Facile synthesis of well-dispersed graphene by γ-ray induced reduction of graphene oxide
Graphene has been produced by a range of techniques including micro-mechanical exfoliation of graphite, chemical vapour deposition, epitaxial growth and the chemical reduction of graphene oxide. Chemical reduction of graphene oxide has received considerable attention as it offers a route to produce graphene on a large scale starting from cheaper natural graphite; however the reducing agents required are often poisonous or explosive. Now Chinese scientists have developed a simple approach to prepare well-dispersed graphene sheets by γ-ray induced reduction of a graphene oxide in DMF at room temperature.
Youwei Zhang, Hui-Ling Ma, Qilu Zhang, Jing Peng, Jiuqiang Li, Maolin Zhai and Zhong-Zhen Yu, J. Mater. Chem., 2012, 22, 13064-13069
Double-shelled ZnO/CdSe/CdTe nanocable arrays for photovoltaic applications: microstructure evolution and interfacial energy alignment
Semiconductor quantum dots are used as sensitizers of wide-gap photoanodes in amongst other things quantum dots sensitized solar cells. In this paper the team at Hubei University used ZnO nanowire cores as electrodes and CdSe and CdTe nanoshells as sensitizers to synthesise double-shelled nanocable arrays on ITO using a two-step electrochemical deposition approach.
Hao Wang, Tian Wang, Xina Wang, Rong Liu, Baoyuan Wang, Hanbin Wang, Yang Xu, Jun Zhang and Jinxia Duan, J. Mater. Chem., 2012, 22, 12532-12537
Polymer-dispersed liquid crystal nanocomposites comprising montmorillonite clay modified by conducting pentamerous oligoaniline
The inclusion of nanocomposite materials in polymer-dispersed liquid crystal films offers opportunities to tune their optoelectronic properties. In this hot paper a novel organic/inorganic functional polymer-dispersed liquid crystal composite is developed using montmorillonite as a dopant with further modified using conjugated conducting oligoaniline.
Tsung-Yen Tsai, Chun-Yi Lee, Chen-Ju Lee, Mu-Yin Lin and Wei Lee, J. Mater. Chem., 2012, 22, 13050-13056
Three-dimensional networks of ITO/CdS coaxial nanofibers for photovoltaic applications
Normally in semiconductor sensitized solar cells the semiconductor nanocrystals which harvest the light are anchored on mesoporous metal oxide nanoparticles. The photo-generated electrons must diffuse through the metal oxide nanoparticles before reaching the collecting electrode– leading to a loss of efficiency. In an attempt to solve this problem a team from Tianjin University, China and the University of Adelaide, Australia, have fabricated a new photoanode structure for semiconductor sensitized solar cells where semiconductor light harvesters are deposited directly onto ITO nanofiber networks which serve as the transparent electrode.
Ming-Jun Jin, Teng Ma, Tao Ling, Shi-Zhang Qiao and Xi-Wen Du, J. Mater. Chem., 2012, 22, 13057-13063
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