The mechanical properties, including the Young's modulus and intrinsic strength, of graphene oxides are investigated by first-principles computations. Structural models of both ordered and amorphous graphene oxides are considered and compared. For the ordered graphene oxides, the Young's modulus is found to vary from 380 to 470 GPa as the coverage of oxygen groups changes, respectively. The corresponding variations in the Young's modulus of the amorphous graphene oxides with comparable coverage are smaller at 290-430 GPa. Similarly, the ordered graphene oxides also possess higher intrinsic strength compared with the amorphous ones. As coverage increases, both the Young's modulus and intrinsic strength decrease monotonically due to the breaking of the sp(2) carbon network and lowering of the energetic stability for the ordered and amorphous graphene oxides. In addition, the band gap of the graphene oxide becomes narrower under uniaxial tensile strain, providing an efficient way to tune the electronic properties of graphene oxide-based materials.

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One great challenge for supercapacitor is to achieve high energy capacity and fast charge/discharge rates simultaneously. Porous graphene with large surface area is a promising candidate for electrode materials of supercapacitor. Using first-principles calculations and non-equilibrium Green's function technique, we have explored the formation energies, mechanical properties, diffusion behaviors and electrical conductance of graphene sheets with various hole defects and/or nitrogen doping. Interestingly, graphene sheets with pyridinic-like holes (especially hexagonal holes) can be more easily doped with nitrogen and still retain the excellent mechanical properties of pristine graphene that is beneficial for the long cycle life. Porous graphene electrode with moderate hole diameter of 4.2-10 Å facilitates efficient access of electrolyte and exhibit excellent rate capability. In addition, doping with nitrogen as electron donors or proton attractors leads to charge accumulation and generates higher pseudocapacitance. Transmission coefficients of N-doped graphene sheets with pyridinic-like holes are only moderately reduced with regard to that of pristine graphene and are insensitive to the detailed geometry parameters. Overall, N-doped graphene with pyridinic-like holes exhibits exciting potentials for high performance energy storage in supercapacitor devices.

Pseudobinary solid-solution semiconductor nanowires made of (GaP)(1-x)(ZnS)(x), (ZnS)(1-x)(GaP)(x) and (GaN)(1-x)(ZnO)(x) were synthesized based on an elaborative compositional, structural, and synthetic designs. Using analytical high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), we confirmed that the structure uniformity and a lattice match between the two constituting binary components play the key roles in the formation of quaternary solid-solution nanostructures. Electrical transport measurements on individual GaP and (GaP)(1-x)(ZnS)(x) nanowires indicated that a slight invasion of ZnS in the GaP host could lead to the abrupt resistance increase, resulting in the semiconductor-to-insulator transition. The method proposed here may be extended to the rational synthesis of many other multicomponent nanosystems with tunable and intriguing optoelectronic properties for specific applications.