Qiang Fu

Field emission property improvement of ZnO nanowires coated with amorphous carbon and carbon nitride films

In this paper, we report an approach to prepare a new type of field emitter made up of ZnO nanowires coated with an amorphous carbon (a-C) or carbon nitride film (a-CNx). The coated ZnO nanowires form coaxial nanocables. The best field emission properties, which showed a very low turn-on electric field of 1.5?V??m?1 and an emission current density of 1?mA?cm?2 (enough to produce a luminance of 300?cd?m?2 from a VGA FED with a typical high-voltage phosphor screen efficacy of 9?lm?W?1) under the field of only 2.5?V??m?1, have been obtained from the a-CNx coated ZnO nanowire field emitter among three kinds of emitters: a-C coated ZnO nanowires, a-CNx coated ZnO nanowires and uncoated ZnO nanowires. Microstructures and crystal configuration were investigated by scanning electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. Band edge transition without any significant photoluminescence peak relating to intrinsic defects has been observed by photoluminescence measurement. The superior properties of the field emission are attributed to the low work function of the coated carbon nitride film and good electron transport property of the ZnO nanowires with an extremely sharp tip.

Low-temperature synthesis and photocatalytic properties of ZnO nanotubes by thermal oxidation of Zn nanowires

A low-cost and catalyst-free two-step approach has been developed to produce ZnO nanotubes (ZNTs) by simple thermal oxidation of Zn nanowires under 20xa0Pa at a low temperature of 400u2009°C. The growth mechanism of ZNTs is discussed in detail. The formation of these tubular structures is closely linked to the oxidation pressure and temperature, which involves a process consisting of the deposition of Zn nanowires, cracking of the Zn nanowires and sublimation of the Zn cores, and subsequent oxidation to ZNTs. The optical properties were studied by using Raman and photoluminescence spectra, where a strong green emission related to the single ionized oxygen vacancy appears. The photocatalytic activity measurement indicates an enhanced photocatalytic activity of the prepared ZNTs due to their high surface-to-volume ratios and abundant oxygen vacancies near the surfaces of the ZNTs. This type of high surface area structural ZNTs could find promising potential for optoelectronic and environmental applications.

Self-assembly of aligned ZnO nanoscrews: Growth, configuration, and field emission

We report the syntheses of self-catalyst-grown and self-assembled ZnO nanoscrews (ZNS). The morphology and microstructures were characterized by using scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction. The results reveal that the aligned ZNS are single crystalline grown along the c axis, with 18 sides on their tops but six sides on their stems, while the whole exhibits sixfold symmetry. The formation of such a special-shaped ZNS that may have potential applications in fabrication of nanodevices, is related to the increase of the oxygen supply during the growth followed by a rapidly cooling down process. The growth kinetics of the ZNS is discussed. The field-emission studies show a good stability of the emission current and a low turn-on electrical field.

Highly porous graphitic biomass carbon as advanced electrode materials for supercapacitors

In this work, we established a one-step strategy to synthesize three-dimensional porous graphitic biomass carbon (PGBC) from bamboo char (BC), and studied its electrochemical performance as electrode materials for supercapacitors. Using potassium ferrate (K2FeO4) to fulfil the synchronous carbonization and graphitization of bamboo carbon, this method is less time-demanding, highly efficient and pollution-free, when compared with a conventional two-step strategy. The as-prepared PGBC sample possessed a porous structure with a large specific surface area (1732 m2 g−1) and abundant micropores, as well as a high graphitization degree demonstrated by XRD and Raman. Further electrochemical measurements revealed that the PGBC electrode exhibited a high specific capacitance of 222.0 F g−1 at 0.5 A g−1, and the solid-state symmetric supercapacitor in an aqueous electrolyte (KOH/PVA) presented considerable synergetic energy–power output properties with an energy density of 6.68 W h kg−1 at a power density of 100.2 W kg−1, and 3.33 W h kg−1 at 10 kW kg−1. Moreover, the coin-type symmetric supercapacitor in an ionic liquid electrolyte (EMIM TFSI) delivered a higher energy density of 20.6 W h kg−1 at a power density of 12 kW kg−1. This approach holds great promise to achieve low-cost, green and industrial-grade production of renewable biomass-derived carbon materials for advanced energy storage applications in the future.

