In this study, polythiophene-TiO 2 nanotube films (PTh/TNT) were successfully prepared by a two-step electrochemical process of anodizaton and electropolymerization, in which a highly-ordered TiO 2 nanotube (TNT) film was anodized at a low-voltage with post calcination first and then the prepared TNT film was deposited with a polythiophene layer by electropolymerization in the BFEE electrolyte. The morphology and structures of PTh/TNT composites were examined by FESEM, EDX, XRD, and XPS methods. XPS spectra of PTh/TNT composites indicate the strong interaction between S sites of polymer backbone and TiO 2 nanotubes, in which electron transfer from polythiophene to titania takes place. UV-vis DRS analysis shows that these composites have a strong photoresponse in the visible region at 500 nm. The prepared PTh/TNT films revealed significant activity for 2,3-DCP degradation under visible light irradiation and also sunlight irradiation, in which the PTh3/TNT film achieved the best performance. On the other hand, this study also confirmed that the sidechains of polythiophene could influence its photocatalytic activity significantly in an order from high to low as poly3-methylthiophene ≈ polythiophene > polythiophenecarboxylic acid > poly3-hexylthiophene. The results may provide useful information to further develop This is the Pre-Published Version.2 some effective polymer-semiconductor catalysts for pollutant degradation under sunlight irradiation for water and wastewater treatment.

11In this study, the highly-ordered TiO 2 nanotube (TNT) arrays on titanium sheets were prepared 12 by an anodic oxidation method. Under UV illumination, the TNT films demonstrated the higher 13 photocatalytic activity in terms of 2,3-dichlorophenol (2,3-DCP) degradation in aqueous solution 14 than the conventional TiO 2 thin films prepared by a sol-gel method. The effects of dissolved 15 oxygen (DO) and pH on the photocatalytic degradation of 2,3-DCP were investigated. The results 16showed that the role of DO in the 2,3-DCP degradation with the TNT film was significant. It was 17 found that 2,3-DCP in alkaline solution was degraded and dechlorinated faster than that in acidic 18 solution whereas dissolved organic carbon removal presented an opposite order in dependence of 19 pH. In the meantime, some main intermediate products from 2,3-DCP degradation were identified 20 by a

In this study titanium dioxide nanotube (TNT) arrays were prepared by an anodic oxidation process with post-calcination. The morphology and structure of the TNT films were studied by FESEM, XRD, and XPS. Photocatalytic activity of the TNT films was evaluated in terms of the degradation of 2,3-dichlorophenol in aqueous solution under UV light irradiation. The effects of the nanotube structure including tube length and tube wall thickness, and crystallinity on the photocatalytic activity were investigated in details. The results showed that the large specific surface area, high pore volume, thin tube wall, and optimal tube length would be important factors to achieve the good performance of TNT films. Moreover, the TNT films calcined at 500 o C for 1 h with the higher degree of crystallinity exhibited the higher photocatalytic activity than other TNT films calcined at 300 o C and 800 o C. Consequently, these results indicate that the optimization of TiO 2 nanotube structures is critical to achieve the high performance of photocatalytic reaction.

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A nanodisk array connected with a fin field-effect transistor is fabricated and analyzed for spiking neural network applications. This nanodevice performs weighted sums in the time domain using rising slopes of responses triggered by input spike pulses. The nanodisk arrays, which act as a resistance of several giga-ohms, are fabricated using a self-assembly bio-nano-template technique. Weighted sums are achieved with an energy dissipation on the order of 1 fJ, where the number of inputs can be more than one hundred. This amount of energy is several orders of magnitude lower than that of conventional digital processors.