Electro-hydrodynamic fabrication of ZnO-based dye sensitized solar cells

The electro-hydrodynamic (EHD) technique has been successfully applied for manufacturing ZnO photoanode in dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Porous structure of ZnO film after calcinations was beneficial to the absorption of dye and infiltration of electrolyte. By using ionic liquid as an electrolyte, a high short-circuit photocurrent density of 12.1 mA/cm² was attained and the overall photo-to-electric energy conversion efficiency (η) was 3.4% under an AM-1.5 illumination at 100 mW/cm². At the same time, the influence factors on the solar cell performance, such as the concentrations of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) during EHD process and light intensity were discussed. PACS 81.07.Bc; 84.60.Jt; 81.15.Rs     

Deposition of silver nanoparticles on silica spheres via ultrasound irradiation

Silver-decorated silica spheres of submicrometer-sized silica spheres with a core-shell structure were obtained based on a seed-mediated growth process, where silver nanoparticles were firstly formed from reducing Ag⁺ to Ag⁰ in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) in the presence of poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) as protective agent under ultrasound irradiation, followed by the growth of silver shell served silver nanoparticles as nucleation sites and formaldehyde as reducer. The results revealed that the terms of PVP addition and ultrasonic surroundings had great influence on the fabrication of silver seeds.     

Efficient generation of a photon pair in a bulk periodically poled potassium titanyl phosphate

In this report, we demonstrate the efficient generation of collinearly propagating photon pairs in a bulk periodically poled potassium titanyl phosphate pumped by a cw laser. The detected coincidence counts are more than 7400/s with 3.58 mW pump power in a Hanbury-Brown-Twiss-type experiment. The estimated photon pair production rate is about 0.73 MHz/mW. This is very promising for some applications, such as quantum key distribution, proof of the Bell-inequality, preparation of single photon states in broadband wave packets, Franson-type interference and so on.     

多壁纳米碳管修饰玻碳电极不可逆双安培法测定Fe~（3＋）

在玻碳电极上成功制备了多壁碳纳米管（MWNTs）修饰玻碳电极（GCE）,并对其进行显微表征。研究表明,该修饰电极（MWNTs/GCE）对Fe3＋具有明显的电催化还原作用。将其用于流动注射不可逆双安培（FI-IB）体系的构建,即：利用Fe3＋在MWNTs/GCE上的还原和硫酸羟胺（（NH2OH）2.H2SO4）在另一支金...     

Facile Assembly of Dispersed ZrMCM‐41 Nanoparticles Promoted in‐situ by Zirconium Salt

Mesoporous ZrMCM‐41 nanoparticles were synthesized by a usual way where tetraethyl‐orthosilicate (TEOS) and zirconium nitrate were used as the inorganic precursors. The obtained nanoscale ZrMCM‐41 was characterized by X‐ray diffraction, N₂ physis‐sorption, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Characterization results revealed that zirconium salt added in the synthesis had a crucial effect on the assembly of nanoscale ZrMCM‐41 with relatively uniform particle size, which was rarely observed in reported studies for ZrMCM‐41 synthesized using the similar method. Meanwhile, the possible mechanism behind the synthesis was discussed based on the character of hydrolysis and condensation of TEOS and the mild acidic environment induced by the hydrolysable zirconium salt under aqueous conditions. Thus obtained nanoscale ZrMCM‐41 with developed pore structures may be advantageous to general applications in catalysis or adsorption host‐guest chemistry in terms of efficient mass transport of guest molecules.     

Polyvinylidene fluoride/polystyrene hybrid fibers with high ionic conductivity and enhanced mechanical strength as lithium-ion battery separators

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - Ionic conductivity is an important separator parameter influencing the cycle life and rate capability of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). To improve the ionic...     

On the conformal mappings in the unit disk fixing arbitrarily many boundary points

In this paper, we give a method of constructing conformal mappings defined in the unit disk which can fix arbitrarily many points on the unit circle.     

RABA (Reductive Alkylation By Acetone): A novel stable isotope labeling approach for quantitative proteomics

Quantitative proteomics is challenging and various stable isotope based approaches have been developed to meet the challenge. Hereby we describe a simple, efficient, reliable, and inexpensive method named reductive alkylation by acetone (RABA) to introduce stable isotopes to peptides for quantitative analysis. The RABA method leads to alkylation of N-terminal and lysine amino groups with isopropyl moiety. Using unlabeled (d₀) and deuterium labeled (d₆) acetone, a 6 Da mass split is introduced to each isopropyl modification between the light and heavy isotope labeled peptides, which is ideally suited for quantitative analysis. The reaction specificity, stoichiometry, labeling efficiency, and linear range of the RABA method have been thoroughly evaluated in this study using standard peptides, tryptic digest of proteins, as well as human cell lysate. Reliable quantitative results have been consistently obtained in all experiments. We also applied the RABA method to quantitative analysis of proteins in spinal cords of transgenic mouse models of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Highly homologous proteins (transgenic human SOD1 and endogenous mouse SOD1) were distinguished and quantified using the method developed in this study. In addition, the quantitative results using the RABA approach were independently validated by Western blot.