Original Article in 2015

Novel Cr³⁺-doped non-gallate near-infrared phosphorescent phosphor, Zn₂SnO₄: Cr, with the special optical characteristics of broad emission band (650–1200 nm, peaking at 800 nm) and long afterglow duration (>35 h) was presented, which successfully avoid the existing ubiquitous reliance on gallates as hosts in Cr³⁺-doped phosphorescent phosphors. This research also deals with the method of finely tailoring the local crystal field around the activator center, Cr³⁺, along with essential redeployment of trap distributions by adding Al. Indeed, such redeployment permits band gap adjustment and the dynamic variation of the annihilation and formation of defects.

The low cost, significant reduction potential and relative safety of the zinc electrode is a common hope for a reductant in secondary batteries, but it is limited mainly to primary implementation due to shape change. In this work, we exploit such shape change for the benefit of static electrodes through the electrodeposition of hyper-dendritic nanoporous zinc foam. Electrodeposition of zinc foam resulted in nanoparticles formed on secondary dendrites in a three-dimensional network with a particle size distribution of 54.1–96.0 nm. The nanoporous zinc foam contributed to highly oriented crystals, high surface area and more rapid kinetics in contrast to conventional zinc in alkaline mediums. The anode material presented had a utilization of ~88% at full depth-of-discharge (DOD) at various rates indicating a superb rate capability. The rechargeability of Zn⁰/Zn²⁺ showed significant capacity retention over 100 cycles at a 40% DOD to ensure that the dendritic core structure was imperforated. The dendritic architecture was densified upon charge–discharge cycling and presented superior performance compared with bulk zinc electrodes.

Schematic synthesis of the robust superhydrophobic coating from strawberry-like Janus hemispherical particles: (a) the dispersion of aqueous particles is sprayed onto the E-51 layer on the substrate; (b) the Janus particles self-orientate to form a layer; and (c) after the epoxy resin is cured by cationic catalysis, the robust superhydrophobic coating is fabricated.

The thermotropic ionic liquid crystal with the wide temperature range of the liquid crystal phase is reported using polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane. We found the liquid crystal phase of the POSS-tethered ion salts can be maintained until the pyrolysis occurs.

We report a new ‘one stone two birds’ strategy to fabricate a bicontinuous Cu/L₄T₅O₁₂ electrode consisting of nanoporous Cu scaffold and the encapsulated nanoparticles with highly exposed (111) planes. These architectures provide rapid pathways for ion and electron transport and realize the additional lithium storage capacity on the surfaces of LTO, realizing the high-rate and high-capacity lithium storage.

We report a tandem transformation platform for one-flow syntheses of diverse heterocyclic furan chemicals.

Nanoporous platinum (Pt) with a gyroid nanostructure was fabricated using a nanoporous polymer with gyroid nanochannels as a template. The nanoporous polymer template was obtained from the self-assembly of the degradable block copolymer, polystyrene-b-poly(L-lactide) (PS-PLLA), followed by the hydrolysis of the PLLA blocks. Templated electroless plating can be conducted under ambient conditions to create a precisely controlled Pt gyroid nanostructure with high crystallinity in a PS matrix. After removal of the PS matrix, the well-interconnected nanoporous gyroid Pt can be successfully fabricated. Compared with commercially available catalysts, the nanoporous Pt possesses superior macroscopic stability and peak specific activity, benefiting from the well-defined network structure with robust texture and the growth of the low-index crystalline facets of Pt.

We report nature-inspired drug-DNA adducts (DDAs) as a simple yet programmable platform for site-specific drug-DNA conjugation and application in targeted anticancer drug delivery. With multiple copies of drugs conjugated on one DNA, the DDAs were nuclease-resistant and stable for storage, yet gradually released drugs at physiological temperature. Designer DDAs were able to form nanoadducts by hybridization and fold into drug-aptamer adducts (DAAs) for specific recognition of cancer cells and targeted anticancer drug delivery. In a tumor xenograft mouse model, DAAs significantly inhibited tumor growth and reduced side effects, as verified by tissue analysis of tumors and hearts.

A vesicant-assisted gas-foaming strategy has been reported to achieve 3D h-BN white graphene (WG) foams without any catalysts or templates. This technique could provide large-scale, high-yield and ultralight 3D WG foams with a very low density of 2.1 mg cm⁻³. The WG foams present hierarchical pores and ultrathin walls with single or several atomic layers. The WG foams present superhigh adsorption properties for organic solvents and oils with an adsorption capacity of up to 70–190 times its own weight for organic pollutants and oils. This study promotes a new design strategy to create 3D WG foams for high-performance pollutant removal applications in water treatment.

