The study employed a facile approach to fabricate a large-area ordered robust colloidal crystal films. Poly(methyl methacrylate) colloids were dispersed and self-assembled in poly(vinyl alcohol) solution, which was then cured to form a photonic film. Such films efficiently diffract electromagnetic waves of specific wavelengths, and whose photonic band gap could be tuned from ultraviolet to visible region by changing the size of the colloids. The presented films revealed sharp diffraction and high transparency, indicating the promising applications in coating or colour filter materials.

Achieving diverse colours in superhydrophobic surfaces is of interest in academic research and industrial applications. The current methods used to prepare coloured surfaces tend to be complicated, expensive or difficult to control the coloured areas and tune the colours. The study reports an efficient and low-cost electrolytic colouring method for the preparation of robust coloured superhydrophobic Al surfaces. The surfaces are firstly electrochemically etched and anodised before electrolytic colouring is performed. Colours of the superhydrophobic surfaces can be easily tuned by adjusting the anodisation time, and the colouring areas can be well controlled with the combination of mask technology. The corrosion behaviour and abrasion resistance of the coloured superhydrophobic surfaces are characterised by polarisation curves and abrasion tests. The results demonstrate that the coloured superhydrophobic surfaces possess excellent corrosion and abrasion resistances, indicating their application potential in industrial fields.

An integrated alcohol microgas sensor was designed and fabricated based on TiO₂/SnO₂ nanocomposites acting as a sensing layer and microheater providing working temperature. The stacked TiO₂/SnO₂ nanocomposites were prepared by magnetron sputtering. A unique suspended membrane consisting of Si₃N₄/SiO₂/Si₃N₄/SiO₂ four layers was prepared by different methods, respectively, and applied in microheater to support the electrodes and sensing layer for reducing power consumption. The fabrication process tackled the difficulty that the sensing layer preparation is incompatible with microelectromechanical systems micromachining technology and realised the mass production of the wafer-level sensor chips with good consistency. The microalcohol sensors showed excellent response characteristics for alcohol (50–600 ppm) detection at low power consumption (39 mW).

This work realises a hetero-dielectric buried oxide vertical tunnel field effect transistor (HDB VTFET) and investigates its radio frequency (RF) and linearity characteristics. First time, the concept of hetero-dielectric buried oxide (BOX) in VTFET is used to obtain the superior improvement in terms of different RF and linearity figure of merits such as , , , , Gain Bandwidth Product (GBP), , Transconductance Frequency Product (TFP), Transconductance Generation Factor (TGF), , , , , , and 1-dB compression point. Also, the influence of HfO₂ BOX length scaling on these FOMs is analysed. The results reveal that the HDB VTFET can be a promising contender to replace bulk metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors in analogue/mixed signal system-on-chip and high-frequency microwave applications and the accuracy of this device is validated by TCAD Sentaurus simulator.

Field-coupled nanocomputing represents one of the possible proposals for the post-Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) scenario. Contrarily to standard technology, the information is not propagated using electron transport, but via field interactions among single elements. The molecular quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) is one of the most promising implementations; redox centres of oxidised molecules are used to concentrate charges. Coulomb interaction between redox centres enables the information propagation. The necessity for charge transport is overcome, entailing very low power consumption notwithstanding the nanometric size and the very high expected operating frequency. Nevertheless, as the Coulomb interaction strongly depends on the distance between charges, the position of each molecule plays a relevant role in the interaction. This work investigates the information propagation of a possible molecular wire thiolated on a non-ideal gold surface, where the intermolecular distance may vary due to the surface roughness and possible defects introduced in the formation of the molecular wire. The efficiency of the information transfer is analysed with the aim of providing significant constrains and suggestions for future fabrication steps.

