To design highly efficient catalysts, new concepts for optimizing the metal-support interactions are desirable. Here we introduce a facile and general template approach assisted by atomic layer deposition (ALD), to fabricate a multiply confined Ni-based nanocatalyst. The Ni nanoparticles are not only confined in Al2 O3 nanotubes, but also embedded in the cavities of Al2 O3 interior wall. The cavities create more Ni-Al2 O3 interfacial sites, which facilitate hydrogenation reactions. The nanotubes inhibit the leaching and detachment of Ni nanoparticles. Compared with the Ni-based catalyst supported on the outer surface of Al2 O3 nanotubes, the multiply confined catalyst shows a striking improvement of catalytic activity and stability in hydrogenation reactions. Our ALD-assisted template method is general and can be extended for other multiply confined nanoreactors, which may have potential applications in many heterogeneous reactions.

Metal oxide thin-films transistors (TFTs) produced from solution-based printing techniques can lead to large-area electronics with low cost. However, the performance of current printed devices is inferior to those from vacuum-based methods due to poor film uniformity induced by the “coffee-ring” effect. Here, we report a novel approach to print high-performance indium tin oxide (ITO)-based TFTs and logic inverters by taking advantage of such notorious effect. ITO has high electrical conductivity and is generally used as an electrode material. However, by reducing the film thickness down to nanometers scale, the carrier concentration of ITO can be effectively reduced to enable new applications as active channels in transistors. The ultrathin (~10-nm-thick) ITO film in the center of the coffee-ring worked as semiconducting channels, while the thick ITO ridges (>18-nm-thick) served as the contact electrodes. The fully inkjet-printed ITO TFTs exhibited a high saturation mobility of 34.9 cm2 V−1 s−1 and a low subthreshold swing of 105 mV dec−1. In addition, the devices exhibited excellent electrical stability under positive bias illumination stress (PBIS, ΔVth = 0.31 V) and negative bias illuminaiton stress (NBIS, ΔVth = −0.29 V) after 10,000 s voltage bias tests. More remarkably, fully printed n-type metal–oxide–semiconductor (NMOS) inverter based on ITO TFTs exhibited an extremely high gain of 181 at a low-supply voltage of 3 V, promising for advanced electronics applications.

To design highly efficient catalysts,new concepts for optimizing the metal-support interactions are desirable.H ere we introduce afacile and general template approach assisted by atomic layer deposition (ALD), to fabricate am ultiply confined Ni-based nanocatalyst. The Ni nanoparticles are not only confined in Al 2 O 3 nanotubes,but also embedded in the cavities of Al 2 O 3 interior wall. The cavities create more Ni-Al 2 O 3 interfacial sites,w hich facilitate hydrogenation reactions.T he nanotubes inhibit the leachinga nd detachment of Ni nanoparticles.C ompared with the Ni-based catalyst supported on the outer surface of Al 2 O 3 nanotubes,t he multiply confined catalyst shows astriking improvement of catalytic activity and stability in hydrogenation reactions.O ur ALD-assisted template method is general and can be extended for other multiply confined nanoreactors,which may have potential applications in many heterogeneous reactions.

a Chromium substituted nano-porous aluminophosphate (CrAPO-5) was investigated to discuss the effect of Cr 3+ ions on the crystallization kinetics and crystal structure parameters by in situ time-resolved high resolution X-ray powder diffraction (HRXRPD). Results showed that the introduction of Cr 3+ into pure AlPO 4 -5 influenced both the crystallization velocity and structural parameters of the resultant AFI. The presence of Cr 3+ ions can severely retard the crystallization of AFI. The more Cr 3+ ions in the gels, the stronger inhibitory effect would be. A kinetic analysis of the crystallization of CrAPO-5 was performed. A fair linear relationship between the activation energy and Cr 3+ content was concluded. The calculated Avrami exponent n was in the range of 1-1.4, implying a similar 1D growth mechanism to that of AlPO 4 -5.The extracted structural parameters showed obvious crystal expansion, which might be caused by the trapping of Cr 3+ ions in the framework. However, this influence on the structural parameters was limited.The a (¼b) parameters increased to a maximum with chromium content, which is similar to the influence on the crystal growing velocity. The grain size variation of AFI differed from other metal substituted aluminophosphate molecular sieves, which implied a different state of chromium in the AlPO 4 -5 framework. The time-resolved HRXRPD proves to be a direct and efficient method to reveal the influence of Cr 3+ ions on the crystallization and shows indirect evidence on the state of Cr 3+ in the crystalized CrAPO-5.

With use of Sn(SiMe3)4 as the precursor, amorphous SiC1+ x thin films with Sn nanoparticles embedded were grown on Si substrates at 923 K by low-pressure chemical vapor deposition. After treatment under hydrogen plasma at 923 K, the Sn nanoparticles in the films were removed by an HF solution and by evaporation at 1423 K. Following the removal of Sn, high-temperature treatments at 1273−1423 K converted the amorphous thin films into mesoporous semiconducting β-SiC thin films with pore sizes 10−100 nm.