Semiconductors

Redox-Controlled Molten-Salt Cation Exchange for Tunable Multicomponent III-V Quantum Dots

Summary This technology achieves enhanced chemical stability and compositional control of reactive III-V colloidal nanocrystals by employing reduced molten salts as solvents, thereby overcoming decomposition issues and enabling synthesis of novel semiconductor materials. The Unmet Need: Stabilizing reactive III-V nanocrystals during high-temperature cation exchange remains challenging Current methods utilizing oxidized molten… Read More

Bioadhesive Polymer for Connecting Semiconductors to Wet Tissue

SUMMARY This method imparts bioadhesive properties onto polymeric semiconductors, which enables effective transductions of bio-signals from biological tissues to electronic devices. The Unmet Need: Conformable and stable integration… Read More

Atomic Layer Chemical Pattern For Block Copolymer Assembly

SUMMARY Block copolymers can assemble into large-scale, dense, and regular nanoscale patterns, making block copolymer assembly a potential candidate for nanolithography. The assembly of block copolymers can be directed to follow a chemical pattern to generate a regular structure.   Notwithstanding the success of existing approaches, current chemical patterning methods are… Read More

Functionalized Metal Carbides For Energy Storage

SUMMARY The invention is a novel synthetic approach for surface modification of two-dimensional (2D) metal carbides (MXenes) using molten inorganic salts. Surface modification of MXenes have been hypothesized to affect material aspects ranging from structural properties to electron transport but—prior to this invention—no experimental method existed to… Read More

Controllable Composition Ternary Group III-V Alloy Quantum Dots and Synthesis Methods

SUMMARY Group III-V quantum dots (QDs) are useful for applications such as photovoltaics and display technologies because of their direct band gaps and favorable electronic properties. The bandgaps of these types of semiconductors can be precisely tuned by adjusting the composition of the ternary alloys.  As an alternative to traditional… Read More

Nanopatterned Silicone Substrate for Stabilizing Chiral Hematic Liquid Crystals in Single Crystal Blue Phase

SUMMARY Blue phase liquid crystalline structures are highly desirable for applications such as electro-optical devices (e.g. display screens) because of  light reflection that includes wavelengths not possible with other crystals and fast optical response rates as compared to current materials.  However, widespread application of these materials is limited by narrow… Read More