Molybdenum vanadate is a novel vanadate. It is a functional material with good magnetic, electrical and catalytic properties. However, it is rarely used in the selective catalytic oxidation field, while the transition metal molybdenum and vanadium are usually used as a catalytic oxidation catalyst, the complex oxide and salt are naturally concerned. The structure of high-quality single crystalline Molybdenum vanadate (V_{3 .6}Mo_2.4O₁₆) nanorods was synthesised by sol–gel method and high-temperature solid-state reaction. The effects of vanadium and molybdenum molar ratio and calcination temperature on the preparation of V_3.6Mo_2.4O₁₆ were studied. The structure of the catalyst was characterised by X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetry, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscope. The experimental results show that the molar ratio of vanadium–molybdenum is 10:7 when the precursor calcination temperature is 540°C, the single crystalline V_3.6Mo_2.4O₁₆ nanorods with regular shape has been obtained, the diameter of about 200 nm and the length up to tens of micrometres and the surface is smooth. Catalytic oxidation of toluene to benzaldehyde is used as a probe reaction for nanoV_3.6Mo_2.4O₁₆. The catalytic activity of the catalyst is good, the conversion of toluene is 39.8% and the selectivity of benzaldehyde is 70.1%.

The eccentricity of the piston in the continuous casting machine cannot be ignored, which not only increases the internal leakage of the hydraulic cylinder, but also increases the friction on the surface of the friction pair, and even has serious consequences such as deformation failure. In this work, the biomimetic micro-texture technology is used to construct the microtextures on the surface of the cylinder so that it produces a continuous centring force during operation, and the problem of piston eccentricity is corrected. Moreover, the influence of hydraulic cylinder operating parameters and biomimetic microtexture parameters on the dynamic pressure support force is also analysed. This has a very positive effect on improving the response frequency of the hydraulic cylinder and the working efficiency of the hydraulic system.

Hypoxia is a common phenomenon in the majority of solid tumours, thereby contributing to progression, angiogenesis, invasion, and metastasis of tumours. The authors synthesised a hypoxia-responsive (HR) magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) as drug delivery system by incorporating a hypoxia moiety (azobenzene) between IONPs and drug. The obtained drug delivery system showed sustained release under normoxic conditions, while a controlled release was observed under hypoxic condition due to the cleavage of azobenzene. More than 80% of the drug was released in 4 h after hypoxic treatment, leading to a high cytotoxicity. Thus, this HR magnetic drug delivery system had the potential for future applications in the treatment of hypoxic tumours and other hypoxia-related diseases.

A transparent titanium dioxide (TiO₂)@TiO₂ film with free-standing structure was synthesised by employing a cellulose paper as the template. By one-step hydrothermal method and subsequent thermal annealing, the fibre of cellulose paper was changed into porous TiO₂ core layer. The flower-like micro/nanostructure TiO₂ particle layer was intimately distributed on the porous TiO₂ core layer. The average diameter of the TiO₂@TiO₂ fibre for the film was 11 μm. The size of spherical granular TiO₂ on the fibre surface was around 330 ± 130 nm. It was noted that the microtopography of fibre surface could be adjusted by tuning the hydrothermal temperature. The scanning electron microscopy and N₂ adsorption–desorption measurement results indicated that the prepared film possessed a large mass of mesopores and macropores. On the basis of the special microstructure, the TiO₂@TiO₂ film exhibited high photocatalytic activity for methylene blue under ultraviolet irradiation. This work might provide a new insight for preparation of transparent photocatalytic film toward water purification.

Cyanide (CN) and chromium (VI) are hazardous, toxic pollutants whose presence in water and wastewater can seriously affect human and its environment, hence the necessity of controlling these contaminants. In this work, by using TiO₂/UV, the simultaneous photocatalytic reduction of Cr(VI) and oxidation of CN in aqueous suspensions were investigated. Variations of this study were pH, pollutant concentration, and reaction time. CN and total chromium were determined by Titrimetric method, and Colourimetric method, respectively. Maximum removal of chromium and CN occurs at pH 2.3 and 10, respectively. In the binary system, the electron–hole recombination is blocked and as a result, total efficiency increases. An increase in the initial concentrations of CN and Cr(VI) led to a rise in the reduction efficiency of Cr(VI) and CN up to an optimum amount, and then it went into decline as the concentration of the pollutants increased any further. The maximum quantum efficiency of Cr(VI) photoreduction with CN being present was calculated to be 23% at room temperature. Furthermore, the kinetic experimental was investigated and it became evident that the pseudo-first-order kinetic model is capable of defining Cr(VI) and CN both. Finally, based on the obtained results, a TiO₂ system is proposed to remove both pollutants.

