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The charge-trapping memory devices with a structure Pt/Al2O3/(Ta2O5) x (TiO2) 1−x /Al2O3/p-Si (x = 0.9, 0.75, 0.5, 0.25) were fabricated by using rf-sputtering and atomic layer deposition techniques. A special band alignment between (Ta2O5) x (TiO2) 1−x and Si substrate was designed to enhance the memory performance by controlling the composition and dielectric constant of the charge-trapping layer and reducing the difference of the potentials at the bottom of the conduction band between (Ta2O5) x (TiO2) 1−x and Si substrate. The memory device with a composite charge storage layer (Ta2O5) 0.5 (TiO2) 0.5 shows a density of trapped charges 3.84 × 1013/cm2 at ± 12 V, a programming/erasing speed of 1 µs at ± 10 V, a 8% degradation of the memory window at ± 10 V after 104 programming/erasing cycles and a 32% losing of trapped charges after ten years. The difference among the activation energies of the trapped electrons in (Ta2O5) x (TiO2) 1−x CTM devices indicates that the retention characteristics are dominated by the difference of energy level for the trap sites in each TTO CTM device.

A bottom-up-then-up-down route was proposed to construct multi-level Bi2S3 hierarchical architectures assembled by two-dimensional (2D) Bi2S3 sheet-like networks. BiOCOOH hollow spheres and flower-like structures, which are both assembled by 2D BiOCOOH nanosheets, were prepared first by a “bottom-up” route through a “quasi-emulsion” mechanism. Then the BiOCOOH hierarchical structures were transferred to hierarchical Bi2S3 architectures through an “up-down” route by an ion exchange method. The obtained Bi2S3 nanostructures remain hollow-spherical and flower-like structures of the precursors but the constructing blocks are changed to 2D sheet-like networks interweaving by Bi2S3 nanowires. The close matching of crystal lattices between Bi2S3 and BiOCOOH was believed to be the key reason for the topotactic transformation from BiOCOOH nanosheets to 2D Bi2S3 sheet-like nanowire networks. Magnetism studies reveal that unlike diamagnetism of comparative Bi2S3 nanostructures, the obtained multi-level Bi2S3 structures display S-type hysteresis and ferromagnetism at low field which might result from ordered structure of 2D networks.

Single-crystalline hyperbranched nanostructures of iron hydroxyl phosphate Fe5(PO4)4(OH)3·2H2O (giniite) with orthorhombic phase were synthesized through a simple route. They have a well-defined dendrite fractal structure with a pronounced trunk and highly ordered branches. The toxicity test shows that the hyperbranched nanostructures have good biocompatibility and low toxicity level, which makes them have application potentials in life science. The study herein demonstrated that the obtained hyperbranched giniite nanostructures show highly selective capture of phosphopeptides and could be used as a kind of promising nanomaterial for the specific capture of phosphopeptides from complex tryptic digests with the detection of MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry.

ZnO materials with a range of different morphologies have been successfully synthesized via a simple double-solvothermal method in the presence of glycine. The morphologies of the products can be controlled from superstructures to microrods by adjusting the amount of water in the EtOH/H2O system. Photoluminescence (PL) studies reveal that the more amount of water was used, the stronger PL relative intensity of the green emission is, but the weaker ultraviolet emission. This might be attributed to the more defects of the products when the more water was used. The catalytic studies show that all the samples have good abilities to decrease decomposition temperature around 300°C and the decomposition temperature lowers with the increase of the relative intensity of ZnO green emission.

Conventional crystalline β-MnO2 usually exhibits poor electrochemical activities due to the narrow tunnels in its rutile-type structure. In this study, we synthesized a novel 2D β-MnO2 network with long-range order assembled by β-MnO2 nanowires and demonstrated that the novel 2D β-MnO2 network exhibits enhanced electrochemical performances. The 2D network is interwoven by crossed uniform β-MnO2 nanowires and the angle between the adjacent nanowires is about 60°. Such a novel structure makes efficient contact of β-MnO2 with electrolyte during the electrochemical process, decreases the polarization of the electrode and thus increases the discharge capacity and high-rate capability. The specific capacitance of the obtained 2D β-MnO2 network is 453.0 F/g at a current density of 0.5 A/g.

Uniform NiS2 nanocubes are successfully synthesized with a microwave-assisted method. Interestingly, NiS2 nanocubes, nanospheres and nanoparticles are obtained by controlling microwave reaction time. NiS2 nanomaterials are primarily applied to supercapacitors and cocatalytic enhancing photocatalytic H2 production. Different morphologies of NiS2 nanostructures show different electrochemical and cocatalytic enhancing H2 production activities. Benefited novel nanostructures, NiS2 nanocube electrodes show a large specific capacitance (695 F g(-1) at 1.25 A g(-1)) and excellent cycling performance (the retention 93.4% of initial specific capacitance after 3000 cycles). More importantly, NiS2 nanospheres show highly cocatalytic enhancing photocatalytic for H2 evolution, in which the photocatalytic H2 production is up to 3400 μmol during 12 hours under irradiation of visible light (λ420 nm) with an average H2 production rate of 283 μmol h(-1).