The efficiency of solar cells made from a conjugated polymer blended with a fullerene derivative has risen from around 1 % to over 9 % in the last ten years, making organic photovoltaic technology a viable contender for commercialization.
10 October 2011
Research on organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) has been revitalized, partly due to the debut of the OLED TV by SONY in 2008. While there is still plenty of room for improvement in efficiency, cost-effectiveness and longevity, it is timely to report on the advances of light emitting materials, the core of OLEDs, and their future perspectives.
10 October 2011
A new class of polymer materials has been developed that can convert light energy directly into mechanical work, and show a variety of three-dimensional movements simply from exposure to light. These polymer materials can be fabricated into any shape and size using photolithographic methods and it is expected they will be developed for various applications. In this paper recent progress of this interesting class of polymer material is reviewed.
10 October 2011
It has been recently shown that hybrid materials formed by nematic liquid crystals incorporated in complex micro-structured porous matrices are often capable of indefinitely retaining the alignment direction imposed by an electric field. This review examines this new class of material.
10 October 2011
Many electronic systems such as flat-panel displays, optical detectors, and sensor arrays would benefit greatly from mechanical flexibility. Ultraflexible and foldable electronics demonstrate ultimate flexibility, and are highly portable. A major obstacle toward the development of foldable electronics is the fundamental compromise between operation voltage, transistor performance, and mechanical flexibility.
23 August 2011
With the emergence of the printed electronics industry, the development of sensing technologies on non conventional substrates such as plastic foils is on-going.
23 August 2011
Bio-sensing represents one of the most attractive applications of carbon material based electronic devices; nevertheless, the complete integration of bioactive transducing elements still represents a major challenge, particularly in terms of preserving biological function and specificity while maintaining the sensor's electronic performance.
23 August 2011
Today polymer/carbon nanotube (CNT) composites can be found in sports equipment, cars, and electronic devices. The growth of old and new markets in this area has been stimulated by our increased understanding of relevant production and processing methods, as well as the considerable price reduction of industrial CNT grades.
08 July 2011
Preparation of azido-functionalized polymers is gaining increasing attention. We wish to report an innovative, novel strategy for azido functionalization of polymeric materials, coupling plasma technology and solution processed diazo transfer reactions. This novel approach allows the azido group to be introduced downstream of the material preparation, thus preserving its physicochemical and mechanical characteristics, which can be tailored a priori according to the desired application.
11 April 2011
Biological materials have a wide range of mechanical properties matching their biological function. This is achieved via complex structural hierarchies, spanning many length scales, arising from the assembly of different sized building blocks during growth. The interfaces between these building blocks can increase resistance to fracture, join materials of different character, make them deform more easily and provide motility. While they represent only a tiny fraction of the overall volume, interfaces are essential for the integrity and function of the overall tissue. Understanding their construction principles, often based on specialized molecular assemblies, may change our current thinking about composite materials.
10 March 2011