Synthesis,characterization and antifungal property of Ti3C2Tx MXene nanosheets

Although the antibacterial properties of MXene nanosheets containing Ti₃C₂T_x are known, their antifungal properties have not been well studied. Herein, we present for the first time a report on the antifungal properties of Ti₃C₂T_x MXene. The Ti₃C₂T_x MXene was obtained by first exfoliating MAX phase of Ti₃AlC₂ with concentrated hydrofluoric acid, then the Ti₃C₂T_x was intercalated and deliminated by ethanol treatment and ultrasonication process. The delaminated Ti₃C₂T_x MXene nanosheets (d-Ti₃C₂Tx) were characterized using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD), and Raman spectroscopy. It was found that Ti₃C₂T_x MXene was characterized by lamellar structure alternating with layers of Ti, Al and C. The EDX results revealed that the delaminated Ti₃C₂T_x MXene nanosheets were composed of Ti, C, Si, O, F, and a trace amount of Al. The XRD and Raman spectra further indicated the elimination of Al and the formation of two-dimensional Ti₃C₂T_x MXene nanosheets. The antifungal activity of the delaminated Ti₃C₂T_x MXene was determined against Trichoderma reesei using the modified agar disc method. Observation using inverted phase contrastmicroscopy revealed inhibited fungus growth with the absence of hyphae around the discs treated wtih MXene. The surrounding of the control groups without an inclusion of MXene was found with large number of hyphae and spores. In addition, the spores of the fungi treated with the samples containing d-Ti₃C₂T_x MXene nanosheets did not germinate even after 11 days of culture. The results demonstrated disruption to the hemispheric structural formation of fungi colony, inhibition of hyphae growth and cell damage for fungi grown on the d-Ti₃C₂T_x MXene nanosheets. These new findings suggest that d-Ti₃C₂T_x MXene nanosheets developed in this work could be a promising anti-fungi material.     

Electronic structure and absolute band edge position of tetragonal AgInS2 photocatalyst: A hybrid density functional study

Energy bands, effective mass of carriers, absolute band edge positions and optical properties of tetragonal AgInS₂ were calculated using a first-principles approach with the exchange correlation described by B3LYP hybrid functional. The results indicate that tetragonal AgInS₂ has a direct band gap of 1.93 eV, which reproduce well experimental value. Calculated effective masses of electrons and holes are both small which are beneficial to separation and migration of electron and hole pairs. This implies that AgInS₂ has good photocatalytic performance. The calculated optical characteristics indicate that AgInS₂ has a slight anisotropy for both the real and imaginary parts of the dielectric function and exhibits large optical absorption in the visible light region. Furthermore, the calculated band edge positions in (100), (010) and (001) surfaces indicate that tetragonal AgInS₂ is beneficial to the reduction and oxidation of water to hydrogen and oxygen under visible light irradiation.     

Novel organic dyes containing N-bridged oligothiophene coplanar cores for dye-sensitized solar cells

Three novel organic dyes adopting fully-fused coplanar heteroarene as the donor moieties end-capped with two cyanoacrylic acids as acceptors and anchoring groups have been synthesized, characterized, and used as the sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The photophysical and electrochemical properties of the novel dyes and the characteristics of the DSSCs based on the novel organic dyes were investigated. The incorporation of the coplanar cores with electron-donating N-bridges are beneficial for the better intramolecular charge transfer (ICT), giving these new dyes good light-harvesting capability. The LUMO energy levels of these coplanar heteroacene-based dyes are sufficiently high for the efficient electron injection to TiO₂ upon photo-excitation, while the suitable HOMOs allow the regeneration of oxidized dyes with the electrolyte redox (I⁻/I₃⁻). The structural features of the coplanar cores (penta vs. hexa heteroarene) as well as the alkyl substitutions play crucial roles in governing the physical properties and device performance. Among these three novel organic sensitizers, the EHTt dye composed of a fully fused hexa-arene core and less bulky N-alkyl groups caused the DSSC to show the best photovoltaic performance with an open-circuit voltage (V_OC) of 0.58 V, a short-circuit photocurrent density (J_SC) of 13.72 mA/cm², and a fill factor (FF) of 0.69, yielding an overall power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 5.52% under AM 1.5G solar irradiation.     

