4,218 publications from this institution
In this paper, uniform hydroxyapatite (HA) nanowires of width 60 nm and length 1 µm are synthesized by solvothermal synthesis. The formation process of the nanowires has been elaborated from the structure within the reverse micelles by the time-resolved fluorescence quenching technique. The results reveal that the formation of amorphous nuclear/surfactant complex and the electrostatic field within the reverse micelles maintain the unidirectional, irreversible fusion of reverse micelles, leading to the growth of nanowires in one direction. In the solvothermal synthesis, the pressure generated in the autoclave is estimated. The results suggest that the products are prepared under stable conditions without intense shearing stress where it is favourable for the formation of long and uniform HA nanowires.
Triboelectric Nanogenerators (TENGs) have been regarded as an effective method to solve the energy problem since they were first demonstrated in 2012. Due to their high-power generation and low cost, TENGs have been widely applied in the fields of energy, security, biomedicine, the environment, and so on. For now, many researchers are focusing on contact electrification (CE) and surface modification in order to discover the fundamental CE mechanism and approaches to further enhance the performance of TENG devices. In this work, we employ gamma radiation ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="m1"><mml:mtext>γ</mml:mtext></mml:math> ray) to induce surface modifications on the dielectric materials (polymers in this work) and study its influence on CE. It is found that, due to the high energy of <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="m2"><mml:mtext>γ</mml:mtext></mml:math> ray, some chemical bonds in polymers are destroyed and reformed. This changes the electron density of the polymer molecule, and thus varies the electron transfer ability of the dielectric materials. Afterward, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) become more negative, and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) become the opposite. Kapton, in particular, remains stable even after 1 MGy-dose radiation. This study reconfirms that electron transfer is the dominant process for polymers-related CE. It also suggests that triboelectric nanogenerators could be fabricated with materials possessing a high anti-radiation ability, and used for sensing or energy generation in space or other environments where radiation exists.
With the advancements in materials science and micro/nanoengineering, the field of wearable electronics has experienced a rapid growth and significantly impacted and transformed various aspects of daily human life. These devices enable individuals to conveniently access health assessments without visiting hospitals and provide continuous, detailed monitoring to create comprehensive health data sets for physicians to analyze and diagnose. Nonetheless, several challenges continue to hinder the practical application of wearable electronics, such as skin compliance, biocompatibility, stability, and power supply. In this review, we address the power supply issue and examine recent innovative self-powered technologies for wearable electronics. Specifically, we explore self-powered sensors and self-powered systems, the two primary strategies employed in this field. The former emphasizes the integration of nanogenerator devices as sensing units, thereby reducing overall system power consumption, while the latter focuses on utilizing nanogenerator devices as power sources to drive the entire sensing system. Finally, we present the future challenges and perspectives for self-powered wearable electronics.
Ferroelectric materials use both the pyroelectric effect and piezoelectric effect for energy conversion. A ferroelectric BaTiO3 -based pyro-piezoelectric sensor system is demonstrated to detect temperature and pressure simultaneously. The voltage signal of the device is found to enhance with increasing temperature difference with a sensitivity of about 0.048 V °C-1 and with applied pressure with a sensitivity of about 0.044 V kPa-1 . Moreover, no interference appears in the output voltage signals when piezoelectricity and pyroelectricity are conjuncted in the device. A novel 4 × 4 array sensor system is developed to sense real-time temperature and pressure variations induced by a finger. This system has potential applications in machine intelligence and man-machine interaction.
A novel approach converts nanoscale mechanical energy into electric energy for self-powering nanodevices.In our own work, we've used piezoelectric zinc-oxide nanowire (ZnO NW) arrays to demonstrate a novel approach for converting nanoscale mechanical energy into electric energy. Here, we review the fundamental principle behind the nanogenerator, present an approach for improving its performance, and discuss some of the challenges we face in pushing this technology to reach its potential.