Preparation and photocatalytic properties of biomorphic hierarchical WO3 based on bionic rice hull

Research on Chemical Intermediates - In this study, biomorphic WO3-Cx nanomaterial was successfully prepared with rice hull as biological templates. The structure and morphology of the nanomaterial...     

Zn–Co Sulfide Microflowers Anchored on Three-Dimensional Graphene: A High-Capacitance and Long-Cycle-Life Electrode for Asymmetric Supercapacitors

Zinc–cobalt double-metal sulfides (ZCS) as Faradic electrode materials with high energy density have great potential for supercapacitors, but their poor transfer efficiency for electrons and ions hinders their electrochemical response. Herein, ZnCo₂(CO₃)_1.5(OH)₃@ZCS microflower hybrid arrays consisting of thin nanolayer petals were anchored on three-dimensional graphene (ZnCo₂(CO₃)_1.5(OH)₃@ZCS/3DG) by a simple hydrothermal method and additional ion-exchange process. A ZnCo₂(CO₃)_1.5(OH)₃@ZCS/3DG electrode delivered high capacitance (2228 F g⁻¹ at 1 A g⁻¹) and long cycling life (85.7 % retention after 17 000 cycles), which are ascribed to the multicomponent structural design. The 3DG conductive substrate improves the electron-transfer dynamics of the electrode material. Meanwhile, the microflowers consisting of thin nanolayer petals could not only provide many active sites for ions to improve the capacitance, but also alleviate the volume expansion to ensure the structural stability. Furthermore, an all-solid-state asymmetric supercapacitor based on a ZnCo₂(CO₃)_1.5(OH)₃@ZCS/3DG electrode achieved a high energy density of 27 W h kg⁻¹ at 528.3 W kg⁻¹ and exhibits exceptional cyclic stability for 23 000 cycles. Its ability to light a blue LED for 9 min verified the feasibility of its application for energy storage devices.     

Unlocking the Drug Potential of the Bryostatin Family: Recent Advances in Product Synthesis and Biomedical Applications

Bryostatins are a class of naturally occurring macrocyclic lactones with a unique fast developing portfolio of clinical applications, including treatment of AIDS, Alzheimer's disease, and cancer. This comprehensive account summarizes the recent progress (2014–present) in the development of bryostatins, including their total synthesis and biomedical applications. An emphasis is placed on the discussion of bryostatin 1 , the most-studied analogue to date. This review highlights the synthetic and biological challenges of bryostatins and provides an outlook on their future development.     

Micro/Nanoengineered α-Fe2O3 Nanoaggregate Conformably Enclosed by Ultrathin N-Doped Carbon Shell for Ultrastable Lithium Storage and Insight into Phase Evolution Mechanism

The Fe-based transition metal oxides are promising anode candidates for lithium storage considering their high specific capacity, low cost, and environmental compatibility. However, the poor electron/ion conductivity and significant volume stress limit their cycle and rate performances. Furthermore, the phenomena of capacity rise and sudden decay for α-Fe₂O₃ have appeared in most reports. Here, a uniform micro/nano α-Fe₂O₃ nanoaggregate conformably enclosed in an ultrathin N-doped carbon network (denoted as M/N-α-Fe₂O₃@NC) is designed. The M/N porous balls combine the merits of secondary nanoparticles to shorten the Li⁺ transportation pathways as well as alleviating volume expansion, and primary microballs to stabilize the electrode/electrolyte interface. Furthermore, the ultrathin carbon shell favors fast electron transfer and protects the electrode from electrolyte corrosion. Therefore, the M/N-α-Fe₂O₃@NC electrode delivers an excellent reversible capacity of 901 mA h g⁻¹ with capacity retention up to 94.0 % after 200 cycles at 0.2 A g⁻¹. Notably, the capacity rise does not happen during cycling. Moreover, the lithium storage mechanism is elucidated by ex situ XRD and HRTEM experiments. It is verified that the reversible phase transformation of α↔γ occurs during the first cycle, whereas only the α-Fe₂O₃ phase is reversibly transformed during subsequent cycles. This study offers a simple and scalable strategy for the practical application of high-performance Fe₂O₃ electrodes.     

Fast Liquid Phase Epitaxial Growth for Perovskite Single Crystals

Semiconductors grown by the solution-processed method have shown low-cost,facile fabrication process and comparable performance.However,there are many reasons why it is difficult to achieve high quality films.For example,lattice constant mismatch is one of the problems when photovoltaic devices made of organ metallic perovskites.In this work,MAPbBr^{MA=CH3NH3^+}perovskites single crystals grown on the surface of MAPbBr2.5 CI0.5 perovskites single crystals via liquid epitaxial growth method is demonstrated.It is found that when the lattice constants of the two perovskite single crystals are matched,another crystal can be grown on the surface of one crystal by epitaxial growth.The whole epitaxy growth process does not require high heating temperature and long heating time.X-ray diffraction method is used to prove the lattice plane of the substrate and the epitaxial grown layer.A scanning electron microscope is used to measure the thickness of the epitaxial layer.Compared with perovskite-based photodetectors without epitaxial growth layer,perovskite-based photodetectors with epitaxial growth layer have lower dark current density and higher optical responsibility.     

