Designing TiO Nanotubular Arrays with Au-CoO Core-Shell Nanoparticles for Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Methanol and Lignin Oxidation.

One-dimensional (1D) ordered TiO nanotubes exhibit exceptional charge transfer capabilities, making them suitable candidates for constructing visible-light-active photoanodes in selective PEC oxidation reactions. Herein, we employed a facile and easily scalable electrochemical method to fabricate Au-CoO-deposited ordered TiO nanotubular array photoanodes. The improved visible light absorption capacity of TiO-Au-CoO, with unhampered 1D channels and the controlled integration of Au between TiO and CoO, along with their synergistic interaction, have been identified as the most promising strategy for enhanced PEC performance, as evidenced by an IPCE of 3.

Surface Engineering of Anodic WO Layers by In Situ Doping for Light-Assisted Water Splitting.

This study presents a novel approach to fabricating anodic Co-F-WO layers via a single-step electrochemical synthesis, utilizing cobalt fluoride as a dopant source in the electrolyte. The proposed in situ doping technique capitalizes on the high electronegativity of fluorine, ensuring the stability of CoF throughout the synthesis process. The nanoporous layer formation, resulting from anodic oxide dissolution in the presence of fluoride ions, is expected to facilitate the effective incorporation of cobalt compounds into the film.

Review of Anodic Tantalum Oxide Nanostructures: From Morphological Design to Emerging Applications.

Anodization of transition metals, particularly the valve metals (V, W, Ti, Ta, Hf, Nb, and Zr) and their alloys, has emerged as a powerful tool for controlling the morphology, purity, and thickness of oxide nanostructures. The present review is focused on the advances in the synthesis of micro/nanostructures of anodic tantalum oxides (ATO) in inorganic, organic, and mixed inorganic-organic type electrolytes with critically highlighting anodization parameters, such as applied voltage, current, time, and electrolyte temperature. Particularly, the growth of ATO nanostructures in fluoride containing electrolytes and their applications are briefly covered.

Atomic force microscopy in mechanical measurements of single nanowires.

In this paper, we present the results of mechanical measurement of single nanowires (NWs) in a repeatable manner. Substrates with specifically designed mechanical features were used for NW placement and localization for measurements of properties such as Young's modulus or tensile strength of NW with an atomic force microscopy (AFM) system. Dense arrays of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires were obtained by one-step anodic oxidation of metallic Zn foil in a sodium bicarbonate electrolyte and thermal post-treatment.

Four-Point Measurement Setup for Correlative Microscopy of Nanowires.

The measurement method, which utilizes nanomanipulation of the nanowires onto a specially prepared substrate, was presented. It introduced a four-point resistance measurement setup on a chip suited for scanning probe microscopy measurements, integrating connectors and a nanowire specimen. A study on the resistance and resistivity of the thermally post-treated ZnO nanowires at 200 °C and 300 °C in air showed the dependence of these electrical parameters on the annealing temperature.

Controlled Delivery of Celecoxib-β-Cyclodextrin Complexes from the Nanostructured Titanium Dioxide Layers.

Considering the potential of nanostructured titanium dioxide layers as drug delivery systems, it is advisable to indicate the possibility of creating a functional drug delivery system based on anodic TiO for celecoxib as an alternative anti-inflammatory drug and its inclusion complex with β-cyclodextrin. First, the optimal composition of celecoxib-β-cyclodextrin complexes was synthesized and determined. The effectiveness of the complexation was quantified using isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) nuclear magnetic resonance (H NMR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

Electrochemistry of Thin Films and Nanostructured Materials.

In the last few decades, the development and use of thin films and nanostructured materials to enhance physical and chemical properties of materials has been common practice in the field of materials science and engineering. The progress which has recently been made in tailoring the unique properties of thin films and nanostructured materials, such as a high surface area to volume ratio, surface charge, structure, anisotropic nature, and tunable functionalities, allow expanding the range of their possible applications from mechanical, structural, and protective coatings to electronics, energy storage systems, sensing, optoelectronics, catalysis, and biomedicine. Recent advances have also focused on the importance of electrochemistry in the fabrication and characterization of functional thin films and nanostructured materials, as well as various systems and devices based on these materials.

Synthesis and Spectroelectrochemical Investigation of Anodic Black TiO Nanotubes.

