Piezoelectricnanogeneratorwitha
机械敏感性离子通道蛋白Piezo1在椎间盘髓核细胞中的表达及意义

机械敏感性离子通道蛋白Piezo1在椎间盘髓核细胞中的表达及意义Piezo1是一种新发现的机械敏感性离子通道蛋白,它的发现为人们解释了细胞如何感知机械刺激的过程提供了新的思路。
最初,Piezo1被发现在感觉神经元、血管内皮细胞等组织中表达,并且参与多种生理过程,如触觉传导、血管舒张等。
随着研究的深入,人们发现Piezo1在椎间盘髓核细胞中也有表达,并且在椎间盘退变的过程中发挥重要作用。
在一项最新的研究中,科学家发现Piezo1在椎间盘髓核细胞中的表达水平与椎间盘的退变程度呈正相关。
通过实验验证发现,当椎间盘受到机械应力或压力刺激时,Piezo1会被激活,导致钙离子内流、细胞内信号通路的激活,最终引发细胞内信号途径的改变,促使细胞产生炎症因子、蛋白酶等炎症相关分子的合成,加速椎间盘的退变过程。
这些研究结果表明,Piezo1在椎间盘髓核细胞中的表达对于椎间盘的生理功能至关重要,其过度活化可能会引发椎间盘的退变和炎症反应。
除了在椎间盘的生理功能中发挥重要作用外,Piezo1在椎间盘细胞中的表达还可能为椎间盘退变的治疗提供新的靶点。
针对Piezo1的抑制剂可能成为治疗椎间盘退变的新策略。
目前已经有一些研究针对Piezo1的抑制剂进行了初步的研究,并且取得了一定的疗效。
未来,我们有望通过调控Piezo1的表达和功能来延缓或治疗椎间盘的退变过程,为脊柱相关疾病的治疗提供新的思路和方法。
机械敏感性离子通道蛋白Piezo1在椎间盘髓核细胞中的表达对于椎间盘的生理功能和退变过程至关重要。
研究人员通过对Piezo1的功能和调控机制进行研究,有望为椎间盘相关疾病的治疗提供新的靶点和策略。
随着对Piezo1的研究不断深入,相信我们可以更好地了解椎间盘的生理功能和退变机制,为相关疾病的预防和治疗提供更好的方法和方案。
Piezo1的发现和研究为椎间盘疾病的治疗和研究提供了新的方向,有望为相关疾病的治疗带来新的突破。
希望未来能够有更多的研究者加入到这一领域,共同探索Piezo1在椎间盘细胞中的作用机制,为椎间盘相关疾病的治疗和预防提供更多的帮助。
共轭聚合物点及其制备方法和应用、可饱和吸收体及其制备方法和应

专利名称:共轭聚合物点及其制备方法和应用、可饱和吸收体及其制备方法和应用
专利类型:发明专利
发明人:吴长锋,秦冠仕,秦伟平,王方,陈昊彬
申请号:CN201811079464.0
申请日:20180913
公开号:CN109320693A
公开日:
20190212
专利内容由知识产权出版社提供
摘要:本发明涉及一种共轭聚合物点及其制备方法和应用、可饱和吸收体及其制备方法和应用。
该共轭聚合物点,具有如下结构式:其中,R选自如下结构式中的一种:及n为大于等于5且小于等于1000的自然数。
上述共轭聚合物点能够应用于制作宽带可饱和吸收体。
申请人:南方科技大学,吉林大学
地址:518055 广东省深圳市南山区西丽镇学苑大道1088号南方科技大学
国籍:CN
代理机构:广州华进联合专利商标代理有限公司
代理人:潘霞
更多信息请下载全文后查看。
双氮杂桥c60衍生物的合成及非线性光学性质

双氮杂桥c60衍生物的合成及非线性光学性质从20世纪80年代开始,双氮碳六十(C60)颗粒被发现,成为现代材料科学家最激动的发现之一。
C60由十二个六边形结构组成,双氮以对称排列在六边形边界之上,其反应性和非线性光学性质值得深入研究。
随着时间的推移,学者们开始发展出各种双氮C60衍生物,研究它们的合理及经济的合成方法,以及它们的非线性光学性质。
双氮C60衍生物的合成方法通常可分为三类:自由基偶联反应,催化反应和基本合成方法。
自由基偶联反应通常是以室温下利用ocd 催化剂在DMSO溶剂中,发生的双氮C60衍生物的合成反应。
一般来说,此种方法产物结构较简单,易于获得高产率,而且无需复杂的操作步骤。
催化反应也可通过室温下的溶剂和催化剂,以及溶剂和C60的不同混合物,来获得双氮C60衍生物。
基本合成方法是利用不同的碱催化剂和溶剂,以及高温和大气压等条件,通过溶剂去凝拆分及改性溶剂,来得到双氮C60衍生物。
双氮C60衍生物的非线性光学性质是衍生物研究的核心之一。
从外观上看,双氮C60衍生物具有良好的晶体结构和极佳的分散性,具有较低的溶解度、低的溶媒敏感性和高的热稳定性。
在C60的双氮衍生物中,环状结构的线路性环状衍生物具有高度的光学稳定性,其非线性响应可以催化和抑制,特别是在有机硅溶剂体系中,可以极大提高非线性效应的大小和时间范围。
此外,双氮C60衍生物还具有EPR (电子核磁共振)特性,其与环状结构有很大关系。
从上文可以看出,双氮C60衍生物的合成及其非线性光学性质无疑具有极大的研究价值,是目前材料科学家们研究的重点。
据报道,在石墨烯的出现之前,在双氮C60衍生物的研究方面取得了巨大进展。
在双氮C60衍生物研究的长期发展中,科学家们认识到,双氮C60衍生物合成方法的发展和非线性光学特性的研究是互相联系的,其可以源源不断地改善其后续的性能。
因此,研究双氮C60衍生物的合成及非线性光学性质,不仅可以深入了解它们的特性,而且可以为今后的材料科学研究奠定基础。
具有功能化栅电极和基电极的纳米柱场效应和结型晶体管[发明专利]
![具有功能化栅电极和基电极的纳米柱场效应和结型晶体管[发明专利]](https://img.taocdn.com/s3/m/55252ea069eae009591bec14.png)
专利名称:具有功能化栅电极和基电极的纳米柱场效应和结型晶体管
专利类型:发明专利
发明人:阿迪蒂亚·拉贾戈帕,杰峰·常,奥利佛·普拉特布格,斯蒂芬·彼得里,阿克塞尔·谢勒,查尔斯·L·奇尔哈特
申请号:CN201380039616.3
申请日:20130712
公开号:CN105408740A
公开日:
20160316
专利内容由知识产权出版社提供
摘要:描述了用于分子感测的系统和方法。
描述的分子传感器基于场效应晶体管或双极结型晶体管。
这些晶体管具有带有与基电极或栅电极接触的功能化层的纳米柱。
该功能化层能够结合分子,这会在传感器中引发电信号。
申请人:加州理工学院,赛诺菲美国服务公司
地址:美国加利福尼亚州
国籍:US
代理机构:北京安信方达知识产权代理有限公司
更多信息请下载全文后查看。
槲皮素-白蛋白纳米粒的制备及其对NASH肝纤维化的体内外抑制作用

槲皮素-白蛋白纳米粒的制备及其对NASH 肝纤维化的体内外抑制作用作者:陈紫莹张薇覃萍陈永苗张传平李俊伟陈阿丽来源:《中国药房》2022年第08期中圖分类号 R943;R965 文献标志码 A 文章编号 1001-0408(2022)08-0930-07DOI 10.6039/j.issn.1001-0408.2022.08.05摘要目的制备槲皮素-白蛋白纳米粒(Que-HSA-NPs),并评价Que-HSA-NPs对非酒精性脂肪性肝炎(NASH)肝纤维化的体内外抑制作用。
方法运用去溶剂化-化学交联法制备Que-HSA-NPs,观察其外观特征并检测其粒径、多分散指数(PDI)、Zeta电位和载药量。
将槲皮素(Que)和Que-HSA-NPs作用于鼠源HSC-T6细胞,比较两者对细胞存活率及对转化生长因子β(TGF-β)、Ⅰ型胶原α1(COL1A1)和α-平滑肌肌动蛋白(α-SMA)mRNA表达的影响。
将Que和Que-HSA-NPs作用于经低蛋氨酸和胆碱缺乏高脂鼠粮喂养的小鼠,通过测定其血清肝损伤指标水平,肝组织病理学特征,肝组织中TGF-β、COL1A1、α-SMA mRNA表达以及肝组织中α-SMA蛋白表达的变化来评价两者对小鼠NASH肝纤维化的改善作用。
结果所制Que-HSA-NPs呈球形,粒径为(172.9±2.2)nm,PDI为0.233,Zeta电位为-29.2 mV,载药量为2.99%。
0~250 μg/mL的Que和Que-HSA-NPs对HSC-T6细胞无毒,两者均能显著降低细胞中TGF-β、COL1A1和α-SMA mRNA的表达,且Que-HSA-NPs的作用更强(P关键词槲皮素;槲皮素-白蛋白纳米粒;非酒精性脂肪性肝炎;肝纤维化;体内外研究Preparation of quercetin-human serum albumin-nanoparticles and its inhibitory effects against NASH- induced liver fibrosis in vivo and in vitroCHEN Ziying1,ZHANG Wei1,QIN Ping1,CHEN Yongmiao2,ZHANG Chuanping3,LI Junwei3,CHEN Ali1 (1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou 510006, China;2. Dept. of Pharmacy, the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou 501080, China;3. Hutchison Whampoa Guangzhou Baiyunshan Chinese Medicine Company Limited, Guangzhou 510515,China)ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE To prepare quercetin-human serum albumin-nanoparticles (Que-HSA-NPs), and to evaluate the in vivo and in