Water-induced formation of an alkali-ion dimer in cryptomelane nanorods

Tunneled metal oxides such as α-Mn₈O₁₆ (hollandite) have proven to be compelling candidates for charge-storage materials in high-density batteries. In particular, the tunnels can support one-dimensional chains of K⁺ ions (which act as structure-stabilizing dopants) and H₂O molecules, as these chains are favored by strong H-bonds and electrostatic interactions. In this work, we examine the role of water molecules in enhancing the stability of K⁺-doped α-Mn₈O₁₆ (cryptomelane). The combined experimental and theoretical analyses show that for high enough concentrations of water and tunnel-ions, H₂O displaces K⁺ ions from their natural binding sites. This displacement becomes energetically favorable due to the formation of K²⁺ dimers, thereby modifying the stoichiometric charge of the system. These findings have potentially significant technological implications for the consideration of cryptomelane as a Li⁺/Na⁺ battery electrode. Our work establishes the functional role of water in altering the energetics and structural properties of cryptomelane, an observation that has frequently been overlooked in previous studies.

Water displaces potassium ions and initiates the formation of a homonuclear dimer ion (K²⁺) in the tunnels of hollandite.     

Paraxial propagation of cosh-Airy vortex beams in chiral medium

Propagation dynamics of the cosh-Airy vortex(CAiV) beams in a chiral medium is investigated analytically with Huygens–Fresnel diffraction integral formula. The results show that the CAiV beams are split into the left circularly polarized vortex(LCPV) beams and the right circularly polarized vortex(RCPV) beams with different propagation trajectories in the chiral medium. We mainly investigate the effect of the cosh parameter on the propagation process of the CAiV beams.The propagation characteristics, including intensity distribution, propagation trajectory, peak intensity, main lobe's intensity, Poynting vector, and angular momentum are discussed in detail. We find that the cosh parameter affects the intensity distribution of the CAiV beams but not its propagation trajectory. As the cosh parameter increases, the distribution areas of the LCPV and RCPV beams become wider, and the side lobe's intensity and peak intensity become larger. Besides, the main lobe's intensity of the LCPV and RCPV beams increase with the increase of the cosh parameter at a farther propagation distance, which is confirmed by the variation trend of the Poynting vector. It is significant that we can vary the cosh parameter to control the intensity distribution, main lobe's intensity, and peak intensity of the CAiV beams without changing the propagation trajectory. Our results may provide some support for applications of the CAiV beams in optical micromanipulation.     

Surface passivation in n-type silicon and its application in silicon drift detector

Based on the surface passivation of n-type silicon in a silicon drift detector(SDD), we propose a new passivation structure of SiO2/Al2O3/SiO2 passivation stacks. Since the SiO2 formed by the nitric-acid-oxidation-of-silicon(NAOS)method has good compactness and simple process, the first layer film is formed by the NAOS method. The Al2O3 film is also introduced into the passivation stacks owing to exceptional advantages such as good interface characteristic and simple process. In addition, for requirements of thickness and deposition temperature, the third layer of the SiO2 film is deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition(PECVD). The deposition of the SiO2 film by PECVD is a low-temperature process and has a high deposition rate, which causes little damage to the device and makes the SiO2 film very suitable for serving as the third passivation layer. The passivation approach of stacks can saturate dangling bonds at the interface between stacks and the silicon substrate, and provide positive charge to optimize the field passivation of the n-type substrate.The passivation method ultimately achieves a good combination of chemical and field passivations. Experimental results show that with the passivation structure of SiO2/Al2O3/SiO2, the final minority carrier lifetime reaches 5223 μs at injection of 5×10¹⁵ cm^-3. When it is applied to the passivation of SDD, the leakage current is reduced to the order of nA.     

On-chip multiphoton Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger state based on integrated frequency combs

One of the most important multipartite entangled states, Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger state (GHZ), serves as a fundamental resource for quantum foundation test, quantum communication and quantum computation. To increase the number of entangled particles, significant experimental efforts should been invested due to the complexity of optical setup and the difficulty in maintaining the coherence condition for high-fidelity GHZ state. Here, we propose an ultra-integrated scalable on-chip GHZ state generation scheme based on frequency combs. By designing several microrings pumped by different lasers, multiple partially overlapped quantum frequency combs are generated to supply as the basis for on-chip polarization-encoded GHZ state with each qubit occupying a certain spectral mode. Both even and odd numbers of GHZ states can be engineered with constant small number of integrated components and easily scaled up on the same chip by only adjusting one of the pump wavelengths. In addition, we give the on-chip design of projection measurement for characterizing GHZ states and show the reconfigurability of the state. Our proposal is rather simple and feasible within the existing fabrication technologies and we believe it will boost the development of multiphoton technologies.