Photochemical Activation of Electrospun In2O3 Nanofibers for High-Performance Electronic Devices

Enhancement of Filtration Performance Characteristics of Glass Fiber-Based Filter Media, Part 1: Mechanical Modification with Electrospun Nanofibers

Various modifications of standard glass fiber filtration media using electrospun PA66 nanofibers are described. PA66 were selected because they were readily available from commercial sources. Other polymers, such as PP, PET and PBT, could also be used. The first set of samples was prepared by mixing the nanofibers at two, three and five weight percent with glass fibers, and the second by laying the same proportion of the nanofibers directly onto the downstream side of the substrate. The aim of these modifications was to improve the three most basic functionalities of filter media, the separation efficiency, the differential pressure (ΔP) and the dirt holding capacity (DHC). The modified media samples were evaluated with the standard textile characterization techniques and filtration performance evaluation procedures. The results showed differences in the several tens of percentage points achieved with the two modification methods. Moreover, additional differences in performance were observed depending on the percentage of nanofibers admixed to the substrate. These differences were most apparent in the filtration efficiency and the DHC, both by several percentage points, with no apparent effect on the ∆P. The results strongly suggest that the preparation of new filter media by incorporating nanofibers directly into the matrix can result in significant improvements in filtration performance characteristics.

Anti-Ambipolar Heterojunctions: Materials, Devices, and Circuits

Anti-ambipolar heterojunctions are vital in constructing high-frequency oscillators, fast switches, and multivalued logic (MVL) devices, which hold promising potential for next-generation integrated circuit chips and telecommunication technologies. Thanks to the strategic material design and device integration, anti-ambipolar heterojunctions have demonstrated unparalleled device and circuit performance that surpasses other semiconducting material systems. This review aims to provide a comprehensive summary of the achievements in the field of anti-ambipolar heterojunctions. First, the fundamental operating mechanisms of anti-ambipolar devices are discussed. After that, potential materials used in anti-ambipolar devices are discussed with particular attention to 2D-based, 1D-based, and organic-based heterojunctions. Next, the primary device applications employing anti-ambipolar heterojunctions, including anti-ambipolar transistors (AATs), photodetectors, frequency doublers, and synaptic devices, are summarized. Furthermore, alongside the advancements in individual devices, the practical integration of these devices at the circuit level, including topics such as MVL circuits, complex logic gates, and spiking neuron circuits, is also discussed. Lastly, the present key challenges and future research directions concerning anti-ambipolar heterojunctions and their applications are also emphasized.

Oxygen-Vacancy-Induced Synaptic Plasticity in an Electrospun InGdO Nanofiber Transistor for a Gas Sensory System with a Learning Function

The perceptual learning function of a simulating human body is very important for constructing a neural computing system and a brainlike computer in the future. The sense of smell is an important part of the human sensory nervous system. However, current gas sensors simply convert gas concentrations into electrical signals and do not have the same learning and memory function as synapses. To solve this problem, we propose a new sensing idea to induce and activate the synaptic properties of transistors by adjusting the oxygen vacancy in the active layer. This sensor combines gas detection with synaptic memory and learning and overcomes the disadvantage of the separation of synaptic transistors and sensors, thus greatly reducing the cost of production. This work combines the detection of N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) gas with the synaptic mechanism of human olfactory nerves. We successfully fabricated an InGdO nanofiber field-effect transistor by electrostatic spinning and simulated the response of human olfactory synapses to target gas by regulating the oxygen vacancy of the InGdO nanofiber. The synaptic transistor response under different concentrations of unmodulated pulses is tested, and the pavlovian conditioned reflex experiment is simulated successfully. This work provides a new idea of a gas sensor device, which is very important for the development of high-performance gas sensors and bionic electronic devices in the future.

