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Creators/Authors contains: "Dong, Pei"

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  1. Abstract

    Van der Waals semiconductors (vdWS) offer superior mechanical and electrical properties and are promising for flexible microelectronics when combined with polymer substrates. However, the self‐passivated vdWS surfaces and their weak adhesion to polymers tend to cause interfacial sliding and wrinkling, and thus, are still challenging the reliability of vdWS‐based flexible devices. Here, an effective covalent vdWS–polymer lamination method with high stretch tolerance and excellent electronic performance is reported. Using molybdenum disulfide (MoS2)and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as a case study, gold–chalcogen bonding and mercapto silane bridges are leveraged. The resulting composite structures exhibit more uniform and stronger interfacial adhesion. This enhanced coupling also enables the observation of a theoretically predicted tension‐induced band structure transition in MoS2. Moreover, no obvious degradation in the devices’ structural and electrical properties is identified after numerous mechanical cycle tests. This high‐quality lamination enhances the reliability of vdWS‐based flexible microelectronics, accelerating their practical applications in biomedical research and consumer electronics.

     
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available February 25, 2025
  2. Abstract

    It is widely accepted that solid‐state membranes are indispensable media for the graphene process, particularly transfer procedures. But these membranes inevitably bring contaminations and residues to the transferred graphene and consequently compromise the material quality. This study reports a newly observed free‐standing graphene‐water membrane structure, which replaces the conventional solid‐state supporting media with liquid film to sustain the graphene integrity and continuity. Experimental observation, theoretical model, and molecular dynamics simulations consistently indicate that the high surface tension of pure water and its large contact angle with graphene are essential factors for forming such a membrane structure. More interestingly, water surface tension ensures the flatness of graphene layers and renders high transfer quality on many types of target substrates. This report enriches the understanding of the interactions on reduced dimensional material while rendering an alternative approach for scalable layered material processing with ensured quality for advanced manufacturing.

     
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  3. Abstract

    It is well known that the mixing of two or more species in flows at low Reynolds numbers cannot be easily achieved since inertial effects are essentially absent and molecular diffusion is slow. To achieve mixing in Newtonian fluids under these circumstances requires innovative new ideas such as the use of external body forces (eg, electromagnetic mixers) or the stretching and folding of fluid elements (eg, chaotic advection). For non‐Newtonian fluids with elasticity, mixing can be achieved by enabling the emergence of elastic instabilities that results in chaotic flows in which mixing is significantly enhanced. In this work, our goal is to demonstrate that clearly identifiable vortical structures (eg, vortex rings) can be generated in a viscoelastic fluid initially at rest by the release of elastic stresses. In turn, these vortex motions promote bulk mixing by transporting fluid elements from one location to another more efficiently than diffusion alone. We demonstrate this first theoretically by using the finitely extensible nonlinear elastic Peterlin (FENE‐P) model to show that elastic forces can generate torque. Using this model, we derive an expression for the time rate of change of vorticity in an elastic fluid initially at rest caused by a sudden release of stored elastic stress. This process can be thought of as the release of elastic energy from a stretched rubber band that is suddenly cut at its center. We confirm this ansatz by performing a series of direct numerical simulations based on an in‐house pseudo‐spectral code that couples the FENE‐P model to the equations of motion for an incompressible fluid. The simulations reveal that a pair of vortex rings traveling in opposite directions, with Reynolds numbers on the order of one, is generated from the sudden release of elastic stresses. Secondary vortical structures are also generated. In the concluding section of this work, we address the potential for vortex motions generated by elastic stresses to promote mixing in microflows, and we describe a possible experiment that may demonstrate this effect.

     
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