Herein, we report that our molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) films synthesized by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition can be easily transferred onto arbitrary substrates (such as SiO2/Si, polyimide, fluorine-doped tin oxide, and polyethersulfone) by using water alone, i.e. without residues or chemical solvents. The transferred MoS2 film retains its original morphology and physical properties, which are investigated by optical microscopy, atomic force microscopy, Raman, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and surface tension analysis. Furthermore, we demonstrate multiple recycling of the resist-free transfer for the nano-grain MoS2 film. Using the proposed water-assisted and recyclable transfer, MoS2/p-doped Si wafer photodiode was fabricated, and the opto-electric properties of the photodiode were characterized to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method.

DNA molecules doped with lanthanide and metal ions possess distinct functionalities, providing a feasibility to be utilised in various applications in nano- and biotechnologies. In the present work, we fabricate DNA thin films doped with seven different lanthanide ions (Ce3+, Dy3+, Eu3+, Gd3+, Tb3+, Tm3+, and Sm3+) and four different metal ions (Cu2+, Ni2+, Zn2+, and Co2+) by the drop-casting method. In addition, we conduct current, Hall transport, optical transmittance, and Raman spectroscopic measurements to investigate their electrical properties, carrier concentrations and Hall mobilities, optical band gaps, and vibrational and stretching modes, respectively. By analysing the current–voltage characteristics of the doped thin films with varying dopant concentrations, characteristic critical concentrations are observed, which are related to the significant enhancement of the thin film's physical properties, compared with the pristine DNA. The extrema of the carrier concentrations and Hall mobilities of the doped thin films were observed approximately at the same critical concentrations. The optical band gaps gradually decreased with an increasing dopant concentration, caused by the intrinsic characteristics of both the dopants and DNA. Because of the preference of ions binding to DNA backbones through an electrostatic attraction and to bases via intercalation, the Raman band intensities gradually increase (or decrease) until reaching [Ln]C (or [M]C), where their trend is reversed. Ln-DNA and M-DNA thin films provide significant, specific, and novel physical characteristics which can be used in various applications.

This article reports for the first time the use of a plastic optical fibre (POF) cantilever beam to measure the density of a liquid. The sensor is based on the Archimedes buoyancy principle. The sensor consists of a POF bonded on the surface of a metal beam in the form of a cantilever configuration, and at the free end of the beam a displacer is attached. Due to the apparent loss of the true weight of the displacer there is a deflection in the cantilever beam, which causes macro bending in the POF. The loss of intensity due to macro bending of the POF is a measure of the density of the liquid under test. The variation of weight loss with the density of different liquids showed that the weight loss is proportional to density. This sensor is capable of detecting the weight loss with respect to their densities even for liquids having close values of density like distilled water, tap water, and milk of various brands. The resolution of the sensor is observed to be 1.1 mg cm−3.

Molybdenum oxide (MoO3) has gained immense attention because of its high electron mobility, wide band gap, and excellent optical and catalytic properties. However, the synthesis of uniform and large-area MoO3 is challenging. Here, we report the synthesis of wafer-scale α-MoO3 by plasma oxidation of Mo deposited on Si/SiO2. Mo was oxidized by O2 plasma in a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) system at 150 °C. It was found that the synthesized α-MoO3 had a highly uniform crystalline structure. For the as-synthesized α-MoO3 sensor, we observed a current change when the relative humidity was increased from 11% to 95%. The sensor was exposed to different humidity levels with fast recovery time of about 8 s. Hence this feasibility study shows that MoO3 synthesized at low temperature can be utilized for gas sensing applications by adopting flexible device technology.

We fabricated lanthanide ion (Ln3+, e.g. Dy3+, Er3+, Eu3+, and Gd3+)-doped self-assembled double-crossover (DX) DNA crystals grown on the surface of field effect transistors (FETs) containing either a Cr, Au, or Ni electrode. Here we demonstrate the metal electrode dependent FET characteristics as a function of various Ln3+. The drain–source current (I ds), controlled by the drain–source voltage (V ds) of Ln3+-doped DX DNA crystals with a Cr electrode on an FET, changed significantly under various gate voltages (V g) due to the relative closeness of the work function of Cr to the energy band gap of Ln3+-DNA crystals compared to those of Au and Ni. For Ln3+-DNA crystals on an FET with either a Cr or Ni electrode at a fixed V ds, I ds decreased with increasing V g ranging from −2 to 0 V and from 0 to +3 V in the positive and negative regions, respectively. By contrast, I ds for Ln3+-DNA crystals on an FET with Au decreased with increasing V g in only the positive region due to the greater electronegativity of Au. Furthermore, Ln3+-DNA crystals on an FET exhibited behaviour sensitive to V g due to the appreciable charge carriers generated from Ln3+. Finally, we address the resistivity and the mobility of Ln3+-DNA crystals on an FET with different metal electrodes obtained from I ds–V ds and I ds–V g curves. The resistivities of Ln3+-DNA crystals on FETs with Cr and Au electrodes were smaller than those of pristine DNA crystals on an FET, and the mobility of Ln3+-DNA crystals on an FET with Cr was relatively higher than that associated with other electrodes.

A few-layered molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) thin film grown by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition was etched using a CF4 inductively coupled plasma, and the possibility of controlling the MoS2 layer thickness to a monolayer of MoS2 over a large area substrate was investigated. In addition, damage and contamination of the remaining MoS2 layer surface after etching and a possible method for film recovery was also investigated. The results from Raman spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy showed that one monolayer of MoS2 was etched by exposure to a CF4 plasma for 20 s after an initial incubation time of 20 s, i.e., the number of MoS2 layers could be controlled by exposure to the CF4 plasma for a certain processing time. However, XPS data showed that exposure to CF4 plasma induced a certain amount of damage and contamination by fluorine of the remaining MoS2 surface. After exposure to a H2S plasma for more than 10 min, the damage and fluorine contamination of the etched MoS2 surface could be effectively removed.

