Active self-assembly of piezoelectric biomolecular films via synergistic nanoconfinement and in-situ poling

Piezoelectric biomaterials have attracted great attention owing to the recent recognition of the impact of piezoelectricity on biological systems and their potential applications in implantable sensors, actuators, and energy harvesters. However, their practical use is hindered by the weak piezoelectric effect caused by the random polarization of biomaterials and the challenges of large-scale alignment of domains.*

In the article “Active self-assembly of piezoelectric biomolecular films via synergistic nanoconfinement and in-situ poling” Zhuomin Zhang, Xuemu Li, Zehua Peng, Xiaodong Yan, Shiyuan Liu, Ying Hong, Yao Shan, Xiaote Xu, Lihan Jin, Bingren Liu, Xinyu Zhang, Yu Chai, Shujun Zhang, Alex K.-Y. Jen and Zhengbao Yang present an active self-assembly strategy to tailor piezoelectric biomaterial thin films.*

The nanoconfinement-induced homogeneous nucleation overcomes the interfacial dependency and allows the electric field applied in-situ to align crystal grains across the entire film. The β-glycine films exhibit an enhanced piezoelectric strain coefficient of 11.2 pm V−1 and an exceptional piezoelectric voltage coefficient of 252 × 10−3 Vm N−1. Of particular significance is that the nanoconfinement effect greatly improves the thermostability before melting (192 °C). *

This finding offers a generally applicable strategy for constructing high-performance large-sized piezoelectric bio-organic materials for biological and medical microdevices.*

The piezoelectric properties of the as-prepared β-glycine nanocrystalline films were evaluated by piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) measurements.*

For all piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) measurements and SKPM (scanning Kelvin probe force microscopy) measurements mentioned in this article, conductive NanoWorld Arrow-EFM AFM probes with PtIr coating on both AFM cantilever and AFM tip were used. The nominal resonance frequency and the nominal stiffness of the AFM probe are 75 kHz and 2.8 N m−1, respectively.

Figure 3 from “Active self-assembly of piezoelectric biomolecular films via synergistic nanoconfinement and in-situ poling” by Zhuomin Zhang et al.:PFM measurements and polarization alignment studies of β-glycine nanocrystalline films. a The PFM OOP amplitude mapping overlaid on the 3D topography of as-prepared films in a 1.5 × 1.5 µm2 area. The applied AC voltage is 2 V. b The corresponding PFM OOP phase mapping overlaid on the 3D topography. c Histogram calculated from the PFM OOP phase mapping in (b) showing that the β-glycine nanocrystalline films are dominated by domains with the unique polarization direction. d PFM OOP phase mapping of the β-glycine microcrystals obtained by electrohydrodynamic focusing deposition through heterogeneous nucleation. e Histogram calculated from the phase mapping in (d). f Comparison of statistics of the piezoelectric phase for the as-prepared β-glycine nanocrystalline films via synergistic nanoconfinement and in-situ poling (left), and β-glycine microcrystals grown by heterogeneous nucleation in the absence of nanoconfinement effect (right). NanoWorld conductive Arrow-EFM AFM probes were used for the piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) and scanning Kelvin probe force microscopy (SKPFM) measurements mentioned in this article.
Figure 3 from “Active self-assembly of piezoelectric biomolecular films via synergistic nanoconfinement and in-situ poling” by Zhuomin Zhang et al.:
PFM measurements and polarization alignment studies of β-glycine nanocrystalline films.
a The PFM OOP amplitude mapping overlaid on the 3D topography of as-prepared films in a 1.5 × 1.5 µm2 area. The applied AC voltage is 2 V. b The corresponding PFM OOP phase mapping overlaid on the 3D topography. c Histogram calculated from the PFM OOP phase mapping in (b) showing that the β-glycine nanocrystalline films are dominated by domains with the unique polarization direction. d PFM OOP phase mapping of the β-glycine microcrystals obtained by electrohydrodynamic focusing deposition through heterogeneous nucleation. e Histogram calculated from the phase mapping in (d). f Comparison of statistics of the piezoelectric phase for the as-prepared β-glycine nanocrystalline films via synergistic nanoconfinement and in-situ poling (left), and β-glycine microcrystals grown by heterogeneous nucleation in the absence of nanoconfinement effect (right).

