Hollow Spherical ZnO with Mesoporous Shell for Highly Enhanced Gas Sensitivity and Selectivity.

In this work, ZnO hollow spheres (ZnO-HS) with mesoporous shells were successfully synthesized via a facile two-step method. The hollow structure provides sufficient space and active sites for adsorbing gases. The mesoporous shells assembled from nanoparticles facilitate the diffusion of gas molecules into the inner space and ensure full contact with ZnO.

Melamine-based polymer networks enabled N, O, S Co-doped defect-rich hierarchically porous carbon nanobelts for stable and long-cycle Li-ion and Li-Se batteries.

Li-Se battery is a promising energy storage candidate owing to its high theoretical volumetric capacity and safe operating condition. In this work, for the first time, we report using the whole organic Melamine-based porous polymer networks (MPNs) as a precursor to synthesize a N, O, S co-doped hierarchically porous carbon nanobelts (HPCNBs) for both Li-ion and Li-Se battery. The N, O, S co-doping resulting in the defect-rich HPCNBs provides fast transport channels for electrolyte, electrons and ions, but also effectively relieve volume change.

Unprecedented and highly stable lithium storage capacity of (001) faceted nanosheet-constructed hierarchically porous TiO/rGO hybrid architecture for high-performance Li-ion batteries.

Active crystal facets can generate special properties for various applications. Herein, we report a (001) faceted nanosheet-constructed hierarchically porous TiO/rGO hybrid architecture with unprecedented and highly stable lithium storage performance. Density functional theory calculations show that the (001) faceted TiO nanosheets enable enhanced reaction kinetics by reinforcing their contact with the electrolyte and shortening the path length of Li diffusion and insertion-extraction.

Printed gas sensors.

The rapid development of the Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled applications and connected automation are increasingly making sensing technologies the heart of future intelligent systems. The potential applications have wide-ranging implications, from industrial manufacturing and chemical process control to agriculture and nature conservation, and even to personal health monitoring, smart cities, and national defence. Devices that can detect trace amounts of analyte gases represent the most ubiquitous of these sensor platforms.

Molybdenum disulfide quantum dots directing zinc indium sulfide heterostructures for enhanced visible light hydrogen production.

Photocatalytic hydrogen (H) production based on semiconductors is important to utilize solar light for clean energy and environment. Herein, we report a visible light responsive heterostructure, designed and constructed by molybdenum disulfide quantum dots (MoS-QDs) in-situ seeds-directing growth and self-assemble of zinc indium sulfide (ZnInS) nanosheet to ensure their full contact through a simple one-step solvothermal method for highly improved visible light H production. The MoS-QDs in-situ seeds-directing ZnInS heterostructure not only builds heterojunctions between MoS and ZnInS to spatially separate the photogenerated electrons and holes, but also serves as the active sites trapping photogenerated electrons to facilitate H evolution.

MOF-derived nitrogen-doped core-shell hierarchical porous carbon confining selenium for advanced lithium-selenium batteries.

The lithium-selenium (Li-Se) battery has attracted growing interest recently due to its high energy density and theoretical capacity. However, the shuttle effect and volume change during cycling severely hinder its further application. In this work, we report a metal-organic framework (MOF)-derived nitrogen-doped core-shell hierarchical porous carbon (N-CSHPC) with interconnected meso/micropores to effectively confine Se for high-performance Li-Se batteries.

Probing conducting polymers@cadmium sulfide core-shell nanorods for highly improved photocatalytic hydrogen production.

We report three types of conducting polymers (CPs), polyaniline (PANI), polypyrrole (PPY) and poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) to modify the surface of the CdS nanorods to probe their photocorrosion inhibition and photocatalytic hydrogen production. Various characterizations, such as high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and density function theory (DFT) calculations have been conducted to reveal the intrinsic structure of the as-constructed CPs@CdS (@ means CPs at the surface of CdS) core-shell nanorods. The results show that the PANI and PPY shells with abundant N and C atoms can significantly enhance the binding energy of Cd and S atoms on the surface of the CdS nanorods.