vitro inhibitory effects of Que-HSA-NPs on hepatic fibrosis of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). METHODS Que-HSA-NPs were prepared by desolvation-chemical cross-linking method, their appearance characteristics were observed, and their particle size, polydispersity index (PDI), Zeta potential and drug loading were detected. Quercetin (Que) and Que-HSA-NPs were applied to murine HSC-T6 cells. The effects of them on survival rate of HSC-T6,mRNA expression of transforming growth factor β (TGF-β), Type Ⅰcollagen α1 (COL1A1)and α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) were compared. Que and Que-HSA-NPs were applied to mice fed with low methionine and choline deficient high-fat diet. The serum levels of liver injury indexes, liver pathological characteristics, mRNA expressions of TGF-β,COL1A1 and α-SMA,protein expression of α-SMA in liver tissue were determined to evaluate the improvement effects of them on hepatic fibrosis of NASH in mice. RESULTS The prepared Que-HSA-NPs was spherical, the particle size was (172.9±2.2)nm, the PDI was 0.233, the Zeta potential was -29.2 mV, and the drug loading was 2.99%. Que and Que-HSA-NPs were nontoxic to HSC-T6 at concentrations of 0-250 μg/mL. Both of them could significantly decrease mRNA expressions of TGF-β, COL1A1 and α-SMA, especially Que-HSA-NPs (PKEYWORDS quercetin;quercetin-human serum albumin- nanoparticles;non-alcoholic steatohepatitis;hepatic fibrosis; inhibitory effect in vivo and in vitro study非酒精性脂肪性肝病(non-alcoholic fatty liver di- sease,NAFLD)是一系列与肥胖、2型糖尿病及代谢综合征密切相关的肝脏疾病,被定义为在几乎没有酒精摄入、病毒感染或其他特定因素的状态下,超过5%的肝细胞存在脂肪变性的疾病[1]。
核桃青皮提取物抑制小鼠Lewis肺癌生长的实验研究

核桃青皮提取物抑制小鼠Lewis肺癌生长的实验研究背景介绍肺癌是全球最常见的癌症之一,对人类健康造成了巨大的威胁。
目前,化疗和放疗是肺癌治疗的主要手段,但其治疗效果往往很有限,且伴随着一系列可怕的副作用。
因此,探索安全有效的药物治疗肺癌具有重要意义。
核桃是一种常见的食品,其内部的核壳被称为核桃青皮。
早在2000年就发现,核桃青皮具有显著的抗氧化和抗炎作用。
近年来的研究表明,核桃青皮中的化合物能够抑制癌细胞生长。
目的本实验旨在探究核桃青皮提取物对小鼠肺癌的治疗效果,并探讨其潜在的作用机制。
实验方法1.实验动物使用C57BL/6雄性小鼠,体重在20-25g之间。
2.肺癌模型的建立采用Lewis肺癌细胞移植模型建立小鼠肺癌模型。
具体操作如下:将Lewis肺癌细胞接种于小鼠右腹侧皮下组织内,待肿瘤体积达到约0.5cm³时开始治疗。
3.实验组设计将小鼠随机分为3组,每组10只。
分别为:•对照组:注射生理盐水。
•低剂量组:注射核桃青皮提取物100mg/kg。
•高剂量组:注射核桃青皮提取物200mg/kg。
每日注射剂量直接灌胃给药,治疗周期为14天。
4.实验指标收集mice体内的数据和指标:•肿瘤体积•肿瘤质量•肿瘤抑制率•血清中的白介素-6(IL-6)、肿瘤坏死因子-α(TNF-α)和白介素-1β(IL-1β)水平5.数据分析采用SPSS 22.0软件进行数据分析。
结果1.核桃青皮提取物抑制Lewis肺癌细胞生长。
实验结果显示,注射核桃青皮提取物后,小鼠Lewis肺癌肿瘤体积和质量显著降低,且高剂量组的抑制效果更显著。
2.核桃青皮提取物对癌细胞周围炎症环境的影响。
实验结果显示,核桃青皮提取物能够显著降低小鼠血清中的IL-6、TNF-α和IL-1β水平,表明其具有抗炎作用。
讨论本研究证明,核桃青皮提取物具有抑制小鼠Lewis肺癌生长的效果。
针对其潜在的机制,有研究显示,核桃青皮中的化合物能够抑制癌细胞的增殖和迁移,并具有抗炎和抗氧化作用,这些特性可能共同作用于Lewis肺癌模型中,实现了治疗效果。
展现出明亮发射的多金属氧酸盐化合物及其制备方法[发明专利]
![展现出明亮发射的多金属氧酸盐化合物及其制备方法[发明专利]](https://img.taocdn.com/s3/m/1dace73ead51f01dc381f1b7.png)
专利名称:展现出明亮发射的多金属氧酸盐化合物及其制备方法
专利类型:发明专利
发明人:史蒂文·丹尼尔斯,奈杰尔·L·皮克特,尼基·普拉布达斯·萨佛珍妮,弗吉尔·加夫里柳克
申请号:CN201980052291.X
申请日:20190812
公开号:CN112533934A
公开日:
20210319
专利内容由知识产权出版社提供
摘要:用于合成多金属氧酸盐化合物的方法包括在有机盐的存在下加热金属前体。
本文中制备的多金属氧酸盐化合物展现出高光致发光量子效率和在电磁波谱的蓝色和/或紫色区域中的光致发光最大值。
申请人:纳米2D材料有限公司,曼彻斯特大学
地址:英国曼彻斯特
国籍:GB
代理机构:中科专利商标代理有限责任公司
代理人:吴胜周
更多信息请下载全文后查看。
纳米颗粒形状与piezo1离子通道

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Tips: This document is carefully written by the small master, if you have the requirements for the document, you can download it, I hope it can help you solve your practical problems. After downloading the document, it can be modified and adjustedaccording to your actual needs.In addition, the store also provides you with a variety of types of practical information, such as work summary, copy excerpts, education essays, diary appreciation, classic articles, topic composition and so on. If you want to know more about the different data formats and writing methods, please pay attentionto the following updates.纳米颗粒在生物医学领域中扮演着越来越重要的角色,其形状对于其在生物体内的作用具有重要影响。
