Bioengineered Textiles and Nonwovens – the convergence of bio-miniaturisation and electroactive conductive polymers for assistive healthcare, portable power and design-led wearable technology

Today, there is an opportunity to bring together creative design activities to exploit the responsive and adaptive ‘smart’ materials that are a result of rapid development in electro, photo active polymers or OFEDs (organic thin film electronic devices), bio-responsive hydrogels, integrated into MEMS/NEMS devices and systems respectively. Some of these integrated systems are summarised in this paper, highlighting their use to create enhanced functionality in textiles, fabrics and non-woven large area thin films. By understanding the characteristics and properties of OFEDs and bio polymers and how they can be transformed into implementable physical forms, innovative products and services can be developed, with wide implications. The paper outlines some of these opportunities and applications, in particular, an ambient living platform, dealing with human centred needs, of people at work, people at home and people at play. The innovative design affords the accelerated development of intelligent materials (interactive, responsive and adaptive) for a new product & service design landscape, encompassing assistive healthcare (smart bandages and digital theranostics), ambient living, renewable energy (organic PV and solar textiles), interactive consumer products, interactive personal & beauty care (e-Scent) and a more intelligent built environment

Roadmap on Biological Pathways for Electronic Nanofabrication and Materials

Conventional microchip fabrication is energy and resource intensive. Thus, the discovery of new manufacturing approaches that reduce these expenditures would be highly beneficial to the semiconductor industry. In comparison, living systems construct complex nanometer-scale structures with high yields and low energy utilization. Combining the capabilities of living systems with synthetic DNA-/protein-based self-assembly may offer intriguing potential for revolutionizing the synthesis of complex sub-10 nm information processing architectures. The successful discovery of new biologically based paradigms would not only help extend the current semiconductor technology roadmap, but also offer additional potential growth areas in biology, medicine, agriculture and sustainability for the semiconductor industry. This article summarizes discussions surrounding key emerging technologies explored at the Workshop on Biological Pathways for Electronic Nanofabrication and Materials that was held on 16–17 November 2016 at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, CA

Heat transport in strongly anharmonic solids from first principles

In dieser Arbeit beschreiben wir wie nicht-störungstheoretischer Wärmetransport im Rahmen von ab initio-Simulationen und linearer Antworttheorie formuliert werden kann. Die daraus resultierende ab initio-Green-Kubo-Methode ermöglicht die Simulation von Wärmetransport in Festkörpern beliebiger Anharmonizität und ist besonders geeignet um "stark anharmonische" Systeme zu beschreiben in denen störungstheoretische Ansätze unzuverlässig werden. Um die systematische Unterscheidung von harmonischen und anharmonischen Materialien zu ermöglichen führen wir ein "Anharmonizitätsmaß" ein, welches die anharmonischen Beiträge zu den interatomaren Kräften unter thermodynamischen Bedingungen quantifiziert. Mit diesem Anharmonizitätsmaß untersuchen wir typische dynamische Effekte die in stark anharmonischen Materialien auftreten, sowie die Grenzen störungstheoretischer Methoden zur Berechnung von Wärmetransporteigenschaften. Wir zeigen, dass eine negative Korrelation des Anharmonizitätsmaßes mit der Wärmeleitfähigkeit einfacher Kristalle besteht, was die intuitive Auffassung bestärkt, wonach harmonische Materialien bessere Wärmeleiter sind und umgekehrt. Auf diesen Erkenntnissen aufbauend identifizieren wird anharmonische Materialien als Kandidaten für Wärmetransport-Simulationen auf der Suche nach neuen thermischen Isolatoren. Auf diesem Wege identifizieren wir mehrere neue thermische Isolatoren welche potentielle technologische Relevanz als thermische Barrieren oder Thermoelektrika aufweisen könnten, und schlagen diese zur experimentellen Untersuchung vor.In this work, we describe how a non-perturbative heat transport formalism for solids emerges in the framework of ab initio simulations coupled with linear response theory. The resulting ab initio Green Kubo method allows for studying heat transport in solids of arbitrary anharmonic strength, and is particularly suited to describe “strongly anharmonic” systems where per- turbative approaches become unreliable. In order to discern harmonic from anharmonic materials in a systematic way, we introduce an “anharmonicity measure” which quantifies the anharmonic contribution to the interatomic forces under thermodynamic conditions. Using this anharmonicity measure, we investigate typical dynamical effects occurring in strongly anharmonic compounds and investigate the limits of perturbative approaches for the study of thermal transport. We show that this measure negatively correlates with bulk thermal conductivities in simple solids, supporting the intuitive notion that more harmonic materials are better heat conductors and vice versa. Based on these findings, we identify anharmonic compounds as candidates for thermal transport simulations in the search for novel thermal insulators. In this way, we identify several new thermal insulators of potential technological relevance as thermal barriers or thermoelectric materials which we suggest for experimental study

Principles of Surface Chemistry Central To the Reactivity of Organic Semiconductor Materials

Organic thin-films are rapidly becoming implemented as semiconducting materials in electronic devices and as a result, surface reactivity plays an increasingly important role in the improvement of semiconducting properties. My dissertation addresses how organic thin-films react with gaseous molecules. Previous reports of chemical reactions on organic surfaces claim, “phase rebuilding reaction mechanisms,” whereby reactions only proceed if chemisorbed adsorbate molecules are able to traverse through voids in the molecular lattice. The over-assumptions of this model and lack of correlation to reaction temperature make understanding of organic substrate reactivity incomplete. In contrast, I argue applied heat causes deformation of the molecular lattice during reaction thus voids in the molecular lattice cannot be the sole basis for reactivity. Further, I correlate reactivity in solution phase to the solid state in order to determine the driving force of reactivity (lattice energy or chemical structure). My dissertation reveals the uniqueness of reactivity of organic substrates while drawing connections to traditional surface chemistry. Lastly, the role of defects in inducing the reactivity of otherwise unreactive surface was evaluated. Surface-sensitive spectroscopy and topological analysis was performed using techniques such as PM-IRRAS, XPS, AFM, SIMS and optical microscopy were used to monitor the reaction. The results present a sizable step towards the realization of improving interfaces in organic electronics

Economic impact of large public programs: The NASA experience

The economic impact of NASA programs on weather forecasting and the computer and semiconductor industries is discussed. Contributions to the advancement of the science of astronomy are also considered

High Frequency Electrical Transport Properties of Carbon Nanotubes

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have extraordinary electronic properties owing to the unique band structure of graphene and their one-dimensional nature. Their small size and correspondingly small capacitances make them candidates for novel high-frequency devices with cut-off frequencies approaching one terahertz, but their high individual impedance hampers measurements of their high-frequency transport properties. In this dissertation, I describe the fabrication of carbon nanotube Schottky diodes on high-frequency compatible substrates and the measurement of their rectification at frequencies up to 40GHz as a method of examining the high-frequency transport of individual CNTs despite their high impedance. The frequency dependence of the rectified signal is then used to extract the Schottky junction capacitance as a function of applied bias and ambient doping and to look for resonances which might be a signature of a room-temperature Luttinger Liquid