Traceless mitigation of laser damage precursors on a fused silica surface by combining reactive ion beam etching with dynamic chemical etching.

HF-based etching has been successful in mitigating damage precursors on the surface of fused silica optics used in high power lasers. However, wet etching generally leaves an etching trace leading to surface roughness, which seriously degrades laser beam quality (, transmission loss and wave-front degradation). A way of addressing this issue is to apply plasma etching as a preprocessing step before HF etching, but so far very few studies have provided a practical scheme for engineering applications.

Biosorption and bioaccumulation characteristics of cadmium by plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria.

Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) not only promote growth and heavy metal uptake by plants but are promising biosorbents for heavy metals remediation. However, there exist arguments over whether extracellular adsorption (biosorption) or intracellular accumulation (bioaccumulation) play dominant roles in Cd(ii) adsorption. Therefore, three cadmium-resistant PGPR, GX_5, sp.

Intragranular Dispersion of Carbon Nanotubes Comprehensively Improves Aluminum Alloys.

The room-temperature tensile strength, toughness, and high-temperature creep strength of 2000, 6000, and 7000 series aluminum alloys can be improved significantly by dispersing up to 1 wt% carbon nanotubes (CNTs) into the alloys without sacrificing tensile ductility, electrical conductivity, or thermal conductivity. CNTs act like forest dislocations, except mobile dislocations cannot annihilate with them. Dislocations cannot climb over 1D CNTs unlike 0D dispersoids/precipitates.

Facile synthesis and properties of a cation exchange membrane with bifunctional groups prepared by pre-irradiation graft copolymerization.

A new type of a cation exchange membrane named ETFE--poly(AA--SSS) with bifunctional groups was synthesized by a one-step method. Its preparation by an electron beam-induced pre-irradiation grafting method and the effects of reaction temperature, monomer concentration, pH value of the grafting solution, storage time and temperature of the irradiated poly(ethylene--tetrafluoroethylene) (ETFE) films on the grafting yield were studied. A total concentration of 2 mol L of monomers was found to be beneficial for acrylic acid (AA) and sodium styrene sulfonate (SSS) co-grafting onto the ETFE films.

Fouling-free ultrafiltration for humic acid removal.

Membrane fouling is a serious concern that significantly affects the membrane filtration process. In this study, an ultrafiltration (UF) membrane was developed with surface auto-regeneration potential by immobilizing a photocatalyst [titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO NPs)] on a hybrid polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane to reduce fouling. The combination of photocatalysis and UF, namely, photocatalytic UF, induced the surface auto-regeneration potential to the membrane.

Lithium sulfonate-grafted poly(vinylidenefluoride-hexafluoro propylene) ionomer as binder for lithium-ion batteries.

Lithium sulfonate-grafted poly(vinylidenefluoride-hexafluoro propylene) P(VDF-HFP) ionomers are synthesized through covalent attachment of taurine and used as binder for the LiFePO cathode of lithium-ion batteries(LIBs). The incorporation of the ionomer binders will add ionic conducting channels inside the electrodes, and prevent electrolyte depletion during rapid charge-discharge processes. It leads to an improved performance of LIBs using the ionomer binders including cycling stability and rate capability compared to that of LIBs using non-ionic binders (PVDF and PVDF-HFP).

Prussian blue-derived synthesis of uniform nanoflakes-assembled NiS hierarchical microspheres as highly efficient electrocatalysts in dye-sensitized solar cells.

It's urgent and challenging to explore cost-effective and robust electrocatalyst in the development of large-scaled dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). In this work, we develop a novel strategy to prepare 3D hierarchical NiS microspheres constructed by nanoflakes through a facile chemical etching/anion exchange reaction. Nickel-cobalt Prussian blue analogous (PBA) nanocubes and (NH)S are employed to initially produce uniform γ-NiOOH/NiS hierarchical microspheres, which were then converted to uniform 3D hierarchical NiS microspheres by a controlled annealing treatment.

Black Si-doped TiO nanotube photoanode for high-efficiency photoelectrochemical water splitting.

Black Si-doped TiO (Ti-Si-O) nanotubes were fabricated through Zn metal reduction of the Ti-Si-O nanotubes on Ti-Si alloy in an argon atmosphere. The nanotubes were used as a photoanode for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. Both Si element and Ti/oxygen vacancies were introduced into the black Ti-Si-O nanotubes, which improved optical absorption and facilitated the separation of the photogenerated electron-hole pairs.

Earth-Abundant Tin Sulfide-Based Photocathodes for Solar Hydrogen Production.

Tin-based chalcogenide semiconductors, though attractive materials for photovoltaics, have to date exhibited poor performance and stability for photoelectrochemical applications. Here, a novel strategy is reported to improve performance and stability of tin monosulfide (SnS) nanoplatelet thin films for H production in acidic media without any use of sacrificial reagent. P-type SnS nanoplatelet films are coated with the -CdS buffer layer and the TiO passivation layer to form type II heterojunction photocathodes.

Facile synthesis and optical properties of colloidal quantum dots/ZnO composite optical resonators.

We present a novel colloidal quantum dot (CQD)/ZnO whispering gallery mode microcavity composite. The whispering gallery mode emission of the CQDs induced by the ZnO microcavity is realized. The resonant properties of the composite optical cavities are systematically investigated, and the obtained results are supported by finite element method simulations.

A novel triphenylacrylonitrile based AIEgen for high contrast mechanchromism and bicolor electroluminescence.

A novel thermally stable and aggregation-induced emission (AIE) active compound, 2,2'-(([1,1'-biphenyl]-4,4'-diylbis(phenylazanediyl))bis(4,1-phenylene))bis(3,3-diphenylacrylonitrile) (BP2TPAN) was synthesized through a C-N coupling reaction between 2-(4-bromophenyl)-3,3-diphenylacrylonitrile (Br-TPAN) and ,'-diphenyl-1,4-phenylenediamine, under mild conditions using Pd(OAc) and P(-Bu) as a catalyst. The BP2TPAN was characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, high resolution mass spectrometry and elemental analysis. The thermal analysis showed that the glass transition and decomposition temperatures (5% weight loss) are 96 and 414 °C, respectively.