Publications

Dimethine cyanine dye (PTZIS) based on phenothiazine as the core donor and indolium salt as the acceptor has been synthesized and fully characterized. UV-Vis absorption and fluorescence properties of PTZIS were studied in different solvents. Absorption spectra revealed a large bathochromic shift of the intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) absorption band of PTZIS compared with those in the non-halogenated solvents. Also, the optical data of PTZIS showed a large Stokes shift compared with those in the non-halogenated solvents, indicating a great influence on the geometry of the emissive excited state. The nonlinear optical properties of PTZIS in ethanol solution at different concentrations and different laser powers have been studied using the Z-scan technique with a continuous wave (cw) argon ion laser at 514.5 nm. The closed aperture Z-scan data was used to estimate the nonlinear refractive index n2, while the open aperture scan provided the nonlinear absorption coefficient β. The values obtained are relatively very high and vary linearly with concentration.

The Co₂N nanowire film on a Ti mesh (Co₂N/TM) and Co-phosphate nanowire film on a Ti mesh (Co–Pi/TM) act as complementary water-splitting electrocatalysts with strong durability in 1.0 M PBS, affording 10 mA cm⁻² at 1.78 V.

Abstract Electrochemical CO 2 reduction under ambient conditions is a promising pathway for conversion of CO 2 into value‐added products. In recent years, great achievements have been obtained in the understanding the mechanism and development of efficient and selective catalysts for electrochemical CO 2 reduction. However, the electrochemical CO 2 reduction is still far from practical applications. Based on the gap between current research and practical applications, the state‐of‐the‐art of the theoretical and experiment investigations on different electrocatalysts for the electrocatalysis of CO 2 to CH 4 is systematically and constructively reviewed. First of all, strategies for enhancing the catalytic activity and selectivity of electrochemical reduction of CO 2 to CH 4 are also examined in this review. The modulated strategies mainly involve the following aspects: i) tuning the applied potentials, ii) morphology engineering, iii) crystallographic facets engineering, iv) defect engineering, v) alloying. Furthermore, the influence of the electrolyte on the activity and selectivity for electrocatalysis of CO 2 to CH 4 is also reviewed. This review will build a systematic understanding in the electrochemical CO 2 reduction to CH 4 and may help to provide new insight for designing and optimizing the catalysts and/or electrolyte.

In this communication, we develop a facile, one-step strategy towards the rapid synthesis of ZnO nanoparticle-decorated reduced graphene oxide (rGO–ZnO) composites by directly immersing Zn plate in a GO solution containing ammonia with the aid of ultrasonication at room temperature. The rGO–ZnO composites obtained have applications in photocurrent generation in the visible spectral region of white light using zinc porphyrin (ZnP) as a photosensitizer.

An entry from the Cambridge Structural Database, the world’s repository for small molecule crystal structures. The entry contains experimental data from a crystal diffraction study. The deposited dataset for this entry is freely available from the CCDC and typically includes 3D coordinates, cell parameters, space group, experimental conditions and quality measures.

In spite of recent advances in the synthesis of transition metal phosphide nanostructures, the simple fabrication of hierarchical arrays with more accessible active sites still remains a great challenge. In this Communication, we report a space-confined phosphidation strategy toward developing hierarchical CoP nanosheet@microwire arrays on nickel foam (CoP NS@MW/NF) using a Co(H2PO4)2·2H3PO4 microwire array as the precursor. The thermally stable nature of the anion in the precursor is key to hierarchical nanostructure formation. When used as a 3D electrode for water oxidation electrocatalysis, such CoP NS@MW/NF needs an overpotential as low as 296 mV to drive a geometrical catalytic current density of 100 mA cm-2 in 1.0 M KOH, outperforming all reported Co phosphide catalysts in alkaline media. This catalyst also shows superior long-term electrochemical durability, maintaining its activity for at least 65 h. This study offers us a general method for facile preparation of hierarchical arrays for applications.

In this paper, a stable aqueous dispersion of graphene nanosheets (GNs) has been prepared by chemical reduction of graphene oxide (GO) with hydrazine hydrate in the presence of poly [(2-ethyldimethylammonioethyl methacrylate ethyl sulfate)-co-(1-vinylpyrrolidone)] (PQ11). Taking advantages of the fact that PQ11 is a positively charged polymer exhibiting reducing ability, we further demonstrated the subsequent decoration of GN with gold nanoparticals (AuNPs) by in-situ chemical reduction of HAuCl4. It was found that such nanocomposites exhibit good catalytic activity toward 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) reduction and the GN supports also enhance the catalytic activity via a synergistic effect.

Here, we report the synthesis of nitrogen-doped hollow carbon nanospheres (N-HCSs) via a two-step Stöber method. The resultant N-HCSs possess a uniform size of ∼220 nm, a high nitrogen loading content of 14.8 wt% and a high surface area of 767 m(2) g(-1), as well as exhibit a considerable performance for CO2 capture with a capacity of 2.67 mmol g(-1) and a high selectivity in a mixture gas (N2 or O2).

Abstract Under visible light irradiation, the nanoparticles cause formation of a Cu(I) catalyst which initiates the cycloaddition process.

Rubbing-in technology was used to fabricate the deformable CNT-p-Si-rubber nanocomposites. The effect of uniaxial compressive displacement (up to ~ 6% of the length of samples) and uniaxial pressure (up to 0.12 kgf/cm2) on the I-V characteristics of the samples were investigated. It was obtained that the I-V characteristics under the effect of displacement or pressure are shifted toward increasing currents at permanent applied voltages. The nonlinearity coefficients of the I-V characteristics slightly reduced due to displacement or pressure and increased with applied voltage. It was observed that the investigated composite samples’ resistances crucially decreased with increase in compressive displacement or pressure. It may be, first of all, due to the decrease in distances between CNT particles in the composite under compression or pressure and the increase in the cross-section area of the samples, accordingly. The composite samples can be used as deformable and shocked-proof pressure and displacement sensors.