Title: Bio-inspired Electronic Materials for Information and Energy Related Applications

Speaker: Prof. Dewei Chu

The human brain is a remarkably powerful and highly efficient computational device which can perform complex cognitive computation in milliseconds even challenging the largest supercomputer.  The high efficiency of the brain comes from its massive parallelism of operation through simultaneous information storage and processing in synapses. Herein, we have developed a series of electronic materials and devices to mimic the ability of biological synapse in performing energy-efficient computation. Inspired by biological synapses, three key components have been designed: artificial synapses, conductive patterns for device connections, and moisture electric generator for power supply. Through engineering the shape and size of SrTiO₃ nanoparticles as well as Ag nanowires, sneak-current free resistive switching has been realized in solution processed, high yield memory devices and synaptic functions have been demonstrated in SrTiO₃ based devices. Then, a facile patterning approach for silver nanowires (AgNWs) with low-cost, high resolution, designable, scalable, substrate-independent, and transferable characteristics has been developed for device connections. Lastly, we explored energy harvesting from the moisture for self-powered devices, which is a promising route for self-powered devices due to the abundant vapor sources in the environment.  We demonstrated excellent electric performance of acidified graphene oxide/polyvinyl alcohol (GO/PVA) films on the flexible carbon cloth to power practical electronic devices, which present a facile and effective approach to generate enhanced electric performance for energy supply.