One-step prepared cobalt-based nanosheet as an efficient heterogeneous catalyst for activating peroxymonosulfate to degrade caffeine in water.

Two-dimensional (2D) planar cobalt-containing materials are promising catalysts for activating peroxymonosulfate (PMS) to degrade contaminants because 2D sheet-like morphology provides large reactive surfaces. However, preparation of these sheet-supported cobaltic materials typically involves multiple steps and complex reagents, making them less practical for PMS activation. In this study, a cobalt-based nanosheet (CoNS) is particularly developed using a one-step hydrothermal process with a single reagent in water. The resulting CoNS can exhibit a thickness as thin as a few nanometers and 2-D morphology. CoNS is also primarily comprised of cobalt species in a coordinated form of Prussian Blue analogue, which consists of both Co3+ and Co2+. These features make CoNS promising for activating PMS in aqueous systems. As degradation of an emerging contaminant, caffeine, is selected as a representative reaction, CoNS not only successfully activates PMS to fully degrade caffeine in 20 min but also exhibits a much higher catalytic activity than the most common PMS activator, Co3O4. Via studying inhibitive effects of radical scavengers, caffeine degradation by CoNS-activated PMS is primarily attributed to sulfate radicals and hydroxyl radicals to a lesser extent. The degradation products of caffeine by CoNS-activated PMS are also identified and a potential degradation pathway is proposed. Moreover, CoNS could be also re-used to activate PMS for caffeine degradation without activity loss. These results indicate that CoNS is a conveniently prepared and highly effective and stable 2-D catalyst for aqueous chemical oxidation reactions.

Charge storage characteristics of Au nanocrystal memory improved by the oxygen vacancy-reduced HfO2 blocking layer.

This study characterizes the charge storage characteristics of metal/HfO2/Au nanocrystals (NCs)/SiO2/Si and significantly improves memory performance and retention time by annealing the HfO2 blocking layer in O2 ambient at 400°C. Experimental evidence shows that the underlying mechanism can be effectively applied to reduce oxygen vacancy and suppress unwanted electron trap-assisted tunneling. A memory window of 1 V at an applied sweeping voltage of ±2 V is also shown. The low program/erase voltage (±2 V) and the promising retention performances indicate the potential application of NCs in low-voltage, non-volatile memory devices.

Investigations of morphology and formation mechanism of laser-induced annular/droplet-like structures on SiGe film.

We describe the fabrication of nanostructures on SiGe film by KrF excimer laser with nanosecond pulse width, and find a more direct and clear relationship between the laser irradiation conditions and the nanoscale structures. Perfect annular nanostructures around scattering points on the SiGe film are firstly obtained after the irradiation of a KrF excimer pulse laser beam (100 mJ/cm(2)) at different incident angles. The different shapes of annular structures are related to different energy distributions due to the optical interference between the scattered light and the incident beam. As laser energy increases, a threshold of pulse energy (230 mJ/cm(2)) is found, above which a droplet-like morphology completely replacing the surface annular structures. And the disorder morphology is mainly caused by the thermal effect of the incident beam.

A CMOS-compatible approach to fabricate an ultra-thin germanium-on-insulator with large tensile strain for Si-based light emission.

We present a method to introduce a large biaxial tensile strain in an ultra-thin germanium-on-insulator (GOI) using selective oxidation of SiGe epilayer on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate. A circular patterned Si0.81Ge0.19 mesa on SOI substrate with the sidewall protected by Si3N4 or SiO2 is selectively oxidized to generate local 12 nm GOI with high crystal quality, which shows enhanced photoluminescence due to large tensile strain. Direct band photoluminescence peak significantly shifts to longer wavelength as compared to that from bulk Ge due to a combination of strain-induced band gap reduction and quantum confinement effect.

Growth of GeSi nanoislands on nanotip-patterned Si (100) substrates with a stress-induced self-limiting interdiffusion.

GeSi nanoislands grown on nanotip pre-patterned Si substrates at various temperatures are investigated. Nanoislands with a high density and narrow size distribution can be obtained within an intermediate temperature range, and the Ge atom diffusion length is comparable to half of the average distance of the Si nanotips. The Ge concentration distributions at the center and edge of the GeSi nanoislands are measured by scanning transmission electron microscopy. The results reveal that there is a Si core at the center of the GeSi nanoisland, but the Ge concentration presents a layered distribution above the Si nanotips. The radial component of the stress field in Ge layer near the Ge/Si interface on the planar, and the nanotip regions is qualitatively discussed. The difference of the stress field reveals that the experimentally observed concentration profile can be ascribed to the stress-induced interdiffusion self-limiting effect of the Si nanotips.

Asymmetric light reflectance effect in AAO on glass.

Asymmetric light reflectance effect was observed in an anodic aluminum oxide on glass structure. The transmitted light from two sides of the films show the same colors, whereas the reflected light from two sides show complementary colors. The spectra analysis demonstrates that this asymmetric light reflectance effect can be ascribed to the asymmetric geometric structure of nanoscale aluminum networks. This effect may result in applications in many fields, especially in optical communication.

Quantum-confined direct band transitions in tensile strained Ge/SiGe quantum wells on silicon substrates.

We directly demonstrate quantum-confined direct band transitions in the tensile strained Ge/SiGe multiple quantum wells grown on silicon substrates by room temperature photoluminescence. The tensile strained Ge/SiGe multiple quantum wells with various thicknesses of Ge well layers are grown on silicon substrates with a low temperature Ge buffer layer by ultrahigh vacuum chemical vapor deposition. The strain status, crystallographic, and surface morphology are systematically characterized by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, x-ray diffraction, and Raman spectroscopy. It is indicated that the photoluminescence peak energy of the tensile strained Ge/SiGe quantum wells shifts to higher energy with the reduction in thickness of Ge well layers. This blue shift of the luminescence peak energy can be quantitatively explained by the direct band transitions due to the quantum confinement effect at the Gamma point of the conduction band.