Large Contact Resistance Research Articles

Cross-alignment of silver nanowires network for efficient nanowelding

The performance of silver nanowire (AgNW) network flexible transparent electrodes is limited by large contact resistance, making it necessary to perform nanowelding to improve conductivity of the network. However, not all nanowire junctions can be welded. Our work indicates that the welding kinetics between nanowires depend on the crossing angle, with higher surface diffusion velocity prone to welding and fracture at nanowire junctions of crossing angles close to 90 degrees. The impact of nanowire crossing angles on the welding process makes it difficult to achieve simultaneous welding of random AgNWs networks. To address this issue, we adopted an improved Meyer rod coating method to prepared a cross-aligned nanowire network based on a layer-by-layer assembly strategy. Compared to randomly distributed AgNWs networks (11.17 Ω sq-1, 85.2%), the cross-aligned AgNWs network achieved simultaneous welding of nanowire junctions during thermal annealing, further enhancing the optoelectronic performance (10.8 Ω sq-1, 90.3%) of the AgNWs network, resulting in a superior figure of merit value of 421.

Studies on Non-Destructive State-of-Health Estimation for Lithium-Ion Batteries

IntroductionRecently, lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have been used as an energy storage technology for electric vehicles and energy storage systems due to their high energy, power density and wide operating temperature range. However, degradation inevitably causes capacity and power decay. For the safer use of LIBs, state of health (SOH), which describes the condition of a battery compared to its initial condition, needs to be monitored to avoid electrolyte leakage and micro-short circuiting that lead to battery failure. In general, SOH can be estimated by identifying changes of parameters such as voltage, capacity, and impedance. Also, thickness swelling caused by side reactions such as SEI growth, lithium plating, or gas generation can be used as a degradation parameter to estimate SOH.[1] Applying mechanical pressure to LIB cells, which could externally modify the contribution of the side reactions, is a well-known effective approach to decrease irreversible thickness swelling.[1] On the other hand, the impact of electrolyte additives, which could internally modify the contribution of the side reactions, on the swelling behaviors has not been well-understood.In this study, non-destructive techniques including electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) combined with thickness measurement were employed to investigate the effects of electrolyte additives on the degradation behaviors of the cycled LIBs, which could be related with the SOH. Also, post-mortem analysis of the cycled LIBs was performed to further investigate the degradation degree of positive/negative electrodes separately.ExperimentalLaminated LIB cells with nominal capacity of 380 mAh were used for accelerated degradation tests. The positive and negative electrodes were LiNi0.5Co0.2Mn0.3O2 (NCM) and graphite, and the electrolyte was 1 mol dm−3 LiPF6/ethylene carbonate–diethyl carbonate (EC–DEC, 3:7 by volume) containing vinylene carbonate–fluoroethylene carbonate (VC–FEC, 1 wt% each), or without additive. At the beginning, low-rate charge–discharge cycles at a current density of 76 mA were performed at 25 ℃. EIS with a frequency range from 1 MHz to 1 mHz was carried out, followed by the measurement of the cell thickness. Then, high-rate charge–discharge cycles at a current density of 760 mA were performed at 60 ℃. Low-rate capacities of the degraded cells were measured every 100 cycles of high-rate charge–discharge.Results and discussionThe discharge capacities of the LIB cells roughly showed a decrease with charge–discharge cycles and dropped to around 80-85% of their initial value after 512 cycles. Compared with the LIB cells without additives, those with VC + FEC exhibited better high-rate and low-rate durability.In figure 1, Nyquist plots of the fresh full cell had two semicircles. The one at lower frequency was dependent upon temperature and voltage which was corresponded to charge transfer resistance.[2] From results of the symmetric cells, the semicircle at higher frequency should be assigned to the contact resistance between the current collector and the NCM electrode. There was also a semicircle of SEI resistance observed in graphite symmetric cells after degradation cycles, although it overlapped with the larger contact resistance in the full cell due to their similar time constants.With the increased number of the high-rate charge–discharge cycles, the semicircle at higher frequency which mainly came from the contact resistance increased, indicating the degradation of the LIB cells. This value significantly increased with the decrease in the low-rate discharge capacity, suggesting that the high-frequency semicircle could be used as a parameter for SOH estimation. Also, the increasing behavior of the contact resistance was suppressed with the presence of VC + FEC additives, indicating that suitable additive could suppress the increase of the contact resistance at the positive electrode and/or could be important for the formation of robust SEI at the negative electrode.

