With the miniaturization of electronic devices, it is essential to achieve higher carrier density and lower operation voltage in field-effect transistors (FETs). However, this is a great challenge in conventional FETs owing to the low capacitance and electric breakdown of gate dielectrics. Recently, electric double-layer technology with ultra-high charge-carrier accumulation at the semiconductor channel/electrolyte interface has been creatively introduced into transistors to overcome this problem. Some interesting electrical transport characteristics such as superconductivity, metal-insulator transition, and tunable thermoelectric behavior have been modulated both theoretically and experimentally in electric double-layer transistors (EDLTs) with various semiconductor channel layers and electrolyte materials. The present article is a review of the recent progress in the EDLTs and the impacts of EDLT technology on modulating the charge transportation of various electronics.

Arapid and highly efficient strategy for introducing Ci nto g-C 3 N 4 involves copolymerizing p-electron-richb arbituric acid with melamine via af acile microwave-assisted heating,t herebye liminating the issues in conventional electric furnace heating,such as the severe volatilization, owingtothe mismatcho ft he sublimation temperatures of barbituric acid and melamine.T he g-C 3 N 4 catalyst after optimizing the Cdoping content actively generates increased amounts of H 2 under visible light exposure with the highest H 2 generation rate of 25.0 mmol h À1 ,w hichi sn early 20 times above that using g-C 3 N 4 produced by conventional electric furnace heating of two identical monomers (1.3 mmol h À1 ). As such, the microwaveassisted heating strategy may stand out as an extremely simple route to incorporating p-electrons into g-C 3 N 4 with markedly improved photocatalytic performance.

The discovery of graphene has inspired great research interest in two-dimensional (2D) layered nanomaterials during the past decade. As one of the newest members in 2D layered nanomaterials family, black phosphorus (BP), with puckered structure similar to graphene, has shown great potential in novel nanoelectronics owing to its thickness-dependent bandgap. Especially, the unique in-plane anisotropy and high carrier mobility enable BP to be a promising candidate for field-effect transistor (FET) applications. In addition, monolayer or few-layer BP can be combined into van de Waal heterostructures and this opens up a pathway for overcoming existing problems such as impurity scattering and surface degradation or achieving functionalities. In this article, we will review typical physical and chemical properties of BP and provide an overview of the recent development in BP-based transistors. With this review, we also discuss the current challenges in BP transistors and future research directions.2 interactions between adjacent layers. 3 For example, as a typical representative of transition metal dichaldogenides (TMDs), MoS 2 with a relatively large intrinsic bandgap of 1.8 eV shows superior on/off ratio and ultralow standby power dissipation. 4 Generally, MoS 2 exhibits n-type characteristics because of the presence of S vacancies and strong Fermi-level pinning near the conduction band, 5 and has great potential in practical electronic and optoelectronic applications. 6 However, in spite of many promising theoretical predications, the observed mobility of TMDs based device is still relatively low due to the heavy effective mass of carriers and the scattering mechanisms, especially the phonon scattering at room temperature. 7, 8 Thus, the majority of TMDs materials have not been demonstrated for high-performance radio frequency (RF) transistors. 3At the beginning of 2014, black phosphorus (BP), one of the latest members of 2D layered semiconducting materials has been rediscovered from the perspective of 2D materials for transistors. 9 Although BP was discovered a century ago, there have been only a few studies focusing on the utilization of BP due to the difficulty in synthesis. 10 Recently, it has been found that the moderate and tunable bandgap of BP provides an alternative for next generation nanoelectronic applications. Similar to graphene, single-layered or few-layered black phosphorus can be obtained by mechanical exfoliation and they exhibit unexpected properties compared with their bulk counterpart. Moreover, as a single-elemental layered material, BP possesses lower spin-orbit coupling because of relatively lighter phosphorus atom, which is more favourable for spin transport. 11The atomic structure and properties of main 2D layered materials are listed in Table 1, in which we select MoS 2 as a representative of TMDs. We also highlight hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) as a graphite-type structured material, which a good gate insulator for 2D materials based FETs because of its ultra-flat and charged impurity-fre...

Metal nanowires (NWs) networks with high conductance have shown potential applications in modern electronic components, especially the transparent electrodes over the past decade. In metal NW networks, the electrical connectivity of nanoscale NW junction can be modulated for various applications. In this work, silver nanowire (Ag NW) networks were selected to achieve the desired functions. The Ag NWs were first synthesized by a classic polyol process, and spin-coated on glass to fabricate transparent electrodes. The as-fabricated electrode showed a sheet resistance of 7.158 Ω □ with an optical transmittance of 79.19% at 550 nm, indicating a comparable figure of merit (FOM, or Φ) (13.55 × 10 Ω). Then, two different post-treatments were designed to tune the Ag NWs for not only transparent electrode but also for threshold resistive switching (RS) application. On the one hand, the Ag NW film was mechanically pressed to significantly improve the conductance by reducing the junction resistance. On the other hand, an Ag@AgO core-shell structure was deliberately designed by partial oxidation of Ag NWs through simple ultraviolet (UV)-ozone treatment. The Ag core can act as metallic interconnect and the insulating AgO shell acts as a switching medium to provide a conductive pathway for Ag filament migration. By fabricating Ag/Ag@AgO/Ag planar structure, a volatile threshold switching characteristic was observed and an on/off ratio of ∼100 was achieved. This work showed that through different post-treatments, Ag NW network can be engineered for diverse functions, transforming from transparent electrodes to RS devices.

Electrocatalytic activities of electrodes for water splitting are assessed via geometric area, BET surface area and ECSA normalisations.

Enhanced catalytic activity of Co3O4@CoSx through surface sulfurization.

Silver nanowire (Ag NW) networks have been widely studied because of a great potential in various electronic devices. However, nanowires usually undergo a fragmentation process at elevated temperatures due to the Rayleigh instability that is a result of reduction of surface/interface energy. In this case, the nanowires become completely insulating due to the formation of randomly distributed Ag particles with a large distance and further applications are hindered. Herein, we demonstrate a novel concept based on the combination of ultraviolet/ozone irradiation and a low-temperature annealing process to effectively utilize and control the fragmentation behavior to realize the resistive switching performances. In contrast to the conventional fragmentation, the designed Ag/AgO interface facilitates a unique morphology of short nanorod-like segments or chains of tiny Ag nanoparticles with a very small spacing distance, providing conduction paths for achieving the tunneling process between the isolated fragments under the electric field. On the basis of this specific morphology, the Ag NW network has a tunable resistance and shows volatile threshold switching characteristics with a high selectivity, which is the ON/OFF current ratio in selector devices. Our concept exploits a new function of Ag NW network, i.e., resistive switching, which can be developed by designing a controllable fragmentation.

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) with pronounced excitation of lone pairs enhances its photocatalytic hydrogen (H2) generation activity.