Dong Qizheng, Jiang Jiaqiao, Wang Yuting, Zhai Jin
Key Laboratory of Bio-Inspired Smart Interfacial Science and Technology of Ministry of Education, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Chemistry, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, P. R. China.
ACS Nano. 2021 Dec 28;15(12):19266-19274. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.1c05170. Epub 2021 Dec 6.
Constructing nanofluidic diode nanochannels with an asymmetric structure for logic gate circuits has attracted extensive research interests. Currently, the preparation of a geometrically asymmetric nanochannel relies on cost-effective material-processing methods and has been hard to scale up, limiting the development of nanofluidic research. Herein, we introduce the idea of geometric tailoring to cut the MXene lamellar membrane in different shapes and investigate the ion transport behavior systematically. The ion rectification can be regulated by adjusting geometric factors such as the asymmetric ratio and height of the trapezoidal membrane. On the basis of the above-mentioned research on rectification characteristics, we further optimized the trapezoidal membrane into a triangular membrane on the macroscopic level and successfully applied it to logic circuits, realizing the logic operations of "AND" and "OR". It is worth mentioning that the shape of a macrocut triangular membrane is exactly the same as the symbol of an electronic diode, and the conduction and cutoff directions of the ionic current are also exactly the same as those of electronic diodes. Our finding provides a facile and general strategy for fabricating a macroscale geometric asymmetry nanochannel-based two-dimensional lamellar membrane and shows the potential applications in complex highly integrated ionic circuits.
构建用于逻辑门电路的具有不对称结构的纳米流体二极管纳米通道已引起广泛的研究兴趣。目前,几何不对称纳米通道的制备依赖于经济高效的材料加工方法,且难以扩大规模,这限制了纳米流体研究的发展。在此,我们引入几何剪裁的概念,将MXene层状膜切割成不同形状,并系统地研究离子传输行为。离子整流可通过调节梯形膜的不对称比和高度等几何因素来调控。基于上述对整流特性的研究,我们在宏观层面将梯形膜进一步优化为三角形膜,并成功将其应用于逻辑电路,实现了“与”和“或”的逻辑运算。值得一提的是,宏观切割的三角形膜的形状与电子二极管的符号完全相同,离子电流的导通和截止方向也与电子二极管的完全相同。我们的发现为制造基于宏观尺度几何不对称纳米通道的二维层状膜提供了一种简便通用的策略,并展示了其在复杂高度集成离子电路中的潜在应用。