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Catalytic dry (CO2) reforming of plastic-derived syngas is a promising method of producing hydrogen-rich syngas and reducing greenhouse gases. The development of catalysts with high activity and stability is critical for this reaction. In this study, we fabricated core-shell structured Ni@Al2O3 catalysts with different shell thicknesses using advanced polyol and sol-gel methods. The effects of different Al/Ni ratios on the activity and stability of the catalysts in the CO2 reforming reaction were investigated. The main challenge for CO2 reforming of methane is carbon deposition. In the developed catalysts, the mesoporous Al2O3 coating outside the Ni core enhances the stability. However, the interaction between the core and the shell strongly affects the catalyst activity and product selectivity in the reaction. The catalyst with an Al/Ni ratio of 2 exhibited the highest methane conversion of up to 88% and the lowest carbon deposition, compared to the congeners with Al/Ni ratios of 1 and 3.

This study aims to develop a two-stage fluidized catalytic bed reactor system for continuous co-production of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and hydrogen from waste plastics gasification. Ni/Al-SBA-15 and Ni–Cu/CaO–SiO2 catalysts have been synthesized and granulated for CNTs synthesis and hydrogen production in the first- and second-stage reactor, respectively. The operating parameters, including reaction temperature and equivalence ratio (ER), were investigated to confirm the feasibility for CNTs and hydrogen production of this system. The Ni/Al-SBA-15 added in the first-stage reactor enhanced the waste plastics degradation to produce CH4 and C2–C5 hydrocarbons with increasing temperature, which could be used as the source for CNTs synthesis. Lowering the ER promoted the catalytic thermal cracking and reforming of hydrocarbons that contributed to the CNTs and hydrogen production. Nevertheless, the H2 production rate showed a significant increase to 857.6 mmol/h-g catalyst with the assistance of Ni–Cu/CaO–SiO2 in the second-stage reactor. The produced smaller-molecule hydrocarbons from the second-stage reactor with higher temperatures could benefit the co-production of CNTs and hydrogen. The two-stage fluidized catalytic bed gasification system exhibited an optimal performance of high fraction CNTs and H2 when temperatures of first- and second-stage reactor were controlled at 600 and 800 °C, respectively, with 0.1 ER.

In this study, a core–shell structured catalyst composed of a nickel core coated with a high thermal-stability shell layer was prepared for the decomposition of waste plastics to produce hydrogen. Ceria–zirconia mixed metal oxide was used as the coating layer to protect the active phase of the catalyst. The as-prepared catalyst was firstly tested using a methane cracking process to evaluate its stability under high temperature and coking conditions. The special redox characteristics of the Ni@CeO2–ZrO2 core–shell-structured catalyst provide lattice oxygen to oxidize carbon produced during the reaction and extend the life of the catalyst during the coking resistance test. Different pore sizes in the functional shell were prepared by adding a templating agent, and the catalyst was tested for its ability to produce hydrogen from plastic waste. The CeO2–ZrO2 shell promoted the production of active oxygen species and enhanced the dispersion of the Ni cores, which are beneficial attributes for plastic waste decomposition.

In the present work, a core-shell structured Co/SiO2@HZSM-5 catalyst was prepared for hydrogen production from syngas of plastic waste gasification. The cobalt catalyst was coated with HZSM-5 shell through a hydrothermal process, and the Co/SiO2@HZSM-5, with different loadings of HZSM-5 (e.g., 10–30 wt %) exhibited excellent activity and durability for dehydrogenation reactions. The amount of HZSM-5 was found to be an important factor for hydrogen production. Temperature-programmed reduction with H2 and temperature-programmed desorption of ammonia was applied to determine the active site and the acidity of prepared catalyst, respectively. The prepared Co/SiO2@HZSM-5 was tested through reforming of plastic gasification syngas and shown superior hydrogen production ability (∼90%) and stability (over 15 h). The effects of reduction-oxidation behavior on the catalytic performance were also discussed.

Ni/SiO2 core–shell catalysts were prepared by deposition–precipitation method and used to produce hydrogen from waste plastics-derived syngas. The SiO2 core synthesized by the Stober process was used as the support. This core was synthesized using various solvents, and the effect of these solvents on the morphologies and catalytic performance of the Ni/SiO2 core–shell catalysts was investigated. The synthesis parameters of the Ni/SiO2 catalysts were further investigated to enhance the metal–support interaction and dispersion of Ni on the SiO2 support. The highest catalytic activity of 181 mmol/g-h was achieved when the Ni/SiO2 core–shell catalyst was synthesized in methanol (Ni/SiO2–M) and reacted at 800 °C at a water-addition rate of 0.75 g-H2O/h. The Ni/SiO2–M catalyst, which possessed strong metal–support interaction nickel phyllosilicates, high specific area, small particle size, and homogeneous metal dispersion, exhibited the best long-term stability.

A novel and simple synthetic approach toward core–shell Fe@Al2O3 nanocomposites were developed in this study. The as-synthesized catalyst was applied to convert the methane into carbon nanotubes. Moreover, due to the properties of the core–shell structure, the amount of surfactant can be adjusted to control the pore size of the shell and further control the diameter of the carbon nanotubes. In this study, the conversion of CH4 was up to 97% and the carbon production was 135 mgC/gcat.*h, which is much higher than traditional supported catalysts under similar reaction conditions. In addition, the carbon product quality (IG/ID) was up to 1.96. The enhanced CH4 catalytic activity for the core–shell Fe@Al2O3 catalyst originated from the combined acidic sites on the surface of the Al2O3 shell and the high carbon diffusion rate of the Fe core, which led to the high efficiency of CH4 conversion and longer lifetime of the catalyst.

