g-ZnO/Si9C15: a S-scheme heterojunction with high carrier mobility for photo-electro catalysis of water splitting.

The g-ZnO/Si9C15 heterojunction is designed, and its stability, electronic properties and photo-electro catalytic properties, and the impact of biaxial strain on the electronic and photocatalytic properties are investigated. The g-ZnO/Si9C15 heterojunction has a staggered (type-II) band structure (band gap is 1.770 eV), following the S-scheme mechanism. A high electron mobility of 5.113 × 103 cm2 V-1 s-1 and hole mobility of 3.324 × 104 cm2 V-1 s-1 are obtained in the zigzag and armchair directions, respectively. Suitable oxidation and reduction potentials are obtained such that photocatalytic water decomposition can occur at pH = 0-14, and the corrected solar to hydrogen (STH) efficiency is up to 35.4%. The absorption of visible light is enhanced, and the power conversion efficiency (PCE) is 15.1%. The electro-catalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is more likely to occur at the Si9C15 interface with a low over-voltage of 0.190 V. Under biaxial strain, due to the controllable band structure, the corrected STH efficiency and PCE increase to 42.7% and 16.7%, respectively. The heterojunction shows potential value in the field of high-efficiency solar devices and catalytic materials for water splitting.

A core-shell structure ratiometric fluorescent probe based on carbon dots and Tb3+ for the detection of anthrax biomarker.

A novel core-shell structure ratiometric fluorescent probe was developed, which can selectively and sensitively detect 2,6-dipicolinic acid (DPA) as an anthrax biomarker. Carbon dots (CDs) was embedded into SiO2 nanoparticles, which was acted as an internal reference signal. Tb3+ with green emission was connected to the carboxyl functionalized SiO2, which was acted as a responsive signal. With the addition of DPA, the emission of CDs at 340 nm was unchanged, while the fluorescence of Tb3+ at 544 nm was enhanced by the antenna effect. In the concentration range of 0.1-2 µM, the fluorescence intensity ratio of I544/I340 showed a good linear relationship with the concentration of DPA, and the limit of detection (LOD) was 10.2 nM. In addition, the dual-emission probe showed an obvious fluorescence color change from colourless to green with increasing DPA under UV light, which enabled visual detection.

Preparation and characterization of ZnO/graphene/graphene oxide/multi-walled carbon nanotube composite aerogels.

ZnO/Graphene (G)/Graphene Oxide (GO)/Multi-walled Carbon Nanotube (MCNT) composite aerogels with a three-dimensional porous structure were prepared by the sol-gel method under average temperature and alkaline conditions, combined with freeze-drying process and heat treatment process. The photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) was mainly studied. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) test results showed that the morphology uniformity of the ZnO/G/GO/MCNT composite aerogel was significantly enhanced, which effectively solving the agglomeration problem of MCNT and ZnO. The photocatalytic degradation test results of RhB show that due to the synergistic effect of physical adsorption and photocatalytic degradation, the total degradation efficiency of RhB by ZnO/G/GO/MCNT could reach 86.8%, which is 3.3 times higher than that of ZnO. In addition, the synergistic effect of ZnO and G effectively hinders the recombination of photo-generated electron-hole pairs and enhances photocatalytic activity. The ZnO/G/GO/MCNT composite aerogel can be applied in the visible light catalytic degradation of water pollution.

Electronic, Magnetic, and Optical Properties of Metal Adsorbed g-ZnO Systems.

2D ZnO is one of the most attractive materials for potential applications in photocatalysis, gas and light detection, ultraviolet light-emitting diodes, resistive memory, and pressure-sensitive devices. The electronic structures, magnetic properties, and optical properties of M (Li, Na, Mg, Ca, or Ga) and TM (Cr, Co, Cu, Ag, or Au) adsorbed g-ZnO were investigated with density functional theory (DFT). It is found that the band structure, charge density difference, electron spin density, work function, and absorption spectrum of g-ZnO can be tuned by adsorbing M or TM atoms. More specifically, the specific charge transfer occurs between g-ZnO and adsorbed atom, indicating the formation of a covalent bond. The work functions of M adsorbed g-ZnO systems are obviously smaller than that of intrinsic g-ZnO, implying great potential in high-efficiency field emission devices. The Li, Na, Mg, Ca, Ga, Ag, or Au adsorbed g-ZnO systems, the Cr adsorbed g-ZnO system, and the Co or Cu adsorbed g-ZnO systems exhibit non-magnetic semiconductor proprieties, magnetic semiconductor proprieties, and magnetic metal proprieties, respectively. In addition, the magnetic moments of Cr, Co, or Cu adsorbed g-ZnO systems are 4 µ B, 3 µ B, or 1 µ B, respectively, which are mainly derived from adsorbed atoms, suggesting potential applications in nano-scale spintronics devices. Compared with the TM absorbed g-ZnO systems, the M adsorbed g-ZnO systems have more obvious absorption peaks for visible light, particularly for Mg or Ca adsorbed g-ZnO systems. Their absorption peaks appear in the near-infrared region, suggesting great potential in solar photocatalysis. Our work contributes to the design and fabrication of high-efficiency field emission devices, nano-scale spintronics devices, and visible-light responsive photocatalytic materials.

Enhancing the field emission properties of Se-doped GaN nanowires.

Pure and Se-doped GaN nanowires (NWs) are synthesized on Pt-coated Si(111) substrates via chemical vapor deposition. The GaN NWs exhibit a uniform density with an average diameter of 20-120 nm. The structure of the NWs is wurtzite hexagonal, and the growth direction is along [0001]. Field emission measurements show that the Se-doped GaN NWs possess a low turn-on field (2.9 V µm(-1)) compared with the pure GaN NWs (7.0 V µm(-1)). In addition, density functional theory calculations indicate that the donor states near the Fermi level are mainly formed through the hybridization between Se 4p and N 2p orbitals and that the Fermi level move towards the vacuum level. Consequently, the work functions of Se-doped GaN NWs are lower than those of pure GaN NWs.

First-principles study on stability and photoelectron spectroscopy of Ga(n)As2(n = 1-9) clusters.

The stability and photoelectron spectroscopy of the Ga(n)As2(n=1-9) clusters have been studied by using first-principles based on density functional theory (DFT). Our calculations reveal that the stabilities of the Ga(n)As2(n=1-9) clusters tend to increase with the increase of the number of total atoms. The calculated second-order difference values of the binding energy show a certain law of even-odd alternation, and the value of the even-numbered clusters is much larger than those of the odd-numbered ones. The energy gap Egap also shows a certain law of even-odd alternation, i.e. the Egap of the even-numbered clusters is much larger than the odd-numbered ones. The Egap of the clusters is between 0.2 eV and 0.6 eV, it will provide a reference for GaAs defect level research. The Ga(n)As2(n=1-9) clusters are potential to detect and emit THz radiation due to their ground-state vibration frequency are in THz range.