The role of carbon dots - derived underlayer in hematite photoanodes.

Hematite is a promising candidate as photoanode for solar-driven water splitting, with a theoretically predicted maximum solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency of ∼16%. However, the interfacial charge transfer and recombination greatly limits its activity for photoelectrochemical water splitting. Carbon dots exhibit great potential in photoelectrochemical water splitting for solar to hydrogen conversion as photosensitisers and co-catalysts.

Erratum: One-Step Synthesis, Structure, and Band Gap Properties of SnO Nanoparticles Made by a Low Temperature Nonaqueous Sol-Gel Technique.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.8b02122.

One-Step Synthesis, Structure, and Band Gap Properties of SnO Nanoparticles Made by a Low Temperature Nonaqueous Sol-Gel Technique.

Because of its electrically conducting properties combined with excellent thermal stability and transparency throughout the visible spectrum, tin oxide (SnO) is extremely attractive as a transparent conducting material for applications in low-emission window coatings and solar cells, as well as in lithium-ion batteries and gas sensors. It is also an important catalyst and catalyst support for oxidation reactions. Here, we describe a novel nonaqueous sol-gel synthesis approach to produce tin oxide nanoparticles (NPs) with a low NP size dispersion.

Manipulating the Optical Properties of Carbon Dots by Fine-Tuning their Structural Features.

As a new class of sustainable carbon material, "carbon dots" is an umbrella term covering many types of materials. Herein, a broad range of techniques was used to develop the understanding of hydrothermally synthesized carbon dots, and it is shown how fine-tuning the structural features by simple reduction/oxidation reactions can drastically affect their excited-state properties. Structural and spectroscopic studies found that photoluminescence originates from direct excitation of localized fluorophores involving oxygen functional groups, whereas excitation at graphene-like features leads to ultrafast phonon-assisted relaxation and largely quenches the fluorescent quantum yields.

Carbon Nitride Materials as Efficient Catalyst Supports for Proton Exchange Membrane Water Electrolyzers.

Carbon nitride materials with graphitic to polymeric structures (gCNH) were investigated as catalyst supports for the proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolyzers using IrO₂ nanoparticles as oxygen evolution electrocatalyst. Here, the performance of IrO₂ nanoparticles formed and deposited in situ onto carbon nitride support for PEM water electrolysis was explored based on previous preliminary studies conducted in related systems. The results revealed that this preparation route catalyzed the decomposition of the carbon nitride to form a material with much lower N content.

Fe-N-Doped Carbon Capsules with Outstanding Electrochemical Performance and Stability for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Both Acid and Alkaline Conditions.

High surface area N-doped mesoporous carbon capsules with iron traces exhibit outstanding electrocatalytic activity for the oxygen reduction reaction in both alkaline and acidic media. In alkaline conditions, they exhibit more positive onset (0.94 V vs RHE) and half-wave potentials (0.

Anion order in perovskite oxynitrides.

Transition-metal oxynitrides with perovskite-type structures are an emerging class of materials with optical, photocatalytic, dielectric and magnetoresistive properties that may be sensitive to oxide-nitride order, but the anion-ordering principles were unclear. Here we report an investigation of the representative compounds SrMO(2)N (M = Nb, Ta) using neutron and electron diffraction. This revealed a robust 1O/2(O(0.