Since the discovery of highly conducting polyacetylene by Shirakawa, MacDiarmid, and Heeger in 1977, π-conjugated systems have attracted much attention as futuristic materials for the development and production of the next generation of electronics, that is, organic electronics. Conceptually, organic electronics are quite different from conventional inorganic solid state electronics because the structural versatility of organic semiconductors allows for the incorporation of functionality by molecular design. This versatility leads to a new era in the design of electronic devices. To date, the great number of π-conjugated semiconducting materials that have either been discovered or synthesized generate an exciting library of π-conjugated systems for use in organic electronics. 11 However, some key challenges for further advancement remain: the low mobility and stability of organic semiconductors, the lack of knowledge regarding structure property relationships for understanding the fundamental chemical aspects behind the structural design, and realization of desired properties. Organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) are a kind of device consisting of an organic semiconducting layer, a gate insulator layer, and three terminals (drain, source, and gate electrodes). OFETs are not only essential building blocks for the next generation of cheap and flexible organic circuits, but they also provide an important insight into the charge transport of πconjugated systems. Therefore, they act as strong tools for the exploration of the structure property relationships of πconjugated systems, such as parameters of field-effect mobility (μ, the drift velocity of carriers under unit electric field), current on/off ratio (the ratio of the maximum on-state current to the minimum off-state current), and threshold voltage (the minimum gate voltage that is required to turn on the transistor). 17 Since the discovery of OFETs in the 1980s, they have attracted much attention. Research onOFETs includes the discovery, design, and synthesis of π-conjugated systems for OFETs, device optimization, development of applications in radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, flexible displays, electronic papers, sensors, and so forth. It is beyond the scope of this review to cover all aspects of π-conjugated systems; hence, our focus will be on the performance analysis of π-conjugated systems in OFETs. This should make it possible to extract information regarding the fundamental merit of semiconducting π-conjugated materials and capture what is needed for newmaterials and what is the synthesis orientation of newπ-conjugated systems. In fact, for a new science with many practical applications, the field of organic electronics is progressing extremely rapidly. For example, using “organic field effect transistor” or “organic field effect transistors” as the query keywords to search the Web of Science citation database, it is possible to show the distribution of papers over recent years as shown in Figure 1A. It is very clear

Semiconducting π-conjugated systems in field-effect transistors: a material odyssey of organic electronics.

Human skin is a remarkable organ. It consists of an integrated, stretchable network of sensors that relay information about tactile and thermal stimuli to the brain, allowing us to maneuver within our environment safely and effectively. Interest in large-area networks of electronic devices inspired by human skin is motivated by the promise of creating autonomous intelligent robots and biomimetic prosthetics, among other applications. The development of electronic networks comprised of flexible, stretchable, and robust devices that are compatible with large-area implementation and integrated with multiple functionalities is a testament to the progress in developing an electronic skin (e-skin) akin to human skin. E-skins are already capable of providing augmented performance over their organic counterpart, both in superior spatial resolution and thermal sensitivity. They could be further improved through the incorporation of additional functionalities (e.g., chemical and biological sensing) and desired properties (e.g., biodegradability and self-powering). Continued rapid progress in this area is promising for the development of a fully integrated e-skin in the near future.

25th Anniversary Article: The Evolution of Electronic Skin (E-Skin): A Brief History, Design Considerations, and Recent Progress

Hierarchical micropapillae and nanofolds are known to exist on the petals' surfaces of red roses. These micro- and nanostructures provide a sufficient roughness for superhydrophobicity and yet at the same time a high adhesive force with water. A water droplet on the surface of the petal appears spherical in shape, which cannot roll off even when the petal is turned upside down. We define this phenomenon as the “petal effect” as compared with the popular “lotus effect”. Artificial fabrication of biomimic polymer films, with well-defined nanoembossed structures obtained by duplicating the petal's surface, indicates that the superhydrophobic surface and the adhesive petal are in Cassie impregnating wetting state.

Petal Effect: A Superhydrophobic State with High Adhesive Force

Oil spills and industrial organic pollutants have induced severe water pollution and threatened every species in the ecological system. To deal with oily water, special wettability stimulated materials have been developed over the past decade to separate oil-and-water mixtures. Basically, synergy between the surface chemical composition and surface topography are commonly known as the key factors to realize the opposite wettability to oils and water and dominate the selective wetting or absorption of oils/water. In this review, we mainly focus on the development of materials with either super-lyophobicity or super-lyophilicity properties in oil/water separation applications where they can be classified into four kinds as follows (in terms of the surface wettability of water and oils): (i) superhydrophobic and superoleophilic materials, (ii) superhydrophilic and under water superoleophobic materials, (iii) superhydrophilic and superoleophobic materials, and (iv) smart oil/water separation materials with switchable wettability. These materials have already been applied to the separation of oil-and-water mixtures: from simple oil/water layered mixtures to oil/water emulsions (including oil-in-water emulsions and water-in-oil emulsions), and from non-intelligent materials to intelligent materials. Moreover, they also exhibit high absorption capacity or separation efficiency and selectivity, simple and fast separation/absorption ability, excellent recyclability, economical efficiency and outstanding durability under harsh conditions. Then, related theories are proposed to understand the physical mechanisms that occur during the oil/water separation process. Finally, some challenges and promising breakthroughs in this field are also discussed. It is expected that special wettability stimulated oil/water separation materials can achieve industrial scale production and be put into use for oil spills and industrial oily wastewater treatment in the near future.

