Construction of a novel ZnCo2O4/Bi2O3 heterojunction photocatalyst with enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity

A novel ZnCo₂O₄/Bi₂O₃ heterojunction photocatalyst was prepared via balling method. The enhanced photocatalytic activity is mainly attributed to the broad photoabsorption and low recombination rate of photogenerated electron-hole pairs, which is driven by the photogenerated potential difference formed at the ZnCo₂O₄/Bi₂O₃ heterojunction interface.     

Interface effect between blue phosphorus and metals

The contacted properties of metal substrates with single layer (monolayer) blue phosphorus are calculated by first principles. We analyze the charge transfer, atomic orbital overlap, electronic properties and potential barrier at the interface of metal contacted blue phosphorene (BuleP) to understand how to effectively inject electrons from the metal into the contacted blue phosphorus. We inquire into interfacial effect of blue phosphorene directly in contact with five representative metallic substrates – Au (111), Ag(111), Al(111), Co(111) and Sc(0001), which are having minimal lattice mismatch with the BlueP. We find that the contact properties of these five metals are ohmic contact and schottky contact. Of the five different contact metals, Co-BlueP heterojunction has the best electrical conductivity. The lower SBH in the Al contact can also lead to a good substrate for a Schottky contact for the heterojunction. These results can provide guidance for the future design of BlueP-based electronic devices and for the exploration of new low-dimensional semiconductor transport processes.     

Microstructure evolution of room-temperature-sputtered ITO films suitable for silicon heterojunction solar cells

Thickness influence on structural, optical and electrical properties of sputtered indium tin oxide (ITO) with thickness ranging from 60 up to 430 nm films has been studied. At the increase of the film thickness crystallinity degree and grain size increased, whereas tensile structural distortion as well as resistivity decreased. It was observed that a microstructure evolution takes place: the initial amorphous layer evolved in polycrystalline phase, with a grain–subgrain surface morphology. Carrier concentration increased at the increase of the film thickness and a general relationship between electrical characteristics and structural distortion has been found. In thinner films larger tensile distortion allowed to include larger amount of interstitial O and/or Sn atoms in the lattice. An appreciable impact of the thickness was also observed on electro-optical properties in terms of changes in energy gap, resistivity and optical absorption. Silicon heterojunction solar cells have been produced and J_sc as high as 33.0 mA/cm² has been obtained.     

Design of a Fully Non-Fused Bulk Heterojunction toward Efficient and Low-Cost Organic Photovoltaics

To modulate the miscibility between donor and acceptor materials both possessing fully non-fused ring structures, a series of electron acceptors (A4T-16, A4T-31 and A4T-32) with different polar functional substituents were synthesized and investigated. The three acceptors show good planarity, high conformational stability, complementary absorption and energy levels with the non-fused polymer donor (PTVT-BT). Among them, A4T-32 possesses the strongest polar functional group and shows the highest surface energy, which facilitates morphological modulation in the bulk heterojunction (BHJ) blend. Benefiting from the proper morphology control method, an impressive power conversion efficiency (PCE) of approaching 16.0 % and a superior fill factor over 0.795 are achieved in the PTVT-BT : A4T-32-based organic photovoltaic cells with superior photoactive materials price advantage, which represent the highest value for the cells based on the non-fused blend films. Notably, this cell maintains ≈84 % of its initial PCE after nearly 2000 h under the continuous simulated 1-sun-illumination. In addition, the flexible PTVT-BT : A4T-32-based cells were fabricated and delivered a decent PCE of 14.6 %. This work provides an effective molecular design strategy for the non-fused non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs) from the aspect of bulk morphology control in fully non-fused BHJ layers, which is crucial for their practical applications.     

Energy-efficient hydrogen production coupled with methanol oxidation using NiFe LDH@NiMo alloy heterostructure

The traditional electrochemical water splitting is extremely restricted by the sluggish kinetics of the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER). In this context, replacing OER with a more thermodynamic favorable oxidation reaction, such as methanol oxidation reaction (MOR), is an effective strategy to improve the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) efficiency while still obtaining some valuable by-products. In this work, nickel-iron layered double-hydroxide [NiFe LDH]@NiMo alloy heterostructure is synthesized by electrodeposition process and its bi-functional electrocatalytic activities for both hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) are evaluated. For the HER, the catalyst exhibits low overpotential of 82.5 mV at 100 mA/cm², with a Tafel slope of 61 mV/dec as well as splendid long-term stability. For the MOR, the required potential decreases by 74 mV at 100 mA/cm² compared to oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Moreover, 97% process yields toward value-added formic acid (HCOOH) are obtained at the anode, with a faradaic efficiency of approximately 100% for HER at the cathode. The superior catalytic performance results from the synergic contribution of NiFe LDH and NiMo alloy. The formation of NiFe LDH@NiMo alloy heterostructure leads to the redistribution of electrons among nickel (Ni), iron (Fe) and molybdenum (Mo) elements. Therefore, the charge transfer process has been greatly promoted. This study provides a scalable energy saving strategy for hydrogen energy development.     

Fabrication of S-scheme hollow TiO2@Bi2MoO6 composite for efficiently photocatalytic CO2 reduction

Herein, an S-scheme hollow TiO₂@Bi₂MoO₆ heterojunction was synthesized for photocatalytic reduction of CO₂ under simulated sunlight. Among all prepared composites, the TiO₂@Bi₂MoO₆ with 20% of TiO₂ exhibited the highest CO yield (183.97 μmol/g within 6 h), which was 4.0 and 2.4 times higher than pristine TiO₂ and Bi₂MoO₆, respectively. The improved photocatalytic activity may be due to the formation of S-scheme heterojunction to promote the separation and transfer of photogenerated charge carriers. Additionally, this hollow structure provided abundant sites in terms of CO₂ adsorption and activation. Meanwhile, the photogenerated charge transfer mechanism of the S-scheme was verified by work function calculations, Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) measurements as well as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). This research presents a novel approach to improve photocatalytic reduction of CO₂ via morphology modulation and the fabrication of S-scheme heterojunction.     