Electrospun Metal Oxide Nanofibers and Their Conductometric Gas Sensor Application. Part 2: Gas Sensors and Their Advantages and Limitations

Electrospun metal oxide nanofibers, due to their unique structural and electrical properties, are now being considered as materials with great potential for gas sensor applications. This critical review attempts to assess the feasibility of these perspectives. This article discusses approaches to the manufacture of nanofiber-based gas sensors, as well as the results of analysis of the performances of these sensors. A detailed analysis of the disadvantages that can limit the use of electrospinning technology in the development of gas sensors is also presented in this article. It also proposes some approaches to solving problems that limit the use of nanofiber-based gas sensors. Finally, the summary provides an insight into the future prospects of electrospinning technology for the development of gas sensors aimed for the gas sensor market.

Highly conductive and transparent electrospun indium tin oxide nanofibers calcined by microwave plasma

In this work, indium tin oxide (ITO) nanofibers have been prepared by electrospinning of polymers and post-growth microwave plasma calcination (MPC). Interestingly, compared to traditional calcination in furnace, MPC can accelerate the degradation of high polar polymers and improve adhesion of ITO nanofibers to the sapphire substrate. Further characterizations reveal that the ITO nanofibers with diameters of 100-150 nm prepared by MPC at 600 °C can reach a low sheet resistance of 269 Ω/sq and a high transmittance of 90.7% at 550 nm simultaneously, which has not been previously reported by others. Our results show that the efficient MPC method has great potential in preparation of metal-oxide nanofibers for electrical and optical applications.

Microwave-assisted calcination of electrospun indium-gallium-zinc oxide nanofibers for high-performance field-effect transistors

The effects of microwave-assisted calcination of electrospun In-Ga-Zn-O (IGZO) nanofibers intended for electronic devices are unclear. To this end, a systematic study was conducted on the effects of microwave-assisted calcination on the microstructure and optical and mechanical properties of electrospun IGZO nanofibers used in high-performance field-effect transistors (FETs). To clarify the role of microwave annealing (MWA) on the characteristics of the electrospun nanofibers, calcination was carried out using two techniques: MWA and conventional thermal annealing (CTA). The morphological differences between IGZO nanofibers calcined using the two techniques were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM); the diameter of nanofibers was significantly reduced through MWA as compared to CTA. After calcination, the optical transmittance in the visible region was slightly improved, with the MWA-calcined nanofibers exhibiting a higher transmittance than the CTA-calcined nanofibers. Scratch test results showed that the calcination improved the adhesion strength of the nanofibers to the SiO2 substrate; MWA was more effective in improving the mechanical properties than CTA. Furthermore, the effects of MWA calcination on the electrical properties of FETs fabricated using the electrospun IGZO nanofibers were investigated. The MWA-calcined devices showed better electrical characteristics and reliability than the CTA-calcined devices for IGZO nanofiber FETs.

Electrospun Yb-Doped In2O3 Nanofiber Field-Effect Transistors for Highly Sensitive Ethanol Sensors

Enhancing the reliability and sensitivity of gas sensors based on FETs has been of extensive concern for their practical application. However, few reports are available on nanofiber FET gas sensors fabricated by the electrospinning process. In this work, ethanol gas sensors based on Yb-doped In₂O₃ (InYbO) nanofiber FETs are fabricated by a simple and fast electrospinning method. The optimized In₂O₃ nanofiber FETs with a doping concentration of 4 mol % show a better electrical performance, including a high mobility of 6.67 cm²/Vs, an acceptable threshold voltage of 3.27 V, and a suitable on/off current ratio of 10⁷, especially the enhanced bias-stress stability. When employed in ethanol gas sensors, the gas sensors exhibit enhanced stability and improved sensitivity with a high response of 40-10 ppm, which is remarkably higher than that of previously reported ethanol gas sensors. Moreover, the InYbO nanofiber FET sensors also demonstrate a low limit of detection of 1 ppm and improved sensing performance ranging from sensitivity to the ability of selectivity. This work opens up a new prospect to achieve highly sensitive, selective, and reliable ethanol gas sensors using electrospun Yb-In₂O₃ nanofiber FETs with improved stability.

