X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) Analysis of Ultrafine Au Nanoparticles Supported over Reactively Sputtered TiO Films.

The impact of a titania (TiO) support film surface on the catalytic activity of gold nanoparticles (Au NP) was investigated. Using the reactive dc-magnetron sputtering technique, TiO films with an amorphous, anatase, and nitrogen-doped anatase crystal structure were produced for a subsequent role as a support material for Au NP. Raman spectra of these TiO films revealed that both vacuum and NH annealing treatments promoted amorphous to anatase phase transformation through the presence of a peak in the 513-519 cm spectral regime.

ZnO/Carbon xerogel photocatalysts by low-pressure plasma treatment, the role of the carbon substrate and its plasma functionalization.

ZnO is known to be photocatalytic, but with limited performances due to the strong electron-hole recombination after irradiation. The integration of ZnO nanomaterials on a conductive and high surface area carbon substrate is thus a potential alternative to obtain a significant improvement of the photocatalytic performance. Moreover, the carbon functionalization is expected to have a significant role in the adsorption/degradation mechanisms of dye, due to the difference in wettability or surface charge.

High performance of 3D silicon nanowires array@CrN for electrochemical capacitors.

Silicon nanowire (SiNW) arrays were coated with chromium nitride (CrN) for use as supercapacitor electrodes. The CrN layer of different thicknesses was deposited onto SiNWs using bipolar magnetron sputtering method. The areal capacitance of the SiNWs-CrN, as measured in 0.

Orange/Red Photoluminescence Enhancement Upon SF Plasma Treatment of Vertically Aligned ZnO Nanorods.

Although the origin and possible mechanisms for green and yellow emission from different zinc oxide (ZnO) forms have been extensively investigated, the same for red/orange PL emission from ZnO nanorods (nR) remains largely unaddressed. In this work, vertically aligned zinc oxide nanorods arrays (ZnO nR) were produced using hydrothermal process followed by plasma treatment in argon/sulfur hexafluoride (Ar/SF) gas mixture for different time. The annealed samples were highly crystalline with ~45 nm crystallite size, (002) preferred orientation, and a relatively low strain value of 1.