The catalyst-free growth of nanocrystals on various substrates at room temperature has been a long-standing goal in the development of material science. We report the growth of one-dimensional zinc nanocrystals on silicone oil surfaces by thermal evaporation method at room temperature (20 ± 2 °C). Uniform zinc nanorods with tunable size can be obtained. The typical length and width of the nanorods are 250–500 nm and 20–40 nm, respectively. The growth mechanism can be attributed to the effect of the liquid substrate and the preferential growth direction of the crystals. This result provides a novel and simple way to fabricate the precursors (zinc crystals) for preparation of Zn-based semiconductors and other metallic crystals on liquid substrates.
Developing a high-performance nonprecious metal electrocatalyst for water splitting is a strong demand for the largescale application of electrochemical H 2 production. In this work, we design a facile and scalable strategy to activate titanium metal for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline media through incorporating hydrogen into the α-Ti crystal lattice by H 2 plasma bombardment. Benefiting from the accelerated charge transfer and enlarged electrochemical surface area after H 2 plasma treatment, the H-incorporated Ti shows remarkably enhanced HER activity with a much lower overpotential at −10 mA cm −2 by 276 mV when compared to the pristine Ti. It is revealed that the retention of the incorporated H(D) atoms in the Ti crystal lattice during HER accounts for the durable feature of the catalyst. Density functional theory calculations demonstrate the effectiveness of hydrogen incorporation in tuning the adsorption energy of reaction species via charge redistribution. Our work offers a novel route to activate titanium or other metals by H incorporation through a controllable H 2 plasma treatment to tune the electronic structure for water splitting reactions.
The organic‐inorganic hybrid halide perovskite solar cell with excellent photovoltaic performance has been considered a promising device in photovoltaic field. By element substitution in perovskites, the crystal structure and properties of materials can be altered. Herein, two copper‐based compounds are used as additives in perovskites, which affect the crystallization process of perovskite films, and modify the photoelectric properties of perovskite materials. It is found that an appropriate addition of copper (Cu) ions could not only reduce the perovskite phase transition temperature, promote the formation of black perovskite phase, but also improve the crystallization and absorbance of perovskites. Excessive Cu incorporation leads to significant loss of device performance. The appropriate concentration of Cu ions in perovskite absorber for high efficiency solar cell is considered to be ∼0.1 mol% from a number of experimental results, which contributes to a remarkable stability of the device with only 2% power conversion efficiency loss after 170 h. This study is conducive to the comprehensive understanding of the effect of ions doping in perovskite materials.
Developing cost‐effective and highly efficient oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts is vital for the production of clean hydrogen by electrocatalytic water splitting. Here, three dimensional nickel‐iron layered double hydroxide (NiFe LDH) nanosheet arrays are in‐situ fabricated on self‐supporting nitrogen doped graphited foam (NGF) via a one‐step hydrothermal process under an optimized amount of urea. The as prepared NiFe LDH/NGF electrode exhibits a remarkable activity toward OER with a low onset overpotential of 233 mV and a Tafel slope of 59.4 mV dec
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as well as a long‐term durability. Such good performance is attributed to the synergy among the doping effect, the binder‐free characteristic, and the architecture of the nanosheet array.
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