Effects of Plasma Treatment on the Surface and Photocatalytic Properties of Nanostructured SnO-SiO Films.

In this work, we study the effects of treating nanostructured SnO-SiO films derived by a sol-gel method with nitrogen and oxygen plasma. The structural and chemical properties of the films are closely investigated. To quantify surface site activity in the films following treatment, we employed a photocatalytic UV degradation test with brilliant green.

Control over the Surface Properties of Zinc Oxide Powders via Combining Mechanical, Electron Beam, and Thermal Processing.

The surface properties of zinc oxide powders prepared using mechanical activation, electron beam irradiation, and vacuum annealing, as well using combinations of these types of treatments, were studied using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The structure of the obtained materials was studied by an X-ray diffraction technique and by scanning electron microscopy. We found that over five hours of grinding in an attritor, the size of nanocrystals decreases from 37 to 21 nm, and microdeformations increase from 0.