In this article, we report a controllable and reproducible approach to prepare highly ordered 2-D hexagonal mesoporous crystalline TiO2-SiO2 nanocomposites with variable Ti/Si ratios (0 to infinity). XRD, TEM, and N2 sorption techniques have been used to systematically investigate the pore wall structure, and thermal stability functioned with the synthetic conditions. The resultant materials are ultra highly stable (over 900 degrees C), have large uniform pore diameters (approximately 6.8 nm), and have high Brunauer-Emmett-Teller specific surface areas (approximately 290 m2/g). These mesostructured TiO2-SiO2 composites were obtained using titanium isopropoxide (TIPO) and tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as precursors and triblock copolymer P123 as a template based on the solvent evaporation-induced co-self-assembly process under a large amount of HCl. Our strategy was the synchronous assembly of titanate and silicate oligomers with triblock copolymer P123 by finely tuning the relative humidity of the surrounding atmosphere and evaporation temperature according to the Ti/Si ratio. We added a large amount of acidity to lower condensation and polymerization rates of TIPO and accelerate the rates for TEOS molecules. TEM and XRD measurements clearly show that the titania is made of highly crystalline anatase nanoparticles, which are uniformly embedded in the pore walls to form the "bricked-mortar" frameworks. The amorphous silica acts as a glue linking the TiO2 nanocrystals and improves the thermal stability. As the silica contents increase, the thermal stability of the resulting mesoporous TiO2-SiO2 nanocomposites increases and the size of anatase nanocrystals decreases. Our results show that the unique composite frameworks make the mesostructures overwhelmingly stable; even with high Ti/Si ratios (> or =80/20) the stability of the composites is higher than 900 degrees C. The mesoporous TiO2-SiO2 nanocomposites exhibit excellent photocatalytic activities (which are higher than that for commercial catalyst P25) for the degradation of rhodamine B in aqueous suspension. The excellent photocatalytic activities are ascribed to the bifunctional effect of highly crystallized anatase nanoparticles and high porosity.

Topographic nanomanufacturing with a depth precision down to atomic dimension is of importance for advancement of nanoelectronics with new functionalities. Here we demonstrate a mask-less and chemical-free nanolithography process for regio-specific removal of atomic layers on a single crystalline silicon surface via shear-induced mechanochemical reactions. Since chemical reactions involve only the topmost atomic layer exposed at the interface, the removal of a single atomic layer is possible and the crystalline lattice beneath the processed area remains intact without subsurface structural damages. Molecular dynamics simulations depict the atom-by-atom removal process, where the first atomic layer is removed preferentially through the formation and dissociation of interfacial bridge bonds. Based on the parametric thresholds needed for single atomic layer removal, the critical energy barrier for water-assisted mechanochemical dissociation of Si–Si bonds was determined. The mechanochemical nanolithography method demonstrated here could be extended to nanofabrication of other crystalline materials.

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Friction behavior of aqueous solution at macroscale is quite different from that at nanoscale. At macroscale, tribochemistry usually occurs between lubricant and friction surfaces in the running-in process due to a high contact pressure, and most such processes can lead to friction reduction. In the present work, we reported that the hydrogen ions in aqueous solution played an important role in tribochemistry in running-in process (friction reducing process), which could result in the friction coefficient reducing from 0.4 to 0.04 between Si(3)N(4) and glass surfaces at macroscale. It is found that the running-in process and low friction state are closely dependent on the concentration of hydrogen ions in the contact region between the two friction surfaces. The lubrication mechanism is attributed to tribochemical reaction occurring between hydrogen ions and surfaces in the running-in process, which forms an electrical double layer and hydration layer to lower friction force. Finally, the running-in process of H(3)PO(4) (pH = 1.5) was investigated, which could realize superlubricity with an ultralow friction coefficient of about 0.004.