Facile Synthesis of Carbon Nanosphere/NiCo2O4 Core-shell Sub-microspheres for High Performance Supercapacitor.

This paper introduced a process to prepare the carbon nanosphere (CNS)/NiCo2O4 core-shell sub-microspheres. That is: 1) CNSs were firstly prepared via a simple hydrothermal method; 2) a layer of NiCo2O4 precursor was coated on the CNS surface; 3) finally the composite was annealed at 350u2009°C for 2 hours in the air, and the CNS/NiCo2O4 core-shell sub-microspheres were obtained. This core-shell sub-microsphere was prepared with a simple, economical and environmental-friendly hydrothermal method, and was suitable for large-scale production, which expects a promising electrode candidate for high performance energy storage applications. Electrochemical experiments revealed that the composite exhibited remarkable electrochemical performances with high capacitance and desirable cycle life at high rates, such as: 1) the maximum specific capacitance was up to 1420u2009F/g at 1u2009A/g; 2) about 98.5% of the capacitance retained after 3000 charge-discharge cycles; 3) the capacitance retention was about 72% as the current density increase from 1u2009A/g to 10u2009A/g.

Conductive enhancement of copper/graphene composites based on high-quality graphene

Copper is a well-known traditional metal and has been widely used for thousands years due to its combination of properties, especially its electrical conductivity. Any efforts to increase copper’s electrical conductivity, by even a small percentage, will make a great contribution to the economic effectiveness of society. In this paper, we report an electrical conductivity enhanced copper/graphene composite based on high-quality graphene (HQG) via processes involving graphene-coated copper powders through ball milling, and subsequent spark plasma sintering (SPS). The HQG is converted from regular reduced graphene oxide (RGO) by using a hot-pressing treatment. The experimental results reveal that: (1) on comparing with the copper/RGO composite, the electrical conductivity of the copper/HQG composites is significantly increased; (2) the highest electrical conductivity of the copper/HQG composite was obtained at the optimal mass percentage, 1 wt%, of HQG, at which an 8% increase was achieved when compared with pure copper. We believe that the electrical conductivity enhancement is related to the high electron mobility of HQG, and the formation of a graphene conductive network in the copper/HQG composites. In addition, the hardness of both the copper/RGO and copper/HQG composites is much higher than that of pure copper, while the copper/HQG composite shows the highest value when the amount of HQG is 0.5 wt%. It is expected that the copper/HQG composites have broad prospects of application in the electrical and electronics industry, light industry, machinery manufacturing, architecture construction, national defense, etc.

Highly Sensitive, Durable, and Multifunctional Sensor Inspired by a Spider

Sensitivity, durability, and multifunction are the essential requirements for a high-performance wearable sensor. Here, we report a novel multifunctional sensor with high sensitivity and durability by using a buckled spider silk-like single-walled carbon nanotubes (SSL-SWNTs) film as the conducting network and a crack-shaped Au film as the sensitive transducer. Its high sensitivity is inspired by the crack-shaped structure of the spiders slit organs, while the high durability is inspired by the mechanical robustness of the spider silk. Similar to the spiders slit organs that can detect slight vibrations, our sensor also exhibits a high sensitivity especially to tiny strain. The proposed quantum tunneling model is consistent with experimental data. In addition, this sensor also responds sensitively to temperature with the sensitivity of 1.2%/°C. Because of the hierarchical structure like spider silk, this sensor possesses combined superiority of fast response (<60 ms) and high durability (>10u202f000 cycles). We also fabricate a wearable device for monitoring various human physiological signals. It is expect that this high-performance sensor will have wide potential applications in intelligent devices, fatigue detection, body monitoring, and human-machine interfacing.

