A tandem photoelectrochemical water splitting cell consisting of CuBiO and BiVO synthesized from a single BiOI nanosheet template.

We report on a simple and facile synthetic approach for preparing both a CuBi2O4 photocathode and BiVO4 photoanode from a single Bi4O5I2 nanosheet template. A nanosheet structured Bi4O5I2 (nanoBi4O5I2) template, solvothermally deposited on a conducting glass substrate, can be converted to a textured CuBi2O4 photocathode and a BiVO4 photoanode with coral-like nanostructure by drop-casting a copper ion-containing and a vanadium ion-containing solution, respectively, with a follow-up heat treatment. UV-vis absorption spectra and Mott-Schottky analyses confirm CuBi2O4 and BiVO4 have well-suited band gaps for absorbing a large portion of visible light and complementary band structures for proton reduction and water oxidation, respectively.

Fabrication of a novel partially dissolving polymer microneedle patch for transdermal drug delivery.

Polymer microneedles (MNs) have gained increasing attention as a minimally invasive method for efficiently delivering drugs and vaccines in a patient-friendly manner. Herein, an easy and mild process with O plasma treatment was used to fabricate polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)-polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) MN patches, and efficient, sustained transdermal delivery was achieved. The diffusion rate of the entrained molecules could be controlled by adjusting the ratio of PVP-PVA.