Simultaneous Hydrogen Generation and Exciplex Stimulated Emission in Photobasic Carbon Dots.

Photocatalytic water splitting is a promising approach to generating sustainable hydrogen. However, the transport of photoelectrons to the catalyst sites, usually within ps-to-ns timescales, is much faster than proton delivery (∼μs), which limits the activity. Therefore, the acceleration of abstraction of protons from water molecules towards the catalytic sites to keep up with the electron transfer rate can significantly promote hydrogen production.

The role of molecular fluorophores in the photoluminescence of carbon dots derived from citric acid: current state-of-the-art and future perspectives.

Carbon dots (CDs), an emerging class of nanomaterials, have attracted considerable attention due to their intriguing photophysical properties. Despite their indisputable potential of utilization in many fascinating areas of research and life, some fundamental aspects concerning their structure and the origin of their photoluminescence (PL) properties still await clarification. The mechanism of PL emission of CDs is associated with their structure, which is dependent on the carbonization process.

Barrier Diamond-like Carbon Coatings on Polydimethylsiloxane Substrate.

The plasma modification of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrates is one way to change their surface geometry, which enables the formation of wrinkles. However, these changes are very often accompanied by the process of restoring the hydrophobic properties of the modified material. In this work, the RF PACVD device (radio frequency plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition) was used, with which the plasma treatment of PDMS substrates was carried out in argon, nitrogen, oxygen, and methane atmospheres at variable negative biases ranging from 100 V to 500 V.

A Multi-Layer Device for Light-Triggered Hydrogen Production from Alkaline Methanol.

It usually requires high temperature and high pressure to reform methanol with water to hydrogen with high turnover frequency (TOF). Here we show that hydrogen can be produced from alkaline methanol on a light-triggered multi-layer system with a very high hydrogen evolution rate up to ca. 1 μmol s under the illumination of a standard Pt-decorated carbon nitride.

Optically Induced Coherent Phonons in Bismuth Oxyiodide (BiOI) Nanoplatelets.

Bismuth oxyiodide (BiOI) is a promising material for photocatalysis combining intriguing optical and structural properties. We show that excitation by a femtosecond laser pulse creates coherent phonons inducing a time-variant oscillating modulation of the optical density. We find that the two underlying frequencies originate from lattice vibrations along the [001] crystallographic axis, the stacking direction of oppositely charged layers in BiOI.