Sol–gel synthesis of Nd-doped BiFeO3 multiferroic and its characterization

Neodymium doped bismuth ferrite (BiFeO₃, BFO) nanoparticles were successfully synthesized by a facile sol–gel route. The influence of annealing temperature, time, Bi content and solvent on the crystal structure of BFO was studied. Results indicated that the optimum processing condition of BFO products was 550–600 °C/1.5 h with excess 3–6% Bi and ethylene glycol as solvent. On the other hand, Nd³⁺ ion was introduced into the BFO system and the effect of Nd³⁺ concentration on the structure, magnetic and dielectric properties of BFO were investigated. It was found that the magnetization of BFO was enhanced significantly with Nd³⁺ substitution, being attributed to the suppression of the spiral cycloidal magnetic structure led by the crystal structure transition. Furthermore, with increasing Nd³⁺ content, the dielectric constant was found to decrease while the dielectric loss was enhanced, which was mainly due to the hoping conduction mechanism with the reduction of oxygen vacancies.     

Study of metal assisted anisotropic chemical etching of silicon for high aspect ratio in crystalline silicon solar cells

Textured surface is commonly used to enhance the efficiency of silicon solar cells by reducing the overall reflectance and improving the light scattering. In this study, a comparison between isotropic and anisotropic etching methods was investigated. The deep funnel shaped structures with high aspect ratio are proposed for better light trapping with low reflectance in crystalline silicon solar cells. The anisotropic metal assisted chemical etching (MACE) was used to form the funnel shaped structures with various aspect ratios. The funnel shaped structures showed an average reflectance of 14.75% while it was 15.77% for the pillar shaped structures. The average reflectance was further reduced to 9.49% using deep funnel shaped structures with an aspect ratio of 1:1.18. The deep funnel shaped structures with high aspect ratios can be employed for high performance of crystalline silicon solar cells.     

Research on the identification performance of UHF RFID system considering the correlation of cascaded channel

The identification rate of UHF RFID system was restricted by multipath propagation effects.The system identification performance was studied considering the correlation coefficient between forward and reverse channels.Based on the generalized Rician fading channel model,the analytical expression of identification rate was derived under independent,full correlation and correlation cases.Compared with the existing analysis,the proposed uniform calculation formula of identification rate was for any correlation coefficient and kinds of channel conditions.The numerical computation and Monte-carlo simulations show that the influences of different correlation coefficients,channel conditions,sensitivity and distance on the identification rate.     

Synthesis,lattice energy and microwave dielectric properties of BaCu2-xCoxSi2O7 ceramics

BaCu_2-xCo_xSi₂O₇ solid solutions with orthorhombic structure (Pnma) were prepared by solid-state reaction method. The phase synthesis process, structural evolution and microwave dielectric properties of BaCu_2-xCo_xSi₂O₇ ceramics were investigated. Single BaCu₂Si₂O₇ phase was obtained when calcined at 950 °C for 3 h and was decomposed into BaCuSi₂O₆ phase when calcined at 1075 °C for 3 h. The sintering process was effectively promoted when Cu²⁺ was replaced by Co²⁺ and the maximum solubility of BaCu_2-xCo_xSi₂O₇ was located between 0.15 and 0.20. P-V-L complex chemical bond theory and Raman spectra were used to explain the structure-property correlations of BaCu_2-xCo_xSi₂O₇ ceramics. The corrected dielectric constant (ε_r-corr) of BaCu_2-xCo_xSi₂O₇ ceramics decreased monotonously with the susceptibility (Σχ^μ) and ionic polarizability of primitive unit cell. The quality factor (Q × f) increased with bond strength and lattice energy (U_cal), especially the lattice energy of the Si-O bond. The temperature coefficient of resonant frequency (τ_f) was determined by the susceptibility and lattice energy of the Cu/Co-O bond. The following optimum microwave dielectric properties were obtained at x = 0.15 when sintered at 1000 °C for 3 h: ε_r = 8.45, Q×f =58958 GHz and τ_f = -34.4 ppm/°C.     

