The relaxor ferroelectric Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3–0.08PbTiO3 (PZN–0.08PT) single crystal has been investigated using polarized micro-Raman scattering technique in a wide temperature range from −150 to 350 °C. Raman spectra of the crystal at temperatures lower than 90 °C show 11 modes over a frequency range of 100–1000 cm−1. There are 12 Raman active vibration modes in the monoclinic structure of relaxor ferroelectrics according to the group theory analysis. Thus the structure of PZN-0.08PT single crystal at low temperatures is confirmed as monoclinic. Two structural phase transitions in the crystal were observed when the temperature was increasing. First, the monoclinic-tetragonal (M-T) phase transition happens at 90 °C. Second, the tetragonal-cubic (T-C) phase transition takes place at 170 °C.

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Silver vanadate nanoribbons were synthesized via a hydrothermal process, which exhibited surface-enhanced Raman scattering effect. This surface-enhanced substrate was stable and reproducible for identifying human serum transferrin and human serum apotransferrin in the concentration of 1×10−5 M, which further exhibited significant sensitivity in monitoring the conversion of these two proteins in turn. This result showed that the silver vanadate nanoribbon might be employed as biomonitor in such systems.

Large-scale fabrication of high-purity and uniform Zn nanowires was obtained via thermal evaporation. The resulting Zn nanowires were characterized and confirmed by means of an x-ray diffractometer, scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscope. An analysis of the characterization indicates that the high yield uniform zinc nanowires have serpentine geometries, with lengths up to several micrometres and diameters about 50 nm. The selected area electron diffraction pattern and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy image demonstrate perfect crystallinity with the growth direction of [0001]. Owing to the low content of oxygen in the as-prepared products, their photoluminescence spectrum was measured; it exhibits a significant blue shift. Up to now, such optical properties from zinc nanowires have been little reported.M A supplementary data file is available from stacks.

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