Infomat最新文献

Plasmonic materials enable flexible optical manipulation owing to their unique plasmon resonance, making them highly promising for photoelectronic imaging attenuation. However, designing plasmonic materials capable of multifaceted imaging attenuation remains challenging. This study theoretically designed and experimentally prepared a unique dual nonmetallic plasmonic Ti₃C₂T_x/TiN hybrid. The composite material exhibited excellent performance in multifrequency, active/passive, and polarized multifunctional imaging attenuation. TiN nanoclusters were chemically bonded to Ti₃C₂T_x nanosheets through an ultrasonic-assisted method to form a Ti₃C₂T_x/TiN hybrid. The strong nonmetallic plasmonic coupling within these hybrids enables superior absorption and excellent photothermal conversion. Consequently, MXene/TiN aerosols demonstrated an improvement of approximately 14% in imaging attenuation compared with traditional oil–water aerosols in visible-light imaging. In addition, the hybrid exhibited strong electromagnetic wave absorption, covering nearly the entire 8.96–18 GHz range. Moreover, polarization imaging attenuation improved by 8.3% compared with that of oil–water aerosols, as evidenced by algorithmically dehazed images. Furthermore, the material effectively provided “high-temperature thermal concealment” for far-infrared active imaging attenuation. This study paves the way for developing multifunctional imaging attenuation materials, with significant potential for future imaging attenuation technologies.

The rapid advancements in humanoid robotics and autonomous driving demand smart artificial optoelectronic vision systems that can emulate human-like perception. Although many studies have reported multi-functional visual chips based on artificial optoelectronic synaptic devices, few can simulate complex behavioral characteristics of humans, like specific living habits and physiological adaptations. In this study, we demonstrated MoS₂ optoelectronic synapses capable of exhibiting tunable human-like visual adaptation abilities under various alcohol concentrations, featuring remarkable photo-induced conductance plasticity for emulating alcohol-sensitive human visual recognition. Two working mechanisms involving hydrogen-atom and oxygen-atom doping were unveiled during the concentration-dependent doping process. The visual adaptation abilities were systematically explored by controlling the doping concentration of alcohol molecules, and were further enhanced by electric and optoelectronic stimuli to emulate human-like behaviors, such as slight drunkenness, heavy drunkenness, and sobering up. Under the influence of alcohol molecules and the modulation of device operating voltage, the accuracy of handwritten digit recognition for this device has greatly increased from 78.9% to 94.7%.

The integration of Co single atoms and nanoclusters facilitates synergistic pincer trapping and catalysis of polysulfides, driving high-performance Li-S batteries.

All-perovskite tandem solar cell: a cutting-edge technology designed for efficient and sustainable terrestrial and space energy generation.

The performance of optoelectronic materials has been booming developed. Yet, the traditional solar cell manufacturing techniques, such as spin coating and screen printing, have significant limitations that seem to hinder the further development of solar cell technology. Compared with traditional manufacturing processes, additive manufacturing (AM) boasts advantages such as flexibility in the printing process, precise control over material deposition, and simpler procedures. These features provide a foundation for further enhancing solar cell performance and expanding their applications. This review outlines the superiority of AM compared with traditional solar cell manufacturing methods and highlights how AM has addressed specific challenges currently faced by solar cells. The most widely researched solar cell structures in recent years were briefly reviewed with summarizing their advantages and disadvantages. Then, a comprehensive overview of different manufacturing processes, including traditional printing methods and AM, is presented. Especially, their workflows, characteristics, and impressive innovative applications in solar cell manufacturing were discussed in detail. Finally, based on the current state of research, the review reflects on the future prospects of applying AM technology in space solar energy production, such as integrated printing with protective outer layers together with the solar cells, customized functional structure printing, flexible large-scale printing, and printing of high-performance novel materials with nanoscale and microscale structures.

Considering sustainable development factors such as element abundance, cost, environmental friendliness, and stability, the research and development of novel inorganic non-lead perovskites are very significant. Copper-silver-bismuth iodide (CABI) is a promising solar cell material with halide perovskite genes, possessing eco-friendly, element-rich, and cost-effective characteristics. The fabrication of high-quality CABI films with tailored compositions still poses a substantial hurdle. We developed a CuAgBi₂I₈ material that effectively reduced the bandgap to 1.69 eV by optimizing Bi distribution to create an environment conducive to in-situ redox reactions of Bi with I₂, Cu, and Ag via vapor-phase synthesis. This strategy proved highly effective in synthesizing high-quality CuAgBi₂I₈ compound, accompanied by significant improvements in film quality, including enhanced crystallinity, minimized defects, and reduced non-radiative recombination. The crystal structure of CuAgBi₂I₈ and mechanisms of elemental reactions and diffusion are discussed. Devices featuring the structure FTO/c-TiO₂/m-TiO₂/CuAgBi₂I₈/CuI/Spiro-OMeTAD/carbon achieved a champion efficiency of 3.21%, the highest for CABI solar cells. This work provides a novel idea and approach to governing the gas–solid element diffusion and reaction for high-quality CABI and related halide perovskite films.

