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In this article, a novel route for the synthesis of graphene/TiO2 continuous fibers (GTF) using force-spinning combined with water vapor annealing method is reported for the first time. The morphology, structure and optical properties of the composite were fully characterized. With a single step of heat treatment process using steam at ambient conditions, we were able to initiate a series of chemical reactions, such as reduction of graphene oxide (GO), crystallization of TiO2, formation of C-Ti bond, and introduction of oxygen vacancies into TiO2. The incorporation of graphene in TiO2 fibers facilitated bandgap narrowing and improved photo-induced charge separation in the photocatalyst. As a result of synergistic effects, TiO2 fibers-2 wt% graphene (2%GTF) showed the highest photocatalytic activities in the degradation of X-3B under UV irradiation, superior to the benchmark photocatalyst P25. Under visible light irradiation, the same catalyst was about 4 times more efficient compared to pure TiO2 fibers (PTF). A detailed study of involved active species (in particular, ·, h+ and ·OH) unraveled the mechanism regarding photocatalysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Free exciton (FX) and bound exciton (BX) in Al0.5Ga0.5N/Al0.35Ga0.65N multiple quantum wells (MQWs) with different Si-doping levels in the well layers are investigated by photoluminescence (PL) spectra. Low temperature (10 K) PL spectra identify a large binding energy of 87.4 meV for the BX in undoped sample, and 63.6 meV for the BX in Si-doped (2 × 1018 cm−3) sample. They are attributed to O-bound and Si-bound excitons, respectively. The large binding energies of BX are assumed to originate from the strong quantum confinement in the quantum wells, which also leads to a stronger FX PL peak intensity in comparison with BX at 10 K. Si-doping is found to suppress the FX quenching by reducing threading dislocation density (TDD) in the well layers, leading to a significant improvement of IQE from 33.7% to 45%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, a novel route for the synthesis of graphene/TiO 2 continuous fibers (GTF) using force-spinning combined with water vapor annealing method is reported for the first time. The morphology, structure and optical properties of the composite were fully characterized. With a single step of heat treatment process using steam at ambient conditions, we were able to initiate a series of chemical reactions, such as reduction of graphene oxide (GO), crystallization of TiO 2 , formation of C-Ti bond, and introduction of oxygen vacancies into TiO 2 . The incorporation of graphene in TiO 2 fibers facilitated bandgap narrowing and improved photo-induced charge separation in the photocatalyst. As a result of synergistic effects, TiO 2 fibers-2 wt% graphene (2%GTF) showed the highest photocatalytic activities in the degradation of X-3B under UV irradiation, superior to the benchmark photocatalyst P25. Under visible light irradiation, the same catalyst was about 4 times more efficient compared to pure TiO 2 fibers (PTF). A detailed study of involved active species (in particular, ·, h + and ·OH) unraveled the mechanism regarding photocatalysis.

Type-II band alignment structure is coveted in the design of photovoltaic devices and detectors, since it is beneficial for the transport of photogenerated carriers. Regrettably, for group-III-nitride wide bandgap semiconductors, all existing devices are limited to type-I heterostructures, owing to the unavailable of type-II ones. This seriously restricts the designing flexibility for optoelectronic devices and consequently the relevant performance of this material system. Here we show a brandnew type-II band alignment of the lattice-matched In 0.17 Al 0.83 N/GaN heterostructure from the perspective of both experimental observations and first-principle theoretical calculations. The band discontinuity is dominated by the conduction band offset ΔEC, with a small contribution from the valence band offset ΔEV which equals 0.1 eV (with E(AlInN(VBM) being above E(GaN)(VBM)). Our work may open up new prospects to realize high-performance III-Nitrides optoelectronic devices based on type-II energy band engineering.