The covalent functionalization of few-layered MoTe2 thin films with iodonium salts

Covalent functionalization of 2D materials provides a tailored approach towards tuning of their chemical, optical, and electronic properties making the search for new ways to graft small molecules important. Herein, the reaction with (3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)iodonium salt is revealed as an effective strategy for functionalization of MoTe₂ thin films. Upon decomposition of the salt, the generated radicals graft covalently as aryl-(CF₃)₂ groups at the surface of both metallic (1T’) and semiconducting (2H) polymorphs of MoTe₂. Remarkably, the reactivity of the salt is governed by the electronic structure of the given polymorph. While the functionalization of the metallic MoTe₂ occurs spontaneously, the semiconducting MoTe₂ requires activation by light. The reaction proceeds with the elimination of oxide from the original films yielding the functionalized products that remain protected in ambient conditions, presenting a viable solution to the ageing of MoTe₂ in air.     

Design,synthesis and evaluation of novel dehydroabietic acid-dithiocarbamate hybrids as potential multi-targeted compounds for tumor cytotoxicity

In the present study, novel representatives of the important group of biologically-active, dehydroabietic acid-bearing dithiocarbamate moiety, were synthesized and characterized by ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, HR-MS. The in vitro antiproliferative activity evaluation (MTT) indicated that these compounds exhibited potent inhibitory activities in various cancer cell lines (HepG-2, MCF-7, HeLa, T-24, MGC-803). Particularly, compound III-b possessed extraordinary cytotoxicity with low micromolar IC₅₀ values ranging from 4.07 to 38.84 µM against tested cancer cell lines, while displayed weak cytotoxicity on two normal cell lines (LO-2 and HEK 293 T). Subsequently, the potential mechanisms of representative compound III-b were elementarily investigated by Transwell experiment, which showed III-b can inhibit cancer cells migration. Annexin-V/PI dual staining showed that the compound can induce HepG-2 cells apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner. Meanwhile this apoptosis may be related to the upregulated protein expression of cleaved-caspase 3, cleaved-caspase 9, Bax and downregulated of Bcl-2 indicated by Western Blot. Later study further confirmed that ROS levels in HepG-2 cells increased significantly with the rise of concentrations. In addition, through the network pharmacology data analyzing, the core targets and signaling pathways of compound III-b for treatment of liver neoplasms were forecasted. Molecular docking model showed that compound III-b had high affinity with hub targets (CASP3, EGFR, HSP90AA1, MAPK1, ERBB2, MDM2), suggesting that compound III-b might target the hub protein to modulate signaling activity. Taken together, these data indicated that dehydroabietic acid structural modification following the “Molecular hybridization” principle is a feasible way to discover the potential multi-targeted antitumor compounds.     

Sensitivity improvement of aluminum-based far-ultraviolet nearly guided-wave surface plasmon resonance sensor

An aluminum (Al) based nearly guided-wave surface plasmon resonance (NGWSPR) sensor is investigated in the far-ultraviolet (FUV) region. By simultaneously optimizing the thickness of Al and dielectric films, the sensitivity of the optimized Al-based FUV-NGWSPR sensor increases from 183°/RIU to 309°/RIU, and its figure of merit rises from 26.47 RIU^-1 to 32.59 RIU^-1 when the refractive index of dielectric increases from 2 to 5. Compared with a traditional FUV-SPR sensor without dielectric, the optimized FUV-NGWSPR sensor can realize simultaneous improvement of sensitivity and figure of merit. In addition, the FUV-NGWSPR sensor with realistic materials (diamond, Ta₂O₅, and GaN) is also investigated, and 137.84%, 52.70%, and 41.89% sensitivity improvements are achieved respectively. This work proposes a method for performance improvement of FUV-SPR sensors by exciting nearly guided-wave, and could be helpful for the high-performance SPR sensor in the short-wavelength region.     

Regulating Phase Junction and Oxygen Vacancies of TiO2 Nanoarrays for Boosted Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation

In this study, we have provided a facile solution to synthesize well-aligned titanium dioxide nanorods by using hydrothermal reaction. By calcining the materials under different atmospheres and temperatures, a batch of titanium dioxides with excellent oxygen evolution reaction(OER) catalytic efficiency were obtained. This new structured TiO₂ photoanode material yields a high photocurrent density of 5.69 mA/cm² at 1.23 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode(RHE) under simulated solar light(100 mW/cm²). Surface photovoltage techniques and other measurements were carried out to confirm that the enhanced photoelectrochemical performances were attributed to the synergistic effect of the phase junction and a certain content of surface states, which accelerate the separation and transmission of the photogenerated charges. This material with phase junction and surface states promises a potential application in the field of photoelectric catalysis under solar light.     

Ammonia Oxidation Enhanced by Photopotential Generated by Plasmonic Excitation of a Bimetallic Electrocatalyst

We study how visible light influences the activity of an electrocatalyst composed of Au and Pt nanoparticles. The bimetallic composition imparts a dual functionality: the Pt component catalyzes the electrochemical oxidation of ammonia to liberate hydrogen and the Au component absorbs visible light by the excitation of localized surface plasmon resonances. Under visible-light excitation, this catalyst exhibits enhanced electrochemical ammonia oxidation kinetics, outperforming previously reported electrochemical schemes. We trace the enhancement to a photochemical potential resulting from electron–hole carriers generated in the electrocatalyst by plasmonic excitation. The photopotential responsible for enhanced kinetics scales linearly with the light intensity—a general design principle for eliciting superlative photoelectrochemical performance from catalysts comprised of plasmonic metals or hybrids. We also determine a photochemical conversion coefficient.     