Performance improvement in electrospun InGaZnO nanofibres field-effect-transistors using low thermal budget microwave calcination and Ar/O2 mixed-plasma surface treatment

In this study, we present a low thermal budget microwave annealing (MWA) method for calcination of electrospun In-Ga-ZnO (IGZO) nanofibres and demonstrate an improvement in the performance of IGZO nanofibre field-effect transistors (FETs) by Ar/O₂ mixed-plasma surface treatment. The IGZO nanofibres were fabricated by electrospinning method and calcined using MWA method. This process allowed for a significant reduction in the heat treatment temperature and time. Subsequently, plasma surface treatment using various ratios of Ar/O₂ gas mixtures was carried out. The surface morphology and chemical composition of MWA-calcined and plasma-treated IGZO nanofibres were studied by SEM and XPS analysis. In order to investigate the effects of MWA calcination combined with Ar/O₂ mixed-plasma treatment on the electrical properties and the reliability of nanofibres-based transistors, IGZO nanofibres FETs were fabricated and applied to resistor-loaded inverters. Our results show that the O₂ plasma treatment significantly improves the performance of IGZO nanofibres FETs and the resistor-loaded inverters based on IGZO nanofibres FETs, whereas Ar plasma treatment degrades the performance of these devices. The instability tests using positive bias temperature stress (PBTS) and negative bias temperature stress (NBTS) revealed that the O₂ plasma treatment contributed to the stability of IGZO nanofibres FETs. Our results suggest that the MWA calcination combined with the Ar/O₂ mixed-plasma surface treatment is a promising technique for the fabrication of high performance IGZO nanofibres FETs with low thermal budget processes.

Combustion synthesis of electrospun LaInO nanofiber for high-performance field-effect transistors

One-dimensional semiconductor nanofibers are regarded as ideal materials for electronics due to their distinctive morphology and characteristics. In this work, La-doped indium oxide (LaInO) nanofibers are fabricated as the channel layer to reduce O vacancies and the density of interface trap states; this is clearly confirmed by investigating the stability under positive bias stress and the capacitance-voltage for field-effect transistors (FETs). The In₂O₃ nanofiber FETs optimized by doping with 5 mol% La exhibit excellent electrical performance with a mobility of 4.95 cm² V^-1 s^-1 and an on/off current ratio of 1.1 × 10⁸. In order to further enhance the electrical performance of LaInO nanofiber FETs, ZrAlO _x film, which has a high dielectric constant, is employed as the insulator for the LaInO nanofiber FETs. The LaInO nanofiber FETs with ZrAlO _x insulator have a high mobility of 13.5 cm² V^-1 s^-1. These findings clearly indicate the great promise of La-doped In₂O₃ nanofibers in future one-dimensional nanoelectronics.

High performance electronic devices based on nanofibers via a crosslinking welding process

Recently, metal oxide nanofibers fabricated by electrospinning have been considered as promising components for next-generation electronic devices. Unfortunately, the nanofiber-based electronic devices usually exhibited inferior electrical performance, due to the high contact resistance between the nanofibers and the inferior interfacial adhesion between the nanofibers and the substrate. In this report, an amine-hardened epoxy resin was selected as an adhesion agent to weld nanofiber junctions and improve the interfacial adhesion performance. It was confirmed that the physical properties of the nanofibers were greatly improved after the crosslinking welding process. Taking advantage of the welding process, field-effect transistors (FETs) based on In₂O₃ nanofiber networks (NFNs) with various nanofiber densities were integrated and investigated. It was found that the FETs based on In₂O₃ NFNs with a nanofiber density of 0.4 μm^-1 exhibited the optimal electrical performance. When high-k ZrO_x was integrated into the FETs as the dielectric layer, the FETs based on In₂O₃ NFNs/ZrO_x exhibited superior performance, including a μ_FE of 13.2 cm² V^-1 s^-1, an I_on/I_off of 10⁷, and an SS of 90 mV per decade. The crosslinking welding process is a simple, versatile and low-cost technique, which has great possibility for various applications.