High-power broadband near-infrared (NIR) light sources have attracted extensive interest toward emerging non-invasive imaging and detection applications. However, exploring highly stable luminescent materials with targeted broadband NIR emission remains a great challenge. Here, MgAl₂O₄:Cr³⁺ translucent ceramics have been designed and fabricated by a spark plasma sintering method, and a giant redshift of the emission band occurs from 686 to 928 nm due to the decreasing local structural symmetry around the isolated Cr³⁺ ions induced by the abundant cation vacancies. As Cr³⁺ content increases, MgAl₂O₄:6%Cr³⁺ ceramic realizes the optimized external quantum efficiency of 73% with broadband NIR emission centered at 890 nm and a full-width at half-maximum of 315 nm under 450 nm excitation. The next-generation laser-driven light source containing NIR ceramic provides an output power exceeding 2 W and a light conversion efficiency of 22% when pumped with a blue laser of 10 W·mm⁻². The proof-of-concept demonstrations in imaging and detection reveal the advantages of high-power and high-efficiency laser-driven broadband NIR light sources and promote future development in the chemical design of NIR emitters.

Bioinspired soft robots hold great potential to perform tasks in unstructured terrains. Ferroelectric polymers are highly valued in soft robots for their flexibility, lightweight, and electrically controllable deformation. However, achieving large strains in ferroelectric polymers typically requires high driving voltages, posing a significant challenge for practical applications. In this study, we investigate the role of crystalline domain size in enhancing the electrostrain performance of the relaxor ferroelectric polymer poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene-chlorofluoroethylene-fluorinated alkynes) (P(VDF-TrFE-CFE-FA)). Leveraging its remarkable inverse piezoelectric coefficient (|d₃₃*| = 701 pm V⁻¹), we demonstrate that the planar films exhibit a five times larger bending angle than that of commercial PVDF films at low electric fields. Based on this material, we design a petal-structured soft robot that achieves a curvature of up to 4.5 cm⁻¹ at a DC electric field of 30 V μm⁻¹. When integrated into a bipedal soft robot, it manifests outstanding electrostrain performance, achieving rapid locomotion of ~19 body lengths per second (BL s⁻¹) at 10 V μm⁻¹ (560 Hz). Moreover, the developed robot demonstrates remarkable abilities in climbing slopes and carrying heavy loads. These findings open new avenues for developing low-voltage-driven soft robots with significant promise for practical applications.

Metallizing 2D semiconductors is a crucial research area with significant applications, such as reducing the contact resistance at metal/2D semiconductor interfaces. This is a key challenge in the realization of next-generation low-power and high-performance devices. While various methods exist for metallizing Mo- and W-based 2D semiconductors like MoS₂ and WSe₂, effective approaches for Pt-based ones have been lacking. This study demonstrates that platinum dichalcogenides (PtX₂, X = Se or Te) undergo a semiconductor-to-metal transition when grown on niobium dichalcogenides (NbX₂, X = Se or Te). PtX₂/NbX₂ heterostructures were fabricated using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and characterized by Raman spectra, scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS). Raman spectra and STEM confirm the growth of 1T-phase PtX₂ and 1H-phase NbX₂. Both 2D STS mapping and layer-dependent STS show that regardless of their layer numbers, both pristine semiconducting PtSe₂ and PtTe₂ are converted to metallic forms when interfacing with NbSe₂ or NbTe₂. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations suggest that the metallization of PtSe₂ on NbX₂ and PtTe₂ on NbTe₂ results from interfacial orbital hybridization, while for PtTe₂ on NbSe₂, it is due to the strong p-doping effect caused by interfacial charge transfer. Our work provides an effective method for metallizing PtX₂ semiconductors, which may lead to significant applications such as reducing the contact resistance at metal electrode/2D semiconductor interfaces and developing devices like rectifiers, rectenna, and photodetectors based on 2D Schottky diodes.

Prof. Xiaoshuang Chen et al. propose an asymmetric vertical heterojunction with a co-aligned built-in electric field, achieving high-sensitivity multicolor uncooled photoresponse.