Mechanical properties of graphene films enhanced by homo-telechelic functionalized polymer fillers via π–π stacking interactions

Most researches on graphene/polymer composites are focusing on improving the mechanical and electrical properties of polymers at low graphene content instead of paying attention to constructing graphene’s macroscopic structures. In current study the homo-telechelic functionalized polyethylene glycols (FPEGs) were tailored with π-orbital-rich groups (namely phenyl, pyrene and di-pyrene) via esterification reactions, which enhanced the interaction between polyethylene glycol (PEG) molecules and chemical reduced graphene oxide (RGO) sheets. The π–π stacking interactions between graphene sheets and π-orbital-rich groups endowed the composite films with enhanced tensile strength and tunable electrical conductivity. The formation of graphene network structure mediated by the FPEGs fillers via π–π stacking non-covalent interactions should account for the experimental results. The experimental investigations were also complemented with theoretical calculation using a density functional theory. Atomic force microscope (AFM), scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), UV–vis and fluorescence spectroscopy were used to monitor the step-wise preparation of graphene composite films.     

Structural dependence of microwave dielectric properties of spinel structured Mg2(Ti1-xSnx)O4 solid solutions: Crystal structure refinement,Raman spectra study and complex chemical bond theory

Mg₂(Ti_1-xSn_x)O₄ (x?=?0–1) ceramics were prepared through conventional solid-state method. This paper focused on the dependence of microwave dielectric properties on crystal structural characteristics via crystal structure refinement, Raman spectra study and complex chemical bond theory. XRD spectrums delineated the phase information of a spinel structure, and structural characteristic of these compositions were achieved with the help of Rietveld refinements. Raman spectrums were used to depict the correlations between vibrational phonon modes and dielectric properties. The variation of permittivity is ascribed to the Mg₂(Ti_1-xSn_x)O₄ average bond covalency. The relationship among the B-site octahedral bond energy, tetrahedral bond energy and temperature coefficient are discussed by defining on the change rate of bond energy and the contribution rate of octahedral bond energy. The quality factor is affected by systematic total lattice energy, and the research of XPS patterns illustrated that oxygen vacancies can be effectively restrained in rich oxygen sintering process. Obviously, the microwave dielectric properties of Mg₂(Ti_1-xSn_x)O₄ compounds were obtained (${\epsilon }_r$= 12.18, $Q\times f$?=?170,130?GHz, ${\tau }_f$?=??53.1?ppm/°C, x?=?0.2).     

Structure,dielectric properties of novel Ba(Zr,Ti)O3 based ceramics for energy storage application

(1-x) Ba(Zr_0.2Ti_0.8)O₃-x Na_0.5Bi_0.5TiO₃ (x = 0, 10, 20 30, 40, 50 mol%) (BZTN) ceramics are prepared by the traditional solid phase method. All BZTN ceramics exhibit a pseudo-cubic BZT based perovskite structure. Both the average grain size and the relaxor ferroelectricity of BZTN ceramics gradually increase with increasing NBT content. The W_rec of 3.22 J/cm³ and η of 91.2% is obtained for the BZTN40 ceramic at 241 kV/cm. BZTN40 ceramic also exhibits good temperature stability from room temperature to 150 °C and frequency stability from 1 Hz to 100 Hz. A P_D of 0.621 J/cm³ and a t_0.9 of 82 ns is obtained for the BZTN40 ceramic at 120 kV/cm. BZTN ceramics show application potential in energy storage and pulse power capacitors.