铋化物发光玻璃中银表面等离激元对铒离子的发光增强作用

局域表面等离激元可以由自由空间的光直接激发,这也是局域表面等离激元的优点所在。研究铋化物发光玻璃中纳米银颗粒的表面等离激元对铒离子发光的增强效应、进一步的提高铋化物发光玻璃中铒离子的发光性能很有意义。首先,测量了(A)Er 3+(0.5%)Ag(0.5%):铋化物发光玻璃与(B)Er 3+(0.5%):铋化物发光玻璃样品的吸收谱,发现(A)Er 3+(0.5%)Ag(0.5%):铋化物发光玻璃在约600.0 nm处有一个较弱的宽的银表面等离激元共振吸收峰。同时发现两者都有典型的铒离子的吸收峰,它们的吸收几乎完全一样:在波峰形状、峰值强度和峰值波长等方面都很相近。测量了(A)Er 3+(0.5%)Ag(0.5%):铋化物发光玻璃和(B)Er 3+(0.5%):铋化物发光玻璃样品的激发谱,发现有位于379.0,406.0,451.0,488.0和520.5 nm的5个550.0 nm可见光的可见激发谱峰,和位于379.0,406.5,451.0,488.5,520.5,544.0,651.5和798.0 nm的8个1531.0 nm红外光的红外激发谱峰,容易指认出依次为Er 3+的4I 15/2→4G 11/2,4I 15/2→2H 9/2,4I 15/2→(4F 3/2,4F 5/2),4I 15/2→4F 7/2,4I 15/2→2H 11/2,4I 15/2→4S 3/2,4I 15/2→4F 9/2和4I 15/2→4I 9/2跃迁的吸收峰,通过测量发现(A)Er 3+(0.5%)Ag(0.5%):铋化物发光玻璃相对于(B)Er 3+(0.5%):铋化物发光玻璃样品的可见和红外激发谱的最大增强依次分别是238%和133%。最后,测量了它们的发光谱,发现有位于534.0,547.5和658.5 nm的三组可见发光峰,容易指认出依次为Er 3+的2H 11/2→4I 15/2,4S 3/2→4I 15/2,4F 9/2→4I 15/2荧光跃迁。还发现红外发光峰位于978.0和1531.0 nm,依次为Er 3+的4I 11/2→4I 15/2和4I 13/2→4I 15/2的荧光跃迁。通过测量发现(A)Er 3+(0.5%)Ag(0.5%):铋化物发光玻璃相对于(B)Er 3+(0.5%):铋化物发光玻璃样品的可见和红外发光谱的最大增强依次分别是215%和138%。对于银表面等离激元增强铒离子发光的机理,认为主要为纳米银颗粒的局域表面等离激元共振,造成金属纳米结构附近产生的局域电场的强度要远大于入射光的电场强度,从而导致了金属纳米结构对入射光产生强烈的吸收和散射,进而导致了荧光的增强;即局域表面等离子体共振局域场的场增强效应。     

考虑地表反射类型的气溶胶散射偏振特性

采用逐次阶散射法求解矢量辐射传输方程来研究气溶胶在不同地表反射模型下的散射偏振特性.首先,选取单一地表反射模型和耦合地表反射模型两种地表反射模型.然后,根据地表反射模型计算得到相应的地表反射率,进而采用逐次阶散射法对矢量辐射传输方程进行求解,得到散射光的Stokes矢量.最后,由Stokes矢量计算得出散射光的偏振度.仿真结果表明,两种地表反射模型下气溶胶单次散射的散射辐射强度和线偏振度均相等;耦合地表反射模型的总散射辐射强度和线偏振度总是大于单一地表反射模型;单一地表反射模型的气溶胶单次散射相对总散射的贡献总是大于耦合地表反射模型.研究结果对气溶胶光学特性的反演具有一定意义.     

Broadband mode converter and multiplexer based on dielectric-loaded plasmonic waveguides

We theoretically demonstrate a broadband mode converter and multiplexer based on plasmonic waveguides loaded with structured dielectrics. The proposed device can realize conversions between a fundamental TM₀ mode and a first order TM₁ mode, as well as (de)multiplex them with another TM₀ mode. Our design exhibits as wide as 400 nm bandwidth and as short as 6~7 μm coupling length. This work has potential application in high density photonic integrated devices for both computing and communication applications.     

Analysis,design and simulation of MIM plasmonic filters with different geometries for technical parameters improvement

In this paper, four optical filter topologies based on metal–insulator–metal waveguides are proposed and the designed structures are investigated numerically using finite-difference timedomain method. Triangular-shaped adjunctions have been added to the filter structures to improve their transmission spectrum. These improved structures consist of air as the insulator and silver as the metal. The relative permittivity of metal has been described via the Drude,Drude–Lorentz, and Palik models. The first filter's transmission spectrum shows an acceptable transmittance. In the second optimized filter, the transmission spectrum has been improved. The transmittance spectrum can be tuned through adjusting the edge of the triangle in these four optimized filters. As a result, the bandwidths of resonance spectra can be adjusted. The theory of such tapered structures will be investigated by the tapered transmission line and will be solved with the transfer matrix method. This method shows a better performance and higher transmission efficiency in comparison with the basic structures. On the other hand, the final filter has been chosen as the best one because of its hexagonal resonator. The main reason for having a better result is due to a longer interaction length in comparison with the circular resonator. This in turn creates much better energy coupling and results in higher transmission.