RESUMO
A photoactivated gas detector operated at room temperature was microfabricated using a simple hydrothermal method. We report that the photoactivated gas detector can detect toluene using a UV illumination of 2 µW/cm². By ultraviolet (UV) illumination, gas detectors sense toluene at room temperature without heating. A significant enhancement of detector sensitivity is achieved because of the high surface-area-to-volume ratio of the morphology of the coral-like ZnO nanorods arrays (NRAs) and the increased number of photo-induced oxygen ions under UV illumination. The corresponding sensitivity (ΔR/R0) of the detector based on coral-like ZnO NRAs is enhanced by approximately 1022% compared to that of thin-film detectors. The proposed detector greatly extends the dynamic range of detection of metal-oxide-based detectors for gas sensing applications. We report the first-ever detection of toluene with a novel coral-like NRAs gas detector at room temperature. A sensing mechanism model is also proposed to explain the sensing responses of gas detectors based on coral-like ZnO NRAs.
RESUMO
GaInP/GaAs/Ge triple-junction concentrator solar cells with significant efficiency enhancement were demonstrated with antireflective ZnO nanoneedles. The novel nanostructure was attained with a Zn(NO3)2-based solution containing vitamin C. Under one sun AM 1.5G solar spectrum, conversion efficiency of the triple-junction device was improved by 23.7% via broadband improvement in short-circuit currents of 3 sub-cells after the coverage by the nanoneedles with a graded refractive index profile. The efficiency enhancement further went up to 45.8% at 100 suns. The performance boost through the nanoneedles also became increasingly pronounced in the conditions of high incident angles and the cloudy weather, e.g. 220.0% of efficiency enhancement was observed at the incident angle of 60°. These results were attributed to the exceptional broadband omnidirectionality of the antireflective nanoneedles.