A Rapid, Low-Cost, and Scalable Technique for Printing State-of-the-Art Organic Field-Effect Transistors

In the last few years exciting advances have been achieved in developing printing techniques for organic semiconductors, and impressive mobility values have been reported for the resulting organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). However, not all these techniques are scalable and some of them require additional crystallization steps. This study reports on the fabrication of OFETs employing blends of four benchmark organic semiconductors with polystyrene and demonstrates that applying the same formulation and experimental conditions for printing them, highly reproducible and uniform crystalline films exhibiting high OFET performance are successfully achieved. It is noted that the mobility values achieved here are not the highest reported for the studied materials; however, they are state-of-the-art values and could be regarded as exceptional considering the low cost and fast speed of the fabrication process involved here.This work was mainly funded by the ERC StG 2012 306826 e GAMES and ERC PoC 2014 640120 LAB TECH projects. The authors also thank the Networking Research Center on Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (CIBER BBN), the DGI (Spain) project BE WELL CTQ2013 40480 R, the Generalitat de Catalunya (2014 SGR 17) and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, through the “Severo Ochoa” Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D (SEV 2015 0496). The authors would like to thank the ICTS "NANBIOSIS", more specifically to the Nanotechnology Platform, unit of CIBER BBN at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) for their assistance in ToF SIMS analyses. I. T. acknowledges FPU fellowship from the Ministery and the Materials Science PhD Program of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. F. G. D. P. thanks Universidad Técnica de Ambato and Secretaría de Educación Superior, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación for funding through a doctoral scholarship “Convocatoria abierta 2010”.Peer reviewe

Electrochemically controlled rectification in symmetric single-molecule junctions.

Single-molecule electrochemical science has advanced over the past decades and now extends well beyond molecular imaging, to molecular electronics functions such as rectification and amplification. Rectification is conceptually the simplest but has involved mostly challenging chemical synthesis of asymmetric molecular structures or asymmetric materials and geometry of the two enclosing electrodes. Here we propose an experimental and theoretical strategy for building and tuning in situ (in operando) rectification in two symmetric molecular structures in electrochemical environment. The molecules were designed to conduct electronically via either their lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO; electron transfer) or highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO; "hole transfer"). We used a bipotentiostat to control separately the electrochemical potential of the tip and substrate electrodes of an electrochemical scanning tunneling microscope (EC-STM), which leads to independent energy alignment of the STM tip, the molecule, and the STM substrate. By creating an asymmetric energy alignment, we observed single-molecule rectification of each molecule within a voltage range of ±0.5 V. By varying both the dominating charge transporting LUMO or HOMO energy and the electrolyte concentration, we achieved tuning of the polarity as well as the amplitude of the rectification. We have extended an earlier proposed theory that predicts electrolyte-controlled rectification to rationalize all the observed in situ rectification features and found excellent agreement between theory and experiments. Our study thus offers a way toward building controllable single-molecule rectifying devices without involving asymmetric molecular structures

Structure absorption spectra correlation in a series of 2,6-dimethyl-4-arylpyrylium salts

A combined experimental and theoretical study of the absorption spectra of a group of closely related pyrylium perchlorates 1-11 are presented. Minor changes in the position of the substituents lead to drastic changes in the absorption spectra in this series of compounds. We have attempted to explain the observed changes using the x,y-band notation developed by Balaban and co-workers. Absorption spectra of all compounds are compared with results from time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) and Zerner's intermediate neglect of differential overlap (ZINDO/S) level calculations. Results of the calculations are in good agreement with experimental observations and an interesting correlation between Balaban's notations and the MO transitions are obtained for simple derivatives. It is suggested that for more complex systems such as α - and β -naphthyl substituted systems, the empirical method is not appropriate

Impact of Chemical Weed Management Practices on Yield, Nutrient Uptake and Balance in Soil of High Density Planting Cotton in Deep Vertisols

In order to assess Clomazone 50 EC's effectiveness on seed cotton yield, nutrient uptake, and balance in HDPS cotton in deep Vertisols of the Northern Karnataka region, a field experiment was carried out in 2017–18 and 2018–19. The recommended course of treatment includes pre-emergence applications of Clomazone 50 EC at 250, 500, and 750 g a.i./ha compared to pendimethalin 37.5 CS@680 g a.i./ha, post-emergence applications of pyrithiobac sodium 10 EC and quizalofop ethyl hand weeding at 25 DAS and intercultivation at 50 and 75 days after sowing, as well as weed free. The experiment was set up using a randomised block design with triple replication. The application of Clomazone 50 EC @ 250 g a.i./ha was found to be effective in weed control and enhanced seed cotton yield (38.5%), according to the results. It led to excellent weed control, decreased nitrogen uptake by weeds, and increased nutrient uptake by the crop. Additionally, it leads to the least amount of nutrient losses in terms of uptake and losses. In order to effectively manage weeds in cotton, it was observed that Clomazone 50 EC @ 250 g a.i/ha, followed by pyrithiobac sodium 10 EC @ 75 g a.i./ha + Quizalofop ethyl 5 EC @ 75 g a.i./ha at 25 DAS, were the best applications

