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We report a two-step phase transfer approach to locate surfactant bilayers on water-soluble luminescent nanocrystals (NCs), through which the surface functionality of the NCs is tunable. Since the species of both inner and outer surfactants of the bilayer are alterable in wide range, the current effort provides a facile approach to anchor various functional groups on aqueous NCs. The primary results indicate that these bilayer-modified NCs are able to be incorporated with various organic and inorganic materials.

A water-soluble conjugated polymer (WCP) poly[(3,4-dibromo-2,5-thienylene vinylene)- co-( p-phenylene-vinylene)] (PBTPV), containing thiophene rings with high charge-carrier mobility and benzene rings with excellent solubility is designed and prepared through Wessling polymerization. The PBTPV precursor can be easily processed by employing water or alcohols as the solvents, which are clean, environmentally friendly, and non-toxic compared with the highly toxic organic solvents such as chloroform and chlorobenzene. As a novel photoelectric material, PBTPV presents excellent hole-transport properties with a carrier mobility of 5 × 10−4 cm2 V−1 s−1 measured in an organic field-effect transistor device. By integrating PBTPV with aqueous CdTe nanocrystals (NCs) to produce the active layer of water-processed hybrid solar cells, the devices exhibit effective power conversion efficiency up to 3.3%. Moreover, the PBTPV can form strong coordination interactions with the CdTe NCs through the S atoms on the thiophene rings, and effective coordination with other nanoparticles can be reasonably expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Highlights • Hydroxyl decorated 0D g-C 3 N 4 NPs were synthesized via a simple hydrothermal method. • The NPs possess narrowed bandgap, increased surface area and better hydrophily than bulk g-C 3 N 4. • ZnS-g-C 3 N 4 photocatalysts present a high photocatalytic activity of 112 μmol h−1. • Theoretical calculations are carried out to explain the high photocatalytic activity. • A systematic investigation of photocatalytic mechanism is proposed. Abstract Zero-dimensional graphitic carbon nitride nanoparticles (0D g-C 3 N 4 NPs) possess the advantages of non-toxicity, metal-free, and rich surface catalytic active sites. However, the complex preparation process, wide bandgap structure, easily particle aggregation and rapid carriers' recombination still limit their development in photocatalysis. Herein, these issues are addressed by synthesizing a novel hydroxyl (-OH) modified g-C 3 N 4 NPs with a simple hydrothermal method without using any etching agents. Besides the high hydrophily and small particle size, the OH decorated 0D g-C 3 N 4 NPs possess obvious narrowed bandgap and high reduction potential. To further improve their dispersity and carriers' separation rate, 0D/3D g-C 3 N 4 NPs/ZnS type II heterojunction is fabricated, which simultaneously improves the hydrophily, passivates the surface defects and extends the sunlight absorption range of ZnS. As a result, a high and cyclable photocatalytic activity of 112 μmol h−1 (5.6 mmol h−1 g−1) is achieved under visible light irradiation without any co-catalysts, which is 140 times higher than that of pure ZnS and much better than the pure 0D g-C 3 N 4 NPs. A systematic study of photocatalytic mechanism is proposed by combining the theoretical calculations and experimental results. This work offers a new sight for the design of 0D g-C 3 N 4 NPs based photocatalysts for H 2 production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this study, the formation mechanism of the self-assembly structures of aqueous gold nanoparticles (NPs) was investigated through deliberately altering the species of ligands, solvent ratios, and especially solvent evaporation conditions. By analyzing UV–vis spectra, transmission electron microscope (TEM) images, and scanning electron microscope (SEM) images, it was found that the self-assembly process was dependent on both the equilibrium of various interparticle interactions in solution and the evaporation rate of solvents. The various interparticle interactions in solution generated an anisotropic interaction for one-dimension (1D) self-assembly, whereas the evaporation rate of solvents determined the specific of 1D derivative structures. Our results demonstrated an efficient protocol for spatial arrays of charged NPs with controllable morphologies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]