Sequentially Reinforced Additive Coating for Transparent and Durable Superhydrophobic Glass.

Now that there are various routes to prepare superhydrophobic surfaces for self-cleaning, anti-icing, liquid collecting, etc., attentions are moving toward low-cost upscaling of routes and increasing the reliability for actual applications. However, the required micro-nano structures for superhydrophobicity are light scattering and very vulnerable to abrasion. This intrinsically conflicts with the transparency and durability of superhydrophobic glass, which are the major barriers for its commercialization. In this study, we present a novel sequentially reinforced additive coating (SRAC) process to realize robust and transparent micro-nano structured film with tough intergranular sintering. A benign aqueous-based ink with poly(furfuryl alcohol) (PFA) and silica species is carefully designed and sprayed on glass to enable self-phase separation and morphology construction. The coatings reach the static contact angle (SCA) for water over 166° and withstand a 6H pencil scratching, the cross-cut test, and sand abrasion. Moreover, we also performed a 90 day outdoor performance test and the glass maintained superhydrophobicity with an SCA of 154°. These results provide a low-cost waterborne ink formula, and the high throughput and upscalable SRAC process could be a convenient technology for the fabrication of large area, robust superhydrophobic coatings.

Roles of CeO2 in preparing Ce-doped CdIn2S4 with boosted photocatalytic degradation performance for methyl orange and tetracycline hydrochloride.

Element doping is considered as a feasible strategy to develop efficient photocatalysts. In this study, a Ce-doped CdIn2S4 photocatalyst was prepared through a modified coprecipitation method. During the synthesis of Ce-doped CdIn2S4, the CeO2 nanorods were gradually reduced by the decomposition products of thioacetamide (TAA), and mainly existed as Ce(III) in the supernatant. This resulted in a large increase in the specific surface area of the as-obtained products, providing more exposed active sites for the reactant. Additionally, a trace amount of Ce was doped into the lattice of the CdIn2S4, resulting in a significant effect on the band structure. By tracing the roles of CeO2 during the synthesis process, a possible reaction mechanism was proposed. Benefiting from the synergistic advantages of the structural and compositional features, the optimal sample showed enhanced photocatalytic activities for the degradation of methyl orange (94.6% within 25 min) and tetracycline hydrochloride (85.6% within 120 min). The degradation rates were 13.3 times and 2.7 times higher than that of pristine CdIn2S4. This work may provide a strategy for designing metal element doped photocatalysts with good activity for pollutant removal.

Removing unreacted amino groups in graphitic carbon nitride through residual heating to improve the photocatalytic performance.

In most of the research about graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4), g-C3N4 is prepared through the calcination of nitrogen-rich precursors. However, such a preparation method is time-consuming, and the photocatalytic performance of pristine g-C3N4 is lackluster due to the unreacted amino groups on the surface of g-C3N4. Therefore, a modified preparation method, calcination through residual heating, was developed to achieve rapid preparation and thermal exfoliation of g-C3N4 simultaneously. Compared with pristine g-C3N4, the samples prepared by residual heating had fewer residual amino groups, a thinner 2D structure, and higher crystallinity, which led to a better photocatalytic performance. The photocatalytic degradation rate of the optimal sample for rhodamine B could reach 7.8 times higher than that of pristine g-C3N4.

Element-doped graphitic carbon nitride: confirmation of doped elements and applications.

Doping is widely reported as an efficient strategy to enhance the performance of graphitic carbon nitride (g-CN). In the study of element-doped g-CN, the characterization of doped elements is an indispensable requirement, as well as a huge challenge. In this review, we summarize some useful characterization methods which can confirm the existence and chemical states of doped elements. The advantages and shortcomings of these characterization methods are discussed in detail. Various applications of element-doped g-CN and the function of doped elements are also introduced. Overall, this review article aims to provide helpful information for the research of element-doped g-CN.