Conjugated polymers attracted much attention in the past few decades due to their wide applications in various optoelectronic devices and circuits. The charge transport process in conjugated polymers mainly occurs in the intrachain and interchain parts, where the interchain charge transport is generally slower than intrachain transport and may slow down the whole charge transport properties. Aiming at this issue, herein we employ semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (s-SWNTs) as efficient charge-transporting jointing channels between conjugated polymer chains for improving the charge transport performance. Taking the typical conjugated polymer, ploy-N-alkyl-diketopyrrolopyrrole- dithienylthieno[3,2-b]thiophene (PDPP-TT) as an example, polymer thin film transistors (PTFTs) based on the optimized blended films of PDPP-TT/s-SWNTs exhibit an obviously increasing device performance compared with the devices based on pure PDPP-TT films, with the hole and electron mobility increased from 2.32 to 12.32 cm2 V−1 s−1 and from 2.02 to 5.77 cm2 V−1 s−1, respectively. This result suggests the importance of forming continuous conducting channels in conjugated polymer thin films, which can also be extended to other polymeric electronic and optoelectronic devices to promote their potential applications in large-area, low-cost and high performance polymeric electronic devices and circuits.

Because of their cost-effective synthesis and appropriate bandgap opening by various mechanisms, single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) exhibit significant promise for highly efficient near-infrared photodetection. In this work, the first investigation of manipulating the electrode contact and exciton effect is performed on photocurrent generation of SWCNT transistors by separately depositing Cr or Pd as symmetric source/drain electrodes. Two different photoconducting behaviors of the devices, namely localized and global photocurrent generations, are then observed, where these effects are attributed to thermally assisted tunneling at the 1D-SWCNTs/3D-metal contact. A phototransistor with global photocurrent generation is demonstrated having a typical photoconductive effect with a responsivity of 2 A W-1 at lambda = 785 nm and a fast rise (decay) time of approximate to 7.35 mu s (11.8 mu s). However, the corresponding optical response at 2000 nm is still weak due to low incident photon energy and large exciton binding energy. By further spin coating PbS quantum dots onto the SWCNTs channel, the optical response can be greatly enhanced for 2000 nm irradiation. All these results can not only illustrate the photoresponse of SWCNTs but also indicate that photogating plays a crucial role in these devices, providing valuable insights for the performance enhancement.

在过去的几十年中,共轭聚合物因其在光电器件中的广泛应用受到广泛关注.共轭聚合物中的电荷传输过程主要由链内和链间两部分组成,其中链间电荷传输通常低于链内传输,并且可能降低整个电荷输运性质.针对该问题,本文提出了将半导体单壁碳纳米管（sSWNTs）作为共轭聚合物链间的有效电荷传输通道以改善电荷传输性能的概念.使用典型的共轭聚合物PDPP-TT作为示例,将优化的PDPP-TT/s-SWNTs与纯PDPP-TT薄膜的器件相比,器件性能明显提高,空穴迁移率从2.32增加到12.32 cm~2V -1 s -1 ,而电子迁移率从2.02增加到5.77 cm~2V -1 s -1 .该结果表明在共轭聚合物薄膜中形成连续导电通道的重要性,此概念也可以扩展到其他聚合物器件中,以推进其在大面积、低成本、高性能聚合物电子器件和电路中的应用.

Towards future applications, like nanoelectronic devices, techniques to obtain single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) with specific electronic types (semiconducting or metallic ones) are urgently required. Herein, we developed a rational approach for the preferential etching of either metallic or semiconducting SWNTs assisted by selective adsorption of molecules onto the corresponding SWNTs. The adsorbed molecules were easily oxidized under a temperature below the threshold for the etching of SWNTs, and the heat generated during oxidation could accelerate the etching process of nearby SWNTs. Based on this design, we could obtain semiconducting-enriched or metallic-enriched SWNT arrays with a purity of 93% and 86% assisted by the adsorption of different molecules. Further in-situ observation by polarized optical microscope ensured the acceleration of the etching process of SWNTs adsorbed by the molecular igniters. Our method combines the advantages of solution separation (high selectivity and diversity) and gas-phase etching clean and high efficiency), providing more feasibility in obtaining SWNT horizontal arrays with uniform properties.

We show that the performance of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) based infrared photodetector can be greatly enhanced through the combination with colloidal PbS quantum dots (QDs). To improve the photo-induced charge transport efficiency and the carrier mobility, the colloidal PbS QDs are modified by short-chain inorganic. Under illumination, the light-induced electron-hole pairs can be effectively separated by the internal electric field formed at the interfaces between SWCNTS and PbS QDs, which will lead to the increase of both conductivities in them. Photocurrent is formed under the driving of source-drain voltage (Vds) applied by the interdigital finger electrodes. Our hybrid phototransistor achieves a responsivity of 7.2 A/W, a specific detectivity (defined below) of 7.1×1010 Jones, and a response time of 1.58 ms at the same time under 1550-nm illumination with low intensity. Through gate voltage tuning, the responsivity can be increased to 353.4 A/W. In addition, our hybrid phototransistor is stable, low-cost, and compatible with complementary metal oxide semiconductor, which benefits a lot in real applications.

