Self-Welding and Low-Temperature Formation of Metal Oxide Nanofiber Networks and its Application to Electronic Devices

Electrospinningtechnique is considered to be one of the most powerful approaches for the preparation of one-dimensional (1D) metal oxide nanofiber networks (NFNs). In this report, In₂O₃ NFNs were fabricated by electrospinning using polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) as polymer and epoxy resin as additive. Benefiting from the excellent chemical properties of PMMA, In₂O₃ NFNs with impact stacking were prepared at a relatively low annealing temperature by a welding process. The welded In₂O₃ NFNs were characterized by various techniques and the electrical performance of the field-effect transistors (FETs) based on the welded In₂O₃ NFNs were systematically investigated. It is observed that the FET based on In₂O₃ NFNs annealed at 320 °C, with a nanofiber density of 0.4 μm^-1 exhibits high electrical performance,including an I_ON/I_OFF of ~5×10⁷, a μ_FE of 1.27 cm²/V s, an on voltage of -8 V and a hysteresis of 5 V. A device array with 4×5 units was fabricated and tested, confirming the excellent reliability and reproducibility of the FET.