Most polymer-replica-based microfluidic devices are mainly fabricated by using standard soft-lithography technology so that multi-level masters (MLMs) require multiple spin-coatings, mask alignments, exposures, developments, and bakings. In this paper, we describe a simple method for fabricating MLMs for planar microfluidic channels with multi-level barriers (MLBs). A single photomask is necessary for standard photolithography technology to create a polydimethylsiloxane grey-scale photomask (PGSP), which adjusts the total amount of UV absorption in a negative-tone photoresist via a wide range of dye concentrations. Since the PGSP in turn adjusts the degree of cross-linking of the photoresist, this method enables the fabrication of MLMs for an MLB-integrated microfluidic device. Since the PGSP-based soft-lithography technology provides a simple but powerful fabrication method for MLBs in a microfluidic device, we believe that the fabrication method can be widely used for micro total analysis systems that benefit from MLBs. We demonstrate an MLB-integrated microfluidic device that can separate microparticles.

We present a novel microfabricated concentrator for Escherichia coli that can be a stand-alone and self-contained microfluidic device because it utilizes the motility of cells. First of all, we characterize the motility of E. coli cells and various ratcheting structures that can guide cells to move in a desired direction in straight and circular channels. Then, we combine these ratcheting microstructures with the intrinsic tendency of cells to swim on the right side in microchannels to enhance the concentration rates up to 180 fold until the concentrators are fully filled with cells. Furthermore, we demonstrate that cells can be positioned and concentrated with a constant spacing distance on a surface, allowing spatial patterning of motile cells. These results can be applied to biosorption or biosensor devices that are powered by motile cells because they can be highly concentrated without any external mechanical and electrical energy sources. Hence, we believe that the concentrator design holds considerable potential to be applied for concentrating and patterning other motile microbes and providing a versatile structure for motility study of bacterial cells.

Mixing between nano-sized silicon particles and micro-sized graphite powders was performed for anode materials of lithium ion batteries, in which the silicon nanoparticles were synthesized by silane pyrolysis under optimized conditions and were subsequently coated onto the surface of graphite powders at mixing chamber by counter-flow injection. The counter-flow injection was employed as a dry particle mixing process in order to generate uniform silicon-coated graphite powders. Furthermore, this method also made it possible to combine particle synthesis and mixing into one single operation. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) was utilized to examine the degree of mixing through surface chemical composition analysis of the mixture. Experimental results indicate that the jet Reynolds number can be considered as the key parameter to determine the homogeneity of the mixture and its critical value may be in the range of 120 to 180 for good mixing performance, being in reasonable agreement with previous studies.

We investigated characteristics of contaminant particles generated in titanium nitride (TiN) metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) using tetrakis(dimethyl-amino-titanium) (TDMAT) as a precursor. Variation of the particle distribution generated before and after decomposition of TDMAT was estimated with the modified particle beam mass spectrometer (PBMS) in real-time. Particle size and concentration were sensitive to the change of the chemical status of TDMAT. When integrated absorbance of CH3 stretching features was increased, Particle size and concentration were bigger and higher, respectively. The degree of thermal decomposition of TMDAT was verified with in-situ Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and the morphology of films was measured by atomic force microscopy (AFM).

This study proposes a method for monitoring the decomposition state of a metal organic precursor which is used for the metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) system. As many kinds of precursors for MOCVD such as tetrakis(dimethylamido)titanium (TDMAT) are highly likely to decompose due to the instability of their chemical structure during processing, critical problems are generated for thin film formation and its yield in this case. Although real-time monitoring technology on the decomposition degree of these precursors is essential for metallization, metal gate or electrode processes for memory devices, both commercialized technology and fundamental research have scarcely been accomplished. Therefore, this study endeavors for acknowledgment by the semiconductor industry with a proposal for a real-time monitoring method on the decomposition degree of the precursor through an ultrasonic diagnosis method. However, it is difficult to perform a degradation mechanism analysis since measuring the viscosity and physical properties of TDMAT is complicated due to its sensitivity to air. Therefore, viscosity was measured using a Pd compound (tetrakis(triphenylphosphine)palladium(0), Pd(PPh3)4) which is stable in air and has a similar chemical structure to TDMAT.

We suggest a concept for powering microfluidic devices with biomolecular motors and microtubules to meet the demands for highly efficient microfluidic devices. However, to successfully implement such devices, we require methods for active control over the direction of microtubule translocation. While most previous work has employed largely microfabricated passive mechanical patterns designed to guide the direction of microtubules, in this paper we demonstrate that hydrodynamic shear flow can be used to align microtubules translocating on a kinesin-coated surface in a direction parallel to the fluid flow. Our evidence supports the hypothesis that the mechanism of microtubule redirection is simply that drag force induced by viscous shear bends the leading end of a microtubule, which may be cantilevered beyond its kinesin supports. This cantilevered end deflects towards the flow direction, until it is subsequently bound to additional kinesins; as translocation continues, the process repeats until the microtubule is largely aligned with the flow, to a limit determined by random fluctuations created by thermal energy. We present statistics on the rate of microtubule alignment versus various strengths of shear flow as well as concentrations of kinesin, and also investigate the effects of shear flow on the motility.