A Novel Approach to Realize Si-Based Porous Wire-In-Tube Nanostructures for High-Performance Lithium-Ion Batteries.

Hollow inorganic nanostructures have drawn great attention due to their fascinating features, such as large surface area, high loading capacity, and high permeability. The formation, characterization, and application of partially and entirely hollow structure by applying a Si-based reactive ion deposition and etching method on silicon nanowire as a template are reported. This fabrication technique is extended to a stainless steel substrate to be used as the binder-free anode for high capacity and high rate lithium-ion batteries. The electrochemical analyses exhibit that in addition to the high initial discharge capacity of 4125 mAh g-1 at a rate of C/16, the best performing electrode shows discharge/charge capacity of as high as 3302.14/2832.1 mAh g-1 , respectively, with an excellent charge capacity retention of 96.7% over 100 cycles at a rate density of 1 C. Even at a rate of 12 C, the as-designed structure is still able to deliver an impressive 1553 mAh g-1 , which probably is attributed to fast lithium diffusion in its hollow part and high porosity of Si and alumina layer. It is proved that the change in hollowness ratio significantly affects capacity retention and average coulombic efficiency of the lithium-ion cells.

Incorporation of carbon nanotubes in a hierarchical porous photoanode of tandem quantum dot sensitized solar cells.

The incorporation of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) in quantum dot (QD) sensitized solar cells (QDSC) based on CdSe QDs and quantum rods (QRs) is investigated. The composite hierarchical porous photoanode of titania/CNT is synthesized by sol-gel induced phase separation and QDs/QRs are prepared by the modified solvothermal method. The QDs and QRs form a tandem structure on the hierarchical porous photoanode after deposition by the electrophoretic method. Incorporation of MWCNT in the QDSC photoanode in optimum content (0.32 wt%) causes appreciable enhancement in cells efficiency (about 41% increase). This improvement in efficiency mainly emerges from the beneficial role of MWCNTs in charge injection and collection. The MWCNTs result in longer electron lifetime and higher electron diffusion length, which is confirmed by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy.

Fabrication of sensitive glutamate biosensor based on vertically aligned CNT nanoelectrode array and investigating the effect of CNTs density on the electrode performance.

In this report, the fabrication of vertically aligned carbon nanotube nanoelectrode array (VACNT-NEA) by photolithography method is presented. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy as well as cyclic voltammetry was performed to characterize the arrays with respect to different diffusion regimes. The fabricated array illustrated sigmoidal cyclic voltammogram with steady state current dominated by radial diffusion. The fabricated VACNT-NEA and high density VACNTs were employed as electrochemical glutamate biosensors. Glutamate dehydrogenase is covalently attached to the tip of CNTs. The voltammetric biosensor, based on high density VACNTs, exhibits a sensitivity of 0.976 mA mM(-1) cm(-2) in the range of 0.1-20 µM and 0.182 mA mM(-1) cm(-2) in the range of 20-300 µM glutamate with a low detection limit of 57 nM. Using the fabricated VACNT-NEA, the sensitivity increases approximately to a value of 2.2 Am M(-1) cm(-2) in the range of 0.01 to 20 µM and to 0.1 A mM(-1) cm(-2) in the range of 20-300 µM glutamate. Using this electrode, a record of low detection limit of 10 nM was achieved for glutamate. The results prove the efficacy of the fabricated NEA for low cost and highly sensitive enzymatic biosensor with high sensitivity well suited for voltammetric detection of a wide range of clinically important biomarkers.

Mediator-less highly sensitive voltammetric detection of glutamate using glutamate dehydrogenase/vertically aligned CNTs grown on silicon substrate.

A sensitive glutamate biosensor is prepared based on glutamate dehydrogenase/vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (GLDH, VACNTs). Vertically aligned carbon nanotubes were grown on a silicon substrate by direct current plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (DC-PECVD) method. The electrochemical behavior of the synthesized VACNTs was investigated by cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopic methods. Glutamate dehydrogenase covalently attached on tip of VACNTs. The electrochemical performance of the electrode for detection of glutamate was investigated by cyclic and differential pulse voltammetry. Differential pulse voltammetric determinations of glutamate are performed in mediator-less condition and also, in the presence of 1 and 5 µM thionine as electron mediator. The linear calibration curve of the concentration of glutamate versus peak current is investigated in a wide range of 0.1-500 µM. The mediator-less biosensor has a low detection limit of 57 nM and two linear ranges of 0.1-20 µM with a sensitivity of 0.976 mA mM(-1) cm(-2) and 20-300 µM with a sensitivity of 0.182 mA mM(-1) cm(-2). In the presence of 1 µM thionine as an electron mediator, the prepared biosensor shows a low detection limit of 68 nM and two linear ranges of 0.1-20 with a calibration sensitivity of 1.17 mA mM(-1) cm(-2) and 20-500 µM with a sensitivity of 0.153 mA mM(-1) cm(-2). The effects of the other biological compounds on the voltammetric behavior of the prepared biosensor and its response stability are investigated. The results are demonstrated that the GLDH/VACNTs electrode even without electron mediator is a suitable basic electrode for detection of glutamate.