A three-dimensional (3D) porous silica aerogel (SA)/tethacryloxyethyltrimethyl ammonium chloride (MTC)/polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) (SMP) ternary nanocomposite was fabricated through electrostatic-driven self-assembly by in situ polymerisation. The as-prepared products were characterised by field emission scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Zeta potential (ZETA), multi-assay gel permeation chromatography, the synchronous thermal analyser (TG), differential scanning calorimetry and so on. The results show that the ternary hybrid aerogels have an interconnected 3D nanoporous structure with a diameter of about 20–40 nm. Furthermore, positively charged MTC was successfully absorbed on the negatively charged SiO₂ aerogels surface to form high-thermal insulation phase interfaces. The SMP hybrid aerogels revealed a favourable mechanical property and an excellent thermal insulation property. Overall, the present study introduces the static electrical phase interfaces that are physical interactions between the silica phase and the polymer phase to distinctly improve the thermal insulation property of SiO₂-based aerogels, which could become a promising insulating material for broadening applications.

A facile and scalable route for the in-situ synthesis of porous MnO/C nanocomposite by annealing Mn₃(C₆H₅O₇)₂ precursor has been developed. MnO particles were encapsulated inside the carbon matrix to form a skeletal architecture. Such a mesoporous structure provided more active sites and effective channels for Li⁺ and electrolyte, and act as the supporting structure for MnO particles during the cycling process. As an anode material for lithium ion batteries, the porous MnO/C composite had a specific capacity of 831.7 mAh g⁻¹ at 100 mA g⁻¹ and delivered a stable cycling capacity of 564.1 mAh g⁻¹ after 59 cycles, indicating that the porous MnO/C nanocomposite could significantly improve the structural stability and might be a suitable electrode material for lithium-ion batteries.

The Nb-doped β-Ga₂O₃ (β-Ga₂O₃:Nb) thin films have been deposited on the Si and quartz substrates by radio-frequency magnetron technique in argon ambient. The effects of annealing atmosphere on the structural and optical properties of β-Ga₂O₃:Nb thin films have been investigated. The crystallinity of β-Ga₂O₃:Nb film is improved obviously after annealing. An increase in surface roughness is observed on annealed films. The bandgap from 5.19 to 5.26 eV is obtained after annealing in different atmosphere, which is larger than the 5.09 eV before annealing. Moreover, the red-shift of photoluminescence emission peak is observed after annealing, and the annealing atmosphere has an influence on the peak intensity.

Fe,F co-doped TiO₂ nanotubes (Fe,F/TiO₂ NTs) were synthesised by the combination of hydrothermal process and impregnation method. The structure and composition of prepared catalysts were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). XRD results confirmed only the presence of the anatase phase in Fe,F/TiO₂ NTs. Well-defined TiO₂ NTs with nearly uniform diameters could be seen from the TEM images. Also, the high-resolution XPS spectra of Fe 2P and F 1s showed that Fe³⁺ and F⁻ existed in TiO₂ lattice and on the surface of TiO₂, respectively. The photocatalytic performances of Fe/TiO₂ NTs and Fe,F/TiO₂ NTs with different Fe concentrations were evaluated by photo-degrading aqueous methyl orange under visible light irradiation, and the results showed that the photoactivity of Fe and F co-doped TiO₂ NTs was enhanced obviously compared with Fe mono-doped TiO₂ NTs and the 0.5% Fe,F/TiO₂ NTs presented the best photocatalytic performance.