Minimizing Contact Resistance and Flicker Noise in Micro Graphene Hall Sensors Using Persistent Carbene Modified Gold Electrodes.

Scalable micro graphene Hall sensors (μGHSs) hold tremendous potential for highly sensitive and label-free biomagnetic sensing in physiological solutions. To enhance the performance of these devices, it is crucial to optimize frequency-dependent flicker noise to reduce the limit of detection (LOD), but it remains a great challenge due to the large contact resistance at the graphene-metal contact. Here we present a surface modification strategy employing persistent carbene on gold electrodes to reduce the contact resistivity by a factor of 25, greatly diminishing μGHS flicker noise by a factor of 1000 to 3.13 × 10-14 V2/Hz while simultaneously lowering the magnetic LOD SB1/2 to 1440 nT/Hz1/2 at 1 kHz under a 100 μA bias current. To the best of our knowledge, this represents the lowest SB1/2 reported for scalable μGHSs fabricated through wafer-scale photolithography. The reduction in contact noise is attributed to the π-π stacking interaction between the graphene and the benzene rings of persistent carbene, as well as the decrease in the work function of gold as confirmed by Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy. By incorporating a microcoil into the μGHS, we have demonstrated the real-time detection of superparamagnetic nanoparticles (SNPs), achieving a remarkable LOD of ∼528 μg/L. This advancement holds great potential for the label-free detection of magnetic biomarkers, e.g., ferritin, for the early diagnosis of diseases associated with iron overload, such as hereditary hemochromatosis (HHC).

Salt-Assisted, In Situ Current Nanowelding of an Interfacial Au Nanoparticle Film for a High-Performance Electrocatalyst.

Interfacial self-assembly is a well-established method for the preparation of a two-dimensional (2D) metal nanofilm from nanoscale building blocks. However, the as-prepared nanofilm exhibits limited conductivity because of the large contact resistance at the junctions among its building blocks. Here, we report a salt-assisted, in situ current nanowelding strategy to weld an interfacial Au nanoparticle (NP) film for downstream applications, such as high-performance electrocatalysts. Particularly, we found that salt-assisted interfacial assembly can reduce the size of the nanogaps among neighboring Au NPs and, in turn, greatly improve the conductivity of the resultant Au NP film. Consequently, the Au NP film can be readily welded using current, and the welding extent can be monitored in real-time by looking at the passing current. The welding finally produces a nanoporous Au film (NPGF) with a network nanostructure, high conductivity, and abundant active sites so that it delivers a large current density of 86.96 μA·cm-2 (1.81 times higher than that from the pristine Au NP film) and shows improved cycling stability for methanol electrooxidation. Thus, these results offer a low-cost, solution-processable approach for the fabrication of a large-area, interconnected nanofilm from nanoscale building blocks beyond Au NPs, which may find diverse downstream applications.

Interfacial thermal resistance between mechanically exfoliated nm-thick MoS2 and silicon from −60 °C to 50 °C based on ns-ET Raman technique

In the miniaturization and integration development of micro-devices, the large thermal contact resistance significantly affects the overall performance of micro-devices, which is influenced by both interfacial contact condition and material properties. However, the temperature dependence of interfacial thermal resistance of realistic materials remains unclear. In this work, the interfacial thermal resistance between nm-thick MoS2 nanosheets and Si substrate is measured by using the ns energy transport state-resolved Raman (ns ET-Raman) technique. By comparing the experimental data with finite difference numerical simulation, the real value of the interfacial thermal resistance is determined. By changing the ambient temperature from -60 °C to 50 °C, the interfacial thermal resistance against temperature curve is obtained. As the environmental temperature deviates from room temperature, a large increasement of the interfacial thermal resistance can be observed. As temperature goes back to room temperature, the unreversible interfacial thermal resistance indicates that the large thermal expansion mismatch deteriorates the contact situation. In the last, the interfacial thermal resistance evolution under varying environmental temperatures from both experiments and modeling results in literatures are compared and discussed to illustrate the effect of different interface formation methods. For epitaxial and CVD grown materials, the interfacial thermal resistance generally reduces with raising ambient temperature. While for mechanically exfoliated samples, the effect of thermal expansion mismatch and the resulting gaps dominate the interfacial thermal resistance, which leads to non-monotonous temperature dependency with a valley located at room temperature.

