The evolution of morphology of ordered porous TiO2 films fabricated from sol-gel method assisted ZnO nanorod template

Ordered porous TiO₂ films, including TiO₂ nanotube arrays, are fabricated by a sol-gel dip-coating approach via ZnO nanorod templates obtained from aqueous solution approach. The results indicate that the morphologies of ordered porous TiO₂ films have been great affected by the sol-gel dip-coating cycle number. Open-ended TiO₂ nanotube arrays can be obtained in optimum dip-coating cycle numbers. The TiO₂ nanotubes with the inner diameter matching well with the diameters of ZnO nanorods, are well assembled and separate each other. When the cycle number is less than this optimum value, no intact porous TiO₂ film can be obtained. As the cycle number is larger than this optimum value, an ordered porous TiO₂ film with many throughout holes is formed. The evolutive mechanism of ordered porous TiO₂ films is proposed.     

水热法制备Sb2S3纳米棒有序阵列

以Sb(S₂CNEt₂)₃为单源前驱体，通过改变时间、温度、表面活性剂等反应条件，用水热法成功合成了各种尺寸的Sb₂S₃纳米棒及其有序阵列。X-射线衍射(XRD)、能量分散光谱(EDS)以及选区电子衍射(SAED)研究表明纳米棒由正交晶系Sb₂S₃单晶构成。扫描电子显微镜(SEM)和透射电子显微镜(TEM)研究显示Sb₂S     

Templated ceramic microstructures by using the breath-figure method

We describe the synthesis of two cyclobutadiene(cyclopentadienyl)cobalt-containing poly(p-phenylene ethynylene)s (PPEs) and their use as precursors for stable ceramic surface coatings. Organometallic PPEs were shaped into hexagonally ordered assemblies by using the breath-figure method. Such breath figures can be washed away with an appropriate solvent. Upon pyrolysis at 500 degrees C under either nitrogen or air, the bubble arrays persist as ceramics and are insoluble in organic solvents or water. The formed pyrolyzed bubble arrays were analyzed by optical and scanning electron microscopy, as well as energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis (EDX). The composition of the ceramic materials is discussed based on EDX and IR data.     

Carbon Nanotubes Based Nanoelectrode Arrays: Fabrication,Evaluation, and Application in Voltammetric Analysis

Fabrication, electrochemical characterization, and applications of low‐site density carbon nanotubes based nanoelectrode arrays (CNTs‐NEAs) are reported in this work. Spin‐coating of an epoxy resin provides a new way to create the electrode passivation layer effectively reducing electrode capacitance and current leakage. Cyclic voltammetry showed the sigmoidal shape curves with low capacitive current and scan‐rate‐independent limiting current. Square‐wave voltammetry showed well‐defined peak shapes in voltammograms of K₃Fe(CN)₆ and 4‐acetamidophenol (acetaminophen) and the peak currents to be proportioned to their concentrations, demonstrating the feasibility for voltammetric analysis of the CNTs‐NEAs. The CNTs‐NEAs were also used successfully for voltammetric detection of trace concentrations of lead(II) at ppb level at first‐time. The CNTs‐NEAs provide an excellent platform for ultra sensitive electrochemical sensors for chemical and biological sensing.     

One-Component Artificial Gustatory System Based on Hydrogen-Bond Organic Framework for Discrimination of Versatile Analytes

Hydrogen-bond organic frameworks (HOFs) with excellent structural and luminescent properties have emerged as a promising material for the construction of fluorescence sensors. However, designing a facile, universal and high throughput sensor with multiplex detection capacity still remains challenging. Herein, a one-component sensor array is constructed that mimics natural gustatory system for accurate and high-throughput discrimination and identification of versatile analytes. HOF as a single sensing element greatly simplifies the probe preparation in sensor array and detection procedure. Metal ions, proteins and bacteria as the model targets are rapid and accurately discriminated, presenting the universality of the system. Particularly, the system is successfully used for the classification of antibiotic mechanisms. The study expands the application scope of HOFs and provides a facile and universal system for sensing applications.     

Laser-Printed Plasmonic Metasurface Supporting Bound States in the Continuum Enhances and Shapes Infrared Spontaneous Emission of Coupled HgTe Quantum Dots

In order to advance the development of quantum emitter-based devices, it is essential to enhance light-matter interactions through coupling between semiconductor quantum dots with high quality factor resonators. Here, efficient tuning of the emission properties of HgTe quantum dots in the infrared spectral region is demonstrated by coupling them to a plasmonic metasurface that supports bound states in the continuum. The plasmonic metasurface, composed of an array of gold nanobumps, is fabricated using single-step direct laser printing, opening up new opportunities for creating exclusive 3D plasmonic nanostructures and advanced photonic devices in the infrared region. A 12-fold enhancement of the photoluminescence in the 900–1700 nm range is observed under optimal coupling conditions. By tuning the geometry of the plasmonic arrays, controllable shaping of the emission spectra is achieved, selectively enhancing specific wavelength ranges across the emission spectrum. The observed enhancement and shaping of the emission are attributed to the Purcell effect, as corroborated by systematic measurements of radiative lifetimes and optical simulations based on the numerical solution of Maxwell's equations. Moreover, coupling of the HgTe photoluminescence to high quality factor modes of the metasurface improves emission directivity, concentrating output within an ≈20° angle.     

Creating Atomic Ordering in Electrocatalysis

Catalysis always proceeds in a chaotic fashion. Therefore, identifying the working principles of heterogeneous catalysts is a challenging task. Creating atomic order in heterogeneous catalysts simplifies this task and also offers new opportunities for rationally designing active sites to manipulate catalytic performance. The recent rapid advances in heterogeneous electrocatalysis have led to exciting progress in the construction of atomically ordered materials. Here, the latest progress in electrocatalysts with the periodic atomic arrangement, including intermetallic compounds with long-range order and metal atom-array catalysts with short-range order is summarized. The synthesis principles and the intriguing physical and chemical properties of these electrocatalysts are discussed. Furthermore, the compelling prospects of atomically ordered catalysts in the frontier of catalyst research are outlined.     

On two--block--factor sequences and one--dependence

The distributions of two--block--factors arising from i.i.d. sequences are observed to coincide with the distributions of the superdiagonals of jointly exchangeable and dissociated arrays . An inequality for superdiagonal probabilities of the arrays is presented. It provides, together with the observation, a simple proof of the fact that a special one--dependent Markov sequence of Aaronson, Gilat and Keane (1992) is not a two--block factor.

     

C-Testable modified-Booth multipliers

In this paper the testability of modified-Booth array multipliers for standard cells based design environments is examined for first time. In such cases the structure of the cells may be unknown, thus Cell Fault Model (CFM) is adopted. Two C-testable designs are proposed. A design for an N _x × N_y bits modified-Booth multiplier, which uses ripple carry addition at the last stage of the multiplication, is first proposed. The design requires the addition of only one extra primary input and 38 test vectors with respect to CFM. A second C-testable design is given using carry lookahead addition at the last stage which is the case of practical implementations of modified-Booth multipliers. Such a C-testable design using carry lookahead addition is for first time proposed in the open literature. This second design requires the addition of 4 extra primary inputs. One-level and two-levels carry lookahead adders, are considered. The C-testable design requires 61 test vectors for the former and 73 test vectors for the latter, respectively. The hardware and delay overheads imposed by both C-testable designs are very small and decrease when the size of the multiplier increases.