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journal homepage: /locate/nanoenergyAvailable online at RAPID COMMUNICATIONPiezoelectric nanogenerator with ananoforest structureMyeong-Lok Seol,Ji-Min Choi,Jee-Yeon Kim,Jae-Hyuk Ahn,Dong-Il Moon,Yang-Kyu Choi nDepartment of Electrical Engineering,KAIST,291Daehak-ro,Yuseong-gu,Daejeon305-701,Republic of KoreaReceived30December2012;received in revised form11March2013;accepted23April2013Available online7May2013KEYWORDSNanogenerator;Metal-assistedĆche-mical etchingĆ(mac-etch);Energy harvesting;Nanoforest;Piezoelectric;Barium titanate(BTO)AbstractPiezoelectric nanogenerators have been intensively developed in terms of their materials andapplications;however,only modest structural progress has been made due to limitations in thegrowth mechanisms of nano-materials.In this work,a piezoelectric nanogenerator based on ananoforest structure is introduced.Through a metal-assisted chemical etching(mac-etch)process,densely packed vertical nanowires and nanovoids are fabricated.The nanoforeststructure serves as a bottom electrode,which increases the interfacial area with asubsequently deposited piezoelectric material,in this case barium titanate(BaTiO3).In theproposed fabrication method,more various piezoelectric materials can be used for a piezo-electric device compared to previously reported methods because the process relies not on thegrowth mechanism but on the deposition technique.The proposed nanoforest structurednanogenerator produces a 4.2times enhanced power density compared to the controlgenerator,which uses the same material but has aflat topology.The strong relationshipbetween the enhancement ratio and the nanoforest height is found.Both the experiment andthe simulation data present a consistent trend of a gradual increase with a short height andsaturation at a tall height.&2013Elsevier Ltd.All rights reserved.IntroductionEnergy harvesting technology has been widely investigatedfor future sustainable power sources.In particular,energyharvesting using piezoelectricity attracts special interestsdue to its abundant energy sources,scalability,and highenergy conversion efficiency.By virtue of the rapid devel-opment of nanofabrication techniques,a piezoelectricenergy generator using a nanostructure,also known as ananogenerator,was introduced by Wang and Song[1].Theprototype nanogenerator utilized a vertically standing ZnOnanowire array,while the tip of an atomic force microscope(AFM)was used for the electrical contact and to applymechanical force.With further developments in recent 2211-2855/$-see front matter&2013Elsevier Ltd.All rights reserved./10.1016/j.nanoen.2013.04.006n Corresponding author.Tel.:+82423503477.E-mail address:ykchoi@ee.kaist.ac.kr(Y.-K.Choi).Nano Energy(2013)2,1142–1148years,nanogenerators have been proven to be advanta-geous in terms of both performance and applications compared to conventional bulk-type generators.By employ-ing these nanostructures,the external applied stress was not only limited in the axial direction but was also activated along the radial direction,which results in a strain confine-ment effect[2,3].The development of nanogenerators has been strongly related to material growth techniques.Vapor–solid–solid process,vapor–liquid–solid process,pulse laser deposition, and chemical approaches are usually used to fabricate the core nanostructure[4].Various materials such as ZnO,GaN, InN,and CdSe have been successfully grown and experi-mentally demonstrated as nanogenerators[5–11].Other applications beyond energy harvesting have also been intensively researched by means of hybrid integration with other components,such as chemical sensors,transistors,Li-ion batteries,and biosensors[12–15].Whereas notable advancements have been accomplished in terms of materi-als and applications,little progress has been made from a structural viewpoint.The vertically grown nanowire array, initiated from a prototype nanogenerator,remains the most widely used core nanostructure[1,5–12].An ostensible reason for using vertically standing nanostructures may be that they show very attractive performances metrics.How-ever,a more realistic reason is that the fabrication method of these structures is constrained by the bottom-up growth techniques.As the nanogenerator evolves more aggressively,structural analysis increasingly becomes an essential issue.In2011,Cha et al.introduced a nanogenerator with a piezoelectric nanopore array structure that was created by means of a template-assisted fabrication process[16].An increased output piezopotential