Special journal issue showcases Aalto University's materials research

Advanced Electronic Materials, an academic peer-reviewed high-impact materials science journal, has published a special issue dedicated to materials research at Aalto University, in Espoo (near Helsinki), Finland.

The 12 articles of the special issue investigate materials and devices that are being researched for their applications in micro-electronics, opto-electronics, thermo-electricity generation, photovoltaics and quantum technologies. The contributors include 40 Aalto University researchers and 10 external researchers.

In one of the featured articles, Assistant Professor Antti Karttunen and his collaborators studied ways to combine electronic materials with cotton, the most widely used natural fiber. Such thermoelectric materials in textiles can be used to convert waste body heat to electric energy.

The researchers fabricated flexible, thermoelectric zinc oxide thin films as nano-scale layers on a cotton textile using atomic layer deposition (ALD). The ALD technique offers a highly controllable way to deposit semiconducting inorganic materials on yarns and textiles. The zinc oxide-organic thin films were - to the researchers' knowledge - the first inorganic-organic hybrid material that can be fabricated directly on a flexible substrate, showing thermo-electric properties. The research represents a step towards flexible thermoelectrics that can be integrated into textiles for wearable electronics.

Another featured article by Dr. Oliver T. Hofmann and Professor Patrick Rinke is also devoted to novel organic-inorganic hybrid systems. The two researchers show how band bending at the interface between an inorganic, transparent conductive oxide and organic semiconductors can be controlled. Band-bending often has averse effects and the results indicate that the full toolbox of organic chemistry can be used to design surface-modifications that lead to a desired amount of band-bending or completely suppress it. The results contribute to the development of organic electronic devices with better long-term stability and performance.

The special issue of Advanced Electronic Materials highlights Aalto University's expertise in cutting-edge materials science research globally. Publications in materials science at Aalto University are cited 55 percent more often than the world average. 18 percent of the publications belong to the most cited 10 percent in the world.

In 2016, Aalto University established the Materials Platform to initiate and coordinate multi- and interdisciplinary research and teaching in materials science. In the Platform, around 100 professors collaborate on different aspects of materials science. The annual budget of materials related research at Aalto is 75 million euros, from which one third comes from external sources.

More information:
Oliver T. Hofmann et al, Special Issue: Materials Platform at Aalto University (Adv. Electron. Mater. 6/2017), Advanced Electronic Materials (2017). DOI: 10.1002/aelm.201770023

Provided by Aalto University