Anodic TiO nanotubes were transformed into anatase at 400 °C for 2 h in air and subjected to electrochemical reduction at different conditions. It revealed that the reduced black TiO nanotubes were not stable in contact with air; however, their lifetime was considerably extended to even a few hours when isolated from the influence of atmospheric oxygen. The order of polarization-induced reduction and spontaneous reverse oxidation reactions were determined.

The unique role of pore wall nanostructurization in the intrachannel photo-ATRP for fine-tuning PMMA tacticity.

In this paper, efficient MMA photo -ATRP protocols conducted inside nanoreactors varying in nanostructured interfaces are reported for the first time. We showed that the microstructure of recovered polymers could be easily tuned just by implementing a given type of nanochannel ( = 10, 19-28, 35, 160 nm).

Ultra-stable self-standing Au nanowires/TiO nanoporous membrane system for high-performance photoelectrochemical water splitting cells.

We introduce for the first time a core-shell structure composed of nanostructured self-standing titania nanotubes (TNT, light absorber) filled with Au nanowire (AuNW) array (electrons collector) applied to the photoelectrocatalytic water splitting. Its activity is four times higher than that of reference TNT-Ti obtained with the same anodizing conditions. The composite photoanode brings a distinct photocurrent generation (8 mA cm at 1.

Photoelectrochemical Properties of Annealed Anodic TiO Layers Covered with CuO.

In this work, we present a systematic study on the influence of Cu ion concentration in the impregnation solution on the morphology, structure, optical, semiconducting, and photoelectrochemical properties of anodic CuO-TiO materials. Studied materials were prepared by immersion in solutions with different concentrations of (CHCOO)Cu and subjected to air-annealing at 400 °C, 500 °C, or 600 °C for 2 h. The complex characterization of all studied samples was performed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), reflectance measurements, Mott-Schottky analyses, and photocurrent measurements.

CdS-Decorated Porous Anodic SnO Photoanodes with Enhanced Performance under Visible Light.

Electrochemically generated nanoporous tin oxide films have already been studied as photoanodes in photoelectrochemical water splitting systems. However, up to now, the most significant drawback of such materials was their relatively wide band gap (ca. 3.

Photoelectrochemical Performance of Nanotubular FeO-TiO Electrodes under Solar Radiation.

FeO-TiO materials were obtained by the cathodic electrochemical deposition of Fe on anodic TiO at different deposition times (5-180 s), followed by annealing at 450 °C. The effect of the hematite content on the photoelectrochemical (PEC) activity of the received materials was studied. The synthesized electrodes were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), Mott-Schottky analysis, and PEC measurements.

The Impacts of Crystalline Structure and Different Surface Functional Groups on Drug Release and the Osseointegration Process of Nanostructured TiO.

In implantable materials, surface topography and chemistry are the most important in the effective osseointegration and interaction with drug molecules. Therefore, structural and surface modifications of nanostructured titanium dioxide (TiO) layers are reported in the present work. In particular, the modification of annealed TiO samples with -OH groups and silane derivatives, confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, is shown.

Effect of the Supporting Electrolyte on Chloroform Reduction at a Silver Electrode in Aqueous Solutions.

Herein, we report, for the first time, a comparative study on the electrocatalytic reduction of chloroform on silver in different aqueous supporting electrolytes. Cyclic voltammetry measurements were performed at a wide range of scan rates and concentrations of CHCl using 0.05 M NaClO, NaHPO4, and NaHPO as supporting electrolytes.

Electrochemical Oxidation of Ti15Mo Alloy-The Impact of Anodization Parameters on Surface Morphology of Nanostructured Oxide Layers.

It is well-known that the structure and composition of the material plays an important role in the processes occurring at the surface. In this paper, a surface morphology of nanostructured oxide layers electrochemically grown on Ti15Mo, tuned by applying different anodization parameters, was investigated in detail. The one-step anodization of Ti15Mo alloy was performed at room temperature in an ethylene glycol-based electrolyte containing 0.

Growth of Lactic Acid Bacteria on Gold-Influence of Surface Roughness and Chemical Composition.

The main focus of this work was to establish a correlation between surface topography and chemistry and surface colonization by lactic acid bacteria. For this reason, we chose gold substrates with different surface architectures (i.e.

Improving Photoelectrochemical Properties of Anodic WO Layers by Optimizing Electrosynthesis Conditions.

