Flexible cold cathode with ultralow threshold field designed through wet chemical route

A windable and stretchable three-dimensional all-inorganic membrane for efficient oil/water separation

There is strong interest in windable and stretchable membranes to meet the technological demands of practical water treatments. Oil/water separating membranes of this type is still significantly underdeveloped. Here, we reported a windable and stretchable membrane with three-dimensional structure for efficient oil/water separation. This membrane is made of ZnO nanorods arrays conformally grown on woven carbon microfibers. This three-dimensional architecture endows the fabricated membrane with highly windable and stretchable properties, at the same time ensures ZnO nanorods fully exposed outwards on the membrane surface. Due to its superior hydrophilicity and oleophobicity of ZnO nanorods, this all-inorganic membrane exhibits outstanding antifouling property, with the foulants on membrane surfaces easily removed by simple physical cleaning without chemicals. The membrane can effectively separate both oil/saline-water mixtures and oil-in-water emulsions, solely driven by gravity, with extremely high permeation flux of 20933.4 L m^-2 h^-1 and high separation efficiency over 99%.

Optimizing the Field Emission Properties of ZnO Nanowire Arrays by Precisely Tuning the Population Density and Application in Large-Area Gated Field Emitter Arrays

Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires are prepared for application in large area gated field emitter arrays (FEAs). By oxidizing Al-coated Zn films, the population density of the ZnO nanowires was tuned precisely by varying the thickness of the Al film. The nanowire density decreased linearly as the thickness of the Al film increased. Optimal field emission properties with a turn-on field of 6.21 V μm^-1 and current fluctuations less than 1% are obtained. This can be explained by the minimized screening effect and good electrical conductivity of the back-contact layer. The mechanism responsible for the linear variation in the nanowire density is investigated in detail. Addressable FEAs using the optimal ZnO nanowire cathodes were fabricated and applied in a display device. Good gate-controlled characteristics and the display of video images are realized. The results indicate that ZnO nanowires could be applied in large area FEAs.

ZnO-(Cu/Ag)TCNQ heterostructure network over flexible platform for enhanced cold cathode application

Multistage field emitters consisting of organic/inorganic hybrid nanostructures with branched geometry are designed via a two-step protocol: a simple wet chemical method followed by a vapor-solid-phase technique. (Cu/Ag)TCNQ (copper/silver-7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane) nanowires (NWs) were grown hierarchically on zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods (NRs) to form ZnO-(Cu/Ag)TCNQ heterostructure assemblies. By monitoring the metallic Cu and Ag coating thickness on ZnO NRs, precise control over the morphology and orientations of the secondary organic NWs is achieved. In-depth analysis of electron field emission (FE) behavior of the ZnO-(Cu/Ag)TCNQ-based hierarchy suggests highest emission performance with low turn-on as well as threshold fields of 1.15 and 3.75 V μm(-1) respectively from the morphology-optimized hierarchy. Beneficial orientation of the branched organic NWs ensures sequential electric field enhancement in the consecutive stem and branches whereas its low work function eases electron emission; these aspects combined together render an overall enhancement in the emission behavior of the hybrid system. As compared to individual building units, the heterostructures show improved field electron emission. Additionally, successful construction of this novel hybrid over a fabric platform displays great potential in opening up new pathways in the highly-anticipated field of flexible electronics.

Spontaneous hyper-branching in ZnO nanostructures: morphology dependent electron emission and light detection

The structure and intrinsic defect-induced electron field emission and photodetection are monitored in ZnO nanoforms with assorted morphology prepared in ambient conditions via a facile wet chemical approach.

Structural interpretation, growth mechanism and optical properties of ZnO nanorods synthesized by a simple wet chemical route

ZnO nanorods are synthesized at room temperature through a simple chemical process without using any template or capping agent.

Recent advances in low temperature, solution processed morphology tailored ZnO nanoarchitectures for electron emission and photocatalysis applications

A comprehensive review is given on recent developments of multidimensional nanostructural ZnO processed via low temperature solution approaches and their functional prospect in field emission and environmental remediation.

Organic nanowire hierarchy over fabric platform for flexible cold cathode

Organic charge transfer (CT) complexes initiated a growing interest in modern electronic devices owing to their easy processability and unique characteristics. In this work, three-dimensional field emitters comprising metal-organic charge transfer complex nanostructures of AgTCNQ and CuTCNQ (TCNQ, 7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane) over flexible fabric substrate are realized. Deliberate control over the reaction parameter during organic solid phase reaction leads to modification in structural parameters of the nanowires (i.e. length, diameter) as well as their arrangement atop the carbon fibers. The optimized arrays of AgTCNQ and CuTCNQ nanowires exhibit excellent field electron emission performance with very low turn-on (1.72 and 2.56 V μm(-1)) and threshold fields (4.21 and 6.33 V μm(-1)) respectively, which are comparable to those of the best organic field emitters reported to date. The underlying conducting carbon cloth with special woven-like geometry not only offers a flexible platform for nanowire growth, but also provides an additional field enhancement to ease the electron emission.

Ultra-thin graphene edges at the nanowire tips: a cascade cold cathode with two-stage field amplification

A multistage field emitter based on graphene-linked ZnO nanowire array is realized by means of spin-coating a graphene dispersion (reduced graphene oxide) over a nanostructured platform followed by plasma modification. Spin-coating leads to interlinking of graphene sheets between the neighboring nanowires whereas plasma etching in the subsequent step generates numerous ultra-sharp graphene edges at the nanowire tips. The inherent tendency of graphene to lay flat over a plane substrate can easily be bypassed through the currently presented nanostructure platform based technique. The turn-on and threshold field significantly downshifted compared to the individual components in the cascade emitter. Through the facile electron transfer from nanowires to graphene due to band bending at the ZnO-graphene interface together with multistage geometrical field enhancement at both the nanowire and graphene edges remain behind this enriched field emission from the composite cold cathode. This strategy will open up a new direction to integrate the functionalities of both the graphene array and several other inorganic nanostructure array for practical electronic devices.

Hierarchical graphene nanocones over 3D platform of carbon fabrics: a route towards fully foldable graphene based electron source

A three dimensional field emitter comprising hierarchical nanostructures of graphene over flexible fabric substrate is presented. The nanostructuring is realized through plasma treatment of graphene, coaxially deposited over individual carbon fiber by means of simple aqueous phase electrophoretic deposition technique. Hierarchical graphene nanocone, acting as a cold electron emitter, exhibits outstanding electron emission performance with a turn-on field as low as 0.41 V μm(-1) and a threshold field down to 0.81 V μm(-1). Electric field modification around the special woven like geometry of the underlying base fabric substrate serves as the booster to the nanostructured graphene related field amplification at the electron emission site. Superb robustness in the emission stability can be attributed to suppressed joule heating on behalf of higher inborn accessible surface area of graphene nanocone as well as excellent electrical and thermal conductivity of both the graphene and carbon fabrics. Superior flexibility of this high-performance graphene based emitter ensures their potential use in completely foldable and wearable field emission devices.