Free-standing mesoporous carbon thin films with highly ordered pore architectures for nanodevices

We report for the first time the synthesis of free-standing mesoporous carbon films with highly ordered pore architecture by a simple coating-etching approach, which have an intact morphology with variable sizes as large as several square centimeters and a controllable thickness of 90 nm to ～3 μm. The mesoporous carbon films were first synthesized by coating a resol precursors/Pluronic copolymer solution on a preoxidized silicon wafer and forming highly ordered polymeric mesostructures based on organic-organic self-assembly, followed by carbonizing at 600 °C and finally etching of the native oxide layer between the carbon film and the silicon substrate. The mesostructure of this free-standing carbon film is confirmed to be an ordered face-centered orthorhombic Fmmm structure, distorted from the (110) oriented body-centered cubic Im3?m symmetry. The mesoporosity of the carbon films has been evaluated by nitrogen sorption, which shows a high specific BET surface area of 700 m(2)/g and large uniform mesopores of ～4.3 nm. Both mesostructures and pore sizes can be tuned by changing the block copolymer templates or the ratio of resol to template. These free-standing mesoporous carbon films with cracking-free uniform morphology can be transferred or bent on different surfaces, especially with the aid of the soft polymer layer transfer technique, thus allowing for a variety of potential applications in electrochemistry and biomolecule separation. As a proof of concept, an electrochemical supercapacitor device directly made by the mesoporous carbon thin films shows a capacitance of 136 F/g at 0.5 A/g. Moreover, a nanofilter based on the carbon films has shown an excellent size-selective filtration of cytochrome c and bovine serum albumin.     

Rational design of 3D dendritic TiO2 nanostructures with favorable architectures

Controlling the morphology and size of titanium dioxide (TiO(2)) nanostructures is crucial to obtain superior photocatalytic, photovoltaic, and electrochemical properties. However, the synthetic techniques for preparing such structures, especially those with complex configurations, still remain a challenge because of the rapid hydrolysis of Ti-containing polymer precursors in aqueous solution. Herein, we report a completely novel approach-three-dimensional (3D) TiO(2) nanostructures with favorable dendritic architectures-through a simple hydrothermal synthesis. The size of the 3D TiO(2) dendrites and the morphology of the constituent nano-units, in the form of nanorods, nanoribbons, and nanowires, are controlled by adjusting the precursor hydrolysis rate and the surfactant aggregation. These novel configurations of TiO(2) nanostructures possess higher surface area and superior electrochemical properties compared to nanoparticles with smooth surfaces. Our findings provide an effective solution for the synthesis of complex TiO(2) nano-architectures, which can pave the way to further improve the energy storage and energy conversion efficiency of TiO(2)-based devices.     

Synthesis of high-silica EU-1 zeolite in the presence of hexamethonium ions: a seeded approach for inhibiting ZSM-48

A seeded approach was developed to synthesize high-silica EU-1 zeolite via inhibiting the co-crystallization of ZSM-48 in the presence of hexamethonium (HM) ions. A systematic study was carried out to determine factors such as seed content and SiO(2)/Al(2)O(3) ratio, which influenced the crystallization of high-silica EU-1 and transformation of EU-1 into ZSM-48. Using EU-1 seeds, not only well-crystallized pure EU-1 zeolites with SiO(2)/Al(2)O(3) ratios more than 500 were synthesized, but also the co-crystalline of ZSM-48/EU-1 or pure ZSM-48 was obtained in control from silica-rich mixture gels. Furthermore, the kinetic features of the seeded synthesis of EU-1 zeolites with SiO(2)/Al(2)O(3) ratios of 55, 190, and 500 were examined. It was found that seeds played crucial roles in the decrease of apparent activation energy of EU-1 nucleation and inhibiting the transformation of EU-1 into ZSM-48. The HM and Al species performed synergistic roles to inhibit the formation ZSM-48 during high-silica EU-1 nucleation and crystal growth.     

Crystal structures, lattice potential energies, and thermochemical properties of crystalline compounds (1-C(n)H(2n+1)NH3)2ZnCl4(s) (n = 8, 10, 12, and 13)

As part of our ongoing project involving the study of (1-C(n)H(2n+1)NH(3))(2)MCl(4)(s) (where M is a divalent metal ion and n = 8-18), we have synthesized the compounds (1-C(n)H(2n+1)NH(3))(2)ZnCl(4)(s) (n = 8, 10, 12, and 13), and the details of the structures are reported herein. All of the compounds were crystallized in the monoclinic form with the space group P2(1)/n for (1-C(8)H(17)NH(3))(2)ZnCl(4)(s), P21/c for (1-C(10)H(21)NH(3))(2)ZnCl(4)(s), P2(1)/c for (1-C(12)H(25)NH(3))(2)ZnCl(4)(s), and P2(1)/m for (1-C(13)H(27)NH(3))(2)ZnCl(4)(s). The lattice potential energies and ionic volumes of the cations and the common anion of the title compounds were obtained from crystallographic data. Molar enthalpies of dissolution of the four compounds at various molalities were measured at 298.15 K in the double-distilled water. According to Pitzer's theory, molar enthalpies of dissolution of the title compounds at infinite dilution were obtained. Finally, using the values of molar enthalpies of dissolution at infinite dilution (Δ(s)H(m)(∞)) and other auxiliary thermodynamic data, the enthalpy change of the dissociation of [ZnCl(4)](2-)(g) for the reaction [ZnCl(4)](2-)(g)→ Zn(2+)(g) + 4Cl(-)(g) was obtained, and then the hydration enthalpies of cations were calculated by designing a thermochemical cycle.     