Strong magnetic field-assisted growth of carbon nanofibers and its microstructural transformation mechanism

It is well-known that electric and magnetic fields can control the growth direction, morphology and microstructure of one-dimensional carbon nanomaterials (1-DCNMs), which plays a key role for its potential applications in micro-nano-electrics and devices. In this paper, we introduce a novel process for controlling growth of carbon nanofibers (CNFs) with assistance of a strong magnetic field (up to 0.5 T in the center) in a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) system. The results reveal that: 1) The CNFs get bundled when grown in the presence of a strong magnetic field and slightly get aligned parallel to the direction of the magnetic field; 2) The CNFs diameter become narrowed and homogenized with increase of the magnetic field; 3) With the increase of the magnetic field, the microstructure of CNFs is gradually changed, i.e., the strong magnetic field makes the disordered “solid-cored” CNFs transform into a kind of bamboo-liked carbon nanotubes; 4) We propose a mechanism that the reason for these variations and transformation is due to diamagnetic property of carbon atoms, so that it has direction selectivity in the precipitation process.

Preparation of Au nanoparticle-decorated ZnO/NiO heterostructure via nonsolvent method for high-performance photocatalysis

In this paper, we present a novel physical (or nonsolvent) route to fabricate a kind of Au/ZnO/NiO heterostructure photocatalytic composite. That is, a Zn layer upon Ni foam substrate is prepared by pulse electrodeposition, then the ZnO nanoneedle/NiO heterostructural composite is obtained via thermal oxidation, and at last, the composite is modified with the dispersively deposited Au nanoparticles (Au NPs) by ion sputtering. The surface plasmon resonance effect of the Au NPs significantly enhances the light absorption. Meanwhile, the Au NPs form a Schottky barrier with ZnO nanoneedles and further inhibit the recombination of photogenerated electron–hole pairs. In addition, due to the nonsolvent conditions, the introduction of impurities is avoided, and thus it shows strong photocatalytic stability. The experimental results reveal that, the optimized Au/ZnO/NiO composite exhibits up to two times photocatalytic performance on RB degradation and higher stability than that of regular ZnO/NiO composite. The present experimental strategy can also be used for other noble metals, and it is expected to have important application prospects in the fields of environmental purification, solar cells, hydrogen generation, etc.

Direct determination of graphene amount in electrochemical deposited Cu-based composite foil and its enhanced mechanical property

The amount of graphene (Gr) in a composite plays a key role in enhancing the performance of the composite. In general, an indirect method, that is, by adjusting the concentration of Gr (or GO) in the electrolyte, is used to study the influence of the graphene content on the properties of copper (Cu)–Gr composite foil. In this paper, we firstly propose a direct and accurate approach, that is, by using an instrumental carbon and sulfur analyzer, to determine the amount of Gr in the direct current electrodeposited Cu–Gr composite foil, and also obtain the relationship between the amount of Gr in the composite foils and the concentration of GO in the electrolyte. Further, mechanical property measurements reveal that: (1) the variations in the mechanical properties (involving the elastic modulus, hardness and tensile strength) of the Cu–Gr foils along with the concentration of GO in the electrolyte exhibit similar tendencies to that of the Gr content in the Cu–Gr foils. (2) According to current experimental conditions, the optimal values of the mechanical properties and the amount of Gr in the foils appears at a GO concentration of 0.5 g L−1 in the electrolyte. (3) When the GO concentration is less than 0.5 g L−1, the values of the mechanical properties and the amount of Gr in the foils present an approximately linear relationship; and beyond 0.5 g L−1, the values become unstable and declining, which can be attributed to an agglomeration of excess GO in the electrolyte which makes it difficult to be co-deposited into the foil.