Enhancing Benzylamine Electro-Oxidation and Hydrogen Evolution Through in-situ Electrochemical Activation of CoCO Nanoarrays.

The sluggish anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) seriously restricts the overall efficiency of water splitting. Here, we present an environmentally friendly and efficient aniline oxidation (BOR) to replace the sluggish OER, accomplishing the co-production of H and high value-added benzonitrile (BN) at low voltages. Cobalt oxalates grown on cobalt foam (CoCO ⋅ 2HO/CF) are adopted as the pre-catalysts, which further evolve into working electrocatalysts active for BOR and HER via appropriate electrochemical activation.

Tailoring Nanohole Plasmonic Resonance with Light-Responsive Azobenzene Compound.

Metal-based nanohole structures, featuring a continuous matrix and discrete voids, have seen a wide spectrum of practical applications, ranging from plasmonic sensing to extraordinary optical transmission. It would not be uncommon to pursue further enhancement of their optical tunability, and incorporation with other functional materials offers an intriguing lead. In this study, the first step involves colloidal lithography fabrication of gold-based, short-range ordered nanohole structures on a glass substrate with varying geometrical parameters.

Flexible, all-dielectric metasurface fabricated via nanosphere lithography and its applications in sensing.

In this letter, we report a flexible, all-dielectric metasurface fabricated via nanosphere lithography (NSL) and demonstrate its potentials in sensing applications. Regularly arrayed Si cylinders with hexagonal lattice fabricated on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) flexible substrate are exploited to detect applied strain and surface dielectric environment by measuring transmission spectra. Further numerical simulations coincide with experimental observations.

Microwave Tunable Metamaterial Based on Semiconductor-to-Metal Phase Transition.

A microwave tunable metamaterial utilizing the semiconductor-to-metal transition of vanadium dioxide (VO) is proposed, experimentally demonstrated and theoretically scrutinized. Basic concept of the design involves the combination of temperature-dependent hysteresis in VO with resonance induced heating, resulting in a nonlinear response to power input. A lithographically prepared gold split-rings resonator (SRR) array deposited with VO thin film is fabricated.