(Digital Presentation) Improving Field-Effect Transistor Performance through Pulsed Laser Irradiation-Mediated MoS2-Metal Contact Engineering

Two-dimensional (2D) layered materials, such as MoS2, with their atomically thin characteristics, offer promising novel solutions for the field of nanoelectronics. MoS2 has been identified as a prospective building block for flexible and transparent nanoelectronics in the future, and has the potential to contribute to the continuation of Moore's law by enabling high integration levels with low power consumption. Although the use of 2D semiconductor materials as contact interfaces presents advantages over conventional Si-based metal-semiconductor contacts practical applications still face several obstacles. One of the biggest concerns being is the presence of the large contact resistance which can caps the available field effect carrier mobility making intrinsic quantum transport phenomena in the material inaccessible. In this work, we demonstrate the use of 1064 nm pulsed-laser to selectively anneal the metal contacts of the CVD synthesized MoS2 based back gated FET. The improved metal–semiconductor interface after laser annealing resulted in higher mobility and improved On-Off ratio (10^6~10^7). This selective contact annealing enhanced back gated MoS2 FET overall performance metrics by increasing peak field effect mobility, improving current saturation due to decreased contact resistance.Our findings suggest that Pulsed laser annealing of metal contacts in TMD-based FETs can significantly reduce contact resistivity without causing channel or substrate distortion, which is not possible with conventional thermal annealing. This approach can provide most promising application in the field of high-performance two-dimensional semiconductor in flexible/ wearable electronics. Keywords: TMDCs, CVD, MoS2 FET, laser annealing, contact resistance.

Femtosecond laser treatment of SWNT onto metal electrodes and its effect on carbon nanotube field effect transistor

With unique electrical, mechanical, and thermal properties, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have possessed the potential to be the ideal next-generation semiconductor in very large scale integration (VLSI). However, the extremely large schottky contact resistance generated by the interface between CNTs and metal electrodes has recently become a stricky constraint, which can greatly affect the transmission of current. In this paper, we used femtosecond laser to join the CNTs and the metal electrodes. The interconnect quality was investigated under different settings of laser power and scanning speed. Then, the carbon nanotubes field effect transistor (CNFET) based on a single CNT was fabricated and its electrical performance after laser induced interconnect was characterized. It is shown that the operating current of CNFET after irradiation is approximately 1.5 times that of before irradiation.

Impacts of thermal and electric contact resistance on the material design in segmented thermoelectric generators

Segmented thermoelectric generators (STEGs) can exhibit present superior performance than those of the conventional thermoelectric generators. Thermal and electrical contact resistances exist between the thermoelectric material interfaces in each thermoelectric leg. This may significantly hinder performance improvement. In this study, a five-layer STEG with three pairs of thermoelectric (TE) materials was investigated considering the thermal and electrical contact resistances on the material contact surface. The STEG performance under different contact resistances with various combinations of TE materials were analyzed. The relationship between the material sequence and performance indicators under different contact resistances is established by machine learning. Based on the genetic algorithm, for each contact resistance combination, the optimal material sequences were identified by maximizing the electric power and energy conversion efficiency. To reveal the underlying mechanism that determines the heat-to-electrical performance, the total electrical resistance, output voltage, ZT value, and temperature distribution under each optimized scenario were analyzed. The STEG can augment the heat-to-electricity performance only at small contact resistances. A large contact resistance significantly reduces the performance. At an electrical contact resistance of RE = 10–3 K·m2·W−1 and thermal contact resistance of RT = 10–8 Ω·m2, the maximum electric power was reduced to 5.71 mW (90.86 mW without considering the contact resistance). And the maximum energy conversion efficiency is lowered to 2.54% (12.59% without considering the contact resistance).

Structure-stabilized SiO2 packed beds based on sawdust-doped for high-temperature thermal insulation

The utilization of nanoparticles for thermal insulation has attracted many interests. However, due to their low melting point at high temperatures, the volume shrinkage of the materials leads to a significant increase in thermal conductivity. In this work, sawdust was employed as an additive to constrain the thermal shrinkage of SiO2-based thermal insulation materials. In the sintering treatment, sawdust will be converted into carbon, while the structure will become more porous. Due to the large thermal contact resistance between carbonized sawdust and SiO2, as well as the abundant pores, which could further reduce thermal conductivity. Results show that adding 20 % of sawdust in SiO2 nanoparticles could lead to a significant decrease of 15 % in density and a substantial reduction of 22 % in thermal conductivity. Simultaneously, adding sawdust could improve the volume shrinkage resistance. Besides, the addition of 20 % sawdust is the optimal choice because of the lowest thermal conductivity of 0.037 W/(mK). Excessive addition of sawdust could lead to an increase in water adsorption, compromising the thermal insulation performance. The thermal cycle stability of 20 % carbonized-sawdust/SiO2 nanoparticle bed under high humidity conditions was also investigated, and the bed shows a stable thermal conductivity of 0.04 W/(mK). This work provides a facile method to inhibit the structural shrinkage of thermal insulation materials, which is of great significance for the application in high-temperature.

