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Nitrogen-doped carbon nanomaterials (NC), originating from melamine, decorated nano-Li4Ti5O12 composites (LTO/NC) have been prepared by simple high-energy ball milling with a further heat treatment under a nitrogen atmosphere. The as-prepared LTO/NC composites have a regular structure with a size of 300 to 500 nm. The optimum designed LTO/NC composites showed the best performance with a high rate capacity of 161.5 mA h g−1 at 1 C and showed excellent stability with 97.2% capacity retention after 100 cycles, as well as a remarkable rate capacity by maintaining 103 mA h g−1 of the capacity at 20 C. The composites also exhibited excellent performances because of the NC decoration, which enhanced the electrochemical reactivity and electronic conductivity. These results provide a facile, general, and cost-effective strategy for the synthesis of LTO composite anode materials for high-performance lithium-ion batteries.

A novel technique based on alcohol thermal treatment (ATT) was attempted to prepare copper nanostructures in a large scale. ATT provided copper sheets with high energy, resulting in the reconstruction of atoms into different atomic configurations and direct transformation of metallic copper to copper nanostructures. Copper nanostructures including nanobelts, nanowires and nanoparticles can be fabricated by adjusting the time of ATT. The ultraviolet visible diffuse reflectance spectra show ATT substantially enhanced the visible light (VL) absorbance of Cu nanostructures and Cu nanowire arrays gave the most efficient light harvesting in all of the samples. Photoelectrochemical and antibacterial experiments were carried out to investigate the photoactivity of different copper nanostructures. The results show the nanostructured surfaces by ATT significantly improved the photoactivity of copper sheets, among which copper nanowires demonstrated the highest photoactivity in bactericidal and photovoltaic effects since they completely inactivated 5 log of Escherichia coli K-12 within 1.5 h and produced 35 mV photovoltage under visible irradiation. The order of photoactive bactericidal effects for different nanostructured surfaces was also determined as Cu nanowires > Cu nanobelts > Cu nanoparticles > untreated Cu sheet, which was in accordance with that of VL absorbance and photovoltaic effects.