Printing Nanostructures with a Propelled Anti‐Pinning Ink Droplet

Self Cite

The fabrication and implementation of artifi cially intelligent sensor arrays has faced serious technical and/or cost-effectiveness challenges. Here, a new printing method is presented to produce a fully functional array of sensors based on monolayer-capped gold nanoparticles. The proposed printing technique is based on the so-called self-propelled antipinning ink droplet, from which evaporative deposition takes place along the path of motion. By applying actuating forces, different deposition line patterns with different thicknesses and morphology from a single droplet are generated. The functionality of the produced sensors is demonstrated by their ability to detect different representative volatile organic compounds (VOCs) belonging to different chemical families, including alcohols, alkanes, ethers, and aromatics, and under extremely different humidity levels resembling those encountered in real-world conditions. The results show that the sensors exhibit ultrasensitive sensing features, with an ability to detect and differentiate between different VOCs at low ppb levels. Additionally, the results show that the sensors are able to accurately predict VOC concentrations, viz. enable quantifi cation capabilities, while nevertheless being inexpensive, do not need complicated and expensive printing equipment and prepatterning processes, allow low voltage operation, and provide a platform for multifunctional applications.

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Printing Ultrasensitive Artificially Intelligent Sensors Array with a Single Self‐Propelled Droplet Containing Nanoparticles

Homede

Abo-Jabal

Ionescu

et al. 2016

Self Cite

Recent Advances in Pen‐Based Writing Electronics and their Emerging Applications

Liu

Ouyang

et al. 2016

. Inspired by daily hand-writing, innovative and ubiquitously available pens can be employed to write conductive patterns on multiple substrates; such a low-cost, fast, and user-friendly direct writing paradigm has recently aroused remarkable research interest as a promising electronics prototyping strategy. In this review, state-of-art advances in techniques for direct writing of electronics are presented, and pros and cons of each fabrication route are discussed. Emerging applications of pen-based writing electronics are also summarized. Based on these, fi nal conclusions, limitations and challenges, as well as ongoing perspectives are illustrated. a polyester-based tattoo-like integrated epidermal electronic system has been developed that can perform real-time muscle movement, heart activities, and brain-wave detection without the engagement of expensive and bulky medical instrumentations, holding promises to empower doctors to timely monitor vital signs of patients in a simple and effi cient way. [ 3 ] For these applications, the ideal electronics should be low-cost, easily accessible, high-performance, rapid prototyping, and user friendly etc. Consequently, increasing attention has been devoted to discovering several factors closely related to fl exible electronics (e.g., substrates, conductive materials, and manufacturing techniques) for fabricating electronics with increased performance and decreased cost. [ 7 ] Among them, the development of fast and cost-effective fabrication strategies has drawn close attentions for realizing lowcost fl exible electronics. [8][9][10] Recently, various techniques have been developed to fabricate fl exible electronics, such as coating, [ 11,12 ] sputtering, [ 13 ] and printing techniques (e.g., gravure printing, [ 14 ] fl exo printing, [ 15 ] offset printing, [ 16 ] inkjet printing, [ 17 ] and screen printing [ 18 ] ). Specifi cally, printing techniques enable rapid prototyping of components and devices with accurate three-dimensional (3D) structures, thus facilitating achievement of functional 3D electronics. [19][20][21] Based on a newly developed embedded 3D printing system, the fabrication of strain and pressure sensors has been demonstrated to be viable within highly stretchable silicon polymer substrates, exhibiting huge potential for the production of fl exible electronics and wearable devices with arbitrary constructs and unique functions. [ 6 ] However, these sophisticated techniques may not live up to the emerging demand of low cost, easy accessibility and rapid prototyping for fl exible electronics fabrication, since the long processing period of coating, the high energy consumption of sputtering, and the inevitable enrollment of expensive professional equipment of printing are all intractable issues that can hardly be overlooked. [ 22,23 ] As an alternative technique and inspired from day-to-day hand writing, various writing instruments, such as brush pen, [ 22,24,25 ] pencil, [26][27][28][29] fountain pen, [ 30,31 ] and ball pen, [32][33][34][35] have been re...

Regulated Dewetting for Patterning Organic Single Crystals with Pure Crystallographic Orientation toward High Performance Field‐Effect Transistors

Zhao

Fan²,

Feng

et al. 2018

Fabrication of high‐quality organic single‐crystalline semiconductors and their deterministic patterning are core opportunities as well as challenges for large‐scale integration of functional devices with high efficiency and boosted performance. Previous approaches on solution patterning of organic semiconductors have achieved efficient and versatile control of the position, alignment, and size of organic structures. However, the poorly controllable dewetting dynamics of organic solution gives rise to low crystallinity and disordered crystallographic orientation of generated organic architectures that limit their device performance. Here, 1D organic single‐crystal arrays with high crystallinity, strict crystallographic alignment, precise position, tunable, and homogeneous size are fabricated by exploiting an asymmetric‐wettability topographical template. Periodically arranged micropillars with lyophobic sidewalls and lyophilic tops permit the generation of capillary bridges, which enable unidirectional dewetting of organic solution and ordered packing of molecules. The 1D arrays present pure (100) crystallographic orientation with π–π stacking of molecules in the optimal direction of carrier transport, leading to high carrier mobility of 8.7 cm2 V−1 s−1 in the field‐effect transistor measurements. A facile pressure sensor based on the patterned belt arrays is fabricated, exhibiting high sensitivity and long‐term stability.