Oxygen-Induced Barrier Lowering for High-Performance Organic Field-Effect Transistors.

Organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) have the advantages of low-cost, large-area processing and could be utilized in a variety of emerging applications. However, the generally large contact resistance (Rc) limits the integration and miniaturization of OFETs. The Rc is difficult to reduce due to an incompatibility between obtaining strong orbit coupling and the barrier height reduction. In this study, we developed an oxygen-induced barrier lowering strategy by introducing oxygen (O2) into the nanointerface between the electrodes and organic semiconductors layer and achieved an ultralow channel width-normalized Rc (Rc·W) of 89.8 Ω·cm and a high mobility of 11.32 cm2 V-1 s-1. This work demonstrates that O2 adsorbed at the nanointerface of metal-semiconductor contact can significantly reduce the Rc from both experiments and theoretical simulations and provides guidance for the construction of high-performance OFETs, which is conducive to the integration and miniaturization of OFETs.

Influence of Electrolytic Cell System on Graphite Electrode Interface Properties

Cyclic voltammetry (CV) and Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) tests are used to investigate the performance of different cell systems. For two electrode button type cell, as the lack of reference electrode and its large contact resistance, it does not have the conditions on study the electrode/electrolyte interface performance effectively. Although the three-electrode button type cell shows some improvement on potential detection of the system which can partially eliminate the adverse effects caused by electrode polarization and reduce the contact resistance, there are some limitation on the investigation of the resistance of solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) film and charge transfer process. However, it can show the variation of kinetic parameters well in the three-electrode glass type cell, which is the premise on studying the reaction mechanism, failure mechanism and electrode interface characteristics of electrode materials.

Aligned Carbon Nanotube Arrays with Germanium Protective Layers for Improving the Performance of Radio Frequency Transistors

Aligned carbon nanotube arrays with high semiconducting purity and high density have been regarded as an ideal channel material for constructing high-frequency field effect transistors and high-speed integrated circuits. However, contaminants (mainly resist residues) that leave the surface of carbon nanotubes during the fabrication process seriously deteriorate the interface contact quality, which will trigger large contact resistance and thus inhibit the ultimate performance of the carbon nanotube-based transistors. Here, we demonstrate a germanium protective layer technique that can keep a clean surface of carbon nanotube films from the contaminants during device fabrication and thus boost the quality of ohmic contact between carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and metal. The transfer length method (TLM) is used to evaluate the effect of the germanium protective layer technique on the ohmic contact resistance. The contact resistance from metal–CNTs extracted using the TLM was reduced by 93%, from 1.66 to 0.123 KΩ μm before and after the germanium process treatment. Owing to the great improvement of contact between metal and CNTs by introducing the germanium protective layer technique, the fabricated aligned CNT array-based radio-frequency field-effect transistors with a gate length of 110 nm on the quartz substrate present excellent DC performance, with an on-state current of 1.28 mA/μm and maximum transconductance of up to 1.05 mS/μm at a bias of −1.2 V. Meanwhile, the as-measured current gain cut-off frequency (fT,EXT) and power gain frequency (fMAX,EXT) increase from 12 to 110 GHz and 13 to 105 GHz, respectively. This approach provides a simple and reproducible means of improving the interface quality and reducing contact resistance in CNT-based devices to enhance performance.

Optimum contact resistance for two-terminal magnetoresistance in a lateral spin valve

The two-terminal magnetoresistance (2T-MR) due to spin accumulation in a lateral spin valve is determined for devices with a Si channel and Fe/MgO tunnel contacts of varying MgO thickness. Established theory predicts that the 2T-MR exhibits a pronounced maximum for contact resistances comparable to the spin resistance rs of the channel. At large contact resistance (≫rs), the 2T-MR is, indeed, very small, despite the large tunnel spin polarization (TSP) of the contacts (90%). When the contact resistance is reduced toward rs, the 2T-MR increases, but much less than expected because for thinner MgO the TSP decays. For devices with the thinnest MgO and contact resistances near the predicted optimum, the 2T-MR is actually lower, owing to the smaller TSP (14%). The optimum and scaling of the 2T-MR are, thus, profoundly affected by the variation of the TSP with contact resistance. This is relevant for the design of practical two-terminal devices, including those with channel materials other than Si.

