The introduction of protrusions through P-doping into graphene is an effective strategy to enhance electrochemical performances in SIBs.

Monodisperse Fe3O4 hollow spheres with average diameter of 400 nm and shell thickness of 60 nm were prepared through a one-pot solvothermal process with the presence of NH4Ac as the structure-directing agent, and a novel gas-bubble-assisted Ostwald ripening process was proposed to explain the formation of hollow structures. According to this mechanism, hollow Fe3O4 and MnFe2O4 ferrite microspheres with controlled particle size were obtained using urea and ammonia as the structure-directing agents, and porous Fe3O4 spheres with particle size of 100 nm and pore size of 10 nm were obtained by the assistance of bicarbonate of ammonia. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy were used to characterize the structure of synthesized products, and the magnetic property investigation shows that the hollow microspheres exhibit a ferromagnetic behavior and possess a higher saturation magnetization (M s) than that of the solid microspheres.

In this paper, a general strategy for synthesis of carbon-based core/ZnO-shell-type composite and hollow materials is reported. These materials include colloidal carbon spheres@ZnO nanospheres, ZnO-carbon composite "dandelions", ZnO-carbon branched "dandelions", Au-ZnO-carbon composite "dandelions", and size-tunable hollow ZnO spheres. As-synthesized composite "dandelions" exhibited a color change, which originated from the surface plasmon resonance of gold nanoparticles, showing their optical application. All products obtained show well photocatalytic activities and ZnO-carbon composite "dandelions" have the highest photocatalytic efficiency in all products.

In this paper, single-crystalline Co 3 O 4 hollow octahedral hollow cages with tunable surface aperture were synthesized by the carbon-assisted carbothermal method. On the basis of electron microscopic observation and structural analysis, all the following factors, including the precursor concentration, species of precursor, intrinsic crystal structure of products and carbon-assisted carbothermal reaction, play key roles in the formation of Co 3 O 4 octahedral hollow structures. When the as-prepared Co 3 O 4 samples were used as the anode materials in lithium ion batteries (LIBs), it was found that the octahedral hollow cages with large surface aperture performed better than both those with small surface aperture and Co 3 O 4 nanoparticles, indicating that not only the single-crystalline robust structure but also the tunable surface aperture in the shell could affect the electrochemical property in LIBs.

Nanometre precursor powders of ZnO and various additives are synthesised by a new technology, namely chemical coprecipitation and plasma pyrolysis. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method are employed to illustrate the precursor powders' properties. The ZnO and additive composite powders are composed of spherical particles whose size is about 10-50 nm. Varistors are prepared by sintering the precursor powders at 1050°C. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results show that the average grain size of the varistors is about 1.0 mm. The prepared ZnO-based varistors have excellent electronic properties. Analytical results reveal that the breakdown voltage is 500.0 V mm −1 and the non-linear coefficient is about 54.0.