Million-Fold Decrease in Polymer Moisture Permeability by a Graphene Monolayer.

Flexible, transparent, and moisture-impermeable materials are critical for packaging applications in electronic, food, and pharmaceutical industries. Here, we report that a single graphene layer embedded in a flexible polymer reduces its water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) by up to a million-fold. Large-area, transparent, graphene-embedded polymers (GEPs) with a WVTR as low as 10(-6) g m(-2) day(-1) are demonstrated.

Enhanced sunlight photocatalytic activity of Ag3PO4 decorated novel combustion synthesis derived TiO2 nanobelts for dye and bacterial degradation.

This study demonstrates the synthesis of TiO2 nanobelts using solution combustion derived TiO2 with enhanced photocatalytic activity for dye degradation and bacterial inactivation. Hydrothermal treatment of combustion synthesized TiO2 resulted in unique partially etched TiO2 nanobelts and Ag3PO4 was decorated using the co-precipitation method. The catalyst particles were characterized using X-ray diffraction analysis, BET surface area analysis, diffuse reflectance and electron microscopy.