of approximately145%was demon-strated by conducting comprehensive experiments coupled with a simulation.Herein,we introduce a nanogenerator based on a nanoforest structure fabricated using metal-assisted chemical etching(mac-etch).Densely packed sub-10nm nanowires and nanovoids create a core nanostructure, which results in an extremely large interfacial area.After-wards,a piezoelectric material is deposited by physical vapor deposition(PVD)over the pre-existing nanoforest.Due to the nature of these deposition techniques,a greater variety of piezoelectric materials can be made available compared to the bottom-up growth process.It is noteworthy that the proposed nanogenerator was fabricated with neither photo-lithography nor plasma etching.Moreover,an extra step to remove the pre-existing template is unnecessary because the highly doped silicon nanoforest template itself works as a bottom electrode.Experimental methodsFabrication begins with a4in.p-type silicon wafer(Fig.1A). Heavily doped silicon was used because the silicon wafer will serve as the bottom electrode.The resistivity of the wafer is0.005ohm cm,which is low enough for charge conduction.A key process to make nanoforest morphology is the mac-etch process[17–19].To apply mac-etch to the silicon surface,Au of a thickness of6nm was deposited onto the silicon using a thermal evaporator.Such a thin Au layer cannot form a continuousfilm-like morphology.Instead,the layer forms an island-like morphology on the nanometer scale which is composed of naturally created Au clusters and voids among the clusters(Fig.1B).The island-like patterns of Au will act as a framework for the formation of the nanoforest.The morphology transition from afilm-like pattern to the island-like pattern is governed by the thickness of the deposited Au.Hence,control of the Au film thickness is crucial.The Au-coated silicon wafer was dipped into a wet etchant composed of HF,H2O2,and H2O (at a volume ratio of2:1:77).H2O2partially oxidized the silicon with the help of Au as a catalyst,and theoxidized Figure1Schematics describing the fabrication procedures of the nanoforest generator.(A)Initial heavily doped Si substrate.(B)Thin Aufilm of a thickness of6nm is deposited on the Si surface.The thin Au naturally forms an island-like morphology(C)Mac-etched silicon surface.The height of the nanoforest can be tuned by the mac-etch time.(D)BTO-deposited nanoforest surface with a thickness of100nm created by RF sputtering.(E)Device after the PMMA coating process.(F)Final nanoforest generator after the deposition of the top electrode,which is composed of Cr and Au with thicknesses of10nm and200nm,respectively.1143 Piezoelectric nanogenerator with a nanoforest structurepart was etched away by HF.Because H2O2alone cannot oxidize silicon into silicon dioxide,only the Au-deposited part is etched away.Therefore,the voids among Au clusters were transformed into vertically standing nanowires,while the silicon under Au clusters was converted into voids. Consequently,they were patterned in the form of a nanoforest(Fig.1C).The sizes of the nanowires and nanovoids are in the sub-10nm range,which can scarcely be achieved using conventional photolithography due to the resolution limitation.A BaTiO3(BTO)film with a thickness of100nm was then deposited onto the mac-etched silicon surface by RF sputtering(Fig.1D)[20].The source power was200W, the deposition pressure was3.0mTorr,and deposition time was30min.The mac-etched morphology acts as a template to form a BTO nanostructure.The BTOfilm covers the protruding nanoforest conformally.Control of the BTOfilm thickness is an important factor that governs the piezo-electricity in the proposed nanogenerator.When the thick-ness of the BTOfilm is too thin,the deposited BTO clusters cannot be linked to each other.Therefore,a continuousfilm cannot be created.Otherwise,when the thickness of the BTO is too thick,the density of voids inside the nanostruc-ture is severely decreased,which weakens the strain confinement effect.After the deposition process,the BTO-deposited wafer was annealed at7001C for20min under O2 ambient.This annealing process