Electrospun p-Type Nickel Oxide Semiconducting Nanowires for Low-Voltage Field-Effect Transistors

One-dimensional metal-oxide nanowires are regarded as important building blocks in nanoscale electronics, because of their unique mechanical and electrical properties. In this work, p-type nickel oxide nanowires (NiO NWs) were fabricated by combining sol-gel and electrospinning processes. The poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) with a molecular weight of 1 300 000 was used as the polymer matrix to increase the viscosity of a NiO precursor solution. The formation and properties of the as-spun NiO/PVP composite NWs before/after calcination treatment were investigated using various techniques. Because of the enhanced adhesion properties between ultraviolet (UV)-treated NiO NWs and the substrate, the field-effect transistors (FETs) based on NiO NWs were found to exhibit satisfying p-channel behaviors. For the fabrication of aligned NiO NW arrays, two parallel conducting Si strips were grounded as NW collector. The integrated FETs based on aligned NiO NWs were demonstrated to exhibit superior electrical performance, compared to the disordered counterparts with the comparable NW coverage. By employing high- k aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃) as a dielectric layer, instead of conventional SiO₂, the devices with an aligned NiO NW array exhibit a high hole mobility of 2.8 cm²/(V s) with a low operating voltage of 5 V, fast switching speed, and successful modulation of light emission over external light-emitting diodes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work demonstrating the low-voltage transistors based on p-type oxide NWs, which represents a great step toward the development of sensors and CMOS logic circuits.

Low-voltage and high-performance field-effect transistors based on ZnxSn1-xO nanofibers with a ZrOx dielectric

One-dimensional (1D) nanofibers have been considered to be important building blocks for nano-electronics due to their superior physical and chemical properties. In this report, high-performance zinc tin oxide (ZnSnO) nanofibers with various composition ratios were prepared by electrospinning. The surface morphology, crystallinity, grain size distribution, and chemical composition of the nanofibers were investigated. Meanwhile, field-effect transistors (FETs) based on ZnSnO nanofiber networks (NFNs) with various composition ratios were integrated and investigated. For optimized Zn0.3Sn0.7O NFNs FETs, the device based on an SiO2 dielectric exhibited a high electrical performance, including a high on/off current ratio (Ion/off) of 2 × 107 and a field-effect mobility (μFE) of 0.17 cm2 V-1 s-1. When a high-permittivity (κ) ZrOx thin film was employed as the dielectric in Zn0.3Sn0.7O NFNs FETs, the operating voltage was substantially reduced and a high μFE of 7.8 cm2 V-1 s-1 was achieved. These results indicate that the Zn0.3Sn0.7O NFNs/ZrOx FETs exhibit great potency in low-cost and low-voltage devices.

Nature-Inspired Capillary-Driven Welding Process for Boosting Metal-Oxide Nanofiber Electronics

Recently, semiconducting nanofiber networks (NFNs) have been considered as one of the most promising platforms for large-area and low-cost electronics applications. However, the high contact resistance among stacking nanofibers remained to be a major challenge, leading to poor device performance and parasitic energy consumption. In this report, a controllable welding technique for NFNs was successfully demonstrated via a bioinspired capillary-driven process. The interfiber connections were well-achieved via a cooperative concept, combining localized capillary condensation and curvature-induced surface diffusion. With the improvements of the interfiber connections, the welded NFNs exhibited enhanced mechanical property and high electrical performance. The field-effect transistors (FETs) based on the welded Hf-doped In₂O₃ (InHfO) NFNs were demonstrated for the first time. Meanwhile, the mechanisms involved in the grain-boundary modulation for polycrystalline metal-oxide nanofibers were discussed. When the high-k ZrO _x dielectric thin films were integrated into the FETs, the field-effect mobility and operating voltage were further improved to be 25 cm² V^-1 s^-1 and 3 V, respectively. This is one of the best device performances among the reported nanofibers-based FETs. These results demonstrated the potencies of the capillary-driven welding process and grain-boundary modulation mechanism for metal-oxide NFNs, which could be applicable for high-performance, large-scale, and low-power functional electronics.

