Nature Of Grain Boundaries Research Articles

Grain boundary engineering of organic semiconductor films in organic transistors

AbstractOrganic field‐effect transistors (OFETs) show great application potential in organic electronic and optoelectronic fields due to their excellent mechanical flexibility, low cost, and solution processing. However, grain boundaries (GBs) disrupt the aggregation state of organic semiconductor (OSC) films and hinder electrical performance and stability, which limits the application of OFETs. Besides, the sensitive nature of GBs is widely used in sensing, but detailed descriptions of the GBs are scarce. This review aims to fill this knowledge gap. The role of GBs and their effect on the performance and stability of OFETs are analyzed, followed by a detailed summary of the characterization of GBs. Then, strategies for suppressing the negative effects of GBs and utilizing the sensitive nature of GBs for application are proposed. Finally, potential research directions for GBs in OFETs are discussed.

Grain Boundaries Boost Oxygen Evolution Reaction in NiFe Electrocatalysts.

In a polycrystalline material, the grain boundaries (GBs) can be effective active sites for catalytic reactions by providing an electrodynamically favorable surface. Previous studies have shown that grain boundary density is related to the catalytic activity of the carbon dioxide reduction reaction, but there is still no convincing evidence that the GBs provide surfaces with enhanced activity for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Combination of various electrochemical measurements and chemical analysis reveals the GB density at surface of NiFe electrocatalysts directly affects the overall OER. In situ electrochemical microscopy vividly shows that the OER occurs mainly at the GB during overall reaction. It is observed that the reaction determining steps are altered by grain boundary densities and the meaningful work function difference between the inside of grain and GBs exists. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy shows that extremely high index planes are exposed at the GBs, enhancing the oxygen evolution activity. The specific nature of GBs and its effects on the OER demonstrated in this study can be applied to the various polycrystalline electrocatalysts.

Enhanced Thermopower in Nano-SrTiO3 Via Rare Earth Doping

Doped perovskite titanates are known to exhibit non-linear electrical conductivity when they are in polycrystalline form. This non-linear behavior is attributed to the barrier potential at the grain boundary (GB). In this paper, we focus on the influence of the barrier potential on the thermopower (S) of rare earth (RE)-doped SrTiO3 with a grain size of 20 nm. |S| was found to increase linearly for smaller RE dopants despite the use of identical carrier concentrations. Capacitance–voltage measurements showed that the barrier potential increased linearly for the smaller RE dopants. Energy-selective scattering by the GB potential was evaluated theoretically, and allowed us to qualitatively explain the enhanced S in this system. The results indicate that the GB nature, which is a crucial factor for nanostructured thermoelectric materials, can be tuned by RE doping in this system.

Al と Cu の傾角粒界とねじり粒界の安定性と界面結合の第一原理計算

The stability and interfacial bonding of coincidence tilt and twist grain boundaries (GBs) in Al and Cu have been examined by using the projector-augmented wave method within the density-functional theory. For the {221} Σ=9 tilt GB, glide models are more stable than mirror models for Al and Cu, and the {001} Σ=5 twist GBs are more stable than the Σ=9 tilt GBs for Al and Cu, due to smaller structural distortions. There is a tendency that the boundary energies in Al are substantially smaller than those in Cu. This can be explained by the electronic and atomic behavior of bond reconstruction at the interfaces in Al, due to the covalent nature of Al as observed in the charge density distribution, in contrast to rather simple metallic bonding at Cu GBs. The nature of GBs is discussed with respect to the micro-structural evolution and mechanical properties of metallic micro-crystalline formed by severe plastic deformation.