Hierarchical SnO 2 fi bers assembled from wrinkled thin tubes are synthesized by controlling the microphase separation between tin precursors and polymers, by varying fl ow rates during electrospinning and a subsequent heat treatment. The inner and outer SnO 2 tubes have a number of elongated open pores ranging from 10 nm to 500 nm in length along the fi ber direction, enabling fast transport of gas molecules to the entire thin-walled sensing layers. These features admit exhaled gases such as acetone and toluene, which are markers used for the diagnosis of diabetes and lung cancer. The open tubular structures facilitated the uniform coating of catalytic Pt nanoparticles onto the inner SnO 2 layers. Highly porous SnO 2 fi bers synthesized at a high fl ow rate show fi ve-fold higher acetone responses than densely packed SnO 2 fi bers synthesized at a low fl ow rate. Interestingly, thin-wall assembled SnO 2 fi bers functionalized by Pt particles exhibit a dramatically shortened gas response time compared to that of un-doped SnO 2 fi bers, even at low acetone concentrations. Moreover, Pt-decorated SnO 2 fi bers signifi cantly enhance toluene response. These results demonstrate the novel and practical feasibility of thin-wall assembled metal oxide based breath sensors for the accurate diagnosis of diabetes and potential detection of lung cancer.

This work presents a new route to suppress grain growth and tune the sensitivity and selectivity of nanocrystalline SnO2 fibers. Unloaded and Pd‐loaded SnO2 nanofiber mats are synthesized by electrospinning followed by hot‐pressing at 80 °C and calcination at 450 or 600 °C. The chemical composition and microstructure evolution as a function of Pd‐loading and calcination temperature are examined using EDS, XPS, XRD, SEM, and HRTEM. Highly porous fibrillar morphology with nanocrystalline fibers comprising SnO2 crystallites decorated with tiny PdO crystallites is observed. The grain size of the SnO2 crystallites in the layers that are calcined at 600 °C decreases with increasing Pd concentration from about 15 nm in the unloaded specimen to about 7 nm in the 40 mol% Pd‐loaded specimen, indicating that Pd‐loading could effectively suppress the SnO2 grain growth during the calcination step. The Pd‐loaded SnO2 sensors have 4 orders of magnitude higher resistivity and exhibit significantly enhanced sensitivity to H2 and lower sensitivity to NO2 compared to their unloaded counterparts. These observations are attributed to enhanced electron depletion at the surface of the PdO‐decorated SnO2 crystallites and catalytic effect of PdO in promoting the oxidation of H2 into H2O. These phenomena appear to have a much larger effect on the sensitivity of the Pd‐loaded sensors than the reduction in grain size.

Real-time temperature monitoring of individual blood packages capable of wireless data transmission to ensure the safety of blood samples and minimize wastes has become a critical issue in recent years. In this work, we propose flexible temperature sensors using silver nanowires (NWs) and a flexible colorless polyimide (CPI) film integrated with a wireless data transmission circuit. The unique design of the temperature sensors was achieved by patterning Ag NWs using a three-dimensional printed mold and embedding the patterned Ag NWs in the CPI film (p-Ag NWs/CPI), which resulted in a flexible temperature sensor with electrical, mechanical, and temperature stability for applications in blood temperature monitoring. Indeed, a reliable resistance change of the p-Ag NWs/CPI was observed in the temperature range of −20 to 20 °C with a robust bending stability of up to 5000 cycles at 5 mm bending radius. Real-time and wireless temperature monitoring using the p-Ag NWs/CPI was demonstrated with the packages of rat blood. The result revealed that the stable and consistent temperature monitoring of individual blood packages could be achieved in a blood box, which was mainly attributed to the conformal attachment of the p-Ag NWs/CPI to different packages in a blood container.

No abstract

Submicroscale SiC fiber mats were prepared by the electrospinning of an oil-in-water(O/W) precursor emulsion, a subsequent thermal curing treatment, and calcination at 1600 °C. Low-molecular-weight PCS micelles entrapped within an aqueous PVP matrix played an important role in forming the continuous and dense core structure, resulting in pure SiC fibers. The manipulation of SiC fiber diameters could be obtained via control of the micellar PCS concentration (10-30 wt %), enabling the production of dense and highly crystallized SiC fiber architectures with diameters ranging from 200 to 350 nm.

No abstract

Li-battery development, Li metal anodes have yet been applied to practical battery systems because of their unstable surface chemistry, which induces dendrite formation during the charge/discharge processes. Metallic Li itself is a strong reducing agent due to its high hydration enthalpy (−520 kJ mol −1 ), [2] so it readily reacts with electrolytes to form solidelectrolyte interphase (SEI) layers even without applying an electrical potential. [3] However, these layers are mechanically weak due to heterogeneous multigrain boundaries that easily crack upon the volume change of the Li metal anode. [4] The cracks generated in these layers allow Li to grow through them, exposing the fresh Li to electrolytes. As additional SEI layers spontaneously build upon the surface, the remaining liquid electrolytes are consumed to depletion (Figure S1, Supporting Information). Since the Li dendrites grow over the subsequent cycles by consuming Li metal and electrolytes into unavailing dead Li, Li metal batteries show poor coulombic efficiencies over a long time, short battery cycle life, and safety issues with the explosive dangers of lithium metal. [1a,5] One notable strategy that has been proposed to address these problems is the "artificial SEI layer" method, which involves modifying the Li surface with functional foreign layers to

This work presents a new route to suppress grain growth and tune the sensitivity and selectivity of nanocrystalline SnO2 fibers. Unloaded and Pd‐loaded SnO2 nanofiber mats are synthesized by electrospinning followed by hot‐pressing at 80 °C and calcination at 450 or 600 °C. The chemical composition and microstructure evolution as a function of Pd‐loading and calcination temperature are examined using EDS, XPS, XRD, SEM, and HRTEM. Highly porous fibrillar morphology with nanocrystalline fibers comprising SnO2 crystallites decorated with tiny PdO crystallites is observed. The grain size of the SnO2 crystallites in the layers that are calcined at 600 °C decreases with increasing Pd concentration from about 15 nm in the unloaded specimen to about 7 nm in the 40 mol% Pd‐loaded specimen, indicating that Pd‐loading could effectively suppress the SnO2 grain growth during the calcination step. The Pd‐loaded SnO2 sensors have 4 orders of magnitude higher resistivity and exhibit significantly enhanced sensitivity to H2 and lower sensitivity to NO2 compared to their unloaded counterparts. These observations are attributed to enhanced electron depletion at the surface of the PdO‐decorated SnO2 crystallites and catalytic effect of PdO in promoting the oxidation of H2 into H2O. These phenomena appear to have a much larger effect on the sensitivity of the Pd‐loaded sensors than the reduction in grain size.