Synergizing ruthenium oxide with bimetallic CoCrO for highly efficient oxygen evolution reaction.

Designing efficient and stable oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalyst is the basis for the development of sustainable electrolytic water energy techniques. In this work, we presented a heterogeneous-structured electrocatalyst composed of bimetallic oxides-modified RuO nanosheets supported on nikel foam (CoCrO/RuO) using a hybrid hydrothermal, ion-exchange and calcination method. The unique synergy and interfacial coupling between CoCrO/RuO heterostructures are favorable for optimizing the electronic configuration at this interface and strengthening the charge transport capacity, thus strengthening the catalytic activity of the CoCrO/RuO catalyst.

Nitrogen- and fluorine-doped bimetallic carbide as active and stable oxygen reduction reaction electrocatalyst.

Nitrogen- and fluorine-doped bimetallic carbide composites with graphite matrix (abbreviated as CCrMo/NG and CCrMo/FG) are synthesized through carbonization at 1300 °C. The CCrMo/NG displays an initial half-wave potential (E) of 0.873 V and suffers merely 3 mV decrease in E within 60,000 CV cycles for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in alkaline media.

Cu-Based Materials for Enhanced C Product Selectivity in Photo-/Electro-Catalytic CO Reduction: Challenges and Prospects.

Carbon dioxide conversion into valuable products using photocatalysis and electrocatalysis is an effective approach to mitigate global environmental issues and the energy shortages. Among the materials utilized for catalytic reduction of CO, Cu-based materials are highly advantageous owing to their widespread availability, cost-effectiveness, and environmental sustainability. Furthermore, Cu-based materials demonstrate interesting abilities in the adsorption and activation of carbon dioxide, allowing the formation of C compounds through C-C coupling process.

Boosting activity on copper functionalized biomass graphene by coupling nanocrystalline NbO as impressive rate capability for supercapacitor and outstanding catalytic activity for oxygen reduction.

A novel and hierarchical porous but cross-linked copper-doped biomass graphene (Cu@HPBG) combined with NbO (denoted as NbO/Cu@HPBG) is successfully fabricated on a large-scale using fig peels as biomass carbon and copper as the graphitization catalyst. During the synthesis process, basic copper carbonate serves dual functions of pore-forming agent, as well as homogeneous copper provider, and NH is employed as a defect-forming agent and N dopant. Owing to the porous hierarchical structure increased availability of contact interface and pseudo capacitance active sites provided by copper and NbO, the assembled asymmetrical supercapacitor (ASC) employing NbO/Cu@HPBG as positive electrode and HPBG as negative electrode can not only widen the stability window range of 0～1.

CsCuI/ZnO Heterostructure for Flexible Visible-Blind Ultraviolet Photodetection.

Wearable, portable, and biocompatible optoelectronic devices made of all-green and abundant materials and fabricated by low-temperature solution method are the key point in the development of next generation of intelligent optoelectronics. However, this is usually limited by the weaknesses of mono-component materials, such as non-adjustable photoresponse region, high carrier recombination rate, high signal-to-noise ratio, as well as the weak mechanical flexibility of bulk films. In this work, the CsCuI/ZnO heterostructure flexible photodetectors were constructed by a low-temperature solution method combined with spin-coating technique.

Chrysanthemum-like FeS/NiS heterostructure nanoarray as a robust bifunctional electrocatalyst for overall water splitting.

The development of a scalable strategy to prepare highly efficient and stable bifunctional electrocatalysts is the key to industrial electrocatalytic water splitting cycles to produce clean hydrogen. Here, a simple and quick one-step hydrothermal method was used to successfully fabricate a three-dimensional core chrysanthemum-like FeS/NiS heterogeneous nanoarray (FeS/NiS@NF) on a porous nickel foam skeleton. Compared with the monomer NiS@NF, the chrysanthemum-like FeS/ NiS@NF heterostructure nanomaterials have improved catalytic performance in alkaline media, showing low overpotentials of 192 mV (η) and 130 mV (η) for OER and HER, respectively.

Graphene Nanosphere as Advanced Electrode Material to Promote High Performance Symmetrical Supercapacitor.

To get carbon electrode with both excellent gravimetric and volumetric capacitances at high mass loadings is critical to supercapacitors. Herein, cracked defective graphene nanospheres (GNS) well meet above requirements. The morphology and structure of the GNS are controlled by polystyrene sphere template/glucose ratio, microwave heating time, and Fe content.