Plasmonic gold nanoparticles with open eccentric cavity are fabricated by selectively adapting the structure of non-plasmonic nanoparticles via acid-induced chemical transformation. Because of strong near-field enhancement occurring at the mouth of the open cavity and very rough surfaces resulting from uniformly covered hyperbranched sharp multi-tips as well as free access of SERS molecules inside the nanoparticles without diffusion limitation, adenine, one of four bases in DNA, in an extremely diluted aqueous solution (1.0 pM) was successfully detected with excellent reproducibility at a laser excitation with 785 nm wavelength.

Taking advantage of DNA hybridization, we fabricated a series of nonarithmetic logic circuits on a simple and universal molecular beacon platform, including multiplexer, demultiplexer, encoder and decoder. Multiple fluorescence outputs were generated in parallel on the same set of inputs. The advantages of the enzyme-free DNA systems here include high flexibility, reconfigurability, massive parallelism and scalability, offering an opportunity to construct multi-component devices on a single biomolecular platform.

Hydrogenated NiCo₂O₄ double-shell hollow spheres, combining large specific surface area and high conductivity, are prepared. A specific capacitance increase of >62%, from 445 to 718 F g⁻¹, is achieved at a current density of 1 A g⁻¹. A full cell combined with NiCo₂O₄ and activated carbon is assembled, and an energy density of 34.8 Wh kg⁻¹ is obtained at a power density of 464 W kg⁻¹.

By intercalating monolayer titania nanosheets (TO) into graphene oxide (GO) laminates, assisted with mild ultraviolet reduction, the as-prepared hybrid membranes exhibit excellent water desalination performances. The photoreduction of GO by TO is responsible for the effective rejection of ions, while the photoinduced hydrophilic conversion of TO is responsible for the well-retained water permeabilities.

PolyA can selectively bind to AuNPs with similar affinity to thiolated DNA and better control of the surface density of DNA, which results in the formation of monovalent DNA-gold nanoparticle conjugates . mDNA–AuNPs with in a click chemistry-like manner.

We demonstrated for the first time highly flexible N-doped SiC nanoneedle field emitters with low turn-on fields and excellent emission stabilities. The characterizations of their field emission properties under repeated bending cycles and different bending states confirmed that such emitters are mechanically and electrically robust. These findings underscore the importance of concurrent morphology and composition controls in nanomaterial synthesis and establish SiC nanoneedles as the most promising candidate for flexible FE applications.

Strongly coupled and uniform Cu₂O@CeO₂ core@shell cubes with highly active interface are successfully fabricated via a ‘clean synthetic process’. The final hybrid nanostructure formation is highly dependent on the species of Cu precursors as well as the synthetic temperatures. Finally the as-obtained 155 nm cubes exhibit the highest catalytic activity in the catalytic CO oxidation and the peroxidase-like activity test.

Graphene is an emerging material for nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) due to its intriguing electronic properties and promising mechanical character. However, intrinsic graphene has long been considered devoid of piezoelectric effect which restricts its electromechanical coupling ability. We report on a giant two-dimensional (2D) piezoelectric effect on an intrinsic graphene-based NEMS platform, which results from dynamical adjustment of band structure-induced polarization instead of occurrence of electric dipoles at the molecular level. These findings not only open an avenue for dynamical strain-engineered 2D electronics, but also pave the way for low-cost sensing and energy harvesting applications.

In this paper, we demonstrate a highly active and stable Pt nanoparticle/Mo₂C nanotube catalyst for methanol electro-oxidation. Well-dispersed Pt nanoparticles were deposited on Mo₂C nanotubes using a controllable atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique. This catalyst showed much higher catalytic activity for methanol oxidation and superior CO tolerance, when compared with those of the conventional Pt/C and PtRu/C catalysts. These results provide a promising strategy for the design of highly active next-generation catalysts.

Polyhedral Au nanocrystals enclosed by a variety of index facets are prepared: cubic Au NCs enclosed by {100} facets; truncated octahedral Au NCs enclosed by {100} and {110} facets; and trisoctahedral Au NCs enclosed by 24 high-index {441} facets. It is found that high index facets exhibit much higher catalytic activity toward oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions in Li–O₂ batteries.

A novel release mechanism of microcapsules is demonstrated, where the rate of core release can be solely controlled by magnetic field-induced deformation of microcapsules. Composite microcapsules are prepared with magnetic particles embedded in the polymer wall. It shows that the release rate is highly dependent on the strengths of the magnetic field and deformation frequency of the microcapsules.