The crystallinity of cadmium titanate (CdTiO3) was greatly improved when synthesized under mild reaction conditions, in the presence of chloride. The highly crystalline CdTiO3 showed much enhanced photodegradation of methyl orange (MO) under simulated sunlight. CdTiO3 was characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS),...

The solvent vapor treatment (SVT) for poly(3-hexylthiophene) (PAT6) films and its application to interpenetrating heterojunction organic solar cells have been studied. It was found that SVT could improve the crystallinity and electrical characteristics of the PAT6 films. We fabricated organic solar cells with an interpenetrating structure of PAT6 and fullerenes utilizing the SVT process, and di...

By kinetically controlled vapor-diffusion catalysis, nanostructured ZnO and Zn5(OH)8(NO3)3*2H2O thin films have been grown on substrates with different chemical compositions and varying degrees of crystallinity. The materials resulting from heterogeneous nucleation under mild conditions (starting from aqueous metal salt precursor solutions at room temperature) were characterized by X-ray diffra...

As an emerging metal-free semiconductor, covalently bonded carbon nitride (CN) has attracted much attention in photocatalysis. However, drawbacks such as a high recombination rate of excited electrons and holes hinder its potential applications. Tailoring the crystallinity of semiconductors is an important way to suppress unwanted charge recombination, but has rarely been applied to CN so far. ...

The preparation of nanocellulose via Cr(NO3)3-assisted sulfuric acid hydrolysis was optimized using response surface methodology (RSM). The experiment was performed using a five-level, four-factor central composite design coupled with RSM in order to optimize nanocellulose crystallinity and product yield. Four factors were evaluated for the preparation of nanocellulose: (1) reaction temperature...

The crystallinity of cellulose is one of the main structural parameters determining properties like accessibility and reactivity of cellulose. Native cellulose (e.g., wood, pulp, cotton, kenaf, bacteria cellulose) consists of the cellulose I, regenerated cellulose consists of the cellulose II modification. WAXS (wide angle X-ray scattering) is the standard method for the determination of crysta...

We have designed a pathway for controlling the critical micelle concentration and micelle size of polyester-based systems. This was achieved by creating an array of different copolymers with semicrystalline or amorphous hydrophobic blocks. The hydrophobic block was constructed through ring-opening polymerization of ε-caprolactone, L-lactide, and ε-decalactone, either as homopolymers or random c...

We have studied ultrafast dynamics of photoexcited carriers in mc-Si:H by pump and probe laser spectroscopy. We have found that the dynamics of photoexcited carriers in mc-Si:H depend on the crystallinity of the material: in the samples with low crystalline fraction, the dynamics have a fast decay and resemble those in a-Si:H, while in the samples with high crystallinity the dynamics are slower...

Structure-activity relationships in heterogeneous catalysis are challenging to be measured on a single-particle level. For the first time, one X-ray beam is used to determine the crystallographic structure and reactivity of a single zeolite crystal. The method generates μm-resolved X-ray diffraction (μ-XRD) and X-ray excited optical fluorescence (μ-XEOF) maps of the crystallinity and Brønsted r...