高可见光催化降解污染物和产氢活性的Z型N-掺杂K4Nb6O17/g-C3N4异质结

随着人口增长和全球工业化进程加快,人们饱受环境污染和能源短缺问题的困扰.半导体光催化技术作为一种高效、可持续、环境友好、有潜力的新技术,在环境净化和能源开发方面有着广阔的应用前景.到目前为止,人们已开发出多种半导体光催化剂,并广泛应用于污染物降解、氢气制备和二氧化碳还原等领域.其中,化合物K4Nb6O17具有典型的层状结构、合适的电子能带结构、结构易改性以及良好的电荷传输性能等特点,在光催化领域得到了广泛研究.然而,单纯K4Nb6O17仍存在光响应范围窄、光生载流子复合率高等问题,限制了K4Nb6O17的进一步应用.因此,需要对K4Nb6O17进行改性,拓宽其光吸收范围,提高其光生载流子分离效率,从而提高其光催化活性.本研究通过简单焙烧法制备Z型N-掺杂K4Nb6O17/g-C3N4(KCN)异质结光催化剂,其中石墨相氮化碳(g-C3N4)在复合材料中质量比约为50%.层状K4Nb6O17层板的电子结构通过N掺杂进行调控,拓宽其光响应范围,使其具有可见光响应;同时,形成的g-C3N4位于N-掺杂K4Nb6O17的外层以及内层空间,在这两种组分之间形成异质结,有利于提高光生载流子的分离效率.荧光光谱、时间分辨荧光光谱和光电化学测试表明,N掺杂和异质结的形成有利于增强光生电子-空穴对的传输和分离效率.通过在可见光照射下降解罗丹明B(RhB)和产氢来评估材料的光催化性能.相比g-C3N4(8.24μmol/h)和Me-K4Nb6O17(~1.30μmol/h),KCN复合材料光催化产氢效率(~16.91μmol/h)得到了极大提高,并显示出极好的光催化产氢稳定性能.对于光催化降解RhB体系,KCN复合材料也显示出较好的光催化活性和稳定性,并能很好地将RhB矿化.鉴于KCN复合材料具有较小的比表面积(9.9 m^2/g)且无孔结构,认为比表面积对光催化活性影响较小.因此,与单组分相比,KCN复合材料光催化产氢和RhB降解活性都得到了极大提高,活性的增强主要归功于N掺杂和异质结形成的协同效应,其中N掺杂可以拓宽光捕获能力,异质结形成可提高电荷载流子的分离效率.电子自旋共振(ESR)谱表明,在KCN降解RhB体系中,超氧自由基(·O2^?)、羟基自由基(·OH)和空穴(h^+)作为主要活性物质都参与了反应.结合实验结果可以推测KCN复合材料满足了Z型光催化体系,该体系具有高效的光生载流子分离效率和较高的氧化还原能力.     

Impact of pressure on transport properties of AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor

The properties of Al_xGa_1−xN/GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) impacted by pressure are characterized quantitatively. The results indicate that the dislocation density increases as the critical thickness decreases with increasing pressure. The two-dimensional electron gas density was found to be linearly changeable with the pressure. A simulation has been completed to verify the influence of electron mobility. The results show that the misfit dislocation scattering induced by the pressure is a major limiting factor for the properties of HEMT.     

Synthesis of the wheat-like CdSe/CdTe thin film heterojunction and their photovoltaic applications

We report on the fabrication of wheat-like CdSe/CdTe thin film heterojunction solar cells made using a simple electrochemical deposition method and close-spaced sublimation technology on indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates. Structural, optical, and electrical properties of the wheat-like CdSe/CdTe thin film junctions were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS), ultraviolet–visible (UV–vis) absorption spectrum and Keithley 2400 analysis. A significant red-shift of the absorption edge is observed in this heterojunction. The heterostructure is composed of the wheat-like CdSe array and CdTe thin film, showing optical properties typical of type II heterostructures that are suited for photovoltaic applications. A photocurrent density of 8.34 mA/cm² has been obtained under visible light illumination of 100 mW/cm². This study demonstrates that the electrochemical deposition and the close-spaced sublimation technology, which are easily adapted to other chemical systems, are promising techniques for large-scale fabrication of low-cost heterojunction solar cells.     

Optimization of processing parameters on the controlled growth of ZnO nanorod arrays for the performance improvement of solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells

High-transparency and high quality ZnO nanorod arrays were grown on the ITO substrates by a two-step chemical bath deposition (CBD) method. The effects of processing parameters including reaction temperature (25-95 °C) and solution concentration (0.01-0.1 M) on the crystal growth, alignment, optical and electrical properties were systematically investigated. It has been found that these process parameters are critical for the growth, orientation and aspect ratio of the nanorod arrays, showing different structural and optical properties. Experimental results reveal that the hexagonal ZnO nanorod arrays prepared under reaction temperature of 95 °C and solution concentration of 0.03 M possess highest aspect ratio of ∼21, and show the well-aligned orientation and optimum optical properties. Moreover the ZnO nanorod arrays based heterojunction electrodes and the solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells (SS-DSSCs) were fabricated with an improved optoelectrical performance.