In this work, a device called pocket doped junctionless tunnel field-effect transistor (JL-TFET) for digital inverter application is proposed. The operation of this device is subjected to junctionless technique and initially it has an N+–N+–N+ structure. This device utilises a SiGe N+ pocket at the source side and a dual gate namely, fixed gate and control gate. By keeping the fixed gate voltage below its flat band voltage and varying the control gate from 0 to V_DD , the device is converted from the N+–N+–N+ structure to P–I–N structure and operates like a tunnel field-effect transistor (TFET). The inclusion of N+ pocket gives an additional tunnelling path perpendicular to the gate-oxide thickness. A brief examination of the proposed device has been done on the impacts of the work-function variations of both the gate metals. A subthreshold swing of 43.6 mV/dec is obtained for fixed and control gate work-function of 5 and 4.5 eV, respectively. The proposed device gives the drain current of 5.7 × 10⁻⁴ A approximately twice that of conventional JL-TFET. Further, an radio frequency analysis of the device is done for different parameters such as drain current (I _D), total gate capacitance (C_gg ), transconductance (g_m ) and cut-off frequency (f_T ) and the outcomes are compared with conventional JL-TFET. The device is found to be suitable for high-frequency application. Lastly, it is applied on inverter circuit and its voltage transfer characteristics are studied.

In this work, it has been shown that inserting buffered poly 3-hexylthiophene layer between hole transport layer and blended polymer: fullerene active layer of the organic solar cell (OSC) improves the power conversion efficiency by 34% over the conventional OSC. The buffer layer also increases short-circuit current density from 4.97 ± 0.2 mA/cm² (without buffer layer) to 6.12 ± 0.3 mA/cm² (with buffer layer). These improvements are mainly due to increased absorption in the buffered polymer layer. The buffer layer insertion leads to better charge carrier collection and lesser hole recombination at the hole transport interface, which increases shunt resistance and reduces the series resistance of the device. In addition, the insertion of the buffer layer also shows significant improvement in the absorbance spectrum and external quantum efficiency of the device.

High-K gate dielectric HfAlO thin films with different temperature annealing treatment have been deposited on the Si substrate by atomic layer deposition. The electrical properties of Hf-films are analysed by measurement of high-frequency capacitance–voltage (C–V) and leakage current density–voltage (J–V) characteristics. The electrical measurement results indicate the decrease of equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) due to the great change of microstructure and densification after high temperature annealing and the increase of permittivity. However, the interface state density increases. Moreover, the leakage current increases with the increase of annealing temperature. The HfAlO film annealed at 650°C has the best electrical parameters, such as dielectric constant, EOT and leakage current density determined through capacitance–voltage and current density–voltage measurements were 23.5, 0.84, 6.8 × 10⁻⁷ mA·cm⁻², respectively.

Microcarriers containing pesticide have been designed to improve drug stability and increase release efficiency, which is favourable to the environment and agriculture development. In this work, biodegradable poly(butylene succinate) microspheres containing pesticide, λ-cyhalothrin, as an active agent are prepared by the solvent evaporation induced phase separation method. The microspheres show a uniform morphology and a narrow particle size distribution. The pesticide content is measured by high-performance liquid chromatography. The prepared microcarriers demonstrate high-loading capacity, encapsulation efficiency and long release time, which may find potential applications as new pesticide formulations.

The impact of high-k dielectric pocket (DP) on the ambipolar conduction of tunnel field-effect transistors (TFETs) is demonstrated using two-dimensional Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD) simulations. In the proposed structure of TFETs, an optimised portion of the upper drain region is replaced with a high-k DP at the channel–drain interface. It is demonstrated that due to the enhancement of the depleted drain region under DP, the minimum tunnelling width at channel–drain interface increases, and attains a maximum value for an optimum length and thickness of DP. Eventually, this increment in the minimum tunnelling width leads to a significant reduction in ambipolar conduction in TFETs. Furthermore, it is shown that performance parameters including the ON-state current, subthreshold swing and output characteristics are not affected by the presence of the proposed DP. Even, the gate-to-drain capacitance is reduced with the inclusion of DP at the channel–drain interface, thus leading to an improved cut-off frequency of TFETs. Moreover, it is also demonstrated that only a 10 nm of gate-on-drain overlapping along with this DP is capable of eliminating the ambipolarity completely for even a higher gate voltage of −0.8 V.

This work exploited the abundant hydroxyl group of halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) to induce acrylamide-polymerisation modification by inverse emulsion (water-in-oil), resulting in polyacrylamide (PAM)-modified HNTs. The structure and dispersion properties of the modified HNTs were analysed by a series of characterisations. As a promising application of HNTs, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) reinforced with HNTs-PAM was prepared. The mechanical and tribological properties of the HNTs-PAM/PTFE were intensively studied. The results show that the volume wear rate of the HNTs-PAM/PTFE reduced 97.3% relative to PTFE. The wear resistance of HNTs in filling PTFE was desirable.

