No abstract

A nanostructured three-dimensional (3D) electrode using transparent conducting oxide (TCO) is an effective approach for increasing the efficiency of optoelectronic devices used in daily life. Tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) is a representative TCO with high conductivity and a high work function for anode applications. This paper reports the fabrication of a large-area ITO nanostructure with a branch shape using an electron beam evaporation process at temperatures as low as 80 °C, which was free of any carrier gas and catalyst. The large surface to volume ratio in the anode by the ITO nanobranches increases both the hole mobility by a 3D pathway and light absorbance by scattering, resulting in organic solar cells with a 12% increase in photocurrent and 20% photoconversion efficiency based on the bulk heterojunction of P3HT [region-regular poly(3-hexylthiophene)] and PCBM [phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester].

Hybrid materials consisting of semiconductors and cocatalysts have been widely used for photoelectrochemical (PEC) conversion of CO 2 gas to value-added chemicals such as formic acid (HCOOH). To date, however, the rational design of catalytic architecture enabling the reduction of real CO 2 gas to chemical has remained a grand challenge. Here, we report a unique photocathode consisting of CuS-decorated GaN nanowires (NWs) integrated on planar silicon (Si) for the conversion of H 2 Scontaining CO 2 mixture gas to HCOOH. It was discovered that H 2 S impurity in the modeled industrial CO 2 gas could lead to the spontaneous transformation of Cu to CuS NPs, which resulted in significantly increased faradaic efficiency of HCOOH generation. The CuS/GaN/Si photocathode exhibited superior faradaic efficiency of HCOOH = 70.2% and partial current density = 7.07 mA/cm 2 at −1.0 V RHE under AM1.5G 1 sun illumination. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration that impurity mixed in the CO 2 gas can enhance, rather than degrade, the performance of the PEC CO 2 reduction reaction.

A water-soluble acrylamide hydrophobically associating terpolymer for polymer flooding was successfully synthesized via free radical polymerization using acrylamide (AM), acrylic acid (AA), and N,N-divinylnonadeca-1,10-dien-2-amine (DNDA) as raw materials. The terpolymer was characterized by IR spectroscopy and fluorescence spectra. Compared with partially hydrolyzed polyacryamide (HPAM), the terpolymer showed a stronger link and better dimensional network structure under the environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM). The results of rheology indicated that the terpolymer (AM-NaAA-DNDA) showed an excellent shear-resistance in high shear rate (1000 s À1 ) and remarkable temperature-tolerance (above 110 C). The salt-resisting experiment revealed that this terpolymer had a better anti-salt ability. According to the core flooding test, it could be obtained that oil recovery was enhanced more than 15% under conditions of 2000 mg/L terpolymer in the mineralization of 8000 mg/L at 60 C.