Understanding the correlation between physicochemical properties and morphology of nanostructures is a prerequisite for widespread applications of nanomaterials in environmental application areas. Herein, we illustrated that the uniform-sized SnO2@C hollow nanoparticles were large-scale synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method. The size of the core-shell hollow nanoparticles was about 56 nm,...

The performance of sensing surfaces highly relies on nanostructures to enhance their sensitivity and specificity. Herein, nanostructured zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films of various thicknesses were coated on glass and p-type silicon substrates using a sol-gel spin-coating technique. The deposited films were characterized for morphological, structural, and optoelectronic properties by high-resolution...

The coating of thin films is applied in numerous fields and many methods are employed for the deposition of these films. Some coating techniques may deposit films at high speed; for example, ordinary printing paper is coated with micrometre-thick layers of clay at a speed of tens of meters per second. However, to coat nanometre thin films at high speed, vacuum techniques are typically required,...

Mesoporous silica nanoparticles functionalised with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) luminogen via a carbon-nitrogen double bond are fabricated into films by a dip-coating method. The as-made films can serve as efficient fluorescent sensors for the naked-eye detection of volatile acid gases by colour and emission changes, as well as for the detection of 2,4-dinitrotoluene vapours by fluoresce...

An elegant atomic layer deposition (ALD) method has been employed for controllable preparation of a uniform Fe3O4-coated ZnO (ZnO@Fe3O4) core-shell flower-like nanostructure. The Fe3O4 coating thickness of the ZnO@Fe3O4 nanostructure can be tuned by varying the cycle number of ALD Fe2O3. When serving as additives for microwave absorption, the ZnO@Fe3O4-paraffin composites exhibit a higher absor...

Poor cycling performance arising from the instability of anode is still a main challenge for aqueous rechargeable lithium batteries (ARLB). In the present work, a high performance LiTi2(PO4)3/C composite has been achieved by a novel and facile preparation method associated with an in-situ carbon coating approach. The LiTi2(PO4)3/C nanoparticles show high purity and the carbon layer is very unif...

The composition, nanostructure, tribological and corrosion behaviour of reactive arc evaporated CrBxNy coatings have been studied and compared to CrN. The CrBxNy coatings were deposited on a commercial Oerlikon Balzers RCS coating system employing 80:20 Cr:B targets. To vary the composition, the nitrogen fraction was adjusted (N2 fraction = N2/(Ar + N2)) and a moderate bias voltage of –20 V was...

We introduce a facile approach to use ruthenium dioxide (RuO2) and ruthenium (Ru) nanostructures as effective counter electrodes instead of using platinum (Pt) for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). RuO2 and Ru nanostructure layers on the FTO glass can be readily prepared by a simple annealing process followed by the spin coating process of the mixture solution containing amorphous RuO2·xH2O p...

This paper discusses the effect of adding reduced erbium-doped ceria nanoparticles (REDC NPs) as a coating on silicon solar cells. Reduced ceria nanoparticles doped with erbium have the advantages of both improving conductivity and optical conversion of solar cells. Oxygen vacancies in ceria nanoparticles reduce Ce4+ to Ce3+ which follow the rule of improving conductivity of solar cells through...

Networks comprised of randomly oriented overlapping nanowires offer the possibility of simple fabrication on a variety of substrates, in contrast with the precise placement required for devices with single or aligned nanowires. Metal nanowires typically have a coating of surfactant or oxide that prevents aggregation, but also prevents electrical connection. Prohibitively high voltages can be re...