converts the phase of the BTO from an amorphous to a poly-crystalline state,which is critical for enhancing the piezoelectricity.Detailed char-acterization to show the phase change of the BTOfilm with the aid of X-ray diffraction(XRD)and Raman spectroscopy is described in the supporting information.Prior to the formation of the top electrode,a poly(methyl methacrylate)(PMMA)layer was coated onto the BTO-coated nanoforest surface(Fig.1E).It was deposited by spin-coating at4000rpm for45s and subsequently annealed at1701C for30min.This PMMA layer provides four distinct advantages.First,the layer serves as an insulating layer that prevents an undesirable piezoelectric screening effect caused by free electrons[21].Schottky barrier formation at the metal and dielectric interface is usually used for this purpose;however,the insertion of an insulating layer was found to be more straightforward and effective to block the flows of free electrons[7].Second,the layer serves as a protection layer that prevents electrical shorts.A small fraction of defects during the fabrication process can cause an electrical short between the top and bottom electrodes, which can critically degrade the output potential.Insertion of the PMMA layer can prevent such direct contact between electrodes.Third,the layer serves as a diffuser that omni-directionally dispenses any applied force.Owing to the vertically aligned nanostructures of the BTO over the nanoforest surface,the applied pressure is intensified on only a specific protruding region.In this case,the insertion of a PMMA layer can redistribute the applied force axially and radially.Fourth,the layer provides planarization effect, which simplifies subsequent processes.If a material for the top electrode is directly deposited onto the rough nanofor-est surface,it cannot be continuously connected.Moreover, electrical open can be happened in the worst case.After the PMMA coating process,bi-metals for the top electrode were deposited using a thermal evaporator (Fig.1F).Cr of a thickness of10nm was initially deposited as an adhesion layer,and then Au of a thickness of200nm was deposited.Afterwards,the fabricated wafer was diced with a square shape and the top and bottom electrodes were connected with aluminum wire and silver paste.A poling process was subsequently conducted with an electric field of100kV/cm for10h.Results and discussionsFig.2A–C show scanning electron microscope(SEM)images of the nanoforest structure,which is composed of vertically standing nanowires and nanovoids.The densely packed sub-10nm nanowires and nanovoids are inherited by the natu-rally formed island-like morphology of the thin Aufilm.Each shape and size of the nanowires appears random in detail; however,the overall density and height of the nanostruc-ture are uniform and can be accurately controlled.The density of the nanowires and nanovoids is determined by the initial thickness of the Au for the mac-etching process,and the height of the nanowires is determined by the mac-etch time.The silicon nanoforest acts as a template for the subse-quently deposited BTO.After BTO deposition of100nm,the size of the nanovoids is reduced,whereas the density of the nanovoids is maintained(Fig.2D).When the thickness of the BTO layer is too thick,most of the nanovoids disappear, which reduces the strain confinement effect.Otherwise,if the thickness is too thin,BTO clusters become disconnected from each other,causing the amount of piezopotential to be decreased.Through the optimization of the BTOfilm thick-ness,a clear strain confinement effect can be achieved.The applied vertical pressures are redistributed not only along the axial direction(parallel with the height of the nanowire) but also along the radial direction(parallel with the diameter of the nanowire).Fig.2E presents a cross-sectional SEM image of a working nanogenerator.The heavily doped silicon substrate and the silicon nanoforest structure are shown at the bottom.The sidewall and top of the nanoforest are completely covered by the BTO layer.This conformal step coverage was confirmed by EDS image(Fig.2F).In the nanoforest region, both