Jianguo Lv

Synthesis of 1D and heavily doped Zn1−xCoxO six-prism nanorods: improvement of blue–green emission and room temperature ferromagnetism

In this work, one-dimensional (1D) and heavily doped Zn1−xCoxO (x = 0.05, 0.1, 0.15 and 0.2) nanorods (NRs) were successfully fabricated by a new solvothermal method. Such a Zn1−xCoxO nanorod exhibits a hexagonal prism-like microcrystal with a pyramidal top. Analyses from transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) indicated that Zn1−xCoxO NRs possess perfect single crystal wurtzite structures. The influence of Co doping on the structural, optical and magnetic properties of NRs was investigated in detail. It was verified that Co was successfully doped into the ZnO wurtzite lattice structure by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The Zn1−xCoxO NRs show an obvious blue–green emission except for the weak UV emission. The corresponding luminescence mechanism was discussed, and the environment of cobalt in the ZnO wurtzite lattice was also identified through UV-vis spectroscopy. In addition, the magnetic hysteresis (M–H) curves demonstrated that the Zn1−xCoxO NRs possess obvious ferromagnetic characteristics at room temperature. These Zn1−xCoxO NRs are suggested to have potential applications in spintronic, field emission and optoelectronic devices, etc.

Few-layers MoS 2 sensitized Ag–TiO 2 nanocomposite thin film for enhancing photocatalytic activity

The novel few-layers MoS2 sensitized Ag–TiO2 were prepared through hydrothermal method, photoreduction method and spin-coating method, respectively. The microstructure, surface morphology, chemical composition and ultraviolet–visible absorbance of the samples were investigated systematically. The results indicated that the Ag nanoparticles and few-layers MoS2 were deposited successfully on the surface of TiO2 NRAs. The visible photocatalytic activity was estimated by degradation of methylene blue solution. The results indicated that the photocatalytic properties of MoS2/Ag–TiO2 was larger than pure TiO2 NRAs and Ag–TiO2. The significantly increased photocatalytic properties was attributed to the stronger visible light capture capability and the enhanced electron–hole pairs separation.