High density ordered Si nanowire arrays can be fabricated from a Fe2O3 template annealed from polystyrene (PS) microsphere layers via a metal-assisted chemical etching method. The metal mesh films, containing position- and density-defined pores that determine the position and density of the remaining structures after etching, are extremely important for achieving high quality Si nanowires. By adding a structural inversion process, a Au metal mesh with arrays of high density nanopores is devised as a catalyst for metal-assisted chemical etching of silicon. The density of Si nanowires can be increased to two times that of the single-layer PS microspheres and further to three times when a double layer of PS microspheres is introduced. The two-step template method for the preparation of high-density Si nanowires shows great potential in the fields of nanofabrication and nanoelectronics.

A core-shell type catalyst was applied to convert polyethylene (PE) plastic wastes into hydrogen using a two-stage pyrolysis-catalysis reactor. The effects of catalyst: plastic ratio, reaction temperature, and the suppression of coke formation on catalytic performance were investigated. Ni-Ce bimetallic catalyst was synthesized via modified polyol method, and the silica coating with different Ni:Si molar ratio was prepared with the extension of Stober method. Different thickness of silica shell was synthesized and tested for hydrogen production from PE waste. The encapsulation of Ni-Ce core by silica shell could effectively inhibit the sintering of nanoparticles under high temperature conditions. The highest amount of hydrogen production was found when the catalyst: plastic weight ratio was 1.0, and the catalytic reaction temperature was 800 °C. The core-shell catalyst also exhibited great ability of coking resistance, showing great catalytic performance within 5 times of reuse.

Automatic release and vertical transferring of silicon/silicon oxide nanowire arrays with a high integrity are demonstrated by an Ag-assisted ammonia etching method. By adding a water steaming step between Ag-assisted HF/H2O2 and ammonia etching to form a SiOx protective layer sheathing Si nanowires, we can tune the composition of the nanowires from SiOx (0 ≤ x ≤ 2) to Si nanowires. Ag plays a key role to the neat and uniform release of Si/SiOx nanowire arrays from Si wafer in the ammonia etching process. The vertical Si nanowire array device, with both sides having high-quality Ohmic contact, can be transferred to arbitrary substrates, especially on a flexible substrate. The method developed here offers a facile method to realize flexible Si nanowire array functional devices.

Silicon nanoarray hybrid solar cells benefit from the ease of fabrication and the cost-effectiveness of the hybrid structure, and represent a new research focus towards the utilization of solar energy. However, hybrid solar cells composed of both inorganic and organic components suffer from the notorious stability issue, which has to be tackled before the hybrid solar cells could become a viable alternative for harvesting solar energy. Here we show that Si nanoarray/PEDOT:PSS hybrid solar cells with improved stability can be fabricated via eliminating the water inclusion in the initial formation of the heterojunction between Si nanoarray and PEDOT:PSS. The Si nanoarray hybrid solar cells are stable against rapid degradation in the atmosphere environment for several months without encapsulation. This finding paves the way towards the real-world applications of Si nanoarray hybrid solar cells.

Ordered Si nanowire (SiNW) arrays can be fabricated by metal-assisted chemical etching. The metal mesh films (MMFs) are extremely important for achieving a high quality of the SiNWs. We have developed a two-step chemical deposition method to obtain compact porous Ag MMFs. By the separation of the nucleation and growth stages of the metal in the two-step deposition processes, the overgrowth of the metals to form randomly aggregated irregular metal particles can be overcome. Hexagonally arranged polystyrene (PS) latex microspheres have been employed as a template for the deposition of porous Ag MMFs. The spacing of the pores in the Ag MMFs is determined by the diameter of PS microspheres, and the pore size can also be tuned by changing Ar plasma etching time. One of the main advantages of the two-step deposition method lies in that Ag MMFs can be produced with PS microspheres that are not limited to a single layer, which dramatically simplifies the tedious processes of producing a monolayered PS template. The two-step chemical deposition method shows great potential in metal-assisted chemical etching.

Al 2 O 3 thin films were characterized by optical and structural properties, as well as LIDT under 355 nm Nd:YAG laser. It was found that the deposition temperature had no clear effect on the LIDT in our experiments.

ZnO/CdS/ZnS and ZnO/ZnS/CdS nanorod array photoelectrodes were constructed and fabricated by an alternative chemical bath deposition of CdS and ZnS layers onto the surface of the ZnO nanorod array. The photoelectrochemical performances of composite photoelectrodes were investigated, and the action mechanism of ZnS buffer layers was also considered. The results show that the ZnO/ZnS/CdS nanorod array photoelectrode possesses enhanced hydrogen production efficiency. The enhancement may be attributed to the ZnS buffer layers, which are advantageous in the separation and transportation of photogenerated electron–hole pairs in ZnO/ZnS/CdS nanorod array photoelectrodes.

The stability issues of CdSe quantum dot-sensitized solar cells have been investigated in this work. Stability is one of the most relevant issues for the real-world applications of quantum dot-sensitized solar cells. We find that CdSe quantum dots deposited in air are prone to oxidation, and when the solar cells are left in air for several months, CdSe quantum dots decompose partially to form Se particles and nanoribbons. The surface oxidation and the decomposition of CdSe quantum dots worsen all the parameters of the solar cells. Electrochemical impedance characterization provides unambiguous evidence for the evolution of the cells in the ageing process, which accounts for the observed performance worsening phenomena. Preparation under an inert atmosphere suppresses to some extent the degradation of the cells. These findings have significant implications for designing viable, high-performance quantum dot-sensitized solar cells.