Size-controllable synthesis of zinc ferrite/reduced graphene oxide aerogels: efficient electrochemical sensing of p-nitrophenol.

In this study, a nonaqueous method for the synthesis of size-controlled highly crystalline zinc ferrite/reduced graphene oxide (ZFO/rGO) aerogel was provided by using benzyl alcohol as the medium. In our findings, benzyl alcohol was introduced not only as the solvent, but the structure-directing agent and strong reducing agent during the nucleation and growth of ZnFeO nanoparticles (NPs). The characterization analysis indicated that ZnFeO NPs were immobilized on the multilayer rGO with a controllable size of 12 nm.

In situ confined vertical growth of a 1D-CuCoS nanoarray on Ni foam covered by a 3D-PANI mesh layer to form a self-supporting hierarchical structure for high-efficiency oxygen evolution catalysis.

Inspired by the patchwork of artificial turf, where planting in a smaller area can result in a more uniform lawn that grows in one direction, here, we defined the growth position and orientation of a CuCoS nanoarray for the first time by electroplating a PANI mesh layer onto a Ni foam to obtain a self-supporting hierarchical electrode material. The nitrogen species derived from the PANI building blocks act as bridging sites to bind with metal ions, which provides a strong coupling effect for the in situ growth of CuCoS. At the same time, the mesh structure of PANI divides the growable location into smaller blocks.

CuO-Au nanowire field-effect phototransistor for hot carrier transfer enhanced photodetection.

In metal-semiconductor hybrid nanostructures, metal absorbs incident photons and generates hot carriers. The hot carriers are injected into the adjacent semiconductor and subsequently contribute to photocurrent. This process increases the conversion efficiency of optoelectronic devices and provides a new path of photodetectors.

Selective adsorption of organic dyes by porous hydrophilic silica aerogels from aqueous system.

Hydrophilic silica aerogel (HSA) was obtained by sol-gel method and dried at ambient conditions and further studied for the removal of organic dyes in water. Silica aerogel was characterized by its morphology, porous structure, specific surface area and particle size distribution by scanning electron microscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller and pore size distribution. The HSA after calcination had a specific surface area of 888.

A novel route for synthesis of UV-resistant hydrophobic titania-containing silica aerogels by using potassium titanate as precursor.

Developing a novel and facile way to synthesize composite aerogels plays an important role in the applications of aerogels. UV-resistant hydrophobic titania-containing silica aerogels are prepared for the first time using potassium titanate as precursor by a modified ambient pressure drying method. The well established silica-titania networks, which can be tuned from 10 to 30 nm by adjusting the precursor content in the preparation process, provide effective confinement of spherical solid clusters.

Nanosized tungsten carbide synthesized by a novel route at low temperature for high performance electrocatalysis.

Tungsten carbide (WC) is a widely used engineering material which is usually prepared at high temperature. A new mechanism for synthesizing nanoscaled WC at ultralow temperature has been discovered. This discovery opens a novel route to synthesize valuable WC and other carbides at a cost-efficient way.

Nano-architectures of ordered hollow carbon spheres filled with carbon webs by template-free controllable synthesis.

Hollow carbon spheres with a carbon network structure inside have been synthesized in the absence of templates for the first time. The samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, N(2) adsorption-desorption, and thermogravimetric analyses. The experimental results indicate that the core and the shell of this new structure contain both mesopores and micropores.

Ion-exchange-assisted synthesis of Pt-VC nanoparticles loaded on graphitized carbon: a high-performance nanocomposite electrocatalyst for oxygen-reduction reactions.

Carbide-based electrocatalysts are superior to traditional carbon-based electrocatalysts, such as the commercial Pt/C electrocatalysts, in terms of their mass activity and stability. Herein, we report a general approach for the preparation of a nanocomposite electrocatalyst of platinum and vanadium carbide nanoparticles that are loaded onto graphitized carbon. The nanocomposite, which was prepared in a localized and controlled fashion by using an ion-exchange process, was an effective electrocatalyst for the oxygen-reduction reaction (ORR).

A universal method to synthesize nanoscale carbides as electrocatalyst supports towards oxygen reduction reaction.

We have developed a general ion-exchange method of preparing a composite of low nanometre size carbide particles with controllable size less than 10 nm on carbon foams. The nanoarchitectures of the carbide nanoparticles on carbon foam are used to load Pt nanoparticles as electrocatalysts which show enhanced activity for the oxygen reduction reaction.