Application of Atmospheric-Pressure-Plasma-Jet Modified Flexible Graphite Sheets in Reduced-Graphene-Oxide/Polyaniline Supercapacitors

In this study, flexible and low-cost graphite sheets modified by atmospheric pressure plasma jet are applied to reduced-graphene-oxide/polyaniline supercapacitors. Surface treatment by atmospheric pressure plasma jet can make the hydrophobic surface of graphite into a hydrophilic surface and improve the adhesion of the screen-printed reduced-graphene-oxide/polyaniline on the graphite sheets. After the fabrication of reduced-graphene-oxide/polyaniline supercapacitors with polyvinyl alcohol/H2SO4 gel electrolyte, pseudo-capacitance and electrical double capacitance can be clearly identified by the measurement of cyclic voltammetry. The fabricated supercapacitor exhibits specific capacitance value of 227.32 F/g and areal capacitance value of 28.37 mF/cm2 with a potential scan rate of 2 mV/s. Meanwhile, the capacitance retention rate can reach 86.9% after 1000-cycle cyclic voltammetry test. A light-emitting diode can be lit by the fabricated reduced-graphene-oxide/polyaniline supercapacitors, which confirms that the supercapacitors function well and can potentially be used in a circuit.

Demonstration of Solar Cell on a Graphite Sheet with Carbon Diffusion Barrier Evaluation

An amorphous Si (a-Si) solar cell with a back reflector composed of zinc oxide (ZnO) and silver (Ag) is potentially the most plausible and flexible solar cell if a graphite sheet is used as the substrate. Graphite supplies lightness, conductivity and flexibility to devices. When a graphite sheet is used as the substrate, carbon can diffuse into the Ag layer in the subsequent p-i-n process at 200–400 °C. To prevent this, we added an oxide layer as a carbon diffusion barrier between the carbon substrate and the back reflector. For the carbon diffusion barrier, silicon oxide (SiO₂) or tin oxide (SnO_x) was used. We evaluated the thermal stability of the back reflector of a carbon substrate using secondary-ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) to analyze the carbon diffusion barrier material. We confirmed the deposition characteristics, reflectance and prevention of carbon diffusion with and without the barrier. Finally, the structures were incorporated into the solar cell and their performances compared. The results showed that the back reflectors that were connected to a carbon diffusion barrier presented better performance, and the reflector with an SnO_x layer presented the best performance.

Fundamental Study for a Graphite-Based Microelectromechanical System

We aimed to develop a process for constructing a carbon-based microelectromechanical system (MEMS). First, we prepared a highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) crystal microsheet by exfoliation. We fabricated cantilevers and a double-clamped beam by controlling the thickness of the HOPG microsheet using a MEMS process. Second, we used a graphite sheet with contour line adhesion by metal sputter deposition. Third, we used a highly accurate graphite sheet with face adhesion and laser cutting. The first resonance frequencies were evaluated. We confirmed improvement in Q values to 1/10 level of a quarts vibrator, high performance, and a simple structure.

Highly Reproducible Au-Decorated ZnO Nanorod Array on a Graphite Sensor for Classification of Human Aqueous Humors

Gold-decorated, vertically grown ZnO nanorods (NRs) on a flexible graphite sheet (Au/ZnONRs/G) were developed for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-based biosensing to identify trace amounts of human aqueous humors. This Au/ZnONRs/G SERS-functionalized sensor was fabricated via two steps: hydrothermal synthesis-induced growth of ZnO NRs on graphite sheets for nanostructure fabrication, followed by e-beam evaporator-induced gold metallization on ZnONRs/G for SERS functionalization. The thickness of the Au layer and the height of the ZnO NRs for enhancing SERS performance were adjusted to maximize Raman intensity, and the optimized Au/ZnONRs/G nanostructures were verified by the electric finite element computational models to maximize the electric fields. The proposed Au/ZnONRs/G SERS sensor showed an enhancement factor of 2.3 × 10⁶ via rhodamine 6G Raman probe and excellent reproducibility (relative standard deviation of <10%) via Raman mapping of a SERS active area with a square of 100 × 100 μm². To evaluate the actual bioapplicability of point-of-care-testing (POCT) analysis in clinics, SERS data acquisition was performed with an integration time of 1 s from a 1 μL analytic droplet of the sample. The performance of this Au/ZnONRs/G sensor was evaluated using human aqueous humors with cataract and two oxidative stress-induced eye diseases, age-related macular degeneration, and diabetic macular edema. These three eye diseases could be identified without any labeling or modification using the Au/ZnONRs/G SERS sensor and the computational algorithm incorporating a support vector machine and multivariate statistical prediction. Therefore, these findings indicate that our label-free, highly reproducible and flexible Au/ZnONRs/G SERS-functionalized sensor supported by a multivariate statistics-derived bioclassification method has great potential in POCT applications for identifying eye diseases.