silicon and barium peaks are observed.This is evidence that the BTOfilm covers the sidewall of the nanowire.On the BTO-coated nanoforest,the PMMA layer and the bilayer of Cr and Au for the top electrode are placed.Electrical measurement of the piezopotential created from the nanogenerator is conducted using specially designed stress applying equipment.A cylinder with a diameter of1.5cm repeatedly moves up and down to apply mechanical force onto the nanogenerator(Fig.3A).A control sample of a piezoelectric generator usingflat BTO film without a nanostructure was also prepared.The piezo-electricity was fairly compared under the same experimen-tal and measurement conditions.A process of applying downward force,holding it for1s,releasing it,and then holding it again for1s was iteratively carried out.Detailed experimental procedures are presented with a movie clip in the supporting information.Positive piezopotential was induced after the down-forcing process and negativeM.-L.Seol et al.1144piezopotential was in turn produced after the release of the force.T o con firm the reliability of the piezopotential,a linear superposition test was performed (Fig.3B).The superposition test is a widely used experimental tool to determine whether the measured voltage comes from the piezopotential or from some other environmental effect [4,6].T wo nanogenerators producing peak piezopotential amounts of 0.17–0.20V are serially connected with the Al wire.The output peak piezo-potential of the serially connected nanogenerators is approximately 0.32–0.40V ,which is the doubled piezopoten-tial value arisen from the single nanogenerator .Compared to the control device without the nanostructure,the nanoforest generator clearly produces higher output piezopotential.With further quantitative analyses,2.1times enhanced piezopotential was achieved by the nanoforest generator (Fig.3C).Similar to the output piezopotential,current density was also 2.0times enhanced (Fig.3D).There-fore,the nanoforest generator produces 4.2times enhanced output power density compared to the control generator .This increment ratio is high compared to the previously reported nanostructures such as a nanopore array [16].T o con firm the reproducibility and variability of the enhancement effect,total 14control devices and experimental devices are mea-sured (See supporting information).In parallel,a simulation study of the performance of the nanogenerator was conducted using a commercialized simu-lator (COMSOL)[22].The material parameters of the electrodes,PMMA,and BTO are based on the initially de fined values.The structure is modeled as a BTO-coated nanorod array (Fig.4A).To simplify the simulation,a well-ordered nanorod was assumed.The radius of the nanorod and the rod-to-rod distance were set to 50nm and 200nm,respectively.The thickness of the BTO film was set to 100nm and the step coverage for the sidewall was assumed to be 50%.The edge of each BTO-coated nanorod is connected to the edge of another;thus,the designed structure could be also considered as a nanovoid array.Although the designed structure differs from the fabricated structure in terms of its detailed morphology,the underlying concept of the structure is very similar .The piezopotential distribution is displayed as a color map after applying stress to the top electrode.Because the nanoforest template also works as the bottom electrode,all nanorods are electrically grounded as the reference voltage;hence,the relative piezopotential was extracted from the top of the BTO film.Figure 2Microscope images during and after fabrication.(A)SEM image of the nanoforest silicon surface created with a mac-etching time of 2min with a bird's-eye view angle.(B)SEM image of a nanoforest silicon surface created with a mac-etching time of 8min.(C)SEM image of a nanoforest silicon surface from a top view angle.Au-deposited site before the mac-etch becomes nanovoids and the others uncovered by Au become vertical nanowires.(D)SEM image of a BTO-deposited nanoforest from a top view angle.The BTO thickness is 100nm.Voids still remain among the BTO clusters.(E)Cross-sectional SEM image of the final nanoforest generator .