Dextran stabilised hematite: a sustainable anode in aqueous electrolytes.

During the last decades, the use of innovative hybrid materials in energy storage devices has led to notable advances in the field. However, further enhancement of their electrochemical performance faces significant challenges nowadays, imposed by the materials used in the electrodes and the electrolyte. Such problems include the high solubility of both the organic and the inorganic anode components in the electrolyte as well as the limited intrinsic electronic conductivity and substantial volume variation of the materials during cycling.

Complex ZnO-TiO Core-Shell Flower-Like Architectures with Enhanced Photocatalytic Performance and Superhydrophilicity without UV Irradiation.

ZnO-TiO core-shell photocatalysts of a complex flower-like architecture were synthesized, using a well-controlled sol-gel coating reaction of presynthesized ZnO flower-like structures. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning and transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, diffuse reflectance UV-vis and attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, nitrogen adsorption-desorption measurements, and photoluminescence measurements. Well-defined, core-shell flowers with a wurtzite ZnO core and anatase TiO shells, with variable shell thickness, were acquired by appropriately adjusting the ZnO/Ti precursor mass feed ratio in the reaction.

Effect of disorder on magnetic resonance band gap of split-ring resonator structures.

We investigated the influence of periodicity, misalignment, and disorder on the magnetic resonance gap of split-ring resonators (SRRs) which are essential components of left handed-metamaterials (LHMs). The resonance of a single SRR which is induced by the split is experimentally demonstrated by comparing transmission spectra of SRR and closed ring resonator. Misaligning the SRR boards do not affect the magnetic resonance gap, while destroying the periodicity results in a narrower band gap.