The role of a tantalum interlayer in enhancing the properties of FeO thin films.

High spin polarization and low resistivity of FeO at room temperature have been an appealing topic in spintronics with various promising applications. High-quality FeO thin films are a must to achieve the goals. In this report, FeO films on different substrates (SiO/Si(100), MgO(100), and MgO/Ta/SiO/Si(100)) were fabricated at room temperature with radio-frequency (RF) sputtering and annealed at 450 °C for 2 h.

Two-Dimensional NHVO Nanoflakes as Efficient Energy Conversion and Storage Materials for the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction and Supercapacitors.

Herein, for the first time, we present two-dimensional (2D) NHVO nanoflakes as an excellent material for both energy conversion of the hydrogen evolution reaction and storage of supercapacitors by a simple and fast two-step synthesis, which exhibit a completely sheet-like morphology, high crystallinity, good specific surface area, and also stability, as determined by thermogravimetric analysis. The 2D-NHVO flakes show an acceptable hydrogen evolution performance in 0.5 M HSO on a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) coated with 2D-NHVO, which results in a low overpotential of 314 mV at -10 mA cm with an excellent Tafel slope as low as 90 mV dec.

Food seasoning-derived gel polymer electrolyte and pulse-plasma exfoliated graphene nanosheet electrodes for symmetrical solid-state supercapacitors.

Kitchen sea salt or table salt is used every day by cooks as a food seasoning. Here, it is introduced into a gel polymer (poly(vinyl) alcohol (PVA)-table salt) for use as an electrolyte, and an electrode was constructed from graphene nanosheets for use as symmetrical solid-state supercapacitors. The graphene sheets are prepared by a pulse control plasma method and used as an electrode material, and were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, as well as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).

Multifunctional applications for waste zinc-carbon battery to synthesize carbon dots and symmetrical solid-state supercapacitors.

In this study, we provide a simple and green approach to recycle waste zinc carbon batteries for making carbon dots and porous carbon material. The carbon dots are easily synthesized by one green step, the hydrothermal treatment of a carbon rod in a mixture of DI water and pure ethanol to obtain a blue fluorescence under UV light, which can be used directly as a fluorescence ink. The as-prepared carbon dot process give typical dots with a uniform diameter from 3 to 8 nm with a strong slight blue fluorescent.

Computation and Investigation of Two-Dimensional WO·HO Nanoflowers for Electrochemical Studies of Energy Conversion and Storage Applications.

The aim of this study is to prepare a two-dimensional (2D) WO·HO nanostructure assembly into a flower shape with good chemical stability for electrochemical studies of catalyst and energy storage applications. The 2D-WO·HO nanoflowers structure is created by a fast and simple process at room condition. This cost-effective and scalable technique to obtain 2D-WO·HO nanoflowers illustrates two attractive applications of electrochemical capacitor with an excellent energy density value of 25.

Transparent Flexible Heteroepitaxy of NiO Coated AZO Nanorods Arrays on Muscovites for Enhanced Energy Storage Application.

Transparent flexible energy storage devices are considered as important chains in the next-generation, which are able to store and supply energy for electronic devices. Here, aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) nanorods (NRs) and nickel oxide (NiO)-coated AZO NRs on muscovites are fabricated by a radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering deposition method. Interestingly, AZO NRs and AZO/NiO NRs are excellent electrodes for energy storage application with high optical transparency, high conductivity, large surface area, stability under compressive and tensile strain down to a bending radius of 5 mm with 1000 bending cycles.