Direct growth of chirality-controlled single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) with metal catalyst free strategy, like cloning or epitaxial growth, has suffered from the low efficiency. The underlying problem is the activation of seed edge. Here an unexpectedly efficient microwave-assisted pathway to regenerate SWNTs from carbon fragments on SiO2 /Si substrate is demonstrated via Raman spectroscopy and atomic force microscope (AFM) characterization. In this attempt, microwave irradiation provides fast heating to remove polar groups bonded to carbon nanotubes and reduce the spontaneous closure of tubes' open ends. The survived SWNT and carbon fragments connected to it after plasma treatment are simply microwaved and then they serve as the template for regeneration. Scanning electron microscope and AFM characterizations indicate that the efficiency of the regeneration can reach 100%. And the regenerated SWNT has been proved without any change in chirality compared to the original SWNT. Electrical measurements on regenerated carbon nanotube films indicate 1 and 2 times increase in on/off ratio and on-state current respectively than original carbon nanotube films obtained from solution-phase separation, confirming the improvement of SWNT's quality. The microwave-assisted regeneration is found to be highly effective and would be applied to improve the cloning efficiency of carbon nanotubes potentially.

Semiconducting single‐walled carbon nanotubes (s‐SWNTs) are regarded as an important candidate for infrared (IR) optical detection due to their excellent intrinsic properties. However, the strong binding energy of excitons in s‐SWNTs seriously impedes the development of s‐SWNTs IR photodetector. This Communication reports an IR photodetector with highly pure s‐SWNTs and γ‐graphdiyne. The heterojunctions between the two materials can efficiently separate the photogenerated excitons. In comparison to device fabricated only with s‐SWNTs, this IR detector shows a uniform response in the whole channel of the device. The response time is demonstrated to be below 1 ms. The optimal responsivity and detectivity approximately reach 0.4 mA W−1 and 5 × 106 cmHz1/2 W−1, respectively.

In the past few years, three‐dimensional self‐supporting porous magnetic assemblies (3D‐SPMAs) have emerged as a new research area in materials science because of their combined features of three‐dimensional self‐supporting porous assemblies (3D‐SPAs) and magnetic materials. Due to these attributes, 3D‐SPMAs gain numerous tempting properties such as magnetism‐induced actuating, magnetic shape memory effects, and alternative magnetic field (AMF) induced heat generation, showcasing huge potential in diverse applications stretching over water remediation, actuators, biomedical therapy, etc. Especially, 3D‐SPMAs displayed eminent potential in water remediation for their large processing capacity, remote controllability, and magnetic‐field‐mediated wettability. With the rising interest in 3D‐SPAs, the increasing understanding of magnetic materials, and the flourish of materials preparation technique, an upsurge has appeared in 3D‐SPMAs and thus managing them a class of emerging and promising functional materials. However, currently there are rarely review papers concerning 3D‐SPMAs. In this light, this review aims to express a comprehensive overview of this young field and fuel further innovations for preparation methods and practical applications of 3D‐SPMAs. The focus is placed on the synthetic strategies and applications especially in water remediation. The potential opportunities and challenges are also discussed.

In the past few years, three-dimensional self-supporting porous magnetic assemblies (3D-SPMAs) have emerged as a new research area in materials science because of their combined features of three-dimensional self-supporting porous assemblies (3D-SPAs) and magnetic materials. Due to these attributes, 3D-SPMAs gain numerous tempting properties such as magnetism-induced actuating, magnetic shape memory effects, and alternative magnetic field (AMF) induced heat generation, showcasing huge potential in diverse applications stretching over water remediation, actuators, biomedical therapy, etc. Especially, 3D-SPMAs displayed eminent potential in water remediation for their large processing capacity, remote controllability, and magnetic-field-mediated wettability. With the rising interest in 3D-SPAs, the increasing understanding of magnetic materials, and the flourish of materials preparation technique, an upsurge has appeared in 3D-SPMAs and thus managing them a class of emerging and promising functional materials. However, currently there are rarely review papers concerning 3D-SPMAs. In this light, this review aims to express a comprehensive overview of this young field and fuel further innovations for preparation methods and practical applications of 3D-SPMAs. The focus is placed on the synthetic strategies and applications especially in water remediation. The potential opportunities and challenges are also discussed.

Homogeneous, hierarchical-porosity and highly hydrophobic conjugated microporous polymer (CMP) aerogels are facilely prepared assisted by fluorosurfactants. The fluorosurfactants show several roles in controlling the gelation process, modulating pore structures, and raising the hydrophobicity of materials, thus giving rise to aerogels with exceptional gas sorption and oil cleanup performance.

Tin oxide (SnO2)/graphene composite is synthesized via a simple wet chemical method using graphene oxide and SnCl2 center dot 2H(2)O as raw materials. Graphene of high reduction degree in the composite can provide high conductivity and large-current discharge capacity. SnO2 nanoparticles with dimension around 5 nm are uniformly distributed on the graphene matrix.The SnO2/graphene composite exhibits outstanding electrochemical performance such as high reversible capacities, good cycling stability and excellent high-rate discharge performance. The initial discharge and charge capacities are 1995.8 mAh g(-1) and 1923.5 mAh g(-1), respectively. After 40 cycles, the reversible discharge capacity is still maintained at 1545.7 mAh g(-1) at the current density of 1 A g(-1), indicating that the composite is a promising alternative anode material used for high-storage lithium ion batteries. Crown Copyright (C) 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.