Ultra-light-weight microwave X-band EMI shielding or RAM material made from sustainable pyrolysed cork templates

Cork is a renewable and sustainable material, highly porous and lightweight. We valorised waste cork and recycled wine stoppers to make pyrolysed/carbonised solid cork, for use as economic and sustainable microwave (MW) absorbers at the microwave X-band (8-12 GHz), without binder or additives. Although cork is already a very lightweight material (0.16 g/cm3), the pyrolysed cork is five-times less dense at 0.031 g/cm3, was amorphous graphitic carbon, and had an excellent shielding effectiveness (SET) of -18 to -38 dB, depending on thickness, with attenuation of the electromagnetic energy through internal reflection within the cellular cork structure. Furthermore, this ultra-light-weight material has an extremely high MW specific shielding effectiveness or efficiency (SSE), between -640 to -1235 dB g-1 cm3 over the entire X-band range, depending on thickness (3.0-8.6 mm), one of the highest reported for any pure carbon material. this upper value being more than twice that of any previously reported graphite-based foams

Screen-Printable Electronic Ink of Ultrathin Boron Nitride Nanosheets

Two-dimensional materials play a vital role in the current electronic industry in the fabrication of devices. In the present work, we have exfoliated and stabilized the insulating hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) by means of a polymer-assisted liquid-phase technique. Further, the highly viscous ink of hBN was prepared, and its printability on various commercially available substrates was studied. The morphology of the printed patterns reveals the layered arrangement of hBN. The various electrical and dielectric characterizations, carried out on a metal–insulator–metal capacitor, testified its potential applications in various fields of printed electronics

Can zinc aluminate-titania composite be an alternative for alumina as microelectronic substrate?

Abstract Alumina, thanks to its superior thermal and dielectric properties, has been the leading substrate over several decades, for power and microelectronics circuits. However, alumina lacks thermal stability since its temperature coefficient of resonant frequency (τf) is far from zero (−60 ppmK⁻¹). The present paper explores the potentiality of a ceramic composite 0.83ZnAl₂O₄-0.17TiO₂ (in moles, abbreviated as ZAT) substrates for electronic applications over other commercially-used alumina-based substrates and synthesized using a non-aqueous tape casting method. The present substrate has τf of + 3.9 ppmK⁻¹ and is a valuable addition to the group of thermo-stable substrates. The ZAT substrate shows a high thermal conductivity of 31.3 Wm⁻¹K⁻¹ (thermal conductivity of alumina is about 24.5 Wm⁻¹K⁻¹), along with promising mechanical, electrical and microwave dielectric properties comparable to that of alumina-based commercial substrates. Furthermore, the newly-developed substrate material shows exceptionally good thermal stability of dielectric constant, which cannot be met with any of the alumina-based HTCC substrates

High-Performance Flexible Piezoelectric Nanogenerator Based on Electrospun PVDF-BaTiO₃ Nanofibers for Self-Powered Vibration Sensing Applications

In the present era of intelligent electronics and Internet of Things (IoT), the demand for flexible and wearable devices is very high. Here, we have developed a high-output flexible piezoelectric nanogenerator (PENG) based on electrospun poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)-barium titanate (BaTiO3) (ES PVDF-BT) composite nanofibers with an enhanced electroactive phase. On addition of 10 wt % BaTiO3 nanoparticles, the electroactive β-phase of the PVDF is found to be escalated to ∼91% as a result of the synergistic interfacial interaction between the tetragonal BaTiO3 nanoparticles and the ferroelectric host polymer matrix on electrospinning. The fabricated PENG device delivered an open-circuit voltage of ∼50 V and short-circuit current density of ∼0.312 mA m–2. Also, the PVDF-BT nanofiber-based PENG device showed an output power density of ∼4.07 mW m–2, which is 10 times higher than that of a pristine PVDF nanofiber-based PENG device. Furthermore, the developed PENG has been newly demonstrated for self-powered real-time vibration sensing applications such as for mapping of mechanical vibrations from faulty CPU fans, hard disk drives, and electric sewing machines

High-Performance Flexible Piezoelectric Nanogenerator Based on Electrospun PVDF-BaTiO₃ Nanofibers for Self-Powered Vibration Sensing Applications

In the present era of intelligent electronics and Internet of Things (IoT), the demand for flexible and wearable devices is very high. Here, we have developed a high-output flexible piezoelectric nanogenerator (PENG) based on electrospun poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)-barium titanate (BaTiO3) (ES PVDF-BT) composite nanofibers with an enhanced electroactive phase. On addition of 10 wt % BaTiO3 nanoparticles, the electroactive β-phase of the PVDF is found to be escalated to ∼91% as a result of the synergistic interfacial interaction between the tetragonal BaTiO3 nanoparticles and the ferroelectric host polymer matrix on electrospinning. The fabricated PENG device delivered an open-circuit voltage of ∼50 V and short-circuit current density of ∼0.312 mA m–2. Also, the PVDF-BT nanofiber-based PENG device showed an output power density of ∼4.07 mW m–2, which is 10 times higher than that of a pristine PVDF nanofiber-based PENG device. Furthermore, the developed PENG has been newly demonstrated for self-powered real-time vibration sensing applications such as for mapping of mechanical vibrations from faulty CPU fans, hard disk drives, and electric sewing machines

High-Performance Flexible Piezoelectric Nanogenerator Based on Electrospun PVDF-BaTiO₃ Nanofibers for Self-Powered Vibration Sensing Applications

In the present era of intelligent electronics and Internet of Things (IoT), the demand for flexible and wearable devices is very high. Here, we have developed a high-output flexible piezoelectric nanogenerator (PENG) based on electrospun poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)-barium titanate (BaTiO3) (ES PVDF-BT) composite nanofibers with an enhanced electroactive phase. On addition of 10 wt % BaTiO3 nanoparticles, the electroactive β-phase of the PVDF is found to be escalated to ∼91% as a result of the synergistic interfacial interaction between the tetragonal BaTiO3 nanoparticles and the ferroelectric host polymer matrix on electrospinning. The fabricated PENG device delivered an open-circuit voltage of ∼50 V and short-circuit current density of ∼0.312 mA m–2. Also, the PVDF-BT nanofiber-based PENG device showed an output power density of ∼4.07 mW m–2, which is 10 times higher than that of a pristine PVDF nanofiber-based PENG device. Furthermore, the developed PENG has been newly demonstrated for self-powered real-time vibration sensing applications such as for mapping of mechanical vibrations from faulty CPU fans, hard disk drives, and electric sewing machines