Du Zu-Liang

Highly sensitive room-temperature gas sensors based on hydrothermal synthesis of Cr2O3 hollow nanospheres

This paper reports that Cr2O3 hollow nanospheres (HNs) were synthesized via a hydrothermal approach and characterized by scanning electron microscopy, x-ray powder diffraction, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), selective area electron diffraction and high resolution TEM, respectively. In addition, the room-temperature (RT) gas sensing properties of Cr2O3 HNs and conventional powders (CPs) were investigated by means of the surface photovoltage technique. The experimental data demonstrate that the RT gas sensor of the as-fabricated HNs reaches below 5 ppm whereas that of the CPs is about 40 ppm, which results from there being much more adsorbed and desorbed oxygen in HNs than in CPs at RT. The as-prepared Cr2O3 HNs could have potential applications as RT nanosensors.

First-principles study of structures and electronic properties of cadmium sulfide clusters

The lowest-energy structures and the electronic properties of CdnSn (n = 1?8) clusters have been studied by using density-functional theory simulating package DMol3 in the generalized gradient approximation (GGA). The ring-like structures are the lowest-energy configurations for n = 2, 3 and the three-dimensional spheroid configurations for n = 4 ? 8. The three-dimensional structures may be considered as being built from the Cd2S2 and Cd3S3 rings. Compared to the previous reports, we have found the more stable structures for CdnSn(n = 7,8). Calculations show that the magic numbers of CdnSn (n = 1 ? 8) clusters are n = 3 and 6. As cluster size increases, the properties of CdnSn clusters tend to bulk-like ones in binding energy per CdS unit and Mulliken atomic charge, obtained by comparing with the calculated results of the wurtzite and zinc blende CdS for the same simulating parameters.

Ferromagnetism from Co-Doped ZnO Nanocantilevers above Room Temperature

At low temperature (400°C), chemical vapour deposition (CVD) is employed to make comb-like Co-doped ZnO nanocantilever arrays (NAs). The magnetization curves of the as-synthesized Co-doped ZnO NAs indicate the existence of above-room-temperature ferromagnetism (ARTFM) (Curie temperature, Tc > 300 K) whereas un-doped ZnO NAs does not. The corresponding ferromagnetic source mechanism is discussed, in which defects play an important role due to the strong green light emission.

Synthesis of highly ordered SnO2/Fe2O3 composite nanowire arrays by electrophoretic deposition method

Highly ordered SnO2/Fe2O3 composite nanowire arrays have been synthesized by electrophoretic deposition method. The morphology and chemical composition of SnO2/Fe2O3 composite nanowire arrays are characterized by SEM, TEM, EDX, XPS, and XRD. The results show that the SnO2/Fe2O3 composite nanowires are about 180 nm in width and tens of microns in length, and they are composed of small nanoparticles of tetragonal SnO2 and rhombohedral a-Fe2O3 with diameters of 10–15 nm. The SnO2/Fe2O3 composite nanowires are formed by a series of chemical reactions.