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Li4SiO4 has been regarded as the vigorous competitors for tritium breeding materials due to its distinct advantages. In this work, Fine-grained Li4SiO4 pebbles were prepared by a combined sol–gel and hydrothermal method (SG–H method). According to our researches, hydrothermal treatment was helpful to gain the ultrafine powders, and two-step sintering process showed obvious advantages in the preparation of fine-grained Li4SiO4 pebbles. The related physical parameters of the samples were measured. Afterwards, thermal cycling tests were carried out to study the microstructure evolution and the variation of crushing load. SEM analyses and compression tests results indicated the Li4SiO4 pebbles obtained by SG–H method exhibited favorable stability under thermal cycling. It suggested that the obtained Li4SiO4 pebbles might meet the requirement of high service temperature in fusion reactor blanket.

Graphene oxide-based membrane (GOM) has been massively studied in the dye/water separation field, predominately relying on their 1 nm-sized interlayer distance spacing (D-spacing). However, the inefficient removal of sub-nanosized dye molecules and swelling-induced weak long-term stability are currently two key challenges faced by GOM. In this work, we intercalate the soft polymeric polypyrrole (PPy) nanoparticles into GOM to address such gaps. The strong dye adsorption ability of PPy results in the increase of the sub-nanosized MB molecule rejection rate from 60% for GOM to 97% for GO-PPy membrane (GPM) after the initial filtration treatment. Simultaneously, the nanochannels of GPM are partially expanded, leading to an approximately a ~14 times water permeability (21.14 L m-2h−1 bar−1) improvement over GOM (1.56 L m-2h−1 bar−1). More importantly, the strong hydrogen-bond, electrostatic, and π-π interactions between GO and PPy improve the membrane mechanical stability and further reduce the D-spacing, while the enhanced separation ability of nano-sized dye molecules is also exhibited evidenced by the > 99% rejection rates of CV, EBT, CR, and TB. We consider that our strategy could promote the design and development of the high-performance GOM for nanofiltration applications.

Different structural [Formula: see text] coatings were designed and deposited on WC-Co cemented carbide by the technology of multiarc ion plating. Monolayered [Formula: see text] coating was deposited using cathode of [Formula: see text]. Multilayered (Ti,Al)N/[Formula: see text] coating and [Formula: see text] coating with gradual silicon content were deposited using two cathodes of [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] simultaneously. The surface and cross-section morphology, compositions, and phase structure were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The dense [Formula: see text] coatings with droplets on the surface and without obvious columnar structure on the cross-sections were obtained. All coatings had the strong peaks of (200) orientation. The different angular shift occurred with different combination of cathodes and processes. The introduction of multilayered and gradient structure effectively reduced the lattice distortion of coatings. Meanwhile, the coating-substrate adhesion strength increased from 38.57 N to 60.17 N with a coating thickness of approximately 3.5 [Formula: see text]m by scratch tests. The highest hardness of [Formula: see text] coating obtained in this paper were [Formula: see text] GPa by nanoindentation. The multilayered coating showed better toughness.

TiO2-decorated ZnO nanorod arrays directly grown on zinc foil are fabricated by a two-step approach combining hydrothermal oxidation and a sol–gel process for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) applications. Its dye absorption and light harvesting are increased by decoration with a TiO2 particle layer, resulting in enhancement of the photocurrent density. In addition, the open-circuit voltage (VOC) of the DSSCs is improved by suppressing interfacial carrier recombination. As a result, the conversion efficiency (η) of the TiO2-decorated ZnO photoanode is increased by a factor of 1.78 compared with that of the bare ZnO. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) analysis shows that depositing TiO2 particles on the surface of the ZnO nanorod arrays can effectively extend electron lifetime and decrease electron recombination rate.

Self-assembled In (Indium)-doped ZnS nanowire bundles were synthesized via a thermal evaporation method without using any template. Vapor - solid homoepitaxial growth was found to be the key reason for the formation of close-packed nanowire bundles grown on the surface of microscale sphere-shaped ZnS crystal. X-ray diffraction (XRD), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis demonstrate that the In-doped ZnS nanowires have the cubic structure, and there are numerous stacking faults along the direction. Photoluminescence (PL) spectrum shows that the spectrum mainly includes two parts: a weak violet emission band centering at about 380 nm and a strong green emission band centering at about 510 nm. (© 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

The novel two-dimensional (2-D) Ga-doped In 2 O 3 nanoleaves are synthesized by a simple one-step carbonthermal evaporation method using Cu–Sn alloy as the substrates. Two basic parts construct this leaf-like nanostructure: a long central trunk and two tapered nanoribbons in symmetric distribution in relation to the trunk. The Ga–In–O alloy particles are located at or close to the tips of the central trunks and serve as catalysts for the central trunk growth by the self-catalytic vapor–liquid–solid (VLS) mechanism. And the homoepitaxial growth of tapered nanoribbon on the surface of the central trunk can be explained by vapor–solid (VS) mechanism. The room-temperature photoluminescence (PL) measurement of this nanoscaled Ga-doped In 2 O 3 transparent conducting oxide (TCO) detected two blue peaks located at 432 nm and 481 nm, respectively, which can be used by Ru-based dye and indicates potential application in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The successful preparation of this novel 2-D Ga-doped In 2 O 3 nanoleaves not only enriches the synthesis of TCO materials, but also provides new blocks in future architecture of functional nano-devices.

Heterostructured ZnO/ZnS core/shell nanowire arrays have been successfully fabricated to serve as photoanode for the dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) by a facile two-step approach, combining hydrothermal deposition and liquid-phase chemical conversion process. The morphology evolution of the ZnS coated on the ZnO nanowires and its effect on the performance of the DSSCs were systematically investigated by varying the reaction time during the chemical conversion process. The results show that the compact ZnS shell can effectively promote the photogenerated electrons transfer from the excited dye molecules to the conduction band of the ZnO, simultaneously suppress the recombination for the injected elelctrons from the dye and the redox electrolyte. As reaction time goes by, the surface of the nanowires becomes coarse because of the newly formed ZnS nanoparticles, which will enhance the dye loading, resulting in increment of the short-circuit current density (J(SC)) . Open-circuit photovoltage decay measurements also show that the electron lifetime (τ(n)) in the ZnO/ZnS core/shell nanostructures can be significantly prolonged because of the lower surface trap density in the ZnO after ZnS coating. For the ZnO/ZnS core/shell nanostructures, the J(SC) and η can reach a maximum of 8.38 mA/cm(2) and 1.92% after 6 h conversion time, corresponding to 12- and 16-fold increments of as-synthesized ZnO, respectively.