Observation of Ferroelectric Lithography on Biodegradable PLA Films

Abstract

Ferroelectric lithography, which can purposefully control and pattern ferroelectric domains in the micro‐/nanometer scale, has extensive applications in data memories, field‐effect transistors, race‐track memory, tunneling barriers, and integrated biochemical sensors. In pursuit of mechanical flexibility and light weight, organic ferroelectric polymers such as poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) have been developed; however, they still suffer from complicated stretching processes of film fabrication and poor degradability. These poor features severely hinder its applications. Here, we demonstrate the ferroelectric lithography on the biocompatible and biodegradable poly(lactic acid) (PLA) thin films at room temperature. The semi‐crystalline PLA thin film can be easily fabricated through the melt‐casting method, and the desired domain structures can be precisely written according to the predefined patterns. Most importantly, the coercive voltage (Vc) of PLA thin film is relatively low (lower than 30 V) and can be further reduced with the decrease of the film thickness. These intriguing behaviors combined with satisfying biodegradability make PLA thin film a desirable candidate for ferroelectric lithography and enable its future application in the field of bioelectronics and biomedicine. This work sheds light on further exploration of ferroelectric lithography on other polymer ferroelectrics as well as their application as nanostructured devices.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Room-Temperature Anisotropic Actuation Driven by a Synergistic Order–Disorder and Displacive Phase Transition in a Ferroelectric Crystal

“…The phase changes are field sensitive (e.g., temperature, pressure, electric and magnetic field, light, and chemicals) changes that lead to fast response at the transition point and structure and shape reversibility. Hybrid metal halide (HMH) ferroelectrics are particularly ideal candidates for exploring the desired MRMs. − The ferroelectric phase transitions are usually accompanied by varied structure changes and the emergence of multifunctionalities such as photoelectric detection, − ferroelectric storage information, − piezoelectric materials, , and biomedical applications . However, it is very rare to apply molecular ferroelectrics as MRMs because the molecular ferroelectric phase transitions commonly undergo an order–disorder type phase transition, which is hard to lead to striking shifts of the lattice components and thus the shape transformations (Scheme a and b) .…”