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Spent mushroom substrate (SMS) can be used as the component of growing medium for the culture of crop plants. Fresh SMS may have the potential as an alternative to peat to raise horticultural plants. In this study, five container media characterized by the proportions of SMS to commercial peat in 0% (control), 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% were used to raise pepper (Capsicum annum L.) plants. Initial SMS was found to have low available nitrogen (N) content (<20 mg kg-1) but moderate extractable phosphorus (P) content (900 mg kg-1). In the second month photosynthetic rate was found to decline in the 75% treatment. At harvest in the third month, plants in the 100% treatment nearly died out. The 25% treatment resulted in the highest height (19 cm) and diameter growth (0.3 cm), shoot (0.6 g) and root biomass accumulation (0.13 g), fruit weight (3 g), and shoot carbohydrate content (98 mg g-1), but lowest foliar acid phosphatase activity (30 µg NPP g-1 FW min-1). With the increase of SMS proportion in the substrate, the medium pH and electrical conductance (EC) increased with the decrease of foliar size. The available N and P contents in the substrates showed contrasting relationship with N and P contents in pepper plants. Therefore, fresh SMS cannot be directly used as the substrate for the culture of pepper plants. According to our findings fresh SMS was recommended to be mixed in the proportion of 25% with commercial peat for the culture of horticultural plants.

Neuro-inspired deep learning algorithms have shown promising futures in artificial intelligence. Despite the remarkable progress in software-based neural networks, the traditional von-Neumann hardware architecture has suffered from limited energy efficiency while facing unprecedented large amounts of data. To meet the performance requirements of neuro-inspired computing, large-scale vector-matrix multiplication is preferred to be performed in situ, namely compute-in-memory. Non-volatile memory devices with different materials have been proposed for weight storage as synaptic devices. Among them, HfO 2 -based ferroelectric devices have attracted great attention because of their low energy consumption, good complementarymetal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) compatibility and multi-bit per cell potential. In this review, recent trends and prospects of the ferroelectric synaptic devices are surveyed. First, we present the three-terminal synaptic devices based on the ferroelectric field effect transistor (FeFET), and discuss the switching physics of the intermediate states, the back-end-of-line integration and the 3D NAND architecture design. Then, we introduce a hybrid precision synapse concept that leverages the volatile charges on the gate capacitor of the FeFET and the non-volatile polarization on the gate dielectric of the FeFET. Lastly, we review two-terminal synaptic devices using the ferroelectric tunnel junction (FTJ) and ferroelectric capacitor (FeCAP). The design margins of the crossbar array with FTJ and FeCAP analyzed.

A facile, low-cost and green ultrasound-assisted method was developed to ultra-fast synthesize Mn3O4 nanosheets supported on reduced graphene oxide (RGO). Such hybrid materials exhibited ultrahigh performance as lithium ion battery (LIB) anodes, whose specific capacity reached more than 1400 mA h g(-1) after 40 cycles at a current density of 100 mA g(-1) (based on the mass of Mn3O4). The remarkably enhanced LIB performance could be attributed to their layer-by-layer aggregation structures.

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Aligned polyaniline (PANI) belts doped with dodecatungstosilic acid (H4SiW12O40, abbreviated as SiW12) are synthesized by interfacial control method without surfactants or templates. The structure and morphology of the PANI are characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra, X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns, and scanning electron microscope images (SEM). SiW12, as a doping-acid replacing HCl and offering a strong adhesive action between itself and water molecules, plays an important role in controlling aniline in interface system by the ordering character of water molecule layers along the interface. The alignment of the molecules or particles in the polymer nanostructures has a great influence on its performance. The conductivity of SiW12-doped and HCl-doped PANI prepared under the same conditions is tested. As compared to HCl-doped PANI, SiW12-doped PANI has a superior performance on the conductivity.

Conventional resistive crossbar array for in‐memory computing suffers from high static current/power, serious IR drop, and sneak paths. In contrast, the “capacitive” crossbar array that harnesses transient current and charge transfer is gaining attention as it 1) only consumes dynamic power, 2) has no DC sneak paths and avoids severe IR drop (thus, selector‐free), and 3) can be fabricated on top of complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) circuits for 3D‐stacking. For the first time, ferroelectric Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 (HZO) capacitive crossbar arrays are experimentally demonstrated. Asymmetry of the HZO electrode interfaces leads to small‐signal capacitance on/off ratio >110% that can achieve read‐disturb‐free operation. The vector matrix multiplication (VMM) experiments are conducted on the fabricated capacitive crossbar array, showing a linear weighted sum versus numbers of input or on‐state weight. The array‐level VMM operation could maintain weight pattern reprogramming after 1) thousands of 1 ms/3 V pulses and 2) an extrapolated 10‐year retention at 85 °C. Array‐level circuit simulation at 22 nm node shows the energy consumption of a capacitive crossbar array is 20–200× lower than the resistive crossbar array counterpart. Moreover, analog‐shift‐and‐add circuits are designed for multibit weight summation, achieving 16.6% less area and 26.9% lower energy consumption than digital‐shift‐and‐add circuits.