Focused Review on Print‐Patterned Contact Electrodes for Metal‐Oxide Thin‐Film Transistors

AbstractMetal‐oxide‐semiconductor‐based thin‐film transistors (TFTs) are exploited in display backplanes and X‐ray detectors fabricated by vacuum deposition and lithographic patterning. However, there is growing interest to use scalable printing technologies to lower the environmental impact and cost of processing. There have been substantial research efforts on oxide dielectric and semiconductor materials and their interfaces. Materials for the source/drain (S/D) contact electrodes and their interface to the semiconductor have received less attention, particularly concerning the usage of printing processes. Specific contact resistivity of oxide TFTs with print‐patterned S/D contacts can be 10−2 to 101 Ω cm2, significantly higher than vacuum‐deposited contacts around 10−5 to 10−3 Ω cm2. Problems at the semiconductor/S/D interface, such as large contact resistance, poor adhesion, or cross‐interface contact material migration, affect device characteristics causing hysteresis loops, kink or step‐like distortion, and threshold voltage shift. This work reviews advances in materials and fabrication methods of print‐patterned S/D electrodes for oxide TFTs. Differences in characterization methods among existing literature hamper comparing the performance of print‐patterned S/D contacts. Therefore, systematic and standardized measurements are proposed to assist identification of possible problems, which to some degree can then be mitigated by device fabrication strategies, facilitating well‐performing printed contact electrodes for metal‐oxide TFTs.

In Situ Transition Layer Design Based on Ti Additive Enabling High-Performance Liquid Metal Batteries

Liquid metal batteries (LMBs), with the merits of long lifespan and low cost, are deemed as one of the most promising energy storage technologies for large-scale energy storage applications due to the use of liquid metal electrodes and molten salt electrolytes. However, the consequent problem is that the poor wettability between graphite-based collectors and the liquid metal/alloy electrodes leads to large contact resistance, which limits the efficiency and stability of the battery. In this work, a transition layer in situ formed on a graphite-based positive electrode current collector by Ti additive is designed for the first time, which increases the wettability between the positive alloy and the current collector and improves the voltage efficiency of the Li||Sb-Sn cell from 85.6 to 88.4%. These results provide new ideas for the design of high-efficiency LMBs.

Sensitive piezoresistive pressure sensor based on micropyramid patterned tough hydrogel

Microstructures are decisive factors of hydrogel-based piezoresistive pressure sensors for excellent performances in flexible electronics. However, the desirable microstructures are still difficult to be completely engineered on the surface of hydrogel, owing to limitations concerning to comprehensive mechanical performances of hydrogels. Herein, we prepared a type of piezoresistive pressure sensor by decorating pyramid microarrays on the surface of a tough and ionically conductive polyacrylamide (PAAm)/poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) hydrogel. To achieve high sensing behaviors, sizes and topologies of the recessed pyramid microarrays molded by three-dimensional (3D) printing photosensitive resin were investigated for elaborate fabrication of pyramid microarray hydrogel. The ionically conductive PAAm/PVA hydrogel of excellent comprehensive mechanical performances decorated with pyramid microarrays was able to generate large contact resistance variation to respond to external pressure, achieving a maximum sensitivity to 2.27 kPa−1, low detection limit of 9.0 Pa, as well as good recoverability and stability. Such tough and sensitive device based on micropyramid patterned tough hydrogel have potential applications in the fields of flexible electronics.