(F)EDS mapping result of the BTO-coated nanoforest region.The red dots come from Ba and the green dots come from silicon.1145Piezoelectric nanogenerator with a nanoforest structureThrough a comparative study using simulation models and experimental measurements,the height dependency of the nanoforest was analyzed.After the peak piezopotential of the control device without the nanoforest was set to 1.0,the relative amounts of the peak potentials were plotted (Fig.4B)according to various heights.The normalized value of 1.0is corresponding to 53mV of real potential.Simulated potential value could not be exactly de fined because the potential is directly in fluenced by material parameters and applied pressure,which are dif ficult to be exactly de fined.Therefore,normalized potential is more appropriate for clearer comparison.Both the simulation and measurement data show an increasing trend from 0nm to 100nm,and both show a saturation trend beyond 100nm.The output piezopotential was 2.1times increased when 250nm of nanoforest height was used compared to the control device without the nanostructure.This increase and saturation trend can be explained with the amount of radial strain.When the nanorod height is too low,radial movement perpendicular to the stress direction is inactive;hence,the strain con finement effect tends to be negligible.As the height is increased,the radial movements are signi ficantly increased.Therefore the strain con finement effect is enforced.Exponential relationship provides the best fitting with the both simulation and measurement data points.As the nanoforest height increases,peak piezopotential is expo-nentially increased.The ratio of increment graduallydecreases as the nanoforest height increases over 100nm.From the equation in the Fig.4B,k rad represents the sensitivity between the peak piezopotential and the nano-forest height.k rad with the simulation curve is higher than that of measurement curve,which implies that simulation overestimated the radial strain effect.The possible reason of the difference may come from the step coverage of the BTO deposition.In simulation,conformal step coverage of 50%was assumed;however ,actual step coverage is higher for the shorter nanoforest height due to the corner effect.When nanoforest height is shortened,the corner effect planarizes the surface and effect of the nanostructure is more decreased than the predicted value.Based on these results,it is inferred that a longer mac-etch time is preferred to maximize the piezopotential.However ,a very tall nanoforest can lead to severe variability and can degrade the endurance.Too high aspect ratio of the structure would cause instability for the external forces,so the crystallinity of BTO and silicon nanoforest can be damaged after the operations.Therefore,careful optimiza-tion is required on demand.ConclusionsIn summary,a nanogenerator with a nanoforest structure was proposed and its piezoelectric characteristics were analyzed.A silicon nanoforest was fabricated by themac-Figure 3Experimental procedures and results.(A)Snapshots during the measurement.The circular cylinder repeatedly moves up and down to apply stress to the nanogenerator .The inset represents the output voltage after the down-forcing (left)and releasing (right)process.(B)Result of linear superposition test.Doubled output piezopotential is measured when two devices are serially connected.One division in y -axis represents 0.1V .(C)Measured voltage curve from the control nanogenerator with a flat BTO film (black line)and from the nanoforest nanogenerator with the nanostructured BTO film (red line).(D)Measured current density curve from the control nanogenerator with a flat BTO film (black line)and from the nanoforest nanogenerator with the nanostructured BTO film (red line).M.