Biomimetic super-lyophobic and super-lyophilic materials applied for oil/water separation: a new strategy beyond nature

Design, and Applications Shutao Wang,†,‡ Kesong Liu, Xi Yao, and Lei Jiang*,†,‡,§ †Laboratory of Bio-inspired Smart Interface Science, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, and ‡Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Science, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, People’s Republic of China Key Laboratory of Bio-Inspired Smart Interfacial Science and Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Environment, BeiHang University, Beijing 100191, People’s Republic of China Department of Biomedical Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong P6903, People’s Republic of China

Bioinspired Surfaces with Superwettability: New Insight on Theory, Design, and Applications

We report the facile fabrication of a functional nanoporous multilayer film with wettability that is reversibly tunable between superhydrophobicity and superhydrophilicity with UV/visible irradiation. Our approach controls surface roughness with an electrostatic self-assembly process and makes use of the photoresponsive molecular switching of fluorinated azobenzene molecules. Selective UV irradiation onto the nanostructured substrate was used to realize substrates with erasable and rewritable patterns of extreme wetting properties. Our findings will open up new avenues for external stimuli-responsive smart surfaces.

Photoreversibly Switchable Superhydrophobic Surface with Erasable and Rewritable Pattern

We report the fabrication of a roselike nanostructured vanadium oxide (V2O5) film with photoinduced surface wettability switching by carrying out the drop-casting of a suspension of V2O5 particles synthesized with the sol−gel method. Although a pure V2O5 film is slightly hydrophilic, the addition of alkylamine renders the nanostructured V2O5 film superhydrophobic owing to the intercalation of alkyl chains between the V2O5 layers. UV exposure switches the wettability of the V2O5 surface to superhydrophilic with a water contact angle of almost 0°, and storage in the dark reconverts the irradiated surface back to its initial superhydrophobic state. This extraordinary wetting transition is ascribed to the cooperation between the photosensitivity of V2O5 and the surface roughness of its nanostructure, which has submicron- to micron-scale apertures. Our approach provides not only the possibility of producing large homogeneous or patterned surfaces with tunable wettability, but also potential uses in catalysts, ...

UV-Driven Reversible Switching of a Roselike Vanadium Oxide Film between Superhydrophobicity and Superhydrophilicity

With the aim of enhancing the field-effect mobility of self-assembled regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene), P3HT, by promoting two-dimensional molecular ordering, the organization of the P3HT in precursor solutions is transformed from random-coil conformation to ordered aggregates by adding small amounts of the non-solvent acetonitrile to the solutions prior to film formation. The ordering of the precursor in the solutions significantly increases the crystallinity of the P3HT thin films. It is found that with the appropriate acetonitrile concentration in the precursor solution, the resulting P3HT nanocrystals adopt a highly ordered molecular structure with a field-effect mobility dramatically improved by a factor of approximately 20 depending on the P3HT concentration. This improvement is due to the change in the P3HT organization in the precursor solution from random-coil conformation to an ordered aggregate structure as a result of the addition of acetonitrile. In the good solvent chloroform, the P3HT molecules are molecularly dissolved and adopt a random-coil conformation, whereas upon the addition of acetonitrile, which is a non-solvent for aromatic backbones and alkyl side chains, 1D or 2D aggregation of the P3HT molecules occurs depending on the P3HT concentration. This state minimizes the unfavorable interactions between the poorly soluble P3HT and the acetonitrile solvent, and maximizes the favorable π–π stacking interactions in the precursor solution, which improves the molecular ordering of the resulting P3HT thin film and enhances the field-effect mobility without post-treatment.

Solubility-Induced Ordered Polythiophene Precursors for High-Performance Organic Thin-Film Transistors

Organic Thin-film Transistors Based on Polythiophene Nanowires Embedded in Insulating Polymer

Rice leaves can directionally shed water droplets along the longitudinal direction of the leaf. Inspired by the hierarchical structures of rice leaf surfaces, synthetic rice leaf-like wavy surfaces are fabricated that display a tunable anisotropic wettability by using electrostatic layer-by-layer assembly on anisotropic microwrinkled substrates. The nanoscale roughness of the rice leaf-like surfaces is controlled to yield tunable anisotropic wettability and hydrophobic properties that transitioned between the anisotropic/pinned, anisotropic/rollable, and isotropic/rollable water droplet behavior states. These remarkable changes result from discontinuities in the three-phase (solid–liquid–gas) contact line due to the presence of air trapped beneath the liquid, which is controlled by the surface roughness of the hierarchical nanostructures. The mechanism underlying the directional water-rolling properties of the rice leaf-like surfaces provides insight into the development of a range of innovative applications that require control over directional flow.

Donghoon Kwak

Papers

Photoreversibly Switchable Superhydrophobic Surface with Erasable and Rewritable Pattern

UV-Driven Reversible Switching of a Roselike Vanadium Oxide Film between Superhydrophobicity and Superhydrophilicity

Solubility-Induced Ordered Polythiophene Precursors for High-Performance Organic Thin-Film Transistors

Organic Thin-film Transistors Based on Polythiophene Nanowires Embedded in Insulating Polymer

Tunable Anisotropic Wettability of Rice Leaf-Like Wavy Surfaces