Synthesis of ZnAl2O4/α-Al2O3 complex substrates and growth of GaN films

With the solid phase reaction between pulsed-laser-deposited (PLD) ZnOfilm and α-Al2O3 substrate, ZnAl2O4/α-Al2O3 complex substrates were synthesized. X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra show that as the reaction proceeds, ZnAl2O4 changes from the initial (111)-oriented single crystal to poly-crystal, and then to inadequate (111) orientation. Corresponding scanning electron microscope (SEM)images indicate that the surface morphology of ZnAl2O4 transforms from uniform islands to stick structures, and then to bulgy-line structures. In addition, XRDspectra present that ZnAl2O4 prepared at low temperature is unstable at the environment of higher temperature. On the as-obtained ZnAl2O4/α-Al2O3 substrates, GaN films were grown without any nitride buffer using light-radiation heating low-pressure MOCVD (LRH-LP-MOCVD). XRD spectra indicate that GaN film on this kind of complex substrate changes from c-axis single crystal to poly-crystal as ZnAl2O4 layer is thickened. For the single crystal GaN, its full width at half maximum (FWHM) of X-ray rocking curve is 0.4°. Results indicate that islands on thin ZnAl2O4 layer can promote nucleation at initial stage of GaN growth, which leadsto the (0001)-oriented GaN film.     

Dielectric scaling in polyelectrolyte solutions with different solvent quality in the dilute concentration regime

In this note, we present a set of radiowave dielectric spectroscopy measurements of two dilute, differently-charged polyelectrolyte solutions, under different solvent conditions. We have found that both the dielectric strength, Delta epsilon, and the relaxation time, tau(ion), of the dielectric relaxation process associated with the counterion polarization along a length scale of the order of the correlation length obey the scaling laws with the polyion concentration, according to the Ito model. This is verified with good accuracy independently of the quality of the solvent, which has been varied from poor to good solvent conditions. This finding supports evidence to the fact that, in dilute solutions, the counterion polarization is independent of the polyion concentration, in spite of what occurs at the semi-dilute concentrations.     

Radial basis function neural networks in non-destructive determination of compound aspirin tablets on NIR spectroscopy

The application of the second most popular artificial neural networks (ANNs), namely, the radial basis function (RBF) networks, has been developed for quantitative analysis of drugs during the last decade. In this paper, the two components (aspirin and phenacetin) were simultaneously determined in compound aspirin tablets by using near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy and RBF networks. The total database was randomly divided into a training set (50) and a testing set (17). Different preprocessing methods (standard normal variate (SNV), multiplicative scatter correction (MSC), first-derivative and second-derivative) were applied to two sets of NIR spectra of compound aspirin tablets with different concentrations of two active components and compared each other. After that, the performance of RBF learning algorithm adopted the nearest neighbor clustering algorithm (NNCA) and the criterion for selection used a cross-validation technique. Results show that using RBF networks to quantificationally analyze tablets is reliable, and the best RBF model was obtained by first-derivative spectra.     

Thermal properties of bi nanowire arrays with different orientations and diameters

The thermal properties of single-crystalline Bi nanowire arrays with different orientations and diameters were studied by differential scanning calorimeter and in situ high-temperature X-ray diffraction. Bi nanowires were fabricated by a pulsed electrodeposition technique within the porous anodic alumina membrane. The relationships between the orientation and diameter of Bi nanowires and the corresponding thermal properties are deduced solely from experimental results. It is shown that the melting point decreases with decreasing nanowire diameter, and there is an anisotropic thermal expansion property of Bi nanowires with different orientations and diameters. The transition of the thermal expansion coefficient from positive at low temperature to negative at high temperature for Bi nanowire arrays was analyzed and discussed.     

ZnMgO/ZnO异质结构中二维电子气的研究

论文根据ZnMgO/ZnO异质结构二维电子气的能带结构及相关理论模型, 采用一维Poisson-Schrodinger方程的自洽求解, 模拟计算了ZnMgO/ZnO异质结构中二维电子气的分布及其对ZnMgO势垒层厚度及Mg组分的依赖关系. 研究发现该异质结构中ZnMgO势垒层厚度存在一最小临界值: 当垒层厚度小于该临界值时, 二维电子气消失, 当垒层厚度大于该临界值时, 其二维电子气密度随着该垒层厚度的增加而增大; 同时研究发现ZnMgO势垒层中Mg组分的增加将显著增强其二维电子气的行为, 导致二维电子气密度的明显增大; 论文对模拟计算获得的结果与相关文献报道的实验结果进行了比较, 并从极化效应和能带结构的角度进行了分析和讨论, 给出了合理的解释. 关键词： 氧化锌 二维电子气 异质结构 理论计算     

m面GaN平面内结构和光学各向异性研究

采用金属有机物化学气相淀积方法在铝酸锂LiAlO₂衬底上外延生长m面GaN薄膜.X射线衍射测量的结果表明所得薄膜具有较理想的m面晶体取向,并对其各向异性的应变进行了计算,摇摆曲线的测量发现样品存在明显的面内结构各向异性.采用偏振光致发光研究材料的面内光学各向异性,发现随着偏振角度的改变,发光峰的峰位和强度均有明显变化,并用对称性破缺导致价带子带劈裂的理论对结果进行了解释. 关键词： m面GaN 结构各向异性 偏振光致发光