Traditionally, it is time-consuming to synthesise large-sized quantum dots (QDs) in the aqueous way. Herein, a fast and facile method for aqueous QD synthesis was developed. By simply diluting a high-concentration precursor into low concentration with deionised water, QDs can nucleate and grow rapidly after heating. The influences of the dilution ratio, original precursor concentration and different ligands on the synthesis speed have been studied. Besides, the mechanism for the fast-growth rate has also been elucidated.

A universal ion exchange template-assisted route is successfully developed for preparing various three-dimensional (3D) metal telluride flowerlike microstructures, including PbTe, CdTe, Bi₂Te₃, Sb₂Te₃, and Cu₇Te₄. The proposed synthesis method is simple and reproducible. Firstly, organic–inorganic hybrid β-ZnTe(en)_0.5 flowerlike microcrystals are prepared as the template, and then a corresponding metal salt (Pb, Cd, Bi, Sb, and Cu) is introduced to synthesise the corresponding metal telluride flowerlike microstructures. During this process, ethylenediamine molecules and Zn ions in the β-ZnTe(en)_0.5 flowerlike microcrystals simultaneously exchange with metal ions (Pb, Cd, Bi, Sb, and Cu) after the addition of metal precursors, and finally form flowerlike metal telluride microcrystals. This method may be further extended for other 3D metal telluride microstructures.

Here, the cost effective green synthesis of nickel oxide (NiO) nanostructures has been reported. The organic capping and/or reducing agents were obtained by extraction from wastes of three different vegetables (cauliflower, potatoes and peas). The extracts of cauliflower and peas peels gave nanowhiskers while the extract of potato peels gave nanorods of NiO, as confirmed by scanning electron microscopy. X-ray diffraction analyses demonstrated the nanocrystalline cubic phase of NiO in all the samples. However, crystallite size varied with the extract of vegetable waste used. Fourier transform infrared analysis helps in identifying different vibrations, particularly Ni–O stretching vibrations, and diffuse reflectance spectra analyses led to the establishment of bandgap energies. The resulting NiO nanostructures were tested for their efficiencies as photocatalysts for Methylene blue degradation. All the three samples have shown significant photocatalytic activities. The exploration in this study clearly demonstrates the very high photocatalytic activities of the synthesised NiO nanostructures, which can be used as competent agents for treatment of wastewater to remove toxic dyes.

Epoxy nanocomposites being used in the high-energy radiation zones as an insulant may undergo changes in their dielectric properties during service. In the present study, the performance of base epoxy resin (S1) is compared with epoxy resin with ion trapping particle (Sample S2) and epoxy resin with nanotitania (Sample S3) particle. The influence of gamma irradiation on nanocomposites was analysed. Corona inception voltage due to water droplet initiated discharge and contact angle reduces post-gamma-ray irradiation. Surface potential decay time constant reduced drastically for gamma-ray-irradiated specimens. Trap distribution characterisation indicated that charge mobility increases after irradiation. The surface roughness of the sample increases with the irradiation dosage. Dielectric relaxation spectroscopy shows that permittivity reduces and loss tangent increases with the gamma-irradiated specimens. Water diffusion rate increases for the gamma-ray-irradiated specimen. No change in elemental composition, measured using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, of test specimens was observed. The hardness of the material and plasma temperature formed during laser shine decreases with gamma-ray irradiation intensity for Sample S1, whereas samples S2 and S3 showed only marginal variation. The performance of Sample S2 is found to be better than Samples S1 and S3.

Thulium, terbium, and manganese tridoped phosphate glass ceramic was prepared by high-temperature melting method and heat annealing technology. The sample can emit strong white light under 355 nm excitation. The luminescence intensities and peak positions keep unchanged in the temperature range of 25–300°C. The phosphate glass ceramic material shows good property of thermal stability, which can be exploited for the phosphor of white-light-emitting diode.