Synthesis, characterization and properties of sulfate-modified silver carbonate with enhanced visible light photocatalytic performance.

Sulfate-modified AgCO was successfully synthesized a simple precipitation method. Its visible light photocatalytic performance against the removal of Orange G was found to be significantly enhanced in comparison with the one of pure AgCO. While SO-AgCO ensured a removal efficiency of 100% of OG within 30 min, the unmodified AgCO exhibited a degradation threshold at hardly 60%.

Optical and morphological properties of thermochromic VO coatings.

We present optical and morphological characterizations performed on thermochromic VO coatings. VO coatings were obtained by oxidation of as-deposited VOx films. Comparisons were made among coatings oxidized at various temperatures.

Visible Thermochromism in Vanadium Pentoxide Coatings.

Although di-vanadium pentoxide (VO) has been a candidate of extensive research for over half a century, its intrinsic thermochromism has not been reported so far. Films of VO grown on silicon, glass, and metal substrates by metal organic chemical vapor deposition in this study exhibit a thermally induced perceptible color change from bright yellow to deep orange. Temperature-dependent UV-vis spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction allow the correlation between the reversible continuous red shift of the absorption and the anisotropic thermal expansion along the (001) direction, that is, perpendicular to the sheets constituting the layered structure.

Electrical Switching in Semiconductor-Metal Self-Assembled VO Disordered Metamaterial Coatings.

As a strongly correlated metal oxide, VO inspires several highly technological applications. The challenging reliable wafer-scale synthesis of high quality polycrystalline VO coatings is demonstrated on 4" Si taking advantage of the oxidative sintering of chemically vapor deposited VO films. This approach results in films with a semiconductor-metal transition (SMT) quality approaching that of the epitaxial counterpart.

Embedded layer of Ag nanoparticles prepared by a combined PECVD/PVD process producing SiOxCy-Ag nanocomposite thin films.

Structural properties of SiO(x)C(y)-Ag nanocomposite thin films prepared by a dual process PVD-PECVD in the same reactor have been investigated. The experimental results have demonstrated the influence of a PECVD process carried out at room temperature for the growth of a dielectric matrix on the size and the distribution density of Ag nanoparticles (NPs) deposited beforehand by magnetron sputtering. The plasma during the growth of the encapsulation SiO(x)C(y) layer caused a diffusion of silver from NPs through the SiO(x)C(y) matrix associated with a decrease in the average size of nanoparticles and an increase of their distribution density.