Tuning Carbon Materials for Supercapacitors by Direct Pyrolysis of Seaweeds

The sea provides a large variety of seaweeds that, because of their chemical composition, are fantastic precursors of nanotextured carbons. The carbons are obtained by the simple pyrolysis of the seaweeds under a nitrogen atmosphere between 600 and 900 °C, followed by rinsing the product in slightly acidic water. Depending on the origin of the seaweed and on the pyrolysis conditions, the synthesis may be oriented to give an oxygen‐enriched carbon or to give a tuned micro/mesoporous carbon. The samples with a rich oxygenated surface functionality are excellent as supercapacitor electrodes in an aqueous medium whereas the perfectly tuned porous carbons are directly applicable for organic media. In both cases, the specific surface area of the attained carbons does not exceed 1300 m² g⁻¹, which results in high‐density materials. As a consequence, the volumetric capacitance is very high, making these materials more interesting than activated carbons from the point of view of developing small and compact electric power sources. Such versatile carbons, obtained by a simple, ecological, and cheap process, could be well used for environment remediation such as water and air treatment.     

Nanostructured ZnO Films Electrodeposited on Hydrophilic Substrate Utilizing Cooperative Surface Assembly

Nanoporous amorphous ZnO films with lamellar structure were electrodetposited on the hydrophilir substrate by utilizing cooperative surface aussembly of anionic sodium dodecyl sulfonate （ SDS ） at a very low concentration and inorganic species Zn （ NO3 ）2 under the influence of an electrostatic potential. The deposited films were characterized by X-ray diffraction （XRD） in the range of lou, angle and wide-angle, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy （ XPS）, scanning electron microscopy （SEM）, and UV-Vis light absorption spectroscopy.The formation mechanism of the films was elementarily discussed.     

Capacitive humidity sensing properties of carbon nanotubes grown on silicon nanoporous pillar array

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were grown on silicon nanoporous pillar array (Si-NPA) by thermal chemical vapor deposition method, and the structural and capacitive humidity sensing properties of CNT/Si-NPA were studied. It was found that with the relative humidity (RH) changing from 11% to 95%, a device re-sponse of ~480% was achieved at the frequency of 50000 Hz, and a linear device response curve could be obtained by adopting longitudinal logarithmic coordinate. The response/recovery times were measured to be ~20 s and ~10 s, respectively, which indicated a rather fast response/recovery rate. The adsorption-desorption dynamic cycle experiments demonstrated the high measurement reproducibility of CNT/Si-NPA sensors. These excellent performances were attributed to the unique surface structure, morphology and chemical inertness of CNT/Si-NPA.     

Nanoporous Gold Bowls: A Kinetic Approach to Control Open Shell Structures and Size‐Tunable Lattice Strain for Electrocatalytic Applications

Controlling sub‐10 nm ligament sizes and open‐shell structure in nanoporous gold (NPG) to achieve strained lattice is critical in enhancing catalytic activity, but it remains a challenge due to poor control of reaction kinetics in conventional dealloying approach. Herein, a ligament size‐controlled synthesis of open‐shell NPG bowls (NPGB) through hetero‐epitaxial growth of NPGB on AgCl is reported. The ligament size in NPGB is controlled from 6 to 46 nm by varying the hydroquinone to HAuCl₄ ratio. The Williamson–Hall analysis demonstrates a higher lattice strain in smaller ligament size. In particular, NPGB with 6 nm (NPGB 6) ligament size possess the highest strain of 15.4 × 10^?3, which is nearly twice of conventional 2D NPG sheets (≈8.8 × 10^?3). The presence of high surface energy facets in NPGBs is also envisaged. The best electrocatalytic activity toward methanol oxidation is observed in NPGB 6 (27.8 μA μg^?1), which is ≈9‐fold and 3‐fold higher than 8 nm solid Au nanoparticles, and conventional NPG sheets. The excellent catalytic activity in NPGB 6 is attributed to the open‐shell structure, lattice strain, and higher electro‐active surface area, allowing efficient exposure of catalytic active sites to facilitate the methanol oxidation. The results offer a potential strategy for designing next generation electrocatalysts.     

Anodization of nanoporous alumina on impurity-induced hemisphere curved surface of aluminum at room temperature

Nanoporous alumina which was produced by a conventional direct current anodization [DCA] process at low temperatures has received much attention in various applications such as nanomaterial synthesis, sensors, and photonics. In this article, we employed a newly developed hybrid pulse anodization [HPA] method to fabricate the nanoporous alumina on a flat and curved surface of an aluminum [Al] foil at room temperature [RT]. We fabricate the nanopores to grow on a hemisphere curved surface and characterize their behavior along the normal vectors of the hemisphere curve. In a conventional DCA approach, the structures of branched nanopores were grown on a photolithography-and-etched low-curvature curved surface with large interpore distances. However, a high-curvature hemisphere curved surface can be obtained by the HPA technique. Such a curved surface by HPA is intrinsically induced by the high-resistivity impurities in the aluminum foil and leads to branching and bending of nanopore growth via the electric field mechanism rather than the interpore distance in conventional approaches. It is noted that by the HPA technique, the Joule heat during the RT process has been significantly suppressed globally on the material, and nanopores have been grown along the normal vectors of a hemisphere curve. The curvature is much larger than that in other literatures due to different fabrication methods. In theory, the number of nanopores on the hemisphere surface is two times of the conventional flat plane, which is potentially useful for photocatalyst or other applications.PACS: 81.05.Rm; 81.07.-b; 82.45.Cc.     

纳米多孔铜银/二氧化锰复合电极材料的制备及储能研究

以Cu-Zr-Ag非晶合金作为前驱体,利用快速凝固技术和脱合金相结合的方法制备纳米多孔铜银双金属(NP-CuAg),通过化学沉淀法使MnO₂在NP-CuAg上形核生长,成功制备出NP-CuAg和MnO₂的复合电极材料(NP-CuAg/MnO₂)。利用XRD、SEM分析材料的相组成及微观形貌,通过循环伏安法和恒流充放电法研究复合电极材料的电容特性。结果表明：兼具三维连续纳米孔洞结构及优异导电性的NP-CuAg作为依附载体可大幅度提高MnO₂颗粒的分散度和电极材料导电性,使其电化学性能得以充分发挥。复合电极材料的比电容值随着前驱体合金中银含量的增加而提高,前驱体合金中Ag含量为10 at.%时电容值可达392.86 F/g。封装成可反复充放电的纽扣型电化学储能器件,可成功对LED灯泡供电。