*Zhuomin Zhang, Xuemu Li, Zehua Peng, Xiaodong Yan, Shiyuan Liu, Ying Hong, Yao Shan, Xiaote Xu, Lihan Jin, Bingren Liu, Xinyu Zhang, Yu Chai, Shujun Zhang, Alex K.-Y. Jen and Zhengbao Yang
Active self-assembly of piezoelectric biomolecular films via synergistic nanoconfinement and in-situ poling
Nature Communications volume 14, Article number: 4094 (2023)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39692-y

Please follow this external link to read the full article: https://rdcu.be/dzddh

The article “Active self-assembly of piezoelectric biomolecular films via synergistic nanoconfinement and in-situ poling” by Zhuomin Zhang, Xuemu Li, Zehua Peng, Xiaodong Yan, Shiyuan Liu, Ying Hong, Yao Shan, Xiaote Xu, Lihan Jin, Bingren Liu, Xinyu Zhang, Yu Chai, Shujun Zhang, Alex K.-Y. Jen and Zhengbao Yang is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third-party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Influence of orientation and ferroelectric domains on the photochemical reactivity of La2Ti2O7

In the article “Influence of orientation and ferroelectric domains on the photochemical reactivity of La2Ti2O7” Mingyi Zhang, Paul A. Salvador and Gregory S. Rohrer describe how they measured the effects of crystal orientation and ferroelectric domain structure on the photochemical reactivity of La2Ti2O7. *

The reactivity is greatest on (001) surfaces (this is the orientation of the layers in this (110)p layered perovskite structure) while surfaces perpendicular to this orientation have the least reactivity. Complex domain structures were observed within the grains, but they appeared to have no effect on the photocathodic reduction of silver, in contrast to previous observations on other ferroelectrics. La2Ti2O7 is an example of a ferroelectric oxide in which the crystal orientation has a greater influence on the photochemical reactivity than polarization from the internal domain structure. *

NanoWorld™ conductive Platinum Iridium coated Arrow-EFM AFM probes were used for the Piezo-force microscopy (PFM) that was used to determine the ferroelectric domain structure on the surface. *

The ferroelectric domains on the surface were found to have irregular shapes and there was no correlation between the pattern of silver reduction and the domain shape. The results indicate that the ferroelectric polarization of La2Ti2O7 does not alter the reactivity enough to overcome the influence of the anisotropic crystal structure. *

Fig. 6 a and b from “Influence of orientation and ferroelectric domains on the photochemical reactivity of La2Ti2O7” by Mingyi Zhang et al.
A La2Ti2O7 grain imaged with different modalities. (a) a PFM out-of-plane amplitude image. (b) a PFM out-of-plane phase image. A meandering black line in (a), marked by the arrow, corresponds to a change from light to dark contrast in the phase image. The dark (light) contrast corresponds to regions with -180° (0°) phase shift.  NanoWorld conductive Arrow-EFM AFM probes were used for the piezo-force microscopy.

Please have a look at the full article cited below for the full figure
Fig. 6 a and b from “Influence of orientation and ferroelectric domains on the photochemical reactivity of La2Ti2O7” by Mingyi Zhang et al.
A La2Ti2O7 grain imaged with different modalities. (a) a PFM out-of-plane amplitude image. (b) a PFM out-of-plane phase image. A meandering black line in (a), marked by the arrow, corresponds to a change from light to dark contrast in the phase image. The dark (light) contrast corresponds to regions with -180° (0°) phase shift. Please have a look at the full article cited below for the full figure

*Mingyi Zhang, Paul A. Salvador and Gregory S.Rohrer
Influence of orientation and ferroelectric domains on the photochemical reactivity of La2Ti2O7
Journal of the European Ceramic Society (2020)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2020.09.020

Please follow this external link to read the full article https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0955221920307445

Open Access : The article “Influence of orientation and ferroelectric domains on the photochemical reactivity of La2Ti2O7” by Mingyi Zhang, Paul A. Salvador, Gregory S. Rohrer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.