-L.Seol et al.1146etch process and was used as the template for the nanos-tructure.The nanoforest generator had advantages in terms of both fabrication and performance.In terms of fabrica-tion,the proposed fabrication can accommodate a greater variety of piezoelectric materials because it is not con-strained by the bottom-up growth mechanism.From a performance perspective,densely packed nanovoids inside the BTO-coated nanoforest activated the strain con finement effect,which results in increased piezopotential.From the fabricated nanogenerator ,4.2times increased output power density was demonstrated compared to the bulk-type con-trol generator .The height effect of the nanoforest was comparatively analyzed using a simulator (COMSOL)and by means of experimental results.Both results showed an increasing trend with short nanowires and saturation with the tall ones.The analyses on the nanoforest generator proposed in this work will not only be directly adaptable for use in silicon chip-based energy harvesting applications but will also inspire the further structural evolution of a practical and ef ficient piezoelectric nanogenerator.AcknowledgmentsThis work was sponsored through grants from the National Research and Development Program under Grant 2012-0001131for the development of biomedical function mon-itoring biosensors sponsored by the Korea Ministry of Education,Science and Technology (MEST).This work was also supported by the Center for Integrated Smart Sensors funded by the Ministry of Education,Science and Technology as Global Frontier Project (CISS-2012M3A6A6054187).Appendix A.Supporting 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.Lee,B.Kumar,J.-S.Seo,K.-H.Kim,J.I.Sohn,S.N.Cha,D.Choi,Z.L.Wang,S.-W.Kim,Nano Letters 12(2012)1959–1964.[22]COMSOL Multiphysics User ’s Guide,Version 3.5,〈sol.com/〉.Figure 4Simulation analysis of the height dependency in the nanogenerator .(A)Simulation schematic describing the modeled structure and the output piezopotential.Red to blue represents positive to negative electric potential.(B)Simulation (red dots)and measurement (green dots)results of the relative piezo-potential intensity for various heights of the nanogenerator .Dotted curves are exponential trend lines of the data.1147Piezoelectric nanogenerator with a nanoforest structureMyeong-Lok Seol received the B.S.and M.S.degrees from the Korea Advanced Insti-tute of Science and Technology (KAIST),Daejeon,Korea,in 2010and 2012,respec-tively,where he is currently working toward the Ph.D.degree.His current research interests include organic-silicon hybrid device and piezoelectric nanogenerator.Ji-Min Choi received the B.S.degree from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST),Daejeon,Korea,in 2009,where he is currently working toward the Ph.D.degree.His research interests include flexible electronics,nanofabrication technology ,andbioMEMS.Jee-Yeon Kim received the B.S.degree and M.S.degree from the KAIST ,Daejeon,Korea,in 2009and 2011,respectively.She is cur-rently working toward the Ph.D.degree in the Department of Electrical Engineering,KAIST .Her research interests include biosen-sors and nanowireelectronics.Jae-Hyuk Ahn received the B.S.degree from the KAIST ,Daejeon,Korea,in 2007,where he is currently working toward the Ph.D.degree.His research interests include electrical biosensors and nanofabrication technology.Dong-Il Moon received the B.S.degree from the Kyungbook National University ,Daegu,Korea,and M.S.degree from the KAIST ,Daejeon,Korea in 2008and 2010,respec-tively.He is currently working toward the Ph.D.degree in the Department of Electrical Engineering,KAIST .His research interests include floating body cell memories ranging from device design to process development,simulation,andcharacterization.Yang-Kyu Choi received the B.S.and M.S.degrees from Seoul National University,Seoul,Korea,in 1989and 1991,respec-tively,and the Ph.D.degree from the Uni-versity of California,Berkeley ,in 2001.He is currently a Professor with the Department of Electrical Engineering,KAIST .He has authored or coauthored over 280papers and is a holder of 12U.S.patents and 99Korea patents.Dr .Choire-ceived the Sakrison Award for the bestdissertation from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences,University of California,in 2002.He was also the recipient of “The Scientist of the Month for July 2006”from the Ministry of Science and Technology in Korea.M.-L.Seol et al.1148。