Liuping Chen

Hydrothermal growth of SnS2 hollow spheres and their electrochemical properties

SnS2 hollow microspheres and SnS2 3D nanoflake-based hollow microspheres are successfully synthesized via a one-step hydrothermal process. From the experimental results, a mechanism based on bubble-templating, self-assembling and subsequent shell evolution was proposed. These hollow spheres were tested as anode materials in lithium ion batteries (LIBs) and found to have good cycling performance. This article provide a facile strategy to prepare hollow structures and give some insight studies on their applications in lithium ion storage and retrieval.

Two-step synthesis flowerlike calcium carbonate/biopolymer composite materials

The CaCO3/biopolymer composite materials have been prepared by a two-step synthesis. The biopolymer was synthesized from chitosan and acrylic acid in supercritical carbon dioxide, then a large scale of novel flowerlike structured calcite CaCO3 on the biopolymer has been synthesized for the first time by the following process of mineralization. The well-defined flowerlike morphology consisting of orderly and regular petals could be tailored by controlling the reaction time. The morphology evolution of CaCO3 was investigated by the XRD, FTIR and SEM. Moreover, the prepared CaCO3/biopolymer composite materials were further characterized by 1H NMR, HRTEM, SAED and XPS, respectively. The experimental results show that the petal possessed a single crystal structure and consisted of stackings of (18). Interestingly, the product is sensitive to the lower laser power by Raman spectra. Based on experimental results, the growth process of formation of a special shape for CaCO3 was also speculated, which indicates that acrylic acid and chitosan played an important role in forming substrates and in following further mineralization of CaCO3.

Electrochemical Assemble of Single Crystalline Twin ZnO Nanorods

ZnO twin nanorods (TNs) have been successfully grown on F-doped SnO 2 (FTO) glass by a simple electrochemical assemble process. The TNs were made up of two short nanorods via sharing the same crystallographic orientation along the (001) direction. The optical properties were investigated by UV-vis-NIR spectroscopy and photoluminescence (PL) spectrum. The resulting films had a strong UV absorption from 400 to 350 nm and the intensity of the green emission could be adjusted by changing the current density which might lead the ZnO TNs applicable as photosensitive materials. Moreover, the growth mechanism was studied and the probable electrochemical deposition formation process was proposed.