Although anodic tungsten oxide has attracted increasing attention in recent years, there is still a lack of detailed studies on the photoelectrochemical (PEC) properties of such kind of materials grown in different electrolytes under various sets of conditions. In addition, the morphology of photoanode is not a single factor responsible for its PEC performance. Therefore, the attempt was to correlate different anodizing conditions (especially electrolyte composition) with the surface morphology, oxide thickness, semiconducting, and photoelectrochemical properties of anodized oxide layers.

Unique Behavior of Poly(propylene glycols) Confined within Alumina Templates Having a Nanostructured Interface.

Herein we show that the nanostructured interface obtained via modulation of the pore size has a strong impact on the segmental and chain dynamics of two poly(propylene glycol) (PPG) derivatives with various molecular weights ( = 4000 g/mol and = 2000 g/mol). In fact, a significant acceleration of the dynamics was observed for PPG infiltrated into ordinary alumina templates ( = 36 nm), while bulklike behavior was found for samples incorporated into membranes of modulated diameter (19 nm < < 28 nm). We demostrated that the modulation-induced roughness reduces surface interactions of polymer chains near the interface with respect to the ones adsorbed to the ordinary nanochannels.

Hierarchical Nanoporous Sn/SnO Systems Obtained by Anodic Oxidation of Electrochemically Deposited Sn Nanofoams.

A simple two-step electrochemical method for the fabrication of a new type of hierarchical Sn/SnO micro/nanostructures is proposed for the very first time. Firstly, porous metallic Sn foams are grown on Sn foil via hydrogen bubble-assisted electrodeposition from an acidulated tin chloride electrolyte. As-obtained metallic foams consist of randomly distributed dendrites grown uniformly on the entire metal surface.

A Photoelectrochemical Sensor Based on Anodic TiO for Glucose Determination.

A simple photoelectrochemical (PEC) sensor based on non-modified nanostructured anodic TiO was fabricated and used for a rapid and sensitive detection of glucose. The anodic TiO layers were synthesized in an ethylene glycol-based solution containing NHF (0.38 wt.

Polypyrrole⁻Nickel Hydroxide Hybrid Nanowires as Future Materials for Energy Storage.

Hybrid materials play an essential role in the development of the energy storage technologies since a multi-constituent system merges the properties of the individual components. Apart from new features and enhanced performance, such an approach quite often allows the drawbacks of single components to be diminished or reduced entirely. The goal of this paper was to prepare and characterize polymer-metal hydroxide (polypyrrole-nickel hydroxide, PPy-Ni(OH)₂) nanowire arrays demonstrating good electrochemical performance.

Efficient metal-free strategies for polymerization of a sterically hindered ionic monomer through the application of hard confinement and high pressure.

In this paper, we have studied the effect of both hard confinement (nanoporous membranes treated as nanoreactors) and high pressure (compression of system) on the progress of free-radical (FRP) and reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerizations of selected hardly polymerizable, sterically hindered imidazolium-based ionic monomer 1-octyl-3-vinylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide ([OVIM][NTf]). These two innovative approaches, affecting (in a different way) the free volume of the polymerizing system, allows the reduction of the number of toxic substrates/catalysts, satisfying the requirement of green chemistry. It was found that at both conditions (high compression and confinement) the polymerizability of monomer, as well as the control over the reaction and the properties of the produced polyelectrolytes, have increased significantly.

Surface modification of nanoporous anodic titanium dioxide layers for drug delivery systems and enhanced SAOS-2 cell response.

Nowadays, titanium and its alloys are the most commonly used implantable materials. The surface topography and chemistry of titanium-based implants are responsible for osseointegration. One of the methods to improve biocompatibility of Ti implants is a modification with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) or 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES).

Influence of the silver deposition method on the activity of platforms for chemometric surface-enhanced Raman scattering measurements: Silver films on ZrO nanopore arrays.

Deposition of plazmonic metal nanoparticles on nanostructured oxide templates is an important part in preparation and design of suitable substrates for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) measurements. In this contribution we analyze the influence of the Ag deposition methods (magnetron sputtering and evaporation in vacuum, which are often used interchangeably) on SERS activity of the resultant Ag-n/ZrO/Zr composite samples fabricated. We found that deposition of the same amount of Ag (0.