Fabrication and Elastic Properties of TiO Nanohelix Arrays through a Pressure-Induced Hydrothermal Method.

TiO nanohelices (NHs) have attracted extensive attention owing to their high aspect ratio, excellent flexibility, elasticity, and optical properties, which endow promising performances in a vast range of vital fields, such as optics, electronics, and micro/nanodevices. However, preparing rigid TiO nanowires (TiO NWs) into spatially anisotropic helical structures remains a challenge. Here, a pressure-induced hydrothermal strategy was designed to assemble individual TiO NWs into a DNA-like helical structure, in which a Teflon block was placed in an autoclave liner to regulate system pressure and simulate a cell-rich environment.

Toward Tailoring Chemistry of Silica-Based Phase Change Materials for Thermal Energy Storage.

Efficient thermal energy harvesting using phase change materials (PCMs) has great potential for thermal energy storage and thermal management applications. Benefiting from these merits of pore structure diversity, convenient controllability, and excellent thermophysical stability, SiO-based composite PCMs have comparatively shown more promising prospect. In this regard, the microstructure-thermal property correlation of SiO-based composite PCMs is still unclear despite the significant achievements in structural design.

A Carbon- and Binder-Free Nanostructured Cathode for High-Performance Nonaqueous Li-O Battery.

Operation of the nonaqueous Li-O battery critically relies on the reversible oxygen reduction/evolution reactions in the porous cathode. Carbon and polymeric binder, widely used for the construction of Li-O cathode, have recently been shown to decompose in the O environment and thus cannot sustain the desired battery reactions. Identifying stable cathode materials is thus a major current challenge that has motivated extensive search for noncarbonaceous alternatives.