Electronic Devices Based on Oxide Thin Films Fabricated by Fiber-to-Film Process

Technical development for thin-film fabrication is essential for emerging metal-oxide (MO) electronics. Although impressive progress has been achieved in fabricating MO thin films, the challenges still remain. Here, we report a versatile and general thermal-induced nanomelting technique for fabricating MO thin films from the fiber networks, briefly called fiber-to-film (FTF) process. The high quality of the FTF-processed MO thin films was confirmed by various investigations. The FTF process is generally applicable to numerous technologically relevant MO thin films, including semiconducting thin films (e.g., In₂O₃, InZnO, and InZrZnO), conducting thin films (e.g., InSnO), and insulating thin films (e.g., AlO _x). By optimizing the fabrication process, In₂O₃/AlO _x thin-film transistors (TFTs) were successfully integrated by fully FTF processes. High-performance TFT was achieved with an average mobility of ∼25 cm²/(Vs), an on/off current ratio of ∼10⁷, a threshold voltage of ∼1 V, and a device yield of 100%. As a proof of concept, one-transistor-driven pixel circuit was constructed, which exhibited high controllability over the light-emitting diodes. Logic gates based on fully FTF-processed In₂O₃/AlO _x TFTs were further realized, which exhibited good dynamic logic responses and voltage amplification by a factor of ∼4. The FTF technique presented here offers great potential in large-area and low-cost manufacturing for flexible oxide electronics.

One-Step Synthesis of Co-Doped In2O3 Nanorods for High Response of Formaldehyde Sensor at Low Temperature

Uniform and monodisperse Co-doped In₂O₃ nanorods were fabricated by a facile and environmentally friendly hydrothermal strategy that combined the subsequent annealing process, and their morphology, structure, and formaldehyde (HCHO) gas sensing performance were investigated systematically. Both pure and Co-doped In₂O₃ nanorods had a high specific surface area, which could offer abundant reaction sites to gas molecular diffusion and improve the response of the gas sensor. Results revealed that the In₂O₃/1%Co nanorods exhibited a higher response of 23.2 for 10 ppm of HCHO than that of the pure In₂O₃ nanorods by 4.5 times at 130 °C. More importantly, the In₂O₃/1%Co nanorods also presented outstanding selectivity and long-term stability. The superior gas sensing properties were mainly attributed to the incorporation of Co, which suggested the important role of the amount of oxygen vacancies and adsorbed oxygen in enhancing HCHO sensing performance of In₂O₃ sensors.

Enhancement of the Device Performance and the Stability with a Homojunction-structured Tungsten Indium Zinc Oxide Thin Film Transistor

Tungsten-indium-zinc-oxide thin-film transistors (WIZO-TFTs) were fabricated using a radio frequency (RF) co-sputtering system with two types of source/drain (S/D)-electrode material of conducting WIZO (homojunction structure) and the indium-tin oxide (ITO) (heterojunction structure) on the same WIZO active-channel layer. The electrical properties of the WIZO layers used in the S/D electrode and the active-channel layer were adjusted through oxygen partial pressure during the deposition process. To explain enhancements of the device performance and stability of the homojunction-structured WIZO-TFT, a systematic investigation of correlation between device performance and physical properties at the interface between the active layer and the S/D electrodes such as the contact resistance, surface/interfacial roughness, interfacial-trap density, and interfacial energy-level alignments was conducted. The homojunction-structured WIZO-TFT exhibited a lower contact resistance, smaller interfacial-trap density, and flatter interfacial roughness than the WIZO-TFT with the heterojunction structure. The 0.09 eV electron barrier of the homojunction-structured WIZO-TFT is lower than the 0.21 eV value that was obtained for the heterojunction-structured WIZO-TFT. This reduced electron barrier may be attributed to enhancements of device performance and stability, that are related to the carrier transport.