Significance of Weed Flora Identification and its Management on Bt Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) Growing Tract of Tungabhadra Command Area

Aims: To identify the weed species in Bt cotton under Tunga-bhadra project command area and to study the effect of sequential application of pre- emergent (PE) and post- emergent herbicides (PoE) on weed growth and to know the efficiency of different weed control practices on weed species. Study Design: The experiment was laid in RBD (Randomized Block Design). Place and Duration of Study: The experiment was conducted at ICAR-Krishi Vigyan Kendra farm, UAS, Raichur situated in TBP command area during kharif season of 2018-19. Methodology: The design was RBD with 11 treatments and replicated thrice. Gross plot size of the field was 7.2 m × 4.8 m and net plot size was 5.4 m ×3.6 m with spacing of 90 x 30 cm. The certified seeds of Jadoo Bt II Cotton with the test weight of 6.5 g was used for sowing. The crop duration was around 6 month Results: Weed flora present in the Bt cotton field were identified and classified based on their morphology. It was divulged that; dicotyledonous weeds were dominant in cotton field. The sequential applications of metolachlor 50 % EC @ 1000 g a.i. ha-1 as PE fb pyrithiobac sodium 10 EC @ 125 g a.i. ha-1 as PoE @ 2-5 leaf stage of weeds fb Inter cultivation (IC) @ 60 DAS reported lower weed count and weed dry matter and reported the highest weed control efficiency (90.22 %) at harvest than the application of diuron 80 % WP as PE fb @ 1500 g a.i. and pendimethalin Pendimethalin 30 EC @ 1250 g a.i. ha-1 as PE followed by pyrithiobac sodium 10 EC @ 125 g a.i. ha-1 as PoE @ 2-5 leaf stage of weeds fb Inter cultivation (IC) @ 60 DAS. Conclusion:  Application of pre-emergent followed by post emergent herbicides control the early and later flush of weeds. It avoids the emergence of broad spectrum weed flushes and weed shift. Integrated herbicidal application along with intercultural operations was found better in keeping weeds under a threshold than following a single method

Determination of Crop Water Requirement and Crop Coefficient at Different Growth Stages of Tomato by Using Weighing Type Lysimeter in Raichur Region

The water requirement for any cropping system is important consideration for designing and managing irrigation systems. Water requirement of crops varies substantially over the growing season mainly due to variation in crop cover and climatic conditions. For estimating crop water requirement of tomato crop, we have taken field experiment in weighing lysimeter for three seasons rabi - (7th September 2021 to 5th January 2022); Summer - (15th January 2022 to 15th May 2022) and Kharif - (6th June 2022 to 4th October 2022). The crop water requirement helps us to develop the crop coefficients for various growth stages (initial, development, mid and late season) for particular climatic conditions. Further, with exact crop coefficients derived from weighing type lysimeter will be helpful for determining water requirement. The results showed that the crop evapotranspiration (ETc) for initial, development, mid-season and late-season being 22.76, 110.71, 173.47 and 68.71 mm, respectively. With respect to crop coefficient (Kc), it is estimated to be 0.38, 0.64, 1.12 and 0.66 for initial, development, mid-season and late season stages, respectively during rabi season. The crop evapotranspiration (ETc) for initial, development, mid-season and late-season being 26.53, 164.76, 235.56 and 121.51 mm, respectively. With respect to crop coefficient (Kc), it is estimated to be 0.56, 0.87, 1.22 and 0.78 for initial, development, mid-season and late season stages, respectively during summer season. The crop evapotranspiration  (ETc) for initial, development, mid-season and late-season being 32.31, 131.38, 173.51 and 60.13 mm, respectively. With respect to Kc, it is estimated to be 0.36, 0.77, 1.13 and 0.74 for initial, development, mid-season and late season stages respectively during kharif season. The measured Kc values were significantly different from the FAO-56 reported values. Therefore, local calibration of crop coefficients is an essential for efficient irrigation water management and precise water applications