Lubrication Mechanism of Phosphonium Phosphate Ionic Liquid in Nanoscale Single‐Asperity Sliding Contacts

Atomic force microscopy nanotribological tests and laterally‐resolved surface analyses are combined to establish a phenomenological model for the lubrication mechanism of phosphonium phosphate ionic liquid. The ability of this ionic liquid to reduce friction derives from the generation of a densely‐packed boundary layer, whose formation depends on the...

2h

Droplets on Soft Surfaces Exhibit a Reluctance to Coalesce due to an Intervening Wetting Ridge

Intervening wetting ridges formed between neighboring water droplets during condensation on soft surfaces, which hinder droplet coalescence, are observed by cryogenic scanning electron microscopy. A linear elastic model is employed to predict the deformation of a soft surface by the droplets and explain the observed reluctance to coalesce. Abstract...

2h

Thermal and pH Sensitive Composite Membrane for On‐Demand Drug Delivery by Applying an Alternating Magnetic Field

A composite membrane of silk fibroin, microgels, and magnetic nanoparticles whose permeability can be adjusted by temperature/pH for controlled drug release is studied. The temperature induced shrinking/swelling of microgels is stimulated by a magnetic field, and a highly precise, tunable release rate of Rhodamine B model drug is demonstrated. Additionally,...

2h

Van der Waals Epitaxy of Horizontally Orientated Bismuth Iodide/Silicon Heterostructure for Nonvolatile Resistive‐Switching Memory with Multistate Data Storage

Van der Waals epitaxy of bismuth iodide (BiI3) is achieved by using a self‐assembled monolayer of octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) as a buffer layer on silicon. Resistive switching devices with the Si++/OTS/BiI3/Au structure exhibit excellent resistive switching properties with a very high on/off ratio of 109, long‐term stability for data retention, high...

2h

Correlated Electrical and Chemical Nanoscale Properties in Potassium‐Passivated, Triple‐Cation Perovskite Solar Cells

A correlative study investigates the influence of the novel KI‐passivation treatment on halide perovskite solar cell materials. By comparing the local electrical and chemical properties using an array of high‐spatial resolution imaging techniques, this research shows the spatial distribution of excess passivating material and links the nanoscale properties...

3d

Microtubules: Mechanical Stimulation‐Induced Orientation of Gliding Microtubules in Confined Microwells (Adv. Mater. Interfaces 13/2020)

Parallelization of an active matter, microtubules propelled by kinesins, in confined microwells, is demonstrated through mechanical stimulation of the microtubules. This method will be useful in studying dynamics of active biological materials in response to spatiotemporal change of boundary conditions and time‐evolving asymmetry. This work will also...

3d

Engineering the Composition of Heterogeneous Lipid Bilayers to Stabilize Tethered Enzymes

Heterogeneous lipid bilayers offer immense potential as materials for stabilizing a broad range of immobilized enzymes. This stabilizing effect can be explained by the impact of bilayer composition and charge on the strength of LB‐enzyme interactions. These findings provide insight into the role of lipid mixtures as well as surface heterogeneity and...

4d

Improving the Efficiency of Multilayer Organic Light‐Emitting Transistors by Exploring the Hole Blocking Effect

The role of the hole barrier layer in multilayer organic light‐emitting transistors (OLETs) is investigated. A more than twofold increase of the external quantum efficiency with a maximum value of 10.3% is successfully achieved in a green phosphorescent OLET, which highlights the importance of exploring the hole blocking effect in building high efficiency...

4d

Multiscale Patterned Plasmonic Arrays for Highly Sensitive and Uniform SERS Detection

Multiscale patterned plasmonic arrays are fabricated by integration of bottom‐up ligand‐based crystallization and top‐down microwrinkle mediated assembly, enabling programmable control over the pattern configuration. Such plasmonic array shows macroscopic surface topography while maintaining highly ordered nanoscopic structures. Owing to these features,...

4d

Surface Functionalization of Black Phosphorus by Cu: Effective Electron Doping and Enhanced Photoresponse

The effective electron doping of black phosphorus (BP) by surface functionalization of Cu is demonstrated; the electron mobility of BP increases from 63 to 156 cm2 V−1 s−1 after Cu modification. With the formation of the local electric field at the interface, the dissociation of photogenerated excitons is facilitated, leading to an ≈6 times enhancement...

4d