Robust N-doping porous carbon nanofiber membranes with inter-fiber cross-linked structures for supercapacitors

Enhancing the electrochemical performance while maintaining excellent mechanical properties of carbon nanofiber-based flexible electrodes remains a significant challenge, which blocks their potential application in advanced energy storage and conversion. Herein, taking advantage of the thermal stability difference between polyacrylonitrile and polypyrrolidone, we report a simple strategy to fabricate N-doped porous carbon nanofiber membranes with inter-fiber cross-linked structures via eccentric coaxial electrospinning combined with carbonization processes. During carbonization processes, the obstacles of large contact resistance are removed and sufficient contacts among electrospun nanofibers are formed, endowing the carbon nanofiber membranes with outstanding electrical conductivity (25.4 S cm−1) and flexibility in various forms. Further, NiCo2O4 nanoneedles are in-situ decorated onto the prepared carbon nanofiber membranes to construct hybrid electrodes for improving capacitance. The hybrid electrodes (NiCo2O4@NPCNFs) achieve a competitive specific capacitance (capacity) of 1474.2 F g−1 (245.4 mAh g−1) at the current density of 0.5 A g−1, as well as good rate performance (78.0% capacitance retention at a current density of 10 A g−1). In addition, the assembled asymmetric supercapacitors exhibit a high energy density of 53.0 Wh kg−1. This study paves a promising way toward carbon nanofiber-based electrodes for application in energy storage systems.

Recent Advances in Porous Polymers for Solid-State Rechargeable Lithium Batteries.

The application of rechargeable lithium batteries involves all aspects of our daily life, such as new energy vehicles, computers, watches and other electronic mobile devices, so it is becoming more and more important in contemporary society. However, commercial liquid rechargeable lithium batteries have safety hazards such as leakage or explosion, all-solid-state lithium rechargeable lithium batteries will become the best alternatives. But the biggest challenge we face at present is the large solid-solid interface contact resistance between the solid electrolyte and the electrode as well as the low ionic conductivity of the solid electrolyte. Due to the large relative molecular mass, polymers usually exhibit solid or gel state with good mechanical strength. The intermolecules are connected by covalent bonds, so that the chemical and physical stability, corrosion resistance, high temperature resistance and fire resistance are good. Many researchers have found that polymers play an important role in improving the performance of all-solid-state lithium rechargeable batteries. This review mainly describes the application of polymers in the fields of electrodes, electrolytes, electrolyte-electrode contact interfaces, and electrode binders in all-solid-state lithium rechargeable batteries, and how to improve battery performance. This review mainly introduces the recent applications of polymers in solid-state lithium battery electrodes, electrolytes, electrode binders, etc., and describes the performance of emerging porous polymer materials and materials based on traditional polymers in solid-state lithium batteries. The comparative analysis shows the application advantages and disadvantages of the emerging porous polymer materials in this field which provides valuable reference information for further development.

Room-temperature nanojoining of silver nanowires by graphene oxide for highly conductive flexible transparent electrodes

Flexible transparent electrodes for touch panels, solar cells, and wearable electronics are in great demand in recent years, and the silver nanowire (AgNW) flexible transparent electrode (FTE) is among the top candidates due to its excellent light transmittance and flexibility and the highest conductivity of silver among all metals. However, the conductivity of an AgNWs network has long been limited by the large contact resistance. Here we show a room-temperature solution process to tackle the challenge by nanojoining AgNWs with two-dimensional graphene oxide (GO). The conductivity of the AgNWs network is improved 18 times due to the enhanced junctions between AgNWs by the coated GOs, and the AgNW-GO FTE exhibits a low sheet resistance of 23 Ohm sq−1 and 88% light transmittance. It is stable under high temperature and current and their flexibility is intact after 1000 cycles of bending. Measurements of a bifunctional electrochromic device shows the high performance of the AgNW-GO FTE as a FTE.

Local Joule heating targets catalyst surface for hydrocarbon combustion

Most industrial catalytic reactions are achieved by external heating and catalysts are entirely heated to offer enough thermal energy to surface active sites. However, there is an inherent drawback that most input energy is dissipated into the bulk while minor is donated to the surface, leading to high energy waste. Here, we proposed a so-called local Joule heating method via passing an electric current through packed catalyst nanoparticles with a large contact resistance, which can generate sufficient heat to target at the surface region. We selected hydrocarbon combustion, a common way to eliminate unburned pollutants, as a probe reaction and used the conductive antimony-doped tin oxide (ATO) as a model catalyst. Compared with traditional external heating, this method consumed one order lower energy input, reduced the macroscopically average temperature for same conversion by ∼100 °C, improved the durability with smaller activity loss within 100 h operation, and suppressed water poisoning effect by ∼60 %. Also, the combustion was sparked in seconds by pulsing electric current into the catalyst bed, allowing an application in prompt treatment of leaked hydrocarbons. The local Joule heating between contacted nanoparticles, which could focus thermal energy on catalyst surface, is prospective to improve catalysis efficiency.