Recently, 2D materials have been reported as alternative anodic materials for alkali-ion batteries due to their excellent conductivity and stability. 2D transition-metal carbide materials, such as vanadium carbide (VC), have attained significant attention as high-performance anodic materials. Herein, we have demonstrated the facile synthesis of a multilayered VC@rGO nanocomposite material (rGO, reduced graphene oxide), which follows the metal-carbon bonding during high-temperature carburization. The structural study of the hydrothermal product (intermediate) by X-ray diffraction shows the existence of tetragonal VO 2 and carbon in graphite and GO forms. After carburization, the final product shows the complete formation of cubic VC nanosheets along with rGO. The morphological study clearly shows layers of VC sheets sandwiched with rGO. Further, the formation of VC@rGO is confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Physicochemical characterizations indicate the successful formation of the multilayered VC@rGO nanocomposite. This nanocomposite is utilized as an anode in both lithium-ion and sodium-ion batteries (LIBs and SIBs). The electrochemical study of the multilayered VC@rGO nanocomposite shows a superior specific capacity of 523 mA h g −1 at 1C and exhibits decent capacity retention for 500 cycles with almost 100% Coulombic efficiency for LIBs. When utilized for SIBs, it shows 128 mA h g −1 @ current density of 200 mA g −1 for 100 cycles. Therefore, the proposed material has the potential and capability in terms of specific capacity, long-term cyclic stability, and rate performance to be utilized as an anodic material in alkali-ion batteries.
a b s t r a c tSilver metal/Ti-doped ZnO, silver metal/ZnO, Ti(IV)-doped ZnO and ZnO photocatalysts were obtained by thermal decomposition of respective oxalate precursors. The synthesized photocatalysts were characterized by chemical and spectroscopic methods. The doping of ZnO with Ti(IV) and the formation of silver metal heterostructures in ZnO nanostructures were confirmed through powder X-ray diffraction and tunneling electron microscopy analysis. The ZnO and Ti-doped ZnO have crystallized in hexagonal wurtzite structure while heterostructured catalysts showed the presence of additional cubic crystalline phase belonging to Ag metal. Surface morphology was observed through scanning electron microscopic imaging while surface area was determined by Brunauer-Emmett-Teller method. The photocatalytic activity of the photocatalysts was studied on the structurally diverse dyes in the sunlight and under optimized conditions of pH of dye solutions and catalyst dose. The degradation of dyes was measured in terms of decolourization as well as chemical oxygen demand. The photocatalytic activities of the catalysts were compared in terms of first-order rate constants of the decolourization of dyes. The photocatalytic activity of the heterostructured Ag metal/Ti-doped ZnO catalysts was found superior to the photocatalytic activity of ZnO, silver metal/ZnO and Ti-doped ZnO catalysts.
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