Flexible electronics and optoelectronics of 2D van der Waals materials

Flexible electronics and optoelectronics exhibit inevitable trends in next-generation intelligent industries,including healthcare and wellness,electronic skins,the automotive industry,and foldable or rollable displays.Traditional bulk-material-based flexible devices considerably rely on lattice-matched crystal structures and are usually plagued by unavoidable chemical disorders at the interface.Two-dimensional van der Waals materials(2D VdWMs)have exceptional multifunctional properties,including large specific area,dangling-bond-free interface,plane-to-plane van der Waals interactions,and excellent mechanical,electrical,and optical properties.Thus,2D VdWMs have considerable application potential in functional intelligent flexible devices.To utilize the unique properties of 2D VdWMs and their van der Waals heterostructures,new designs and configurations of electronics and optoelectronics have emerged.However,these new designs and configurations do not consider lattice mismatch and process incompatibility issues.In this review,we summarized the recently reported 2D VdWM-based flexible electronic and optoelectronic devices with various functions thoroughly.Moreover,we identified the challenges and opportunities for further applications of 2D VdWM-based flexible electronics and optoelectronics.

Universal transfer of full-class metal electrodes for barrier-free two-dimensional semiconductor contacts

Metal–semiconductor contacts are crucial components in semiconductor devices.Ultrathin two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenide semiconductors can sustain transistor scaling for next-generation integrated circuits.However,their performance is often degraded by conventional metal deposition,which results in a high barrier due to chemical disorder and Fermi-level pinning(FLP).Although,transferring electrodes can address these issues,they are limited in achieving universal transfer of full-class metals due to strong adhesion between pre-deposited metals and substrates.Here,we propose a nanobelt-assisted transfer strategy that can avoid the adhesion limitation and enables the universal transfer of over 20 different types of electrodes.Our contacts obey the Schottky–Mott rule and exhibit a FLP of S=0.99.Both the electron and hole contacts show record-low Schottky barriers of 4.2 and 11.2 meV,respectively.As a demonstration,we construct a doping-free WSe_(2) inverter with these high-performance contacts,which exhibits a static power consumption of only 58 pW.This strategy provides a universal method of electrode preparation for building high-performance post-Moore electronic devices.

A buried Neolithic paddy soil reveals loss of microbial functional diversity after modern rice cultivation

It has been documented that human activities are causing the rapid loss of taxonomic, phylogenetic, genetic and functional diversity in soils. However, it remains unclear how modern intensive rice cultivation impacts the soil microbiome and its functionality. Here we examined the microbial composition and function differences between a buried Neolithic paddy soil and an adjacent, currently-cultivated paddy soil using high throughput metagenomics technologies. Our results showed that the currently cultivated soil contained about 10-fold more microbial biomass than the buried one. Analyses based on both 16S rRNA genes and functional gene array showed that the currently cultivated soil had significantly higher phylogenetic diversity, but less functional diversity than the buried Neolithic one. The community structures were significantly different between modern and ancient soils, with functional structure shifting towards accelerated organic carbon （C） degradation and nitrogen （N） transfor- mation in the modem soils. This study implies that, modern intensive rice cultivation has substantially altered soil microbial functional structure, leading to functional homogenization and the promotion of soil ecological functions related to the acceleration of nutrient cycling which is necessary for high crop yields.

Crystallographic orientation dependence on nanoscale friction behavior of energetic β-HMX crystal

Tribology behaviors of energetic crystals play critical roles in the friction-induced hotspot in highenergy explosive,however,the binder and energetic crystals are not distinguished properly in previous investigations.In this study,for the first time,the nanoscale friction ofβ-octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro1,3,5,7-tetrazocine(β-HMX)crystal is studied with nanoscratch tests under the ramping load mode.The results show that the nanoscale friction and wear ofβ-HMX crystal,as a typical energetic material,is highly depended on the applied load.The friction coefficient ofβ-HMX crystal is initially high when no discernible wear is observed,and then it decreases to a stable value which varies from~0.2 to~0.7,depending on the applied load,scratch direction,and crystal planes.Theβ-HMX(011)surfaces show weakly friction and wear anisotropy behavior;in contrast,theβ-HMX(110)surfaces show strongly friction and wear anisotropy behavior where the friction coefficient,critical load for the elastic–plastic deformation transition and plastic–cracking deformation transition,and deformation index at higher normal load are highly depended on the scratch directions.Further analyses indicate the slip system and direction ofβ-HMX surfaces play key roles in determining the nanoscale friction and wear ofβ-HMX surfaces.The obtained results can provide deeper insight into the friction and wear of energetic crystal materials.